Sweet Pea is 3 months old!

I look forward to my babies turning 3 months old because, by 3 months, things start to settle down from the crazy newborn phase and life becomes a little more routine. This is certainly true now.

Eating: Sweet Pea eats 3 to 3.5 ounces of ready-made Similac Allimentum formula every 3 to 3.5 hours. She never seems hungry, except this week. As I am writing this (during her 12th week), she must be in a growth spurt because at that 3-hour mark she is wanting a bottle and when you stop to burp her half-way through the bottle she gets mad and cries! This is the first time she has ever done this!

Growth Spurt: This 12 week growth spurt is only the second growth spurt that has been obvious to me. The first was her 2-week growth spurt. I know she probably has had other growth spurts between 2 and 12 weeks because this baby girl has a very steep growth curve on the growth chart.

Sleeping: Because I do Babywise with my girls I have tried to do the best I can to teach Sweet Pea to sleep in her “crib” with no props, however, with her tummy troubles I have obviously allowed some props to help bring her comfort since she is dealing with so much stomach pain. Her main prop is the pacifier. She pretty much requires that to fall asleep, but once asleep and it falls out, 90% of the time she is okay with it falling out and does not need it to be reinserted. If she does need the pacifier reinserted during a nap I know she is in pain because she has proven that she does not need to pacifier to stay asleep (just to get to sleep).

The first step in sleep training Sweet Pea when the time is appropriate (i.e. tummy troubles are no longer an issue) will be to wean her from the pacifier.

Sweet Pea naps four times a day. The times and lengths are somewhat getting more consistent, and I imagine once she is at 3 naps a day, the times and lengths will become very consistent from day to day (and once I am able to sleep train her!).

Nighttime sleep is okay. Once again, I know it could be better (much better, in fact!!) if we did not have the challenge of tummy troubles to deal with! But we do, so once again, I have done the best I can do to get her to start sleeping through the night, but we are still having night wakings.

About 2 weeks ago, I was not positive that Sweet Pea really needed that 4am (ish) feed for two reasons: 1) she was not eagerly taking the feed and 2) she wasn’t very hungry for her 8am feed – both of which are very good indicators that it is time to drop the MOTN (middle of the night) feed.

So, not really intending to do this, one night I stumbled to her bed (which is still in our closet) and gave her the paci instead of giving her the 4am feed. I was so tired. It was actually the night before we were leaving for vacation. I figured the paci would buy me half an hour to wake myself up more to feed her. Well, my alarm woke me up at 7:30am and I stumbled back to the closet to find a soundly sleeping Sweet Pea (with no paci in her mouth). She obviously did not need to eat at 4am! So, I decided, just in time for vacation, we were going to drop the MOTN feeding.

Sweet Pea did not have a MOTN feed at all during vacation, however, she did continue to wake around 4am (ish) for the first couple of nights for a paci insert. She gradually started waking up later and later. Towards the end of vacation it was usually in the 6-7am hour she would wake for a paci and go right back to sleep.

Then, once we were back, she started waking again near 4am and then 6am. With her day time feeds the way they were, I figured she was in a growth spurt, so I also figured she just needed a MOTN feed again. So, during week 12 we started the MOTN feed again. When I see those signs again that she does not need a MOTN feed, I will drop it again. I will deal with the waking for a paci (if it is still an issue) once the tummy troubles are non-existent.

Wake Time: Sweet Pea’s first wake time of the day is only 45 minutes. By 8:45 she gets swaddled and laid down for her first nap. Her other wake times are about an hour to at the most 1.5 hours. I should probably spend some days trying to figure this out a little better, but wake times for babies change so frequently at this age, so I guess I just haven’t given it much thought. Plus, Sweet Pea is pretty good about showing sleepy signs (unlike her sister was). Typically, at the first yawn I start the swaddle/lay down process so I make sure to get her down in that prime window of opportunity for a good nap before she gets overstimulated. It is hard for her to do tummy time because she tends to spit up more when on her tummy, so we just do it when we can.

