4 months old

Another month has passed, and I am again amazed at the changes that occur in one month of a baby's life. First, of all though, I want to express my thankfulness that the Lord has protected Isabel from all of our illnesses over the last few months. As I looked back at the calendar, someone in this house has been sick since October. We've dealt with two rounds of H1N1, two rounds of pink eye, some pretty rough colds, and pneumonia, and Isabel hasn't had so much as a sniffle.

So, what has been going on this month with little Isabel? She's sleeping much better now--nap times are much smoother and very predictable. However, at night, I can set my clock by her middle of the night wake ups. At 3:30 every night recently, she has woken up. Sometimes she's happy and jabbers and coos; sometimes she screams. It lasts between 15-30 minutes and then she goes back to sleep until about 6:00. I nurse her, and she sleeps until about 9:00. She naps around 10-10:30 and wakes around 11:30-12:00, naps again around 1:00-1:30 until 3:00-3:30, naps again around 4:30-5:00 until about 6:00 and goes to bed around 7:15.

She's reaching for things now and grabbing things. She loves Madelyn's hair and her toys that hang down from her bouncy seat. Last month, she was rolling over like crazy from her tummy to her back. It's almost like she's forgotten how to do that, but she's a champ at rolling from her back to her belly. She's watching me eat, as her eyes follow my fork from the plate to my mouth, and she sometimes opens her mouth, as if she's expecting a bite herself. I'm starting to think it's time to try solids, but I kinda dread adding one more thing to my day.

We dedicated Isabel to the Lord at church yesterday. I'll do another post about that. It was a wonderful church service, as we celebrated Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, as well as listened to a sermon about worrying. That might make for a blog post as well. Until then, here are a couple of pictures of 4 month old Isabel: