Sonja is 4 months old today!

Today, Sonja turned 4 months old!

She's sneaky like that

She has grown so much since this was taken at 1 week!

We love our sweet, amazing baby! I feel extremely lucky to have the opportunity to stay at home with her and watch her grow and learn first hand. I didn't think I could love this child any more than I already did, but I somehow find my love for her growing every single day. I just am completely enamored with her.

Sonja finally has decent neck control. She's able to hold her own head up and look around when we hold her, and sometimes she sits in her bumbo chair (always supervised) for about 10 minutes or less so she can start working on those abs.

She's also finally started to acknowledge other people and respond to them, and I can tell she can recognize who mommy and daddy are. She's at the point where her bassinet is really too small for her so we moved her to the pack-n-play just last night and she does well in it, although I found her this morning all flipped around lol.. she's not used to having so much room to move and wiggle in.

It's just nice watching Sonja get more and more alert, responsive, and smart. I feel so lucky to have such a happy and healthy baby.

Sonja's 4 month stats:
Height 25 1/4" (84th percentile in height!)
Weight 13 lbs 9.5 oz (50th percentile)
Head Circumference 16 1/4" (50th percentile)

Milestones Sonja has reached in the past month:

- Neck Control
- Her first tooth! (I just felt it a few days ago!!!) it's her bottom left tooth and the right one isn't far behind
- Giggling (might've done that last month too but it's a lot more giggling and actual laughing)
- Squealing
- Rolling onto her sides

Fun Things Sonja and I have been up to the past month:

- We Celebrated Daddy's Birthday on April 11th - I made him the ugliest cake I've ever made and it was delicious.
- We took Akira to the vet to get her bloodwork done and found out that she can finally come off the steroids! Yay! She's healthy!
- We take lots of walks in the neighborhood
- We play a lot on the floor and with Sonja's new toys
- We bought plane tickets to go see Aunt ReRe graduate high school (we're staying 3 weeks!)
- We had lots of fun play dates with Charlotte, Courtney and the moms from Cork Board
- We went to a MOM meeting last thursday where I got to meet lots of other moms and Sonja got to meet a baby who is only a week older than her!
- We went to the Petaluma Butter and Egg Day Festival and Parade
- We went "swimming" (i.e. I took her into the water, dipped her up to her belly button and she freaked out because it was cold so we ended up hanging out on the pool lounge chairs instead
- We have been going to Baby Time at the Library every Tuesday (when we don't sleep through it)

And of course, I have taken LOADS of photos...

The ugliest cake ever (blueberry and lemon)

Sonja and Daddy during his birthday dinner

Me and Sonja during Daddy's b-day celebration :)

Here Sonja is during one of our walks, we found this gorgeous tree and Jeff shook it so the blossoms would shower down on her, she thought it was hilarious

Sonja got a lot of new toys this month now that she will actually interact with things.. this is one of her favorites to chew on

case in point...

The beginnings of rolling over, she now rolls onto her sides

Here she is sitting in her Bumbo seat

Me and Sonja playing in her activity mat

Sonja laughing and hanging with her Daddy

Tummy Time on the Boppy Pillow

She also loves her new organic cloth kitty...

EATING HIM that is (insert psycho music)

Sonja in her swimsuit after her first dip in the pool.. she was not impressed with the cold water

Sonja hanging out with her friend, Leah, who was born a week after her

They kept holding hands it was ADORABLE!

Sonja and her Mommy eating at Outback for her 4-monthiversary!

Oh and here's a cute video of us talking and her laughing


for more videos you can go to http://www.youtube.com/user/Nuggleful

Sonja is 3 months old!

Sonja is 3 months old! Here are 3 out of the 56 photos I took to document the occasion...

I don't have a lot of time to myself to do things like.. blog. Sonja doesn't sleep nearly as much as she did in the beginning, but I don't mind. She's sleeping more at night and I'm so happy about that!

A lot has happened in the last month. Sonja started smiling and now laughs! It's the cutest thing, she giggles when I kiss her all over her face and neck and laughed at me blowing raspberries on her belly. She also smiles and squeals when we stick out tongue out at her, make funny noises, often when I sing to her, and at other random times. Melts my heart.

The funniest and most recent development is when we put Sonja on her little play mat, she loves to grab the mirror and look at herself, and often cracks herself up and sends herself into smiling fits while looking at her reflection! It's hilarious. I will try to get a video of it sometime. Meanwhile here's a picture of her playing with the mirror.

