May 28, 2019
My tiny girl is not so tiny anymore (to me, at least). Caroline is now three months old and more fun than ever. She is really finding her personality and her voice. I think we have a chatty one on our hands. Here’s what we have been up to for the past couple of months.
Sleep
I’m not going to sit here and act like I wrote the book on babies, but I am reading one and it is doing us wonders. Caroline started sleeping 10 hours around 7 weeks old. The 10 hour nights quickly became 12 hour nights, which is our normal now. Moms on Call is the name of the game. I have talked about this book in so many of my posts, but that’s because IT WORKS. They also have a website. Caroline thrives on the schedule and routine provided by this book. Even if we end up going to bed a little later one night, I stick to the bedtime routine and she goes down super easy. Every now and then (less than once a week or so) Caroline might have not as good of a night, and wake up around 1:00 am. Typically, I can go in and soothe her without getting her out of her crib and she sleeps until the morning.
This weekend (at 13 weeks) we dropped the swaddle. For us, dropping the swaddle entailed leaving her arms free outside of her sleep sack. I was concerned going into it, but just like Moms on Call predicts…it took her about three nights to adjust. The first night without the swaddle she let out a horrible yelp in the middle of the night and woke up. The next night she was sleeping good again.
Naps are not exactly going as hot. She takes three to four naps a day, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour long. Her longest naps are in her carseat while I’m running errands or going for a walk. I do my best to put her in her crib for two of her naps, but it doesn’t always happen.
Play
Wake take is turning more and more into play time. Caroline loves this play mat. It is great for tummy time. Milton and I have (unintentionally) memorized all of the songs and even sing them when Caroline is in bed.
I recently purchased a bouncer for Caroline. She likes to be sitting up, and the rock and play (which I hear is off the market now!) kept her too supine. I chose a pretty basic/cheap bouncer. It is extremely light weight and easy to take from room to room. Caroline gets extremely chatty when sitting in her bouncer. Sometime’s I’ll just take the toys off so we can sit and chit chat. She loves to talk and likes to have your full attention when she’s jabbering.
Growth
At twelve weeks old Caroline weighed right at twelve pounds. It is wild to think that she has doubled in weight since birth. If you follow me on Instagram you know that we weigh Caroline at our family’s seafood market here in Galveston. Don’t worry, we clean the scale before we put her on it.
She’s wearing 3 month to 3-6 month clothing. I just recently boxed up all of her newborn clothes and it was bittersweet. This past weekend I had to buy her 6 month pajamas because her legs were about to bust out of the end of her smaller pjs.
Feeding
We are still exclusively pumping. It is a lot of hard work, but it is worth watching her grow! If you read my breastfeeding post, you know I was supplementing with some formula. Luckily, I’ve been able to increase my supply and give her solely breastmilk for the past six weeks. I will be honest, there have been a few times that I’ve missed breastfeeding so much that I give it a go for a little bit. I thought, maybe, since Caroline has grown so much that she would latch a little better, but she still struggles to get a deep latch and I’m quickly reminded why I started bottles. Sometimes I will let her comfort nurse before I put her down at night. We are using the Dr. Brown’s wide neck bottles.
The Willow Pump has been a complete life saver when it comes to pumping on the go. As an exclusive pumper, I pump 6 times a day. Quite often, those pumping sessions take place in the car on the way to meet family for lunch, or while running errands. I talk more about the Willow Pump in this post.
