Growing Up Too Fast?
Before I had a baby, everyone told me how much faster life flies by with kids. And I believed them, in the same way someone has never experienced it can. The same way you believe people who say, “Everything changes once you get married,” but you don’t really know what they mean until you unpack after the honeymoon.
On February 12, my daughter will be four months old and I can’t believe it. She feels so new to us yet it also feels like she’s been a part of our lives forever. Life without her is a rapidly fading memory.
Beginning at about 3 months, she’s been learning something new everyday. She’s becoming more aware of our surroundings and more interactive in her dealings with us. She’s selected her favorite cat out of the four who live with us, has definite preferences in toys, and makes her needs clear in ways that don’t always involve crying.
My husband assembled her high chair the other night, and today I put her in it. Our pediatrician said we can start giving her cereal “at any time” now. Breast milk has everything an infant needs for the first six months of life, and I’d love to hold out that long. But my daughter is an eating machine and I don’t know if I can keep up. I’d prefer solids to formula. After two weeks of sleeping through the night, she was up to eat every 2 hours the past two nights. I’m wondering if she’s not hungry for more than milk. She’s also started trying to grab food off my plate and is close to double her birth weight, which are all indicators that she may be ready to start solid foods.
She offered up a big smile when I placed her in the high chair and began looking around the kitchen, as if waiting for some food. “This is your seat now,” I told her. I’m hoping that even if she doesn’t eat her meals with us, I can place her in the high chair to enjoy mealtime as a family. For the first time in three months, I may get to eat with both hands!
She’s also outgrowing her bassinet (it holds up to 15 lbs.) and we have to make the decision to move her to the crib (I’m not ready for that until she’s sleeping through the night steadily!) or into her Pack and Play bassinet in our room temporarily.
This weekend, we may set up her Exersaucer, too, as it’s definitely a challenge to keep her entertained all day.
I got a little teary-eyed thinking about these changes. This is the next stage. My little girl is growing up and in the blink of an eye, she won’t be my little baby anymore. Now I truly understand what parents mean when they say, “It goes so fast.”
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Melissa H says...
My first teary eyed “She’s growing up so fast” moment happened when I had to start going through Ashlynn’s clothes and removing all of the 0-3 months clothes. All of the outfits that I loved so much on her and I couldn’t responsibly cram her into them any more. It didn’t help much that I had a bunch of cute 3-6 months clothes to move to ( well at least not much.) I heard the warning a million times when she was tiny… but it just didn’t seem feasible to me that it could be as fast as it actually is. I have an active 15 month old who has a vocabulary that would stun you….. and I can hardly remember her baby moments. They seem like distant past… much like the days before baby seemed to fall away so quickly in the first few months. All I can say is that the age old cliche of “Enjoy it” is not ill-advised. Take every moment and love it for all it is worth…. because next week she will be a seemingly different child. It is a thoroughly enjoyable trip though.
Dawn Allcot says...
Wow, Melissa, reading your comment made me cry (again!) LOL Do pregnancy hormones leave the body at four months or something? This is the third or fourth time this week, including writing the above post. LOL
I just packed away the first 0 – 3 mos. outfit last night actually when I realized she couldn’t straighten her legs in my favorite blanket sleeper. I almost can’t believe she’s growing this fast, more like my dryer is shrinking things. LOL
But it’s undeniable how quickly she’s growing, mentally and physically.
Melissa H says...
Funny that you should mention the pregnancy hormones leaving the body at 3-4 months… I asked the same exact thing…. mostly because looking back the memories all seem blurry and frayed around the edges… I have a REALLY good memory and yet I still get fuzzy when looking back to those first couple of months. I keep a blog for my family on Ashlynn’s growth and I wrote a blog about putting away those clothes because it effected me so. LOL Trust me before long those tiny little early months clothes will leave you in awe that your beautiful little sitter/crawler/walker/talker ever fit into them. It moves fast but God its a great experience. I love every second… and whoops here we go again… and it looks like another girl.