Evelyn At Four Months

You are our sweet, precious baby girl!  When you turned 4 months, you weighed 13 lbs. 9 oz (48th percentile) and were 24.25 in. long (49th percentile)--you couldn't be any more perfect than that!  Your head circumference was 16 in. (40th percentile).  The pediatrician agreed that the rash you've had on your face since birth is eczema, and we started treating that with some steroid cream.  We are using as little as possible to get your face cleared up and on the mend.  Poor baby, most of the time your rash looks very itchy and inflamed.  Dr. Martin wanted to test you for food allergies since your eczema was so bad and I am nursing you.  If you were to be allergic to dairy, I would need to stop drinking and eating dairy.  The good news was that you are not allergic to milk.  The bad news was that you are allergic to peanuts (your brother is allergic to peanuts too).

We saw the doctor quite a few more times during your fourth month.  You had a cold which led to your first bacterial sinus infection.  While on an antibiotic for your sinus infection, you developed an ear infection, earning you a stronger antibiotic which you (thankfully) tolerated quite well.  And by "tolerated," I mean that it didn't severely upset your stomach.  You did NOT swallow it easily.  In fact, you're the best medicine-spitter-outer I've ever encountered.  Your Gigi said you take after your aunt Hillary who was also a masterful medicine-spitter-outer.  There were doses that I doubt you got even 1/8th of a dose.  I tried all different "tricks" and devices.  The results were all similarly failures.  The one thing that was helpful was to give you very small increments of each dose, it made it easier to keep it in your mouth and convince you to swallow it.

Despite the cold, sinus infection, and ear infection, you finally decided it was worth the tiny bit of extra effort it took to roll all the way over from your back to your stomach.  You'd been rolling almost all of the way over for at least two months.  We were so proud of you!  There was much cheering.  That same month you learned to roll from your tummy to your back; but you hardly ever roll that way.  Even if you are frustrated on your tummy, it is because you can't go anywhere, not because you want to be put on your back.  Every time I would put you back onto your back when you were on your tummy fussing, you would immediately roll right back over to your tummy--sometimes before I even got you all the way onto your back!  

We noticed you weren't screaming every single time we drove in the car, even in the dark, sometime you only cried for five or ten minutes.  Progress!

We moved you into your crib in your room for night time this month.  Up until now, you'd been sleeping on our floor in a "nap nanny."  You didn't sleep great in our room anyway, and Spencer was continuing to wake up in the middle of the night even when you weren't crying in the next room, so not much changed.  You are eating multiple times a night, and haven't seemed affected by the move positively or negatively. You're actually sleeping and eating worse than you've been doing the previous months.  You've been sick, and I think it certainly eradicated any good habits (no matter how small) we'd worked so hard to develop.

Above is you all decked out for Valentine's Day.  Your aunt Hillary made your onesie and headband.  You were quite festive.  Spencer enjoyed making you a Valentine, and we hung it up in your card holder in your room.  You're a loved little lady, Evie Roo.  Congratulations to making it four months in our crazy little family, smiling all the while!

6 Months Ago

You've come a long way, Evie!

5 Months

A few days short of turning five months, you weighed 14 lbs. 10 oz.  We took you to the doctor for an ear infection re-check, so they didn't measure your length (your ears were clear, yea!)

You have stopped screaming during car rides, even when you're in your car seat after dark!  You still have some trips on which you are fussy, but up until now, you would scream for the entire car trip.  We're all very glad that "stage" is over.

You are still such a little sleep fighter, and you're not a great night-time sleeper.  You are not a great day time sleeper either, but that's less of a bummer for me and your Dad.

Despite your obviously un-payable sleep debt, you are still such a sweetie pie.  You are generally smiley, and people always comment on what a happy baby you are.  You certainly have your fussy times, but they are usually in the evening or if you are left alone in a room.  Your brother cracks you up with both his physical and verbal comedy.  He is more interested in you, and you love any and all attention he directs your way.

You have gone to the church nursery some, and you do pretty well.  I did have to come get you once this month because you were sleepy and they couldn't get you to fall asleep, you just screamed and screamed.  That's fairly typical for you when you're sleepy, but I don't blame you not being able to fall asleep in the nursery.  It's a bustling place.  I took you into the church service on March 11th, so you could hear your daddy preach.  You always light up, grinning ear to ear when he talks to you, so I thought it'd be fun to see what you did when he preached.  You really enjoyed the music in the service, you got multiple compliments on your undeniable cuteness, and just a few paragraphs into the sermon you decided you'd like to eat.  So, you just heard the beginning and the end of your daddy's sermon, but I think you liked it!

