More milestones

My little girl is growing up! She is always learning to do new things and the latest ones are:

-She can hold her head up quite well by herself now.
-She's a pro at spitting and blowing raspberries and she enjoys doing it often!

-She knows to ham it up for the camera.

-She figured out how to shake her head but she doesn't know what it means yet...so it looks like she says "no" all the time!

-She gives Mommy open-mouthed "kisses" when I bring my face close to hers. It's the cutest thing ever!

-She grabs at everything now...whether that is my hair, my clothes, or even my face!

Jumperoo

I was SO excited when my parents got Hadley her Jumperoo for Christmas! She is constantly kicking with those strong legs of hers so I figured that she would absolutely have a ball with one of those jumpers. She does like it and will happily spend over half an hour in it playing with the toys in front of her, but she hasn't quite figured out the jumping part of it yet. We actually had to put a thick blanket down on the floor for her so that her feet would reach the ground! She needs to either gain a little more weight or grow another inch to her legs to be able to bounce without the blanket. I am really looking forward to when she gets good at jumping in it...I think she'll never want to get out!

Christmas time

We spent this Christmas at my Grandmom's house (as is the tradition) and I would say it went really well. I have to admit I was a tad nervous about Hadley spending 3 days and 2 nights in a new place, but she handled it very well. The only time she had any problem was when she had trouble falling asleep on Christmas Eve. She doesn't cry often, but when she gets the most upset, it's because she's overly tired and can't fall asleep. We finally got her to bed and she had to miss the whole evening with the family. Christmas Day went much better. She was her usual happy self and I think she really enjoyed being with all the family. Not surprisingly, she didn't take too much interest in her presents...I could have given her some wrapping paper for Christmas and I think she would have been just as happy.

It's really exciting having a little one in the family again....it's been about 15 years since there was a baby around (in my side of the family) so now we've gotten around to having kids coming along again. :-) Next year, she'll be mobile - Yikes!

She really lucked out and got to have SNOW on her very first Christmas! We hadn't had that happen in GA in over a hundred years!

Smiley girl

Hadley has started smiling for the camera alot and she giggles quite often now, too. I love it! Just had to share a couple more of my latest favorite Hadley pics:

Doctor's visit

Today we took Hadley for her 4-month doctor appointment and I am THRILLED to say that it went really well. Here are her stats:

Height: 24" (39th percentile) - exactly the same % as last time
Weight: 12lbs., 10oz. (27th percentile) - up a little from the 23rd percentile at her 2 month checkup. Yay!
Head circumference: 16.5" (63rd percentile) - must be that big brain she has!

She had to get her vaccines again at this visit but she took them like a champ. She didn't even cry with the first one and she only cried for about 3 seconds with the second (more painful) one. The nurse kept going on and on about how cute Hadley is and how laid-back she is. I guess if a nurse who sees babies all day, everyday says yours is particularly cute, then she must know what she's talking about. :-)

They gave her some really cute little bandaids for the injection sites...here she is modeling them:

4 months old!

So Hadley had her 4 month birthday on Tuesday...here are some photos I took to commemorate the occasion. :-)

New addiction

Since finding out I was going to have a baby, I have become addicted to buying children's books for her. Books were actually the first thing I ever bought for her. I loved reading so much when I was a kid and I really hope that she will have a love for it, too. It's so much fun shopping for children's books....it brings me back to the days when I was reading these kinds of stories and I've gotten Hadley many of the same books I loved as a child. I've been reading to Hadley for a few months now even though she usually doesn't pay that much attention to the pages yet. It's supposed to be good for her to hear the tones and inflections in my voice as I read so that it will help her when she begins to speak. By the time she's able to read by herself, she's going to have plenty of books to keep her busy!

Feeding update

I weighed Hadley today and she is 12lbs, 1-1/2oz. Woohoo!! I'm so excited to see her pass the 12lb. mark! As many of you know, she has never been a great eater and has been very slow to gain weight, but she's been doing much better in the last month or so. I think the turning point was when we started adding rice cereal to her bottles. She also has been drinking formula for the last couple weeks instead of breastmilk. I made the decision to stop breastfeeding after 3 months. I originally was planning on doing it for 6 months but with her not eating well and barely putting on weight when she was breastfeeding, I ended up deciding to pump several times a day and give it to her in bottles so I could at least know how much she was getting. Doing that got very tiresome and honestly, I am thrilled to not have to use a breastpump again for a long time. I think it was best for both of us for her to switch to formula.

She is still a small little thing, but she is perfectly healthy and as far as I can tell is putting on weight at a good pace. She will be 4 months old in a week and I'm hoping for a good checkup when we take her to her doctor's appointment. :-)