elsie - three months old

written May 9th

Three months.  I feel like this is when you officially leave the 'newborn' status, and just have a baby.  My baby is three months old!  Crazyness.  Not going to lie, I'm thankful to put this last month behind us, but mostly because of how crazy life has been and horrible Chris's schedule has been.  The lack of sleep wasn't a lot of fun either...

We haven't been to the doctor since Elsie's two month visit, so our stats are just a guesstimate.  A serious guesstimate.  According to our tape measure she is 24 inches long, and our attempts at weighing her came in somewhere between 12 pounds 3 ounces and 13 pounds.  You know, real accurate.  HA.  We should have weighed her three times, but we only did it twice (with the whole weigh the husband, and weigh the husband holding the baby thing) and got 12 pounds 3 ounces the second time.  So I guess that's what were going with?  That would make her weigh less than Ryann but be longer.  Which leads me to believe we are crappy with our estimates because they look about the same amount of squishy (Ryann at 3 months).

Currently Elsie is in all 0-3 month clothing, with the occasional newborn dress thrown in as a top.  But we will be busting the 3-6 month stuff out in the next week or so.  At least the pants.  Poor girl, always looks like she's wearing crops.  And some long sleeve shirts are more like 3/4 length or something, but hey, who cares.  She is still in a size one diaper, still nursing 6-7 times a day, and is still taking roughly four naps.

Still the first thing I'm sure everyone wants to know about (seriously, why does everyone want to know about it?  first question out of the stranger at the hair salon), how is she sleeping at night?  Well, I haven't a freaking clue how to describe it.  I think in the last two weeks I've had a couple nights with an 8 hour stretch, some nights with a five hour stretch, some with her waking every 3.5 hours, two with her waking every freaking hour and the last two nights she has woken after about 3 or 4 hours, around 12:30, ate, and then slept until 6am and been up for the day.  So um, I don't know?  I'm still trying to let her set the schedule, hoping she'll just fall into a predictable pattern, but no such luck.  Pretty soon here I'm going to have to figure out how to get some more consistent bedtimes and wake times.  At this point Ry had started to give us 8-10 hour sleep stretches at night.  I'd gladly take a little more shut eye!

She hasn't been quite as difficult to get down for naps this last month, which is really nice.  And apparently Elsie would prefer Grammy rock her to sleep for naps now as well.  Tough luck kiddo, sometimes you are stuck with me!  But it is nice that now there is someone else who can put her to sleep.  Now we just have to figure out her letting Christopher put her to sleep... before I can't stand it and intervene of course.  Elsie is still sleeping fully swaddled and still sleeping in the rock and play.  I really wanted to transition away from both, but wouldn't you know girlfriend got her first cold (terrible congestion and cough, thanks sissy!) pretty much the day we were going to try the crib.  So I didn't want to have her flat on her back.  And I tried two days of naps with one arm out of the swaddle, and that resulted mostly in short naps and a totally pissed of baby.  So today I fully swaddled her again.

Even though Elsie is still in the rock and play, we did move it to her room.  Now that Christopher and I are actually back to sharing a bed, it wasn't working to keep her in our room anymore.  He has allergies that makes him, well, a little less than quiet, and he has to get up early for work.  And we were tired of tiptoeing around our bedroom.  The first night was a little tough on me, I missed her.  But I was a lot less emotional than when we moved Ryann out of our room.  Probably because these days I'm spending so much time worrying about the girls, that is nice to have a little of my own space at night.  Hopefully we will be able to transition E into the crib and out of the swaddle sometime soon.

Elsie's spitting up issues have continued to be a lot lot less than they were the first month.  She still spits up after pretty much every feeding, but it just isn't as much and it doesn't come with screaming and tears.  Usually it is clear, which is kind of odd to me, but again, she is much happier in general, it doesn't seem to bother her too much.  I've stayed dairy free for the most part, as well as maintaining a pretty clean diet over the last few weeks.  I'm anxious to give dairy another go, but I think I'll wait until at least next month, if not until she is six months old.  If I remember correctly, Ryann's spittiness slowed down a lot around the six month (even though she was still a spitter until well past her first birthday) so I feel like that would be a 'safe' time to try it.

