Three months of Maren

Maren is now three months old. Again, it is surprising how quickly time goes by and yet how it is hard to imagine life without her.

I am not sure whether I have measured her totally properly, but I think she has grown about three and a half or 4 inches since she was born. She is a tall kiddo! She hasn't been weighed on a proper scale since December 10, and her weight gain has been a pretty consistent source of worry for me. Ever since learning that she was not gaining weight appropriately at about two and a half weeks, I have been vigilant about tracking her weight. For a long time, she was gaining weight consistently – about 1 ounce per day. But when she was weighed on December 10, she had gained a little less than that since her last weighing on December 1. I have tried weighing her on our bathroom scale by weighing myself and then holding her and getting a second weight, and if this is accurate, her weight gain has slowed considerably. But I don't trust that this is accurate, so sometime in the next couple of days we will take her to the public health office (where there is a baby scale in the waiting room) and get a more accurate weight. Jeff tells me to pay attention to other things, like the fact that she seems happy, and is meeting her developmental milestones, and seems to be eating fine. I know that he is right, but at the same time can't help worrying!

Fortunately, she doesn't give me a whole lot else to worry about. She continues to be a happy, easy baby, and seems to be thriving. She smiles and "talks" all the time, and continues to be easily soothed. A couple of days ago she seemed to discover a new kind of crying, which was quite disconcerting – extremely loud and intense, and it seemed to me that she must be in intense pain to be crying like that. However, Jeff was able to calm her down by walking her up and down the hall for a few minutes, and she has used this cry a couple of times since with similar outcomes. So it seems that it is just a new kind of crying.

As is typical with a baby, sleep is inconsistent and sometimes difficult. The night before last she was up to feed to five times. But last night she slept for a four hour stretch, nursed for twenty or thirty minutes, and then slept for about five more hours. She usually wakes me up probably twice a night to nurse, but she never fully wakes up, and is asleep again by the time she's done nursing. There is no difficult time getting her back to sleep. So even if she wakes me up a couple of times in the night, as long as I can get back to sleep quickly (which I usually can), things are not at all bad.

At three months old, Maren is more interactive than she was when she was younger. She demands more attention, and wants to see more of her world. She used to be content facing me and staring at my face or even just the chair or the wall behind me, but now she wants to face out and watch everything that is going on. She seems to love watching Jeff when he is busy in the kitchen.

She is also getting very strong – she holds her head up really well, and can now do a mini "baby push-up," and kicks and swings her arms all the time. She has not quite discovered putting objects into her mouth yet, but spends a great deal of time with her hands in her mouth.

Jeff starts back at work after the new year. He will resume his normal teaching load, and will be expected to be active with all his other duties, but fortunately there is a lot of work he can do from home. It has been nice having this time together as a new family, and although I wish we had more time, I know that we are extremely lucky to be in the position we are in!

We are also lucky to have such a sweet baby :-)