Thursday, October 17, 2013

June Bug 1 month

How we're stacking up:
height 22.65 inches 98th percentile
weight 9 lbs 10 oz 53rd percentile

Sweet Junie Bug, as I write this you are about to be two months old--your mama apologizes in advance for my tardiness, but as you know our house is in a state of chaos 99.9% of the time.  This does not in any way mean I do not adore you, because you are such a sweet, precious little one that I cannot get enough of!  

My third baby, it is so crazy how your outlook on raising children changes from those first few weeks with your first baby.  With Hank, I remember counting the weeks because everyone kept telling me it would start to get easier around 6-8 weeks.  With him, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus everyday, the days dragged on, I often wondered why in the world did people have children?  6 weeks came and went, and he still fussed, cried, kept me up at night-everyone lied to me clearly.  I hate getting and giving parenting advice, and I find that lots of moms and dads seem to think that simply because I have 3 children, I have a clue what I'm doing so they ask me all sorts of questions.  Believe me, I'm no expert on anything, and what really bugs me is the "mommy wars" we read and see all the time.  I don't get why moms are in constant competition with each other-seriously dude these are the trenches of parenting, it is rough more often than it's sweet.  For every sweet thing one of my children does there are 3 non-desired behaviors that preceded and followed.  Moms and Dads need support-and once you've had a 3rd child, you need A LOT.  

That said, my PSA that I tell new parents it never gets easier, the parenting demands change as your child gets older, but it is always challenging in a new way.  If you want a humbling experience in life, have kids.  Now that I have an almost 4 year old, a 19 month old, and an 8 week old it is abundantly clear that my 8 week old is the easiest and most pleasant of my children.  The days with her are flying by and I wish they would slow down.  I cannot get enough of the sweet, snuggly, sleepy newborn stage and never want it to end (mostly because I know what's coming-lord help me, I have to survive age 3 with 2 more kids).  So, for all the parents who have told me along the way, "it gets easier" (and man there have been a lot)-I disagree strongly, parenting is NEVER easy. 

June is a doll baby.  She's got a head of dark hair and her eyes are certainly darker than the other two were at this point-she might actually be our brown eyed baby, which would be nice since both Johnny and I have brown hair and eyes unlike our other two blonde hair, blue eyed children.  She started smiling at 5 weeks which makes her the earliest of my babies to smile.  Both Hank and Lucy held out until 9 or 10 weeks, so I'm loving this super smiley baby.  She's pretty mellow compared to the other two terrorists I have running around the house, fighting nonstop.  She's been a great sleeper-the best of the 3; however that might be that I've just got this baby thing figured out by now-a paci and a tight swaddle and we're set.  She prefers to sleep on her belly-and I let her during the day so she typically takes a a couple good long naps-i.e. she sleeps a few hours in the morning followed by  3-4 hours every afternoon which is dreamy.  At night, she starts in the pack-n-play and ends up in our bed by morning b/c basically mama's gotta sleep, so she wakes up, I pull her in bed to nurse and we both are asleep till morning.  Most nights she's just up one time around 3:00 to nurse and then we're all up for the day between 7-8. Because of our building permit woes with the city of Atlanta we are still not under construction at our house, meaning June is bunking up with Johnny and I until further notice-I'll save those woes for another blog post :)

 She is starting to spend more time on her activity mat, and I imagine will be rolling over soon given all the time she spends on her belly.  If she's having a fussy day, I pop her in the ergo and all is well.  I love how snuggly this little one is, and how her favorite place is nestled up against me.  I am frequently wearing June, and toting Lucy on my hip-my arms are getting quite the work out these days!  Lucy is having some difficulty adjusting to her new middle child status; thus when I am holding the baby she prefers that I'm holding her as well....ahhh transition. 

June loves to be out and about with us; and being the 3rd baby, she's gotta be good at taking her naps on the go; although she's not a fan of long car rides which she lets us know by wailing at the top of her lungs for the duration.   She's slept through the zoo a few times, some birthday parties, lots of playground trips, pumpkin farm, apple picking etc  She's growing like a champ, doesn't demand much but food and some snuggles, keeps the crying to a minimum, and has a perfectly adorable round head :)-I'd say she's a keeper.  











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