Harper - 3 Months (ish)

Well, I was going to wait until Harper was 3 months old to do another post, but my mom said that wasn't ok, so here we are.

First off, some stats.  Harper went in for her 2 month checkup a couple weeks ago and she got weighed and measured and according to her pediatrician her growth curve is "unheard of."  I'm quite proud.  Basically, she went from being around 15% in weight, 30% in heigh and 50% in head circumference to being 50% in weight, 69% in heigh and 81% in head circumference.  Not bad for just a couple of months!  If she keeps going at this rate she is going to be one big baby!

Alright, let's talk about SLEEP (*warning* if you are prone to jealousy, do not read):

Harper is still an AMAZING sleeper.  This fact never gets old to me.  It is constantly blowing my mind.  Right now she sleeps from about 9 or 9:30 pm until sometime between 5:30 and 7 am straight.  Then, when she wakes up, I feed her and put her right back down and she sleeps for another 1.5 - 2.5 hrs.  During the day, she eats right after she wakes up, then after she has been awake for 1hr15min - 1hr30min she starts to seem tired, so I swaddle her and stick her in the swing (which I don't even turn on) with her binkie and she sleep for 45 min - 2.5 hours (varies widely).

Sometimes she will start to stir or will totally wake up after not too long.  If she does I will leave her unless she is crying (rare) and she will often go back to sleep for another significant amount of time.  NONE of this has been achieved via crying it out or anything.  I think it can pretty much all just be chalked up to Harper being awesome all on her own.  One funny thing she has started doing recently though is trying to sit up in her swing and her bassinet.  It looks like she is doing a sit up.

 I'm not too worried about her doing it in her bassinet because the sides are high, but she was falling over a bit in her swing, so I adjusted it so she is laying flat now and she can no longer do it.

If it weren't for us going on vacation in a month and the bassinet being so easy to transport (and take on vacation) I'd be transitioning her to the crib right now I think.

Putting her to bed at night is my favorite part of the day.  We don't have a set bedtime for her, but whenever she wakes up from a nap around a time that we think is good (usually 7:45 - 8:30) I nurse her, then we give her a bath, then Tom puts lotion on her

 http://youtu.be/n32HXCgw4dE

and puts her in her pjs

 http://youtu.be/OKuvY333TCs

then we sing her a couple of songs (both my favorite part and her favorite part)

http://youtu.be/hBbYlSOcHYg

then we say family prayers, I nurse her again (while playing her lullaby cd), I swaddle her, put her in her bassinet, wrap her in another blanket

and she falls easily and peacefully to sleep.  I only have to give her the binkie about half the time and she pretty much never cries or even makes a sound once we put her down.  Somehow, despite all of this, I still feel like I never have enough time in the day.  How do all of you with harder babies do it???

What happens when she starts to stir and I get her up to feed her instead of leaving her to settle herself back to sleep.  She slept on my lap for at least an hour.

She doesn't fall asleep as easily when we hold her, but sometimes we just do it anyway.

Awesome face.  She always takes her morning nap in her bassinet while I pull her around the house with me while I get ready for the day.

Tuckered after the pediatrician's.

Didn't even make it to the swing before she fell asleep.

What happens when we don't swaddle her:

 http://youtu.be/nKA5h7VuduI

PLAY:

When Harper is awake, there is a variety of things we do.  I change her diaper (which she loves), talk to her, sing to her

http://youtu.be/yT_HJpV-STc

 read to her, put her on her playmat.  Sometimes I hold this jingly ball above her and she will bat at it (and sometimes successfully grasp it) for a loooong time.

http://youtu.be/Xl-kvi86k9k

And sometimes I will just lay her down so she can explore her hands and legs and voice.

http://youtu.be/5lbO6cKxxCQ

She has also recently started really liking the panda we bought her, which makes us super happy.

http://youtu.be/PwY-lJ2QKI0

I have been wanting to take her swimming for a long time because I love swimming and I want her to love it too.  We finally did it for the first time on Friday and it was great.

http://youtu.be/XMYyqBhOw6s

SOCIAL:

She's still a big smiler.

But, she has also recently started to laugh.  It is SO endearing.  It's really hard to figure out how to get her to do it though.  Usually she does it at the most random and unexpected of times.  Like, one time I was talking to her while putting her in the carseat and I thought she was going to be grumpy, but instead she just started laughing and laughing!  Another time I was wiping goop off her eye and she started laughing!  Such a silly girl.  I have noticed one pattern though.  If she hasn't seen me for a while and other people have been holding her instead, and I just suddenly am right there she will often get this huge smile and start laughing and laughing.  That's my favorite.

Caught just the end of a laughing spree:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqRSRoc55vs

And a little more:

http://youtu.be/wiUVGZPNquA

She also is still a big talker, letting out tons of crazy sounds that are so cute all the time.  Sometimes she will really work up to them too, which is great.  Pretty much, she is just a happy kid.

OTHER:

She has discovered her hands and looooves to lick them.  She hasn't quite figured out how to put just one or two fingers in her mouth, so instead she tries to shove the whole thing in there and ends up just licking her fist:

This is Harper's friend Ora who was born 1 week before her (but was 7 or 8 weeks premature) and is way tinier than she is (though you can't really tell because of what they are wearing).