Tonight we (Christopher) gave Elsie her first bottle.  I was a little worried it wouldn't go over because we waited three months before trying one, but she didn't put up even the tiniest bit of a fight.  Just drank it like that was how it was meant to be done.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little hurt by that.  I mean come on!  Isn't it better straight from the source?  We gave her 2.5 ounces in the bottle that comes with the pump.  When she finished that, she didn't seem like she was hurting for more food, but I didn't know.  I put another 2 ounces in a Dr. Brown's bottle and she wouldn't take it.  Curious if she wasn't hungry any more or if it was the bottle I poured that milk into the Medela bottle and she drank it all.  Too bad we have a million freaking Dr. Brown's bottles...  Nonetheless, it is good to know that should I need to be gone she isn't going to starve.  And maybe possibly there will be a date night in the more near future?  (Mom, Dad, babysit, please?!?)

haha... sneeze

Poop talk alert, sorry everyone, and sorry Elsie!  The dairy free clean diet may have helped Elsie's reflux, but um, I think it has also caused her to stop pooping.  I have changed exactly one poopy diaper since April 24th.  It has been another week since that one.  I can't say I'm not concerned, she was pooping at least twice a day if not more, and then all of the sudden, nothing.  Her tummy still feels soft, and her stool looked relatively normal the last time she went, so it is possible that her system has just changed, and her little body is really only getting the nutrients it needs now, and not producing a lot of waste.  Just because she isn't making smelly diapers, doesn't mean the girl can't clear a room though.  Her toots are AWFUL.  Seriously awful.  Like her entire room sometimes smells like poop and I swear we must have left a diaper in there for two weeks.  But nope, just my baby.  Which leads me to believe there is something in there that needs to come out, but again, she isn't super fussy and doesn't seem to be in pain, so maybe there just aren't a lot of nasty diapers in my future for the next three months? 

Aside from our sleeping issues (isn't that always the case?) little Miss Elsie is a pretty darn good baby.  She can turn into a fuss monster if she is over tired, but if she is fed and isn't on the verge of needing a nap she is content to just hang out.  Either on her playmat, or sitting in someone's lap.  But she is not a cuddler, just like her sissy as a baby.  She gets pretty fidgety and would prefer to lay on her blanket while you talk to her.  And she is chatty!  Her little 'conversations' are just the cutest.  Sometimes it sounds like she says hello, hey and mama.  Also, she is pretty easy to get to smile, and I absolutely love that.  Her smiles are just the best (although Meredith's little Becca really has one of the best smiles I've ever seen, her whole face smiles!).

Elsie's head control has gotten quite a bit better this month.  April 23rd was the first time we really saw her hold her head up during tummy time on the floor.  She'd gotten it up pretty high while laying on the boppy, but that morning we had her on the floor and she just started rocking it!  Now she will tolerate tummy time a little longer.  Especially if her sissy is entertaining her, or she gets into looking at one of her toys.  After rolling over on her two month birthday (tummy to back), Elsie didn't do it again until the day before her three month birthday (May 7th).  I think it will still be a bit before that is a consistent skill, she usually just gets pissed off before she figures it out.  Lastly, in the motor skills department, E is really working on gaining control of her arms and hands.  She concentrates really hard, her arms start shaking and she'll move them toward an object.  Sometimes she'll just stare at her little fists, like she is just trying to figure them out.

Miss E definitely has a thing for her daddy.  When he comes home from work and she sees him, her little face lights up.  And if she is nursing and he is close to me talking, she'll pop off and search for him.  Cute, and annoying of course.  But cute.  It makes me happy though.  With as little as we saw Christopher in her first three months of life, I was kind of worried she wouldn't know who her daddy was.  Obviously they still have plenty of time to build a relationship, but I was worried she would take a bit to warm back up to him or something.  Nothing to worry about.  She loves him.  

Alright on to some more random stuff.  Both tear ducts are still clogged, and no, I still haven't put breast milk in her eyes yet.  I don't know why.  Her eyes still look like they're turning blue.  Her hair I'm not as sure about.  I think it is going to be a shade of blonde, but it looks darker than Ryann's did.  E has picked up the nickname Elsie Belsie, or Elsie Belsie Girl.  Not sure how it came about, but Ry and I both call her that.  And I can see the relationship between those two girls growing everyday.  Elsie loves to watch Ryann move about the room, and Ryann loves to help me with Elsie.  And be all up in Elsie's face all the time.  You know.

Whew! That is probably enough to share for now.  Miss Elsie you are the sweetest.  You are very loved.  I hope you always know that.