Jourdan Leigh: Three Months

Little Peanut, how sweet you are! My absolute favorite thing this month are the constant baby smiles. It is so sweet when I come in to get you in the morning or after a nap and you smile so big and start breathing really fast and kick your legs. You are just so excited that mommy is there to get you out of your crib! You have also started to really look for me when someone else is holding you and you will also follow me (or whoever was holding you) around the room with your eyes when I set you down.

It is really amazing to watch you grow into a baby rather than the little newborn you once were. I was nursing you in the mothers room at church next to a tiny 8 pound infant last weekend and I swear there is no way you were ever that small!!! You are just growing and changing so much, I wish I could pause you right here and just savor every moment. I also told Corey the other day that I wish we could go back to the hairy newborn days, if only for 15 minutes, just to hold you and snuggle you again. I will truly treasure things even more if we are blessed with another baby because now I realize how fast the days go!

Some other things you have picked up in the past month, this funny fake cough. It cracks me up. At first I thought maybe you had come down with a little cold, but you were acting fine otherwise, and are still doing it a month later. You mainly do it when you are wanting attention I think, funny girl. You absolutely love your hands and usually are trying to get them in your mouth, both at the same time sometimes! You not only suck on them, but seem to be chewing on them too now! You are drooling like crazy too...but I'm sure it will be awhile until you get teeth. You are also going through a new "I hate my car seat" phase. I now truly appreciate those newborn days where you would go to sleep in it every time and we could really take you anywhere.

You are standing like crazy on those legs. They are getting so strong. I can hold onto your little hands and arms and you will stand on your own. You will also squat down a little like you are going to sit and then push yourself back up, strong girl! Oh and another favorite thing you have picked up this month, glancing up at me and smiling occasionally while you are nursing. Its like it finally clicked who was feeding you this whole time and its just the sweetest thing ever when you look up to say "hi mommy!"

You are nursing so great now! I can't believe how much of a breeze it is! I will know now, next time when its tough in the beginning, that it really does get easier. It is just so special and I'm so glad it has worked out for us. Its our little snuggle time and I absolutely love it. You are still really quick, 10 minutes per side, and still don't always eat on both sides every time.

You are sleeping great too now! After talking with your ped at your two month appointment we started putting you down around 7:30 or 8 and then waking you for a "dream feed" around 10 (before we went to bed) to see if we could get you to sleep longer. However, you would wake up around 230, and I would stick your paci back in, then it seemed like every hour or so after until I would eventually feed you around 5 or 6. I had some friends suggest dropping the dream feed to see if that would make a difference and it totally has! Now I feed you the first time you wake, unless its less than 8 hours (because I know you can go at least that long and also going by the doctor's advice) and then you will sleep until morning, 8 am. So much better waking just once (or maybe twice) at night rather than like 5 times! I've also started just keeping you swaddled during this middle of the night feed and not changing your diaper so you basically just fall right back asleep.

Naps are a different story. I am really trying to keep you on a "loose" schedule of eating at 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, around 7 or 730pm, then middle of the night (around 3 or 4am). So each time I will wake you and you'll eat first then play and go back down anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes (from when you woke up). Then you will sleep for around 2 hours. But really this is pretty rare, you usually wake around the 45 minute to 1 hour 15 minute mark and need to be rocked back to sleep. I sort of struggled with this decision over the past month but after talking to friends and seeing what worked for you I've decided to stick with this for now. You go back to sleep generally very easy, and if you won't then I'll just go ahead and feed you and adjust your schedule. Your naps (the portion on your own before you wake up) have started to get longer and longer as the month goes on, so hopefully that will continue!

Another phase you've gone through this month is not wanting to lay down easily. We used to be able to lay you down wide awake and you would fall asleep by yourself or maybe cry a time or two to put your paci back in. However, for a few weeks toward the end of this month you would cry whenever we tried to lay you down and want to be rocked to sleep. It really made us appreciate when you would go to sleep easily. But thank goodness now you are back to going down very easily. These phases really make you realize how quickly things change and to remember to appreciate the easy times and know the tough times will pass! I know some of this stuff isn't super interesting, but I know it will help me to keep in mind when we have another baby!

I should also share that my job has changed quite a bit! Me and Corey are blessed to be able to have me stay home with our little peanut and I am so so grateful! There is no where I would rather be! However, when I went in to resign from my job they asked if I was interested in working part time from home. We thought and prayed a lot about it and I decided to go for it! I have been working for a week now and I love it! Its hourly and we are guessing it will turn out to be about 40 hours a month.

And since I'm not posting this until a week late I can share this little tidbit! You laughed for the first time this past Sunday and it was the absolute sweetest and funniest thing ever. Me and Cor can't stop watching the video!

i mean is there a cuter baby? not possible! your first sweet little fleece :)

buster loves to hang out with you during tummy time

your first little colts cheerleading outfit haha

so stinking cute right after you woke up

you LOVE to look in the mirror and talk to yourself (haha, looks like i just got out of bed!)

funny face!

another funny face!

sweet little angel, one of the many smiles you gave us this month!

you are OBSESSED with this little bear that hung from your play mat so i moved it to your car seat (since you hate that), now everytime we put you in it you smile and talk to the bear...here you are flirting with him haha