3 Months with Zelie

She turned three months on St. Paddy's Day. I sort of thought this post would never happen because I kept procrastinating this photo shoot, but I did it! HUZZAH. Nap time is a finite amount of time, you know? 

So let's talk about little Zelie, whose personality has really come out the past month.

She's a screacher.

This is exactly what she does when she screeches. Over and over. And it. is. hilarious. (For now at least.)

I'm sort of nervous about this because we have some air travel coming up. Just me and the two kids. By myself. Please say a Hail Mary for me.

I guess I'm praying the jet engines drown her out. 

She's adorable though. I can always get a smile or a giggle out of her. When the camera's not in front of my face anyway. 

At her plagio appointment on March 7 (so, a little over two weeks ago), she was 14 lbs, 2 oz. (85th %ile) and 24 inches (83rd %ile). I prefer having her in leggings and onesies unlike her brother because she's too long for 6 month sized sleepers, but she's swimming in 9 month sized. Her size 2 Huggies diapers are getting a little snug, but I'm sure size 3 will be too big, too. 

She does pretty well in the car seat, as long as the car or stroller is moving. And she still generally hates being worn facing me in an infant carrier, Ergo or Moby, makes no difference. I am SO happy I splurged for the Ergo360. 

EATS. Ah, she is the sweetest little nurser. At the end of a feed, she will stare up at me and smile and coo. Vast difference from her brother who would just puke all over me.

I've seen a big uptick in spit-ups, which I think corresponded with the end of a growth spurt, so I'm hoping that slows down. 

She's definitely spaced out feeds to 2.5 to 3 hours during the day and she's gone 9 hours between feeds at night (just the once though). 

Haven't offered her any bottles this past month. Just out of laziness. Hope I don't end up regretting it!

Oh and still wearing boob diapers. You know you were wondering. 

SLEEPS. As you already know, she's crib trained! It's been really great. We use blackout curtains and a white noise machine in her room, put her in the halo swaddle, sometimes pop a pacifier in, and she's usually asleep very quickly. And she's pretty much never napped less than 45 minutes in her crib (unless she's had part of her nap in the Moby - which has happened and she transferred well), so it's nice to know that I can actually complete an entire task (like a blog post!) once she's asleep. 

She typically wakes at about 6:30 and needs a nap about one hour after waking for the day. If she wakes between 6 and 6:30 I'll try and get her to go back down, which is hit or miss. (Yesterday was a hit and she slept from 6-8am, today was a miss and she was up for the day at 6.) Her wake times are generally around 1-1.5 hours. 

She has about 5 naps a day, give or take. I try not to let her nap past about 6:30pm to have her in bed by 8, but sometimes I fail because it's nice to eat dinner while she's asleep. Bedtime is between 7 and 8, but I think that 7:30-8 seems to be a better window.

She wakes anywhere between 1 to 4 times during that 12 hour window. It's been pretty unpredictable which is a bummer, but I think it's usually twice. But on the rare occasion when I get a 4 or 5 hour stretch, it really is magical. Still no diaper changes at night which makes it all very bearable. When I hear her on the monitor, I zombie walk into her room, un-swaddle her arms, nurse her on the very comfortable guest room bed half-asleep, burp her, swaddle her arms back up, put her down, and shuffle back into bed (or hit up the bathroom if I'm feeling cRaZy). This usually takes about 10-15 minutes. It's really not so bad.

POOPS. We are back to cloth diapering, which is going fine. A couple of her diapers started leaking because the PUL broke down, so that's kind of annoying. I thought it was a fit issue, but the PUL is absorbing pee, so it's definitely just the 2-3 diapers that have been over-used. Otherwise, it's super easy and I can't wait until it's warm enough to just have her in a diaper and t-shirt. She still rarely poops (every 3 days or so), but when she does, she poops the poops of 100 babies. And it reeeeeeks. Little Will may have pooped all day err day, but at least it wasn't as dense and smelly. So he had that going for him. Props, lil' man.

