Alisa is 3 Months Old Today

Alisa is 3 months old today! Hip hip hooray! Life has been wonderful but challenging since she was born. My body has taken a beating from birthing her and from holding her while feeding about 8 hours a day and from comforting her when she's fussy. I had a professional massage 4 days after she was born and the lady said she had never felt such tight back and neck muscles before. I needed a massage like you wouldn't believe!

Alisa slept so much during the first 3 weeks of her life that I had to wake her up to feed her (every 2-4 hours around the clock). Ever since the 4th week she has been crying to eat every 2 hours during the day (occasionally she'll go 3 hours if she's napping) and every 4-6 hours at night (except she's gone 6-9 hours quite a few nights in the past few weeks). The past 2 days Alisa freaked out a few times when I was trying to nurse her. I was already exhausted and my body was sore so that made things even more difficult and I was quite emotional. She eventually calmed down and nursed just fine, thank God.

Her baby acne cleared up when she was 2 months old. She still has cradle cap though (more on the top of her head and less on her brows now). She has been losing her hair lately. She had a fever of 103 degrees and diarrhea last week but she's all better now (the fever lasted a few days and the diarrhea lasted 8 days so during the last few days there was some blood in her stool due to her irritated bowel--ugh). It broke our hearts to hear her weak cry and see that she was not feeling well (it was her first illness). The pediatrician ordered blood tests since she was so young and thankfully the results were normal (apparently she just caught a bug). She wasn't as hungry as usual on the days she had a fever and thankfully she didn't get dehydrated (she barely drank some of the Pedialyte we tried to give her many times). After the fever left she nursed better than ever and wasn't very fussy even when we went out to eat dinner (she usually cries right when our food arrives so one of us has to hold her). She didn't spit up much when she was sick and I was hoping she was outgrowing her reflux problem, but it has returned now that she's feeling normal.

She has started really looking at and discovering things now. July 5th in the afternoon she fell asleep while nursing so I unlatched her and held her in my arms and waited. She woke up after a bit and reached up to touch my face. She quietly stared at me and kept touching my face with her little hand. It was truly a memorable moment. She finally noticed the toys attached to her swing/bouncy seat. She will stare at them for 20 minutes straight, smiling occasionally. The first few days she just stared at them and would accidentally hit one with her hand every once in awhile. Now she has more control over her limbs and reaches out to touch them on purpose. She started sucking on just her thumb sometimes and not her whole fist. We no longer swaddle her at night because she now wants access to her hands. She sleeps usually 6-9 hours straight at night now (sometimes more, sometimes less). Sometimes in the morning she will let out a quick cry but then I'll hear her sucking on her hand and she'll go back to sleep for another hour. This morning I saw that Alisa had totally turned herself around in her bassinet (her head was on the right side when I put her down last night and this morning it was on the left side so she did a 180!). She likes looking in the mirror and she loves being outside. Almost any time she is fussy she will stop as soon as you step outside--it's like magic. We bought a Fisher-Price Waterfall Soother toy that a friend recommended. It plays music and/or nature sounds, lights up and has animals that move and she is absolutely mesmerized by it. It is a great tool for calming her.

A couple weeks ago I was really tired while working so I put my head down on my desk and closed my eyes while waiting for a spreadsheet to open (takes 3-5 minutes to open certain Excel spreadsheets via my VPN connection). I woke up moments later with a strange, sickly feeling and suddenly let out a long burp (lasted for at least a full 3 seconds, which is really long for a burp). I immediately felt better and then realized that must be what Alisa feels like sometimes when she needs to burp. So now I understand why she cries sometimes when trying to burp and why she stops crying immediately after (sweet relief).

My current weight is only 1/2 lb higher than my pre-pregnancy weight. Wahooooo! I lost the 35 lbs I gained during pregnancy simply from giving birth and breastfeeding. Now I need to workout only to tone my tummy (it still sticks out quite a bit) and other muscles (in other words...with the goal being to get fit, not to lose weight). My hair has started to fall out like crazy. During pregnancy, women don't lose much hair at all (not the normal daily shedding) but then months afterwards their hair falls out like crazy to make up for it...in other words, they lose the hair that would have been shed during those months if they hadn't been pregnant plus the normal amount. I was warned about this so it doesn't worry me.

Here are some recent pics of our little cutie....



Our friends from college gave Alisa this tie dye blanket and a tie dye onesie--awesome! Now she can be like her daddy and wear tie dye:





Bath towel on head:



Finally noticing the bouncy seat giraffe:



Last few days of being swaddled:





Little baby, big dog:







Silly girl with a onesie on her head:



Looking at the Waterfall Soother toy for the first time (it just happened to be Father's Day):



She loves her carseat frog and duck friends:



She has recently taken to sleeping and sometimes eating with her arms up and her hand by her ear or behind her head:



Lounging in the Boppy is a new thing for her:





Alisa discovered her hand and I got a picture of that moment. She would look at it, then put it in her mouth, then take it out and look at it again and so on.





Sucking on her thumb for the first time (Day 77 of her life):



Our friends Curtis & Katie and their 2 kids Kyle & Carlie visited us one night at the end of June. Unfortunately I hardly took any pictures. Here is one of Curtis and Alisa sharing a laugh:



The perfect swaddle!:



Checking out the giraffe that Grandpappy bought for her when he visited in May:



Alisa's feet in daddy's hand:



Finally able to touch the bouncy seat giraffe:



Watching TV (we put a small remote in her hand for the effect):



Mommy and Alisa on the 4th of July:



4th of July outfit that Uncle Chris & Aunt Karen (really Craig's cousins, but we call them aunt & uncle) gave her:



Her hat says "My First 4th":



Noticing the giraffe on her crib bumper:



Enjoying the mobile in her crib:



Comparing her size to the bunny she got for Easter (April 21st "Alisa pics" post):



Cute new ducky bib:



Can you tell that giraffes and ducks are the main animals in her life? I love giraffes and Craig and I have been calling each other ducky (and variations of that, such as duckems, as well as other names) for years (and now we can call Alisa our cute little ducky, as the bib says).