Happy 4 months Madison!

December 10 - the night she stopped getting up to eat every 3 hours! She actually slept through the entire night this night and the next 2 nights! I thought it was the beginning of a very beautiful thing but I was sadly mistaken. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago and she started getting back up not every 3 hours, but every hour! Oh boy! She actually slept in her bassinet in our room 2 nights this week and will sleep through the night that way. Last night she went to bed around 8pm, up at 11:30 and slept until 4:30 when she became unswaddled and fell back asleep until 6:30 when I moved her to our room, where she slept until 9:30! Research has shown there is a 4 month growth spurt and tons of babies seem to do this according to 2 chat boards I have seen. I hope this phase passes very quickly! At least she's not getting up to eat. Getting up for a 5 minute pat-back-to-sleep is much better than an hour feeding!

December 24- First Christmas Eves at her Grandma and PawPaw's (my mom's). We got there around 1, ate and then sat around talking. She was passed around between her 2 aunts, 2 cousins, us and her Grandma. We then took her by the place we got married - Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden to see the lights. I thought maybe she would fall asleep since it was close to her bedtime by the time we got there and walking around good. She was wide awake and loved it all!

December 25 - Her First Christmas. She got up a littler earlier(around 8:30) so we got her up, played with her in our bed for a bit, fed her, then showed her what Santa brought. She LOVES reading time so we got a ton of books! Also, there aren't many toys for babies under 6 months so I think we bought every one we found. And I'm not sure if the Spongebob pillow pet is for Madi or Alan...

  Here she is surrounded by her toys!  She was so worn out, she was asleep within an hour of getting up and slept for about an hour!

After that we went to her Nimmie and Papa's around 12:30. We ate and then opened presents. She took a small nap after eating in the middle of opening presents and then fell asleep as we were leaving around 5. She had 2 busy days back to back! She is so good and never really gets fussy when she's out and about. She just sits there and looks around and loves being held.

December 28 - Her 4 month checkup was today. She did really good and her checkup was perfect! Read more about it here.

December 30 - Her aunt Steph and cousin John came to visit from High Point, NC today.  They brought her 2 cute dresses, a book and puzzle and this cute headband:

 And here she is with them in front of the tree

  January 3 - I recorded this on the day I thought she was sick to show Alan how she was acting. She was acting funny that whole day and I thought she had picked up my cold:

It seems like lately she's been wanting to lay down and rest and/or nap just after eating and will make this cute whining noise to put herself to sleep. She was doing it again this morning and when I turned on the lights, her eyes were shut.

She seems to be eating a little more - around 9-10 oz - every 3-4 hours during the day. She is grabbing stuff really good and putting everything in her mouth it seems! She also enjoys 'standing' when we hold her arms. We are really working on her sitting up and rolling over from back to front right now. She has graduated to Size 3 diapers and is wearing 3 months and 3-6 month clothing. She still loves reading time.

We can't believe she is already 4 months! Time is flying by!

Christmas Eve at DSBG

After we left my mom's house on Christmas Eve, we decided to take Madison to Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden - the place we got married 5 years ago. We went last year and knew Madi would love looking at all the lights! Plus we wanted her to see where her mommy and daddy started their amazing marriage!

This is going into DSBG

The 'tree' in the lobby made from orchids

Alan and Madison in front of the pretty tree

This was in Santa's room. He wasn't there that night but the tree was gorgeous!

I love the way trees look with lights on them like this

How her eyes looked the entire night! She was so alert!

The grape lights

Under the grapes

Our sweet little family!

Hanging ornament topiary in the Orchid Conservatory

Coming into a warm building after being in the cold = foggy lens!

One of the many fountains

Looking down at another fountain.

Mothers Day

We got up around 8 and Alan gave me a card he had gotten. It made me cry it was so sweet.. He is also supporting my shopping habit for Madison by giving me a BabyGap gift card. He said I wasn't allowed to buy anything under 6 months in size for her since she already has enough of 0-6 months clothes. I can deal with that. He then said we could go to Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden - the place we got married - if I wanted. Of course. We headed up that way and I was pretty hungry so we stopped at Texas Roadhouse for lunch. He had started feeling bad so he didn't eat much. We then went to DSBG and there was a huge line. I begged him to let's just go home and come back a day when he feels better but he toughed it out. We had to stand in line about 20 minutes and got in and walked around. I didn't take a lot of pictures because it was so crowded! I have never seen so many moms with kids or pregnant women all in one spot! People were bringing in picnics and sitting by the flowers and eating. We will remember that next year! Here are the very few pictures I did take:
Alan's mom and Rhobie got me a baby book for Madi's first 5 years. She had been telling me to pick out one and I just kept forgetting! This one is perfect. It has places for first tooth and first haircut and all types of information and places for pictures, including birthday pictures for the first 5 years. Thanks Nonie and Papa Rhobie!