Harper only 3 days old!
Harper at 3 months old!
I can not believe 3 months have already flown by! One of the things I have enjoyed is that I have not really known anyone that had a baby around the time Harper was born. Mostly for the reason that I am not sitting and comparing everything she is doing (or not doing) to others. I have told myself that Harper is her own person and she will do things on her own schedule. I do not want to be the crazy mom that is super stressed because someone else's child is rolling over but mine is not. That can't be healthy for her! Anyway..... the things she has been doing are:
* Focusing on objects and following them when moved from side to side/up and down
*Smiling all the time (this one is my favorite!)
*Supporting her head
*Holding her head up during tummy time
*Beginning to understand that she can make things happen (i.e. when she pulls the frog on her activity mat it will sing a song)
*Using her core muscles to try and sit up
*Bearing weight on her legs when I hold her up
*Makes intense eye contact. Especially when you are telling her a story or singing to her
*LOVES music....mostly the Black Eyed Peas
*Sleeps through the night since 7 weeks old!!! (7pm-7am with a 20 minute feed around 10:30)
Every day she amazes me with all the little things she is doing to learn and develop. However the whole experience has not been the easiest. She has been quite the fussy one and also has acid reflux. This can make our days very long and heartbreaking. Who knew babies could even have acid reflux? Basically, if she lays down on her back she begins to scream bloody murder because of the pain. She will then spit up/throw up and sometimes when I get her up from naps her hair will be soaked from the spit up. My pediatrician has prescribed her Zantac. It helps most of the time but I have had to watch my diet as well. No caffeine or dairy. The former is not so bad....the latter is a killer. I love cheese. I love ice cream. I LOVE milk! I will admit that I do not always stick to it as much as I should but I definitely reap the consequences if I slack. Apparently my brother and I were the same way when we were young so my mom switched to formula feeding and we had to have soy formula. I can understand why she did it but I am so used to breast feeding (and the saving all the money) I figured I will just improve my diet, which will hopefully help me lose the last of the baby weight anyway!
I also told myself before she was born that I was going to put her on a strict schedule so my life and her life could be somewhat predictable. To my surprise I did a great job in the beginning. I was strong when it came to letting her "cry it out" for naps and working on a routine feeding schedule every 3 hours. But as life throws curveballs at me is when I tend to stray to my inital great ideas! With the acid reflux we have not had the most successful time with napping. She will nap maybe 45 minutes and then usually lets out a scream to let me know she is having pains again. If she does not wake up screaming she still wakes up after about 45 minutes with a GIANT smile on her face letting me know she is ready to be awake again. How can I leave her be when she is sooooo happy?? Plus the older she gets, the more personality she has. This makes it much harder to allow her to cry.
My absolute favorite part of the day every day is at 7:00 a.m. Not because it is 7:00 because I will tell you when my alarm goes off, I am not always ready to get up. But, when I walk into Harper's room and lean over the crib to tell her good morning she is the happiest girl in the world. She opens her eyes and gets this grin from ear to ear. It makes my heart jump with happiness every morning. She is so excited that it is a new day!! Josh and I actually race to see who can get to the crib first to get the first smile.
So...over the past three months I have had so much fun watching Harper grow and learn. Also, I have had fun learning with Josh how to be the best parents we can be. So far, I think we are doing a pretty good job!
