Tera Evelynne: 4 months

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Oh, Tera-girl. Everyday you are growing and learning and changing. I cannot believe how much you are transforming before our very eyes. Now when I see pictures of newborns I realize that you are no longer a newborn! You are just growing and growing so fast!

Everyone says that little miss looks just like me. Theo says she looks like a baby. I have no idea. All I know is that she is absolutely the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. She is as wonderful as ever (except in the sleep department). But I will record all those details below.

Tera Evelynne: 4 months old!

Weight/Length: We haven’t had a doctors appointment in almost two months, so I’m not sure how much she actually weighs. We weighed her on our home scale, and she is somewhere between 13 and 14 pounds! Growing like a weed! She is still rather tall, but I have no idea how long/tall she is!

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Eating:
I have a Mom-friend who is on her last child. Her and her husband won’t be having any more kids. Their youngest is 9 months old…and she still hasn’t fed her anything besides breast milk. I was so shocked when I found that out…and asked her why. She responded by saying, “Well, because she is my last one!”.

That just shows the difference between a first-time Mom and a last-time Mom, huh? The first time Mom is all about getting to the next stage, and it’s all so fun, and so amazing when the child has graduated onto the next thing and the next thing and the next thing…but the Mom that has her last baby just wants time to slow down, and is savoring each stage. I sure can learn a lot from that lesson!

All that to say….Tera has been eating really well, but we are wondering if she is getting enough. She wakes up in the night multiple times and it just seems like she is not getting enough to fill her stomach for long enough. We were recommended to start a little rice cereal in her milk, and I think that is something we may try. I plan to continue breastfeeding, but we may begin supplementing with other things sometime soon. I don’t think she is anywhere near ready for baby foods, but it’s CRAZY to me that we are already considering moving onto more than breastmilk!

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Sleeping:
Nope. Nope. Nope.

Not going well.

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About two weeks ago, Tera started waking up at least once during the night. Each week it seems to have gotten worse. Last night I was up with her at least 3 times. Of course, as I write this, she has a cold and is waking up more often due to her stuffy nose, and it seems she is nursing for comfort more than to eat.

Either way, it’s frustrating and taking its toll on me! She still has a great schedule during the day, and takes 3-4 hour-long naps during the day.

Clothing/Diapers:

Tera is officially in 3-6 month clothes! When she is wearing a disposable diaper, she still fits into her 0-3, but for now it’s mostly 3-6 month clothes! As I was packing the other day, I found a bunch of onesies and things that she never even wore! We were in newborns for two months, and then we blasted through the 0-3 month clothes in one month!

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We are still using cloth diapers, and that is going really well. Our water is so hard that it is very hard to get the diapers cleaned of the pee smell. I’m excited to move to a new house with a newer washer and hopefully get that ammonia smell under control!

We did move up a snap in her cloth diapers! She is getting bigger and bigger!

Personality:

SOCIAL. BUTTERFLY.

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That about sums it up. She LOVES to be around people- it doesn’t matter who. Sometimes when she is fussy I just take her out of the house to be around people and she settles down immediately. She is loving having her cousins stay with us for a few weeks. She cannot get enough of their attention (and they are very generous in their attention giving!)

This girl is also a talker and a drama queen. Every single picture I took today she was talking and talking away. Up until this week, she would talk…but I don’t think she knew how she was doing it. This week I’m positive that she figured it out, because she will not stop! And she is LOUD! It’s absolutely adorable.

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Drama queen. I know all baby’s cry…and that is their only way to communicate, but this child is so dramatic. She displays every emotion with her whole body, and throws temper tantrums like no other. It will be interesting to see this personality trait in her as a toddler!

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Loves:

  • Daddy
  • People
  • Being outside
  • Bath Time
  • Watching people
  • Standing up! As long as you hold her up, she will stand and bounce for a really long time.
  • People playing with her- talking, singing, bouncing, peekaboo (anything as long as she is getting attention!)
  • She is starting to enjoy tummy time a lot more- although she always spits up!

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Dislikes:

  • Sleeping through the night
  • Being left alone in a room
  • Dirty diapers

New Developments:

So many things!

  • talking- at you, with you and just to hear herself

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  • Almost rolling over- both from back to tummy and tummy to back

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  • Sitting up in her bumbo and when propped up from behind
  • Drooling
  • She found her hands! She has horrible hand-eye coordination, but she can now clasp her hands together, bring them to her mouth and grab at toys (and bring those to her mouth). It’s so fun to watch.

Daddy and Mommy:

We are both doing well. This past month has put a lot of stress on both of us. We have had guests in our house for 3 out of the 4 weeks of November, Tera has kept us up every night, we have been in limbo about buying a house, then we bought a house, then I’m trying to pack up our house (all while still hosting family!). We are so richly blessed, and I often forget to focus on all the blessings that we have, rather than the stressors continue to overwhelm me.

P.S. Just in case you are wondering what it might take to get all these shots:

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That is Theo hanging a cat upside down, my feet trying not to be in the picture, Theo’s feet, five outfit changes off to the side and both of us shouting and cooing and yelling “Tera! Tera-girl! Smiiiile!” It was really hard to coax a smile out of her today. Most of the pictures she was talking, and the ones where she is not talking, she is concentrating really hard on trying to talk! I had to weed out SO many blurry pictures because she is sooo wiggly! She uses her entire body to communicate and kick and sqeel and talk. Silly girl!

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