Yesterday, Cai turned three months old. This is one of my favorite baby stages! He's starting to interact and his personality is beginning to show. Here's what's going on in Cai's world right now...
New Things: Cai has discovered his hands. They are constantly being chewed on, sucked on, and clasped against his chest. This was our first sign of another new thing, teething. He started the chewing a few weeks ago and followed it up with ridiculous amounts of drool. I thought it was highly unlikely that he was starting to teeth at two months, but in the past two days we've noticed a little bleeding on his gums where a first tooth usually shows up and some extra fussiness. He's still a happy baby, but there are times when you can tell he's uncomfortable. Thankfully it hasn't affected his ability to sleep through the night or to nurse comfortably. I do feel really bad for him though because he's not coordinated enough to put anything other than his hands in his mouth, so he can't even use a teether right now. I do plan to try giving him a frozen washcloth to gnaw on, and I bought some Hyland's teething tablets.
Other than that, he has started to pay attention to toys around him, he can recognize mama from across the room. He smiles and giggles spontaneously at people. He has let a real belly laugh a few times, but it's difficult to make it happen. Actually, every time we've heard it has been while he's on the changing table, his favorite spot. I'm pretty sure rolling over isn't too far away. He really likes to "stand"; sometimes it's actually difficult to get him to sit. He holds his head up pretty steadily almost all the time, unless he's about to fall asleep, then he looks like a drunk bald man.
Growth: Cai is now 13 lbs 1 oz. and 24 inches long which is perfectly average, right at the 50th percentile. He is still wearing 0-3 month clothes, but about half of those are too small. He went through a growth spurt last week, nursing constantly. He went from spending an average of two and a half hours a day eating to five hours! I felt like I never left the couch! 
Sleep: Cai sleeps through the night almost every night. About once a week he will wake up once for a feeding, but he goes right back down. He sleeps from between 8-9 PM to 7-8:30 AM. For awhile we were struggling with getting him to go to sleep easily, but three out of the past four nights he has gone to sleep without a peep. I'm chalking it up to establishing a clearer routine for him. I nurse him in the living room, then bring him to his room, change his diaper, dim the lights, put a little bit of lavender lotion on him, swaddle him (with one arm out so he can suck on his fist), read him a Bible story, pray, sing him a lullaby, and lay him down. By the time I lay him down, he is almost asleep. It's great!
Naps on the other hand have been a bit trickier. For a long time he had been taking two 2-3 hour naps a day. Right now though, I can barely get him to sleep a full hour at a time. Most naps are over in twenty minutes. I think we need to establish a better routine for naps, and I think I need to discourage cat naps, and try to get him to go back to sleep if he wakes up to early. 
Diapering: I have finally gotten a handle on exactly what I'm eating that causes Cai's diaper rashes. I've found I can't have any fresh dairy at all. I can have butter, milk, etc. if it's baked inside things. I can't have cheese in any form. As long as I stay away from these things, he is totally rash free. I feel like cloth diapering helps with this too. We've had to use disposables a lot this week (we were without heat and hot water for a day and a half, so I couldn't wash the diapers), and it has made me super thankful for cloth. We had THREE blowouts in two days. I've never had one in cloth. In the defense of the disposables though, Cai has been pooping less lately, only once or twice a day (common for breastfed babies), and when he does poop, he poops A LOT. The elastic in the cloth diapers seems to hold this in better though. One of the nice things about the less frequent pooping is that if a little dairy slips into my meal, it doesn't affect his tushie as much as it did before.
Overall, Cai is a really easy baby. Like, to the point that I'm afraid that baby number 2 (Lord willing), will be quite a shock. Again, I know this could change at any moment, so I'm trying not to take it for granted. 
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