The last 4 months have been some of the hardest and most definitely the best ones of my life. Life with a young infant is tiring, but to me so incredibly worth it. I guess it's because of what we went through to be parents. It is so rewarding to see this little person gain personality and to discover the world for the first time. I have often run on 6 hours of sleep or less. I am working once again, usually 15-20 hours a week.
We've stayed close to home for the most part, though that changed when we make our 1st trip to Ridgecrest CA since becoming a family of 5. I was VERY nervous to make this 10+ hour drive with my 4 month old daughter. She hates to be stuck in the car seat for very long, especially when she's the only one back there. I made it so we can hang some of her toys from the handle of her car seat to keep her entertained. We did the drive there in 1 day and it took us 13 hours, and Rachel did much better than I thought she would. Though the last few hours she made us stop almost every hour, mostly because she was tired of being in the car and who could blame her. On our way home we split the trip up and drove to St George on 1 day and then the rest of the way home the next day. With as well as Rachel did I may be taking some solo trips with her to South Jordan in the not so distant future. I will do a post soon on our trip to Ridgecrest.
Seeing as most of you haven't spent much if any time with Miss Rachel, here are a few little things about this sweet girl of ours.
- She LOVES bath time. From day 1 she has loved being in the water. For a while there she would get upset when you took her out of the warm water, thankfully now she loves to be cuddled up in her towel after bath time is over. Because of her love of baths, she gets one most every night and is a big part of our bedtime routine.
- She smiles almost all the time. She will not smile at the camera very often.
- She had her first laugh when she turned 3 months old. It is the cutest sound ever. Her daddy is the one who can always get her to laugh, and it took a few weeks for mommy to get her to laugh.
- She is a people watcher. We go to a playgroup here in Mussi every week and she just loves to watch the other kids playing and running around.
- She LOVES to watch her dogs/brothers Bo and Sam. She wants to see what they are up to. She also doesn't mind when they nudge or lick her.
- At her last appointment at the beginning of February she was in the 90th percentile in height and over the 50th in weight.
- She does not like tummy time very much.
- She hasn't quite figured out how to roll over. She has rolled from front to back a few times though.
- She likes to sit in her bumbo seat. I think it's mostly because then she can see what is going on. She is can sit almost anywhere as long as she has some sort of support.
- She loves to kick her legs, and recently discovered that her toes are pretty awesome. She often pulls them up to her mouth and tries to stick them in her mouth.
- She is starting to teethe. She will chew on her fingers, my fingers, and toys. She also is starting to be a little drool monster, thank goodness for cute bibs.
- She is starting to sleep through the night most nights now. She is usually in bed by 11 and will often sleep until about 7. It is nice to get some longer stretches of sleep. She does take a few short naps during the day, and if she doesn't get much of a nap she is a little terror in the evening and will only accept being taken care of by her momma.
- She still loves her swing (often it's where she will fall asleep and take her naps) but isn't such a fan of her bouncer.
- She is MOST DEFINITELY a momma's girl. She loves her daddy, but momma has the magic touch (sorry Jared). So if you do happen to get the chance to hold that sweet girl don't be hurt when she cries.
- She has enjoyed being outside when we've been able to go out. She spent quite a bit of time outside while we were in Ridgecrest since it was so warm while we were there. I have a feeling we will be outside a lot more now that it seems spring is here.
