Alyssa is the newest 4 month old on the block

Today Alyssa is 4 months old! As you can see I did a little photo shoot of her tonight. I should have done this before her doctor's appointment this afternoon because I wanted to show off her big toothless baby grin. But after getting four vaccines today smiles were not easy to come by and now she's passed out and I wanted to get this up tonight. But I thought I got some really cute shots of her.

Where has the time gone? Four months ago I was in a hospital having contractions and trying not to punch the doctor who was on call the night I went into labor. I think I forgot how great 4 month olds are too. I kind of feel like I was a little robbed of the joy of a 4 month old with CJ with all the problems we ended up having. Here is what Alyssa is up to these days.

She is smiling so big and pretty. I love it. Joe can be holding her from across the room and I can be doing something else and she'll be looking at me with this huge gummy grin. Melts my heart. She is such a sweetie.

She's rolling over occasionally front to back and back to front. She doesn't do it a whole lot and usually gets upset when she does it.

She holds her head up really well though. I don't have to give her much head support except maybe when she is tired.

She giggles for everyone but me. I have of course heard her giggle, I just haven't been able to make those giggles happen. I sure love hearing it though. Even if I'm not the one who can get her to do it.

She has slept 6 hours at night. That's the closest we've gotten to sleeping through the night so far. Although, that only lasted for a few nights. She is now back to her 3 or 4 a.m. feeding. At least she goes right back to sleep after she eats at 3 or 4 in the morning.

She is still exclusively breastfeeding and it's going really well.

Her hair which used to be so dark is now going very light. She still has a lot of it too. It's actually getting really long and almost in her eyes. I might have to get it cut soon.

I guess that's about it for what she's up to. A lot of you probably want to know about her doctor's appointment. More specifically about her weight. I asked my Facebook friends to make a guess as to how much she was going to weigh today. I had guessed 12 pounds. And I'm happy to say I was wrong. She's 12 pounds 7 ounces. Natalie's guess was the closest at 12 pounds 5 ounces. She's doing great though. She is 25 inches long which is in the 70th %tile. I can't remember what %tile her weight was in though. The doctor is super pleased with her head control. All looks great health wise. She seems to be right on target and maybe even a little advanced. The doctor was disappointed to have her already not happy to be examined. Already a little stranger anxiety. Well, she is only ever with me though. So it kind of makes sense I suppose. I was told I can start giving her baby foods. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet though. We'll see what happens.

I discussed what we can use in the sun this summer with her. I don't want to have to always be finding shade this summer when we're outside to keep her delicate skin safe so the doctor said there's a baby sunblock by Neutrogena that she recommends. So we'll be giving that a try with her. I don't think the doctor really wants us to use sunblock, but she also knows that with 3 older children it's really going to be hard to avoid the outdoors.

So all is looking great with Alyssa. She's been such a joy these past four months and I'm cherishing every single moment with her. She's such a beautiful, sweet, funny little girl already. Next doctor's appointment is her 6 month check up.