Graeme is 3 months old!!! Well, he was on the first of the month! Haha! To say I’m a little behind would be a major understatement…

A quick update and then I’ll move on to all things Graeme: On June 30th, my beloved 5 year old Macbook Pro’s logic board died. It took me several days to figure out WHY my computer would no longer turn on, past the logo and loading page. Several trips to Nashville’s Apple Store and it was shipped off to be fixed, free of charge! But that has left me without a computer or programs to work on. Bummer! And because I’d heard and read that once the logic board starts to fail, other things start to go as well, I gave in a purchased a new Macbook Pro. The life of any regularly used computer is around 7-10 years. The life of a frequently used computer is 5-7 years. The life of a photographer’s computer is apparently 5 years. Anyway, here I am, blogging on my new computer (LOVING IT btw!) and waiting to pick up my old computer and get a few things off of it that I need in order to resume work (programs, etc). Don’t worry all you faithful clients – your images are safe and sound on my external hard drive AND on the cloud 🙂

Around 3 and 4 months is when babies transition from eating every 3 hours to eating every 4 hours. Right now, Graeme is doing a little of both! His schedule is finally predictable so I thought I’d share.

Graeme’s 3 Month Schedule:

7:30 Good morning! Graeme wakes up and is all smiles! I sing him our Good Morning (a song I made up) song while we head to the nursery and I unswaddle him. Nurse for about 15 minutes on each side, diaper change in between boobs, hang out on my hip while I fix my breakfast, sit in my lap on the back porch while I eat said breakfast, tummy time for only a few minutes because he still hates it while I encourage him to not hate it so much, play on his musical play mat for 10-15 minutes while I clean up the kitchen, sit in his bumbo and/or his bouncy seat in his room while I put up his laundry or in my room while I put up my laundry (there’s always someone’s laundry to put up!)

9:15 He starts to show “sleepy cues”, i.e. rubbing his eyes with his fists, yawning, more fussing, less talking. I let him do this for several minutes because, at 3 months, he’s not to the point where he’ll fall asleep on his own and he just gets mad if I try to get him asleep too soon. When it’s clear he’s no longer interested in anything, I change his diaper, turn the AC fan to on (instead of auto), and hold him chest to chest while I bounce-walk him up and down the hallway (which is where the AC vent filter fan thing is). Sometimes he’ll fuss for a few minutes, sometimes he’ll quiet down immediately and drift off to sleep. I wait a minute or so before I attempt to lay him down in his crib. Sometimes it only takes one attempt, sometimes he wakes up as soon as he touches the sheet so I pick him back up and hold him for a minute to get him back asleep. Nap time routine takes 5-15 minutes, depending. For naps, he sleeps in his crib on his stomach. OH MY GOODNESS before you all freak out, we have this wonderful thing called an Angel Care monitor that monitors his breathing and sounds an alarm if no movement is detected for 20 seconds. It’s the best thing ever and I would highly suggest it even if your baby does sleep well on their backs, which mine doesn’t :/ It’s definitely a peace of mind thing.

While he naps, I pump, get dressed, and start the laundry.

10:00 Graeme wakes up and fusses for a minute or two. One of the cons to napping on his stomach and not being able to roll over yet when he wakes up. He’ll get there! I know he’s hungry so I nurse him. If there are errands to be ran, we run them. If not, it’s more tummy time and musical play mat time. If he gets bored with playing but isn’t acting sleepy yet, I prop him up on the couch and we “talk”. He LOVES face-to-face time!

12:00 Nap time! It’s the same routine, as before: diaper change, turn AC fan to on, walk in the hallway until he falls asleep, lay him down on his stomach in his crib.

While he naps, I fix and eat lunch, do laundry, and work on the computer.

2:00 Graeme’s awake! I nurse him, change his diaper (if needed), and he stays laying on his changing pad while I stand beside him and read to him. Once he gets bored with that we’ll do more tummy time, play mat time, and face-to-face time.

4:00 Nap.

While he naps, I do laundry, prep dinner, and/or work on the computer.

5:00 Graeme wakes up to nurse and then it’s play time with daddy! He LOVES “talking” to his daddy! I finish up dinner and Neil and I take turns eating and playing with Graeme.

7:30 Now that we’re approaching bed time, I nurse him again. If it’s not too hot but still light enough outside, the three of us will take a walk with Graeme in his stroller. After our walk, it’s more play time with daddy.

8:45 Bed time routine: 10 minute bath, dry off in towel while I nurse him on one side, rub down with lotion, clean diaper, clean onesie, swaddle, and nurse on the other side. He usually falls asleep on the breast so all I have to do it is lay him in his rock’n’play in our bedroom.

He’ll wake up for a night feeding around 3:30 and promptly falls back asleep on the breast after nursing for 30 minutes.

Big changes between 2 months and 3 months: He’s started to lose his hair! He’s sporting more of a mohawk now with some hair still hanging on for dear life above his neck. Every morning he wakes up with less and less. It looks pitiful you guys. I know it’s normal but I love love loved his beautiful hair 🙁 He’s drooling up a storm and chewing on our fingers and a few toys so we think teething is well on its way! I recently bought a raw amber necklace for him to wear and I’m crossing my fingers it works for him. In mid June I switched out his 0-3 month wardrobe for his 3-6 month wardrobe and it broke my heart! My little baby is not so little anymore! I’m over it now but it seriously goes by SO fast, you don’t realize it until it’s already happened.

In his 2 month blog post, I mentioned transitioning him from napping in my arms to napping in the crib. SUCCESS! What we’re working on this month is getting him to play by himself for longer periods of time. Wish us luck!