3 Months Old!

Of course, Mr. Smiley Man decided to not really smile much during his session at the portrait studio today. Not sure what that was about. I think he must be tired. We got there within 45 minutes of him waking up from his nap, and he just ate, but he still wasn't nearly as alert and interactive as usual. Oh, well...the photos were still pretty cute. 

I managed to get some really cute photos of my own 2 days ago---so many shots of him with big smiles that it'll be hard to narrow down the best ones! I'm starting to wonder how much it would cost me to set up my own portrait studio at home---I have a good camera, but I'd need the lights and backdrops. Then at least I could get him when he's happiest, right after waking up and eating!

 

Do I really look that frazzled?

I thought I looked pretty good today. I mean, I showered and everything! And I was wearing clothes that were free of spit-up and drool. But for some reason when I was at Target today with the little guy (we went to the portrait studio) I was getting all kinds of sympathetic comments from people. "You've got your hands full, huh?" Several people offered to help me get him in and out of his car seat. And when I was almost back to the car, and older gentleman walking past said, "Don't worry, they'll grow up soon." Elijah wasn't even screaming, or all of this would have made sense. I didn't think I was stressed out, either (except by the fact that I had to pay full price for the portraits since I forgot my coupon). So the only conclusion I could draw was that I must look really tired or stressed out, by normal people's standards. I guess not sleeping for more than 3 hours at a time for 3 months will do that to a person, I don't know.

"He's so huge!"

At church today, it was fun to see a whole bunch of our friends...some of whom I haven't seen in a while.  And they hadn't seen Elijah in a while, either.  Quite a few people commented on how big he's getting.  I think he seems to look different every day.  He has so many facial expressions now that it seems like every picture we take is different than the last.  It's really fun to see him learning how to communicate, making faces and sounds.  I know it'll be a while until he can actually talk, but hearing his gurgling noises is still pretty fun.  

He turns 3 months old next Saturday.  How time flies!  The following Monday he has a doctor appointment and we'll find out just how big he is.  I keep having to remove clothes from his dresser that no longer fit.  I had to go buy some more sleepers for him.  His PJ's were getting too short, but now he has enough of them, at least in his current size.  But I somehow doubt that the 3-6 month size is actually going to last until he's 6 months old!  It's really amazing to watch a tiny human being grow literally before my eyes.  

A few photos from today....

Playing with daddy...

A new skill, or an accident/fluke?

From what I hear, it's waaay too early for Elijah to be rolling over.  Except that it's now happened 3 times.  But until he's started doing this on a regular basis, at times other than right after I've set him down for tummy time, I'll refrain from pronouncing him SuperBaby.

Check out the drool that I caught mid-air on this one:

"Ohh, here we go...not stable, not stable, rolling.....uh, mom?"

"Hey, what happened?!?  How did I get here?"  

 

Ok, I stand corrected.  I have been informed that it is possible to measure one's success as a mom at this stage: everyone is breathing at the end of the day, and I am still sane.  My problem is that I am an overachiever.  True, true.  :)  

Well, it is the end of the day, and everyone is breathing, and I have my wits about me.  Score one for me!!!!

Nap time

I know I should be spending Elijah's nap time either doing something productive or sleeping, but alas, here I sit in front of my computer, doing nothing, and eating cookies.  :)   Oh, well.  At least my brain is taking a break at the moment.  

This morning the speaker at MOPS was talking about getting rid of "mommy guilt."  This is a topic that I was completely unaware of even a few months ago...and now, with only ten weeks of motherhood under my belt, I could completely relate to everything she was saying.  There have been so many times when I questioned whether I was doing the right thing, or the best thing, and even more times when I had no earthly idea what to do.  

I've been trying to figure out why motherhood has completely overwhelmed me at times.  The reason, I've decided, is that there's really no way to measure success.  In school, you get grades.  At work, you get feedback from your boss.  But as a mother, not only is there no endpoint, but there are no grades or annual reviews.  There's no syllabus outlining expectations.  You don't win or lose.  And there is always something more you could be doing.  And there's always some new thing to wonder about ("shouldn't he be able to do X by now?").  So, as a habitual overachiever-type, I have had this nagging feeling that I'm not succeeding at this, even though I can't explain what I'm not doing right.  It's crazy!  

Fortunately for me, I have wonderful people in my life who tell me to get a grip, to go outdoors and take a walk, to stop reading all of the parenting books, to stop worrying, and to just breathe (you know who you are!).  And I really, truly am enjoying this.  It's the most difficult, delirious, uncertain season of my life thus far, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  So thank you, all of you who have helped preserve my sanity in the last few months!  

Rollin' along...

On Saturday, Elijah somehow managed to roll over from his back to front while napping in his crib...while swaddled, no less. I found him up against the rails (thank goodness for no crib bumpers that he could have smothered in!). But this means that I probably should stop swaddling him because I really wouldn't want him to get stuck somewhere with his face down and not be able to use his arms. This is really frustrating, too, because we were just starting to get good naps with his new, harder-to-escape swaddle (The "Woombie"....looks goofy but it works). And now he's back to waking himself up frequently with the wildly flailing arms. Sigh... I guess we just have to wait for him to have better control over his limbs and lose that startle reflex. I am hoping and praying that he will be a better daytime sleeper very soon! And that he'd sleep through the night, of course. Waking every 3 hours isn't fun, but at least I'm getting sort of used to it!

I keep telling myself that I just have to keep perspective: in the grand scheme of things, this is a very short season of my life, and I need to enjoy it for what it is. It's really hard to do some days!

Time for some sleep...however brief it might be. :)

Talkin' to Daddy

Apologies to anyone who doesn't find 2 minutes of baby cooing and smiling to be the height of entertainment...but I thought some might think it's cute.  We sure do!

  

Warning! Advertencia! Avertissement!

I finally got around to cutting off all the extraneous tags on the "tummy time play mat." I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there were more than 20 warnings and notices. This item shouldn't be used in a crib, without supervision or near an open flame. (Thanks for the heads-up on that one!) And in case you speak Spanish or French, they have repeated all of the warnings. Even the "inspected by" tag.