You are four months old!

My lovely girl!

You are four months old! At

64cm height,
6.26kg weight,
39cm head circumference,

you are a beautiful little happiness.

You have grown a lot. You are grabbing things intentionally, flipping over, loving mama, and still, smiling long and wide with joyful eyes. Nursing takes longer, because you are already interested in anything else around. You love gazing out the windows, looking at the sky, and the leaves and branches that dance in the wind. Your sister Zoe loves to snuggle with you and you love being around her. But after a few minutes in bed, you start making sounds of discomfort.

At Zoe's bedtime - a battle that lasts for multiple hours - papa or I read a book, and you too, listen.

We put out a similar battle for your bed time as well, switching between nursing, bouncing, walking, spitting...You two were not made for sleep. Once you are a bit older, our plan is to read the two of you a book and leave you in one of the bedrooms together. You can sleep, chat or party all night together.

Love,
Mommy

Working girls

Dear Baby Echo,

Last week we were all busy working. There were work related events all week in multiple locations in downtown Seattle, and we had to come up with ways to keep you fed.

In the weeks leading to the events, we tried multiple times getting you to use the bottle, and every attempt ended in failure. These were full day events, and the little you, cannot stay away from mama's boobs for longer than 3 hours. So each day, you, me and Nine Roza headed out to downtown together. We left in the wee hours of the morning, and still got stuck in traffic. I made sure you nursed right before we left the house, and as soon as we reached downtown, if you were awake. Then Nine and I synced to meet every few hours at a specific location for nursing and diaper changing as the day progressed. In between feedings, she walked around town with you in the stroller, sat at coffee shops to bounce you up and down for entertainment - like your sister Zoe, you too aren't a sleeper, so we need to come up with continuous activities to keep you engaged. If we bore you, you get angry. Otherwise, you keep on smiling.

Some meeting locations were far apart, and Nine couldn't come all the way, so papa took time off from work and swapped with Nine. He sat at a cafe right across from my location, and when it was time, I rushed down, ran across the street, held your excited little body, and the feeding started. When we were done, I passed you back to dad, and zoomed back up. Same with nine, the same scene repeated every few hours. Sometimes you were ok when I came down, sometimes you were crying of hunger, which made me feel terrible.

The first feeding was a learning experience. I ran down to meet Nine, fed you, and ran back up to a meeting. When I came down for the second time, I noticed that my nursing bra flap was open, dangling down. The shame, the embarrassment, I didn't want to go back up to face the people. I was wearing a light ivory shirt, and had hard time believing that people didn't notice the open flap and the nipple. Nine consoled me by saying that the chest pocket of my shirt must have concealed things, but I can't be sure. From than on I made sure the bra was snapped properly.

Overall, it was super stressful. We all coordinated, cooperated and were happy when the week was over.

Love,
Mommy