Almost 3 months old...

My baby girl is growing up so fast already!  When I was at a friends the other day, who has a baby 2 months older than Emma, I was told she totally still feels like a newborn, who is so small and cuddly.  I don't feel this way at all.  I have already almost forgotten what it was like when she was that tiny!  I feel like everyday she gets a little bigger.  Here is where we are at thus far!

Holding the Head up:
She can hold her head up like a champ!  When she does tummy time, she can completely raise it up while on her elbows and look around.  She also no longer despises tummy time like she used to, due to the fact that she can look around and still see her fun toys hanging above her head.  I also finally removed her infant head support out of her carseat.  She had been too tall to use it for awhile, so we just pulled it up as far as it would go once we strapped her in.  But, due to her having much more control over her head, I took it out.  She's much more comfortable now, I think!  I was told by a couple who have a baby 2 weeks older than Em that she was holding her head up really well for that age.  Their son was still quite wobbly, so go bean!

Play time:
She is definitely becoming quite the chatty little girl.  She was bound to be that way, considering her parents! :-)  She loves to squeal, coo, and laugh as she plays with toys dangling above her.  She is also very reactionary to us.  She smiles when I do specific things and giggles at papa all the time!  We have a morning routine now, where we sing some songs and do her "exercises" that I learned from working with Isobel and Rudie!  She enjoys that time, and usually smiles and laughs all the way through!

She is also learning to reach and grab for things.  She loves the hanging dragonfly on her froggy chair, and she has learned to reach and grab onto the little discs hanging from him.  It is so cute to watch her try so hard to get her hands to do what she wants them to do.  She still gets overexcited sometimes and totally misses them due to erratic hand movements, but many times she is able to calmly reach up and grab them.  Then she smiles really big and holds on for dear life!

Sleeping:
So, she definitely doesn't take after me in the sleep category.  I was told I was a child who came home from the hospital sleeping all night.  Emma still likes to get up every 2 hours at least, sometimes ever hour, all night long!  It can make for some rough nights, and a mama who seems to be always going on very little sleep.  I'm learning to cope better than I thought I would.

For this reason, we're starting sleep training.  Right now, we're doing very mild sleep training.  We are establishing a bedtime routine right now.  She gets bathed some nights, but every night she gets an infant massage and then fed.  After that, she is nursed while papa reads the Bible to her.  Then, we swaddle her up tight, and I rock her and read her "It's Time to Sleep, My Love" while holding her.  Eventually she falls asleep in my arms, and then I lay her down.  She's down around 8 most nights, and usually doesn't wake up the first time until 11 (the only longer stretch she has).  That's about when I go to bed, so I will nurse her again, and then we start the consistent wake ups.

We have established a shorten routine for naptime as well.  Basically, I just watch for tired cues all day, and as soon as I see them, she is swaddled, rocked, read to, and put down.  Most of the time she sleeps no more than 30 minutes, sometimes as little as 10 minutes.  Usually, I will go back in and rock her again and if she falls asleep quickly I'll put her back down.  If not, I get her up.  This usually happens anywhere from 3-6 times throughout the day, depending on how much we get out of the house.  Every now and then, she'll have one really long nap (1 hour or even late in the evening she'll sleep 2 hours) allowing me to run around like crazy getting housework done (she's sleep right now, so I should be doing that).

As much as I hate the idea, and I know I will cry doing so, I think our next step is to let her learn to fall asleep on her own, by allowing her to cry it out.  I know many people are against this, and just say to hold her if she sleeps like that, but it's just not practical for me anymore.  At some point soon, I will be taking care of other children besides her.  If I have to spend 30 minutes each nap, rocking her to sleep just to go back in there and rock her again 15 minutes later, I won't be able to keep tabs on other kids.  She is going to have to learn to sleep on her own, and right now no matter how tired she is, she almost never falls asleep without help.  She is also getting to the point where she won't sleep through anything anymore, so I can't just stick her in the Bjorn and let her sleep while I am playing with other kids.  She's too curious about what's going on, and she wouldn't get in a good nap.  Therefore, soon we will have to let the crying begin.......

Other developments:

• She can put weight on her legs now, and enjoys when I hold her up in a standing position so she can look around
• As I've said, she's very curious and loves to watch everything that's going on around her.
• She's getting closer to being able to sit.  I can let go of her when she's sitting and she doesn't always immediately fall over.  She can also sit in the bumbo now!
• She's preparing for those first teeth to come in, though I'm sure they are still months away (I hope).  She's learning to chew on my finger if she can get it into her mouth.  She will gum on it all day if I let her.
• She loves her fingers.  She has learned to get her fist to her mouth, and will suck and chew on her own fingers all the time.
• We are finally back to cloth diapers!!

Overall she seems to be a very happy girl.  Other than a horrible fussy couple of weeks right around the 6-7 week mark (and right when the doctor said it would happen), she has been a pretty easy baby.  She usually only gets fussy if she's hungry, tired, or needing a little attention.  Those things are usually easy to fix.  She enjoys playing in her play gym on the floor as well as her bouncy chair.  She loves to be sung to, talked to, and kissed all over her cheeks! :-)  We get a lot of happy coos, smiles, and laughs throughout the day, which is great!  I'm excited to see how her personality progresses as she gets older, but for now, I wish she'd slow down in the growing and be my cute, cuddly baby a little longer!  Here are a few pics of her recently!

All dressed up for a wedding!

Family day to the zoo!

Sitting pretty in the bumbo!

Happy doing tummy time!

Snuggling with papa

sleeping all swaddled in the crib... with my eyes partly opened

I did what you should never do... woke a sleeping baby.  She was not happy, but we had a wedding to get to.