Natalie is 4 Months Old!!!

For a few more days, Natalie will be 4 months old.  This month she swallowed a firecracker.  That is my best explanation for the sound she now makes when she is super tired or really fussy or just plain mad.  Thankfully, although we hear that noise a few times a day it isn't a-l-l day or even for super long periods of time.  She is awake for between 1.5 and 2.5 hours at a time.  She alternates between 6 and 7 feedings a day.  For the last few nights she has been fighting her last nap.

Natalie became the main focus of Eliana as she learned how to take photos.  The upper right photo is a self portrait of Eliana:)

 Natalie is still eating once in the middle of the night.  She has a new habit of also waking about an hour before I'm willing to feed her (somewhere around 1am) and then an hour before I'm willing to start our day (somewhere around 5am).  So she get the pacifier and thankfully goes back to sleep fairly quickly.  The only thing is that I am getting pretty tired from all of the extra waking up.  For many months she was eating around 3am and then at 7am.  That was nice.  I'm not sure what happened and why she started waking around 1am, but I remind myself that this is just a season.  One day she will sleep through the night.  Hopefully is will be a wee bit sooner than it took Eliana, but I'm still getting way more sleep than I did with Eliana.  SO, I count my blessings!

 We love making Natalie smile.  Now that I know these easy smiles are also a short season, I am treasuring them and basking in the gleeful, toothless smiles she gives me oh so easily.

Natalie loves to stand while holding onto our hands, to sit up with help, and chew on anything she can get her hands on.  If there is nothing to chew on, she finds a way to chew on most of her whole hand at one time.