This head doe. 

She's still rocking a cone head. And she's got the same weird rat tail that Little Will had. 

I call it her hair curtain. 

MILESTONES.

// Rolling tummy to back. She can crush some tummy time. I am certain that we will get to her PT eval for her neck and they will be like, Ummmm why are you here. 

// Starting to grip objects in her hand. If placed in her hand. Nothing superbaby status. 

// Lost 80% of her hair.

// Crib-trained.

Like don't you just want to squeeze that belleh?

LINKS.

Will at 3 Months. 

Zell-Bell at 1 Month & 2 Months.

What We Wore Again

I wasn't sure whether I was going to participate again this week, until I saw this picture Will snapped in the church parking lot on this rainy, dreary Passiontide Sunday. Obviously I couldn't resist posting.

Walking beside him, by the way, it looked like the umbrella was floating along on its own. So hilarious. Oh, and it wasn't even raining anymore. 

Zelie's Mass outfit:

Squish squish squish.

Outfit deets:

 - Moi: The trench. (Here's the black version.) It's sort of new-to-me in that I bought it a year ago when I was working full-time and thought it would be a nice, light coat to wear to and from work. My third time wearing it, a co-worker pointed out that the security tag was still attached. You know, the one that makes the door beep. Door always beeping and then the store workers waive you through saying oh, your'e fine! Only I wasn't fine. The security tag was still attached. It took me a year to go back to the store and have it removed. They didn't even ask for a receipt because I was wearing a fussy Zelie in the Ergo and Will was throwing.a.fit trying to get out of the stroller making everyone in the store very uncomfortable, so that was nice because I definitely don't know where the receipt is one year later! (Where was Will? He was trying on khakis. So many khakis.) Blouse is LOFT (also worn here). Pants are Old Navy Maternity (derp - only 6 lbs to go though). Shoes are J. Crew Factory. 

 - Little Will: Jacket purchase documented here (Target). Khakis from Gap. Boots documented here (Target). Just realizing how much I document clothing purchases for the little man. Strange. Little Will's outfit inspo BTW:

Source.

 - Zelie: Dress is Baby Gap. Bow is Zozu Baby. Jeggings are Koala Baby hand me downs. Blanket is Little Unicorn. 

Big Will looked the cutest out of everyone (you should see those new khakis ;) ), but of course he ran off before I could document. 

Have a blessed week. One more left until Holy Week!

Linking up, of course:

The Rock n Play to Crib Transition

I started drafting this post Monday, but Sylvia beat me to the punch. Pics of sleeping babies in the rock n play and all. (Former attorneys turned SAHMs think alike.) Click over if you want to read about an older babe's transition.

This is the ultimate in mommy blogger posts, but WHATEVER. When you are dealing with kids' sleep issues it CONSUMES YOU TO THE CORE.

So anyway.

Little Will didn't spend too much time in the rock n play. I switched him to the crib full time early on, around 5 weeks, because I had to get up out of bed to change his diaper anyway. (I had 99 problems and 98 of them were dirty poop diapers in the middle of the night.) 

omg fat squish

I had no idea that rock n plays weren't really recommended for nighttime sleep and knowledge of this fact was not really necessary to my life, so, moving on . . . 

Enter baby number two. Our sweet Zelie loveddddd the rock n play . . . 

Two days old. First nap in the RNP. 

And the rock n play loved her back.

She was consistently going 5-6 hour stretches in the thing in her first two months of life. When she woke once or twice a night, I could grab her, nurse her in bed, put her back, and go back to sleep. I got real used to my easy peasy five hour stretches every night. 

2 weeks old. RNP Strong. 

Glorious.

But it was not meant to be. 

So here's the deal. Look at that picture above. A few weeks ago, just after Zelie's two month checkup (of course) I noticed that Zelie's head was a little asymmetrical. At first I thought nothing of it. I sort of just laughed it off because:

I'm a 90s kid. 

