30th Birthday and Holland’s 3-Month Birthday
I wrote an update about months 0-2 with Holland in her newborn post and want to make sure I stay on top of monthly updates. It’s surprising how much she’s changed going from 2 months old to 3 months. We also celebrated my 30th Birthday on the same day that Holland turned 3 months old! It was a big birthday for me and my mom flew in town to help celebrate and give me some baby relief.
2 Months
Happy 2 months Holland! As soon as she reached 2 months old, Holland started to be fascinated with all of her hanging toys. After her first morning feeding, I’ll place her in her Dock-A-Tot and she’ll let out soft giggles and smile huge when I wiggle her hanging toys. She is now letting me shower while she sits in her baby bouncer. The sound of running water calms her, so she’s fine to rest while I shower and has been letting me put on my makeup which is really nice!
Holland sometimes naps in her newborn high chair and her baby swing. She has trouble falling asleep at night, but I am assuming that’s because I am not rocking her to sleep. I place her in the bassinet when she is still awake and I whisper to her or hold her hand and she’ll eventually get drowsy and doze off.
At the end of her first month, Holland would try so hard to make the softest little whisper coo sound. It was so cute! On January 15th we heard Holland’s first real laugh. She was laughing at the hanging toys on her Dock A Tot at night while we were getting ready for bed. At 9 weeks old, she was starting to make more sounds and little shrieks when she laughed.
3 Months
Wow, what a change from month 2 to month 3! Holland is now a little talker! She loves to gurgle, laugh, and make all kinds of cute sounds. She is able to grab toys, so she’s lost most of her interest in hanging toys and moved onto things that she can feel. My mom brought her a mirror toy that has cards attached to it, and she loves playing with it and grabbing the cards. Board books (especially touch and feel ones) have been great because Holland will grab at the pages.
Even though Holland can’t roll over, she loves to dance! Before bath time, we lay her on her back on the bed and have a dance party. She watches our moves and tries to imitate them by lifting her arms and kicking her legs. It’s probably my favorite part of the day.
I also noticed by reading back on her newborn post that we are getting much more sleep now. Holland goes to bed late, but she stays asleep. Usually, we get anywhere from 8-10.5 hours of sleep out of her at night. Her naps are still only about 20 minutes long most of the time during the day. Occasionally we will get a longer nap.
Holland went through a growth spurt right around her 3-month birthday. She can barely fit in size 1 diapers so we moved on from Huggies size 1 to our Dyper brand size 1, which is a little bigger. As soon as she’s done with those, I’ll move her to a size 2 in Huggies. She completely outgrew all of her 0-3 month onesies and footie pajamas in what seemed like it happened overnight! This girl is long and it’s been fun to move her into her 6-month clothes. I’m a little sad to already be packing all of the 0-3 size away though.
My 30th Birthday
For my birthday, we walked over to the bourbon and coffee lounge nearby our house for brunch. We brought Holland along with us and ate on the patio. After we walked home, we celebrated with the most beautiful cake. I figured if there’s a time to go all out on a cake, why not use the 30th birthday for it? The cake was almond with raspberry puree, and it was delicious! later in the day, my mom and I took Holland to Dillards as her first shopping experience (outside of the grocery store). We didn’t stay long, but it was fun to get out of the house with the baby. I of course spent most of my time shopping for Holland instead of myself!
I definitely feel that as a 30-year old new mom, I have entered a new stage of life. I’m excited to experience this new type of life as a mom and creating experiences for Holland instead of just doing things for myself. Much of my 20s were spent working and traveling with Reed. We both had so much fun together and got to enjoy some of the finer things in life with international vacations and ski trips! Reed and I spent time working on our careers and trying to find job security to where we felt comfortable starting a family. I remember someone telling us that we would never feel like we had enough money to raise a child. I think I was still in my early 20s at the time when that was said to me, but I am happy that my husband and I challenged that statement. We grew up during our 20s and truly waited until we felt comfortable to have our daughter, and It’s been awesome so far!
I imagine that I’ll grow quite a bit in my 30s. I hope this decade will eventually bring Holland a sibling or two and that we can have tons of family time together. It’s nice to be able to look back on my 20s and the past nearly 7 years of marriage and see how much I’ve matured and gained confidence in myself. I feel very fortunate to make it to 30 and hope to be able to make it to 40… and even 90 years old as a better person than I ever was before.