three months, plus a little

Wow. I can't say it enough, but I'm sure everyone's tired of hearing it... time is FLYING by. Charlotte turned three months old 9 days ago. She continues to grow and learn at an incredible pace. Here are a few of her major accomplishments this month...

** She slept through the night exactly twice; the nights before and immediately after my brother's wedding. She hasn't come close to repeating that feat since then.

** Most nights, she wakes just once between 8pm and 6am. She nurses for 10-15 minutes and immediately goes back to sleep. I usually go downstairs and pump the other side for 10 minutes before going back to bed myself, but all-told, that means I'm up for only about 30 minutes each night.

** She loves to be read to and her favorite book now is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Sometimes, she asks me to read it to her 2 or 3 times in a row by fussing when I close the book and reach toward the shelf to put it away. I, of course, oblige.

** All of a sudden, in just the last week or so (so technically in her fourth month), she's been making prolonged eye contact with me. Then she smiles and "talks." I love it and can't get enough. She'd made eye contact before, but now it lasts and lasts.

** We heard her first belly laugh on 5/31, and while she has giggled a lot since then, we haven't gotten another belly laugh yet.

** Charlotte has learned to spin. I put her down for a nap or at bedtime with her head to the right, where she can look in a mirror or stare at her stuffed caterpillar while falling asleep. She rolls onto her side, then back, then side, then back,... and manages to spin 180-degrees so that she wakes up head to the left. I ask why she's sleeping upside-down and she just laughs at me.

** She's no longer mesmerized by her sailboat mobile, but clouds visible through the skylight are fascinating.

** We've dropped the swaddle. I'd tried to stop swaddling before, but she would flail as she fell asleep and startle herself awake. Sometimes, both her arms would suddenly fly up as if she were falling backwards and she'd awaken in a panic. So, we'd swaddle her, but she'd wriggle and squirm until one fist worked its way up just enough to reach her mouth. Then she'd cry because her arm was stuck, and probably pretty uncomfortable. Swaddled, she'd fall asleep. Unswaddled, she'd stay asleep (but how to get her to sleep?). Finally, it just got too hot to wrap her up. The last nighttime swaddle was 6/18 (the first time she slept through the night; we had hotel a/c). Her last nap-time swaddle was a week or so before that.

** She's been sleeping in her big-girl crib for at least a month now. Even before she learned to spin, she rolled back and forth a lot, rocking the whole bassinet and bumping into the side walls. The darned thing squeaked, and would wake her up.

** She's achingly close to rolling over from back to front. She hates tummy time, so we're a little behind on the front-to-back progress. I suspect she'll catch up when she starts rolling onto her tummy by herself.

** Charlotte knows her hands and can reach for and touch things intentionally, as opposed to haphazardly bumping into things while flailing her arms. She hasn't developed any dexterity yet, so grasping with her fingers is still kind of random, but she definitely puts her hands where she wants them.

** She started off the month eating about every two hours, between 1.5 and 2.5 ounces per feeding when given by bottle (I asked the babysitter to keep track). She now eats every 2.75 hours or so in the morning, every 3-3.5 hours in the afternoon and consistently downs 4 ounces at each meal. Once I buy bigger bottles, I'll try 4.5 or 5 ounces and see how she does, but for now she seems sated with the 4 ounce meals. At the breast, a full meal usually consists of 12-15 minutes on one side and then 5 minutes on the other. I have no idea how much milk that translates into. I could make an appointment with the lactation consultant to have Charlotte weighed before and after a feeding to determine how much she consumes, but since she's happy and growing, I see no need for it. How's that for zen parenting?

** We went to the beach last week, and survived. Neither of us got a sunburn, and my pop-up tent only collapsed while I was sitting under it, never on Charlotte alone. I'll have to get that fixed before this weekend... the Third is the big holiday in our house and we traditionally spend the day at the beach, then grill at a friend's cottage and return to the beach for bonfires and fireworks (amateur ones) after dark. It's loads of fun, and I want Charlotte to grow up with fond memories of her July Thirds spent with our dearest friends and their kids... who will be Charlotte's oldest friends one day, too.

** Charlotte has outgrown her witching hour, which used to run from 5:30 until she fell asleep around 8 or 9 or 10. It coincided too well with C's return from work each night, and he was almost taking it personally. Now, she gets fussy at bedtime and resists going down for the night, but usually falls asleep with 4 minutes of being placed in her crib.

I probably have more 3rd month updates, but I have to get some work done. So, I leave you with some endearing photos...

With her caterpillar "yardstick"-

Too big for the bassinet-

"Talking" to her caterpillar before faling asleep-And last but not least, her new sunglasses for the beach-