August 13th, 2002

Allen is 3 months old today! It's unbelievable to me that he's growing so quickly! As he gets older and bigger (and heavier--I'm gonna look like Popeye soon!), he's learning so many new things. It's exciting, but also more challenging at times...

At about 2 months of age, Allen started sleeping for longer periods during the night--at first 4 to 5 hours, now 5 to 6 hours regularly, with the occasional short night (3 to 4 hours) still popping up (our boy likes to keep us on our toes). He's even had a 7 hour sleep once or twice! And we hope that happens more often; it's funny, when those long sleeps do occur, I'm so used to waking up at about 5:00 or 5:30 that I do anyway, so I don't actually get the full 7 hours of sleep. The more often he does it, I suspect I'll be able to stay asleep longer, too. Along with the blessing of longer nighttime slumber, though, comes the trade-off of less daytime napping. Actually, Allen rarely takes more than one solid nap between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. His nap may last up to 2 hours, but the average is closer to 50 minutes. He will snooze for 15-20 minutes sporadically, but, it's hard to get any chores done in those little increments. You'd think I'd be more than happy to put off housework, right? But the truth is, I feel an urge to keep the house clean because of Allen--I don't want his ever-more-mobile status to bring him upon crumbs from last week's supper or a big dust bunny. He's discovered recently that he can grasp things and bring them to his mouth--it's amazing how much lint and hair he picks up from his blankets, toys, his head (he's starting to bald a bit on the sides), and my head (no balding yet, but with as many hairs I find in Allen's paws, you'd think I was losing it all!).

Allen's also sleeping in his crib in his own room now. He was approaching the weight limit for his bassinet (16 lbs.), so we started putting him down in the crib after his early morning feeding--he'd usually sleep for another 2 hours before waking up fully. Then, last week, we tried having him sleep the whole night in his crib. He seemed to be just fine with it! It was sorta sad, though, to not have him in our room with us anymore. He seemed so far away! But we still try to get in a "family nap" every now and then, with all of us together in our bed, and I'm sure in the future we'll have plenty of nights of Allen crawling into bed with us after a bad dream or mornings of waking up to Allen snuggling in between us.

As far as mobility goes, that's another exciting accomplishment in Allen's life that also poses more challenges. He's really starting to move! It's so fun to watch him: he'll "anchor" his head in a position (when lying on his back) and sort of circulate the area with his body. So, if we lay him down on his blanket on the floor with his feet pointing south, in about 5 minutes he'll have swiveled so that his feet are pointing north. He's also starting to roll up onto his side. He hasn't rolled over yet, but we can tell he's thinking about it. Anyday now.... He gets so close, I just want to give him a little nudge so he can complete the roll! When we put him on his belly for "Tummy Time", he really works at holding up his head. He can hold it up pretty consistently, but he hasn't figured out yet that he can use his arms to support himself. So, he ends up kind of arching his back, with his head up in the air, his feet up in the air, and his arms either at his sides or slightly raised in front of him. He makes these grunting noises, like he's working out--it's so cute! Soon he'll be all over the place and Mommy will have her hands full! :)

Another new thing in Allen's life are his TEETH! He started teething at about 2 and 1/2 months! Crazy! Our physician's assistant said he holds the record for earliest teething in her experience. So now he's got 2 chompers on his bottom jaw. They make for an adorable grin, but man oh man.....he's figured out he can bite! That isn't fun for a nursing Mommy. We're trying to teach him that if he bites, Mommy hurts. I say, "Ow!" pretty loudly (usually it's a spontaneous reaction), touch his lip quickly and say, "NO" firmly. Then I'll put him down on his blanket at my feet for about 20 seconds. I've only had to do it about 4-5 times, so it seems like he's making the connection. I hope he understands it before he gets a mouth full of teeth! Yee-ouch!

As time goes by, I'm finding more and more how deep my love for my son can grow, and I'm discovering more and more things to absolutely ADORE about him. I'm also learning more about myself, about my dreams for my child, about my expectations for myself as a Mommy, and about accepting my limits in that arena, too. Scott is such a helpmate with this. He reminds me that Allen isn't looking for perfection, that my simply being there for him and loving him will teach him so much and give him what he truly needs. Scott is so supportive and encouraging and loving. It helps me learn that I can be a mama to our child and still be his wife and best friend. Sometimes it's difficult to find where all of those roles intersect within me. But I'm figuring it out. Allen, Scott, and I are learning together who we are, individually and as a family. What an awesome ride this has been so far--looking forward to the lessons ahead.