3 Months

"Oh boy, here we go with the picture taking."

Our baby girl is already 3 months old?!  With Spring upon us, I am so delighted that she is really starting to take note of everything around her.  We did not have a doctor's appointment this month, but we will be going the first week in May for her 4 month checkup.  If I were to guess, I'd say she's got to be close to 17-18 pounds.  I'm not joking.  We had our friends over the other evening, and their son just turned one a few months ago, and he weighs 20 lbs.  Brooke doesn't feel a whole lot lighter than him!! 

She is currently wearing 6 month clothing.  We are using cloth diapers and so sometimes 6-12 or even 9 month onesies fit best, due to the bulky nature of the diaper.  I am hoping to get some super cute warm weather outfits on her this week, as the weather is supposed to cooperate!

Dear Brooke Lynn,
   You are seriously the love of our lives.  Each day is a little bit better with you in our world.  You aren't 'cooing' as much any more, but now you're quite talkative with a lot of "ahhhhhs" and "oooohhhhs"--they're pretty loud too!  At about 2.5 months you started getting quite cranky, and bit more fussy than we had ever seen you. I  thought maybe you were getting the sickness I had, until I peeked into your mouth, and lo and behold, your gums show signs of little teethers wanting to poke through!  You're not drooling a lot, but you're constantly putting your hands into your mouth, you love sucking on blankets--especially with satin edging.  You do not like teething toys yet.  When you begin fussing, I will rock you, sing to you, hold you, and sometimes you'll nurse just to soothe yourself to sleep.

You've been out and about a lot more, now that you're older and the weather is not as nasty, I try to get us out of the house as much as possible.  You absolutely love to explore and see all that is going on.  You've gone out to eat with us a few times, and were pretty good, even when it was so close to your bed time.

Your newest "thing" is that you try and sit yourself up.  For instance, if you're laying in your swing and I come over to pick you up, you lift your head up--daddy says it looks like you're doing crunches, working on your abs.

You're still sleeping in your crib pretty well.  You were doing this 10pm-6am thing which I really loved, but sometimes you'll wake up at 2:30 or 4.  Usually just once and it's just a diaper change, a feeding and back to sleep.  You love that mobile up above!! {Side note--she sleeps with NOTHING in her crib--just her and a swaddle me wrapped around her.  The pillows/toys above are for photo purposes.}

As far as feedings, you've been eating mostly every 6 hours.  I am estimating about 8-9 ounces at a time, as that is what I get when I do pump.  The last week you've been wanting to nurse a bit more, so you've gone 4-6 hours.  Last night you slept from 8:30-6. 

When I try to make you sit on my lap, floor, wherever, you'd much rather stand.  I cannot believe how ready you are to do this!?  I swear you're going to be walking before I know it.  It's crazy!!

You still love your bath time, and your favorite place to be is up on your changing table. You talk the most up there and give the biggest smiles.  Speaking of smiles, for the love of the camera, please begin to like it!! You have the most beautiful smile I have ever seen, and I am having the most difficult time capturing it! As soon as I get you to smile, I quickly take out the phone/camera and it's usually blurry because you will quit smiling when you see it.

  I just want you keep you smiling always!

Your personality continues to shine through.    I have a feeling you may be more like me, in the sense that everyone will be able to tell how you're feeling just by looking at your face; I'm an open book when it comes to facial expressions.  People can tell when I'm happy, sad, irritated, not amused...well, I do believe you're following suit!! {We don't make good poker players!}

 Not so happy...

 Little model pose.

 Great Grandma knitted these for you; they finally fit!!

I can tell you're going to have a true passion for life.  

You get so excited about the little things. 

Be like this always.

I'm thinking you may be a dancer like mommy was; look at this pose!

You are doing much better with tummy time.  We do a lot of you laying on your stomach, on my stomach, which you love, but you're going a lot longer on the floor now too!!  You've begun to 'talk' a bit, which shows me that you're not hating it so much any more.  You have almost full control of your neck/head, it is crazy!

Now that you're more awake and not sleeping so much, I'm having a hard time finding balance with all of the boring housework and spending time with you!  You love to be played with.  You laugh so hard when we blow raspberries on your belly, lift you up high above our heads, and make silly noises.

You enjoy the "rubber ducky song" and "Donald Duck" voices.  I read books to you before bed sometimes, and you seem to enjoy the ones where you can reach out and pat them best.  {You know enough to do this, it's so awesome!!} We've been singing songs and learning patty cake...

I am having so much fun being your mommy.  I love you so much, my beautiful baby girl!!