Lana turned 3 months old yesterday. She has now spent a whole trimester on the outside! I never thought of it that way before. Hmm, interesting.
We don’t have her next doctor checkup until 4 months, though, so I don’t have any official stats to share this time. But I’ll fill you in on how life with L is progressing and what’s changed since her last update.
Sleep. Well let’s see. She has been consistently down to waking up once a night to eat since around 2 months, but she hasn’t mastered sleeping through the night all the time yet like Della had by 3 months. She has done it 3 times, once for 2 nights in a row on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, but unfortunately that trend did not last.
Her last feeding before bed is usually around 8:30 now, but it still takes awhile for her to actually get to sleep enough to go into her crib without waking back up. So I get her diaper changed, swaddle her up for the night, feed her, then arm bounce her with her pacifier for generally half an hourish until she’s really out. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it takes less. And I know you’re not supposed to wait until a baby’s completely asleep to put her down so she can get used to putting herself to sleep, but I call horseshit on that one right now. Lana most definitely needs to be asleep for at least her bedtime or else you’re going to stand there playing dropped it got it with the pacifier for hours. That’s not my favorite game.
Her nightly wake up feedings typically occur around 3-4am still, but she’s gotten fussier about going back down most of the time. I used to be able to just change her, feed her, and she’d be ready to be put back down, but now when I burp her she wakes up and wants to play the staring game. So then I’ll use the pacifier again, which tends to be relatively fast-acting.
What else? Daytimes still have fairly little structure. She’ll take roughly an hour nap within about an hour of waking up and her morning feeding. Then the middle of the day is kind of hit or miss, depending on her mood that day. But then there’s usually another hourish nap in the evening before her bedtime feeding. I have noticed, however, that she tends to take a pretty long nap at some point during the day, it’s just not quite at the same time each day. So I guess that’s about 3 naps a day?
She’s still exclusively breastfed, nursing about 6-7 times a day, including the late night feeding. Some days there might be 1 more in there somewhere. And we’re still doing 1 bottle a day containing her vitamin drops. She has started becoming very distracted and chatty during her feedings, which can get a little annoying because they just take longer. She still eats well overall though, so I guess I can’t complain much.
The cranky spells have decreased since she was first born, but she can still wail with the best of them. The other day she high-pitched screamed in our faces, which always leads Ryan to believe she’s colicky. He actually looked it up again online, and apparently when babies pull their legs up into their chests quickly and seem to be “running” a lot it can be a symptom of colic. Trying to relieve the gas or whatever’s causing pain in there. Lana constantly has legs in motion. And the fact that her screaming fits always start with her going stiff as a board also points to some colic. But thankfully she still has never yelled for hours on end and will calm when you hold her, which I think is a good sign that she doesn’t have full-blown colic.
Her smiles and “stories” she tells are the best. My favorite is in the morning when I unswaddle her and her little arms instantly fly up next to her head in a huge stretch accompanied by a gigantic smile. She sure is a charmer when she’s not shouting at you.
I put her in the jumperoo for the first time today too. She can’t sit on her own or stand yet, but she’s so squirmy and active all the time I thought she might like something a little more stimulating than lying on her playmat. I think she likes it. She can’t touch the floor yet, just like Della when we first put her in it, so I put a big throw pillow under her feet so they touch something. I folded up a little blanket and propped it behind her head too, so she can stay upright better. She’s currently staring at the hanging animal toys with the music playing.
Not a ton has changed since last month, but she is definitely awake and alert more during the day. Certainly learning all about this new big world she’s in.
And since I know how much you fell in love with my comparison shots during my pregnancy with Lana, I’ve started one to keep track of her over the months. 1-2-3!
i forgot to put the pillow behind her yesterday, but she sits propped up well enough now that she doesn’t really need it. and she was tired and getting cranky, so i didn’t change her into a white onesie for the sticker. i’ll try to get back to matching next month.