Zoe's Third Month

Zoe at 3 months

My little girl has passed the "fourth trimester" with relative ease. We have experienced a bit of a witching hour in the evening where she just wants to nurse from dinner time until bedtime. We've started putting her in the bouncy seat while we eat dinner so she can join us at the table. The routine is that sometimes I get to finish dinner before she wants to eat, I feed her, and then Colin puts her in the Ergo carrier while we do Rose's bedtime routine.  Zoe still nurses like a champ, and she still doesn't burp that well. Many times that means she spits up later. The goal for the month was to try and get her to take a bottle and we have experienced much success, thankfully. For Thanksgiving (at 2.5 months), we traveled to the northeast to visit family. My sisters-in-law and mother-in-law were the first people to successfully give Zoe a bottle and she hasn't had any more problems taking one since.

My sweet girl is growing so fast

Before we traveled to the northeast, Zoe's cradle cap appeared to be getting better and her baby acne got a lot better. I had been making and eating lactation cookies during her first month and once I stopped (after reading about skin issues related to mom's diet in breastfed babies), her skin got better. The only ingredients I could think of that caused the problem was Brewer's Yeast. Unfortunately, once we reached the cold northeast, her cheeks became (and stayed) red and got very dry. The raw skin on her face got so bad that I debated going to urgent care and opted instead to call the pediatrician. The nurse on call suggested coating her face with Eucerin lotion and locking it in with Vaseline. The remedy worked a bit, but we had to constantly clean her skin and apply the lotion during our stay. We had to treat the cradle cap a little bit, but it seemed to be improving, as opposed to the skin on her face. I think the rash looks like ezcema and much of the reading I have done suggests it could be a dietary or environmental allergy. We'll have to see if we can pinpoint the problem. Many people have suggested dairy in my diet is the problem and I agree it is the most likely cause.

Celebrating Thanksgiving with the family

Rose loves her sister and gives her lots of kisses

At three months, we are now getting lots of smiles. Zoe loves watching mommy, daddy, and big sister Rose. Darwin's bark sometimes startles her, but it doesn't seem to upset her. Daddy likes to move side to side, making Zoe follow him with her eyes, and Rose loves to try and make her little sister smile by mimicking mommy's sounds. Zoe also seems to love music and it often calms her down when she's fussy. She has started taking a pacifier since becoming more comfortable with a bottle.

Giving mommy a smile during a mid-November walk

Now that I have more experience as a parent, I am trying different techniques with sleep training than I did with Rose. When I put Zoe down to sleep, I make sure she is drowsy, but awake. And, when she wakes up in the middle of the night to nurse, I feed her and put her back down. During the first two months or so, I would change her at every nursing session. I did that with Rose for several months, even when she was only wet. Now, unless I hear her poop while I feed her, Zoe goes back to bed without being changed. It doesn't seem like she minds too much, but it means her diaper is very soaked in the morning. To make it easier on us (so we don't have to worry about soaking through clothes), we now do a disposable diaper on Zoe at night. Unfortunately, if she does poop overnight, I usually have to change her whole outfit because it often goes up her back. The disposable is not as good as cloth on keeping the poop contained. But, if she only pees, the overnight diaper is much better at absorbing it all. We continue to swaddle Zoe at bed time, but not during the day. So, when we put her down for naps, Zoe only sleeps short periods of time.

Celebrating Thanksgiving in RI

Every now and then, Zoe will go back to a 2-3 hour sleep schedule at night, but for the most part she is sleeping 4-5 hour stretches. I haven't noticed a predictable sleep pattern during the day, but we were also traveling and so she had to go with the flow of our travel schedule often. We drove the 11 hour trip and left at 2am to take advantage of both girls preference to sleep longer in the morning. On the way up to NY Zoe woke Rose up at 5am because she wanted to eat. Since Zoe wasn't taking a bottle yet, we had to stop so I could feed her. That meant Rose didn't go back to sleep, but she did talk, read, and sing to herself until we stopped for breakfast at 8am. Both girls napped most of the morning and we took another long break for a late lunch before reaching our destination that afternoon. On the return trip it was easier because I could pump a bottle of milk in the car and feed Zoe as we drove. We made it from Albany NY to Richmond VA without having to stop for anything except gas.

In early November, Rose had her 2nd ear infection and took a long nap with Zoe

With all the traveling and eating holiday meals, I'm still holding onto those last 5-10 pounds of baby weight. I have one pair of jeans that fit (because they have a little stretch in them!). The weather was relatively mild in the northeast (for them), but we had quite a few days in the 40's, which is cold to me. And, walking with Rose is a slow stroll, unless she is willing to go in the stroller. I've continued to work part time from home and it was nice to have family around to help with the girls while I worked.

Stay tuned for an update on our Christmas and New Year, which included a much-needed trip to the beach!