Autumn - Month 3

Autumn – Month 3

Month three seemed to race past. Mainly because we were so busy I think. We’ve had a lot going on at home with my husband being back at work and both of us getting Covid. Austin didn’t get it and Autumn seemed to get a very mild version thankfully. We didn’t test her, but she had a very mild cold at the same time my husband and I got it, so I would think it was very likely. She seemed to bounce back quickly and apart from a runny nose, lots of sneezing and being quite tired, she didn’t seem too bad. Obviously, we’ll never know if she had the sore throat and terrible headaches that Rob and I suffered with, but she didn’t seem too grouchy which was the main thing.

Sleeping

Autumn has started to settle into a little routine now. She goes around an hour and a half between naps and gives clear indications of when she is tired, but starting to yawn. We watch for the third yawn and then tuck her into her cot. She seems to go off quite easily if we catch her at that point, if not she will cry and need a good cuddle before she’ll go off.

She wakes up around 6:30 – 7am and is generally ready for her first nap around 8 – 8:30am ish. She’ll then sleep for a good three hours which is ideal on the days when I have both kids as it means Austin and I can go and get breakfast, clear up and then we’ve got a good solid couple of hours to play where it’s just me and him.

She’ll then wake up sometime between 11am and 12 noon. A be awake until around 1 – 1:30pm. She then will go down for another couple of hours until around 3 – 3:30ish. She generally needs another small nap of around ½ an hour around 4:30 – 5pm. She loves her sleep and will often be ready to go back to bed anytime between 6 and 7:30pm. She’ll sleep right round until 7am ish, just waking for feeds during the night. She definitely takes after my husband in terms of loving her sleep. He could sleep all day and night if we didn’t have kids and jobs!

I would estimate currently she sleeps about 16 hours a day.

Feeding

Autumn is definitely on a growth spurt. She wants to feed every couple of hours and often cries at the end of a breastfeed as she is still hungry. So I’ve been warming up previously expressed breast milk to top her up. Although my milk supply has increased, I think she wants more than that! I’ve been feeding her straight after her naps and then again before she goes back down to make sure she isn’t feeling hungry during the day. She generally wakes every 2 hours during the night for a feed at the moment.

Nappies

Autumn has gotten a lot better about nappy changes. If I sing to her whilst I am changing her, then she’s usually okay about the whole process. She’s definitely more aware of being in a dirty nappy. She starts to cry as soon as has done a poo and goes crazy if I’m not quick enough to change her. She seems to do most of her poos either first thing in the morning when she wakes up or when she is a bit more upright, for example when she is sitting in her baby seat or car seat – oh the joy! If she’s in a little dress, I nearly always pop her on a pair of shorts or over knickers when we go out. It helps with the mess if she does do a poo and it escapes the nappy.

Mental Development

Autumn is actually a very smiley baby. She loves being talked to and sung to and her whole face lights up when you do. She’s clearly processing that people are talking to her as she waits and then babbles back. She can form sounds and my husband and I have both heard her copy the sounds when we say hello to her which was hilarious and amazing.

She’s quite interested in patterns and loves to stare at certain patterns on people’s clothing. She also loves some of her baby toys and we’ll see her concentrating intensely on them.

Physical Development

With her increased appetite, she has started to get a lot bigger and fill out a lot more. She fits into most of her 0 – 3 months clothes and all her newborn outfits have been retired. She’s still on the petite side as although she is 3 months old, she really isn’t anywhere near fitting into 3 – 6 month clothes. I had her weighed about 10 days before the 3-month mark and she weighs 10lbs 8oz

She’s really got the hang of tummy time and can hold her head up for a long period. She’s also started rolling confidently from front to back and even a couple of times from back to front. She’s got strong legs and can kick herself over from laying on her back. She’s developed in this area very quickly over the last month.

She’s starting to get more control of her hands as well and she enjoys practising grabbing hanging things on her playmat. She’s also pretty good at grabbing my hair – much to my delight!