Babies don't always have perfectly round heads, you know? 

But then it started to bother me. I looked into it a little bit and started reading about plagiocephaly, i.e., flat head syndrome. Then I noticed her head always tilts to one side (her right) and she has a preference for turning her head to the left. The flat spot on her head corresponds to her head turning preference.

But it's the cuuutest little tilty tilt. 

A friend sent me this article (written by a pediatric occupational therapist) which essentially led me to believe the rock n play was exacerbating her head and neck issues. 

Damn you experts. 

From the blog:

Most babies are born with very subtle muscle imbalances from being all squished in the womb. One side of the neck might be a little tight or one side of the torso slightly curved. When you place your newborn in a semi-reclined position, gravity pulls her into that preferred "womb position", further exacerbating asymmetries. This is a contributing factor for Torticollis - one-sided neck tightness that often requires therapy to correct and often leads to one-sided head flattening. The cure for most minor newborn asymmetries? Lots of opportunities for movement and play to stretch and strengthen out of the womb position.

So I immediately switched her to the crib and took other steps to help round out her dome, including limiting her time in the car seat (which means the duallie, too), wearing her in the Moby or Ergo more often, and increasing tummy time. I took her to the doctor where she was diagnosed with plagiocephaly. He gave helpful advice like "I've never dealt with this before" and "maybe keep her left side to the wall in her crib so she looks right . . . ?" (I'll spare you of that rant, but NOT HELPFUL MUCH?!?) She begins PT next month to help with her head turning preference (though it's probable that her neck will be fine by the time we actually get to the appointment). We're just doing everything we can to avoid the 23-hour-a-day helmet. 

Anyway, the transition. 

I know some people go to great lengths to make the transition easier, like using pillows, propping up the crib with books, and rolling up blankets, etc. First of all, I wasn't willing to do that with my mostly immobile two month old. Because SIDs. Secondly, because of her neck and reading too much on the stupid Internet I was pretty motivated just to rip the bandaid off, so to speak, so that's what I did. 

I was already putting her down in her crib occasionally for naps starting around 6 weeks. She was more aware of her surroundings and so she would no longer take naps in the rock n play. That was fine. She was doing pretty well swaddled with the pacifier in her crib. I got lots of flights of stairs on my Fitbit with the running up and down to re-insert the pacifier a few times until she'd settle into her nap.

Eventually, maybe around the 8 week mark, I also tried putting her down for the beginning of the night in her crib. Before going to bed, however, I would bring her back to our room in the trusty old rock n play for the remainder of the night. She'd either wake on her own around 9 or 10 or I'd pick her up for a dream feed type situation before going to bed. BUT, it was still 50/50 on whether she'd actually fall asleep in her crib in the beginning of the night. On an off night, we'd just have to hold her until we were ready to go up to our room for the night.

So once I figured the rock n play was messing with her neck (she was 10 or 11 weeks), I decided I'd grit my teeth and just go all-in with the crib sleep. 

The first night was HELL. Will and I were up with her all night. I'd nurse, rock her to sleep, put her down, and then she'd wake and Will would insert and re-insert her pacifier. All. Night. Long. That first night I actually ended up co-sleeping with her in the guest room bed, so that I could re-insert the pacifier without getting up. Stupid pacifier.

The second night was also Hell, but an outer ring of Hell, I suppose. She woke four times, but managed to fall asleep more easily the first three times. The fourth time (at 4:30am) not so much, but it seemed like progress, so we kept at it. 

The third night, was, you guessed it, Hell! But by this point, we were at like, the fourth circle, so it wasn't too bad. She woke only three times this night, but put herself back to sleep adequately each time after a short bit of nursing. 

She's been waking three times per night ever since, around 10 (while we're still up, so essentially a dream feed), 1-2am, 4-5am, and then waking up for the day at around 6am. She went two nights in a row with only one wakeup where I got my hopes up really high (she did a 9 hour stretch!!! all the praise hands), but then went back to her three-fers. I'm only getting up twice, which is essentially what Little Will did at this point (but with more diaper bombs), so I'm pretty content to deal with it. I'll be forever hopeful that she'll do the 9 hour thing again. 

