Josephine is 5 Months Old

Dear Josephine, 

I knew this time would pass quickly, but really I had no idea how truly fast it would fly by with three sweet babies. I'm a busy mommy of three and the days are just passing me by so quickly, I can hardly blink.  I have savored each moment we spend together and each stage, but somehow I just can't get enough of you.  You and your sisters are my world.  And I am yours. 

Here's a peek into your world at 5 months old:

• You are now either a side sleeper or a tummy sleeper.  When I lay you down in your crib for 'night night time', you immediately roll over and start sucking your thumb and soon after, you are fast asleep.  The first time I found you sleeping on your tummy, my heart skipped a beat and I quickly rolled you over onto your back.  Immediately, you rolled right back onto your tummy and I realized that you are alright, you are safe and it's okay for you to roll about in your crib as you please.  You do sleep more soundly this way.  
• My favorite quirk you have started at 5 months old is your sweet yawn.  Every single time you yawn you vocalize your yawn with a sigh after. You make such sweet noises.  I smile after every one.  
• This month was a big month for you - you learned to roll from back to tummy and you can now roll all about. I love seeing how proud of you, you are once you accomplish something you've been working towards.
• You continue to be so mesmerized by your sweet hands. You will just stare and play with them for a while. 
• You are still the sweetest, most content baby. Such a little angel you are. Never crying, always happy and content. We are so thankful for your sweet little self. 
• You are eating 4-5  8 oz bottles a day.  
• You take 3 naps a day and the length always varies (30 min - 1.5 hours), but you seem to take your longest nap in the morning exactly 2 hours from when you wake up.  All your naps are exactly 2 hours after you wake up from the last. 
• Bedtime is at 8:30 sharp these days and our bedtime routine is much the same with family story time before we kiss your sweet lips goodnight. 

My sweet love, I so enjoy our quiet time together when I can soak up your sweet cuddles and breath in your baby scent. Oh how I wish I could bottle that scent up forever - your scent, plus lotion, plus formula and a little tee-tee is heaven sent to any momma. You'll get it someday. 

You are our world,

Mommy, Daddy, Emeline and Giselle

(and Oskar and George too)

Josephine is 4 Months Old

Dear Josephine,

Each new day with you, you grow smilier and more you than the day before. You are finding your voice, your ears and your hands. Oh those sweet hands mesmerize you. You just seem to get lost in them. And we get lost in you. Your giggles and your gummy smile make everyone's day. You seem to make every day more joyous than the last for all of us.  

Here's a peek into your world at 4 months old

• Remember  when you used to hate tummy time??  Well, now you only want to be on your tummy!  I'll lay you on your activity mat and a second later, you are rolled over and just hanging out on your tummy!
• Speaking of rolling over - you are mobile now!  You can roll over tummy-to-back. You have tried and tried and when you finally did it, I actually caught it on video and you can just see the pride in your eyes. And you definitely heard it in my voice!
• You are starting to discover your voice and play around with different sounds.  The sounds are more complex and even louder than the month before.  You still remain a very quiet and mellow baby though. I think that will always be who you are.  
• You are starting to reach for things, bat at your toys, play with the toys on your baby seat and react in delight to their sounds. Your very first sounds of play. 
• You enjoy reading with you and your sisters in my lap. I think mostly you enjoy the snuggles and trying to turn the page. 
• These days you reach for everything - your favorites are my hair and my dinner! And everything you do get your hands on, goes straight to your mouth!  Most of the time though, you are sucking on thumb, your dress or your blanket.  
• You are now eating 4 8oz bottles a day.  
• Naps are all over the board, but we have made huge progress this month!  You take 3-4 naps a day - a morning, afternoon and early evening nap.  The first nap is usually an hour, the second is somewhere between 45 min - 2.5 hours and the third is usually 45 minutes.  If we are out and about you usually snooze in the car either coming or going.  You nap 2 hours almost exactly after you have woken up from your last slumber.  You know and rely on your eat, play, sleep routine these days and that makes my job so much easier.  
• Bath time for you is pretty fast and furious. Not because you don't love it, just because we have 3 babies to bathe! You are very relaxed in the bath and enjoy it, but your favorite part is when I scoop you up and dry you off. You give me the biggest smiles then. 
• After bath is of course story time.  We get you all snugly and fresh and we all go into Emeline's bed.  It's family time, with all of us snuggled in her bed to read you a story or two (or five!) before we kiss you goodnight and wish you sweet sweet dreams. 
• Bedtime is at 8pm and you sleep soundly through the night until I have to wake you for school for Emeline.  You haven't always been such a good sleeper at night, but you are on a roll right now. Daddy and I are so grateful!  

Our little Josie Bear. We adore you. Each roll and dimple grow more precious by the minute. You started filling out nicely this month and we just can't stop kissing your sweet cheeks. 

Thank you for being the easiest, most patient baby on the planet.  The grace you give me as a mother is more than I deserve. I love you my angel baby.

Love, 

Mommy, Daddy, Emeline and Giselle
(Oskar and George too!)

Josephine is 3 Months Old

Dear Josephine,

You have been in our arms for ¼ of a year already. I’ll never understand how time is passing by so quickly, but I fully understand how you fit so perfectly in our lives and our family. The girls and I love counting your firsts and celebrating all of your special milestones alongside you. It’s such a blessing to be able to share that with them as they are growing up too. Your sisters adore you. Every single little ounce of you. You are constantly being kissed, cuddled and having your hand held. It warms my heart so. Your eyes brighten and your face is beaming with that beautiful wide grin of yours, when your sisters enter the room to see you. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again – you precious one, are the heart of our family. Our day starts and ends with loving on you. You are precious, you are dear and you are loved. You, Josephine are the perfect addition to our family.

