Evelyn is 3 months old!! How did this happen! On her three month “birthday” she rolled over for the first time – from tummy time to her back and we had to switch her to size 2 diapers. We were shocked and thrilled when she rolled over but it also makes me so sad how quickly she’s growing. I wanted to share some sweet photos of her below.
3 Month Baby Update:
Weight: 12 pounds, 1 ounce.
Length: 24 Inches
In size 2 Diapers & I just switched her to 3-6mo clothing
Loves:
To eat her fingers – she’s drooling a lot and we think she’s in the early stages of teething!
To talk to the bird mobile above her swing.
Reading books, she gets very excited and waves her arms around wildly and “talks.” I help her touch the pages of sensory books and she loves that.
When I sing Old McDonald and laughs and tries to mimic the animal noises. She also loves “Itsy Bitsy Spider” with hand motions.
Always trying to stand, still hasn’t quite mastered “sitting” as she locks her legs straight.
Other Updates:
Sleep: We are really so fortunate because she’s a super easy baby. She sleeps through the night – I feel so guilty saying that and can just feel all the exhausted mom’s glaring at me... LOL J/K. I wrote that sentence in all seriousness when I started writing this post and then our blissful nights went out the window. I have no idea what’s going on and it’s so frustrating! She goes from fine to over-tired in what feels like seconds. And while she once wouldn’t go down for the night until 12am, it’s now anyones guess- sometimes she’s exhausted by 7pm, other times 9:30, sometimes 10:30. I’ve tried a night routine… we’ve been charting every nap and feed time for the last two weeks to see a pattern… and she’s grown out of her strait-jacket swaddle so i’ve spent over $100 on all different types of swaddles… so maybe she just hates the new swaddles, or maybe she’s teething… or maybe we’re missing the window in which we should be putting her down… I DONT KNOW… WHY IS IT SO HARD…
I feel the countdown to heading back to work ticking away and am starting to panic that we won’t be able to establish a sleep routine before I start work again. Tonight, she’s woken up several times since I put her down at 7:30 (it’s 9pm) and last night I was up with her 12am, 2am & 4am. Just a week ago she was going down 10pm – 5am or 12am – 9am. If anyone has sleep training tips i’m all ears.
On a more positive note, I’m getting more comfortable going places with her and now that we can have her take a bottle it’s a lot easier as well. We’re leaving the house, i’m showered, there’s usually only minimal milk stains on my clothes. #winning
Speaking of bottles, we’ve started supplementing with a formula bottle 1x a day, usually in the evening to help fill up her belly. I did a lot of research and ultimately decided on using Holle formula which is from Germany. I’m working on a breast & bottle feeding post which i’ll be posting soon where i’ll talk more about our decision to supplement. I’m so happy with our decision, i’m no longer miserable at night (lol wrote this when she was sleeping through the night), because of that I feel rested during the day and am able to be more present with her. It’s also helped us get her to bed earlier because when we were exclusively breastfeeding she’d be constantly eating from 8pm – 12am to try to fill up her belly enough for bed. Now, we feed her a bottle of formula at 8pm and then I nurse her to sleep. Once she falls asleep, i’ll pump and I can use that milk for the next day while we’re out and about.
My 3 Month Postpartum Update:
I’m starting to panic now that I only have 1 more month of maternity leave left. I’m so fortunate to have an extra month as I won’t be going back until she’s 4mo old. I know so many moms who had to go back when their baby was 3mo. I’m not looking forward to being away from her and i’ll have an hour commute each way. I’m also still wearing my maternity pants. I never want to give them up! You know how you hear women say how they just want to fit back into their skinny jeans? Not me. Nope, i’ll take the stretchy waist… yessssss. So I’m somehow going to have to look presentable for work… find some pants I can shimmy into. And then there’s learning to pump at work. And how great to be washing all my pump stuff in the communal kitchen next to some guy trying to brew a K-Cup. Awesome.
Then there’s the stress. I’ve always been a fast-paced person. This maternity leave life has taught me to slow down and i’m surprised to find i’m loving it. Sure, we’re super busy and it’s non-stop but it’s a different type of crazy. I don’t have aggressive emails from managers, or agents, or lawyers. I’m not waking up and instantly checking my phone while holding my breath as the impending doom of my inbox starts flowing in. I have been waking up with that pit in my stomach while checking my phone, feeling guilty if it’s 7am, like I should have been responding to emails sooner, for the last 8 years. That’s just sinking in for me as I write this … 8 years of that Sunday night dread … and waking up every morning to at least one disgruntled email. I’ve been measuring my self worth from how I was doing at work, if I was succeeding in my career than I was succeeding in life. And I think what i’m realizing is there’s been a shift with Motherhood. I’m finding my self-worth and what “success” means to me is changing.
That being said, I am looking forward to being out of the house and getting a break from being her primary caregiver. While there will be a lot of difficulties with being a working mom this maternity leave has reiterated for me the struggle for stay at home moms as well.
Lastly, on a completely superficial note, I thought you were supposed to lose all your baby weight just by breastfeeding? Not the case for me. I’m not obsessing over weight loss but still… I see myself in the mirror and just kind of sigh. I care… but also not enough to do HITT workouts. I’m trying to do more nightly walks, ease back into things. That’s one thing I definitely miss from pregnancy – when gaining weight was a good thing, tight tops & a big belly was “beautiful” and wearing stretchy pants everywhere was totally acceptable.
If any mommas have advice on how they transitioned back to work after having their first baby i’d love to hear about it! ALSO SLEEP TRAINING TIPS. SOS. Leave me a comment 🙂
Xo,
M