Wow – today Peanut is three months old!  I can’t believe it; this is going by so quickly.  (Let’s play a game: how many cliches can I fit into this post?  Just kidding.)

So far, this month has been my favorite – probably because we’ve been home all month.  I haven’t gone to the NICU once this month, and that feels amazing.  Instead, we’ve been doing the things that I always imagined doing – going for walks, snuggling in the nursery, reading books and playing.

Peanut is wide-eyed and awake for chunks of the day now (even when she’s supposed to be napping…) and I’m in the process of figuring out when I should be encouraging her to nap (and grow) and when I should be engaging with her.  It’s a fine line to walk: I want her to get all the sleep she needs, but I also want her to get all the Mommy interaction she needs.  And since she can’t tell me where the cutoff is, it’s a process of trial and error for me to figure out how far she can go before she gets overtired and we ALL get cranky as a result.  Some days we’ve walked this line really well.  Other days…

Nana – a.k.a. my mom – asked me what I had done to annoy her.  The answer: sat down.  Peanut likes to be in motion.  Stroller, Mommy’s arms, whatever.  As long as we’re wearing out the carpet or the wheels on the BOB, she’s cool.  But when Mommy decides that it’s time to sit down after an hour of making circles around the dining room… chaos!  But I don’t mind, because… that face.

Oh, yes, Peanut’s gigantic personality comes out more and more each day.  She grins (hubby thinks it’s still just gas, and it probably is, but it’s still adorable), pouts, sticks out her tongue, and makes little gurgles and grunts all. day. long.  Sometimes when she’s really talkative I just call Nana and let them chat.  They’ve had whole conversations without me.

This month we finally got around to buying ourselves a babysitter swing.  At first, Peanut wasn’t sure what to think of it, but lately she’s been falling asleep in it.  Thank.  Goodness.  She spends most of the day snuggling in my arms, but sometimes I need to put her down for a few minutes and it’s good to have a place to set her where she’s safe and not screaming, now that she’s declared war on her crib.  It’s especially nice to have when we want to eat dinner and Peanut wants to hang with us.  And bonus, it makes rain noises, which we’ve discovered Peanut loooooooves.  Maybe she’ll grow up to be a meteorologist.

We also celebrated Peanut’s first Halloween this month!  She dressed up as a ballerina.  I wanted to get her a more elaborate costume, but it just didn’t work out.  By the time I made it out to the store, everything in mini-size was already sold.  I managed to find a newborn-sized tutu at Target and paired it with a t-shirt she already owned (which had a little bear ballerina on it) and called it good.  It worked; she charmed the trick-or-treaters and the grandparents melted at the ballerina photo.  Next year I’ll plan ahead more and find a “real” costume, not at the last minute.

Peanut at 3 Months:

Adjusted Age: 1 month
Weight: ~6.25 pounds or so (last weighed in at 5.5 pounds on 11/2)
Length: ~19.5 inches or so (last measured at 19.25 inches on 11/2)
Sleep: I don’t want to jinx anything, so I’m almost afraid to say this, but Peanut has been sleeping surprisingly well at night recently.  At first she was a little monster after her 9:00 p.m. feeding and I had a few nights where I stayed up with her the entire time until Daddy took over at 1:00 a.m., but lately she seems to have figured out the concept of “bedtime.”  The tradeoff is that she is violently anti-nap during the day.  But if the bargain is that I can’t get anything done during the day because I am cuddling her for hours on end, and then she sleeps at night… I’ll take that deal.  May it continue this way.
Likes: Walking in her stroller or being carried around by Mommy and Daddy; swinging in her new swing, but only when she’s in the mood; listening to rain sounds on her swing and her sleep sheep; being held sideways by Daddy (a technique from The Happiest Baby on the Block)
Dislikes: Baths (still!); when Mommy sits down after walking for awhile; tummy time; tutus
Milestones: Rolled over intentionally on 11/4 during tummy time with Daddy!  And Mommy thinks some of her smiles might have been real – not social smiles, but smiles of happiness, since they tend to come when she’s drifting off to sleep while being cuddled.  Lots of gurgles, starting to do a little bit of babbling.
Quirks: Major temper!  Lady lets you know when she’s not happy about something.

Next month, Peanut will celebrate her first Thanksgiving, and we hope to see more good growth and adorable smiles!