Dear Will,
Sitting down to write your 3 month letter is bittersweet. I cannot believe you are a quarter of the way through your first year. That makes me sad. At the same time, I love watching you grow and learn new things.
Your smile is truly contagious. Even Kenzie can't help but smile back at you when you give her one of those big toothless grins. You smile with your entire face. Your eyes light up and you grin from ear to ear. You even have slight dimples sometimes when you smile really big. You are also giggling a bit. It isn't a big laugh yet, but you make the cutest little noises when you are trying to laugh. Speaking of noises, you talk a lot. You will just sit and chat with me when you play. You also love to unlatch while you are eating and smile up at me or try to carry on a full conversation. I'm not sure why you choose that time. Maybe because it is one of the few times that you have my true, undivided attention. It is seriously one of the best moments of my day when I am nursing you before bed because it is often just you and me.
While we are on the subject of nursing, you still eat every 2 1/2 to 3 hours most days. You are one pudgy little guy. You like your food. We are working on getting you to take a bottle. It is really hit or miss. I learned that I have to scald my milk again this time so I'm hoping you will start taking bottles better now because I am doing that. Daddy and I have plans for a date night next month and I have a conference to attend for a few days so you really have to get it together. I can't take you to the conference. We have more time to practice though. Only Daddy gives you bottles. I'm going to leave the house next time if I need to. I know you smell and sense me so we will see how that works out.
You are our little chunk. I can't believe how big you have gotten. We are already beginning to cycle out of some of your 3 month clothing and you are able to wear every piece of 6 month clothing you have. We didn't have a formal doctor visit this month so your weight and height estimates were done by us. We are likely to be off just a bit. According to my not-so-scientific analysis, you are about 15 pounds and close to 24 3/4 inches. The height might really be off because you are too squiggly to measure alone and I don't have one of those nifty measurement things your doctor uses. You are also still losing all that awesome hair you were born with. It doesn't surprise us. We are starting to wonder if it will all fall out and then when it returns, be blonde. You have that big bald spot on the back of your head from rubbing your head back and forth. I love that spot. It cracks me up. Your bump on your head from the suction when you were born is almost gone. I can feel it slightly when I run my hand over your head, but it isn't outright noticeable. If someone didn't know you once had a huge bump there, they would never know.
As far as physical feats go, you are so strong! You have been holding your head up almost from the time you were born, but you are really good at it now and can do it for indefinite amounts of time. We almost always hold you upright so you have to hold your head up (or you can lay it on our shoulder, but you rarely choose to do that unless you are tired.) You also like to be carried facing out. I remember that Kenzie was a lot like that at this age. You just enjoy seeing the world go by. You are still working on that baby push-up and you haven't yet rolled over. I think part of your issue is your size. You are a bit lazy as far as that goes, as well. You can hold your head up and push up when on your tummy... you just choose not to most of the time. I help you roll over all the time and as long as I help you push your head over, you can do the rest. You have rolled onto your side a few times so I'm wondering if you may be one of those strange babies that rolls back to front first and I am thinking you will be a little late (though likely still in the normal range) when you do it. You have a couple of months before I start to worry though. Okay, I always worry... but you have some time before I worry enough to bring it up to your doctor. The craziest thing is that you want to sit soooo badly. If I lay you down propped on your Boppy, you almost immediately start trying to do sit ups so that you are sitting upright. I can prop you up using your Boppy and you can remain in that position for a few seconds. Then you usually throw yourself forward and nearly fold in half so I have to brace you. I'm wondering if you might sit before you roll as well. You really enjoy sitting on our laps facing out and taking in the world. You don't have the coordination yet to get the tripod sit down so you fold over, but I think you will get it soon enough. I'm definitely not into rushing you through any of these milestones. I now know how fast time can move and I am trying to savor a lot. You have started to bring toys to your mouth to chew on now. That is always a cool skill to see happen. It finally shows that you know your hands are yours and that you can use them to do different thing. The other night you put your hand in my mouth and tried to pull my bottom lip towards to you when I was holding you. Kenzie thought that was hilarious! She laughed so hard and you just smiled at us.
