3 Months Old Today

I have started half a dozen posts in the last few weeks and haven't been able to finish them before something demands my attention, or I fall asleep...;-) Hopefully I'll be able to play catch up soon, but I wanted to at least post some pictures and a few notes and thoughts today.

Emiline is 3 months old and the time has gone by fast (mostly, thankfully). It's amazing how quickly kids can just mesh into the fabric of a family and it becomes strange to think about them never having been there. I really like this age, partly because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (earlier bedtimes, regular napping, etc), but also because their personalities are really starting to show. I've said before that children are like presents from God that you spend your whole life first unwrapping and then figuring out how they work. At three months, I'm starting to rip off enough paper to see what this child could be. She is SO DARN smiley which transform her whole face. She loves to have little conversations with whoever will sit and "talk" with her and she doesn't like to be alone. She prefers Jane's noise and being in the action to being left where she can't see anyone.


She quite likes her play mat

(so does Jane, or Jane likes Emiline on her playmate, she's always getting down to play with her. In this pic she's actually "feeding" baby sister from her kitchen. It was way cute but I got the camera out too late and missed getting a good shot) and has started to grab at things and put them in her mouth. She kicks like crazy which has made me think that Baby Legs (the leg warmer looking things she's wearing here)

are the best thing ever for keeping her warm, otherwise she just gets too cold with all that movement. She's incredibly strong in the neck, back, and legs and if left alone on her mat or the bed, she'll turn and scoot and roll a bit and I can't quite figure how she's gotten there...and she LOVES Patty Cake with Daddy. We've finally started reading stories to her here and there and she seems to approve.



She's going to bed a bit earlier these days, 10:00 or so, and she slept totally through the night for the first time a day or two ago (heaven!) and right now she's waking up usually around 2:30 for a bottle (yes, we weaned. *sigh*) and then usually sleeps close to 8:00 (which is useless because Jane is usually up by 6:00. *double sigh*). The darling usually obliges me by taking at least one nap during Jane's afternoon nap so that's been a life saver.

As for eating, I don't think she eats enough. She's 12 lbs 10 oz with clothes on as of Friday (she has some mad butt rash, bleeding and everything, that we took her into the clinic Friday and they weighed her) and still in 0-3 month clothing. Jane at this age was already in 6M and was only in 0-3 for a few days (OK, a week and a half) so it's kind of strange to have such a skinny kid on my hands. She takes 4 oz of formula a feeding (this is what happened when we tried 6 oz...)this was after I had been looking around the room for a few minutes to find the camera, so a lot of it had already soaked in...she had a puddle completely around her head.
and seems to be adjusting. She was really pukey (yea, those pictures above give you a slight idea of how pukey she was, knock on wood) for a while and gassy and then had a crazy number of poops a day (hence the diaper rash) which we think was the formula's fault (yes, mom feels guilty about weaning even though she knows it was the best thing for the family) but we're going to keep her on this particular brand a bit longer to see if she adjusts better.

It's so strange how busy I've been this week, I've felt like I haven't spent much time with her just playing with her and looking at her and bonding. I got 45 minutes in today though while Jane was sleeping and I just adored adoring her. Here are a few shots I snapped this afternoon.



I'm so pleased to be Emiline's mother (by the way, we've test-piloted a few nicknames: "Millie" or "Millie-Bird" and "Rhys-a-Roo" here and there, but so far we call her the full three syllables most of the time. I also call her "Pukey Tuesday" when she has puked whether it's Tuesday or not...don't ask. I have no idea why I call her that). I hope I can do right by her and be a good mom and not let Jane's extreme neediness lately deprive her too much. I hope I can always take the time to listen to her and her needs and make the time to love her and bond with her. I'm so glad we've had ourselves a "magic baby." She is a joy.