Jane: 3 months

Jane is exiting the newborn stage! I know lots of people love newborns, but lack of sleep, teaching babies to sleep, round-the-clock feedings, and all the crying that accompanies newborns is hard for me. I prefer when babies get to be more social and regular.

New this month:

-Jane is smiling a ton! She usually still just smiles at me or Steve, but she also likes to smile at her baby monitor camera, and sometimes other people.  She smiles a lot when I clap her hands or bicycle her legs. My favorite thing pretty much all day is her huge smile when I get her up in the morning.

-Nap training, continued. Jane has now pretty much figured out how to put herself to sleep, and usually does so with or without a binky, and almost always within 5 minutes. She still often wakes up after 30 minutes, but will now usually goes back to sleep, often without much fuss. 

-Napping on the go. The Solly wrap used to be one of the best ways to get Jane to sleep...unfortunately, she has reached the point of not sleeping well outside of her bed. Which is good and bad. It means she is sleeping on her own, but it also means we are stuck at home a lot since wake times are only 1-1.5 hrs. right now.

-Jane is now clocking up at least enough sleep for her age, usually 15.5-16 hours a day. I think the main differences have been having her nap in the nursery (it's pitch black and much quieter than my room). Usual bedtimes are 6-7pm and she will sleep for 7-8 hrs, eat, then go back to bed until 6-7 am. Usually she will put herself back to bed after eating without a binky, which is great! AND, she almost always wakes up smiling! My baby monitor reaches across the street to the park, so we spend a lot of naptimes there so it will be quieter for Jane. I've also been stretching her wake times in preparation for the 4-3 nap transition which should be happening soon, judging by her short naps and ability to handle longer wake times. 

-Coordination. Jane has great control of her head, and is working on getting her hands to behave. She has also started to figure out kicking. Jane LOVES to kick in her bouncy chair...if she's in there, she blocks out the rest of the world. She also focuses her eyes a lot better now, too.

-Weight. At her 2 month appointment, Jane was consistent with her other siblings in weight and height. She was 22.5 inches and 10 lbs 4 oz. which puts her around 50% for height and 25% for weight. Jane was my biggest baby, so we thought she might stay bigger, but she is settling into similar sizing as the other kids. She's got cute little arm and leg rolls, though, and super kissable cheeks.

And like the typical 4th child, she is not getting nearly as many photos. But luckily, Caleb likes to take lots of pictures of Jane. As evidenced by this picture, he also likes to cover her with stickers.