Personality: Sweet Pea couldn’t have a better nickname on this blog. She is just the sweetest little baby. She is always ready to give a smile and her smile is just the sweetest little smile I’ve ever seen. Even when she is having tummy issues, she still smiles. By 3 months, their little personalities are starting to bloom and I just love learning who this little person is. Right now, Sweet Pea is just…sweet. She rarely cries, but she can get mad! On vacation, my dad was holding her and he was nibbling her ear. Well, Sweet Pea did NOT like that – at all!! She burst out in tears and made it known to the whole cabin that she was very mad. I calmed her down and she was fine after that and my dad told her he would never nibble her ear again!

Play: Sweet Pea continues to enjoy her play mat, bouncy seat and the swing (still no swinging motion). On vacation I noticed her playing with a toy that was hanging down from Levi’s play mat! I have noticed her watching her feet. It is always so fun when they discover their hands and feet and start batting at toys! Sweet Pea loves to interact with anyone who talks to her. She smiles and coos and loves to carry on conversations!

Clothes/Diapers: I have officially packed up the newborn clothes. Sweet Pea wears 0-3 month, , 3 month clothes and can fit into some 3-6 month outfits. She is still in size 1 diapers, although I don’t see her in that size much longer.

Weight: At 3 months old Sweet Pea weighs 11 pounds 6 ounces!

Tummy Troubles: I have seen significant improvement from months two to three! There was a period of time right before we went on vacation, that the spells were few and far between and it somewhat seemed like I had a “normal” baby. Then, the Wednesday we were on vacation I forgot to give Sweet Pea her 8pm dosage of Zantac. That stuff MUST work because the next day and for several days later, Sweet Pea’s tummy troubles were pretty bad again. I felt so horrible. I don’t think I will ever forgive myself for that mistake. After a few days she recovered from the missed dose. Then a few days after we got home from vacation she started having some bad spells again and I knew it was about time to have her Zantac dosage increased. She now gets 0.7mL three times a day (instead of just two times).

I cancelled her sonogram and x-ray of the stomach with the GI specialist. As I said, before her missed Zantac dosage, Sweet Pea had made significant improvements. When I learned more about what the x-ray would involve (not being able to eat after 6am and then a 2-hour test that included having to swallow barium), I did not want to put Sweet Pea through all that when the GI doctor had said he was confident her troubles were from the drug exposure but we could do the x-ray to “just be sure”. I figured if Sweet Pea’s intestines had a kink or there was some other physical abnormality, she certainly would not be showing improvements. So I talked to Dave and together we made the decision to cancel the appointment.

Meds: Sweet Pea is still on Zantac (and I will not forget again!!!) and she gets Gripe Water in every bottle. She also gets Mylecon drops usually before a nap and whenever else it seems she is bothered by some gas.

rH factor: Sweet Pea’s levels were checked again on November 1st and her level was at 10.7, which is good. I didn’t ask if she needs to be rechecked again, so I will ask at her 4 month well-check in early December.

Schedule (weeks 9-12):

8am

11am/11:30am

2:00/2:30pm

5:00/5:30pm

8:00/8:30pm

11:00/11:30pm

4 am (ish) – during weeks 9, 10 & 12. No 4am feed during week 11.

**I took Sweet Pea back to the 3 hour schedule during her 12th week because of her nightwakings and growth spurt. Babywise actually says to not let baby go more than 3 hours between feeds during the day until baby is sleeping through the night (from dream feed to morning feed with no wake ups). I had made an exception to this rule because if Sweet Pea had a spell that kept her from getting a good nap, I didn’t want to wake her at the 3 hour mark to eat once she finally got settled. That is how she started sometimes eating every 3.5 hours instead of every 3 hours.

**Bedtime has adjusted to the last feed of the day before the dream feed. Sweet Pea was usually in her bed asleep between 8:30-9pm this month.

Overall, this month has been much better as far as tummy troubles go. Things should only continue to get better from here on out, which is very encouraging. I’m still trying to find my groove as “mother of 2”. It is still challenging on many occasions to juggle the two girls by myself during the day although I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I know these “survival mode” days are coming to an end very soon. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I didn’t have both girls on a predictable schedule! Fun days are ahead…sitting up, laughing, sibling interaction, crawling! And complete healing. One day very soon these tummy troubles will be a distant memory.

Happy 3 Months, Sweet Pea!!

- Elaine