PS. These picture have nothing to do with our nap routine, but I never want to risk waking the baby by taking her pictures! hehehe So you get these cute chair pictures instead. 

The past few nights, alright, a lot of the nights -about a week or so worth of nights- Emerson has been waking up, not once, not twice, but multiple times during the night. Poor Kyle! He was only getting a couple hours of sleep at night.

Part of the reason is due to the fact that little miss is not happy when I give her a bottle. She knows I’ve got the good stuff and she’d prefer straight from the tap from me. Yesterday, for example, she refused to drink more than 1 oz at a time. It was exhausting for everybody involved!

Another reason, I do believe, is that the Claire-Bear has been learning so quickly these days. She has so much extra to process at night, and lot’s of growing to do. In fact, one of the big milestones coming up is rolling. She’s been getting stronger every day during tummy time. She’ll hold her head up a little higher, and she’s content for a few extra minutes. Just yesterday she took me by surprise by pushing her body up so high and lifting her arm, and what do you know, she rolled! She then immediately cried, because let’s face it, rolling for the first time on your playmat is scary. You were on your belly looking at Mom and all of a sudden you’ve bonked your head on the floor and you can’t see Mom anymore. 

After placing a nice squishy blanket on the mat I placed her back on her tummy. Again, she rolled over almost immediately! She humored me one last time, and rolled a third and final time. After that she was exhausted from her physical activity.

She worked so hard that day that she ended up sleeping almost the whole night only waking up once to feed. Everybody was super happy about that the next day. We have yet to see the roll make another appearance but all in good time. I suppose, for now, I’ll just keep singing, “They see me rollin’…” to keep encouraging her. 

 1.Lamaze Spider : 2.SwaddleMe Blanket : 3.Sassy Book : 4.Momma Bottle : 5.Play mat

Emmie loves to hold onto the spiders legs, and since there are 6 of them, they’re hard to miss. We also like to string this across her carseat and she can hold onto the legs and play while we drive. When I originally picked this up from a yard-sale, I wasn’t too sure about it since I personally thought it was stimulation overload, but the little lass can’t seem to get enough of him! My favorite is when she tries to chomp on his head.

When Emerson started sleeping in her crib, we found that she could bust out of her normal blanket swaddle in no time. These swaddle me blankets are the best! She loves to be snuggled up in one for naps and bedtime. She’s starting to be able to wiggle an arm free now and then, so I think we’re gearing up to lose the swaddle all together! But for the past few months we couldn’t have lived without these.

With all the tummy time going on Emmie has really loved looking at her Sassy “Hello Bee, Hello Me” book. I think she likes the simple contrasting colors and every other page has a mirror so she can check herself out.

Since Kyle took over the night feedings it was important we found a bottle both he and Emerson loved. The Lansinoh Momma bottle was it. I felt that the nipple shape was extremely close to the real thing and she was able to get a nice latch. She doesn’t suck in a ton of air, and minimal parts make it easy to clean.

I bought this mat at a yardsale for 5 dollars. One of the best 5 dollars we’ve spent! Heck, I would probably even pay the 50 dollars that amazon charges for a new one. We do tummy time on the mat where she loves to look at all the bright colors. She has even been reaching to crinkle the ears on the elephant. She’ll play on her back for a decent stretch, staring at the mirror and trying to grab the toys that dangle.

6.Alva Diapers : 7.Robot Lovie : 8.Video Monitor : 9.Banana Toothbrush : 10. Lansinoh Storage Bags

Halfway into the second month, or right at the beginning of the third month, Emerson started fitting into her big cloth diapers. I stocked up on them and I couldn’t be happier. I think these will be a monthly favorite from here on out. 😉

In one Bluum box that we recieved, an Angel Dear blanket was sent. A small 14 x 14 square with a little robot head attached to the top. It’s super soft and cuddly. I began giving it to Emerson while she was in her rock n play and she has grown to love it. She loves to grab onto the blanket part and try to chew the robot “ears.” It helps calm her crazy arms when she’s not swaddled but still sleepy.

Since around the 10 week mark we’ve put Emerson to sleep in her crib. The video monitor is worth it’s weight in gold. We can see when we need to sprint back up the stairs to ‘rescue the falling paci’ before it even makes it all the way out of her mouth. We can see when she’s wiggled her arm out of her swaddle or if she’s starting to stir. I feel so much more comfortable knowing I can check in on her without actually going upstairs and risk waking her up.

We hit the drool phase and the ‘try to put everything in my mouth’ phase, but with Emmie being so small I noticed all the baby teethers we had were gigantic! They were hard for her to hold, and just generally big. Amazon to the rescue. I ordered this small “banana toothbrush” and it’s been great. It’s small enough that she can easily hold it, and the fact that it has those nice soft silicone bristles to massage her gums is bonus!