We spent a Thursday morning at your great "Grandmother" and great "Grandfather's" house.  You were just precious.  You charmed them both.  You grinned and cooed and let both of them hold you.  You really settled in, and they so enjoyed getting to play with you.  We played inside for a while with Grandmother and then joined Spencer and Grandfather outside in the back yard.  It felt like June it was so warm and beautiful.  You seemed to really enjoy your visit.

You've been spending Tuesday mornings with your Gigi while I take Spencer to his class at The Little Gym.  Y'all have fun and you've done very well.  We're gradually increasing the time, so that Spencer and I can start having a morning a week together.  We finally figured out that you will take a bottle if it is  VERY warm, so that will give you guys more time before I have to rush home to feed you.

You are hilariously interested in our food.  You move your mouth, tongue, and lips, you reach for it, you lean towards it, and you finally started bursting into tears when we would eat in front of you.  You finally became so upset one day, my heart just went out to you (we obviously share a love for food!).  I did not have any baby food on hand, because I was not going to start any solids until you were sitting up well; but you will obviously not be denied any further.  I mashed up some banana and gave it to you.  You loved it.  You had a death grip on the spoon, and when I had to get it out of your hands to get you another bite you would scream and cry. Unfortunately, the banana aggravated the eczema on your face and gave you a bad diaper rash.  We'll have to come back to that one again later.  In your fifth month, we also introduced rice cereal and pureed pears.  The pears were also a big eczema and diaper rash trigger.  You're going to have to be a carb and veggie girl for a little bit longer.

You've also decided that you love holding a bottle.  You've never much cared for a bottle.  We only gave you one probably three to five times before this month and I think only one of the attempts was successful; but I started giving you a little water with your "food," and you clutched the bottle with you chubby little hands, so proudly.  You are really enjoying the self-feeding aspect.  It's kind of funny.  You've been bored and nursing poorly during the day for a couple of months and it seems like part of it is that you want to do it independently.  You might as well be saying, "Me do it!"  I have no idea where that personality trait could have originated.

You've always been a good little babbler, but this month you started blowing some bubbles.  You love being outside, and are happy to sit in the stroller even if it's not moving as long as you can see us.  You watched us fly a kite with Spencer, and you were so happy kicked back in your stroller.  I had it in a reclined position, and you batted around the blanket draped from the top and watched us running around.  You didn't make one fussy sound, and you were probably in there for thirty minutes.

We've had some unseasonably warm weather, and that's been a lot of fun.  We are all ready for spring to be here, both for the warm temperatures and the cute new clothing!  You went to your first birthday party this month, and, we dressed you in a cute little cupcake outfit.  You looked fabulous and just watched all the little kids running around.

Your fifth month has not been without a great number of viruses--for all of us.  In fact, we've all felt varying degrees of blah for most of this month of your life.  Bless you heart!  I promise that we will have more fun very soon.  I so hope that a large part of your immunity has been built up this winter and that you won't have this rough of a cold/flu season ever again.  You even had a rash that puzzled the pediatricians at our clinic.  I'd been sick with a yucky stomach virus, so they did a strep test that came back negative and eventually concluded that it was most likely the same virus I had and that it was just presenting differently in you.  Let's not baffle the pediatrician any more, ok?

We also had your baby dedication at Calvary Baptist Church this month.  You were not feeling 100%, but you were very accommodating.  You went along with it and were very sweet.  You did attempt to grab the wireless microphone.  I particularly enjoy the picture below, because I think I have a picture of Spencer grabbing the microphone at his baby dedication.  Believe it or not, some babies do not do that.  Now for the Style portion of this paragraph [cue someone shouting, "Who are you wearing?"]  You wore the same dress your cousin Audrey wore at her baby dedication, precious leather ballet shoes that Gigi bought for you, and a sweet floral headband that your daddy helped me pick out from Etsy.   Many people told your daddy and I how beautiful you are.  We think they're right.

When Gigi went to get the shoes for you (they are also for you to wear for Easter), she looked at the age-appropriate size and told the sales lady that she thought those looked way too big for you.  The sales associate assured her that unless you had TINY feet, the size 2 should fit you fine.  But not deterred, your Gigi went with her first impulse and bought you the size 1 (0-3 month).  She was right.  There is no way you could have worn a 2, the 1's are still too big, but they worked great.  You apparently have tiny feet.

Your fifth month felt a lot like survival mode around here, and I feel like every month of your little life has felt that way thus far.  Hopefully that just means you don't know the difference.  We love you so much, Evelyn Rose, and we can't wait to see what your sixth month has in store [hint hint: sleep through the night!!!].