4 months

Here is my happy 4 month old.

  Her stats are:
Weight: 11lb 11oz     (20%)
Height: 25in.     (80%)
Head: 15 3/4     (25%
So, she long and lean. She is getting to be so much fun, just this last week she has started to turn her head and look around, and just seems more aware of the world around her. She went from having a tilted head to straight. She gives the best open mouth smiles. I can already tell she is not her sister at all, she is so different, Julie was so sober and would hardly crack a smile. Melanie will give smiles to whoever wants one and I love those smiles. She still doesn't sleep through the night and probably won't since she probably needs the calories still. Bummer, her longest continuous sleep so far has been 4.5 hours. I guess I will have to wait on the sleeping through the night. For the most part she is a happy girl. She rubs and rubs her eyes when she is tired, and goes down to sleep by herself quite nicely. She likes to be held facing outward, not a cuddler, and neither was Julie, sad, I hope I get a cuddly baby sometime.
She always has her hands up by her mouth, either slobbering away sucking them or holding your hands while bottle feeding her.

-She poops on average of every 6-7 days, usually for two days straight then just wet diapers for the rest, I think this might have something to do with her medicine she is on. Doesn't seem to bother her, and I can always tell when she is going to be going, because she gases it up for a day before. So funny.

 -We still swaddle her at night, and she seems to be fine with it. No swaddling during naps.

 She also does a lot of this, just the tip of her tongue always hanging out.

Still not able to lift her head off the ground, she has low tone, and we have an evaluation for some physical therapy to help with this. Just to get things going, got to work on those baby abs.

Melanie doesn't get a whole lot of time on the ground because Julie would probably run her over.

 Rob holds her up in the air to help with her neck strength, and then brings her down kisses her forehead.

 We use this donut pillow and I think it has really helped to improve the shape of her head.

-looks around

-She is in some of her 6 month clothes, doesn't fill them out but the length is good.  I have so many onesies that Julie never wore, because the purple and green made her look cold. But Melanie's complexions is different and they look so cute on her.

-Melanie is not a talker, she will coo, she is just content to sit quietly.

-She almost laughs, she gets so close sometimes.
She is starting to grab at things a little and I would put this chew toy in her hands and she would go crazy trying to get it to her mouth to suck on.

 -It seems like ever since she started to look around more, and hold her head up straight that she just looks different. Her eyes are more focused and she is just cute, I just think she has the sweetest face and these next pictures show what I am talking about.

 This picture just makes me smile, I just LOVE it.

 My grandma got to hold Melanie the other night at popcorn and she was just chillin. Last time my grandma held Melanie, she wasn't so happy and she was just so content to sit with her here.

She is starting to arch her back to roll over, hasn't yet, but she sure is getting wiggly.

 Some more trying to get her head off the floor.

"Mom, this head is just so heavy"

My other cute little stinker bug, who is into everything. She is definitely testing my patience, and that patience doesn't last sometimes.

 She likes to swing her legs around, and will sometimes get so close to nailing Melanie, she is definitely TWO.
We are surviving and I think I am doing better and getting the hang of having two kids. Having a routine/schedule definitely helps.
Life seems to be going well, and we love having Melanie in our family.