3 months old

What a difference a month makes! Around the time Eleanor hit her 3rd month, we saw a world of difference in her. She started coming out of her chronic fussiness and became a happy, smiling baby. I couldn't believe it. I kept thinking, who is this baby? Around this time, she also started sleeping 9+ hours straight at night. This was a huge blessing, since prior to this, she would sleep only 3-4 hours at a time. It was a little scary at first, and we checked on her a lot. We also worried about her weight gain, since she was skipping 2 feedings now. But we take her every week for a weight check, and she's still gaining 1+ oz per day. At her last weight check on August 25, she weighed 11 lbs, 7 oz! Her last measurement around August 11 was 23 inches. The week before I returned to work, we started trying to get her into a good routine. She did so great! And to think I was so worried about all of this. Eleanor did it all in her own time. Our spirits have certainly been better since we have been getting more rest and she has started interacting with us more often. When you are in the tunnel of newborn-land, it's hard to imagine ever finding your way out. But we have, and it is wonderful!


A typical day for Eleanor begins around 5:30. Her Papi wakes her up (or she wakes him up) and gives her her medicine. Then I nurse her from 6-7, when I leave for work. We both love this time. She is usually very alert and nurses well. She plays for a little while, then goes down for a nap around 8. She doesn't nap for too long. We are lucky to get 30-40 minutes out of her. Then she's up again and ready to eat around 9. She repeats this cycle every 3 hours. Then Brad and I get home from work around 5, and she nurses off and on until time for bed. We try to have her down for the night by 8:30 at the latest, but earlier if we can. This gives us a little more time to rest. When she takes her bottle during the day, she eats about 4 oz at a time. I am fortunate to be able to pump 3 times at work, so I am usually able to get enough between this and pumping before bed and once in the middle of the night. Weekends are great, because I get to nurse her all weekend and still pump before bed and in the night, so we are able to stockpile milk for the week. Some weekends, we just stay on the couch, nursing and napping off and on. This is the sweetest time! She has been drooling a lot lately, so we wonder if a tooth is imminent. Not looking forward to teething! She has also been blowing bubbles, though I don't think she can control this yet. She has gotten really good at grabbing things with her hands. She especially likes to grab on to my hair when she is nursing or I am holding her. I don't mind. ;)


It is so fun to watch how much she is changing every day. She smiles a lot and sometimes even laughs a little. I love to see her smile and show her cute dimple on the right side. She loves for us to lay her down and just talk to her. We have little conversations, and she smiles really big during these times. She still loves having naked baby time! She enjoys moving her arms and legs around without the diaper on. She likes having her belly rubbed and doing the bicycle with her legs. Eleanor enjoys sitting in her swing and playing with her Owl book and toy. She likes to touch it and try to turn the pages (it's a cloth book.) She also enjoys sitting on her boppy and talking to and smiling at us. She's not a fan of tummy time, so she cries and tries to roll over. She has even done it a couple of times. She's trying to roll over from her back to her stomach, but hasn't done it yet. Her neck has gotten really strong, and she has good control of her head. She will even stand up on her legs if we are holding her. Today, we went to the store to buy a bigger sleep sack, and Eleanor picked out her first toy. I was showing her the different toys, and she wasn't too interested until I picked up Lulu in a Tutu. She immediately grabbed for it and held on. Of course, she would pick the ugliest toy in the store. A big purple hippo, with a big orange mouth in a tiny yellow tutu. Ha!


I have hated going back to work and leaving her. Luckily, I've been very busy at work, so I haven't had time to think about how much I miss her. But we are so fortunate to have my mom, grandparents and friend, Ashley pitch in to help take care of her. She will start staying with a friend of ours everyday beginning in September. It is so exciting to see the way she is changing everyday! I can hardly wait to get home and cuddle her! The weekends just aren't long enough. Soon she will be 4 months old! I can't wait to see what the next month brings...

2 months new

I can hardly believe that Eleanor is 2 months old already. It has been such a whirlwind since the day she was born. Even this far in, we still feel like we are in survival mode. For a little bit, she was going 3 hours start to start between feedings, and we were able to actually leave the house and go somewhere besides the doctor, like Barnes & Noble or a restaurant. Or, if we were really lucky, both! Sleep is still elusive, but we are learning to live on less. Most days we are lucky to eat 3 meals and get showers. Seriously. I wonder, is it like this for everyone or are we doing something wrong?

So that's how we are doing. But what everyone really wants to know is, how's Eleanor doing?

