My Three Month Old

As of today, I am officially the mother of a three month old.  While I do sometimes miss tiny newborn Lucia, roly poly three month old Lucia is just so adorable and so much fun.  I don’t have a lot of experience with infants, so I really don’t know what to expect at each stage, but I certainly didn’t expect her to be so active so early.  She’s not mobile quite yet, but she definitely is not staying still.  She’s a ball of energy!

During the past few weeks, Lulu has started to really interact with the world around her.  She grabs and holds toys.  She’s discovered her fingers and can often be seen with one or two of them in her mouth.  When she’s wearing a bib or is covered with a blanket, she loves to grab it, wave it around, and stick it in her mouth.  And if there’s no blanket, she’s perfectly content with lifting up her shirt or dress (much to her father’s dismay).  

Being so engaged in what’s going on around her, she is easily distracted.  Daddy can’t stand within her range of sight while nursing or she’ll pull off the breast to stare at him (she thinks Daddy is quite handsome and can’t ever seem to keep her eyes off him!).  She also seems to be more easily distracted and often frightened by loud noises. 

 

We have to be careful where we lay her because she is getting so very close to rolling over.  It’s going to happen any day now and I hate to take my eyes off her for just a second when she’s lying on her play mat for fear that I’m going to miss it.  I can’t believe how strong she is getting, holding her head up during tummy time has become a breeze.  During just the past few days, she’s fallen asleep a couple times during tummy time - one minutes she’s alert and looking around, the next she’s deep in a baby dream.

Although my husband thinks she looks like him, she certainly acts like me.  She gets so grumpy when she’s hungry or tired.  I always thought that a baby would just fall asleep when tired, but I really have to look for her sleep cues and help her get to sleep.  She’s started screaming before bedtime, then will suddenly stop and drift off to sleep.  Thank goodness for my husband, who is such a patient, gentle father and has taken over the most difficult bedtimes.  She continues to sleep through the night, but awakens anytime she break out of her swaddler (which seems to happen every other night or so no matter how tight we think we wrapped her). 

We’ve been attending infant massage classes and Lucia has started recognizing massage time.  I lay out the blanket, undress her on it, and she’s ready.  She’s not very keen on the stomach massages, but she loves when I massage her legs and arms.  She thinks it’s a game, the opposite of relaxing, and is full of smiles, wiggles, and baby babble.  I love having skin-to-skin contact with my baby, it strengthens my connection to her and makes me more sensitive to her needs. 

Nursing continues to be the most special time between us.  Although sometimes I nurse her while doing other things, I try to have at least one or two feedings during the day where I just spend the time with her, holding her, rocking her, rubbing her back, talking to her, singing to her, staring at her.  As I look down at her, I often pray for God to give me the strength and wisdom to be a good mother for her, to guide her in His ways.  Feeding is no longer only a mama thing though, because I’ve started pumping and David has given her a few bottles.  There will be occasions where I will need to be gone for longer periods of time, but I also knew that my husband wanted to have a chance to feed her as well.  As a father, he works to provide for her and being able to feed her is an extension of this.  It’s been hard for me to let go and have him take part in feedings, but I know that this is only the first of many difficulties I will have in decreasing her dependence on me.  She will grow up and someday will no longer need my care and protection, but today she is my three month old.

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