Three months is a milestone that I’ve really been looking forward to. Will has been the easiest baby but even still, it feels like a sigh of relief as so much of the craziness that comes with a newborn starts to really smooth out. He cries much less and some days not at all (when I’m really on top of my game!). His eating and sleeping, while still not completely regular, are definitely falling into a pattern. As a result, planning errands and other activities is getting easier. But my favorite thing to see develop is how Will is communicating, since being able to understand what’s going on in his mind helps a ton with many of these things that required smoothing out! He smiles and laughs, he’s very alert, and he listens when we talk to him. He coos when I sing and he giggles at Ben. He’s starting to reach out timidly for things that he wants and we can help him stop crying sometimes by just changing his focus to a rattle or a funny face. He is the happiest boy and has an innate sweetness that I hope he never loses.
Lots of new things for Will this month:
He can hold things! The toy bar on his bouncy seat and the play mat with the hanging toys hold his attention for a really long time- sometimes even a half hour- as he concentrates and tries to get his hands on the goods (I’ve been collecting some pictures of this milestone for a separate post.). Ben likes to bring Will toys and put them into his hands, but often when he sees how much fun Will is having, he takes the toy back.
He smiles and laughs a lot and easily. He is ticklish under his neck, behind his ears, and in his armpits, especially during bath time. Once he even laughed in his sleep when I stroked his cheek. Ben can make him laugh hysterically by doing absolutely nothing.
He is still a mama’s boy but he always smiles when Joe walks in the room.
He loves Pony Boy and the Winnie the Pooh song (which I’ve had stuck in my head for two years now).
It seems like he may be trying to sit up? He curls his body forward when we hold him facing out and when he’s sitting in my lap. Speaking of facing out, that’s how he prefers to be held these days. He also loves to kick his legs quickly in little spurts.
He has a little bit of cradle cap on the top of his head under his hair (none on his forehead like poor Ben had). He has the little bald strip along the back of his head, accentuating his mullet.
His eyes are more gray than blue.
He sucks on his hands. He’s only found his thumb once or twice.
He outgrew the bassinet, so we had to move him to sleep in his crib (Another one I have a separate post for with some crappy pictures of him on the monitor).
I’m pretty sure he had a growth spurt over the past week. His face and thighs seem fuller and he is so tall!
As of two days ago, he can roll onto his belly! The first time I thought it was a fluke, but then he did it two more times (if I can figure out how, I’ll post the video). Then I thought he was only able to do it because he was on Ben’s bed, which is a soft surface more conducive to rolling. But the next day when I put him on a blanket on the living room floor, he did it again! We are now nervous that he’ll do this in his sleep and get himself in a pickle, but it takes a lot of strength and his struggle is pretty noisy with lots of yelling and grunting, so I think we’ll hear him, but let’s knock on wood just in case.
Here’s a rough idea of Will’s sleep routine at 3 months- Up around 5:30 to eat then will doze in my arms until Ben wakes up the house. Naps around 10 usually for a half hour. Naps again around noon or if his morning nap was long, next nap isn’t usually until around 1:30. This one varies in length from a half hour to four hours, depending on who knows what. Naps again around 5:30 most days (while I make dinner as fast as I can). He goes to sleep for the night around 8/8:30. He wakes up to eat anywhere between 1 and 4:30, usually just once but occasionally twice.
