3 Months With Kate
As I write this post, baby Kate is 13 weeks old. David is downstairs with the baby making us “brinner” aka breakfast for dinner (our favorite). I can hear him narrating his movements to Kate, who’s watching on from her BabyBjorn. “THIS IS BREAD”. 😂 She coos back. Still two peas. Meanwhile, I’ve trekked upstairs with a glass of champagne for a little baby break. 🥂 I’ve learned to take full advantage of dad being home all day on weekends. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to mind. 👨👧
Summer is keeping us busy in the best of ways, and accordingly, this month’s update will be heavy on photos and light on words. I say “busy”, but really I mean lately I find myself wanting to do other things besides sit down and write a blog post. Which is fine because it’s summer. And on top of that, it’s Kate’s FIRST summer. So we’re doing all we can to treasure every moment. ⛱️
Over the last 30 days she’s grown so much and is one chatty Kathy. 🗣 She’s fully discovered her hands and has just started to reach out and touch things. 🤚🏻 In fact, she recently started grabbing and shaking her rattle. 🤹🏻♀️ While she favors her left hand, I’m told it’s too soon to tell whether she’s going to be a lefty. 🧐 It’s been too hot outside to go on walks, but we’ve been finding other ways to keep ourselves occupied between traveling and going out to eat and playing with all the new toys she’s all the sudden interested in.
Waking her up in the morning is my favorite thing to do, and sometimes David and I fight over who will get to do it. Those days, we ultimately decide to do it together. Last month she slept 8 hour stretches, and now she sleeps 12-13 hours every night (without fail… so far 🤞🏻) including a dream feed. 🍼 Mom and dad are so thankful for our good sleeper. 😴 At this point, she’s fully sleep trained thanks to Miss Heather and Miss Jen! They’ve been our night nannies these last 3 months. I don’t know how we would have fared without them. Not as well, that’s for DAMN sure! Worth every. single. penny. If a night nurse is something you’re considering and you can swing it, DO IT. Even if it’s just a couple nights a week. Game changer.
Miss Heather has already had her last night with us (😢), and Miss Jen has one more week. Now that Kate’s sleep trained and sleeping through the night, there honestly hasn’t been a HUGE need to have them around these last few weeks (and don’t worry, they know as much… we laugh about it). However, there IS a want. What can I say, I’m attached? 🤷🏻 At this stage, Heather and Jen just handle the 10:30pm dream feed and do all the baby chores… bottle cleaning and laundry mostly. And I have to say it was SO nice coming home from Mexico and not having to lift a finger to unpack her suitcase. I woke up in the morning and everything was cleaned, toys were sanitized (ew airport germs) and all was back in its proper place. Once they’re gone, we’re on our own! I’ve decided not to do a regular nanny at this point, but that might change in the future. For now, between me and David and all 3 of Kate’s grandmothers, we’ve been able to manage just fine.
This month marked mom’s first night away (I drove to Houston to surprise one of my best and longest friends Emily who got engaged!) plus Kate’s first plane ride AND first trip out of the country. ✈️🇲🇽🗺 She was SUCH a trooper on the plane. On the way there, David and I give her a B+. We were teetering towards B- territory for a while there, but she recovered. On the way home… A+. She nailed it. And I have to say, I was worried about rude looks from passengers, but we didn’t get any on this trip. Everyone was so nice AND kept their hands to themselves! 😷
Obviously, she’s too young to make memories on this vacation, but David and I certainly did! In the mornings we were on Kate duty… hanging out at the pool, walking along the beach, chatting it up. In the afternoons/evenings, we had a sitter come and take care of her so we could be off duty and relax. The hotel offered sitting services, and lucky for us we found a sitter (Sara) who we really liked so we felt comfortable leaving her. By the end of the week, those two were so attached! I’m so thankful for all the wonderful people like Sara who come into Kate’s life (even just for a brief time). Plus I’m glad Kate’s getting to meet all sorts of new faces and am hopeful this will help her develop into a friendly and polite little lady.
I, perhaps not surprisingly, bought her WAY too many outfits for this vacation. To make them count, we had photo shoots for posterity. Obviously. 💁🏻
I never got around to publishing the above shot on social media, so I’m sharing it here. Such a cutie!
Quick break to inform you that David is channeling Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire downstairs. He’s in a full on (terrible in the best of ways) British accent. Kate seems to be enjoying it.
When we’re out and about, she smiles at strangers but chooses the most inconvenient times to poop (ALSO WHY ARE THERE NO CHANGING TABLES IN MENS RESTROOMS #feminism #triggered). 💩 She’s finally interested in toys (particularly the annoying ones) and loves looking at books. 📚 Out of all the animals, giraffes seem to catch her attention the most. 🦒 Below is her favorite toy at the moment. I can put her on this play mat and get at least 15 minutes of time to get stuff done around the house before she gets bored. All I have to do is listen to the annoying music it plays, which is honestly a fair trade.
She’s not rolling over yet, but we can tell she’s getting close and we practice using our muscles every day! 💪🏻 She can sit up and stay up when she’s propped up on pillows, and when she sits on our legs she tries to do a sit up. Little baby crunches. It’s actually tough to sit with her this way anymore because she gets frustrated that she can’t lift herself up yet. She’s ready to be upright!
This month marked my first experience cleaning out her dresser and closet since she’s officially outgrown most of her 0-3 months clothes. SO SAD! Ugh WHY must you keep getting so big?! The only thing that numbed the pain was buying more clothes, so that’s what I did. She’s all set for the next few months. 🛍️
Contrary to what I promised at the outset of this post, I wrote more than planned or intended. Once I get going on my kid I can’t seem to stop. Guess that means I’m OFFICIALLY a mom. 😂
That’s all I’ve got for now though. Can’t wait to see what the next month holds for our little family!