Adventures of M-Squared: Josie at 3 months

So I am way behind in my blogging as usual. You are almost 4 months old and I’m just getting around to actually writing your 3 month blog so hopefully I remember everything… This is more of a picture dump than anything, but I’ll try to remember the specifics.

I moved you up to 3-6 month clothes this month and you’re in size 2 diapers now. We went for your shots at 3 months and you were 12lbs 13oz, but we didn’t take your height. You are definitely longer, I’m just not sure how much. Hopefully we’ll find out at your 4 month appt. You got hib and PCV shots this month and you weren’t a big fan. You cried your sad cry which just breaks my heart.

You are getting more vocal and love to babble and talk to us. We can carry on conversations with you now and you grin all the time. I’ve gotten a few small laughs out of you too. Your siblings LOVE helping with you. Abbie is super great with you. She loves to get you dressed and change your diapers and will feed you. Jamison loves to help feed you a bottle too but help is a relative word… I know I don’t do nearly enough tummy time with you because I never want you on the floor. I’m afraid you’ll get trampled but kids or dogs or someone. And I’m afraid you’ll roll off the couch so I don’t put you there much either. You get held a lot and you strengthen your back muscles that way but you probably won’t roll over until you’re 10 months old since I never put you on the floor.

Having 4 kids has been incredibly tough, but in most aspects, you’re the easiest one right now. The bigger kids are lacking attention and that’s causing issues, but this is the month where I finally feel a little more in control of having 4 kids. I can take you and your brothers out and don’t panic and you do pretty well. I probably prop your bottle WAY too much, but sometimes it’s the only way to feed you and take care of everyone else at the same time. I only do it when necessary, but I still feel guilty about it.

You still love your baths and you’re getting better in your car seat. It’s not constant screaming now, just occasional screaming. I have you mostly sleeping in your own bed for the majority of the night now and sometimes you sleep great and other times you sleep horribly. Sometimes I can get a decent 6-8 hour stretch out of you and other times you’re up every hour or two. Usually around 6-7am I bring you to bed with me for that feed and then you stay asleep until 830 which gives me enough time to get everyone else up and fed. And then I get you up and dressed quickly before we head out the door to drop kids off at school. We’re getting into a routine and that makes me happy.

By far, the hardest thing for me with you is nursing, or the lack there of, I should say. You pretty much won’t latch at all anymore and I’ve pretty much given up trying. I’m still pumping twice a day, but I’m only getting around 8-10 ounces out. I feel like I should be trying harder to pump more, and I add sessions or power pumps in when I can but it’s really hard. And I feel a lot of guilt about not being able to nurse you like I did Abbie and Jamison. I am still terrified of you getting RSV and I feel like the little bit of breastmilk I do give you can help you avoid that, but who knows if that’s true. Every baby here that I know that’s gotten it has been breastfed so it didn’t help any of them not get it. I wish I could let go of the guilt of not nursing you, but it’s been very hard and I feel like I’m failing you in that aspect. Thank God you do great on formula. My goal is to make it 6 months, but we’ll see. We have a lot of trips coming up and I’m not quite sure how I’m going to keep pumping through all of those.

For the most part, you are a very relaxed baby. You are super sweet and if you’re upset you are usually hungry or tired. We can get you to calm down just by talking to you usually and you flash grins all the time. Part of me is so excited to see who you’ll turn in to and part of me just wants to keep you little forever. Time is flying by and we are trying to soak up all these newborn moments with you and I need to get better about blogging about all of them or I’ll forget them all!!