River was 3 months old yesterday.
-He weighs about 15lbs according to our digital scale when he's naked.
-He is 25.5 inches long.
-His hair is quite blonde and his eyes are blue.
-His bottom two teeth are playing peekaboo.
-He is always mouthing things and chews and sucks on his hands a lot.
-He’s not good at taking a soother, even though it makes him happy when he does.
-My oversupply issues seem to be under control, but River still doesn’t really comfort nurse because if he’s not hungry he can’t handle the fact that he’s getting milk.
-He nurses on demand, which ends up being about every 2 hours. He isn't usually hungry more often than that.
-He often has issues nursing in the late afternoon and evening. I often have to stand up and bounce him next to loud music to get him to nurse, even when he’s hungry. It’s so frustrating because he’ll scream because he’s hungry but then refuses to actually nurse. And he’s never had a bottle so it’s not like it’s a preference thing.
-He never ever nurses to sleep except in the middle of the night.
-Getting him to sleep at night is way easier than it used to be, but it’s still a long process. Getting him to nurse before bed usually involves me nursing him while bouncing on the exercise ball next to loud white noise. He won’t nurse in the rocking chair. It’s very annoying.
-I used to have to wear him to sleep every night because it would take an hour and a half to get him to sleep, but now it’s a little shorter and I cradle him while bouncing on the exercise ball until he falls asleep. Then I transfer to the comfy rocking chair until he’s MORE asleep, and then lay him in bed.
-He used to always wake up and I’d have to put him back to sleep once or twice at the beginning of the night, but recently we’ve had more nights where that wasn’t necessary. It still happens though. Last night he fell asleep pretty easily and I was pumped, but he woke up smiling right when I put him down. He thought he had a nap. It took 45 minutes of bouncing him on the ball in the Tula to get him back to sleep.
-At night he sleeps anywhere from 1-4 hours at a time. The 4 hour stretches only happen a few times a week. Usually he’ll have his longest stretch at the beginning of the night and then be up every two hours, but sometimes he’ll do another three hour stretch and sometimes it’ll be as little as an hour.
-He typically sleeps 12-13 hours at night (waking up to nurse many times).
-He is a tummy sleeper and has been since about 2 weeks old.
-I only give him a bath a couple of times a week now because he screams through every single one. But before every bedtime I always lay him on a towel on the counter beside the sink and wash his hands and face and diaper area. He really loves laying there and is really sweet and smiley even if he’s been crying up until then. But if I put him IN water, watch out.
-We babywear for every nap, with blaring white noise.
-Most of his naps are short 30 minute ones. He is definitely happier and easier to deal with when he naps longer, but unfortunately I can’t FORCE him to sleep. I would if I could.
-His awake periods are about an hour and a half.
-Just within the last week he’s not immediately crying as soon as I wear him. I’m using a different carry (front cross carry) and I don’t know if that’s it, but it’s only since I started using that carry with the beastly toddler worthy Pavo Trillium that he hasn’t started crying as soon as I wear him.
-His contentedness is getting better but it’s still a challenge to keep him from fussing after the first 45 minutes of awake time.
-He no longer immediately loses his mind when he’s with someone else. He likes being with me best but if he’s in a good mood he can handle a bit of time with someone else (just a bit).
-He loves watching his brothers play.
-We just got him a doorway jumper this week, and he seems to really enjoy it for about 10 minutes as long as we’re sitting there with him.
-He can go on his playmat and be entertained for about 5 minutes. He likes batting at all the toys and is getting better at actually grabbing them intentionally.
-He still loves diaper changes.
-He's been wearing AMP size small and Applecheeks size 1 with Geffen Baby xs and Thirsties size 1 hemp prefolds inside. Just this week I’ve been sick of stuffing pocket diapers so I’ve pulled out our new Flip covers (the elastics are too relaxed on our old ones) and I’m using them with flats, prefolds, and inserts.
-At night he wears a sloomb medium OBF with a Geffen Quick absorber on the outside and a Disana wool cover.
-He is adorably talkative when he's happy. He has the most amazing smiles when he's happy.
-He’s not grunting at night or in the morning anymore!
-He goes up nice and high on his elbows when he’s on his tummy (he’s shrieking with delight on his tummy as I type this). He can also travel really far when laying on the ground, although it’s not really purposeful.
-We recently have been able to leave the house for very short periods (like half an hour) in between naps, so that’s progress. It’s only been a few times once in awhile though, and it’s still stressful.
I don’t think colic is really behind us. If it weren’t for loud music and loud white noise River would still be spending hours and hours screaming every day. But it’s better than it was.
Things are not wonderful. Life is still hard. This week was especially hard compared to last week. But doing this update and comparing what things were like at 2 months to now, there has been improvement in most areas, even if it’s not vast.
He brings me a lot of joy, and also a lot of... I don’t know how to say it without sounding horrible. It’s just hard with him. Very very hard. Hopefully things will keep improving!
