3 months already

Our Ruby girl is 3 months old already!!! Time has really flown and the thought of her going to daycare at 6 months just scares the crap out of me but you gotta do what you gotta do!

She is now starting to try and giggle and is discovering her hands and feet. She is so much more aware and now instead of sleeping when we would go to lunch or the movies she is wide awake and wants to see whats going on! 

She is also now only waking once during the night at about 4am for a feed and then it's back down till 7am! She is still not sleeping that well during the day and wants nothing to do with the cot but baby steps. At least we are getting some solid sleep at night. 

Ruby is now 4.8 kilos as she put on 500 grams in 2 weeks. She is really filling out and looks so different. My poor hungry skinny baby. I hate looking at earlier photos of her now as this is how she should of looked!

Lots of smiles and to be honest we have a very happy, very loved little girl. 

Midnight Meltdown

It happened. Every parents worse nightmare. 

1am this morning. Get up to a crying baby to give her a feed and its not there to hold her off while making a bottle. I look all over the cot. I look under the cot. I even look around her neck in the swaddle suit. It cant be found. What to do???

Lucky I had back ups in the car. So with a frantic dash to the car I retrieve it and give it to her. She just looks at me...... she knows.....its not her dummy. Its a fraudulent, cheap knockoff. How dare I?

I didn't want to give her a dummy in the first place but she was a comfort sucker and as soon as I saw her sucking her thumb, I knew it was now the option of choice. I can take away the dummy. I cant take away her thumb. I cant wait for the weaning battle to start. People say to get rid of it before she is 6 months but who knows how this will play out. 

The original was found this morning. Down the bottom of her swaddle suit as I was taking it off to change her. God knows how it got down there but what Ruby does at night in that cot is a mystery. I put her down one end of the cot in her swaddle suit. In the morning she is at the opposite end facing the other way. Not bad for a kid that cant roll or hold her head up on her own yet! 

Ruby now has a little friend called Ella (as do I with her mum Fiona). Ella is 4 days younger then Ruby and we get together for weekly play dates. It is good for Ruby to interact with another baby and also for me to keep my sanity. 

Ruby gets weighed tomorrow after 2 weeks so should be interesting to see how much weight she has put on. Her 0000 suits are getting snug and I have actually started dressing her in normal clothes. She has chubby little thighs and a double chin to boot. As Nick lovingly says "just like her mother". Grrrr

We Have Smiles!

Ruby is now 8 weeks and we have had some first milestones.

 We have smiles! Lots of them! 

She is one smiley, happy baby (most days) and when you go in there in the morning and pick her up and change her, she is grinning from ear to ear. So beautiful. 

We also had our first shower! Ruby doesn't mind the bath but lets face it, having her in the shower with us is so much easier. She loves it. Its so relaxing for her and she gets to cuddle mum and dad in there. Whats not to love?

She is also making lots of progress with tummy time and her little neck muscles are so strong. You have her over your shoulder and she thrashes her head about. She is now also recognising voices and turning her head to you when you talk to her as well as trying to reach for objects such as her dangling toys over her swing. What a clever baby! 

Now if she could only figure out how to sleep in her cot during the day. 

Lucky your beautiful Ruby Charlotte.

Ruby's first car ride home from the hospital and 8 weeks later.

GiGi Was In Town

Well Ruby has had quite the exciting first few months of life with visitors coming and going to meet and play with her. The last visitor we have had was Ruby's Great Grandmother or Gigi we have decided. Lola was in town for a week and we showed her the sights and had a lovely time. 

Ruby was weighed again and put on another 300grams. She is now 3.9 kilos and the midwives have said dont bother coming every week we can cut it down to a fortnight for weigh ins because she is going fine. She has almost caught up to where she should be (newborns should put on about 150 grams a week average) and she seems to be thriving. New formula seems to be working but I think it is making her very gassy so might invest in some wind drops on those fussy days. 

We now have the night time feeds down pat. Since Ruby was born it has been a struggle to get her down at around 7pm. Lots of crying (on both our parts) and then by the time she stopped screaming it has been 3 hours and its time to get her up again for her last feed of the night at 10.30. Now I have instigated a routine where Ruby bathes around 6pm, get her last bottle in her room at 6.30 with nice dim lights and no noise and then she gets put in her cot and she drifts off to sleep. I no longer wake her at 10.30 for a feed as she is going strong weight wise and she sleeps straight through till midnight -1am. Feed her again in her room with dim lighting and then she sleeps straight through until 6-7 am. It has gone from one extreme to another. You can put Ruby in her cot wide awake at night and she will know its time to sleep and drift off. Sometimes a bit of crying but no longer then about 15 mins. 

The days however, she will not sleep in her cot! She will sleep in the car, in the pram, in the swing, in your arms and even just sprawled on the lounge chaise. If she is fast asleep and you pick her up and put her in the cot within 5-10 mins she wakes and just loses it! I have now tried everything and am just letting her cry herself to sleep ( Ruby if you are reading this when your older, I'm not a terrible mother!)  She is so stubborn and can cry on and off for up to 3 hours when then again she needs to have her next feed and so on and so forth. I put her down (asleep) at 8.30am and it is now 9.23am and she still has not let up. She needs to be up at 10.30am for her next feed. I will persist with this because she needs to learn to sleep in there during the day because at the moment I have no day naps and am exhausted and  unfortunately she will start daycare for a few days in January when I return to work and she will have to learn to sleep there too.