Julia had her 4 month checkup. She weighed 11 lbs – 12.5 oz. and measured 24 1/4 inches long. This is an increase of 1 lb – 6 oz. and 2-1/2 inches over the last 2 months. Julia is now at the 50 percentile for height. No wonder that she no longer fits in a lot of one piece outfits she has. The doctor was pleased with her growth. We discussed the number of feedings and my approach to her feeding. I’m trying to be a little less of an engineer when it comes to feedings. I am letting her ask for food before I offer (most of the time). I just like things I can measure. Julia is pretty laid back about everything including asking for meals. We will see if she changes with my new approach.

We also discussed my ongoing struggle with Julia’s dry skin and cradle cap. He has made some suggestions and I am hoping that we can make her more comfortable. Julia received two shots and one oral vaccine to keep her current on her shots. We had a fussier than usual evening which we are blaming on the sore legs, but maybe she just wanted to milk it for extra attention.

The doctor and I had a follow-up discussion about her heart condition. I had hoped that he would have received a report from the heart doctor before our visit, but it hadn’t arrived yet. So our discussion was all based on my comments. It is hard to remember everything and the names of conditions. Our doctor admitted his concern at her last checkup was that Julia had a heart defect because what he heard just didn’t sound like the typical murmur. He was glad to hear that Julia’s condition may be the less serious PFO condition. I will see if he has any other thoughts or comments at our next visit, which is at 6 months.

Mommy put the girls in red to celebrate Valentine’s Day and then tried to get photos of the girls. Neither were interested in posing for photos. So we have what we have. Emily stole her Granddaddy’s hat and consented to look in the direction of the camera. We thought that she looked like a rock star with the hat, arms, and attitude.

Wow – it has been four months already for little Julia. I have been holding her this week and thinking that she is so much heavier and getting a little chunky. Well, chunky for one of my daughters.

I try to document all of Julia’s significant changes around the time they happen, but I realized that I missed a big one. Julia has neck control and holds her head up really well. At one point she was close and I thought it would be much longer, and then the next thing I noticed, she was a pro at it. I guess I blinked. But she has been doing this for weeks, and I am just now journaling it.

There are some things she has been working on this week that I haven’t missed. She has found her voice. Not in a crying way, she has been working on that one since birth. She has found a coo & a holler. She can keep a conversation with you and at other times she joins in on loud conversations or attempts to get our attention. Tonight, I could have sworn that she was making noise to get Emily’s attention. It is really funny and I love it.

Something else that she is working on is trying to flip over. For a while, she has been doing leg lifts. She alternates between lifting her legs and then lifting her head/shoulders. Her leg lifts get pretty high and now she is adding a twisting motion to them that is getting her close to a flip. She will roll herself over and on her side when on soft cushions like the couch or bed.

Julia has the most beautiful bald spot on the back of her head. I would prefer her to not have it, but she just loves to rub her head back and forth. She likes to have her head rubbed on in general so she must be rubbing it herself. She will quit soon enough, and her hair will grow and it will be a distant memory.

One of my favorite thing she does is hold on to our fingers. When she is fussing herself to sleep in our arms, she pokes her hand out of the blanket in which she is swaddled. If we put one of our fingers into her hand, she will grip it, start to relax, and fight less. She will then drop into sleep, relax, and make herself so heavy. Julia is starting to not need to be swaddled to fall asleep. I remember Emily moving into the stage of not needing swaddling. It will coincide well with warmer weather, but I will miss my baby bundle.

One phrase I hear all day long is ‘Help Mama’. Emily is so sweet to ask, isn’t she? I think it is her way of involving herself in my life and spending time with me. Often, if she isn’t moving fast enough or in the right direction I can use the idea of helping mommy to hurry her up. This is not an exhaustive list of ‘Help Mama’ stories, but it will give a good idea of what we do.

