finola - three months!

Dear Girl,

Happy three months!!!!!

You are getting so big!

You went to size two diapers.

You now wear 3-6 month clothes!

You finally (sort of) have eyebrows.

You smile a lot - and occasionally laugh - if I laugh.

You love to touch my face and hair and grab my nose.

Your nails grow really fast!!!

You poop only once a week.

You get really sweaty in the car seat...

therefore you are not a fan of car rides. 

You prefer the Baby Bjorn.

You love Ikea - so much to look at!

You love kisses, too.  Whenever Dada or I come in for a cheek kiss, you always turn your face so we get a wet, drooly, open-mouthed French kiss instead.

Your personality:  Um, awesome!  You make me want to have about twenty more babies.  Just kidding.  Maybe we should quit while we're ahead?  Anyway, you are smiley and sweet and rarely cry and I kind of want to cry myself when I think of how God gives you (as in me) exactly what you need when you need it.  After a very draining pregnancy and with a very rambunctious and energetic toddler I needed an easy baby.  

You are that, my love.

YAY for PINK!  Pink EVERYWHERE!

Yeah, I'm rolling.  What of it?

Whoa!

I love tummy time!!!

"How you doin'"

Your relationship with your big brother:  Still good.  Can we just keep it this way?  Before the fights and the screaming at each other set in???

You love to eat:  every couple hours during the day, and twice at night.  Still 98% breast milk, with an occasional bottle of formula if we have to.   I know we need to start giving you bottles more if we ever want to take a mama/dada weekend trip away from you (*really need it, yet want to cry just thinking about it*) but I just love feeding you so much (and hate pumping.) 

You sleep:    by the book!  You go to bed at a reasonable hour, and take consistent naps. Unfortunately, your longest stretch at night is usually only 6 hours.  We had one 8 hour stretch, but I think that was a fluke.  You go to bed usually between 7 and 8pm, and wake for your first feeding around 2am.  I am okay with this.  Still have not slept completely through the night yet, which surprises me, but I can't complain because when you wake up and eat you quickly fall back asleep.  Plus it is only 1-2 feedings per night, which is fine by me. (For now.)  The second feeding is usually between 5 and 6am and I just use that as my alarm clock and start my day.  You nap around 1-2 hours in the morning, and then again in the afternoon 1-3 hours.   This is around the same afternoon naptime as Cormac so I usually get a break, which I love.  If you take a short nap (only one hour) you may do another short late afternoon nap.  Otherwise we just put you to bed early.  Bedtime is between 7 and 8...whether you are asleep or not.  You typically will fall asleep on your own as long as I have done our wind-down routine and you have been awake at least 2 hours.
Although the last couple nights you have fought bedtime pretty hard.

"I hope my hair gets better.  Fo' real."

You love wearing:  Baby leggings and comfy cotton onesies...and pjs.  All of a sudden none of your clothes fit you.  Now you wear 3-6 month clothing or 6 month.  Nothing smaller.  My big girl!!! 

We call you:   Finola, Baby Fin, DIN-o-la (Cormac), Sister, and Girl

You love:  Your tummy time mat! You strain and twist to gaze at the mirror and all the fun hanging toys around you.Grabbing things.  My nose, my hair, your brother's hand, toys...whatever you can get your little mitts on.

Playing "Airplane!"  Big laughs whenever I make you soar above me.  And plenty of drool, too.

"I love flying!"

You look like: Mama. Even I think so.  Your long eyelashes and hair color are from your dada...but your big, buggy blue eyes come from your Gramma Gloria's side.  You've also got my nose, bald baby head and lips.

I love the faux mountain background here...and do you spy that I am wearing a ring? a baby ring!  was that an 80's baby trend?

We are like twins, right?

Mama feels:  Sleep-deprived!  Not having a full night's sleep in three months is taking it's toll.  

Your health/measurements:  

No appointment this month, but on my scale you weigh: 13.6 lbs   An increase in drool and spit bubbles may mean the beginnings of teething.  Noooo!  Your bro started the major drooling around this time, too.  You also had a stuffy nose/congestion (see below).

This Months' Memories:

• Your cousin Emmie's 1st birthday!  I have no photos of this, but you were a sweet girl and were held by some very nice folks, who declared you a great baby.   She liked to crawl up to your bucket seat and grab your nose.  Yay for girl cousins!  (Oh, and your new cousin Selah was born, as well.  Future long-distance bestie?)
• Your first cold.  Wasn't too bad, but we had to use the booger sucker quite a bit, which you are not a fan of.  Hey, I thought breastfeeding was supposed to give you some sore of super-immunity, or something like that?!?  Not so much. 

"Keep that booger sucker away from me!"

Milestones/Accomplishments:

• You rolled front to back!  At 10 weeks.  Well, I didn't actually see the first one.  I put you on your tummy time mat and ran to switch a load of laundry, and when I came back you were face up?!?!  Nice work, girl!  Here is a video your proud mama took of about the sixth roll:

And here are you and your brother at three months...I even put you on the same blanket to make you really look like twins siblings.   A lot of similarities there.  However, I do not think you are going to have his ginormous head.  But we shall see.

Well, my dear, we have had another lovely month together.  You are pretty much exactly like your brother - with less crying and more napping.  I'll take it.  Keep doing what you're doing.  You make us smile. We have great "conversations." All of this is good.  Love it.  Love you.
Mama + Dada