3 Months Old

Wow!  My DD is already almost 3 months old; just 4 days to go.  Time has gone by so fast.  At the same time, though, those first weeks and the whole pregnancy seem ages away.  I remember worrying about: how long it would take to get pregnant, how long I'd have to deal with the morning sickness, whether or not anything would go wrong with the baby/ pregnancy, labor and delivery, if I could stand breastfeeding any longer etc.  Now everyday is an adventure.  What will she do next?

What's New

Month number three has been full of surprises.  First of all, our DD is in LOVE with her daddy!  For example, even though she usually sleeps through the night, last night she woke up around 11pm to my husbands voice and  was smiling, squealing, laughing and gurgling all kinds of baby stories to him for what felt like at least 15 minutes.  If she hears his voice she automatically starts looking around to see him and once he approaches her and starts talking she just lights completely up and gushes.  It's so cute.  I know it's really rewarding for my husband too because he really doesn't get to see her awake very much during his work week. 

Besides daddy, her other new obsession this month is her mouth.  She drools and blows bubbles.  She likes to eat her little hands up too.  I try to be sure they're extra clean now that she's constantly sticking them in her mouth.  DD also tries to bring toys and anything else she can get her hands on up to her mouth.  She's not quite coordinated enough to get the objects there exactly a lot of the time.  Usually she ends up just sucking on the hand holding the toy etc.  One thing I didn't expect about all this is the rejection of her pacifier.  This isn't a bad thing at all in my opinion.  The only reason I introduced it in the first place is because she was using me to soothe herself on top of the breastfeeding.  So, it felt like she was constantly at the breast and I was exhausted.  Now, she just wants her fingers instead of the soother and can get to those immediately instead of waiting for me to get her pacifier or put it back in her mouth once it's fallen out. 

DD seems to like getting out with mommy during the day now.  I remember a couple of attempts to go to the grocery store during the first couple of months that ended up with me rushing through self checkout with a fraction of what I had gone to buy in an attempt to get my baby home because she just wasn't happy.  Now though, I can go to more than one store and stay out over an hour without a single peep.  She just looks around or sleeps and is totally fine.

I joke now that my baby is going to have abs of steel.  She does these little crunches a lot now to try and sit herself up.  If she's not eating or playing with a toy, she prefers to sit up now.  A lot of the time I sit her up and let her lean against me so she has a nice headrest for when her neck gets tired of keeping her head up. 

My DD has really recently started doing two other cute things.  She gets "shy" sometimes.  A couple of days ago my sister came over and, while she was talking to the baby, the baby would look at her for a little bit and then look back at mommy and snuggle close.  Then, she would look back up at her auntie and do it all again.  Also, my baby is showing more signs of security and attachment.  My mom and sister were crowded around my DD's car seat talking to her while I grabbed the diaper bag and she started to look around for me.  Thinking I was gone because she couldn't see me, she got a panicked look and then got her really sad baby frown and started to cry big time.  It wasn't as bad as her vaccination cry, but it was pretty heartbreaking so I immediately unbuckled her and held her and talked to her until she felt better again.  My sweet baby girl has these little sounds I call her "complaints."  They're these little expressions that mean she's hungry or uncomfortable, but aren't quite a cry.  Just little sounds that I recognize now.  So, when she busts out the big tears, I almost always get teary-eyed too and think about nothing but fixing whatever is making her sad. 

It's amazing to realize how important this little person is to me and so fun to whatch her grow and become more social.  She's growing so fast physically too (already in 9 month sized onesies).  I'm just trying to take in everyday as it comes and savor the love and experience it brings.