Joshua Watch: Three Months

Our precious little boy is three months old!  Where has the time gone??

He's growing so quickly, too.  We did his monthly comparison shot with his tiger, and had to turn the blanket vertically to make sure he fit properly...


He's also getting much more wriggly, which makes this comparison shot more and more difficult.  I guess I thought he'd remain docile enough for the first year... Next month, he'll probably be rolling on top of the tiger and/or nomming on its tail!

Joshua has done a lot of growing up this month!  The biggest change is in his sleep habits.  A couple weeks ago, he started waking up just 45 minutes into his naps and screaming in his crib -- a very stressful habit for all three of us.  We would rush into his nursery, pick him up, try to put his pacifier in his mouth, walk him around and around our little apartment... We hit a low point about a week and a half ago, when he just wouldn't be consoled, even in our arms.  After spending an entire day holding our screaming child, we decided something had to change.

It seems that Joshua's 45-minute nap was actually just the first half of a proper nap.  Some babies have difficulties transitioning between sleep stages, and it looks like Joshua was going through one of those phases.  By rushing in at his first cry and picking him up, we were just irritating him even more -- he really just needed to find his way back to sleep.  Taking him out of his crib meant that we were making him chronically overtired and cranky.  So we took on the hard task of daytime sleep training -- we let him cry a few minutes on his own when the 45-minute intruder showed up, in an effort to help teach him how to soothe himself back to sleep.  This was SO stressful for us as parents -- your instinct is to always go to your baby when he's crying!  But we discovered that when Joshua is crying because he's tired, he'll stop after only 3-6 minutes and then sleep for another 45 minutes to an hour.  And then he woke up much happier -- and treated us to many more smiles and laughs!

We're still working out the kinks of the whole sleep training thing, trying to figure out what works best for our family.  But so far, it's been remarkable seeing the difference that a little sleep training will make.  Joshua is better-rested, happier, and actually sleeping longer at night as well -- he's slept completely through the night (from 11pm to 7am) twice now!

Other fun developmental milestones: his hair is really coming in!  He no longer has the male pattern baldness look, though he does still have a mullet going on...  He's also discovered the joys of sucking on his hands.  More often than not, his thumb is still tucked inside his fist, so he hasn't quite figured out how to suck on his thumb, but it's so adorable watching him try to stuff his entire hand into his mouth.  And he's almost completely done with his pacifier now as a result!

Some fun shots from our 3-month photoshoot with our handsome little model:


See this hand, Mama?  This is the one I'm going to SHOVE IN MY MOUTH!!


This is fun and all, but it looks way more interesting over on that side of the room...
Joshua wasn't really into the photoshoot in his bouncy seat -- he got a little cranky after that last shot.  On a whim, I tried putting him on his changing table.  For whatever reason, Joshua really, really loves being on his changing table -- maybe because of how close it brings him to my face?  But he's usually all smiles now when we change his diaper.  And it worked this time, too -- smile city!  So I took a bunch of shots with my camera held way above my head, while I made funny faces and noises at him -- I'm amazed they're at all in focus.  :)




That grin melts our hearts, little boy.  We love you so much!