Sarah's FOUR months old!!

We had Sarah's 4-month check up today, and she did great! She's right on track developmentally and is growing wonderfully. Here are her stats (she's definitely starting to average out):

weight: 14lb, 7oz (65th percentile)
height: 24.25in (50th percentile)
head circumference: 16in (40th percentile)

Here are some of the questions we were asked...

Is she holding her head up well? YES.
Is she reaching for toys? YES.
Is she bringing things to her mouth? YES.
Does she push up while on her belly? YES.
Has she rolled over yet? YES (belly to back).
Is she cooing at us? YES. And SINGS all the time! (See video below)
Does she smile at us? YES.
Will she laugh at us? Sort of...she tries. :)
How about bowel movements? About every 2-4 days. Normal breastfed poops. :)
How is she sleeping at night? GREAT! Usually about 12 hours.
Have you started her on solids yet? Um...NO! Won't be starting those for another couple of months!

Then it was my turn for questions...

What's this rash/crusty stuff on her eye? Eczema. Try using Aquafor or Vaseline since it's on her eye. Sadly, this is a tricky spot to treat eczema. :(
What about this redness in her diaper area? Yep...that's eczema too. Feel free to use lots of cream if it gets bad.
Is this hairy spot a birth mark on her back? Yes...kind of. It's called a hairy nevus. A WHAT?!? :) Sarah has a medium-sized hairy nevus on her back. It's about 2 inches wide, with very slightly discolored skin and some small hairs growing on it. They are usually harmless, though need to be monitored because they can become malignant and/or precede melanoma. More info on them here.
We missed a dose of her reflux meds the other night, and she had a really rough time the day after. Is it possible that missing one dose could cause that? Yep! Sounds like she still needs to be on them.

Poor sweetie pie has sensitive skin. We'll need to be sure to keep her skin very protected from the sun since she'll be at a slightly increased risk of developing skin cancer. I'm really not too worried about it. We're generally pretty good about using sunblock ourselves, so it shouldn't be a problem. The only thing that only slightly bothers me is her "stork bite" birth mark on her forehead. I know it shouldn't bother me, as it *should* fade with time. But it's big and red and distracts from her precious face. It's usually not even that noticeable. But in photographs, it can really stand out, depending on the lighting. I have gotten into the habit of editing it out of the pics I take. Mostly because I feel like the camera makes it stand out more than it actually does in real life.

Here are some photos from our session this weekend. I left the birthmark in the first two, so you can see what I'm talking about. It's the redness down the middle of her forehead.

See what I mean? Sweet baby girl, but the mark stands out more than I'd like.

SO happy! :)

She's drooling CONSTANTLY these days!! :)

 

SUCH a happy baby girl!

She LOVES her mommy!

She loves to talk to us too! :)

LOVE her!! :)

I get to wake up to THIS every morning!! :)

And here's a little video clip of her "singing" herself to sleep. She does this for every nap and before going to bed at night. :) Her older brother did something very similar when he was this age. It's crazy how much she reminds us of him sometimes!!