Mya’s 3 Month Update

How’s everyone holding up? If you’re anything like me, you start your day off reading or watching the news, and then have to turn it off at a certain point before it completely consumes you. I find myself watching just a little bit of the Today Show headlines and opening stories, then stepping away to find the joy in the day again. This is a heavy time and I hope you are finding the light and happiness in your every day. It really is all around us, but is just a little overshadowed with the heaviness at the time.

I had a friend check in to see how Mya was doing lately, and I explained that she really is living her best life right now. 🙂 I mean, no car seat naps. No back and forth car pooling to one place or another. Every nap is in her own bed, with her own swaddle, with no interruptions. We are all home to snuggle and love on her, and life is really just perfect for Miss Mya Girl.

And let’s be real. Having her to snuggle and love on is such a great added bonus to the Kemper quarantine life!

Sleeping

At right around 8 weeks, Mya started sleeping solidly from 7pm to 7 am. Dream baby, right? I went about a four week stint where I didn’t have a newborn wake me up in the middle of the night. Notice how I said newborn? If it was anyone, it was my older two. 🤨 But right around 12 weeks, we hit a bit of a snag. It started with Mya waking up at 1:30 every single night and just jabber away to herself in her crib. Just chatting it up with no one in particular. 🙂 Then it turned to her actually waking up and crying at 1:30. Okay, I’ll come feed you, Mya.

Then it went even further and I started to get the early wake-up calls. First at 4:30 and now more recently, every morning at 5:00.

We took a turn for the worse here, sister.

So I decided to adapt a little and I moved her arms out of her swaddle. I would typically wait until she was rolling over to take her arms out, but her middle of the night wake-ups were because she would get her arms out of her swaddle and have them right to her mouth. She’d wake up to two little hands right at her mouth and not know what in the world happened! Could you imagine?! 🙂

Starting on Friday, I moved to still wrapping her in her swaddle, but I leave those sweet little chunky arms out. So far, she’s doing so good! No 1:30 wake-up call last night, and her day didn’t start until 5:45 this morning. Not the solid 7-7 I was working with weeks prior, but we’re on the up and up!

Eating

Maybe a slight regression here, too. She’s made the conscious decision that she hates formula and will flat out refuse to take a bottle of it. Sooo…there’s that. 🙂

I still nurse Mya at every feeding, but it was nice that once or twice a day, I’d be able to have Jerod give her a bottle instead. Since I don’t pump (because how do you even find the time to nurse and pump?!), we were just doing formula in her bottles. It was going great and then slowly she started to drink less…and less…and now it’s a straight up NO.

She’s a girl of decision and knows just what she wants. I can appreciate it. 🙂 So I’m working to pump in the mornings and getting her back on to a bottle again. Over the coming weeks, I’ll slowly add a little bit of formula to the bottles until I just am able to stop pumping altogether again.

Schedule

With the different, early wake times that Mya’s started the last few weeks, I nurse her and put her back to sleep, and then she…wait for it…SLEEPS IN. Wait, what?! I’ve had boys with 6-7am wake-up calls for years now. Now we’re talking about a 9am? You’re not supposed to pick favorites, but….😉

9:00 – Wake for the Day, Nurse, Awake Time

11:00 – 1st Nap

12:30 – Nurse, Awake Time

1:30 – 2nd Nap (typically the longest nap of the day)

3:30-4 – Nurse, Awake Time

5:30 – Last Nap wrapped in a Boba wrap while I cook dinner

6:00 – Short Awake Time, Bath

7:00 – Nurse to Sleep for the Night

Facts About Mya

Her smile has only gotten bigger and brighter as the days go on. We’ve seen smiles since she was about 7 weeks old, but boy, oh boy, she is smiling from ear to ear anymore. Oh yeah…except when I pull out my phone. It’s a total “what in the heck is THAT?!” look. Hmmm… Her favorites are seeing mama or dada’s faces, but she also smiles at her brothers and at her favorite toys on her play mat occasionally, too. Sneezes are also hilarious to her so maybe she has a little of her mama’s slapstick humor? 🙂

We are within days of hearing that first giggle from Mya Girl. You’ll know it happens when you hear my giddy scream all the way from KC. 😊

Mya’s sat in a swing with me at the playground (pre-COVID-19, of course), sat forward facing in a stroller, and can sit propped against couch pillows or with our help. Big things from a strong little babe.

Three months with Mya and I don’t quite remember what it was like without her anymore. Since she was born, as a whole Kemper family, we’ve been forced to slowdown, to enjoy those little moments, to snuggle and love. It was first the holidays, then winter really hit, and now quarantine. A forced slowdown that I appreciate and cherish because these are moments we will never get back. I’m glad I won’t miss a second of them.

Happy 3 Months, baby girl. I love you to the moon and back.

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