The last item that we’ve been loving are these lansinoh milk storage bags. Since being on antibiotics we’ve been feeding Claire-Bear the frozen milk stash that I’ve previously pumped. I stored them in these bags. They’re easy to thaw, reheat ,reseal and we haven’t encountered any leaks so far. They fit nicely in the freezer in a pantry container I bought at big lots. 

We had a preview of fall weather when we went up to Rhode Island, but now the fall weather has found it’s way to Maryland. 

We’ll decorate with pumpkins, pull out all our cozy blankets, bundle up in layers for our stroller walks and fleece footy pajamas are a must. 

We’ll cook dinners in the crock pot, and eat warm oatmeal for breakfast. We’ll sip on teas or hot cocoa and spend rainy days inside reading. So while my body may be cold, my heart will certainly be not!

The past two weeks Kyle has been a stress case. He had his thesis proposal on Wednesday. We are pleased to announce it was a wild success!

His talk went really well and he even managed to get a few laughs during his presentation, a rarity at best.Other students seemed genuinely interested in his research topic and asked quite a few question at the end of Kyle’s seminar.

The professors on his committee were very pleased with his work. One professor looked over his proposal and joked if Kyle was trying to graduate this semester since he had gathered and presented enough actual evidence for a thesis paper. (He plans on graduating in another year or two.)

1. Prep 2. Lift 3. WOAH 4. Did you see mama? I almost rolled over!

When I exclaimed to my husband that we should definitely cloth diaper, I was bracing for negativity, but was met with equal excitement. He was on board! We put a few cloth diapers on our registry and ended up with 3 total. 

When Emerson was born, at just a mere 6lbs, I knew it’d be a while until she fit into her big cloth diapers. I ended up ordering some newborn cloth diapers from a site in China. A week or so later my gal was decked out in her cute newborn cloth diapers. The newborns were a little tricky since my little lady had super skinny legs and a big ol’ belly… we did have some leaking issues until we discovered a little trick of twisting the Velcro to tighten the leg.

But now that Emerson has “bulked up” to a whopping 10 – almost 11- pounds, she fits in the ‘all in one’ sized diapers! I purchased 3 at the same time I purchased the newborn diapers to try out the brand – they were 4x cheaper than the brand name bumgenius ones, so if they worked, I planned on stocking up. 

They worked just fine, so I went back to the site a couple days later and stocked up. For the price of two boxes of disposables, I order enough diapers to do diaper laundry once every 4 or 5 days, and these should last until she’s potty trained. I believe I told Kyle “There’s good news and bad news. The good news is, the diapers came in! The bad news is, I totally went overboard and we now have a TON of diapers, but more good news, I don’t have to do laundry everyday now!”

about 2/3rds of the “stash”

I’m so happy with our decision to cloth diaper. I know it’s not for everyone, but it’s worked out really well for us so far.  The fact that it’s better for her bum, and we aren’t generating diaper waste for the landfill, are just bonus… And I mean, c’mon, look at this girl and her big squishy cloth bum, does it get any cuter?! 

It’s hard to believe that I’m writing your 3 Month letter already. It really seems like just yesterday you were this tiny blanket burrito in my arms at the hospital. 

This past month has been a wondrous one. You’ve really started sleeping well at night, and your naps are becoming more predictable throughout the day. You’ve perfected your gummy smile and you’re working very hard on your first true laugh. Every now and then we’ll get a little giggle, or a sharp inhalation of air like you’re gearing up to laugh but you just make a big “HAH” noise and leave it at that. 

You’re grabbing things, bringing them to your mouth, and want to explore everything around you. Your little neck must be so sore at night from straining to look around all day long. You are becoming quite your own little person. Your personality is starting to emerge. You’re usually pretty content unless your sleepy or hungry, and then watch out world, you will certainly let us know. 

You like to babble up a storm, and you love to drool. You make spit bubbles too. Daddy is much better about carrying around a little cloth wipe to wipe your mouth, but I just tend to let you drool on yourself until I think you’re uncomfortable, and then we have an outfit change. At least this way you’ll get to wear all those cute clothes Grandparents and Aunties have bought for you. 

You’re still swaddled at night, but I’m not sure how much longer that will continue. You’re pretty close to rolling over from your belly to your back, and you even did it once all by yourself. I’m worried that when we can’t swaddle you anymore your arms aren’t going to stop moving and you’ll just keep waking yourself up.

I think what I have loved most about this past month is the fact that your little personality is beginning to bloom. You have so many facial expressions and you use a ridiculous amount of eyebrow movement to communicate; I love that about you. I have a feeling we’re just getting a small glimpse into the animated girl you’ll become.