Three Months

My precious daughter,

You are already three months old (plus a few days) already. Time is flying!

Just this week you started holding a rattle when we open your hand. You wave it around until you bop yourself in the head with it. Oops!

Promise, you have the sweetest temperament of any baby I've ever known. While you will fuss when going to sleep, when I go in to give you back your soother or to comfort you, you almost always gives me the biggest smiles. I really feel like you're just glad I listened and came in, it's so rewarding!

Your favourite activities are watching Isaac do anything and everything, laying on the change table getting really good eye contact with me or your amazing daddy, and lying on your play mat. Just yesterday I was watching you on the mat and it looked like you were intentionally batting at a little purple toy above your head. You have waved your arms around before and hit objects above you but this looked even more deliberate than previous attempts. It's pretty cool to watch.

At the ripe old age of three months, you also like sitting in the swing. When we first started putting you in there, you would stare up at the animals going round and round like you didn't trust them. You would barely blink and would just stare them down. It was really funny to watch. Now you just watch them like you're interested in what they're doing. Thankfully, you can easily swing if I'm busy with Isaac at breakfast or getting him and me dressed to get out the door.

Promise, I love you, but I have to be honest with you. You are a terrible sleeper during the day. You're not consistent, you have short naps and even though you're happy, I know you're not getting the kind of rest a baby your age should have. However, I blame myself as we're always out and about. If we actually stay home for a few days, you usually get right back on track with decent naps throughout the day. But we are rarely at home for full days so your sleep is always being interrupted. You do have good days at home too but more often than not, you'll just sleep one cycle and then be awake. It's hard to be too upset though as even when you should be so tired you're intolerable, you are usually instead pleasant, happy and content. What an angel baby!

And Mommy is very grateful that you do so well at nighttime. You usually wake once or twice through the night and will go back to sleep without any coaxing. Our mornings are always wonky as Isaac wakes up anywhere from 5 to 6:30 so depending on what time you wake up to nurse, you can either go back to sleep or start your day with her brother then takes another cat nap while he and I have breakfast (that's the norm).

You get distracted easily while nursing and often will think you're done nursing if I have to pull you off to deal with Isaac. And baby, you're still not gaining weight. Hopefully we'll figure out what's going on with you soon as you're dropping into the danger zone now.

Only three months until you start eating solids, I can hardly wait as that should give you a chance to bulk up just like Isaac did. In the meantime, we keep praying that your weight will pick up, keep nursing for countless hours every day and will be seeing a pediatrician this week to start looking at what else we can do.

Promise, we love you so much and are so thankful that you're our daughter. I am truly enjoying every day with you, I cherish your cuddles and your obvious love for us. I love your tiny hands, your beautiful face, the way you find your fingers or thumb and get them into your mouth. I love the way you smell and the way you nuzzle into my neck. I love the way you wrap your arms around my shoulder when I hold you up. I love the way you pop your head up in the wrap to see what's going on, and the way you nestle in and fall asleep on my chest in the wrap. I love the way you look inquisitively around you, taking in your world, and your calm and contented outlook on life.

You are so loved, my dear daughter.

Isaac says goodbye to his crib

That's it. The crib is gone. Today was the day we moved the crib out of Isaac's room. It's a big day for our little guy and we couldn't be prouder of him.

The transition has been slow. This last week, Isaac has chosen to sleep in his big boy bed though it's not an easy choice. He would start there, then get off the bed and run to the door and lay down (making quite a racket). Then he'd want to be in his crib. Then he'd cry and cry and Justin would put him back into the big boy bed. Last night he got off the bed again and ended up spending the night in his crib after a couple successful nights of not sleeping in it.

Isaac has been giving up on naps in the last month. I've tried to keep them going but more often than not, he just cries and I get him up after a little while. Last night he woke up a couple times through the night then was awake for the day at 5:20 a.m (ugh). So he was super tired this afternoon and went down for an actual nap. He chose to be in his big boy bed, went to his crib, then ended up back in his bed to sleep. We were pretty excited about that as daytime sleep is so iffy to begin with and he stayed in his bed the whole time.

We've been telling him the last couple days that the baby bed was going away soon. Yesterday Justin really emphasized it to him that it was the last time he would have the choice to sleep in the baby bed or big boy bed.

After naptime today, Isaac brought his "tools" upstairs to help Daddy unset the crib. He seemed fine and when it was time for sleep tonight, he didn't get worked up at all. It was actually the best bed time routine we've had in awhile. He got up once, went to the door and laid down. Justin told him he was supposed to be in his bed. He wandered around the room once then climbed back into his bed and that was it. Blissful peace and quiet. We are so proud of him!

It is wonderful being able to understand more and more of who this child is that God has blessed us with. He takes things at his own pace and when we slow down and let Isaac learn and grow as he's ready, things go so much better. We feel good about our choice to let him ease into his bed slowly instead of making a rapid change that might be too much for him. And while absolutely nothing is guaranteed with kids, especially in the sleep department, I have a feeling things will go OK for Isaac now that he knows where he belongs at night time.

