Eleanor at 3 Months

 As of this morning, Eleanor now weighs 14.2lbs, has a head circumference of 16" and is 24 1/2" long.
 Compare her to Will at this age.

Starting at 10 weeks (she did this periodically before but not at all consistently), she started taking a one hour morning nap that starts about an hour after she wakes up, and then she goes down at 1pm, right after Will does, and she generally sleeps until 4 or 5pm. Its been wonderful to get a nice long break from both kids in the afternoon!

Generally she falls asleep between 10 and 11pm each evening (in the past few days she has actually gone down at 9pm, but I can't wait until she learns to fall asleep earlier in the evening), and wakes up either at around 3am or 5am. If she gets up at 3am, then she generally is up again at 7 or 8am. If she gets up for the first time at 5am, then shes generally up for the day at 9am. Unlike Will as a baby though, her first stretch of sleep is not always the longest. A few times she has gotten up at 1 or 2 am, and then didn't get up again until 8 or 9am. She has started sleeping completely through the night (10pm-7 or 8am) a couple of times a week now, which is awesome. She is still doing really well with putting herself to sleep. Most nights I lay her down in her crib completely awake, and leave the room and she is out in just a few minutes. Its wonderful! So far, all things considered, she is an even better sleeper than Will was, which is saying something!

At the end of the month her sleeping patterns changed a little bit when Will, Eleanor and I all got a small cold. Basically her naps became fewer, but longer in duration. Yesterday was a perfect example: I put her to bed at 10pm, she was up at 5am for a small feed, she woke up for the day at 9am, went back down at 10:30, didn't get back up again until 1:30p, then went down again at 2:30p and was out until 6:30p. Then she was pretty much up until bed at 10pm. That means she was only up for 6 hours total, which is really pretty nice, though I do miss holding her more during the day. 

She still chokes while eating. It makes me nervous every time. I keep waiting for her to finally outgrow it. She has gotten more efficient at eating lately though. Up until about 2.5 months, each feed lasted between 8-10 minutes, and nowadays they last more like 3-5 minutes. At first I worried that she wasn't getting enough to eat, but she had plenty of wet diapers and was gaining weight normally, so I eventually stopped worrying and started enjoying the extra time savings!

Speaking of gaining weight, she is growing like crazy and is now wearing 3-6 month clothes exclusively. Her neck is getting stronger and she has so much better head control these days. That makes it a little easier to hold her. Also her eyes are starting to turn brown. I can see streaks of brown extending from the iris to the edges of the pupil. I'm sure soon they will be solid brown in a few months. I was kind of hoping she would get green eyes like me, but Michael has pretty eyes too, and I bet hers end up looking much like his. Her skin is looking much better these days too, starting from around 10.5 weeks on. The eczema lotion has been working miracles, and the occasional spot still pops up, but overall her face is SO much clearer looking. Especially in this past week, pretty much all traces of the rash has gone. I hope that will continue!

This kid has the STINKIEST farts and poop. As stinky or stinkier than Will's, and that is saying something because she is solely breastfed. Her poops should smell like gross buttery popcorn, not death. For such a sweet little thing, she sure does smell. Its a good thing she only poops every 4-5 days or so. Of course, when she does poop, she will go 3-4 times in one day, or more. So I suppose it all averages out. And she still hates to sit in a poopy diaper so the moment it comes out, she starts fussing and "asking" for a change. And she also still gives me a gigantic smile as soon as I put her on the changing table and she realizes she's getting a clean diaper. Cracks me up every time!

She absolutely LOVES her activity mat and will often be fussy when we are holding her, and then calms right down and starts cooing and kicking when we put her down on the mat. I think she likes the toys and the colors and lights. A few times she has kicked and played so hard, that she has passed out right on the mat. William never did that!







Nora is a pretty smiley baby and is starting to smile at all 3 of us more. I love to see her wake up from sleep. She will open her eyes, stretch her arms above her head and arch her back, and then look at me and give me a huge smile. Its just the most adorable thing. She has started to laugh too, which just completely melts my heart. She is just a joy to be around!

I just love this little girl so much! She is just so mellow, and has the sweetest little spirit. She is always smiling. She has absolutely captured my heart and has made being a mom of two, so easy! Easier than I ever imagined it could be. I am just loving every minute of having another newborn! Though I suppose technically now that she is 3 months old, she is no longer a "newborn" but an infant. *Sigh* Time passes too quickly!