3months

Three Months Old

It’s hard to believe that Etta is already three months old. As her three month birthday approached I kept thinking that it was time to take her to the pediatrician again, for her "monthly" weigh and measure. Her next appointment isn’t until she’s four months, so I did a weigh and measure at home for Etta’s baby book. She is now exactly 13 pounds and already 25 ˝ inches. She’s grown out of all her newborn layette, most of her 3 month size clothing, and seems to fit perfectly in the 6 month size.

Etta has changed and settled in so many ways the last few weeks. She no longer vomits (except when she was sick recently) and rarely spits up. She drools instead, so the bibs remain an accessory to her wardrobe. She loves to suck her fist and chew on her fingers. I’m hoping that this isn’t indicative of teething because I adore her gummy smile and want her to be toothless as long as possible. She grabs for toys and brings them to her mouth for oral inspection. She doesn’t do her "little Stevie" head swaying routine unless she’s overtired and fussy. She’s a "tongue thinker" and sticks her tongue out while concentrating.

Etta laughed uproariously for the first time at 15 weeks old, her noisy inhalations and squealing exhales sounding almost like Canada geese honking. She’s been chuckling for a couple weeks, but now her laughter is unmistakably genuine. She’s learned another new trick: sucking in her lower lip while humming. She’s very animated and responds instantly when we talk to her. However, she seems just as happy to babble and sing to her toys, too.

Little Swinger

One of my husband’s coworkers brought a load of baby items to the office to put up for grabs. An infant swing was among the items, so my husband brought it home for Etta. I’d been wanting a swing for a long time, but couldn’t justify spending $80. on a new one, and hadn’t found a decent used one. Etta showed her approval of the new gadget with a hearty spell of laughing followed by a long snooze. My husband was surprised at her reaction, but I told him that was why swings were so popular, because they got babies to sleep!

Getting baby to sleep

Some people would consider my bedtime routine with Etta to be overindulgent, but it’s my favorite part of the day and more for my benefit than hers, I suppose. Around 8:00pm I give Etta a bath, during which she kicks and laughs while I sing silly rhymes to her. I dry her off and get her dressed in a cozy cotton one-piece outfit with feet (so she can’t kick her socks off), and then wrap her snugly in a large flannel receiving blanket.

In the nursery I dim the lights and Brazilian lullabies emanate from the CD player. I lie on my side in the twin bed, with Etta lying on her side facing me, eagerly nursing. At first her jaw works rapidly, then more slowly, and finally the suckles are interspersed with minutes of rest. Her eyelids are heavy with sleep and soon drop over her dark blue eyes.

Long after she’s drifted into a deep slumber, I linger in bed with her. I look down at her appealingly round head, with its thickening thatch of peach fuzz, and savor the moment. She’s lost her latch on me, and her tongue protrudes from her slightly open mouth. I scoot myself down in the bed so that I am face to face with her. In the soft light of the darkened room, to the caress of exotic lullabies, I study my baby’s sleeping face (silly as it may look with her tongue hanging out). I know that these moments are precious and fleeting, and that the opportunity to lie beside her will be gone too soon. For this reason alone, I have no intention of putting Etta in her crib at an appointed hour to cry herself to sleep.

Etta is sleeping less and less during the day. She’ll sleep an hour in the late morning and an hour in the late afternoon, and that’s it. The last two days she skipped her afternoon nap, so that might account for the meltdowns in the evening. She goes to sleep around 9:00pm and wakes to feed several times in the night before greeting the day about 7:00am. In total, she gets 11 to 12 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. It doesn’t seem like enough for such a young baby, or such an exhausted mom!

Each morning when Etta wakes and greets me with a smile and sparkling eyes, I look at her and can’t see how she’s any different than she was the day before, and yet she’s clearly different than she was just a week ago. How could this be? How is she growing so quickly, right under my adoring, watchful gaze?

New Car Seat

I installed a convertible carseat in the van for Etta this week as she is getting too large for the infant seat with the carry handle. She’s within the weight parameters (up to 20 pounds, and she’s just 13 ľ ) for the infant seat, but her height (26") is such that her feet hang over the bottom edge and her head is nearly flush with the top. The new seat is nice and roomy, yet still supportive. I thought I’d miss being able to carry her in the infant seat, but she wakes so easily now that there really wasn’t any advantage to carrying her into the house if she was asleep upon arrival.