Isabel is Three Months

Isabel Therese, you are three months old. Your personality continues to blossom and grow every week, and you continue to be a sweet, content little baby. Right before you turned three months, I started back to work full-time and you made the transition to daycare at Sarah's house. It was a bit of a rough transition for you the first week. We think that switching from nearly all breast-feeding to bottles all day long caused some gas bubbles in your tummy, which made you a bit fussy. And I think being around 3 busy toddlers, rather than just 1, made it harder for your to sleep and relax. So it was a bit of an adjustment for you, but you made it through! And things got better the second week. Of all the places you could go for childcare, Miss Sarah's house is such a great place for you and Madeline. Sarah is so good with you girls, and Judah and Jalayna (especially Jalayna!) love having a little baby around. So we are grateful for a wonderful place for you while mommy finishes out her school year.

You've had a bit of a regression with sleep, little lady. What happened there? For awhile you were sleeping a good 6 hour chunk at night, and now we seem to be back to 3 or 4 hour chunks. But hopefully you'll get back some good stretches again soon. When you do wake up at night, however, you never cry really loudly or scream - you just give us some little fussy noises to know that you're hungry or lost your pace. That's nice. And then when you wake up in the morning, you are one happy little girl. Perhaps my favorite moment with you each day is when you finally fully open your eyes and catch a glimpse of your momma, and you flash me the biggest, sweetest grin. Love it!

Isabel, you've been giggling a lot more lately too. That's really fun. If we tickle your tummy a bit, we can really get you going sometimes. And it's not very hard to get a big smile out of you (unless we put a camera in your face!). You've grown a lot in the last month, you've only been fitting into 3-6 month clothing for awhile now. At your two month doctors appointment, you were in the 85th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight. Following in your sister's footsteps at the top of the height spectrum!

In the last few weeks, you've become much more interested in your baby toys. You love to grab, chew, and shake little toys (or momma's earrings and necklaces, I'm going to have to stop wearing them around  you soon!) And when you are lying on your playmat, you've gotten much better at reaching and grabbing certain objects. It's fun to watch you catch an object with your eye, and then spend a few minutes trying to get a good latch on it with your hand.

You are definitely a sweet snuggle bunny at this phase, and I usually end my nights very tired but contentedly holding you on my lap, reading a book or watching a show or just chatting with your daddy. It's such a privilege for the Lord to have entrusted you (and your sister!) to me, to sustain you and mold you and love you. I'm certainly not perfect with the mom gig, but I love it and love the ways that parenting continues to be a new means of receiving God's grace for your daddy and me.

 Here are some of the photos from your 3 month photo shoot. We did catch a few little smiles from you, although I've yet to catch one of your big grins with your sweet dimple. Soon, I hope!

And here's a little video of you; you were laughing alot this morning, and then we pulled out the camera and you slowed down a bit. But still cute.

And just for fun, here's a few pictures of your big sister at three months. People continue to comment how similar you both look!