Madelyn - three months

Aah, our beautiful baby girl is three months old already! She is such a sweetie. These three months haven't been without their frustrations, but there has been so much lov and joy too as we get to know our Maddie!

Maddie is growing like crazy. I did the home-weigh this morning and she was almost 13.5lbs! When I went for her first immunizations earlier this month, she was 11lbs 14oz so she's likely somewhere in between those numbers. She is short and light for her age but height to weight ratio is at 97%! That means she is short and chunky. I love it! And it's normal for exclusively breast-fed babies to be chunky so nothing to worry about. She's wearing 3-6 month clothes and the newborn and 0-3 month clothes are officially packed away.

Madelyn is happy and full of smiles (and even giggles already - tickling and fart noises (thanks Daddy) seem to work best!) most of the time. I'd say that she's a pretty happy baby, even though she cries more than our other two and other people probably see her cry more than laugh. But if she's awake and fed and at home, she's usually happy. She does seem to like being at home rather than other places though. She has screamed inconsolably at places like Superstore, friends' houses, and church when there's nothing obviously wrong except that we're in a strange place. She also might be making strange already. Seems early but all babies are different! Maddie doesn't like loud noises; they usually make her cry. Poor reno baby. The house has been worked on her entire life and it's not done yet! Only floors to go though!!!

Maddie's hair is coming in nicely. She went bald on top in the fist few weeks of her life but now you can't even tell. She has dark hair that is a bit thinner on the back of her head and longer at the nape of her neck. Her eyes are not completely brown but are quite dark and look like they may be headed in that direction. Her skin is so clear, just one "milk blister" by her right eye that has been there since birth or shortly after. Kayden had one in the middle of her forehead right up by her hairline when she was a baby and it eventually just went away so I expect Maddie's will too.

Sleep has been a hot topic this month. While Madelyn gives us decent stretches of sleep once she's asleep, it often takes a fair stretch of time to get her to nod off. She starts acting tired after about an hour of awake time but it's not uncommon to spend 20-60 minutes getting her down for naps and 45-90 minutes for night. She just fights sleep tooth and nail. Most of this month has felt like a big, long sleep battle. That said, she has dropped her 2am feed this month and often is only up at 5am for a feed before waking for the day around 8-9am. She even slept right through the night once this month, waking for the day at 7:30! I was pleasantly surprised! She goes to bed at night anywhere between 7:30-9:30pm, depending on the length of battle on that particular night. The sleep fight has gotten quite a bit better for naps lately as I've learned that putting a blanket over her face speeds up the process immensely. As long as she can see what's going on, she will force her eyes to say open but when she can't see anything, she will give in to sleep much more quickly. She also likes to rub her face in a blanket as she's falling asleep which makes her hard to hold cause it's almost like she's trying to wriggle out of your arms! At night, none of the regular tricks work and it just takes a long time to get her settled. I sure hope I have a different story for you next month! She still sleeps swaddled and on her side. She's become much more sensitive to noise while she sleeps so I've told the kids that whoever wakes her is the one who has to put her back to sleep. She usually naps 3-4 times a day and one of the naps is usually longer than the others (one hour is a short nap, 3-4 hours is a long nap but even 2 hours counts as the long nap of the day).

Stupid fly kept landing on her. Get off my baby!

Levi was my trusty helper, shooing the fly away from his sister during her photo shoot.

Maddie loves her big brother and sister. She smiles for them a lot and whenever they are looking at her, she just stares right back. Levi loves to climb up on the change table when I'm changing her and getting her dressed and talk to her and get her to smile or laugh. Kayden will often be found leaning on the front of Maddie's bouncy seat just talking to her sister. It melts my heart how much they love her. They argue about who gets to hold her first, especially in the morning. And they both like to burp her, though Levi says that she's getting too heavy. I guess she is almost half his weight!

New things Madelyn does as of this month...she can sit in the bumbo fairly well, though she gets tired quickly. She holds her head up with no problem whatsoever. In fact, if you lean her back against something, she will be pulling her head up trying to sit up straight so she can see what's going on. I think it won't be long before she's sitting on her own. Maddie drools a LOT. I don't know that it's teething, but her shirt is always soaked. I've started putting bibs on her cause those are much easier than a shirt to change multiple times a day! Maddie is getting more distracted while I'm nursing her. I'm not too worried about a nursing strike as she doesn't have any other way to eat, but if she took a bottle, I might be a bit nervous that one day she would just prefer the bottle because then she could see what's going on around her a bit better! Maddie holds onto blankets or any fabric that touches her hands. She was starting to do that at the end of last month but I forgot to write about it. :) It's pretty heartwarming when you're changing her diaper and she grabs your arm or sleeve and won't let go!

There's that fly again...arg!

I don't know that Maddie has had many firsts this month. She was in the nursery at church for the first time this month...but I don't know if that counts because I was up there with her! I had my first birthday with 3 kids this month - the big 3-0!

I just LOVE the baby stage and I'm sad to see it going so quickly. At the same time, it is exhausting and I will enjoy being in a bit more of a routine with her naps and night time sleep as she gets older. I love that eating isn't an issue yet. She can't really be picky when there's only ever one thing on the menu! And her smiles are so freely given at this age...it can be much harder to get a smile out of a toddler or preschooler!