She still loves playing with Daddy:

http://youtu.be/NNvPy3ZqIsY

And Mommy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbFHR74jSQg

And her relatives:

Tom's sisters and niece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CH8wPheoQs

Our niece Ellie LOVES Harper.  Whenever we come over she is sooo delighted by her.  She wants to be as close to her as possible and the challenge is to keep her from lovingly sitting on Harper.

Her hat gives us a glimpse of what she might look like with (blue) hair:

Tom's fabulous Aunt Janet makes stockings for each new family member.  She's a saint.

We went to this REALLY well done live nativity.

Wanted to take a pic with the camel.  Tom was so cold he literally forgot to wait for me to smile...

Real sheep.

Random glamour shots:

Pic of the day (I take one every morning and send it to Tom at work):

The End

Harper - 2 Months

Well, the Harper has made it to two months - whew!  Somehow it still surprises me that I'm able to keep this little thing alive.  I mean, I don't know, the whole thing is just surreal.  Anyway, I think I've officially reached photo / video obsessive stage.  I take waaaay too many!  It's just hard not to when taking care of her is what you do all day and she's cute and you don't want to forget all these little things.  Here's what's going on with her / us:

Sleeping:

- She still sleeps about the same amount during the day, but is a little more fussy about going down.  What I mean by that is that before she would just go down without so much as a peep a lot of the time and now she fusses a bit.  Though she still doesn't full on cry usually.
- She doesn't sleep quite as well in the carseat / stroller anymore.

At Barnes & Noble

- If we're home, she usually naps in the swing.  I've noticed that if we try to get her to take a nap while holding her (both in our arms and in the carrier) she wakes up more and just cat naps, but if she's in the swing she'll get a deeper sleep.  As a result, when she sleeps somewhere else I get a little excited and take a picture:

I thought she looked so little laying on the big bed.

She tends to move her head back and forth while she sleeps, which tends to result in this.

- At night she is still a great sleeper.  Usually she sleeps from 9:30ish - 5ish, though it can be anything from 8:30 - 10sih til 3 - 5ish.  She is not much for schedules so far.

Here she is after having just woken up for the day, just smiling and chatting to herself.

Eating:

- She is all over the place with eating.  Sometimes she eats every 2 hours (or less), sometimes she'll go 3 1/2 (during the day).  Sometimes she eats for 7 minutes and sometimes 40 (even though I always try to get her to have a full feed).  Sometimes she is really squirmy when she eats and sometimes she barely moves and falls asleep.

Often if she falls asleep while eating she'll start to smile in her sleeps and will keep doing so after I take her off.

Her smiling after eating: http://youtu.be/Q644Nz_L_tI

Ironically, she starts frowning / whimpering / crying in her sleep toward the end of her nap, when she is starting to get hungry.  What can I say, girl likes to eat.

Her frowning at the end of her nap: http://youtu.be/BMIVeItdb7M & http://youtu.be/h7ADkEZwqUk .


- I have gotten better at nursing, so that now I enjoy it way more!
- I still love burping her. She either snuggles or bobs her head around. Both are cute.

Awesome face.

Playing:

- Harper loves it when people talk to her.  She will almost always smile at people when they do (if she's fed and not tired).

http://youtu.be/uN8OynYMbdA

- Every single time I sing musical scales to her she gives me tons of smiles and tries to sing along.

Me singing scales to her: http://youtu.be/ybykrhD9K6M & http://youtu.be/xOzdZykEU4M (sorry for the bad filmography on this one!)

- She loves being read to - both having children's picture books read to her and just listening to us while we read aloud from adult books.
- She still enjoys her playmats.
- She likes to look at herself in the mirror.

This toy has a mirror on it.

- She hates tummy time, but looks ridiculously cute while doing it because she gets this total serious face and looks like she's concentrating really hard on something.

Doing tummy time: http://youtu.be/Bs6_9qQtDO4

- She loves it when daddy counts in Chinese to her.  She starts squealing REALLy loud.  Her squeals are probably my favorite thing.  Last night he was counting to her after her bath and I could hear her squealing loud and clear all the way in the bedroom.  To give you an idea, I can't even hear Tom when he is calling to me if I'm in the bedroom.

Other:

- Every morning when she wakes up for the day I put her in her bassinet and push her around the house with me while I make breakfast, eat it and shower.  Usually she falls asleep at some point in the process.  I also use the bassinet to carry everything else I need to take around the house with me.

- I tend to keep her in the carseat / stroller when we go places since I have to put her in the carseat anyway and if I take her out she wakes up.  But if she's already awake I often put her one of my carriers.

On a hike:

So far, all her winter clothes are huge on her:

We bought this hat to cover her ears...I'm pretty sure it would have fit MY head.

Again with the head area.

Reminds me of the kid in "A Christmas Story."

She kept sleeping with her arms up while wearing this.

Made it easier to prop her against things...

Reminds me of this:

Watching basketball with Daddy:

Singing the French alphabet with Daddy: http://youtu.be/8U1b-HJkFHk

Chillin with Mommy:

Other random cute photos & videos:

http://youtu.be/SPkbLy8cXaE

http://youtu.be/VOskxHw626k

http://youtu.be/6bI38DTW6Xw (surprise at the end)

I think she looks like she's in trouble or something.

 Theeeeee End