Isla’s 4 Month Update

I cannot believe our girl is 4 months old. It feels like yesterday we were in the hospital waiting and waiting for it to be time to meet our girl! These last 4 months have been the fastest and best months of my life. I never imagined the transition into motherhood being as easy as Isla has made it. Don’t get me wrong, we have our moments BUT majority of the time she is the best baby.

Each month gets more and more fun with each developmental milestone. I am soaking up all the cuddles while she still lets them happen!

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Milestones:

It’s true that they say each month gets better and better. She has changed so much in the last few weeks. She loves rolling from back to belly, but then gets mad when she’s on her belly (unless she’s sleeping) lol. Around 3 months she loved rolling from belly to back, but since has decided she forgot how to I guess. She started giggling!! I LOVE IT. Currently we have to work pretty hard to get a couple giggles, but it’s getting more and more common. She recently learned how to scream, play with her feet, and blow bubbles. My favorite thing right now is after she accomplishes something, she looks at me with a big smile making sure I saw her!

Sleep:

If you’ve been following along on Insta then you know we follow Taking Cara Babies for all things routine and sleep. We began this course when Isla was 3 weeks old. By 6 weeks she was sleeping 9pm – 5:30am. Today, she is sleeping around 10.5 – 12 hours a night from around 7:45pm ish – 7:45am ish. We transitioned her from the Ollie Swaddle to the Merlin Sleep Suit. She is now sleeping in an arms free sleep sack (Nested Bean or Halo Sleep Swaddle Sack.. Whichever one is clean!).

If you are a mama, you know all about the dreaded 4 month sleep regression. As we creeped closer and closer to 4 months, I dreaded the regression. Isla did in fact have a regression BUT it only lasted about 3 nights. On night 3 she realized she could roll from her back to her belly and sleep. Since then, she has been back to 10.5 – 12 hours a night. Don’t get me wrong, she has her moments (she literally just woke up as I typed that lol).

Isla is a pretty good napper as well. But to be honest, it varies every single day. We follow an eat, awake, sleep routine. KEY WORD ROUTINE. I get so many questions about exact times, and it is never the same day to day. For more information on wake windows, naps, bedtime routine, etc please follow @takingcarababies on Instagram!

Feeding:

Isla is still breastfeeding like a champ. We have been very lucky that she takes both breast and bottle. I love that I am able to leave her with someone else and know she will eat while I’m away from her. For the most part, she takes the boob every feeding except for the last one. We like to give Isla a bottle for her bedtime feeding (not dream feed, the feeding before we put her down) just to make sure she has a full feeding before she sleeps. When taking a bottle, she drinks anywhere from 5 – 6 ounces.

At 4 months we began introducing rice cereal mixed with breastmilk and spoon fed per our pediatricians recommendation. Isla’s pediatrician recommends starting rice cereal at 4 months and continuing that until she swallows more than she pushes out (aka the tongue thrust). Once she has this down (and she’s getting SO good after only 8 days) then we can start introducing more solids and stopping the rice cereal. We give Isla rice cereal once a day typically an hour before her bath and her bedtime feeding!

Some of our current favorite things for this age:

1. Doorway jumper – She is learning how to jump right now and it’s so cute.
2. Sophie Giraffe – Really anything she can get her mouth on and suck is her favorite thing right now! But this is most often in her hands.
3. Fisher Price Sit Me Up Floor Seat – We started with the gumbo and she just didn’t enjoy being in it longer than a few minutes. She just seemed so uncomfortable. After reading some negative things from pediatricians on how the Bumbo effects babies, I decided to order this! She LOVES it. She will sit in this thing for over 45 minutes.
4. Little Einstein Activity Center – Another trial and error item was the Skip Hop activity center. She hated it. But my parents have an activity center similar to the Little Einstein, and she LOVES it. We gave her the Little Einstein one for Christmas and she has been loving it. It has way more fun things on it and bounces better!
5. Tiny Love Take Along Mobile – This is a recent Amazon find that we have been loving. It easily attaches an unattached. We use it most often on her car seat to keep her entertained during car rides! She just stares at it an smiles. Under $20!!
6. Pacifer Holder – Isla is getting SO close to being able to put her paci in her mouth all by herself. She has done it a few times, but not consistently just yet. One of Cara’s recommendations in her course is to place pacis all around the crib so when your baby wakes up, he or she can find a paci and put it in their mouths to go back to sleep if needed. To make it easier on her to find, I got two of this paci holders to attach her pain too! What I love about them is it doesn’t matter what brand of paci you use!

Thank you ALWAYS for being so interested in all things Isla! Y’all are the best cheerleaders around!

XO, Kelsey