4 months

I love each month's milestone on the 22nd, but in the same token, I miss my baby when she was a tiny peanut!  A third of a year has gone by and holy moly, this baby girl is growing, growing!  She will go to her 4 month checkup with her new Pediatrician next Monday.  We are anxious to see her stats and how this new doctor measures up.

Well, some highlights for this month include:

Kiley is now drinking Similac Alimentum formula.  It is hypoallergenic and seems to really help with some of her symptoms she had a month ago.  We tried Soy, but that is too much for her little system.  She drinks in a "big girl" bottle.  No more little short bottles.  She drinks 6.5 oz. every 3 hours or so in the "tall" bottles now.

Ohio weather is does not help her ezcema and dry scalp.  Uggghhh. This poor girl can't get enough moisture in her skin.  We've tried Aveeno Baby Ezcema, Cetaphil, and now we're on to Aquaphor.  It is better than all we've tried thus far, but I hope maybe the new doctor will be able to prescribe something stronger.

Kiley has outgrown most of her 3 month clothing and fits in her 3-6 month stuff and even several 6 month outfits.  It depends on the brand though.  Old Navy and Target clothes tend to run small I've found.  But that's fine, she is wearing some of the cutest outfits for daycare.

She has discovered her thumb.  She still has some trouble initially, but once she finds it, she sure enjoys it.
She drools up a storm.  Most of the time her hands are covered with newborn socks because if we don't, she will "paw" at her face and scratch herself and her head.  She has given herself some pretty good scratches and rubbed her head raw one time.  We swaddle her in these cool little "sleep sacks".  They have velcro built into the blanket so it's easy to wrap her up.  Trouble is, Kiley is a little Houdini.  The little escape artist can work her arms out if she really wants to.  I can hear her on the baby monitor at night, grunting as she squirms and maneuvers her wiggly self out.  I walk in...turn on the light and what does she do?  Smiles from here to the moon!  She grins so big, you can't be mad at her!

This is one her  sleep sacks.  Notice her sneaky little hand creeping along her face?

A close up of just how she does it!  She her scratch marks too? 

That is the other HUGE thing she now does almost nonstop... SMILES!!! It's the kind where her "chipmunk" cheeks smile so much, they push up into her eyes and makes little baby "crows feet", but the most adorable ones you've ever seen!

Here are just a few pics, she got a little fussy mid way through.  Plus, she still loves putting her fingers in her mouth nonstop.  It's because she doesn't have socks on them!  She thinks, "My hands are free! I'm going to thoroughly enjoy them every second I can ,before Mommy and Daddy put those dreadful socks on me again!"

Scott is just off to the right trying to make her smile again.  She's staring him down.

"Are we almost done with this?"

"Whew!  I am exhausted, can you just put me in a onesie and get my bottle ready?"

3 months and Christmas

Where does time go?  Oh my word!  It seems like Kiley was just 6 weeks old, I went back to work, and BAM!, now time has been "fast forwarded" to 3 months already!!! Well, throw in the holidays and all the hustle and bustle involved with that, plus a lingering illness and it's easy to lose all sense of time.  Christmas was truly a beautiful day.  We enjoyed having Scott's mom stay with us Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  She got to see Kiley on Christmas morning and watch as we opened her gifts.  It was a most enjoyable time!
Later that evening, we traveled to my Uncle's for Christmas with my family.

Patiently waiting for Santa...

3 Months - couldn't keep the fingers out of the mouth

more tasty fingers...

Daddy opening one of Grandma's gifts for Kiley.  She is snoozing away.  The excitement of Christmas was too much!

Kiley continued sleeping, so we kept unwrapping.  She LOVES this puppy from Grandma!

Grandma loves her "Kiley collage" we made her.

Over Christmas Break, we were right in the middle of  "tummy time" and guess who fell asleep?  

My Aunt Pat got Kiley this adorable pink coat and I  HAD to try it on her.  It's  ADORABLE!!

Wardrobe change... another gift.  A tad big for now, but not much longer and I won't have to roll up the sleeves or legs.




Summing up the last month or so...

Recently we transitioned Kiley into her crib, from her car seat.  She had to sleep upright because of her mild reflux and cough/stuffiness.  But... the cold is sloooooooowwwwlllllyyyyyyy going away.  Just a little coughing in the morning and a little at night before bed.

She is up to 6 oz. now of formula every 3-4 hours.  We are trying an experiment with Alimentum to see if that helps with any of her symptoms.

Kiley weighed 11 lb.s and 2.5 oz. at her Dec. 23rd doctor appt.  She slipped a little percentile wise in weight because of her illness.  But, we bumped up her oz. and frequency to "chub" her up a little more.

She is a happy girl MOST of the time.  We call her "Smiley Kiley" all the time.   She's cooing up a storm most days.

We have several nicknames for her.... "Stinkapotamus" (for obvious reasons),  "Squirmalicious" (always moving and kicking, especially during diaper changes) , "Kiley Monster" (for her moody moments), "Drooly Bug" or "Little Spittlebug", (I need to find a way to make burp clothes a fashionable part of my outfit.)

We received information from our agency that the adoption finalization will take place either April 2nd or April 9th.  We are super excited for that!  We just finished our 4th post placement visit with our social worker this week.  All went well.

She will more than likely be baptized on April 15th.   The church requires adoptions to be legal before baptizing.   Kiley has been coming to mass with us and doing pretty good!  She usually sleeps for the whole thing.

Tomorrow, we go back to work and school and daycare. : - (  Mommy here is praying for a snow day!  I have thoroughly enjoyed snuggling with my sweet baby girl!

I hope to post her 4 month pics in about 3 weeks.  Hope everyone stays warm!