Three Months!!!

Sweet Blakely Ann,

You are three months old!!  I can hardly believe that...it sounds so grown up.  Just this morning I was looking back at all of the photos of your birthday and oh my how you have changed!  You are a baby now and not just a newborn.  I know I say this all the time but you have brought so much joy into our lives.  Daddy and I love you more than we even thought possible.  You get more fun and sweet as the days go by.  I always think I couldn't possibly love you more and then you give me that smile and I do!  You have started smiling at me in the mornings when I come in to feed you.  You fuss until it wakes me up and then when you see me you are all smiles.  I make you happy sweet girl....and that makes mommy over the moon happy.  I love you so very much...Happy three month birthday!
Love, Mommy

Firsts this month:

Blakely laughed out loud for the first time on 12-30-11.  I actually got it on video...I couldn't believe it!  She had been sort of giggling for a few weeks so I knew that she was close and that is why I had the video on.  She would smile real big and then say heeeee after the big smile.  But this was a total LOL.  I'm pretty sure it is the cutest thing that I have ever seen.  

I hope the video works and if it does ignore my crazy mommy voice.  Although you can hear my surprise when she laughs!

Blakely had her first Christmas!

Lonnie celebrated his first birthday as a daddy!

she's singing happy birthday.....yeah, not really ;)

She celebrated her first New Years...and no she wasn't awake at midnight, although Lonnie and I went down and kissed her :)  Lonnie's brother, his wife, and their two kids came to visit us on New Years weekend.  Here are Collier and Syble reading to B...

She slept without being swaddled (or half swaddled as we have always had her arms out) for the first time.  We just started this two days ago and she seems to do fine.  The first night she did wake up at 1230 but I think she was just super hungry.  

She stuck her tongue out in response to my Grand for the first time on 12-26-11.  They did this for a while and it was really cute.  She has done it a few times since then but not very many.  

It was her first time cheering the Razorbacks to a bowl win :)

Blakely took her first bath in her bath tub.  She had just been taking a bath with one of us but that was getting old as sometimes neither one of us would want to take one.  She seems to like her tub and only screamed the one time daddy dropped her little head on the hard plastic :)

after bath cuteness....

She fit into her first 3-6 month pajamas.  I nearly cried.  The only reason I tried them was that they were so stinkin' cute!  

see...so cute right??

Feeding: We are still exclusively breastfeeding which, apparently, means I have bronze boobies!  I didn't know this until I read Shannon's post.  Honestly, she sums up exactly how I felt/feel about breastfeeding.  I worried about that so much and I am ecstatic that it is working out for us.  We seem to have worked out all the kinks and are settling into a nice routine.  I love it....

I am still pumping even though Blakely won't take a bottle.  I feel like she will get it eventually?  And, if not, (Lord help me) then I will just use the milk I have stored to mix with her baby food.  I am storing it in a deep freezer so, from what I've read, it is good for six months.  I pump when I go to bed at night and then after her first feeding in the morning.  Sometimes I pump a few other times during the day and then some days (when I am lazy) I only pump those two times.

My supply is doing really well right now.  It did drop a bit over the holidays when I was stressed out.  This also coincided with B sleeping 8-9 hours a night.  I just pumped after she ate every time for like 4 days and it came back up.  And, oh the engorgement when she started sleeping longer at night.  WOW!  It is better but I am still pretty engorged in the mornings....

As far as the bottle goes I will do an entire post on that once the whole 10 days of OPERATION: Baby must take bottle is over :)

and this is what she looks like after crying herself to sleep after a bottle attempt...

Sleeping: Blakely has been an awesome sleeper from the very beginning.  I know some people hate me for this and that it totally ok ;)  She sleeps average 8-9 hours at night.  She wakes up to eat after this and then goes right back to sleep for another 3-4 hours.  It is awesome and I feel like a completely new woman.

