4 months

4 months stats: 15 pounds 8 ounces (80th percentile) and 26.5 inches long (99th percentile). I checked and she is pretty much in the same percentiles as Orrin at that age, but she is over a pound lighter and an inch shorter. Which is weird because Joanna seems huge, so its hard to imagine that Orrin was even bigger!
She is wearing 9 month size clothes, even some 12 month (usually when she's in cloth diapers).
She hasn't changed too much since the last post. Still cooing and squealing a lot. She is very good at grabbing toys and chewing on them. And she's working hard on rolling over but not quite there yet. Its kind of a hard age because she gets bored easily so I have to keep moving her around to different places. She wants to be held a lot but she is heavy so I get tired! She doesn't like being in the wrap or ergo right now though, which would help me out a lot.
I've noticed that she is a lot more serious than Orrin was. She smiles, but not nearly as much or as easily as him, and she does giggle, but its pretty rare. Maybe its because she is a girl, but she is more challenging. More sensitive and more dramatic. And lately, up every hour or two at night, which is very draining! For a while she was consistently sleeping until 4am, but now she is usually back up sometime between 11 and 1 to eat again, then every 3 hours (or less) after. And there are at least a couple times in between that we go in to stick the pacifier back in her mouth, which usually buys us another hour of sleep. My criteria for deciding to feed her is if after replacing the pacifier twice, she still whines. I could probably try rocking her back to sleep or something, but nursing her is fastest and easiest and I am always tired and just want to go back to bed at that point. :) Hopefully this is a short phase!
But overall, she is wonderful and we just adore her!

Spot is always her guardian.
Keeping warm

We started putting her in the exersaucer last week. She likes it, but gets tired after about 5 or 10 minutes and will kind of slump over.

3 months

Our computer died, so this one's kind of late. Joanna was 3 months old on December 20. She is growing so much! As of today (so I guess she's 3.5 months now), she is outgrowing most of her 6 month size clothes, so I pulled out the 9 month stuff. We weighed her last week and she is well over 15 pounds, not sure how tall. We've decided she's going to be the athlete of the family (a relative term, since the rest of us are not so athletic) as she seems to be pretty coordinated with grabbing toys and moving them to her mouth, and she loves to be on the ground kicking her legs and rolling onto her sides. I've seen her laugh twice now, but it is very difficult to get out of her. She smiles quite a bit, but is more serious than Orrin was as a baby. In the mornings she likes to talk and squeal, and is definitely finding her voice. Its kind of fun to wake up to. She regularly sleeps 8 hours before waking to eat (generally around 4am), and a couple days ago even went 11.5 hours. That was pretty awesome for me! Orrin still adores her and she definitely likes to watch him.

2 months and Baptism

On November 20, Joanna was baptized! She also turned 2 months old. It was a wonderful day; we celebrated with our family and friends after the service at church with cake. Joanna was worn out after being passed around all morning and took a 4 hour nap that afternoon.
She hasn't changed too much since the last post. At her 2 month appointment, she weighed 12 pounds 2 ounces (80th percentile), and was 24 inches long (98th percentile). Our doctor noticed that she is going to be chatty just like her brother. :) Its true, she loves to talk and smile! She also loves to hit her toys and is getting better about being more intentional with her movements. She doesn't really like tummy time but she does tolerate it longer than Orrin ever did. She has had her first cold for the last several days, which means neither of us has gotten much sleep. But before the cold, she was sleeping 7 to 8 hours at night. Hopefully we can get back to that soon! She is still very happy and easy going, and just a joy to have around!

Spot is very protective! :)

So precious.

Quickly becoming Daddy's girl.

Talking to GG before the service.

You can't really tell but I totally missed the baptism because I was fighting to keep Orrin with me, he really wanted his water all of the sudden and was loudly protesting.

Being presented to the congregation.

If that a looks a little funny, its because the cake originally said "God bless you, Joanne!"

With cousin Jake

Sleeping on Grandpa.

So pretty in her dress (which was handmade just for her)!

Funny how the next two pictures were taken just seconds apart (she's smiling in the bottom one). Orrin didn't want to be left out. :)

1 month

Well, its about 3 weeks late, but I'm going to try and keep up with the monthly posts like I did for Orrin. Joanna is growing like crazy! I don't know how much she weighs, but at her last doctor appointment (at 3 weeks old) she was up to 8 pounds 12 ounces (that was 2 pounds gained in two weeks!) and 22 inches long. We'll have her two month appointment next week. I would say she's well over 11 pounds now, but that's a wild guess. She's getting quite round and starting to outgrow 3 month size clothes. (A side note, wouldn't it be awesome if I could lose the baby weight at a rate proportional to her weight gain?)
She is sleeping well. On an average night, she'll go 5 to 6 hours before getting up to eat. She goes right back to sleep after eating, however she keeps Scott and I up some nights with gas issues. She will grunt and carry on for hours sometimes. We try gas drops, massage, and leg pumping. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not. One of these days we'll get her sleeping in her own room and she can just keep her noises to herself. She's not such a big fan of her crib yet, and we're not quite ready to take the video monitor out of Orrin's room yet, so it might be a little while.
She is such a happy and content baby, though! Most mornings she will lay under her hanging toys and coo and squeal at them while flailing her arms and legs. She has been smiling for a couple of weeks, and will even try and "talk" to us a little, too. She does get a little fussy in the afternoons - usually right when I'm trying to cook dinner of course. And she LOVES to be held. And doesn't really like to not be held. So she rides in the wrap often. That is pretty much the only way she will take a real nap, except occasionally in the swing. If I set her down asleep, she will wake up within a few minutes. If by some miracle she stays asleep, her brother has a real knack for waking her back up. He just can't resist kissing her or sharing toys with her or covering her with a blanket. Its hard to get upset with that!
The most fun thing lately is that she will copy me and stick out her tongue. Its pretty cute. Currently she is staring very intently at Scott while he works.

Some pictures:

I can't believe how small she was here. Its hard to even remember.

Baby in a pot.

She has a crooked yawn just like me.

Maybe the sweetest picture ever.

Cozy in the wrap.

Sunday nap.

Happy under her toys.

With cousin Layla.

Another one in the wrap - seriously we both love that thing!


Example of why she doesn't nap well, Orrin found her brush and decided he needed to use it.

Two peas in a pod.

A double chin already at 7 weeks! Not the best picture, but this was the first time I put her in a dress type thing. She doesn't look so thrilled, but it was cute! Its still hard for me to get used to girl clothes.

First smile that I was able to catch.