Harry Joseph, Three Months Old

October 19, 2007 @ 7:31 am

Dear Harry,

You turned 3 months old this week. Where has the time gone? I’ll tell you…nursing. You are still a big eater. Every two hours around the clock. You will usually give me one good long stretch of sleep, and by good I mean anywhere from 3-5 hours at a time (read: not great). That stretch usually comes between 8 PM and 1 AM, but the start time is not consistent. The end time (1 AM) however, is very consistent. You are hungry at 1. I get it. And also at 3 and 5 AM and sometimes 6 & 7 AM. The only way I’m getting any rest is to have you in bed with us. You are ok in the cosleeper, but I’m usually too tired to move you after you’re done eating. This morning was not good. I fed you at 6, then got up at 6:30, showered, pumped at 7 and was about to eat breakfast, when guess who wanted to nurse again in my last 10 minutes at home? No, the answer is not Daddy. I’m hoping this is just a growth spurt, because I can’t keep this up.

The nice thing is that you are a very happy, smiley, cuddly baby. You even wake up happy (unless you’re hungry, which again, I get it!) and will look over and give me a big smile first thing in the morning. I melt just thinking about it. You also give us wonderful giggles and coos like you are talking to us and you try to raspberry back to us when we make silly sounds. You love tummy time and play time and are just starting to be interested in people and toys. It is really fun to take you to the developmental play group on Thursdays and see what the other babies are doing and to see you watching them. Bath time has also become play time for you. You are so strong that I’ve got to get in the tub with you and hold you with both hands so you won’t fling yourself into the water. You love to kick and splash and get everything soaking wet and then you love to scream when we get you dressed. You still can’t keep a pacifier in because you constantly stick out your toungue, but you are starting to find your thumb. Not that I want to wish away your babyhood, but I’m looking forward to seeing you sit, roll and crawl. Each stage is more and more fun. But when are you going to hit that “sleeping through the night on a regular schedule” stage? You did one night last week from 11-7 and I thought I would keel over. Can we have a repeat performance?

You are also a very healthy baby. You weigh a whopping 16 pound at 3 months and are wearing 6 month clothes (See paragraph about “eating” above). You aren’t prone to rashes or eye boogers or ear crud or anything. You get gassy, but that only sometimes bothers you. Mostly you just toot and belch like a champ without batting an eye. You’ve had some colicy episodes, but we are hoping they have passed in time for teething to start. You are already looking like you might have some chompers on the way. Lucky Mommy!

It’s been tough leaving you to go to work, even though I love my job. I feel like I don’t have enough hours in the day to be with you and keep up with the library. It’s a big struggle right now. The first week, you wouldn’t eat until I got home and then it was a 12 hour nurse-a-thon from 5 PM to 5 AM (read: no sleep for Mommy). The second week, you hit a growth spurt and started eating us out of house an home, both while I was at work AND at home. This week has been different becuase you have come to stay with me at work a couple of times when Daddy had rehearsals. The whole time you were here, I felt guilty that I couldn’t give my full attention to you or to my work. You were very clingy and fussy until Daddy came back and then you were like “I’m cool!” In the end, it was exhausting for both of us. Even though everyone loves seeing you, we may have to rethink these arrangements. Just like we may have to think about buying a dishwasher and hiring a cleaning lady twice a month. Our priorities have shifted, and rightly so, but a lot of things are starting to slip around here. It’s hard to make yourself wash the dishes in the only 20 minutes of down time you have in an evening.

Sine this has taken me a few days to write, and I feel like I could spend weeks writing about your every move and change, I’ll wrap up. First, it’s now a day later thank the first paragraph and you gave me very good “sleeps” last night. 8:30-11:30, 12-4:45 and then I got up, pumped, showered and ate. Then you got up at 6 and we got to play and nurse some more before you went back to sleep at 7:30. I feel human this morning. Let’s do that again tomorrow! Mostly, it is just hard to imagine what we did before we had you. It’s hard to imagine loving anything more than you. You make everything seem new and exciting. It’s an exhausting, frustrating, thrilling and rewarding thing to be a parent. As we continue to figure things out and grow together, how about a nap? Nursies first, you say? Big surprise.

Love,
Mom