The Pope Kiddos: 3 months

It's hard to believe Abigail is already 3 months old. Now she's starting to get into the more fun stage since she's smiling and laughing some now. Her sister gets the biggest smiles. She LOVES watching her sister. She'll keep her eyes glued on Lily wherever she goes. And if Lily smiles at her she almost always smiles back. And Lily is so funny, she loves being a little mommy and she repeats everything I say to Abigail in the same sing-song tone I use to talk to her. "Where'd your smile go Abigail? Are you talking to me Abigail?" It's pretty funny and Abigail loves it.

Abigail has the sweetest smile and laugh. She has a squeak on the end of her laugh just like she has on her cry. It's adorable.

She's still an excellent sleeper. She's slept through the night once (August 15 - 2.5 months old). But she consistently sleeps from about 10:30 PM to 6 AM. I'm pretty thrilled with that. At 6 AM she just wakes up to eat and then goes back to sleep until 8 or so. Sometimes she even eats again and sleeps even later! But 8 is about the time we're all up and heading downstairs so she usually wakes up for a little while at that time. She's still not really on a nap schedule at all. Her afternoon nap is starting to get more regular and she frequently sleeps when Lily sleeps for a couple hours (Lily is still sleeping for 3 hours every afternoon). I guess I'm too boring for her. Sometimes she'll take that nap in her crib, more often she takes it downstairs with me in her swing or bouncer, or if I'm unlucky, in my lap while I rock her (like today, when she needed to be held all day long). She still sleeps through a lot so I can usually get things done even if she's sleeping in the same general area. It's nice to be able to get things done.

She's still eating only breast milk. She a champion nurser and loves to eat. I think her sensitivities to dairy have mostly passed. She still has occasional spit-up but nothing terrible and she certainly doesn't spit-up every time she eats. It may have just been her immature digestive system and nothing to do with dairy. Whatever the case, I'm glad to have dairy back in my life. She's taken another bottle successfully so I'm hoping she's decided she's OK with them now. Up until now I don't think I've been away from her for more than and hour and a half. Which is fine, but it would be nice not to have to worry about her screaming from hunger while I'm away. And Aunt Kellie is going to be here next week so I might be able to convince her to babysit for a night while she's here.

She's a major hand-sucker. She likes to have that thing in her mouth all the time. And if something gets in between her hand and her mouth--like a burp rag or a bib--she'll suck on that too. She doesn't use a pacifier, so this may be a replacement for that. She also drools quite a lot. Her shirts are always soaking wet. Not just a little wet--drenched. She usually has a bib on and that will be wet and the shirt under it will be wet. I'm glad it's summer and not freezing in February.

It was a really busy month for Abigail too. Her Bauby and Papa Jim came out to meet her. So she got a lot of cuddles and presents and attention--all her favorite things. Then we went on a road trip and she got to check a bunch more states off her list (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois). So that puts her up to 8 states in her first 3 months of life (she'd already been to Connecticut-clearly, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York). We may not be world travelers but we've seen a lot of the United States. Both girls got to meet all the Chicago relatives, many for the first time--more on that to come hopefully. We all had a good time.