Mabel's Third Month

It's been a wonderful month with Miss Mabel.  I only have three weeks left at home before I go back to work, and I'm trying to enjoy every minute of it.  This is the age where I start really enjoying babies.  Even though she's been an easy newborn, I love when babies start getting more interactive and reaching milestones, however small they might be.  Her sweet personality is really starting to shine through too.

Stats: No big updates here.  She's probably between 12 and 13 pounds and is filling out her 6 month clothes. 

Sleep: We put up the rock-n-play last month, and she's now solely sleeping in her crib in our room at night.  She usually goes down around Matilda's bedtime (7-7:30 pm) and wakes between 6-7:30 am (sometimes because Matilda wakes her up).  She wakes 2-4 times at night, but usually just twice.

Up until about 2 weeks ago, naps didn't have much consistency.  I've noticed she's started to prefer napping in her crib as opposed to out in the living room.  She still naps well in her car seat if we need to be out and about.  She's usually taking 4 naps a day (45 minutes each) unless her mid-day one is longer (1-3 hours). 

She sleeps better swaddled, but quickly breaks out of it when she wakes up.

Eat:  No changes to her nursing habits.  We did make a huge effort to get her to take a bottle again.  For a week straight, I would leave the house for 4-5 hours at a time while Jason stayed at home trying to get her to feed her.  She eventually started taking it again, but is now refusing it again, so who knows.

Play/ Milestones: So many changes developmentally this month.  You can just tell how much more alert and interactive she is as you scroll through the pictures this month.  She's still smiling a ton, and has had a couple of giggles.

She enjoys grabbing her feet, playing under her Ikea gym and swatting at the toys, and is loving the Taggies toy my mom just got her. 

She still has a bit of a wobbly head, but she really likes being held looking outwards and being sat up (with support of course).  She tolerates tummy time for short periods, and it especially helps if you show her a book during tummy time.

She's starting to coo and talk more, but is still pretty quiet overall.  Overall, she is such a sweetie!

Port Aransas

This past weekend we rented a beach house in Port Aransas for three nights with my brother and his family and my parents.  It was a great (albeit tiring) vacation.

On Thursday, we met everyone in Corpus at Catfish Charlies before visiting my grandpa in his new assisted living facility.  Grandpa didn't talk too much and the kids were a bit crazy after the long car trips, but Grandpa did say, "I sure am glad y'all brought all the kids to see me."

That evening, we mainly just hung out around the beach house and the kids made a quick trip to the pool.  Garrett and Matilda loved getting tattoos all weekend from my dad.  As soon as one tattoo washed off, they'd ask for another.

The first night was a bit rough with Matilda and Garrett waking up around 3 am and having a hard time going back down, but we headed to the beach pretty early on Friday morning to get a good spot and enjoy it before it got too hot.  The kids had a great time jumping waves, boogie boarding (mainly Luke), and building sand castles.

We got ice cream in Port A that afternoon.  (Matilda was having a hard time sharing with Evelyn most of the trip, as you can see from her expression.  Ha.)

The next morning, the three older kids went to the beach with Trey, Melanie, and Jason, while my parents and I stayed at the beach house with the younger two girls.

Poor Mabel had her first cold on the trip, so stayed in the beach house for the most part.  She tried her best to keep in good spirits, but you could tell she just wasn't feeling good most of the weekend.

The boys enjoyed fishing at the stock pond next to the beach house.  They caught several small perch throughout the trip.

Overall, we had a great trip and can't wait to start planning for next year!

Lake Sam Rayburn

We just got back from a 3 night stay at Ferryn and Steve's lake house on Lake Sam Rayburn.  As always, we had a great time.

Our other friends met us there on their way back from a camping trip in the Smokey Mountains.  Matilda loved playing with their two girls.

Everyone had a great time taking advantage of all of the water toys  (kayaks, paddleboard, wave runner, and floating island).

We also had fun taking the boat to the small "beaches" on the lake.

Oh, and just like Matilda did at this age, Mabel slept through the night the first two nights we were there.  Must be the fresh lake air that helps the babies sleep.