3 months old!

Yesterday Lydia Grace was 3 months old... so crazy! I think that I will start doing monthly updates now so that I can free up the blog to write about other things, although it will most likely still be about our girl. Here is how Lydia has been doing lately.

Her stats: We haven't gotten any more updates on her height or weight but Lydia is definitely growing. She can still fit into her 0-3 month clothes, but she also fits into 3-6 month stuff well too. She is so long lately, and even though she is little her cheeks and thighs are nice and chubby. Sometimes I get self conscious when I tell people how old she is because the response is always, "She is so small!" But I know that she is doing great and that should be enough.

She has been a bit congested lately and we think that she has inherited her Daddy's allergies. No fever or anything though and she seems to feel fine. She just wakes up coughing sometimes which definitely makes her made.

Eating: Lydia is now eating 6 times a day and then once at night. I have been having some milk supply issues (again!) lately because I caught the nasty stomach bug that has been going around. Thankfully I didn't get it too bad, but I have had nausea and loss of appetite and as my food consumption dwindles so does my milk production. Hopefully I can jump start things this weekend while we are still on spring break so that things will be going by the time school starts back up.

Lydia has become so much more efficient at eating which is great, and it is her favorite thing to do for sure! She hasn't been rejecting bottles as much anymore but she definitely prefers her mommy to feed her. I am so thankful that we pushed through a rough patch in our breastfeeding experience because it is so worth it! I truly love feeding her now... it is our special time together every few hours.

Sleeping: This girl is a pro sleeper. When I say she eats 6 times a day, I should add that most of the time I have to wake her up in order to feed her. She would choose sleeping soundly in her swing or in our arms over anything else I think. She is taking 5-6, 30-60 minute naps a day. Over Spring Bread David and I didn't take the swing to NKY when we stayed there fore 5 days which we regretted a little bit, but Lydia still napped pretty well in her Nana's arms or in her Boppy pillow. When we are at home she takes every nap in her swing and it allows us to get so much more done than we used to! We put her in there when she starts to seem tired (after eating and play time) and she is usually asleep within 15 minutes with no crying at all. I know that eventually we will want her to take naps in her crib, but until she starts cutting down on the number that she takes each day I think we will stick with this method.

At night Lydia is sleeping with us and I have really come to love it. Again, I know that eventually we will want to change this and our plan is that it will happen when we move in May. But for now this works wonderfully. She goes to bed with us (around 9:30 or 10) wakes up once during the night to eat, and lately she has been sleeping so late (until 8:30 to 9:30 in the morning)! She cut out that early morning feeding which is nice for me because then I get to wake up and have a few minutes to myself in the mornings.

What she loves: Eating, being held facing out, mirrors, patty-cake, her play mat, her swing, baths, being outside.

What she hates: Her car seat, loud noises, sleeping alone.

Personality/Milestones: I just love seeing her little personality continue to develop. She is full of smiles and gurgles these days and I can just see her learn new things each day. She really loves to play with her toys and she regularly talks to them after she is full and happy. It has been amazing to see her start to recognize songs that I sing and dances that she and David do together.

I added Milestones to this section because she has passed one. She rolled over for the first time yesterday! It was from tummy to back, and she hasn't repeated it since but it was so neat to see her do it. With how much she moves around I think that she will be mobile in no time and even though it will be neat to see her roll over and crawl I know that things get much more difficult at that point so for now I am happy that most of the time she lays on her back and just kicks her legs a ton.

Heaven-sent baby items: Get a good play mat - or I guess find a play mat that your baby likes. We are fortunate to have our pick of lots of hand me down items from cousins and this week while we were in NKY we were given two different play mats and we already have one at home. However, she likes one of them a lot more than the others and over spring break she would lay on it and play by herself for up to 30 minutes! As much as I love playing with her, anything that can hold her attention and help her learn without my participation is nice since sometimes I need to do other things.

Words from Daddy: With babies there is no substitute for sheer amount of time together. Since we have been on spring break I have gotten to spend so much more time holding and talking to Lydia and she has really responded. It is really cool that just being around me more makes her like me more.

Well I hope that you have a wonderful Saturday. We will try to enjoy our last few days together while we are on our break since then school will really kick into gear... bummer.