3 months old

Happy 3 month (13 weeks exactly) birthday Donovan! Man am I obsessed with you! Donovan is such a joy! I love him so much and miss him even more when I am not around him, which seems to be a lot lately as I went back to work last week. He is getting to be such a mature young man. As I type this he is sitting facing the computer, leaning against my body and enthusiastically chewing on his hands. I mentioned in his 2 month update that he had found his hands. Well this month he has decided that chewing on them is his favorite thing to do. It is so nice too because it keeps him occupied and happy for a good amount of time and a happy baby leads to a happy mommy. (see pic of Donovan cheering on the cardinals and eating his hand).


Overall he is a much easier baby now than he has been in the past. He has decided that in addition to the play mat, he enjoys the jumper, bumbo and now even the swing! This is extra exciting because he used to LOATH the swing and now he likes to swing in it and even take naps in it sometimes. Now that he likes those other things, it makes happy time that much better with all the variety. The past 2 days when I have had him all by myself during the day he was only crabby about 5 minutes total for both days because when he crabs we have so many other options of things to try. Something cute that he has started doing in the past week is sticking his tongue out a lot. I joke that his tongue is too big for his mouth because he doesn't just stick it out a little, he sticks it out all the way down to his chin, which is so funny. He also likes to lick your shoulder or shirt when you are holding him upright, so we often find ourselves with wet shirts after holding him now. I guess this is the beginning of the oral phase. (see tongue montage)




As far as the sleeping goes... I am pleased to report it is getting better! Donovan usually goes to sleep somewhere in the 8-9 o'clock hour and we are putting him in his crib now every night as of this past thursday. Thurs is significant because it was my first 11am-11pm shift back at work and my mom was in town so I think she was the push we needed to actually go for it and put him in the crib at night. That way Tom does not have to sleep with him since he isn't as comfortable with it as I am. The first night (and second night for that matter) was a doosy, with him only sleeping for an hour or so at a time. However sun and mon nights he went over three hours in the crib before he woke up for his first feeding, and last night he went four and a half hours! Hopefully he will just keep increasing his time until we get to sleeping overnight. The bad part about the crib though, is that he doesn't sleep as well in it so after the first feeding, it is just short bursts of sleeping in there with lots of waking up to feed and/or soothe him back to sleep. Everything takes time though so it will come. As far as naps go, we put him down in the crib about half the time, the other half we hold him or put him in the swing. If I am tired and trying to get a nap in too then it works best for now if we nap together as he will sleep longer if he is with me. Eventually though it will all be in his crib. His naps are pretty short these days, he usually only naps for about 20-40 minutes and then for one nap a day goes anywhere from 1-2 hours. Saturday he must have been wiped out as he napped in his crib for 2 and a half hours, at which point Tom woke him up so he wouldn't spoil his night sleeping. We do have a long way to go, but I am happy with where we are and the progress we have made with the whole situation this far.

Donovan still loves his baths and naked time. I changed his diaper and outfit (he peed on it) monday outside while we were watching Tom play softball and I am pretty sure it was Donovan's favorite moment ever. The wind hitting his naked booty was a dream come true for him. Hopefully in the next month we will take a try at swimming. I would like for him to be sitting up a little better before we go so I am going to wait a few more weeks but then we are going to try it out since I think he would really love it. As far as the poop thing goes (I know you may not care but this is for my record too) Donovan is taking pitty on us and only pooping a few times a day at most, and even skips days on a regular basis. It seems stupid but it is nice because I don't worry about diaper rash and changing him right away since it isn't all the time anymore.

On a sad note, I did go back to work last week. I am handling it pretty well but as I sit here and type this, I have tears in my eyes at the thought of having to go back to work tomorrow and not see him for 13 hours. We are so blessed that Tom's mom is able to watch him so I know I am incredibly lucky, I just wish I never had to leave him. It does make me more thankful for every second I do have with him though. Before last week, when Tom would come home I would be like "You get to change the next diaper" or "Could you hold him a little while?". Now I never want to give him up or even let Tom take that next diaper change. Of course it also helps that he lets me put him down now during the day while he plays so I do get to do things I couldn't before. I just love him more and more every second and I can't imagine a cooler kid. I know he is only 3 months old but I just love his personality and he cracks me up daily and makes me melt with the smiles he gives me. His expressions are just too funny, I just hope that one day he can understand just how much joy he brings us on a daily basis.

Our sweet baby. Is there a sweeter face?