Cricket's schedule at 12 weeks

Dear Cricket,

You are growing and growing! You are almost 3 months old and you are getting so big! At 2 months old you were 23 inches, or 1'11" tall.

You aren't sleeping through the night yet, but you do have some regular patterns that are showing. You have been going to sleep around 10pm and waking up around 1:30am. I make sure to "double diaper" you when you eat around 9:30 so that you've got an extra cloth diaper layer. When you wake up around 1:30am, I feed you and unless you poop, don't do a diaper change at this time. You sleep again until about 4am and I feed you again. I again won't change your diaper unless you poop. You then sleep some more and get up again around 6:30am. There is more eating and you usually do get a diaper change about 7am. There usually is one diaper change that happens between 10pm and 7am because you haven't yet stopped pooping in the night.

Our middle of the night times are getting shorter. Your first month you were getting up every 1.5 to 2 hours and be up for 30 to 60 minutes at a time. These days you eat for 8-15 minutes and if there isn't a diaper change, that is all. You frequently sleep-feed and don't fully wake up at these feeding times.

When you get up at 7am you are usually wide awake and full of smiles. You seem so excited to be awake and alive and ready to greet the new day. You giggle, you kick your legs in the air and swing your arms…all while laying on your back in your crib. After eating and a diaper change, you are ready to play! We have a floor gym for you, it is a mat with two crossed arches that have toys that dangle down. You love batting at the elephant that jingles and at the giraffe that rattles. You've started grabbing, though most attempts aren't successful. You're still figuring out the timing of opening and closing your fist and you move your hand toward the object you want to touch. We also do some "tummy time" and put you on your belly on the mat. You practice lifting your head and scooting around by pushing with your legs. You usually tolerate tummy time for about 5 minutes before you get very frustrated. Tummy time gets you hungry and there's frequently a little snack after playtime.

Oftentimes you'll hang out in your crib watching your mobile and listening to the classical music it plays while Mommy eats some breakfast and has her coffee. You will then come hang out in the bouncy chair in the bathroom while I take a shower and you usually fall asleep. I keep the fan off so that the room gets nice and steamy and helps you with your stuffy noses. You frequently take a little nap around 9am and sleep intermittently for an hour or two before you're ready to eat again. During the daytime every feeding is followed by a diaper change. There's sometimes a little late-morning playing if you get wide awake and seem a little bored with the activity center that attaches to the side of the crib. We have another feeding around noon.

If we didn't take a walk in the late morning, we'll go in the afternoon. We walk around the neighborhood and get the mail from the post office and also from the mailbox at the entrance to the neighborhood. We will sometimes also go into the market and poke around and pick up some treat to bring home to Daddy. There is usually another nap in the afternoon and another feeding around 3 and again about 6pm. If I'm cooking dinner, I get started around 3 or 4 since there will be many pauses to check on how you are doing, especially if you're awake and hanging out in your crib.

You tend to be pretty mellow as the evening progresses and spend more time in the crib than on the play gym. You'll eat again around 8 or 8:30 and snack again around 9 or 9:30 before starting the whole process over again.

We have one more week together where I'm home and not at work. I go back to work and then Daddy will be watching you in the daytime. I'm still uncertain of how I'll arrange my work schedule, and I'm not sure if you'll come with me occasionally for a few hours. Since you're still taking naps in the morning, it seems like a fine time to have you at the office for a little while, but we'll see. It is hard for me to concentrate on much of anything else when you're around. I love to look at you when you're asleep and to play and sing when you're awake. The last 3 months with you have been such a wonderful time, and I feel very lucky to have gotten to be home with you for so long before having to go back to work. I hope that when you are older you will understand why Mommy needed to go to work and be gone for so much of the day.

I think there are many more adventures for us ahead and I am so happy that there are evenings and weekends and perhaps some more time for us again soon.

You are sleeping now, so I may take a nap, too.

Love,

Your Mommy