3 months

I am amazed at the changes in Elliott since we first brought him home almost 3 months ago - physically, developmentally, emotionally, the whole schabang. He's a bright, happy and alert little kid. He's constantly looking around. In fact, its generally quite difficult to burp him because he's always pushing away so he can see what's behind you. In the last week, his hands have become his new favorite thing. They are constantly fingering everything he comes in contact with and he has even starting holding onto toys. And who knew the burp cloths I sewed turned out to be perfect first toys. He can easily grab the sides, they are light enough he can move them around, and the patterns are really fun to look at. He can even get them up on his face...which is pretty funny to see him sitting there with the burp cloth over his face and his hands down to his sides (he hasn't quite figured out how to get it off once its on there - hee, hee).

This is mama, not quite ready to give up this cute newborn outfit...despite the obvious ;)

I think we've also starting the beginning phases of teething. According to the What to Expect book, babies usually get their first teeth on average during the 7 month, but the teething process can start up to two months in advance. Plus, its entirely possible to actually have a baby born with teeth, so basically...they can teethe at any time. When his hands aren't manipulating his seat buckle or a burp cloth, they are in his mouth. He hasn't started drooling yet, but its clear something's going on in those gums of him.

He's also come a LONG way in the sleep department. During his first few weeks, he would spend the entire evening fussing and crying, but he wouldn't go to sleep without us. This meant he was up until about 11:30pm each night and our evenings were anything but relaxing. Now, we can usually get him to bed by about 8:30pm. Sometimes we have a false start and he wakes up about an hour later, but usually, he stays asleep. This means we have some baby-free time in the evening!! Yay! (I've even been able to have a glass of wine here and there :D )

Oh! And most importantly (at least for me), he is doing most of his sleeping IN HIS OWN BED. I never was really comfortable with the idea of him in bed with us for a couple reasons. First, Brad is dead to the world when he sleeps. He also likes to sleep with a pillow under his arm...a pillow that gets moved from side to side during the night...a pillow that could easily end up on top of a baby. Second, there's Jenny. We never even considered banishing her from the bed. Its been her bed, too for more than 11 years and it just didn't seem fair to her. So, basically there's a heck of a lot going on in our queen size bed. But, in order to get any sleep at all during those first weeks of round the clock feedings, he ended up in our bed more than not. By feeding him in bed, it was easier for me to go back to sleep (including sleeping while he ate) and I generally felt fairly well rested during the days because of it. But, this was not what I wanted long term. So we started a nighttime ritual probably about a month ago. Between 7 to 7:30pm he has a bath, he gets into his jammies, he is swaddled and I feed him. Once he is asleep, we put him in his bassinet and turn the noise machine on, which helps cancel out the evening household noises while he sleeps. He is now averaging about 4-5 hours for the first sleep period, then 2-3 after that until morning. When he wakes up to eat, I feed him in bed (still swaddled), then put him back in the bassinet. The only time I leave him in our bed is if he manages to get his arms out. We've have several nights now were he's spent the whole time in the bassinet.

Elliott's first sock free day out (during the heat wave last week)

The other major change has been his developing personality. He is a little flirt. He has a way smiling with his whole face. And when he combines it with a squeal of delight or other adorable vocalization, its instant heart palpitations every time. I live for these smiles and fortunately they are quite frequent. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this since Brad and I laugh a lot. I would say we are fairly light hearted people and its looking like Elliott's following right along...including finding things funny that aren't all that funny...like when mommy pinched her finger in his bouncy seat buckle or the night we were assaulted but millions of gnats and I was ducking behind the stroller, swatting them away. Both times, I caught him practically laughing his little tushy off when I looked back at him...hmmm...

Three months also means 12 weeks, which means my maternity leave is officially over today. Its hard to believe I'll be going back to the office on Tuesday. (I have every Monday off as part of a partial unemployment program my office instituted so that more of us could keep our jobs during this financial crisis.) I was super bummed about 3 weeks ago and each passing day that week made me sad. But I'm really glad that feeling didn't stay and ruin the last of my leave. I've been living each day in its fullest and we've had a lot of really great days to show for it. In fact, this week alone we made it to the museums in Old Town (which I've never been) with my aunt (and even went olive oil tasting - who knew!) and yesterday we went to the Wild Animal Park with my parents. I'm going to miss having a life during the middle of the week, but the fun had to end sometime. I guess I'm fine with it because I have to be. This is what I need to do right now so Brad can finish school and so its Big Picture time. Fortunately, I still have Mondays off (at least for now) and that's helping to ease this transition, but boy, I'm going to miss him during the day.

So I guess that's it for a 3 month wrap up. I should have some more pictures up soon...and we'll let you know how he does following my first day back to work...AKA eating from a bottle all day...should be interesting!