Oh, and as a bonus, when he's in the bed he doesn't take his pants off and throw everything on the floor. That's kind of awesome!

Saga of the bath

I got the lovely notion last night while bathing our boy that a bath would be a very nice thing to treat myself to.

I knew last night was out because I had been up since very, very early and had no nap and had a very hungry girl all day who was also very grumpy (for her) since she was hungry and not sleeping and the perpetual cycle of misery that these needs cause. Plus I had to go to the store in the evening for a prescription. When I went to pay, I realized I forgot the medical card at home and wasn't about to pay full price. Then while I was there I decided to pick up a few things we need at home. I did the grocery shopping as quick as possible, thinking perhaps I would have that bath after all But by the time I got home, I was done with the day and not knowing when Promise would be awake to eat, I headed to bed.

So I planned to have a bath at some point today. Good idea Lorene, just fit it in there somewhere.

I like to have leisurely baths so the evening would be best for me. Isaac went down just after 7 and I thought maybe I could squeeze a quickish but still relaxing bath in before Promise awoke. No dice, she was awake immediately, ready to nurse.

I timed it. That took one hour and four minutes of my evening.

So now we're looking at 8 p.m. Isaac is asleep. Promise is done nursing, has a clean bum and is snugly swaddled and putting herself to sleep.

I head downstairs to check for the aftermath of dinner. Not too bad as all we had were leftovers. But there's still a bit of cleanup to do. Then I make the mistake of tidying the front hallway (a constant disaster zone of boots, hats, coats, bags and other random goodies). I realize we still have Isaac's small rubber boots out even though Mom found him another pair that are his size. I figure I should get those put away before it's too late.

But they're dirty. Don't want to put away dirty boots so I throw them in the sink to scrub. As I'm getting them wet, I remember I've got the prescription to pick up at the store. I also have to do some more grocery shopping since I forgot about a meal I'm bringing a new mom Monday and for Tuesday when we're hosting care group.

A quick browse of the internet for my fave recipes and I'm ready to head out the door to the store. Just before I leave, Promise starts crying. Justin goes in quickly but a pop of the soother doesn't work. He's got a freelance project due tonight so I head in there to soothe my baby.

Rocking, shhhing and generally just being in there does the trick. She calms herself down and I can only presume she puts herself back to sleep as I don't hear anything else.

Head into the office to grab the medical insurance card that I had almost forgotten (again), see the mess of mail and thank you cards still to be dealt with and have a small rant about how unorganized our lives are.

FINALLY get out the door. Drive to store only to find that the pharmacy portion is closed. Then decide to drive to different store for shopping as they're cheaper, only to realize part way there that there's no grocery bags in Justin's car, which I grabbed as it was in the carport instead of our car parked inconveniently around the corner.

I'm not about to pay for grocery bags so I head home. Get in the door and realize Isaac's dirty boots are still in the sink. That will just tick me off in the morning to deal with so I pull out the cleaning stuff and scrub it down. Then of course our kitchen sink is dirty. So out comes the Comet and I scrub down the sink.

Then there's a few dishes to put away - may as well get the kitchen tidied - then while I have the Comet out I go upstairs to scrub the bathtub. After all, I'm going to have a bath tonight, right?

The bathtub is disgusting. Before I'm done scrubbing, the water is actually grey. We put our son in this festering porcelain tub almost every evening because of the theory he's been getting clean in there. I don't think so.

Then I remember the pretzel bark I made this afternoon for care group sitting in the deep freeze. Can't leave that sitting exposed in the freezer overnight, it'll get that funny smell to it. Out to the deep freeze on our deck, and I spend the next 10 minutes picking tinfoil off the bottom of the bark and putting it in a freezeable container. And OK, maybe sampling some of the chocolate salty goodness.

Clean out coffee pot, tidy up a few more things and finally head upstairs for my bath.

But then I have to go to the bathroom. For anyone reading this with young children, you are well aware of the shift in bathroom behaviour that occurs when small children are under your care. You simply do not have the time to, ahem, go, during the day. Yes, there are exceptions. But a remarkable thing happens after some time of having kids. Your body manages to simply alter when you need to, you know, go.

So there's that time flushed down the toilet.

Finally it's time for a bath. Unfortunately since this saga began, I mentioned to Justin I was having a bath. And then I realized I needed to have a shower afterwards to wash my hair. And Justin needs a shower too because it's church tomorrow.

Normally this wouldn't be an issue. But our hot water tank, along with a slew of household items, is on the fritz. Our hot water doesn't last long, certainly not long enough for a lovely bath and two quick showers.

I give up. I head upstairs, take a quick shower, almost go to bed and decide that I need to write this down. Because while I'm sure I will look back on these days as glorious, satisfying and some of the best days of my life, I should also remember that some days, there isn't even time for a bath. Lovely notion indeed.