kids

kids

Sunday, January 30, 2011

3 whole months for Lila!


Lila's 3-month birthday was January 26th! Coincidentally, this was the same day that our good friends, Kami and Ben Recla, had their baby girl, Lauren Elizabeth! Lauren was born four days after her due date, so I know she was waiting for the 26th so she could be exactly three months younger than Lila :)

Lila's third month was full of exciting changes.....

Physical changes: She gained 1.5 pounds and grew 1.25 inches between her 2-month and 3-month well-baby visits. She now weighs 12 pounds 5 ounces and measures 23.25 inches long. According to the doctor, she is in the 50th percentile for both measurements. Interestingly, Lila seems to be following the same rate of growth that John did -- although John didn't have a doctor's appointment at 3 months, he weighed 11 pounds at 2 months and 14 pounds at 4 months, which means he probably weighed around 12.5 pounds at 3 months.

Lila is now a pleasantly plump baby girl. Her cheeks have filled out more, and her thighs have those adorable rolls that I've been waiting for. Like John, she has a very pear-shaped abdomen that makes it look like she's been knocking back the beers, hehe.

Lila's 0-3 month and 3-month size clothing still fits her, but it's definitely getting tighter. This past week I started putting her in some of her 3-6 month size outfits. They are big on her, but I couldn't resist seeing what she looks like in them!

Lila's eyes are still blue. I am wondering if they will stay blue.....it is possible, I guess, since Ross' dad and brother have blue eyes. Her hair is getting thicker on the top and on the sides, and it is quite dark. She has developed a sizeable bald spot on the back of her head, though, despite my best efforts to prevent one. She just really likes to move her head around when she's sleeping and playing.

Sleep schedule changes: Lila's daytime sleep schedule is slowly becoming more predictable. It's funny, but I didn't realize this until I started writing down the exact times she sleeps. She usually wakes up between 7 and 8 a.m. and, after nursing and playing for a little while, she wants her first nap between 9 and 10 a.m. The length of this morning nap can differ widely -- sometimes she sleeps just 45 minutes, but sometimes she sleeps for three hours. (The length of this nap seems to depend on where she is sleeping. She sleeps much longer in her car seat than her crib.)

No matter how long her morning nap is, she's almost always awake during John's naptime (12:15-1:45 p.m.), and we play the whole time. Right around the time John wakes up, she gets sleepy again, so I put her down for her second nap. This afternoon nap also varies greatly in length, depending on where she's sleeping.

Lila takes a short evening nap around 5 or 5:30 p.m., which means she's usually asleep while we're cooking and eating dinner (how convenient!). She tends to wake up right as I am getting John ready for his bath, between 6 and 6:30 p.m (how inconvenient!). As soon as John is in bed, Lila and I spend some more one-on-one time playing, and then she's ready for bed between 8 and 8:30 p.m.

Her nighttime schedule is much less predictable than her daytime schedule. In mid-January, when I started putting her in her crib instead of the pack n' play, it seemed like she was finally going to start consolidating her nighttime sleep, and I got really, really excited. But last week, she started waking up every two hours during the night, and sometimes even more frequently. Sometimes she wakes up only an hour after I've just nursed her!

If I've nursed her three times in a single night and she wakes up a fourth time, I usually transfer her to her car seat to see if she'll fall asleep again there. That has been working pretty well. But by then, it's already 4 or 5 in the morning, and I haven't slept very much at all! Bottom line, I am in dire need of another 8-hour stretch of sleep like she had the night after John's birthday party (her longest stretch to date).


To address these sleep concerns, I've been consulting my favorite sleep book (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child). It says that to prevent all these night wakings, I should be focusing on Lila's schedule during the day, making sure that I putting her down for naps within 1-2 hours of wakefulness. I had been doing this already, but I am renewing my efforts to do an even better job. But it is really, really hard to do, especially in my mom's house, since the bedrooms are on the second floor (and we mostly hang out on the ground floor and in the basement). Mark my words: as long as our children are young, Ross and I will NEVER live in a home that has multiple floors. My life would be so much easier right now if we were living in a one-story home.


