Life with Julia

3 months

Whew – the past few months have just been a whirlwind! We have had some big changes recently. Carrie went back to work on October 23rd and Julia started going to day care! Both are doing fine. Carrie has been relieved that her body/brain have adjusted to the new sleep regimen. Work hasn’t been too demanding the first few weeks back so it has been a nice transition. Julia appears to be a well-adjusted baby and has done great in day care. She likes the day care provider, Jackie, and the other kids. They all call her "Baby Julia."

Julia has officially moved into the nursery and sleeps in her big girl crib now. Carrie didn’t want to move her in there at the same time as starting day care – she didn’t want Julia to have too many things to adjust to at once. But that week, Julia started to move around in her little crib next to us. The first time Carrie noticed Julia had scooted to the top of the crib (and had jammed her head up against the rails). The next time Julia had rotated 90 degrees. Friday night was the deciding factor since she had rolled up to the side of the crib and was kicking and could have easily catapulted herself out. So Saturday the 28th was her first night sleeping away from Mommy and Daddy. She had taken a few naps in the crib so it wasn’t completely foreign to her. Julia did just fine that night…better than Mommy. When Carrie went to bed that night, she teared up a little as she looked at the empty little crib. She can no longer comfort Julia by just reaching over and holding her hand or touching her cheek! But Julia is no longer a newborn so its time for the move. One things hasn’t changed, though - Carrie still frequently brings Julia into our bed in the morning – Julia loves to snuggle with Mommy and Daddy (or maybe its more the other way around!).

As far as the amount of sleep we are getting, Julia continues to wake up a few times a night to eat and once or twice to be comforted or demand a diaper change. Kirk is able to help do the comforting and diaper changing but Carrie, of course, has to do the feeding. Hopefully in the near future Julia will sleep for longer stretches and Carrie will be able to do the same. The bigger Julia gets, the more fat she has on her body and the longer she can go without eating.

As far as eating goes, Julia has been doing well. Breastfeeding is always a work in progress but it is going MUCH better than the first month or so!!! Julia is getting enough since according to our scale, she weighs 14 ½ pounds! Carrie pumps at work and Julia gets bottles of breastmilk at day care. At Julia’s 4-month appointment, we’ll talk to her pediatrician about when Julia should start eating solids. That should be interesting!

It has been really fun to witness all of Julia’s recent changes. She is very talkative, smiley, and has recently started laughing (look for a video below with the caption "Julia Laughing")! Julia is also very active. She loves to kick and grab things. She drools a lot and likes to put things in her mouth – teeth may not be too far in the future!

Can you believe how much she is changing???