Meghan came to visit this month, which was awesome since she'd just started smiling and really reacting to us when she got here, and she loves her Aunt Meghan. Meghan was very helpful and despite saying she wouldn't change diapers, she did change Sonja's. She also informed me that I needed to get out and do things and stop being afraid to go anywhere with Sonja... and that we did.

We went to the Jelly Belly factory an hour or so away from here, and we went to the Charles Schultz Museum (creator of Peanuts). We went to San Francisco to see a Pediatric Otolaryngologist who was going to cut Sonja's upper lip tie.. and we decided to turn it into a mini vacation. It was so fun. We went to fisherman's wharf and Sonja was really well behaved. We got crab cakes and toured Pier 39 where all the shops are. Meghan even got Sonja a little prison onesie at the Alcatraz shop. The next day we went to see the doctor and I decided, after speaking with her, not to cut Sonja's lip tie. I felt the trauma was not worth it, I'd rather wait till she's older IF she needs it, so I can at least explain why it's happening to her.

Breast feeding is still going very poorly. The tongue clip helped a little but not much. Unfortunately, because we caught it so late, she has learned a bad latch technique, is not very savvy with using her tongue, and has a very sensitive gag reflex because she never really experienced much touching the roof of her mouth, so even certain pacifiers make her gag. I'm working with a NEW lactation consultant, who is MUCH BETTER than the last one who was almost worthless other than identifying her tongue tie. We are doing some physical therapy style stuff with her to reteach her how to use her tongue, to help desensitize her gag reflex, and that sort of thing. They are all like games and she really enjoys them.

So for now I am mostly pumping and bottle feeding her. It's better this way for both of us because she's finally getting enough to eat and I'm finally able to put a towel on after my shower without screaming in pain... the wind no longer hurts my poor boobies.

Sonja and I have a lot of fun together during the day. We ease our way out of bed around 10:30 in the morning usually after 1-2 feedings during the early morning hours. Sonja is changed, fed, I pump, we play for a while, she hangs out on my bed while I get dressed and ready for the day, she usually dozes off for a 30-45 minute nap, wakes up, eats again, I pump, we play, maybe go for a walk or she plays on her play mat, I find ways to entertain her or she sits in her rockin recliner while I do dishes and sing to her. She loves when I sing to her. Sometimes we dance around... our days are sort of long and full of me entertaining her, but ultimately I enjoy her very much and actually prefer her being awake than sleeping... when she sleeps I don't know what to do with myself.

Anyway, here are some photos of my beautiful girl from the last month of her life!

Here's a photo from yesterday, 4/3/2013, Sonja is wearing the strawberry dress I picked out for her at Gymboree! So cute! 

As you can see, she's a beautiful girl, here she is wearing her Juicy Couture dress that I bought for her right after I found out she was a girl and I went on a shopping frenzy! I think she looks positively angelic here!

Here is one of the Easter photos I took of her with the Easter basket her Opa, Oma, and Aunt Rebekah sent, she really loves the lamb.. I let him sit in her rocker with her so she can stare at him

here's a video of her laughing a little bit.. she really started laughing on Easter day!

my smiley girl!

Me, Sonja and Meghan at the Charles Schultz Museum

You can't see Sonja here, but she's in the stroller hanging at Pier 39

Meghan thinks Sonja will be a lefty like her!

Sonja at the hotel. It was a sweet experience for me, I let her sleep with me that ONE time because I know I won't roll on her.. I'm the lightest sleeper that ever lived. She slept so well next to me.. if Jeff wasn't such a big lug I would let her sleep with us always.

I love this photo of Meghan and Sonja. I haven't seen my sister so googly over a baby since Rebekah was a baby!

Jeff and I with Sonja at the Jelly Belly Factory

Meghan, Sonja and Me at the Jelly Belly Factory

More Jelly Belly Factory...

I enjoyed the giant Jelly Bean Bunny

Meghan hates taking photos. I got her right before her hand went up to block her face. 

worst photo of me ever but I like having a few of us together :)

Doesn't she look like a little baby doll? I just love this kid!

I don't know if it's obvious yet, but I love this child so much... she might make my life a little more challenging, but I have not regretted for an instant having this baby girl in my life. Especially now that she smiles and giggles and interacts! I am trying to enjoy these days before she starts crawling and destroying everything :).