Juliet is 3 months!

Juliet is 3 months. Well, really 3.5 months but she's a second child so I'm a little late posting this. I remember 3 months being such a turning point with Forest. His colic started to dissipate, he was sleeping 7-7 with a dreamed at 10, and was starting to take a long nap every morning with 3 mediocre naps later in the day. Plus he was just turning into such a fun and happy baby who loved his doorway jumper and activity gym. It was just SUCH an improvement over his chaotic and fussy newborn days. 

I think it's safe to say I've become a much better photographer in the past 6 years!

Well, it's true what they say about all babies being different! Juliet started life sweet and easy, giving us early respite in the sleep department and having days where she literally DID NOT CRY. As a momma of a formerly colicky baby, this was unreal to me! But unlike Forest, Juliet seems to be a 2 steps forward, 3 steps back kind of baby. We seem to get a good schedule going and then she will go through a major regression anytime she is hitting a big milestone. 

There is a theory called 'wonder weeks' that there are certain predictable times when a baby is going through a period of developmental growth that can lead to unpleasant (but temporary) behavioral changes. We didn't find this to be too accurate with Forest, but maybe because his baseline was fairly high needs these phases didn't stand out as unusual. 

Juliet has been getting totally derailed by these 'leaps', especially in terms of sleep. The big kahuna lasts 4 weeks and comes right around 3.5-4.5 months when they go through the dreaded '4 month sleep regression' which strikes fear into the hearts of mothers everywhere. 

Forest never went through this, or if he did it was lumped into 8 hour jet lag since we moved from Scotland to the UK right before he turned 4 months and after a week of terrible sleep he went back to being a normal mediocre sleeper. Juliet has already gone from sleeping through the night for 2 weeks, to waking up multiple times per night the next two weeks, so I'm afraid. I'm very afraid. 

YALL!!!! Thank you Lord Jesus and please please please let this be the new normal! 

I just haven't been able to have much confidence that her sleeping habits will stay the same. She's in a fantastic phase right now and I'm a much happier and better mommy for it! I'm praying hard that we weather this 4 month sleep regression ok (hoping beyond hope that our 3 month regression was actually the 4 month coming a little early!) because on her 5 month birthday we are traveling 28 hours straight to get back stateside for Christmas which is a *13 hour* time difference. So all this work to get her days and nights firmly in the right category and then we are gonna switch her up for a month and then go through the whole shebang all over again. Ah- expat life with a baby! 

So I hope she just 'gets it' with the gentle training we are doing now because she'll be 6.5 months before we have a good opportunity to formally train her. (You aren't supposed to sleep train until 5 months and we are literally traveling to the US on her 5 month bday so gonna put it on hold for another 6 weeks.) We got away with never sleep training Forest as he was a rock star who slept through the night starting at 8 weeks and never backtracked. Anyhoos, that's 4 paragraphs on sleep so you can guess what I'm currently obsessed with....

Broke out of her swaddle a few nights ago and I was so sure it would be a disaster but it was actually her best night of sleep ever! Still not brave enough to put her down unswaddled though...

Here's some additional information:

So chubby! And I can't get over those ginger eyebrows and general redheaded coloring! Ah! I'm just obsessed with her! 

Weight: 12.5ish pounds, 29%
Size: She's in that awkward between sizes right now. 0-3 months are too snug but 3-6 months are swallowing her. She's moved into size 2 diapers. 
Milestones:
* Grasping at things. Occasionally grabbing them and bringing them to her mouth for inspection.
*Has rolled back to belly but it's far from being a mastered skill. 
*Learning to self soothe by sucking her thumb. 
*Scooting both on back and belly to get closer to a toy. She's super strong! 

Routine: So I'm sure this will change in the coming weeks but I feel like we actually have fallen into a predictable pattern for the past 2 weeks! And I like it! We still follow a eat every 2.5-3.5 hours and nap after 1.5-2 hours of wake time routine. 

