The Grashorn Grounds: emmalyn jane at 4 months

Emmalyn Jane is four months old. This has been a busy month of growth. We loved spending our first Christmas with our new baby. She loved meeting the Grashorn side of the family, celebrating our family traditions with us, and all of the extra snuggles that extra time together during the holidays can bring.

emmalyn

This month, Emma's appearance has slowed down a bit. Her hair has gotten a bit longer, her cheeks a bit rounder, and she has gotten a bit taller. Her bright blue eyes have become more clear. Her belly has gotten rounder and she is starting to grow out of her 6 month clothes. It's hard to imagine how small she was when she was born compared to now. She was 15 1/2 lbs at her sick visit at the doctor.

Speaking of sickness, despite our best efforts to keep Emmalyn healthy, she ended up getting her second cold this past month. She got a case of RSV and bronchiolitis from her siblings. While they didn't seem to be too bothered by it, poor Emma was quite wheezy and congested. Mom brought her to the doctor twice for monitoring. Luckily, she didn't have a fever, her oxygen levels were okay despite her crunchy sounding breaths, and she was able to keep hydrated. She just needed extra snuggles and rest.

December means the Christmas season. We still tried to do traditions while keeping a low profile in order to minimize Emmalyn's exposure to germs and we are still recovering from the first few months with a newborn. We decorated a gingerbread house, went to Snowflake Castle, went to Nathaniel's Christmas concert, baked and frosted gingerbread and sugar cookies, visited Sanrta at the Polaris mall, went to zoo lights, watched tons of Christmas movies, created Christmas ornaments and under crafts, snuggled next to our fireplace, listened to our favorite Christmas music, sang carols, and roasted chestnuts.

santa

We weren't able to travel all the way to Minnesota for the Christmas season, but we were luckily able to celebrate in Indiana with the Grashorn family. We had a great time spending time with family, watching Christmas movies, and eating way too much food. We played with our cousins, went to Christmas at Grammy and Grandpa's church, and traveled up to Michigan to celebrate with some of Grammy's side of the family.

ready for christmas service

hanging out with cousins

We brought in the new years with some of our best friends.

new year's eve

Another milestone for the month was Emma learned how to roll over from her front to her back. We think she is just trying to avoid tummy time, although she hasn't had much tummy time with her having RSV.

tummy time on the boppy

Emma's personality is so sweet. She is just a fun and happy baby. She is easy going when she gets enough sleep. She can always be heard chatting to herself, although she prefers to chat to people. She also plays by herself well. Her preference is to be around people, whether that is in her bouncy seat, playing in the play gym, just laying on a blanket, being held, or hanging out in the carrier.

As far as sleep, Emmalyn is up to around 10-11 hours at night, which has been fantastic. We have moved her bedtime closer to 10, which is an improvement. We are still trying to make it earlier while still getting all of her feedings in. She still falls asleep in the carrier as long as mom is moving around, but otherwise she won't fall asleep if mom is holding her. Emmalyn is currently eating around every 3 hours and has dropped a feeding so she is down to 6 feedings a day. She sleeps around 16-17 hours a day so she has been awake just a bit more than last month.