Bub's 3 Month Milestones

Aoife is now three and a half months old, wriggly, a bit chubby, and quite opinionated.

I used to always exclaim about how she's starting to show some personality but now I think its even more defined. More and more its looking like she knows what she wants and makes sure you help her get it. Otherwise, she's become really adept at screaming her head off. Luckily these instances are still rare.

These last couple of weeks, my obsession for the month (as in her 4th month) is having bubs roll over. This has been a particular challenge as from the day she was born, our little princess has big issues with tummy time and unfortunately that's a big must for learning to do the roll. She's only started doing the recommended minutes on her tummy last month when we'd prop her up on a pillow for support. Prior to that, you'd be lucky to get a full minute out of her on her belly.

So discovering that pillow trick certainly was a relief for us. It was just the start that we needed. Yay, one box on parenting "musts" -- get your little one on her belly at least 10 minutes each day -- ticked!

The next item on the list is getting her to actually roll. Thankfully bubs was a self starter on this one. Just before she turned 3 months, bubs has started rolling to her right. Always just the one side though, but I'm not complaining. The only problem is, because she's a bit behind on tummy time, I don't think her arms are quite strong enough to complete the roll. She'd need them (particularly her right arm) to prop her up once she's rolled. So up to last week, the most she can do is roll three quarters of the way from her back to her belly. Then she starts getting really frustrated as she wasn't getting anywhere or only ending up on her back again. Poor bubs. I feel her pain. It's like how I was when I was learning to surf. Try as I might to get up on the bleeping board, I keep getting knocked down.

That said, she has managed to roll from her back to her belly a few times (no more than 10 times in the last 3 weeks) but each time, she was either on our bed and helped by the cushy mattress, or she started out lying on her head shaping pillow which helped give her shoulder a bit of a boost. I just hope this is a sign that her being able to roll over on her own is not too far away. All I can do is watch with baited breath each time she starts moving to her side.

Now that she's becoming more active, we have noticed that she gets bored lying on her back faster than she used to. These days, it feels like she'd rather sit, stand, or stay in her jumperoo and jump till she tires herself out.

Speaking of, that jumperoo has definitely worked wonders for her legs. She's always been a strong baby, even the nurses said so but those minutes spent on the jumperoo each day have certainly helped turn her thunder thighs into wonder legs! No, they didn't shrink (else I would use a jumperoo myself!), what did happen is that she is now able to hold her weight on her legs for short periods of time and even manage to "stand" (with a slight pull on her hands) from a sitting position. Amazing! The standing thing we sort of discovered by accident really. We were doing baby exercises where we gently tug her into a sitting position while she lies on her back. Instead of sitting though, she pushed against the mattress three quarters of the way and stood! Yay bubs! Now if you only surprised me with rolling over on your own too....

Anyway, enough on rolling over. Did I mention she laughs and squeals more often now? No longer the rare, race to get the video type of laugh, but more laugh-whenever-I-tickle-her-tummy type. Yay! As the baby blogs say, she's finally getting the joke! She's also trying to hold her bottle now, even if mostly she just manages to dislodge it. Wouldn't it be cool if she was able to do that on her own from here on out? It would be like giving her her first chore! Saves me from bending over the cot all the time to feed her...

These days, she's also at that licking phase. Literally licks everything within distance of her tiny tongue. I carry her and she licks my t-shirt. I try to cut her nails and licks my arm while I reach over. She gets hold of her little towel and she licks it. She grabs sophie the giraffe by the leg and tries to lick her face off. She's even grabbed one of her bolster pillows, lifted it to her face to start licking it too! Ugh. While funny, this is definitely one of her more icky phases.

What else? The last month, she's also lost tons of hair. I feel for the little tike. You'd think she was undergoing chemo or something! She came from having such a thick mat of hair on her head to being almost bald! It looks like its eased up a bit now though and I am hoping it all grows back again soon. She's back to looking more like a boy again with the hair loss. The headbands help, but its not the same.

Ooo! One major thing did happen this last month! A week and a half ago PIC got new glasses with transition lenses. One day I saw him walking on the driveway so I thought bubs and I would go downstairs and meet him at the front door. When he walked in his glasses were still tinted and when he tried to lean into bubs for a cuddle, she freaked out! This actually continued for the next three days even when his glasses weren't tinted. It seems that the new frames didn't sit well with bubs and she had to get reacquainted with daddy. Aaaahhh. I will remember those moments forever. Quite rare for bubs to prefer me over her dad you know, so don't judge!

Aoife wrestling with her pillows as she tries to lick one

Overall, we are definitely having more fun with baby. She's also sleeping more regularly from 7-7:30 PM to 7-8AM in the morning. You cannot imagine how happy PIC and I were when this became a regular thing. We just hope it lasts as we've heard stories of babbas going back to the 2-3 hourly intervals. 

These days it feels like everything is going by so fast. Something that she is struggling with this week can be something she's mastered the next. And just when we thought we couldn't love her any more than we already do, our little princess surprises us yet again.

November 8 Addendum:

Just when I thought we were still a long way away from it, it happened! This afternoon bubs was rolling over from her back to her tummy in her cot. She had the pillow under her head so there's the usual shoulder support and was thinking the soft mattress was helping her out so I didn't jump up and down just yet. One thing I did notice though was how she didn't complain and how quickly she was able to do it. So I thought, what if this is the real thing?

So out came the playmat and I set bubs on the floor to see if my theory was correct. I lay on her right side for some incentive and soon enough she started rolling to her side. This is where I grabbed my phone, ready to be babba's resident paparazzi again. There was one failed attempt and then BOOM! It happened! It took her longer than her attempt on the cot, but she just kept at it! No grunting, or complaining, just kept rolling to the side till she was completely over. Was pretty nonchalant about it too! First time she did it on the cot she couldn't stop grinning, pretty pleased with herself, but today she had that "so what's new?" look on her face.

Ah bubs. You never cease to amaze.