She is doing great! She is slowly getting into a routine, where she has a feeding, then some awake time, then goes down for a nap. We don't always get in the awake time or the nap. Sometimes it's either/or. But on a good day, this is the routine. She is nursing every 2 hours, start to start, for about an hour each time. This only leaves an hour for her awake time/nap. When we do give her a bottle of my expressed milk, she takes about 3.5 oz. We typically do this at night, so that I can get a little more rest. I still have to pump, but that doesn't require as much time or attention as when I'm nursing her.

All of this is about to change though. At her last doctor visit, she weighed 8 lbs, 12 oz and was 21 inches long. She is still not gaining weight like she should, which is why we went back to nursing every 2 hours. So the current plan is to nurse her as often as she wants and then give her a bottle of expressed milk (between 2-2.5 oz). This means I am nursing her for about 30 minutes and then pumping whatever I can to be given at the next feeding. It is exhausting, but will be worth it, if it works! We have a feeling that she may go longer between feedings, since she will be more satisfied and full. This was true yesterday, when she did a couple of 2.5-3 hour stretches. Nursing is still her favorite thing to do. I think she feels very comforted and secure, which is why she often falls asleep on me! Probably also why she isn't gaining good. We are hoping for a big weight gain when we go for another weight check on Monday. The last time we gave her a bottle supplement after each feeding, she gained 8 0z in 4 days!

During her awake time, she enjoys looking at the fan. Seriously, she just stares at it and smiles. She even tries to talk to it a little. It is the cutest thing! She also enjoys looking at our faces and smiling at us. She isn't very big into toys yet, but she has a stuffed owl toy that makes a tinkling sound that she enjoys. She likes to look at herself in the mirror as well. From early on, she has enjoyed looking at the prints of London that are framed on the wall above our couch. These are a sepia tone in a gallery style frame (white mat, dark frame). She loves to stare at these. She doesn't smile at then, just looks. There are also some pictures of our trip to Ireland hanging above her crib in a gallery style frame, and she likes to look at these, too. We like to think it's because she will be a world traveler one day!

She still enjoys going outside, even in this hot, humid Mississippi weather. We have taken her for a stroller ride around the neighborhood a few times, and she seems to enjoy this. She also enjoys sucking on her paci and moving her arms and legs around. She is so strong! Practically since birth, she has been pushing off of us with her legs and trying to hold her head up. She is getting a little more coordinated with this and seems to be able to bring her head back down more gently than before. She does this most often when we are holding her. Perhaps she is just trying to see our faces. Soon she will be ready for tummy time! She's not too crazy about it yet. We have caught her a few times trying to watch tv. It must be a combination of the sound, lights, and movement. We try to redirect her attention to something else (the fan?). Too much stimulation makes for a fussy baby!

And when she starts yawning or getting fussy, we know that it is time for a nap! She really loves to sleep on our chests or in our arms, and as much as we love this time of cuddling, we are trying to get her to sleep independently in her crib. She likes to have her horror music (as Brad calls it) playing during nap time. This is a track of womb sounds, basically white noise, that we play on her ipod. It helps to calm her down and keep her from waking too much. She does okay for her day time naps. Sometimes she will sleep for 30 minutes or longer. Other times, she doesn't really sleep at all. She typically goes longer stretches at night. Last night was her best sleep yet! She went down around 9 and slept until midnight, then went back down around 1 and slept until 5, both times without either of us having to go in the room after she went down. This is unprecedented! Hope she can do it again tonight. We were both able to get a lot more sleep than usual (and at the same time!).

For now she is sleeping in her bouncy seat which is in her crib, because she has pretty bad reflux. This helps to elevate her head, so she is awakened by the reflux in the night. She is now taking Prevacid once per day, which has helped a lot. Before starting this med, it seemed that if she wasn't eating or sleeping, she was fussy and crying. Now, she actually has happy awake time and is able to interact with us in a more positive way. We just LOVE our pediatrician, Dr Myers. She is wonderful. She takes time at Eleanor's appointments to really listen and figure out what is going on. She doesn't just examine Eleanor and give her back, but she holds her and cuddles her. When we went yesterday for her weight check and discovered she hadn't gained any weight, Dr M came in to talk to us about it, even though we didn't have an appointment. And we weren't charged for the visit either. I am so happy to have found such a wonderful doctor for Eleanor!

As exhausting as the past 2 months have been, we couldn't be more in love with our little girl! I'm looking forward to what the next month brings. I hear things get really good around 3 months...