Okay, so she wakes up between 5:30-7 am. If she wakes up before 6:20, I will generally try to get her back to sleep by offering her paci. This works most of the time. So we do her morning feed usually between 6:30/7am. From there:

6:30/7 AM- Wake up for the day and eat.
8:30ish- nap. This nap has been lengthening and sometimes is 2ish hours, so we let her go a little longer between her first 2 feeds of the day.
10:30ish feed
12:30 nap
1:30 feed
3:30 nap
4:30 feed
5- walk in the stroller, occasional catnap
6:30 start bedtime routine (bath, massage, gripe water, pjs, swaddle arms out)
6:45- nurse and then feed 3 oz bottle
7:20 in bed. Sometimes she wakes up 20-30 minutes later and needs a pacifier and goes back to sleep. For now she's sleeping 10-12 hours. It's magnificent but I'm prepared for it to regress over the next few weeks as their sleep patterns go through a drastic shift at this age. 

She IS NOT falling asleep independently except for bedtime occasionally. We are rocking her to sleep for most naps. I try to put her down drowsy at least once a day but we haven't been having much success lately. 

Likes: People. She gets big gummy smiles on her face when she sees one of us. She loves her lamaze toys (moose and firefly), looking in the mirror, getting kisses on her cheeks and belly, and looking at books. She has done a 180 with bath time and now LOVES it. 

She's also coming around to tummy time and will tolerate it for about 10 minutes at a time now. 

will do tummy time for books

Dislikes: Not much. Still not crazy about tummy time. Not crazy about nap time. Occasionally acts like it's the end of the world if I put her down. But she's honestly the most quiet and chill baby. Only fusses if it's close to nap time or she wants a change of scenery. 

Biggest challenges: Sleep regressions and just the monotony of eat, play, sleep on a 3 hour loop every day. I know it's a short stage and soon she'll be able to go longer without a nap. But it's not my favorite! 

I've struggled with postpartum depression and anxiety with both babies and it's just the worst. Alanis Morrisette described it as 'being under water covered in tar' and I thought that was pretty spot on. It's hard to explain but just coming up with a menu for the week, constructing a grocery list and actually going to the grocery store feels straight up Herculean. Maintaining any sort of work out routine or social life seems impossible. I have a finite amount of energy and that is spent breastfeeding, drop-off/pick up at school, maybe throwing something in the crock pot for dinner and doing my bible study. Like THAT IS IT. 

There is is this viral post about Moms confessing there 'I don't' lists and y'all, it was crazy convicting. It was supposed to be all encouraging 'give yourself  a break- we all have things we don't do' but instead made me realize all the priorities that I've totally slacked off on recently. Like I don't put my 6 year old to bed. I don't monitor his screen time. I don't do his bible devotionals everyday. I don't make sure he has a fruit and veggie with every meal. I don't make him go to tennis every time. I haven't signed him up for swimming lessons this term. We don't read him a chapter every night before bed. I don't go to evening events because it cuts into my 8:30 bedtime. It's really sad. 

Like all of the things I thought I was doing pretty well at in parenting have fallen to the wayside while I just try to survive this season of adjusting to a new baby in a foreign country while my husband is CONSTANTLY traveling. I'm tired of being in survival mode. I'm totally brain dead with zero memory, and constantly feel depleted, disorganized and fatigued. I'm trying to give myself grace but I know Jonathan and Forest are getting fed up with zombie mom/wife. I don't want to go on medication but will if I continue to feel this way for a few more weeks. 

I'm also just REALLY homesick. I think about all the self care things I had in place in The Woodlands that just aren't available here. The hot and humid year round climate here is really oppressive to me. I hate hot climates and here there is never a break, never a cool breeze or fresh air. Sounds small but it has a huge effect on my quality of life. I tell Jon it's like Flowers for Algernon. You can't take me to live in places like Scotland and Northern California and then expect me to go back to swampy heat and humidity. We don't have to live like this! There are places on the planet where the air is fresh and you never feel like you are going to faint just waiting on your kid to get out of Kindergarten. 

Biggest rewards: Juliet is such a sweet baby. She's quiet and content and easy to love! This is a fun age as they really start to interact with the world and are growing and changing at such a fast pace. 

Other observations: She's just so quiet. I mean, she gurgles, coos, giggles, etc but at a pretty low volume. We grow those introvert genes pretty strongly in my family and she seems to be following suit. She just loves to look around and take it all in. She seems pretty calm and chill compared to her crazy big brother. But yet, she's hitting milestones even earlier than he did so who knows what the future holds in store for us! She's already scooting a bit on her play mat and seems like she might be early with the crawling. Time will tell!