Catching Up

The time of counting my baby's age in weeks is now over. We are officially on to months. What a milestone. When Indie was 2 weeks old this thought terrified me and would send me sobbing into my room to throw my head into a pillow, but now that its here I remember how truly wonderful it is that babies don't stay newborns forever.

A 3 month old can sleep through the night. Instead of needing to eat every 2-3 hours, we are on to eating 4 meals a day. She eats at roughly 6am, 10am, 2pm, and 5:30pm every day, give or take an hour. She takes two solid naps in the morning from about 7am - 10am, and then again at 11:45am - 2pm, and usually at least an hour long nap in the afternoon. And then, like the model baby she is, she sleeps from 6:00pm - 6:00am without waking up! Newborns are adorable and all, but any sleep deprived parent will tell you that there is absolutely no substitute for a full night's rest. No, not even copious amounts of coffee and diet pills. 

In the past 3 months Indiana has doubled her birth weight and shot up like a weed. Last week she had her first well visit with the pediatrician and she was in the 92% for weight (14lbs!), 96% for length, and 93% for head circumference. Alarmed, the pediatrician assured me that for her length she was still only in the 60% for weight. Looks like both of my girls inherited their mother's long bones.

Personality wise, I have deduced a few things. 

The first is that my sweet little Indiana is not a pushover. If she wants something she will not give up easily in trying to achieve her goal. I learned this while attempting to sleep train her. While I tried to teach Indiana that her crib is a wonderful and cozy spot to sleep, Indiana put forth an equal and opposite effort to convince me that the best place for to her sleep is in my arms while being rocked back and forth. She did this by screaming at the top of her lungs anytime I would put her in her crib, even when she had been falling asleep just a moment before. This screaming often continued until she could no longer stay awake. I was frequently amazed that even while she slept she would sometimes let out a solitary "wahhhhhhhhhh" just to remind us that even if she was sleeping in the crib, she wasn't happy about it - at all. After several weeks of this, Indiana's crib protest crying has sharply decreased. I am convinced that this is not because she has given up, but rather, because she has changed her mind about her crib. She still cries at times, but only during witching hour when she is just fussy in general. Now it appears that most of the time, her naps in her crib cannot come soon enough. 

The second is that my baby is not a happy go lucky type of baby. She is a serious baby. Smiles are not given out willy nilly. They have to be earned. And once you have done something to earn a smile, it is unlikely that that same action will earn a smile a second time. In short, I don't always know how to get her to smile. It seems that she only smiles if she is in the mood, regardless of how hilarious my jokes are or how many kisses I smother her with. Sometimes I will give up and turn my attention elsewhere. After a few moments of neglect she often will start cooing and smiling at me. I think she likes a challenge. 

The third is that baby Indiana loves the sound of her own voice. Girl loves to talk. Nonstop jibberish. I also loved the sound of my own voice as a child and could frequently be found perfecting various accents and singing at the top of my lungs. Perhaps we will share that personality quirk.

Of course, most of us have had done alot of personal growth since the time we were newborns so its quite possible all of these things I have deduced are only phases. We will see. 

My favorite thing about her? The way she smells. I'm pretty sure its pheremones or something because no other smell makes me feel as unabashedly content as I do when her head is nestled right under mine and I am free to breathe in her dreamy goodness. 

Also, she has one single eyelash that is double the length of all her other eyelashes and its pretty freaking adorable.