A June Murphy Update

This smile makes me melt!!

Kaiya
Kaiya is growing up so fast! And I don't just mean physically, this girl just will not stop learning new things. This month she's reached the following milestones (Americanpregnancy.com listed age of earliest acheivement is in parenthasis):

• Holds objects but does not reach for them (3 months)
• Clutches own hands and pulls at blankets and clothes (3 months)
• Follows objects 180 degrees (3 months)
• Locates sound by turning head and looking in the same direction (3 months)
• Squeals, coos, babbles, and chuckles (3 months)
• “Talks” when spoken to (3 months)
• Recognizes faces, voices, and objects (3 months)
• Smiles when he/she sees familiar people, and engages in play with them (3 months)
• Shows awareness to strange situations (3 months)
• Good head control (4 months)
• Sits with support (4 months)
• Rolls from back to side (4 months) - she does this all the time. She sleeps on her side much of the time.
• Explores and plays with hands (4 months)
• Makes consonant sounds (4 months)
• Enjoys being rocked, bounced or swung (4 months)
• Holds head up when sitting (5 months)
• Begins to discover parts of his/her body (5 months)
• Lifts head when pulled to a sitting position (6 months)- I don't know about "lifting" she just holds it up like a normal person.
• Rolls from back to stomach (6 months) - she can do this, but she doesn't do it regularly because she refuses to take her hand out of her mouth for long enough to roll over her arm.
• Bears majority of weight when being held in a standing position (6 months)- Here, I should mention that she bears ALL of her weight. We can literally just let her grasp our fingers and she'll  stand on her own. It's truly ridiculous.

We went to her 2 month appointment and she was 12lbs 5 oz in weight and 23.5 inches long. That puts her in the 51st percentile for weight and the 76th percentile for height. She's definitely not a "big" girl but she's a healthy one.

The big "2 month" appointment goal is vaccinations. This was painful for both Kaiya and us parents and left her fussy for about 4 days.

Look at this face :(

I want to state here that I am fully supportive of families that choose not to vaccinate their children. I find this issue to be highly charged with parents (mostly moms) that are either feverently insistant that all children get vaccinated or those that believe that vaccinations are dangerous and mostly unnecessary. I did my research, I talked to multiple pediatritions and doctors alike and ultimeately decided to hold off on getting the Hep B vaccination for the time being and to space out the PCV (Pneumococcus) vaccine from the others so that it's not given at the same time. It does mean we have to do a couple vaccine-only appointments, but it was the right decision for us (and Kaiya).

My favorite new thing she's going is sticking out her tongue. It's too stinking cute!!

Me (Sarah)
I am just a couple short weeks from going back to work. Where has the time gone?! These past three months have just been so incredibly amazing. We've traveled, seen tons of family and friends, and I've been able to watch Kaiya grow into a strong, alert, beautiful baby with the sweetest possible personality. As much as I love my work, I will always wish that I could be with her as she reaches all of her new milestones.

In conjunction with staring at Kaiya all day, I'm also at the tail end of yet another of my holistic nutrition classes. This class is on macronutrients, the next one on micronutrients. It's good stuff and keeps me busy procrastinating:) At this pace I'll have my degree in 3 years. Slow and steady wins this race.

John

John is officially on paternity leave! You'll find him checking off items on the punch list he's been compiling since he solidified the dates of his paternity leave, including painting door frames, fixing the scratches on the hardwood floors and finally spackling and painting. I'm super excited to see these items finally done! We are incredibly blessed that Miriam's Kitchen cares so much about their employees that they pimp out their benefits package. I just know that the two weeks that John and Kaiya will spend alone together after I go back to work will be incredibly special to John (it'll also help me to ease back into work knowing that she's with John!)

Cooper

Enough said:)