Three Months?!

Oliver wanted his picture on the Bumbo, too:

So, somehow, three months have already passed since my little Jo was born. Unbelievable.

Before righting this post, I took the time to read back on Oliver's three month update. I have to say, the thing that stood out the most to me was how deliberate Oliver was with his hand movements. Before he was three months old, he'd reach over in the bouncy chair (the same one I have pictured above), and he'd grab the lion ring and pull on it, making it sing all by himself. I'll never forget telling our family doctor that because the doctor told me it wasn't possible. My little Ollie Bear reached over and grabbed the doctor's stethoscope. Take that!

Well, Joanna isn't quite that dexterous. She's very good at getting her hands to her mouth, and she sucks and gnaws on the side of her hands. Her hands stay closed for the most part still, but she has just started to open them up occasionally and will accidentally grasp things near her, like my hair or her blankets. That said, she's getting very interested in objects now. She likes to watch me eat. She loves Oliver's stuffed animals, and she kicks her feet excitedly when they're near her. She really loves sitting in her bouncy chair when I (or Oliver) pull on the rings to make the songs start. You can tell she's starting to think more about things like that.

Her sleep habits have gotten a bit worse over the last couple weeks. While she still goes to bed around 8pm and sleeps until about 8am, she's waking up much more frequently. She's constantly busting out of her swaddle, and sometimes she's waking up every two hours for us to reswaddle her. I've started the bad habit of nursing her after each of these wake-ups to get her to quickly fall back asleep. In another couple of weeks, we're going to do some sleep training to teach her to sleep without the swaddle. I don't look forward to that, but I do look forward to not having to swaddle her anymore.

As for nap time, that's actually going well. I remember how desperate I used to be for Oliver to nap. Jo naps regularly, and she'll often take a really big nap from about 12:30pm to 3pm in addition to a couple cat naps.

I think she's going through a growth spurt, too, because she's started wanting to nurse a lot more frequently over the past week or so. Instead of going up to three hours between feedings, I'm finding myself pushing her to make it to two hours.

Joanna is very strong, though. One of the photos at the top of this post shows how she can sit up with me just holding one of her hands to balance her. I think she'll be sitting on her own by five months old (although I've been wrong plenty of times in my predictions with Oliver, so who knows?). She holds her head up very well, and it only starts bobbing around slightly after she's been holding her head up for multiple minutes.

I must say, we really lucked out with how easy-going Jo is. I keep saying how it makes all the difference in the world. Oliver was so high needs and was always crying and screaming. I'm really glad we went through that with our first and not our second, or else I wouldn't know what to do! Joanna really only cries when she has a wet diaper or is hungry or wants to sleep. When she wakes up or wants our attention, she usually just calls out to us. It's adorable. In a given day, I'd say she's fussy for a total of about an hour, two at the max.

She smiles all the time. It's very difficult to get her smile on film, though, because she's gotten super interested in the camera. Yesterday, I got her to laugh for the first time while playing peek-a-boo. Today, I got a small giggle out of her as I tossed balls of socks at her belly. I can't wait for the laughter to become more common place!

This month, Joanna went on an airplane for the first time (we flew to Chicago to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday). She also experienced her first blizzard. We've taken the butt padding out of her car seat now, and the straps were raised to the second shortest notch a few weeks ago.

At 3 months old, here is Joanna's list of likes and dislikes:

Likes:
Nursing
Watching Oliver
The bouncy chair
The ceiling fan
The sound of the microwave vent
Putting her hands in her mouth
Smiling
Diaper changes (and being naked)

Dislikes:
Being put in the car seat

Red lights
Wet diapers

A Quarter Year!

We did it! We made it to three months! Hurray!

Contrary to everything I read and was told, things haven't magically changed at the three month mark. That's OK. Although I hoped he magically wouldn't be so high-needs at three months, I figured it wasn't likely. Last night was his worst night for a long, long (long) time. He got up no less than six times. Later, I read his baby book. It's crazy to think that, just a short month ago, he was sleeping 10 hours at night, only getting up once. I miss that uninterupted sleep!

The difficult night was preceded by a very difficult evening. He cried and wailed like he used to, and he was only contented by nursing. I think he's teething, and I think he has been for about four or five weeks. Really, that's the only thing (I think) that explains the drastic shift in sleep and behavior. Besides, he's been a drool machine for weeks (he sops through his clothes every hour if I don't diligently wipe his mouth). He gnaws on everything. Also, he's been wanting to eat every hour again instead of his usual 2.5 hours. I discovered this morning that he's contented by sucking on my finger. Still, I don't see or feel any teeth. Hopefully, they'll come soon.

