Baby Paul: 3 Months

The period that is known as the "fourth trimester" is over! For those not familiar with the fourth trimester, it's the 3-month period of adjustment after the baby is born. The thought is that human babies are born earlier than most mammals because of the size of their head and that there is a tremendous amount of development and adjustment that occurs in those first 3 months.

The 3rd month was more challenging than the first 2. The first 2 months were full of lots of worry over his weight gain (or lack thereof) but overall he was a fairly easy baby and a good sleeper. During the 3rd month, he found his appetite, but with that came more frequent wake ups at night. And he has been more fussy. But he gained almost 2 pounds this month, which is more than he gained during the first 2 months of life!!

He also developed a strong case of stranger danger and only wants to be held by Phil or me which makes it hard for me to get away since I worry about how much he will cry when I am gone. As a result, I only left him with someone besides Phil once this month and that was for a date night with Phil. He did pretty well for my friend and her husband but I had a lot of anxiety about leaving him - not because I wasn't confident in my friend's ability to care for him but because I worried he would scream the whole time we were gone! Once we got to the restaurant I did enjoy myself and tried not to think about him too much. It was wonderful to get some time away with Phil. I know we need to make a point to do that every other month or so.

But the smiles offset some of the challenges of the third month! He went from smiling spontaneously to smiling in response to us! His smile just melts my heart!

Likes:

- laying on a blanket on the floor. He's a little bit more interested in his toys, too, like his giraffe from grandma Marlys...

and the baby paper that a friend's mom gave him. It makes a crinkling noise when he touches it.

But even without toys, he is happy on the floor, kicking his feet.

- After hating tummy time, he now likes it. Now that he likes tummy time, I think he's less motivated to roll onto his back, though!

Dislikes:

- As I mentioned above, he doesn't like being held by anyone besides mom and dad. He will look around for us and scream/cry. :(

- He doesn't like being left alone in the living room while I do dishes/get something from the kitchen/etc. So I  have learned to bring him with me if I am going to be in the kitchen for awhile.

- The nose frieda. This is an alternative to the bulb-shaped nasal aspirator. He's been a little bit congested this month so we've used it quite a bit. I guess I can't blame him for hating it!

Firsts:

- we had our first road trip to the lake. He got to meet his great-grandma Janet and spent time with Grandma Marlys and his namesake, Grandpa Paul.

- The hot weather meant it was time to pull out a hat. He tolerates it pretty well. The hat clashes with the outfit in this photo, but this picture shows how blue his eyes are!

- He also wore sunglasses for the first time. These did not stay on for long, though, so I think we'll have to settle for using a hat for now.

- He's also wearing cloth diapers now, except for overnight as he's not big enough for the super absorbent overnight cloth diapers. I tried using cloth at the beginning of the month but they were comically huge on hims (see photo on the left below). But by the 2nd half of the month, he was big enough to wear them. Yea! We are happy to be generating less waste. I know some (many?) people probably think we are crazy to be using cloth diapers but it's actually not that much work in my opinion. And the cost savings and reduction of waste that will go in the landfill makes it worth it for us!

This photo shows how much he great this month. These 2 photos were taken just over 2 weeks apart. 

- He also rolled over twice from stomach to back on the day he turned 3 months! He had rolled over when he wasn't quite 2 months but I figured that it didn't count since I couldn't get him to do it again. But since he did it twice in one day, I'm considering that developmental milestone met!

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I'm grateful that I still have about 1.5 more months with him. Most American women would be going back to work around now. I'm feeling extra tired these days so can't imagine functioning at work on the amount of sleep I'm getting. Here's hoping he's sleeping better by the time I return to work in mid-July!

All in all, we feel lucky to have such a healthy, happy baby. He definitely has his fussy times of day but overall he's a pretty happy little guy.