My tiny little baby has grown into a big strong girl before my very eyes. She's 5.2kg of chubby little thighs and chipmunk cheeks that look like they're storing sacks full of chestnuts for the winter. Her 'fourth trimester' (the newborn period) is over and Alice is now officially referred to as an infant - and she has the next-size-up nappies to prove it!
One of the best things I'm finding about this age is how social she is becoming. She is so interested in meeting people. She stares into everyone's eyes and is becoming much more generous with her smiles, particularly when someone is really trying to engage with her. She's started making excited noises when she first sees you in the morning or when she's playing on her play mat. It is very sweet. We've been taking her out and about, all over the place, ever since we've had her home from hospital so she's really comfortable in new environments and will sleep through most any noise.
She absolutely loves being in the pram or in the car. The only problem with car trips is that she cries at just about every red light! The amount of times I've considered running a red light just so she won't grizzle is a bit scary! I've got a few tactics up my sleeve now, though. If there are not many cars I'll slow down really....well....slowly, in the hope that the lights will change before I get there and I'll be able to zoom right through. If I'm planning on driving on a freeway I also have to make sure she's been well fed as it seems every time I get on a road where I can't stop for kilometres she decides she's absolutely starving and screams and screams. In case you didn't know, this makes for a very stressful driving experience!
She is still feeding four-hourly at night. I can't complain about this as it still allows for a reasonable amount of sleep (on my part) and she goes back to bed easily after I've fed her so it's not as if I'm up for hours each time trying to re-settle her. Having said that, apparently it is now OK to start encouraging her to stretch her feeds out a little so that she only needs one at 2-3am. I get so confused about what things are recommended and what are not. Like the whole demand feeding thing. I thought the basis of that was that you don't try and do things like stretch feeds out but that you feed on demand whenever your baby shows hunger signals. Today, however, the maternal and child health nurse told me that everything is flexible and that it's good for babies to learn to get through the night without feeding all the time at this age. I feel like I never quite know what I'm supposed to be doing as I get different answers to all of my questions depending on who I ask!
She's not sleeping for longer stretches overnight, but she's definitely sleeping less during the day now. She used to be in a pretty reliable pattern of feed, play, sleep, but now she will be awake and playful for much longer periods of time. This morning I only got her to sleep for half an hour before she was up again but then she went down for a really long nap in the afternoon. It's actually really lovely having her awake so much given that she spent so many of her early weeks deep in the land of nod with her eyes squeezed tightly closed against the world! She's not at all a baby who demands attention and constant entertainment. I can put her on her play mat and she'll happily lay there for 15 minutes talking to her little animal companions, looking around and kicking about. That gives me enough time to grab a cup of tea or go to the toilet, which are about the only two things I'm finding time for during the day right now!
Now, we think it is possibly a fluke, but Alice also rolled from her tummy to her back this month - twice, maybe three times! No one seemed more surprised than she did to accomplish this feat. She absolutely hates tummy time so we figure this is probably a huge motivator for her to get herself onto her back again. I'm pretty sure she just so happened to have her hands in the right position to lever herself over. Still, I'm calling it a milestone. I officially recorded it as one in her baby book!
We had a little visit to the emergency department this a couple of weekends ago, too. It turned out to be nothing, and we knew it probably would be, but we just wanted to be on the safe side. Alice was refusing to feed properly for a good 36 hours and seemed very lethargic. She didn't have a fever and wasn't crying but just didn't seem herself. The doctors said there was nothing wrong with her but I think maybe she had a little bug or something that was making her feel a bit under the weather. She started picking up late the next afternoon - right in time to be the star attraction on my birthday! I had a couple of friends around for coffee and cake and she woke up and totally stole the show. No one's interested in me at all anymore - it's all about the baby! But that's OK, as she is a pretty awesome human being.
Here she is on her three-month-birthday, all 5.2kg of her!
Such a cutie!!
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