It is so interesting so already see the personality differences in you and Kenzie. You are definitely an observer. You still move a lot, but you really enjoy watching life go by in front of you. I don't know if you will end up being an observant child or one that participates in everything, but right now you like to watch and take it all in. You are such a chill baby. Everyone always comments on it. Especially family because we are so used to your sister who required a lot of attention at your age. We can go out to eat (for now at least) and you are content to either sit in your carrier and talk to us or have someone hold you on their lap while they eat. Ironically, at home it is like you have some sort of homing device on me and as soon as I sit down to eat dinner you need attention. You can be in your room napping and as soon as I hit the chair, you are up. It would be funny... if I didn't want to eat. We recently set up your highchair and you seem to really be enjoying sitting with us while we eat dinner. Prior to this though (and when you are not interested in sitting in your chair), you will usually sit in my lap and remain content enough to let me finish dinner.
You are starting to sleep better at night. You almost always give me at least one 5 hour stretch. It isn't always your first stretch though. That is a bit odd. Some days you go closer to 7 hours. On average, I get up with you 2-3 times each night, not counting when you wake up for the day. You are still an early riser and are often awake between 6 and 7. You take about 3 naps a day, not counting if you fall asleep while we are out running errands or doing something. I am getting better about getting you to take them in your crib, and sometimes your pack n play though that is much more rare as I like to put you in your room since it is slightly quieter with Kenzie running around like a crazy person. Most of your naps run about 45 minutes. About once a week I get a 3+ hour nap from you mid-day. That is always your longest nap anyway, but sometimes you really, really like to nap. Usually if you wake up from that one after about 45 minutes to an hour I will put you in your swing (though I don't always run it) and let you hang out for a while since Kenzie is still napping and that is one of my few moments of peace all day. You love to be worn still and will often sleep during that. It doesn't take away too much from your established naps though at this point. You are staying awake more and more while being worn and the carrier we use is actually one that isn't terrible for facing out for short periods of time so we will likely be trying that periodically. Your awake time is usually about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I can tell when you are starting to get tired though by your whining. Your sister used to yawn... you don't really do that at this point so I am having to learn to read different cues with you. We have started your official nighttime routine at this point. You now get a bath every other day, then you get into your pj's (on no bath nights you just get into your pj's), then you nurse, and then you go to sleep. It usually takes a bit of soothing on our parts to get you to sleep, but we are okay with that at this point. Eventually we will work on having you self-soothe but I believe you are too young for that now. I know not everyone has that opinion, but it works for us. Some nights you don't need us at all though and go to be easily on your own. Your routine begins as soon as Kenzie is down for bed so usually anytime between 7:45 and 8 we start and you are usually out by 8:30. We are considering moving that up. After putting you to bed one day earlier this week at 7 and having you sleep until 1:30am, we wonder if maybe you will do better going down even earlier for now. The way your naps work make it to where you are either overtired by the time you go down for the night or you require one really late nap. Either way, both of those options make it much more difficult for you to go to sleep and you still wake up between midnight and 1, usually. You are still sleeping in our room, as well. My hope is to keep you in our room for at least another month and a half. We are going to Mississippi in late February and we will be sharing the room with you AND Kenzie so I am wanting to keep you in our room at least that long so that you are still used to that routine of having us in the room with you and you are still used to the noise of sleeping in a room with other people.
You are quite the hand chewer at this point. I don't think you really want to suck your thumb at this point and I noticed that I wrote something VERY similar to Kenzie at 3 months old so it must just be because you have found your hands. Just like I thought with Kenzie... Daddy must be coating those things in honey.
You still have your umbilical hernia. It seems much smaller now, though. I think what is happening is that you are getting bigger, but it is not. Whew! That is such a relief. At this point with your sister we already had surgery scheduled because hers was so large. I am just hoping to avoid that with you. We are still hoping it rectifies itself entirely on its own. We won't rule out surgery down the line, but we are hoping to avoid it anytime soon and we definitely want that hernia to stay small.
This month was your first Christmas. You were spoiled by our family as much as a newborn needs to be. I know you had no idea what was going on, but we still found ways to make lots of memories and capture those in photos that we can show you one day.
You are such a blessing. Every day with you makes us so happy. You and your sister are such buddies already. You love to watch football with your Daddy and you are his "Big Man" now. He decided he can't call you Little Man because you are growing to fast. I am still going to do so though. Even though there will likely be a day when you are bigger than me, you will always be my Little Man. We love you Buddy!
XOXO,
Mommy
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