Florence’s 4 month baby update

Once again I can’t believe I’m writing this, but Florence is somehow now 4 months old. I’m sure I’ll say this every month, as I did with my pregnancy updates, but I honestly can’t believe it. It’s gone so unbelievably fast and the amount of new things Florence is learning daily is just incredible.

It is amazing watching her little personality start to come out, and some of her likes becoming more apparent. Florence now weighs 13lb 2 and has just started to wear her 3-6 month clothes, though some of it is still pretty huge. It’s made me suddenly think I have a grown-up baby already too, I mean 0-3 still sounds tiny, but 3-6 not so much. Anyway, let’s get on with her update.

NAPPING

I mentioned in Florence’s 2 month baby update that Florence is absolutely terrible at napping, well that hasn’t really changed over the last couple of months. I honestly thought we were getting somewhere when I got a week of 1 half hour nap around 9.30am and 1 more nap on top of this some days, but this soon went out the window.

I can sometimes trick her into sleeping but as Florence just wants to see everything and know what’s going on she is amazing at fighting her sleep. I wouldn’t mind if she didn’t clearly need to nap haha.

I’ve started recording all of her naps on an app called Huckleberry after several recommendations which essentially predicts the best time to get the best nap out of your baby, but it seems to be very hit and miss at working for us so far – maybe next time I share an update we will have finally got Florence into a slight nap routine.

SLEEPING

I wish I could say her amazing sleeping had carried on but Florence has now been waking once or twice a night, generally once for milk and a second time to chat and/or for her dummy. She is still pretty good at sleeping for a baby so I can’t really complain too much.

Although since the week before we hit 4 months and continuing on from then we’ve had a week of nights involving several wake ups, sometimes hourly, so here’s hoping when I write my next update this hasn’t continued for the whole two months!

DEVELOPMENT

Development-wise I honestly can’t believe the amount of things Florence has learnt since her last baby update. Florence seems to be learning a new thing every single day, literally. Around the end of month 3 she learnt to grip things intentionally with ease, especially toys with smaller parts for her to grip, a few weeks ago she learnt to blow raspberries and at the end of last week she learnt to pass her toys from one hand to the other. It’s honestly so amazing. Oh, and every single toy goes into her mouth constantly these days, she’s got the co-ordination of this move down to a tee

She’s still very much enjoying standing, and already thinks she’s a 1 year old as she tries to walk by putting one foot in front of the other. When standing Florence is always using her arms to steady herself too so she seems to be learning the art of balance to an extent too.

Florence also now reaches down and holds the tops of her legs as if she’s discovered that she can stretch in more ways than ever. Her legs are constantly in the air and rolling side to side and kicking wildly. Florence hasn’t learnt how to roll yet but does roll on her side, and I think this is something that will come when she is more confident at tummy time on flat surfaces. Currently, she still isn’t very sure, but is happy to do tummy time on us or non-flat surfaces.

COMMUNICATION

Leading on from all Florence’s development her baby babble has extended and now includes a new variety of sounds including little squeaks, the cutest baby squeaks. Her reactions and chats when we talk to her are incredible. I love hearing her chat away.

She’s now smiling constantly and has let out a few giggles which is just lovely. I can’t wait to see her communication extend as she grows.

TEETHING

As I’ve mentioned previously, both on my blog and Instagram Florence has been teething since before she was even 6 weeks old. Unfortunately, no teeth have fully come through yet, but she does have more bumps that have come through and it looks like one of her front teeth may make an appearance sooner than later – they are very white and the teeth are incredibly visible under the gums.

Teething is something that is hard for both baby and us as parents, but no matter how frustrated she sometimes gets from the pain of teething, as soon as we see a smile or hear her chat away again, you suddenly forget the difficulty of the teething.

FEEDING

Florence is still exclusively breastfed and has one bottle of expressed milk before bed. Her feeds have remained pretty standard, with her feeding every 3-4 hours during the day unless she isn’t 100% or going through the never-ending leap 4 (mental developmental) where she often tends to feed closer to 2-3 hourly.

When feeding and just in general, Florence also now loves to pull my hair, so much so I sometimes have to literally shout for Luke to help me and un-grip her little hands – you wouldn’t think someone so tiny could have such a strong grip, but Florence certainly does.

BABY CLASSES

Baby classes are something people seem to either love or hate, but it’s something we absolutely love. It gives me some adult chat and allows Florence to develop and enjoy things.

We have continued with our baby sensory and also regularly do a music baby class to which Florence loves. We have a group of mums locally who we’ve met and meet regularly which is lovely too and the babies are all similar ages so reaching similar milestones. Lastly, we have recently started a free baby massage course and often do the rhyme time at the library too.

And that’s the end of the update, but I have also recently written a post all about my experience as a mum and how I’m finding things too. If you fancy a read of this one click here.

It’s honestly a delight watching Florence grow and develop.