This is Lauren's "YAY!" face!
Today, though, I'm so proud of her that I could just about jump up and down and do cartwheels. I may or may not already have done that in the privacy of our home. Only Joshua could say for sure and I've bribed him not to tell. For quite some time, Lauren's bottle refusal has been a source of some stress. I have to say that I think I held it together relatively well over the whole thing, given my innate tendency to overreact. I have resigned myself to the fact that, although I am planning to go back to work in some capacity this Monday, that I will work through the situation however I need to. If that means coming home every 2.5 hours to feed Lauren, then that's what I'll do. If it means bringing her along with me to the office for a portion of the day, then so be it. In my silent prayers, though, I have to admit that I've been praying for some kind of a dramatic turnaround so that the whole transition can be just a bit easier on Lauren and I, and also for Grandma and Joshua. In an email between Emily and I earlier this week, she told me that these things have a way of working themselves out. Oh wise friend...you were right. Today it appears that we're on the brink of some kind of miracle.
I've been working with Lauren to use a pacifier for the past few weeks figuring that if she could learn to suck on something, she could eventually learn to accept milk from a bottle. Mostly it's been a futile effort that led to frustration on both of our parts. The only way it would work is if I literally held the pacifier in her mouth while she tried to push it back out with her tongue. She would chew on it, but never really wanted to suck on it. But late yesterday afternoon I tried again and she accepted it and then quickly drifted off to sleep. I was thrilled.....mostly from not having to bounce and sway her while I walked around the bottom floor of our house 27 times like I normally need to. Right after that, I thought I'd take a real walk on the wild side and offer her some milk in a bottle again. To my delight and surprise, after some coaxing, she took it like a champ. She did it again at her next feeding with less coaxing required.
This morning, we can report more success with the bink and she took 1 oz of milk from the bottle. Hooray!! Now, I realize that I may come back to read this post in a year or two and rue the day that I got excited for her to take a pacifier. In fact, if I knew how to do a link to another post, I'd send you right to Emily's blog about her confessions about Cooper's bink. I have no earthly clue how to do that, but I'm sure there will come a day when I'm desperate to live a life without a bink. But for now, if it does the trick to soothe my baby while we're both trying to work through a difficult transition, I'll take it.
How Monday is going to work I have no firm plan about. The only plan I have is to see how the day unfolds and react accordingly. My hope is that Lauren can at least take 2 feedings with grandma and allow me to make only one trip home in the middle of the day to feed her. That's my dream world...but I'm being brave enough now, after a few successes, to think about it. We might just make it after all.
The only downside to this breakthrough is that I'm now having to think seriously about the fact that I may be headed back to work without Lauren on Monday...and having to get used to spending my days away from not only Joshua, but her as well. And if you read back to the beginning of this, you'll realize that I'm now dreading exactly what it is I've been hoping for. Isn't that just how it works sometimes? I didn't blog when I made the transition back to work with Joshua, but I remember that it wasn't nearly as painful or emotional as I suspected it might be. Here's to hoping that it goes smoothly for all of us this time around too.
In other statistics and interesting tidbits, here are a few other three month facts about Lauren:
- I'm betting that she weighs about 10-10.5 pounds.
- She has just within the past day or so moved to a size 1 diaper. Newborns would still fit, but I ran out and have a stash of 1's, so we're just going to make the switch.
- All of her clothing is now 3 months. (Oh how quickly that newborn stuff got put away!)
- She is mostly sleeping through the night. She usually wakes between 4:30-5:00 to eat, but sometimes skips that feeding.
- She eats 6-8 times a day, usually about 2.5 hours between feedings during the day. After eating, she's awake and happy for a while (that part is getting longer and longer each day) and then wants to take a little snooze for about 20-30 minutes before waking up to be changed and fed all over again.
- She can hold her head up like a champ at this point.
- She has absolutely no interest in rolling over yet. When we have floor time, she just likes to look around and smile. So far, her kicking hasn't accomplished much more than just swivelling her from side to side a little bit.
- She is learning how to grab onto things- like my shirt when she's eating, my hair when she's up on my shoulder, her little doll that she likes to hug and squeeze and chew on.
- Her fist is often in her mouth and the drooling is picking up pretty steadily. If that means teeth are soon on their way, I'm not looking forward to it....for a number of reasons.
- She likes to "talk" and will usually respond if you ask her to "tell you about it". She has a little raspy voice that I just adore.
- She particularly likes to watch Joshua as he plays. I can't blame her- he's pretty fun.
3 months gone by already.....wow! Happy 3 month birthday little one!
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