Mostly the Kids: Ellen, 3 months (8/11/2011)

Dear Ellen,

You’re 3 months old today! Every day you are getting more personality and looking like your own person. I love watching you progress from a peaceful newborn to an energetic baby. You are “Sweet EP” now, but I am looking forward to more playful days ahead! Your temperament continues to be fairly easy going and you smile a lot. Everyone comments on how good you are – you hardly cry, especially not when we are away from home. You are getting bigger too – I had to sort through all of your clothes just last week and put away all of the 0-3 month clothes. A few of the 6 month outfits are a little roomy, but you are long in the torso and the small onesies just weren’t cutting it anymore!

My Favorite Thing: You aren’t doing very many new things right now, but you are just doing MORE of everything! You move more, you grasp more, you smile more, you sleep more, you even talk a little more. I can’t wait to see what this next month will bring!

Daily Activities and Playing: You are still on a consistent wake up – eat – play – sleep cycle (every 4 hours). During your awake time, you like to sit in the bouncer (you can make that thing MOVE, girl!), hang out in your crib and look at the alphabet cards on the wall, or play on your play mat. When spending time on your tummy, you especially like looking at yourself in the mirror. You are grasping things really well and are fascinated with the sounds your toys can make – jingles, crinkles, rattles, and the like.

Sibling: Ian is still loving you to pieces. You have started to really notice him more and are always looking around to see what he is doing. If he starts crying or I say a stern “No!” to him, it makes you upset and you start crying too. And of course, any time YOU start crying he is quick to join in the party. You two are very interested in each other and I can’t wait to see how your relationship develops in the coming months and years. In your 3-month pictures there is a shot where you have a huge smile on your face, and I can tell from the series of photos that you are looking and smiling at big brother!

Eating: At the beginning of the month you nursed about 5 times per day, but you just dropped the “dream feed” (~10 pm) around 10 weeks! You have been eating very predictably every 4 hours or so for some time, but once you started day care, I decided to put you on a more consistent schedule to simplify things for your care givers. I wake you up at about 6:30 to nurse, you have 7 oz bottles at 10:30 am and 2:30 pm, and then you nurse again around 6:30 pm before the rest of the family eats dinner. I predict that it will be easy to transition you to dinner with the family in just a few months!

Sleeping: You are sleeping so well! At the beginning of your third month, you would sleep for about 7 or 8 hours at a time, but at about 10 weeks you just started going to bed at 8:00 or 8:30, the same as big brother, and we didn’t hear a peep until 6 or 7. There have been a few times that you have woken up early (5 am), and once in the middle of the night (3 am), but for the most part I have to wake you up each morning. Your day time napping is still not great, but you do go down more easily for naps this month than last. You still like to be swaddled to go to sleep, but usually at least one arm pops out and it doesn’t wake you up. I am sure before too long I will join in the “When to drop the swaddle??” debate.

Special Events: Started Day Care (at 12 weeks, ~ 2 ¾ months) on August 3, at Breckinridge Montessori. The teachers all love you and say that you are happy all day long. I am not sure if they have heard you cry yet!