Three months old

Skyler reached the three-month-mark yesterday. One quarter of a year. If she follows any of the same trajectory as Hudson, she could be starting to try some solids in three more. She could be walking in six. (!) This week we will be getting her a passport, and next week she’ll take her first cross-country plane ride. It’s all so hard to grasp (and keep hold of).

Here’s a feeble attempt…

So far Hudson and Skyler have a lot in common: she looks just like him (not surprisingly) and was colicky just like him (surprisingly—because I was naively sure we’d have an opposite scenario this time). But I use the past tense, because we’ve started giving her reflux medicine and now she’s such a happy baby!

It was so sad when it would seem like something was hurting her. You could see in her little gentle expression (I can’t think of any other way to describe it—she has kind, gentle eyes) that she wanted to be happy but was a little bit pained. She actually started smiling earlier than I thought possible, which made the moments when her lower lip would puff out all that much sadder. We’ll never know for certain whether it was the meds or whether she just reached that magical age where the crying has peaked and then subsided (as it did with Hudson), but either way, thank goodness that it has.

And now, looking back, it wasn’t so bad. It was just loud. Seriously. Loud. I think I mentioned that every caregiver that met Skyler in some way commented on her lungs, her “survival instincts.” Well, we used a decibel app on Aron’s phone to measure it one evening and it was frequently 105 decibels. Here are a few other things that often measure at that volume: jackhammers, symphony orchestras, and power saws. It’s said that prolonged exposure to anything over 100 can cause hearing loss! At the peak of the crying, Aron and I would use earplugs while trying to soothe her. (And it makes all the difference. If you ever feel yourself losing your cool a little while holding and bouncing a crying baby, a. walk away for a minute. But b. try earplugs! So much easier to be sympathetic when the cry sounds like a cry and not a scream.) Sounds crazy, I know. But babies are crazy.

But now she smiles so wide and she shrieks with excitement! It’s the best sound in the world! (I don’t know why, but I get teary just thinking about it.) It’s that moment one looks forward to, that incredible payoff when newborns turn into infants and the smiles get routine and come about with prompting. And here’s where she and Hudson seem more different. He was such a serious little fellow. He had the wide goofy gummy grins (usually accompanied by long strings of drool) but was a generally serious baby. Smiles and laughs were hard-earned. I can’t say for certain, but I get the impression that’s not the case with Skyler. Even when her mouth doesn’t follow, her eyes seem always to be smiling.

Car rides are still a bit nerve-wracking—she’s not the fan of the car seat I’d hoped she’d be, but it’s getting easier. For one thing, she’s discovered her toes and will stare at them quietly for roughly the distance to Hudson’s preschool, conveniently. It’s too bad she can’t see Hudson more easily because she likes to stare at him, too. He talks to her a lot and gives her eager hugs and tells us he loves her and is going to keep her. Phew. And I think she can tell she has a fan and is becoming one, too. Again, phew.

There’s no true routine at this point, but she seems to fall asleep around 8pm, getting a long first stretch of sleep until 2am. Sometimes she wakes mid-way through for what is almost a dream feed, but now that she’s eating better in the evenings, that seems to be getting less frequent. What happens for the next stretch is always a little foggy, because she comes into our bed and sleeps beside me and I usually fall asleep while feeding her, but she stirs again around 5am and then is up from around 6:45-8 or 8:30 in the morning. With Hudson, I would have known all of the details of his 24 hours, having recorded every wake and sleep on the BabyConnect app. I’d like to start doing that soon, so that I have a better idea of what her natural rhythms are for when we try to set more of a schedule. But this is going well for now.

Though I may not be as good about recording every detail the way I did before, I’m really trying hard to drink it all in and enjoy this precious girl and this precious time. We love her squishy little arms and round little knees. We love the way she purrs when she babbles and the way she squeals when she’s excited. We love her smiles and her gentle eyes. Happy three months to Skyler!

And to play a little catch up, here she is at one week…