The Fishers: 3 months

Caitlyn turned 3 months on Friday. It is crazy how fast time is going by. We met up with some friends at the park that morning and hung out until Eric called to say he was getting out of surgery early. We headed home to pick him up and pack up a quick lunch before heading out the door for Fort Desoto. The weather was amazing and we all got a little sun...even Ms. Caitlyn. I know! I felt horrible when I got home and saw that her face was pink. What a horrible mother! She was in the shade or in her stroller covered up 99% of the time but that 1% was enough. I even had baby sunblock with me but didn't put it on because I thought you were supposed to wait until they were 6 months before you could put sunblock on a baby. Who knows where that came from. Anyway, lesson learned.

Caitlyn Grace Three Months in Review:

Caitlyn looks just like her dad. The only thing so far I can tell for sure that is mine are her ears :) But, as she gets chubbier I have been getting more comments that she looks like her mom...go figure (haha).

2 months

3 months (with her tan)

3 months

She loves to talk and sing. Her favorite songs are "When You're Happy and You Know It." (especially the shout hooray! verse) :) and the "Ahhaaha" song that Ariel sings when the octopus witch steals her voice.

She loves giving kisses to mom and dad but especially to her blanket/rattle Mr. Bear. Eric would say she is the cutest when she is asleep but I think she is the cutest when she wakes up. She usually hangs out in her crib talking to herself for a little while and when I go to get her she gives me the hugest smile every single morning. Her eyes always get big. Its as if she is discovering things all over again every morning. Since day one she has been able to hold her head up and she can support her own body weight while standing. When you hold her on your lap she prefers to be standing. She was addicted to her binky since before she left the hospital but around 2 months she found her thumb and doesn't take her binky much anymore. She is starting to play more with toys but her favorite toys are her hands. They are always in her mouth. She hates her carseat unless she is in her stroller and moving or in the car and moving. She likes her swing, bouncer and play mat.

She barely fits in her swing these days and the poor batteries really struggle to get the smallest little movement :) We call her diva because even though she is a pretty happy baby and can be independent and play by herself she has her moments when she must be the center of attention. You can be holding her and talking with her and the moment you look away to read something or type an email or answer the phone she starts whining until you look back at her and then she will give you a big cheesy grin. Total diva.

When Caitlyn was first born she ate just like her dad. Eric eats and eats and eats and doesn't gain any weight. He has an amazing metabolism. Caitlyn was the same way. She was eating and eating and not gaining weight. If only I were that lucky! Eric even gets up in the night to eat because he has what he calls hunger pains and can't sleep. I wake up in the morning to find empty glasses of instant breakfast or crumbs from midnight sandwiches. He is just like a newborn! Well, now Ms. Caitlyn is gaining weight like crazy. When she was born she weighed 8 lbs 9.6 oz. When she left the hospital she was 8lbs and by the time she had her first appointment with the pediatrician at 4 days old she was 7 lbs 12oz. A week later she was 8lbs and another week later she was still at 8lbs. She was so tall and skinny!

Eric calls this her Holocaust Survivor photo.

She was a pretty happy baby but I was afraid she wasn't getting enough to eat. I started pumping like crazy and supplementing between feedings with pumped milk in a bottle but it wasn't until I started supplementing with formula that she started gaining weight. I cried when Eric gave her that first bottle of formula around 3.5 weeks. I felt like a horrible mom. That was one of my most important jobs and I couldn't do it. Well, she started gaining weight instantly. She was only getting between 4-8 oz total of formula everyday but that was all she needed. I had to tell myself that she got her meals by nursing and the formula was more like vitamins :) Well, at 1 month she weighed 9 lbs. They like babies to regain their birth weight by one week and it took her one month. At 2 months she weighed a whopping 12 lbs and was 24 inches (3 inches taller than when she was born). She was in the 91 percentile for height and 76 percentile for weight.

Wearing her newborn outfit. Not cool mom.

I am guessing at three months she is almost 26 inches and almost 14 lbs. A big baby! She should be eating a total of about 35 ounces every day and 6 oz of that is formula. She spits up a lot and has to take lots of breaks while feeding to burp. She is still eating about every 2 hours but at 2 months she surprised us by sleeping through the night and has every night since. She was going to bed around 10ish and waking up around 7ish but we are working on getting her to bed earlier. Last night she went down at 8 and slept until 6:30. She ate and went back to sleep for another hour. She normally has another nap in the morning for an hour or two and another in the afternoon for an hour or two. But she still has her days with 5 half hour naps throughout the day and not going to sleep until 11 and waking up at 5:30 but not very often. She loves taking baths. She splashes too much to go into her baby bath so we just throw into the bathtub with a couple of inches of water and let her splash away. She is as happy as can be until you take her out. Fortunately, we have found the trick to calm her down. No matter how upset she gets we just have to take her into the bathroom and plop her in front of the mirror and she instantly smiles and laughs with the baby in the mirror. Aside from the ceiling fan, Mr. Bear (and Mom and Dad of course) the mirror baby is her best friend.