Her naps during the day are getting better.  She will take a decent nap (45 min-1 hour) in the morning anywhere I put her.  Her non-existent afternoon nap has always been the problem.  I started putting her in her swing for this one about a week ago and I think she has decided to like it.  Granted, I have to turn the vibrate on, swing it like crazy, and blast the music.  She will sleep for an hour.  Then in the early evening she will take a little 20 minute cat nap.  She is very sleepy when it is time to put her down for the night.  I have put her in her crib for naps a few times and she does pretty good...never more than 45 minutes though.  We are making progress!!  The first time she slept in the swing for an hour I didn't even know what to do with myself!

this is still her favorite place to nap...

Diapers:  She is still in Pampers Swaddlers size 1-2 diapers.  I am thinking of buying a few cloth diapers to try.  I told myself that I was going to attempt to start cloth when she was 3 months old....but I'm just not sure it is for me.  We will see....

Clothing:  All 0-3 months clothes fit her now.  Like I said above I did put a 3-6 month pajama on her the other day and it fit.  I have since tried just a couple of 3-6 month things that work.  Most of the stuff that size is still way too big for her.

Weight: she weighs 12 pounds 12 ounces on our home scale

Height:  23 inches

Hair Color: Her hair is brown and she hasn't lost any of it from birth.  It is getting much longer and she has a couple of strands that hang way down over her ears!  It does seem to be getting lighter than it was.  I had a dream that Lonnie cut her hair and it was all uneven across her forehead.  I was sooooo mad!!  I asked him if he saved the hair and he said no...I flipped.  When I told him about this dream he told me I was crazy.  He might be right ;)

Eye Color:  Her eyes were a very dark blue to start with and they are getting lighter and lighter blue.

A few other things I want to remember:
Blakely has been so so smiley this month.  She just smiles all the time and we love it!  She will smile at anyone but she smiles the most at Lonnie...she just loves him!  She still loves listening to him sing or even just listening to him talk.  She gets so happy when he gets home from work.  

She is getting such a personality now.  She is a little stubborn and wants what she wants.  We can be holding her and when she is tired of that she fusses and wants to be put on the play mat...then she is happy.  Sometimes it takes us a little bit to figure out what she wants and she will get real fussy.  But eventually we figure it out and she goes back to totally happy.  I think her stubborness is the reason we are having such bottle issues.  

She has also started "talking" so much more.  She and I have had a few conversations that go a little something like this.
B: goo
mommy: agoo
B: ahhhh
mommy: ahhh goooooo
you get the idea :)

She is getting so much better at tummy time.  She still doesn't like it but she doesn't instantly scream when I put her on her tummy either.  The main problem I am having with it is that she spits up when we do it.  I don't do it after she eats or anything but, since she hasn't figured out how to prop herself up with her arms, all the pressure is on her tummy.  Literally sometimes only her tummy is touching the ground...no legs or arms...it's actually pretty cute!

this light up toy helps a LOT

she doesn't hold herself up like this for very long...

please, woman!  No more tummy time!

She for sure found her hands this month and she loves to suck on them.  She balls them into a fist and slowly raises her hand to her mouth.  Sometimes she misses her mouth and hits her forehead but then slowly slides it down to her mouth.  She tries to get the whole fist in there to the point where she gags.  It must not bother her because she keeps on doing it all day long!  She seems to favor her left hand...not sure if that means anything but I wanted to note it here.  

She has started looking at her toys more this month as well.  She got lots of new things for Christmas and really enjoys looking at them while mommy dangles them in front of her.  She still wants to look to the left more than the right so we have been working on that.  She is able to look to the right and does it a lot...she just prefers to turn left!

We call her our little heater.  She is always so warm!  I have our temperature upstairs set on 72 or 73 and I could just leave her in her diaper and she would not get cold.  When she goes to sleep I have been having it set on 73 (cold for me) and that was perfect for her. I have now  turned it up to 75 since taking off the swaddle.   It is actually about 3-4 degrees colder than this in her room because we keep her door closed.  When I get up to feed her in the morning she warms me up because I am cold.  I have taken her temperature a bunch of times because I am a worrier like that!  