Here’s a peek into your world at 3 months old:

·      You are now rocking tummy time and can fully lift your head and chest. Soon you will be rolling over!

·      You are officially a giggler! You get these laughing fits and it doesn’t matter what we say, you think it’s funny and will laugh out loud in the sweetest little laugh I’ve ever heard.  

·      You are a talker when spoken to. You love to coo, say ‘ah-goo’ and ‘ah-boo’ by repeating us. You are trying to have a full on conversation with us already. We are ready to welcome our 3^rd little chatter box to the family!

·      You are smiling all the time. One look your way and you are beaming. It makes us giggle every time.

·      You have found your hands and are so fascinated by them. You just move them around and stare at them for minutes at a time. These moments of  you discovering you are dear to us all.  

·      You have finally found your toys on your bouncer and started playing with them and also bating at the toys on your tummy time mat.

·      This month we introduced to you the baby seat where you can sit supported and play with your toys. You love it and it makes you feel like a big girl!

·      You have yet to take interest in picking up any toys, but you do love to pick up and chew on your clothes or your blankets.

·      You are officially following mommy around the room with your head. It amazes me how far you can turn and follow me. We play games with it and you just smile and gaze at me while I work around the kitchen.

·      You are officially a thumb sucker. I was really hoping you would follow Giselle and love the paci, but nope. You wanted nothing to do with it from the beginning. It really is precious when I check in on you sleeping and you have your sweet thumb in your mouth.

·      You are officially mommy’s girl. You will only fall asleep on my chest. When you are fussy, you want to be close to my heart just like big sister Giselle did. You still rarely fuss, but I am your safe place when you do.

• You are eating 6 oz every 3 hours.
• Some nights you sleep all night and some nights you are awake all night. You are definitely not my best sleeper!
• You are officially out of newborn clothes and into 0-3 month clothes and in size 1 or 2 diapers. You are in between sizes really. You have sweet baby cheeks that are to die for. Ah, I could just eat you up. You are so beautiful…

We love you our sweet Josephine. Always will.

Love you to the moon and back,

Mommy, Daddy, Emeline and Giselle,

(and Oskar and George, too!)

Josephine is 2 months old

Dear Josephine,

Two months new – how can it be? Each day you grow more beautiful and a little bigger, both in body and in spirit. You have learned our voices and faces, your name and you are now following mommy around the room with your eyes. Another Momma’s girl in the making! Your uncertain frowns have left your precious face and have now been replaced by a smile that lights up the room. There’s nothing quite like your smile. It heals my heart of any woes and makes me instantly happy. Just you and me and that bright-eyed smile of yours – nothing else in the world matters at that moment.

We have cherished every second of being your parents these last two months. You are something special and are a true treasure in our home. These days of cuddling your sweet body against my chest will be sorely missed one day, but for now, I’m breathing you in and enjoying every single quiet moment I have with you.

Here’s a peek into your world at 2 months new:

·      You still dislike tummy time – don’t all babies?! But despite that, you have very strong neck muscles from our version of tummy time on my chest. The doctor was surprised by the control you have already.

·      It took you longer to smile than it did your sisters. Not going to lie to you – mommy and daddy thought something might be wrong. Did we do something wrong? Is she not happy? And then one day, daddy got you to smile and you haven’t stopped! I literally jumped for joy that day. With one look in your eyes and one word spoken to you – you smile. It takes next to nothing to make your face light up. And that my dear makes me so very happy. I hope you will always be a happy, easy-going person, who is at peace with herself, because those traits will take you far in life.

·      Cooing – My little love, you have discovered your voice and love telling us stories. You have the sweetest little voice and it melts my heart when you talk back to me. I think we may have our third little chatter box.

·      Your legs continue to get stronger every day and you love to stand. We are amazed by your leg strength.  Oh and if you are fussy, we stand you up and you are once again a happy smiling baby.

·      It's evident now that you know your name and you do respond to mommy's voice. I can call your name and you will turn to face me or look up at me.

·      Your sleeping is still very inconsistent. You go to bed around 8:30 every night by falling asleep on one of our chests and from there, we never know what’s going to happen. You stopped waking in the night to feed, but you do need soothing. A soft place to land your head, a heartbeat and a firm pat on the back takes you back into a slumber in no time. Sometimes you sleep through the night and some nights you wake every 45 minutes for more soothing. We never know what the night will bring. Somedays we are well rested and some days Mommy is a zombie. No matter what the night brings, we are thankful to have you to care for.

·      During the day, you do still sleep quite a bit. Some days it still feels like you sleep 20 hours a day and other days we can keep you awake a little longer. You finally started yawning this month because you know what is like for your little body to be tired after being awake.

·      You are eating 4oz every 2-3 hours - about 6 bottles a day.  You can be happy, happy, happy and then all of a sudden start crying for that bottle.  You still don’t cry much, but did start to discover your voice and will voice your opinion if your tummy is not satisfied.

Two Month Stats:

9 lbs 6 oz (8%)

20" long (<1%)

You did amazingly well as you got your shots.  You were shocked and you cried for as long as it took the nurse to give them to you, but as soon as I picked you up, you were fine.  The rest of the day, you were a bit sleepy, but not fussy at all.  We were very fortunate.  

You are still in newborn clothes, but we finally did move you out of preemie diapers at one month and into newborn and/or size 1 diapers for month 2.

Josephine, each day with you is a true blessing and a true joy. I know you will grow up knowing this, but you are truly loved in the biggest way be our whole family. Your sisters have gotten the greatest joy out of watching you discover their world and do something new for the first time. It makes your mommy and daddy swell with pride too. My heart is full.

We love you so our little baby doll,

Mommy, Daddy, Emeline and Giselle

(and Oskar and George, too!)