Three months down! A little late but better than never. 🙂
Sleep – When I started writing this post right at 3 months we were struggling so much with sleep. She was doing “okay” right before but there were weeks that had been really rough. We had multiple night wakings (some nights 4!) And naps had become a real battle. It started taking a long time to get her down and included a lot of screaming no matter what we did (rock, bounce, nurse, etc.) We were both at a loss and struggling how to get her the sleep she needs. ????
So we decided about 2.5 weeks ago to make some changes. We started swaddling her with one arm out and lowered the motion on the Snoo bassinet. And instead of bouncing her we’d put her down and if she cried for 5 minutes straight, we’d go back in and pick her up for a few minutes to calm her and try again. And keep going until she was either asleep or 30-45 minutes had passed. Then we’d get her out and try again after 45 min-1 hour. I started being more strict on her wake times too and making sure to stick to our schedule. After 2.5 weeks or so and discovering her thumb as a self-soother, she is now going to sleep on her own at naps and bedtime with no motion and one arm unswaddled. Some naps are still really short but we’ve had some days of really good naps. She still cries occasionally and we’ll go in there and pick her up if she does but no more bouncing! She still wakes about 2 times per night to feed and her stretches aren’t always super long at night but right now I’ll take what we can get. We’re planning on fully unswaddling her and moving her to the crib over the weekend. I read something online that said “baby sleep isn’t linear, you take 2 steps forward, 5 steps backwards and 3 steps sideways.” So I know things can get bad again with regressions, teething, illness, milestones, leaps, etc. There is always something but I’m excited about the progress we made and I know at some point she will be fully sleeping through the night. 🙂
Breastfeeding – I feel like we’re passed the really hard newborn stage of nursing and gotten into a good groove. I’m still eliminating foods like caffeine, chocolate, cruciferous veggies, spicy foods, alcohol and tomato-based products but I’m hoping now that she’s getting older, her reflux will start to get better and I can introduce some things back.
Milestones – Still loves smiling and chatting with people. She’s trying to start grabbing at things but not quite there yet. You can see the wheels spinning in her head and she wants to do it, but she doesn’t quite have the coordination yet. Likely by next month!
Exercise – I’m still using Every Mother to help heal diastasis recti (separation of the abs) and it’s definitely working. I can tell the gap has somewhat closed and I’ve lost an inch or two around my stomach from when I started. I have been really sick with a flu-like illness and sinus infection this past week so I haven’t been doing much exercising but hoping to get back into it when I feel better. I’ve also done a few yoga classes in person which has been awesome!
Mental Health – This has definitely gotten better over the last month. I’ll still have some down days when I feel stuck in the monotony of being home with the kids, but overall I’m in a much better place. My parents visited and helped out a ton so that was great and Joe is about to take 3 more weeks of his paternity leave which will be amazing. Now that Sienna is getting older, it’s much easier to leave her with others. And now that putting her down to sleep has gotten better that has decreased a lot of stress in our household.