3 months old....better late than never

I realized today that I never wrote a 3 month post.  Silly me!  I will try to resist the urge of saying things like "I can hardly believe she is 3 months old already" or "Man, time flies!"  But those things are certainly true!  Hannah turned 3 months on June 11 (so more than a week ago).  I weighed her on June 19 and she was 13 lbs. 8 oz.  She is starting to fit into 6 month clothes (3-6 months) and wearing size 2 diapers (when she isn't wearing cloth).  She has come alive in the past few weeks!  It's amazing to see how different she is from just one month ago.  She is so much more alert and active (hard to believe, since at her 1 month pediatrician visit the doctor called her "active").  Wait till the pediatrician sees her at her 4 month visit!

This is what our days look like at 3 months (well, at least an outline):

6 or 6:30am - Wake, feed, change diaper, put back to bed
9:30 or 10am - Wake, feed, change diaper, playtime with a cat nap thrown in at some point
1 or 1:30pm - Feed, change diaper, put down for afternoon nap
5 or 5:30pm - Wake, feed, change diaper, family time with a cat nap sometimes thrown in
8 or 8:30pm - Bath, feed, bedtime routine, change diaper, put down for the night

Our goal lately has been to get her to bed earlier.  In the beginning we were trying to get her to stay up until 10pm, but now that she is older, it's time for an earlier bedtime.  She needs the extra sleep and mommy and daddy need some time alone!

For the last week or two she has been struggling to make it through the night without waking up to eat.  This has been very frustrating since she was doing so great.  I'm not sure if this is a growth spurt or a result of moving her bedtime earlier (therefore moving her last feeding earlier), or something else.  Last night when she woke up fussing at 12:15am, I stood at the foot of the crib watching her flail around in her sleep.  She wasn't really awake, but was definitely restless.  I tried everything I could think of (took off the blanket, turned off the fan, gave her a paci, rocked her, changed her diaper, etc.)  but when none of that worked, I just fed her and put her back down.  She fell asleep with little trouble after that and slept until 6:15am.  Who knows?!  I wish I could figure it out, but I keep reminding myself that this won't last forever.  There may even come a day that I miss our middle of the night cuddle time. ;-)

So here's what Hannah has been up to these days:

• Not rolling over like she used to.  This is weird to me, but I remember reading that while a baby is learning a new skill, they often seem to forget an old one.  Who knows?!
• Squealing and screaming.  I'm pretty sure Hannah has discovered her voice.  She is a screamer! haha  Especially when I'm in the shower and she can't see me.  It's not necessarily a cry, just a scream for attention.  Oh boy!
• She still isn't laughing much, if at all.  We did get a video of her laughing at Grandma the other day, which was so cute!  But other than that, she hasn't laughed at all.  I guess we just aren't that funny.  She does squeal every once in a while and she definitely gets the laughing look on her face, but nothing comes out. ;-)
• She has started eating rice cereal.  We tried a little on the day after her 3 month birthday.  She really seemed to like it!  But since starting the cereal she has started waking up in the middle of the night.  I don't know if it is just a coincidence or what, but it has made me hesitant to give her cereal every day.  However, I think I might be changing my mind on that and will probably begin giving it to her more often.  I gave her a little after her lunch feeding and she went right to sleep for her nap with NO crying!!  Wow!  Maybe it does work. :-)  More to come on solids in another post. 
• Teething?  Not really sure.  Hannah has been very droolie and chewing on her hands like crazy.  I didn't really think anything of it...just thought those were normal baby things to do.  But as I have been reading some different things, I found out that those can be signs of teething.  Hmmm...maybe?  But haven't noticed anything different about her gums yet.  We'll see.
• She still loves bath time!  If she is ever cranky, the bath always fixes it! :-)
• She is starting to not like being in the car.  This is hard on me because in the beginning she loved it and so did I!  It was so nice to be able to get out of the house and have a happy baby.  She is still happy once we arrive at our destination, but the car ride isn't always too fun.  She does better when the car is moving, but when we stop at a light, forget about it!
• Cloth diapers are going great.  No, I don't love scraping poop off the diapers before putting them in the washing machine (and yes, I realize I don't have to do that since breastfed poop is water soluable...but I just can't throw it in without at least rinse it off!), but it is definitely worth the money savings!  And she is just so cute in cloth! :-)
• She can sit up with very minimal support now.  We have also been practicing "tripodding" (where she sits up and uses her hands out in front of her for support) and she can do that for a few seconds all by herself.  I think once she starts sitting up she will be much happier.  She just wants to be able to do things for herself and gets frustrated when she can't.  Life will be great in her book when she can crawl..but I'm not really looking forward to that! ;-)
• She still cries every time I put her down for a nap or bedtime.  We can't figure out why, but have pretty much determined that she just needs to cry to let off steam.  It kills me to listen to her, but there really is no reason for her to be crying (believe me, I have spent hours trying to problem solve!)  However, this afternoon when I put her down for her nap, she didn't cry at all!!  It's days like this that I cherish the silence.  I did give her cereal before nap time, so maybe that helped?  Not sure, but you can guarantee that I will be giving her cereal before bed tonight! :-)

I'm sure there are things I am forgetting...mommy brain at it's finest.  But I must say that 3 months is a fun age!  All your hard work is finally starting to pay off (with lots of smiles from that little peanut) and baby really comes alive.  I try to cherish every moment with my little peanut and enjoy her being so small.  I want to remember her like this forever, but then I think about how tiny she was at birth and I can hardly believe it.

14 weeks old