Officer and the Gentleman: Norah June: 3 Months Old

Weight and Height: 13 lbs 5 oz, 23 inches long

Eyes and Hair: Lighter blue eyes and balding strawberry/brownish hair

Diapers: Size 1 fit now

Clothes: 3 or 3-6 month

Eating: EBF 5-7 times a day, much more efficient now so shorter stints

Sleeping: 7-10 hours straight through

1/4 of her first year is over! Holy cow! I'm so happy that we both could spend these first three months with her, and watch her change every day in every way. She feels and looks so much bigger now to us. We love watching her little belly and thighs get bigger by the week.

Norah loves to still watch ceiling fans. She's obsessed! She enjoys the mobile above her swing and the hanging toys above her play mat at well. She's recently started to try to "talk" to us. By this I mean she stares intently at my mouth when I form words and tries her hardest to mock my mouth shape. It's so adorable. She'll coo and just smile so big when we coo back. She must think we understand her. She'll even wink at us to which my husband always says to wink back! You know, so she knows that we got whatever hint she's relaying. Goofball. The smiles just keep coming and coming and we'll do anything to produce one. She's big on her open mouth smiles which we just LOVE. My husband's favorite time of the day with her is when he wakes up to get her from the bassinet. He'll peak over the side and she'll find his face and just give him the biggest grin. He'll take her out of the swaddle and she'll immediately do a huge stretch with her arms shooting up and around her face. Then he'll take her to change her diaper, and she'll hug him for support. Her hugging him like that in the morning just melts him. Ask him about it and see his huge smile when he tells you about his morning routine. I've never in my 7 years of waking up beside him have seen him so anxious to wake up in the morning! She gets a real kick when Dad has his glasses on, so we're not sure if she thinks he looks funny or if she can see her reflection. Nonetheless it's so entertaining to watch her crack up when he has those on. She also really enjoys looking at picture books. It's quieted her many times and we really enjoy reading to her. She looks to be really looking at the pages too. The biggest new thing I love is when I sing to her. My husband claims I can carry a tune pretty well, so I'm not too bashful to sing out loud but seeing how my daughter reacts to my voice brings me to tears. My favorite song to sing to her is "You Are My Sunshine" and she immiediately quiets down, locks eyes with me and drifts to sleep. Every. Time. Our poor friends even had to endure my singing on a recent road trip we took, but the claimed to not mind. It's amazing the effect a Mother's voice can have on her child. I love singing to her, and hope she never grows tired of hearing it.

We think she's developing right on schedule! We're no experts but she seems to be hitting the marks. She can hold her head up now for good, and recently she's been holding it at 90 degrees. She's pushing her chest off the floor too. She loves to stand up on her strong legs (assisted of course). She can roll from front to back but not back to front yet. She follows us when we walk across the room, turns her head when we talk beside her to look at us, and finally giggled just a few days ago. Last night she looked at her own hand for the first time in amazement as if to say, "Hey, what are you doing here?" She changes so quickly. We're still working on the grasping a rattle gig, not quite there yet. We're excited to see all her progress, but we're in no rush. She'll progress when she's ready and until then we'll soak up every moment we can just the way she is.

She still dislikes her carseat big time and recently started resisting naps. My husband is amazing at soothing her to sleep without me having to pop a nipple in her mouth to soothe her so that's been a huge help. She doesn't like to be held too often either. She is quite content to just lay on her stomach on the floor or lie on her back and gaze at the fan. She hates shots too but I can't blame her there!

First shots and I BAWLED!

Breastfeeding just keeps getting easier by the week. She's slowed up quite a bit though the last few weeks. She eats a huge meal (45 min) first thing in the morning, then goes 3-4 hours until the next feeding (20-30 min) and so on until around 8pm. Then it's time for her last feeding before sleeping and she'll eat another 45 min - 1 hour. Then she sleeps for 8-10 hours straight through. I have been waking at 3am to pump every. single. night. until just a few days ago when I decided to pump right before I go to bed. I empty my breasts out just enough to finally get 6-7 hours of uninterrupted sleep alongside my husband and baby without waking up in pain. It hasn't effected my supply like I feared, so I'm happy! I have close to 300 ounces frozen, so I feel good about my stash for emergencies/work. I start pumping at work soon so I'm sure that will throw off my routine, so more to come on my new pump life era! Her amazing Dad has been working tirelessly on her taking a bottle. She took one without a hitch at 6 days old (had to pump more BM into her to make weight) but afterwards we'd only give her one once a week or so. Big mistake. Apparently you have to do it pretty frequently like almost daily or else they forget how to take one. That happened to us, and she all of a sudden wouldn't take a bottle! It scared the crap out of me because she starts daycare soon and has to be able to take a bottle. My husband worked with her for days through screaming fits, and finally has her back into taking one again daily. Word of advice to BF moms who want their babe to take a bottle...once they take one don't let up! Unknown to us, they can forget and then it's pretty hard re-teaching them to take one again.

Bottle Whisperer

She had a busy month with her first vacation and first foreign country visit!

Our time as a happy family together in one household is dwindling, so we're trying to soak up as much time together as humanly possible. We're so very lucky to have spend these last three months with her together. Our favorite pictures from this month: