Reese’s Monthly Growth Series // 4

13 pounds 11 ounces (37th percentile), 25 inches long (70th percentile), 16.3 inches head circumference (75-90th percentile), started laughing, rolled (tummy to back), first plane trip, normally sleeps 4 hours straight, drools A LOT, likes to clasp her hands together, enjoys sucking on her fists, sticks her tongue out often, smiles more readily, hit a sleep regression, first fever 🙁

This past month has been quite the adventure. We spent the first three weeks in Texas where the weather was warm, it was quite the welcome respite from the cold and snow of Maine. The kids spent nearly every waking moment outside and often asked to walk to the playground twice a day. We all really needed it. The tension my body completely unwound. Raf’s family spoiled us rotten and took such good care of us, Raf and I even got to see four (!!) movies and go out at night a couple times without any children. It was amazing! While we were there we spent a couple days in Austin, TX and in addition to visiting some dear friends, we basically ate at as many vegan places as we could. A few days after getting back home I had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus, which means I’ll be immobile for 6 weeks!!! I can’t put any weight on it for 4 weeks, and therefore I’m basically useless and can’t even carry Reese around. Thank God for all the help we’ve been getting, my sweet sister-in-law making us dinners, friends coming over and lending a helping hand, my cousin bringing us food while entertaining the kids and my mom and Rafaan, who have been real MVPs, doing anything and everything to keep this place running. If that isn’t challenging enough, we’ve all come down with epic colds. Reese is running a fever of 103 and vomits every time I try to get some acetaminophen or ibuprofen into her. So, while we started this month on a high note, we’ve ended with quite the challenging situation on our hands.

Reese has really blossomed this month. She smiles readily and we’ve even been able to get her to laugh a handful of times. When she really gets going she makes the most adorable snorting sounds. She started off this month going down to sleep at 7:30, falling asleep peacefully on her own and not waking up until 11:30pm, but since then a sleep regression hit and has since been compounded by the fact that she’s sick, she really only sleeps if I’m right next to her and I’m not really able to work on getting her back on track (and I wouldn’t until she was well again anyway) since I’m not able to pick her up and soothe her very easily.

This month Reese rolled over from her tummy to her back, she still hates tummy time and now has a way to get out of it lickety-split. She drools constantly and soaks through all her clothes, so my mom made her a couple drool bibs that she wears on rotation.

Reese sings the sweetest little cooing songs to herself as she’s falling asleep. Every time she starts Asher will point out that she’s singing her “sleep song”. She’s kinda over the pacifier this month. She takes it occasionally but for the most part, she’s content without it (this last week when only my boob will soothe her notwithstanding ). She still seems to have the exact same amount of hair that she had had birth, no more, no less, so I’m definitely interested to see what happens with that.

This girl is quite proud of her long tongue and when she’s happy, her tongue will be out. It’s so silly and cute and uniquely her. She likes to claps her hands together and every time she does this Asher will exclaim: “Look, Mommy! Reese is being reverent!” She still hasn’t figured out how to grasp anything else yet but I can tell she really wants to.

I fall more and more in love with her every day and I’m really savoring this time with her, because I know all too well just how fleeting it is.