• Help Mama with Julia’s diaper changes involves getting a new diaper down, fetching the wipe container, setting up all the things mommy needs on the bed, throwing away the dirty diaper, loving on Julia while Julia is getting her diaper changed. We change Julia in our bedroom a lot because Emily is napping in the room with the changing table so all of the supplies float around the house as needed. Emily never does all of these things at one time, but given the opportunity she would help with every diaper change.
• Help Mama with cooking involves standing on the step stool and touching everything in reach. Actually, she is really good to not touch the stove or pots on the stove. She stays away from the oven when told. But we have had the percussion section of the kitchen with the clean dish and chopstick instruments, stirring fun with pancakes, washing dishes which is just a lot of bubble fun, and just hanging out with mommy.
• Help Mama with setting the table. Actually, it is funnier to hear the interchange between Mommy and Emily over this one. I will hand her each thing to carry to the table and I repeat several times where it is to go. I can hear her repeating me as she goes. Then I go in to see the table and everything has been placed somewhere, but rarely where it is to be put. My favorite is putting napkins out, I will say “One for Mommy, one for Daddy, and one for Emily”. Then she will repeat “one for Mommy, one for Daddy, and one for Emily” and put them all at her spot. I guess she knows how messy she is.
• Help Mama clean up the table. This is the one that concerns me the most, but I am working through it. I don’t want all of the leftover food hitting the floor on the way back to the kitchen. And for the most part it hasn’t, but I don’t give her the things that are in most danger. I love the syrup, butter tub, empty glasses, empty plates, trivets, and dirty napkins.
• Help Mama with the trash. As I have mentioned several times, she will throw things away for me. She has a fascination with the trash can. If I have anything that needs to go to the trash, I just give it to her and send her on her way. She always puts it in and most of the time leaves it there. Regularly it is diapers, napkins, mail, dryer sheets, and miscellaneous trash that has been made by our activities. There are a few stories of things coming back out of the trash, but the funniest is the pancake episode. We had pancakes for dinner and Emily hadn’t finished all of hers. She expressed that she was all done, and we got her down and threw away the remainder of the food. About 30 minutes later, Robby noticed her chewing something. He asked her what it was and we figured out that she had taken the pancake bites out of the trash. For my germ panic state, I am going to believe that the germs weren’t too bad because it was on the top of the trash and all the trash under it was mail. After we got done instructing her that you don’t eat food that was in the trash can, we had a really big chuckle.

It’s not all perfect, she does a fair share of not helping Mommy. Especially when it involves moving faster, cleaning up toys, or doing anything she isn’t interested in. We are both growing into our new options and responsibilities. Robby and I have discussed working Emily into her own responsibilities because of her interests in helping Mommy. I think setting the table will be one of the first ones for her.

Julia loves to chew on her fingers. This day she was sitting up like a big girl and chewing on her fingers. How cute!!

Julia was weighed and measured at her doctor appointment. At 3-1/2 months she weights 11 lbs 6oz and measures 24-1/4 inches long.

We took Julia to see a pediatric heart doctor today to have a heart murmur reviewed. Overall the visit went well, we liked the doctor and felt that he covered her condition well for us. Julia was a good sport for all of the poking.

She has an ‘innocent’ heart murmur. This just means that it is not a significant murmur. I will be generic in the description to try to keep from being boring. There are two aspects of her heart that are not functioning normally. One problem is the vessel that takes blood from her heart to her lungs has not grown enough to handle the volume of blood. He said that this condition is common in little ones and should fix itself in the next six months.

The second problem is referred to as a PFO, which is an incomplete closure of a valve between the left and right atria. This valve is open during the fetal development to direct blood away from the non-functioning lungs. After birth, this valve closes and redirects the blood to the now functioning lungs. In 20 percent of the population this valve is not completely closed. The bottom line for Julia is that it is not going to cause any problems now and we will have her looked at again at age 3. At that point they will be able to see better how her heart is growing and how this closure has developed. It can close, it can grow to a point where the pressure of blood in her heart holds it closed, or it can be a hole between the sections of the heart. It sounds like the long term effects to Julia will be a concern for blood clots.

We will pray that in three years when she is examined again that she will be given a clean bill of health!