Eating changes:
Since Lila has been wanting to eat almost every time she wakes up at night lately, it seems to me that she might be going through a growth spurt. She has been wanting to nurse from both sides during many of her feedings during the day too. (Previously when I'd try to nurse her from both sides at each feeding, she'd spit up a lot or sometimes even throw up, so I had stopped doing that.) During the day, she nurses every 2.5 -3 hours.
Overall, she's still a great nurser, which I'm VERY grateful for. It's a big time saver, and time savers are crucial for me now that there are two kiddos to care for. I can't imagine having to worry about preparing bottles for her every time she wanted to eat! Lila will take a bottle of my milk, though, too. Grandma Kay gives her a bottle when I take John with me to the gym in the morning. Lila usually takes 4-5 ounces during a bottle feeding.


Playtime changes:
Lila has made huge strides in her play sessions. She is SO much more interactive than she was a month ago! Now she bats at toys that are hanging in front of her or above her and tries to grab ahold of things. She still can't pick things up, but if I stick a toy under her fingers, she will usually hold onto it for a few seconds. She also loves to wave her arms and kick or throw her legs in the air. Sometimes it looks like she's trying to do a sit-up!
Lila's favorite toys are the ones that light up and/or make music, like her Fisher Price jungle-themed activity mat (which does both). If she's in a really good mood, she'll play on the mat for an hour or more! She also really likes the curiosity cube (that's what I call it) that Ruthanne and Steve got her for Christmas and this Sassy brand highchair toy that we got for John when he was eight months old. But she's entertained by pretty much anything right now.
I had bought Lila a canvas toy bucket from Pottery Barn back in September when I was picking out bedding for her nursery, and I ended up buying her another one last week when they were on sale -- thank you, Steph, for introducing me to these! They are great. I carry them all over the house so we can have an impromptu play session wherever we are.
I just started reading to her during playtime. It sounds funny, but I hadn't thought about doing this until a few weeks ago! John has a bunch of simple board books that he's outgrown, and I brought those down from his room for her to look at. She seems to like the pictures. If the books have textures, too, then I put her fingers on them for her to feel.
As for tummy time, Lila still isn't a big fan. We've been doing it a couple of times a day since she was born, and she's getting really good at it, but she doesn't like it very much. It's amazing how much better she is at holding her head up during tummy time than John was. Practice makes perfect, I guess -- I was terrified at first to put John on his tummy, so I didn't start doing it regularly with him until he was three months old.


Three big "firsts":
Lila cooed for the first time right after New Year's. I forgot to write down the exact day she started cooing, but I got the first video of her cooing on January 12th (see video at the bottom of the post). Hearing her talk totally melts my heart. I'm so glad that her Daddy has gotten to hear her over the phone a couple of times. Ma Bonnie and Papa Jeff have heard her too.
Lila giggled for the first time on January 14th. I was changing her poopy diaper and talking to her about how stinky it was, and she let out a little chuckle. It was so subtle, though, that I wasn't even sure it actually was one, so I had to ask Grandma Kay for her opinion. She agreed! Since then, Lila hasn't giggled very often -- maybe two or three times. And she definitely hasn't had a real belly-busting laugh session yet (like John had when he was two months old and Daddy was making funny gorilla noises). I can't wait to see what makes her laugh that hard!
Finally, I believe Lila has officially started teething. She has her fingers in her mouth all the time now -- so much so that she's gotten a red rash on them -- and she sometimes tries to put her entire fist in her mouth. She doesn't really drool yet, but she does produce a lot of bubbles. One of my nicknames for her is "Bubbles," hehe.

Below are my favorite photos of Lila from her third month, followed by the one video I have of her from January (yes, I was a lazy videographer last month).....
































2 comments:

  1. She is so cute! What a lucky mama you are to have two adorable children :) Glad you like the Pottery Barn buckets! I started keeping one in the car too in an effort to consolidate car toys. It is working great!

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  2. Wie suess! Ich bin froh, dass du in Lila's ersten drei Monaten die Kamera Film nicht vergessen ;)

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