A funny story.  I was getting her bath ready one night while Lonnie was getting her undressed in the bedroom.  All of the sudden I hear her start SCREAMING and I am wondering what the heck??  A few minutes later she stops.  Lonnie walks into the bathroom with her and they both look a little bewildered.  He is holding up the shirt he just took off of her and said "you should have told me there were snaps on the back!".  He pulled the thing over her head without unsnapping it!  Poor thing!  I honestly don't know how he did it....it was so tight!  He hates changing her clothes.....

I have started sleeping with her little lovey.  I read that if you sleep with it for a few nights and then give it to them when they are in their car seat they won't hate it so much.  I guess because they can smell you and it comforts them?  She doesn't mind the car seat but only if the car is moving..HA!

Daily Routine:  I stick to this routine pretty good.  The times may vary but are pretty close to the same every day...within 45 min to an hour.

9-930 am:  wake up for the day.  Change diaper and put on new clothes (some days we stay in our jammies).  First feeding.  
930-1030am:  she plays in the bouncer in the kitchen and watches mommy wash all the pump parts and bottles from the night before.  For some reason she loves this.  
1045am to 12-1230pm: morning nap.  She usually sleeps 45 minutes to an hour and a half....  If I have errands to run this is when I do them.  She will sleep the whole time if we leave the house.  
12-1230pm: diaper change and feeding.
1230-200 pm: play time on the play mat or just talking to mommy
2-3 pm: hopefully a nap :)
3 pm: diaper change and feeding
330-500: play time on the mat or we take a walk outside in the stroller
5 pm: diaper change and feeding
530-7 pm: daddy gets home and sings and plays with B...sometimes a small nap in here
7 pm: diaper change and feeding
730-9 pm: play with mommy and daddy or get a bath.  Usually she is ready to go to sleep about 830 and we have to keep her awake for a little while longer.  I do this because the difference in her waking up at 430 rather than 530 is HUGE difference to mommy :)
9-930 pm: diaper change and last feeding for the night
5-6 am: wake up for a diaper change and feeding but go right back to sleep
9-930 am: start all over!

Mommy:  I am doing pretty well.  I have been totally sick (sore throat, cough, headache) the past few days and that is pretty horrible.  It is hard to take care of her when I feel like crap...thank goodness Lonnie has been off a few days this week.  I also am scared to death for her to get sick so I have been staying away from her which kills me.  I haven't kissed her in 3 days!

I have gotten her on a pretty good schedule and I am quite proud of myself for that.  I'm not sure how it happened.  One night I just said Ok, I am putting her to bed for the night at 900.  I didn't care what time she woke up to eat.  I just needed some time to myself and some time for my husband.  She did great with this!  The problem is that I have become a frickin' drill sergeant when it comes to the schedule.  I should probably be a little more laid back but it is working so well that I don't want to change a thing.  

Just a little note that is probably TMI but I haven't really talked about it in a while.  My lady parts feel back to normal now...thank goodness!  I was really getting worried that things would never be the same down there but all is well now :)  I started feeling back to normal around 8-9 weeks postpartum.  

Daddy:  Lonnie is doing great and he is just the best father.  He had a bad cold (that's where I got it) a week ago and it was hard for him not to kiss Blakely too.  He is slowly getting better now and back to singing or reading to her every day.

I just have to share this.  I was looking through his phone the other day and I came across a text where someone asked him about fatherhood.  This was his response exactly.  

Hard to explain.

It's more than any other love I've felt.

It's cliched.  I know, but it's like having your heart walking around outside of your body.

Love at first sight.

I wish it wasn't true but I am certain that she's going to break my heart one day.

But I'm also certain that she's worth it......

Is that not the sweetest, most honest thing you've ever heard?  I cried when I read that and I cried when I just typed that.  Blakely and I are so lucky to have him!