The rock n plays (yeah, we have two, judge away) are packed away for good. I've already seen improvement in Zelie's neck and she is becoming a rockstar at tummy time. Her head looks the same if not worse, because she's still sleeping on her back obviously. So maybe I'm just being overly cautious and paranoid . . . but that's my job. I'm a mom. Why they pay me the big bucks. 

What We Wore Sunday

Clawing my way out of my sleep deprivation hole to present to you another edition of "Theresa Pretends to Fashion Blog" thrown together in the hurried minutes before leaving for 8:30 Mass. 

This week we had (a) one formerly well-rested baby transitioning from the rock n play to the crib (more on that this week, I'm suuuuure) and (b) one toddler growing more stinking molars (seriously, who decided we needed so many sets of them anyway?). As a result I have mainly been using nap time to partake in my favorite coping mechanism of staring aimlessly at the wall eating ice cream. Rough week, y'all. Here's to a new one!

Of note: 

 - The winter static cling situation almost rendered every photo taken NSFW. And yet I have no idea  until looking at these pictures because I don't own a full length mirror and I'm wearing what I like to call my Spanx of Steel. Anyway, WHERE ARE YOU SPRING?

 - The explanation regarding sock on Little Will's hand. He wandered into his room after we already dressed him and found the one sock with the race car on it (i.e., his "choo choo train sock" - ???) and insisted on wearing it. I wasn't going to change his socks so our compromise was that he got to wear it on his hand. YES, he kept it on his one hand all the way into the church.

 - Which was a longer time than usual because our car needed a jump start for the third time thanks to the toddler who likes to pretend "drive" and turn on all the lights and signals. (After the second jump start I stopped letting him do it, but I guess I didn't drive enough in between jump starts? IDK. The battery is only a year and a half old.) 

 - But we made it in by the responsorial psalm! (Just goes to show that Will is now a professional at jump starting the car.) 

 - Little Will got an A- for his Mass behavior today. He stayed in the pew the whole Mass, which is so so rare for him. I can hope he's turning a new leaf, but it's probably just the result of feeling off from the teething. I only docked a few points because he got in a screaming match with another kid somewhere in the church. Seriously, it was like some sort of whale call where one child across the church made a high-pitched scream and Little Will thought he had to answer it with a high-pitched scream. It's a hard cycle to break. 

 - Zelie got another A+ today. She didn't even need to nurse during Mass for the first time in probably two months. Lots of happy noises and minimal farting FTW.  

 - I KonMari'd my wardrobe this week which leaves me with approximately three Mass-appropriate ensembles that fit. I would LOVE to do an entire post about what's left in my itty bitty Fourth Trimester wardrobe (9 lbs to go!). Requirements include: pooch friendly, nursing friendly, somewhat resistant to bodily fluids of all varieties, machine washable (obviously), AND no ironing required. But we'll see if I ever sleep again. 

Outfit deets:

 - Me: Dress is LOFT (currently on sale!!). The boots are Lucky Brand bought from 6pm.com a couple years ago for under $100 and they are awesome. (These are similar.) 

 - Zelie: Sweater is Baby Gap. Obsessed with the quality of this little cable knit sweater! It has held up really well through frequent machine washes and dries. (This looks similar.) Her leggings are Whole Parenting Goods. All Nell's stuff is great quality, too, and leggings have major longevity size-wise. She's also rocking an adore-a-bull onesie from Bullpin Apparel.  

 - Will: Shirt is Baby Gap. (This one is similar.) Pants are Old Navy. The sock is from Target, I think. Just call me if you really like the sock and want the sock. You can have the sock. We've got two of them. 

Linking up with Rosie, who also creatively has the word blog in the name of her blog. Kindred spirits!

Click on over.