In other sleep news, he's letting me put him in his infant seat for naps! OK, so he doesn't fall alseep in there on his own much (he's only done that a handful of times), but he no longer wakes up screaming as soon as his back touches it. This is allowing me to get a few things done around the house. On the down side, his naps don't last that long (half an hour or so) because when he wakes up, he wants to be picked back up right away. Hopefully, he'll learn to extend that out because I read somewhere that babies don't get through a full sleep cycle unless they sleep one full hour.

This month, Oliver has both forgotten and re-learned how to drink from a bottle. I freaked out for a few weeks that I'd never be able to leave home for more than two hours, ever, but Andrew jumped in and taught our boy how to drink from the bottle.

Also, he's started to watch TV! He loves it. I hate that, to be honest. I used to watch TV while nursing him, just to pass the time. A couple of weeks ago, he started craning his head back to watch, too! So now I keep it off.

Of course, there have been many positive changes and developments this month as well. He's really starting to sit well! One of his favorite things to do is sit on the counter while Andrew supports him. Seriously, Andrew can support him with two fingers. He just sits there, looking around, looking like a big boy.

He's also getting closer to rolling over, and he's finally letting us put him on his tummy for short stints. A couple of times, while he was on his back, he's flipped himself onto his side. However, he doesn't have the strength yet to push himself over his shoulder. I think it'll be a while because I need to help him a lot to get him over that hump! Maybe he'll learn to roll front to back this month. We'll have to wait and see!

He's getting really, really good at using his hands. He grabs his animals on his bouncer and turns them around, studying them. He also grabs and holds onto the animals in his gym (I call his play mat his jungle gym). Although he has to put a lot of effort in, he can use his hand and go straight for objects; he no longer has to do general sweeping motions to catch his toys. And, of course, he's completely mastered sucking his hands! He's always been good at it, but he used to have to pin them down to get ahold of them. Now, he goes straight for his mouth!

Oliver's been talking so much, too. In addition to his vowels, he's using a lot of consonents. His favorite is the letter "H," but he also uses "N" and "G" a lot. He's used "M" and "L" and "Th" and "W." His most recent sound is "Buh," but he doesn't use that much.

He can entertain himself for periods of time, too. He'll sit in his bouncy chair, playing, while I shower. He'll also sit and play with his favorite toy, Froggy, in the mornings while I eat a bowl of cereal. These changes have allowed us a little more freedom. This month, we took him to the store for the first time (he's gone to Costco and Safeway). He's gone to the post office a few times, and he lasted a full hour at Starbucks (and even then, he didn't throw a fit; he just got fussy). Yesterday, I took him to Andrew's work to show him off to all of his coworkers (they loved him, of course!! Ollie was so good), and then we went out to eat for the first time ever with Oliver. We went to Chipotle! Oliver played for about 10 minutes on his own while we ate. Just as we were finishing up, he started fussing. We wolfed down the last of our food and left before his fusses turned into cries. It felt really great to go out to eat, the three of us.


At three months old, these are Oliver's likes:

*Nursing
*Sitting on the counter
*Froggy
*Raffi the Giraffe (It's the most creative name I've come up with for any of his toys)
*Playing in his "jungle gym"
*Pulling on the lion in his bouncy chair
*Being naked
*Talking to us on the changing table
*Sucking his hands
*Watching the ceiling fan
*Watching TV (unfortunately!)
*Being read to (sometimes, he turns the pages! I think that's an accident.)
*Taking baths (I think. It's hard to tell, but he never cries and always splashes)
*Watching us eat
*Apples (I let him gum at my apple, and he loved it! I'm trying to be good and not do that again)
*The stove vent
*His reflection
*Going upstairs
*Babbling
*Outside (we walked to the mail box once, and he dug it)

Dislikes:
*The car seat
*Hats (although it's getting much better)
*Pants (although that's getting better, too)
*Red stoplights (keep driving!)
*Going downstairs
*Getting his diaper changed at night
*8pm bedtime (he always wants to go to sleep earlier and earlier!)
*Wet diapers
*Daddy holding him facing inwards (it's OK for Mommy to, though)