Four Months Old

Madeline is four months old today!  It has been a fun month of getting to see her become an active, alert baby.

 Since her birth, her hair has been the first thing strangers comment on.  It's a great conversation starter.  Now her signature mohawk is flattening out...

...but her hair still has a satisfying amount of flair.  She is very interested in colorful toys like this one but rarely reaches out to grab them yet.

She's more likely to grab her bottle and try to hold it by herself.

She's really interested in Daddy's beer so we let her have a swig.  Just kidding!  Ben was at least 6 months old before that happened.

(kidding again! sort of)

She is such a sweetheart of a kid.  She is chuckling and giggling more now.  She is so pleasant and happy, and most of the time it doesn't take us terribly long to figure out why she's upset and get her smiling again.  Except for those times when she screams and cries for an hour straight for no apparent reason, and then we cry right along with her.

 

Here's some more of what's been happening this past month:

• A physical therapist with early intervention services has come to the house to get the ball rolling on physical therapy.  She automatically qualifies because she has a genetic condition, and she's already behind in gross motor skills.  The PT has just done interviews and paperwork with us so far and she'll be starting regular visits soon.  She seems to have done some research on achondroplasia and understands that we shouldn't be setting any goals for Maddy achieving milestones (pushing her to do more than she's ready for could lead to injury) but we do need to keep an eye on her.  I told the  PT that I was concerned that Maddy isn't reaching for her toys and rattles, and she said that's something we can safely work on.
• We (finally) got a translated copy of the sleep study from February.  We haven't discussed it with the pediatrician yet - that's up next week - but from what we can tell from the report, there's nothing that we should be overly worried about at this point.  It does state that she definitely does have some degree of sleep apnea.  She continues to snore and have short bouts of sleeping during the day and night.  Many babies at this age start to develop a regular sleep routine, but she takes catnaps all through the day.  Since she sleeps much better when she's being held, I usually hold her for one nap each day to try to get her to sleep as long as possible.  At night, she only wakes up to eat...but she does so pretty frequently.
• Mike and I have been trying to educate ourselves on dwarfism.  We're each reading books on the subject.  Plus I found on online chat group that is a support group for parents of little people.  It's already been very helpful to just see the documents and advice that other people have posted.  I'm also reading blogs of families dealing with dwarfism, and I've had e-mail contact with a friend of a friend from the states whose daughter is like Madeline.  We're craving social support right now...thank goodness for the internet.
• Oh, I almost forgot...Madeline is teething already!  We can see two little white bumps where those first ones will be coming through and she's been drooling a ton.  I'll post pics later this week.  Poor Maddy, she refuses teething rings/toys and wet washcloths to chew on...all we can do is give her her favorite pacifier and rock her until she stops crying.  I'm pretty sure Ben started to teethe at this age, too.  And if I remember correctly, it took a looooong time for those teeth to come out.