Three Months Old

Unbelievable! I didn't think it was possible, perhaps because she's our last baby, perhaps it's just me, but I swear time is going faster with Mae than it did with Ace! She's already three months old and is so smart and advanced!

New firsts this past month: Grasping things, cloth diapers, sleeping through the night, her first illness, her first xray, her first IV, her first ambulance ride (mom's too!), her first hospital stay, a lot of less than pleasant firsts this month, but also a lot of good smiles! Finally her last first for this month was Easter!
Mae is such a happy baby! There's just no other way to say it. Even when she was miserable and in the hospital, she was smiling up a storm. She would work so hard to breathe but you'd look at her and she'd get the widest grin - and with her healthy they're that much later and happy. It is so sweet and I love how smiley she is with just about anyone she meets.

Mommy and Mae embarked on a new adventure this past month into the world of cloth diapering. We aren't converting over entirely, we're split about 50/50 right now with CDs and disposable diapers. She still wears disposables at night, but the other day that was the only disposable diaper we used for that day. It certainly will save us money on the diaper genie refills to not be disposing of as many... and it will take a while to recoop the cost of one cloth diaper to what you can buy in the amount of disposables - but it's still nice to have options.

Sleep! Oh boy we are blessed in that department. She is pretty good some of the time with self soothing, she still sometimes needs someone around to be comforted and hugged (which I am happy about!) But there are moments I can put her in her swing and she will fall asleep on her own. Ace never did this. Ever. While in the hospital she was swaddled really well at night and in doing that she did GREAT to sleep for long stretches. For the majority of this past week, Mae has been falling asleep on me around 9-10 and staying on my chest and then transferring to the co-sleeper without issue (again, Ace RARELY ever transferred!) and sleeps until 5am! This means on several nights last week she had stretches that were 7.5hrs, 7hrs, 6hrs!! Her other wake up time was 2am so she is consistently sleeping a minimum of 4 hours - or over a 7 day an average of 6 hour stretches! HOORAY! It's such a blessing and I'm so proud of her!

Hospital stay - yes Mae had a week stay in Children's hospital to battle RSV Bronciolitis. It was not a fun time for anyone in our family. It was the first time I had been away from Ace that long, it was the first time Loving Husband was a SAHD for any length of time, it was the first time Mae (or I) were in the hospital for anything non-planned. Not fun! Ultimately she recovered very well and we are hopeful we are all done with the illness this season and that next time she's ill she will be far stronger and able to fight off the illness without medical intervention. I am so thankful that Children's was there and able to help us though.
Mae has discovered her hands and loves to grasp them together and pull at toys. It's really cute to watch her try and use her hands - I'm not positive she understands the mechanics of them just yet, but she knows that they are what she needs to use to accomplish getting things closer to her mouth. ;) In the way of mobility she still will occassionally roll over when provided the opportunity (stomach to back) and she will stand fully holding her own weight by holding onto our fingers for stability. It's pretty impressive. She's on the verge of sitting up and can do it for a few seconds with the boppy's help - I suspect she'll be doing this very soon without the aid of a fluffy crash zone. :)

Mae's stats on the 21st of March were that she was 22" and 9lbs and 11oz. She hadn't gained much since her two month appointment (she had gotten taller though) and it was great that she hadn't lost much during her illness. She's definitely gotten bigger since then and is officially out of 'NB' clothing. In fact I just cleared out her drawers so that we could make room for more of the three month clothing. She is still our itty bitty and is adorable. Her hair is coming in more and more and now that the cradle cap issue has been solved with a little baby oil - her locks should flourish and all those bows I've been buying will be useful ;) We've got some big adventures coming up really soon! So look for more of what Mae is up to then!