4 Months

On Joseph's birthday Helen reached the 4-month milestone. 

She started sucking on her fingers and fists and grasping blankets. She loves to hold her muslin swaddling blankets and bring them to her mouth. She struggles to hang onto toys that are handed to her, and she doesn't try to reach out for things yet.

She's now going to bed for the night around 6:30-7:00 pm (hallelujah!) and sleeping until 7 am. She usually wakes up once or twice during that time. During the daytime she follows a pattern of awake for 1.5 hours, asleep for 1.5 hours, repeat until bedtime. She still requires on a tight swaddling and a binkie, and then she puts herself right to sleep.

She's putting up less of a fight with tummy time, and is strong enough to hold herself up for about 10 minutes at a time. Joseph loves to roll her over when she is "done". She just took her first bottle (hated it), as well as a second and third (loved it. Note to self: this little girl requires heated water)

Joseph likes to pinch her hairline. Helen doesn't like this, but usually waits to cry until he's been at it for several (unsupervised) minutes. She is growing lots of long pieces of blonde hair on top. 

 I painted her toenails for the first time this month. It is much easier when she is asleep! For now she and I have a matching color.

Lately the kids and I congregate on our living-room chairs, usually following one of Helen's feedings. First one son, then the other will climb over the arm of the chair and slide into a teeny slot alongside me. We will read, play with Helen, or just talk about what to do next. I love how the next few pictures capture one of those cuddly, close moments in time. 

And this picture, because most of our days are passed half-dressed, or sporting a worn-this-BYU-shirt-4-times-without-washing-it ensemble. 

When left unattended, Joseph is usually tempted to force Helen to "wave" and Ian has to keep reminding Joseph that "if you stand on Helen it will break her organs." They both love her a ton -- Ian cherishes her as something to dote on and and protect, and Joseph enjoys her as a favored plaything. We are all so glad she is here, and judging by her increasing number of laughs and smiles, we think she likes us too.

3 Months Old!

It's not that I didn't love our boys as babies... it's just that this time everything has been such a dream. 

When walking a bundled-up, soundly-sleeping little Helen back to her room one night I thought "she truly is a bundle of joy". 

She is such a sweet, happy infant, but I don't think that is the only factor. Her arrival and the entire process of settling her into our lives and our family has been a joyful experience. 

My two older boys are at such independent, fun stages too. They play constantly with each other, and other than breaking up fights (and trust me, I do a lot of it!) they entertain themselves. They are easy to take places right now (so long as there is nothing breakable and noise is welcome). They dote on Helen and don't react negatively to the time it takes to care for her. They love to help by bringing diapers and finding the swaddling blankets for me when it's naptime. The fact that Helen is so low maintenance so far certainly helps them enjoy her too because it requires so little effort to make her content and satisfied, so we just get to enjoy her the rest of the time she's awake.

 I cannot believe what a complete 180 this experience has been from bringing Joseph home. No offense to Joseph intended -- he was a beautiful newborn, and it was not his fault that I had a horrible recovery and that his acid reflux made him scream all the time, or that Ian was a holy terror and resented being a big brother. I am just so thankful that every one of those factors was different this time around. 

I think it also helps that this time around Scott and I have learned from our mistakes and we -- let's face it, I  -- am not as high strung as when Ian and Joseph were tiny. 

I guess the point of this post is just to record that raising Helen has been a joyful experience. That adding her to our family has been a joyful process. And this whole experience has made me believe that we could actually have more children. I love being Ian, Joseph and Helen's mom!