Three months...

Three months? How did this sneak up on us? Come to think of it, how did it get to be November already? Last November I was daydreaming about having another baby who was not yet conceived and here I sit typing about my sweet, chubby, adorable, perfect THREE MONTH OLD!

Measurements:
Height: 24 inches (75th percentile)
Weight: 15lbs 6oz (95th percentile)

Eating:
Bottle boot camp went great and Gracen now takes 1-2 bottles of breastmilk a day (between 4-5 oz depending on the time of day). It is a little extra work for me but totally worth it to keep her familiar with the bottle. Sometimes she will still refuse it at first. She is very particular about the temperature and the type of nipple, but most times she takes it without too much of a fight :)

She has started to lose some interest in nursing lately too (daytime feedings). The world is just too dang distracting for her. She gets sidetracked easily and would much rather watch her big sissy or the ceiling fan, lights, tv, window, Amos etc. Nightime is a different story. She has no problem there. Obviously she is growing well so her "distractions" don't seem to be affecting her. Girlfriend has the chubs going on.

Sleeping
Whew. Sleep is still a work in progress. Gracen takes a couple of "cat naps" during the day but only sleeps peacefully when being held. I recently discovered she will sleep in her bed if I run the hairdryer (on the cool setting of course) but the second I turn it off she wakes up. Last night I had it running for almost four hours and turned it off when I climbed into bed and she was awake before I even had my feet under the covers. Toby just downloaded a 70 minute cd of continuous "hair dryer" sounds so I am eager to see if that will work as well as the real thing.

She sleeps for long stretches when cuddled up beside me and I swear I am going to work on getting her to sleep in her own room by six months. Someone PLEASE hold me to this! Part of me loves having her right beside me all night. We are so in love :) I still do a bedtime routine and am trying to get Gracen and Leighton on the same bedtime but that is proving a little difficult. I have faith it will all work out eventually. I mean three months is still really little! She's my tiny baby who weighs as much as a six month old !

I also just read somewhere that babies who are good sleepers between 0-6 months are not good sleepers between 6-12 months and vice versa. This was the case with Leighton. She didn't sleep through the night until she was nine months old but has been the most amazing sleeper since then. To this day she will take a nap and go to sleep so easily. All we have to do is take her to her room, turn on her music and tuck her in. She is a dream when it comes to bedtime. I am hoping Gracen will follow this path too.

Temperament
She started smiling this month at people and she is SO SO smiley. All you have to do is look at her and she gives the biggest cheese. This is so different from Leighton who was our stone cold serious baby and would only smile for Toby or me (and had to be greatly coaxed to do so). There is nothing sweeter than seeing her big gummy smile in the morning. Totally melts my heart in a million different ways.

She is still a feisty one, especially when hungry, but I swear I think her cry has dropped a few octaves. She doesn't seem to get as mad as quickly and is overall happy and content being played with or held. Her fussy period at night has faded away though if I notice her being a little clingy or grumpy it is still usually in the early evenings. But, long gone are the hours of screaming in the evening. Thank.the.LORD :)

Details
She is so vocal, much more so than Leighton ever was. She will coo, babble and make all sorts of cute noises. I fully expect her to be talking in sentences by her first birthday ;) She constantly tries to sucks her hands and I think if she could find her thumb she would be quite happy :) She still pretty much refuses a pacifier.

Her hair is thinning more and more everyday. It is already growing back on the sides where she has lost it but it seems to be coming in the same color which is not really blonde, maybe auburn, maybe light brown, heck we have no clue what color it is :) I love her hair and really hope it doesn't all fall out :( It has curl to it when wet and is just the cutest thing ever. I still can not believe I had a baby with hair. Love it.

Sister stats
Gracen is the bigger of the two girls at this age. She is about a pound bigger than her big sissy was but I wouldn't exactly say their body shapes are much different. How many shapes does extra chubby come in?!

Here are Leighton's three months measurements:
Height: 24 inches
Weight: 14lbs 5 oz

Best sisters forever. And ever. And ever. And ever. Amen.