4 months

Posted by E-George on January 22, 2009

Today Evelyn is four months old. Four months after it took two days to get her here. Four months of learning each others habits. Four months of feasting on those perfectly spherical cheeks. Four months of adoring those two scoops of cottage cheese that is her baby butt. Four months doesn’t seem that long when I say it out loud, but it felt longer in terms of the day-to-day of it. As it was put to me by my mother, “When you do something every day it feels like you’ve been doing it longer than you really have.” She also put forward this cunning gem, “It is easier to be one thing to everyone than everything to one person.” Good strong shots of perspective in the ol’ upper arm of life.

Evelyn had an incredible growth spurt over the last month, growing out of nearly every 0-3 sized piece of clothing she owned. Fortunately, it was Christmastime, and she found herself flush in a new wardrobe in a matter of days. A wardrobe, toys, and a box of hats crocheted by her Auntie Sarah.

We had our first trip to the pediatrician to get help for a situation I couldn’t figure out on my own. Her scalp had been bothering her and she had developed a persistent rash under her chin. Finally, when we spent a whole day with her trying to nurse but being distracted because her head was clearly itching so she didn’t eat, I took her to the doctor. Good thing, too, because it turns out we were about to head into Cradle Cap Land. A couple of nights applying a hydrocortisone/aquaphor compound and her head was back to being round and pink, instead of round, red, and inflamed looking. Since then, we’ve been battling what the pediatrician told me was normal infant dermatitis, but now that I know what to look for I’ve been able to keep things from getting uncomfortable for her.

In other news, she was 12 pounds (5.4 kg) and 23.5 inches (59.69 cm) at her most recent well-baby checkup, where she also got her first round of vaccinations. The vaccination issue was (is) a tough one for me. I had done a lot of reading on it before she was born, and since she was born had bought and read Dr. Sear’s Vaccine Book. I found it a very useful resource for helping me better understand the types and kinds of vaccines and the purpose of each one. It really helped me craft a more informed opinion that I took with me to the pediatrician. I was fully expecting a battle of wills – not unlike what I had in the hospital when she was born and I refused the Hep B vaccine for her – but was pleasantly surprised to see my pediatrician pleasantly surprised that I had an opinion at all. We had a very calm discourse on the matter in which he disagreed with me on one vaccine and agreed with me on another. We found our compromise, and Evelyn was vaccinated. She didn’t seem to mind being stuck with the needle, because she took both hits – one to each leg – without so much as a trembling lip, but when the one vaccine stung is when she lost it. I’m proud to say, I held up well! That’s because I turned myself such that I couldn’t seem them stab her legs with needles. All I saw was the aftermath.

While she has always been body bossy, she has really come into her own with wanting to sit up, wanting to be held up in a standing position, and wanting to be carried in a face-front position. Tummy time is always a great few minutes.

I returned to work this month, and I don’t know yet if I like that or not. It has been very stressful to find my balance between work and home. The workplace has been great to get back to in the sense that I know what I’m doing and enjoy working with limited interruptions. It has been awkward because I am using a breast pump to extract Evelyn’s life serum and it has been hard to stop what I’m doing consistently throughout the day to take care of that chore. Switching my brain off of work and onto home has been harder than I thought, too. I’m sure we’ll all find our proverbial sea legs here pretty soon, and I strongly suspect it will be bittersweet when we do.

We have finally started to craft something that resembles a schedule. What has helped is that Evelyn has started to sleep through the night on a fairly regular basis, the first occurrence of which I was sure was a complete anomaly. Since then I have been blessed that she sleeps from 7:30pm or so until past 5:00am without waking. While it’s great for getting the sleep I need, it’s been a challenge to not spring a milk leak. The wonderful benefit of a sort-of schedule is that now I can better predict when Evelyn will nap. And, she fulfills all the baby requirements of looking just like a plump little angel when she sleeps.

This is a fun time to be around her. She’s discovering so many things. Her hands. Her tongue. Her feet. My hair. It’s awesome. Every day she becomes more interactive and more mature. She farts with manly proficiency, and when she smiles, as Grandma Berta put it, even her ears beam. But, by far, my favorite expression is her withering look of disdainful baby tolerance that is topped off with her little knit eyebrows. Some of you have seen this look before. She gets it from her father.

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