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Jax you are three months old. If it were possible to love you more this month than last, I have done it.
Your stand out accomplishment this month was learning to bat toys on purpose. I had put you in your bouncer while I worked on the computer. As I typed, I heard the sound of your wooden toy rattling....more than it usually would if you would hit it by accident as you flailed your arms. I turned around. And watched. You were looking intently at the toy. Then your little arm wavered and wobbled toward it, and you whacked it. Forward, then backward as you drew your arm back to your body again. You kept staring at it, gazing with strong focus. Then the little wavering arm again, as your brain tried to tell your arm to do something on purpose, and you did it again. I was elated. I have video of it too. It was such a proud, happy moment to see you choose to use your hands, with intent and purpose.
The last few days of this month, you also have just started learning to grab very lightweight blankets and play with them, sometimes putting them in your mouth. You often do this in the morning, after I un-swaddle you. You stretch your arms and legs out, then if I plop the swaddle blanket on your chest, you and play with it and chew on it.
The other thing that is a big change, is you've started drooling everywhere, and chewing on your fists. You haven't discovered any particular fingers, so you try to chomp on any part of your fist you can shove in your mouth. It's pretty cute. You also willingly chew on people's shoulders, clothing, arms, and whatever else happens to be close to your mouth. You're not very good at grabbing things with your hands yet, so you can't get a whole lot in your mouth on purpose, but you can chew and suck on whatever comes close enough to be fair game.
STATS: 18 lbs 6 oz, 27.5 inches long. Wearing 6-9 month size
clothes. This picture is me trying to squeeze you into a cute 3-month
size onesie you never wore. You weren't happy about it.
BED TIME ROUTINE AND NIGHT SLEEP
Bath time: 6:30 pm
Nurse to sleep, and you're asleep between 7:30 to 8:00 pm
You wake every three to four hours at night to nurse. Sometimes you sleep as long as five hours at the very first section of the night.
You sleep in the co-sleeper until Benjamin goes to work (about 5:30 am), then you sleep next to me in bed. We still swaddle you to sleep at night, just your arms. Your legs have always been free.
You wake up in the morning between 7 and 9 am.
DAY SLEEP
You still take short naps, about thirty minutes long, most of the time. Several times a week you will take a one-hour nap, and every so often, longer than that. You will take a short nap in the swing, but your favorite place to nap is in the carrier on someone's body. You take four or five short naps each day.
DIAPERS: still wearing cloth. I think before you are four months old, you will outgrow the size you're in, and be ready for the largest prefold, which is considered toddler size! Diaper changes don't bother you any more like they did when you were a newborn. I love to blow raspberries on your tummy while your bare belly is exposed. It usually makes you giggle.
EATING: about every three hours during the day, sometimes as short as every two hours. You get distracted sometimes while nursing, and I have to keep getting you back on. You just want to look around at everything! You've even started getting distracted by the patterns on the nursing cover when we are nursing in public.
You are not a fan of tummy time.
You can kick your legs enough to make you spin in circles on a bed, while laying flat on your back.
You haven't even attempted to roll over, but I also don't set you down on a flat place too often. Usually if you're not attached to me, you're in a swing or bouncer, or somewhere else fun to play.
I'm convinced you're a morning person. By the end of the day, between five to six p.m., you are wearing down. Some days you'll spend a lot of this time crying. The older you get, the more consolable you are. But once you have taken a bath, get in pajamas, and begin nursing, you almost fall asleep too soon, before eating enough to hold you over for a good length of sleep. It's like you have been waiting for bedtime to come, and you're so thankful it is here, you just fall easily and quickly to sleep. In the mornings however, by about four or five a.m., I have to be careful how much noise goes on in the room, or it will wake you. And I definitely can't put you back in your co-sleeper after a five a.m. feeding session, because you'll just start cooing and talking, and won't want to go back to sleep. You sleep better in bed with me, so that's where you go once we hit five a.m. and I'm trying to help you go back to sleep. You often nurse at five, six, seven, and eight a.m. before getting up for the day. You begin waking frequently, but I nurse you to get you to sleep longer.
You are entertained by people playing with you, making silly sounds, and clapping. You smile easily and broadly when any person comes over and talks directly to you. They don't have to work hard to get a beautiful smile from you! Every day that goes by, you get more joyful. I feel so grateful to have such a joyful, amiable baby. You are a delight to be around, and you continually delight other people with your smiles and joy.
My favorite time of day with you right now is nursing you to sleep at night. It's such a quiet, restful time for both of us. Some of the time I use to check my email and facebook. Most of the time I just hold you while you nurse, watching your sweet face. When you finally fall asleep in my arms, it's a bit hard for me to put you down. I love being close to you.
THINGS you did this month:
Play with your Aunt Mercy (she loves to make crazy silly noises and movements to get you to smile).
Play with your Grandmama (she loves to teach you new things, like how to play with toys, grab things, ride on her shoulders, or try to roll over).
I noticed you wrinkling your forehead sometimes to make certain expressions. This is something I do a lot, and I'm starting to get permanent wrinkles on my forehead because of it! But it's fun to think you are learning facial expressions from those around you.
We celebrated our first Mother's Day this month. I was crying tears of joy, because I'm so happy to be a Mommy, to be your Mommy.
We bought a new carrier that you could face forward in (Beco Gemini). You LOVE LOVE LOVE it. However, I've since learned that it's bad for your hips to be carried that way, and I'm supposed to only carry you facing me. It's too bad, because the minute we put you in that thing facing out to the world, you are the happiest guy ever. You just want to see what's going on, to interact with people, to observe and take it all in. When you want to sleep, you just put your head down, or to the side, and crash.
This is us eating Pinkberry. The absolute, hands-down, no-comparison, best frozen yogurt on the planet. I'm in shock in this photo that Pinkberry has come to Texas. We used to eat it DAILY when we visited California. There's none in our city, but we drove past a town that had one, and OF COURSE we ate some! We got locked out of our car in this random city in Texas, but it was NO PROBLEM because we just ate Pinkberry while waiting for the pop-a-lock guy to arrive.
You turned three months while we were in Houston for two weeks. My mom and I babysat your four cousins while their parents were in Italy. I was supposed to stay with my mom for a few days, and ended up staying the whole time.
We rode the Greyhound bus to and from Houston, and I have to say, that is the way to travel with an infant! You napped, you nursed, you played, and repeated, while we drove. I can't imagine having you strapped in a car seat for that many hours, when you were SO easy to handle in the bus!
While we were in Houston, we did SO many things that I don't have photos of. I wanted to just enjoy, and took photos only a few times. We visited the Children's Museum, the Museum of Natural Science, the Zoo, an aquarium, and Schlitterbahn in Galveston (you didn't like the cold water at all, but we did ride the lazy river with you sitting on top of me in a water wrap carrier!). You rode a ferris wheel, a carousel, and a train. You rode in the car with all your other cousins - all five grand kids, all five in car seats!
Here we are at the zoo. Your cousins' favorite exhibit was the animated dinosaurs.
We also celebrated your cousin Piper's second birthday. All the kids wrapped up little toys for her, we stuck a candle on some ice cream, and sang her happy birthday. You were intrigued. And drooling.
The afternoon we took a lot of photos was a simple one - playing with water in the back yard. The cold water sprinklers in your face was a bit much for you. We had better luck in the pool.
Overall, I feel like you're getting the hang of the world, and I'm getting the hang of being a Mommy.
Every few days, I look at someone and say, "I just can't get over how HAPPY he is!" You bring smiles and joy to everyone around. You light up our days, and bring happy contentment to my heart. God is so good to us.
