charlotte turned 3 months old the other day. it seems absurd that she’s already so old, and that she’s only been around for 3 months. she’s a very different baby today than she was a few weeks ago. she’s actually found some sort of pattern to sleeping and eating, which has helped tremendously. the fact that she’s sleeping at all during the day was welcome enough, actually. her general schedule looks something like this:

8:00 am-wake up and eat (often we have to wake her)
8:30 am-head back to sleep (sometimes she doesn’t get sleepy again until 9:30 or so)
sometime between 11am and 12:30pm-wake up and eat again (again, i often have to wake her)
2:30ish(sometimes earlier if she gets fussy or sleepy)-eat some more
sometime between 3 and 5 pm - another nap. usually about 2 hours long.
post-nap: more feeding
8:00 ish: food!
10:30 ish: food!
sometime between 10:30 and midnight: bedtime!

If you’re doing the math, that’s a stretch of almost 10 hours at night between feedings. now you see why we wake her up ;) it’s also only 6 feedings a day. we manage 7 on days where she’s awake for the bulk of the afternoon. this concerns me a bit, what with her small size, but she’s not unhappy and always drinks her fill, so i’m not too worried, at least intellectually.

and now, for posterity, milestone “expectations” from what to expect:

“should be able to”

• on stomach, lift head up 45 degrees passed this sometime during month 2 or so

“will probably be able to”

• laugh out loud she just started doing something that slightly resembles laughter
• on stomach, lift head up 90 degrees if only to escape the evils of tummytime ;)
• squeal in delight most definitely, in the last few days
• bring both hands together to put them in her mouth ;)
• smile spontaneously she’s been smiling at her mobile for weeks, and at me when i lean over her crib for the last week or so
• follow an object.. i’ll spare you the paragraph, but yes, she can track objects

“may possibly be able to”

• hold head steady when upright …since she was maybe 3 weeks old?
• on stomach, raise chest, supported by arms …once or twice maybe? she really hates tummy time
• roll over(one way) she threatens to on the changing table all the time, but again, evil tummy time keeps this one at bay
• grasp a rattle held to backs of fingers for a couple of weeks
• pay attention to an object as small as a raisin …i don’t think so. she’s a bit too enraptured with the world around her to get her to focus on something so small, yet.

“may even be able to”

• bear some weight on legs when held upright *some* weight?! she spends most of her evenings standing on our laps, popping up and down, keeping her balance freakishly well
• reach for an object within the last day or so, she’s started grabbing at the toys dangling from her interactive seat
• keep head level with body when pulled to sitting if she’s awake and not sleepy, she’s got her head held up, no matter what the circumstances. she’s a freak ;)
• turn in the direction of a voice, particularly mommy’s turn? maybe not, but she clearly recognizes my voice. if she’s fussing in her crib and i call out as i’m approaching, she’ll calm down…at least temporarily ;)
• say “ah-goo” or similar vowel-consonant combination she makes all manner of sounds, something she’s picked up in the last few days, but i’m not sure she’s doing any sort of active vowel/consonant pairings just yet
• razz aaaaalmost. she’s a big fan of sticking out her tongue and vocalizing as she drools. i suspect that as soon as she stops drooling through it, she’ll make a mighty noise.

i have to keep reminding myself that she’s not so much “behind” with the tummytime related skills, but that she’s far ahead with the other gross motor skills. she hates the mats and the floor, but ryan’s had some success with her on the couch. of course, this won’t last once she starts to roll over in earnest ;)