Chloe is 3 months old!

So technically she’s no longer classified as a newborn, but now as an infant.

And I – finally – see the haze starting to lift. The madness and unrequited love that is of a newborn is truly difficult. I’d forgotten how difficult it was the previous two times with my boys…. I suppose the good thing about Motherhood is that your early memories are wiped, otherwise no one would have a second or third child 😉

The endless breastfeeding sessions… the nonstop crying… the zero smiles…. it’s all gone down in the past week. It’s far from wonderful, but I’ll take what I can get!

 

This little sweetheart is, well, a sweetheart.. when she’s in a good mood. Specifically, that’s when she first wakes up in the morning, and is awake for 1.5hrs before her first nap. She’s alert, eager for attention, and dishes out the smiles happily. Her legs kick furiously and happily, and her arms go waving around in big wide circles. It’s super cute!

No brainer, then, that most of my photos of her are taken during this “Golden Hour” each morning. Mostly because she tends to be waaaay less smiley and a whole lot more grouchy for the rest of the day, haha.

Because this child is a SCREAMER. She’s, by far, the fussiest and most attention-seeking baby I’ve had. BY FAR.

This baby has zero chill!

When she’s awake, I have to carry her 100% of the time, no questions asked. OK, to be fair, in the past week, she’s (finally) ok with being in the stroller or on the play mat by herself.. but only for about ten mins before she screams to be picked up. In contrast, both my boys were perfectly content being by themselves, as long as they could see/hear me nearby.

Man, she seriously keeps us all on our toes, and tripping over our own feet to rush to pick her up so she stops screaming.

 

Thankfully, she takes after her older brothers and is considered a “good sleeper” at night. Though actually getting her down is the hard part (she has been known to fuss and scream for two hours before falling asleep – kill me now).

She clocks around 6-7 hours of solid sleep, and when I wake her to nurse her at around 5AM, I can put her straight back into her cot with no fuss 99% of the time, and she’ll continue sleeping.

Then again, I remember things do go haywire as a baby gets older, and especially as they go through growth spurts. So we are still bracing ourselves for when the inevitable happens – when she wakes up at night, and it takes ages to get her to settle down to sleep again.

In contrast, she is a terrible napper during the day. She will sleep only for 30 mins (she nap snacks) in her stroller, and the only way to get her to sleep for longer is if I’m baby-carrying her. Which I’m not willing to do often as it kills my back.

 

Developmental wise, she’s got way smoother limb movement and.. much to our excitement.. has started reaching for and holding/batting hanging toys. Too cute! She particularly adores this Lamaze butterfly my mother-in-law bought her, and can spend 10-15 mins alone just looking and batting it, and sometimes coos at it too.

I basically live for this 10-15mins of playmat time, because I use this time to have a shower, go to the toilet, eat, answer SMSes….. sometimes all of the above – lol.

 

She enjoys her tummy time when it’s immediately after waking up. She’s got fairly decent head control, actually, because she does quite a bit of tummy time as well as naps on her belly.

I’m looking forward to when she can sit upright, so I can plonk her down anywhere!

 

Fully breastfed, which I’m happy with as I simply cannot deal with the effort of using a pump and bottles. It’s easy and it’s free, so why not?

This lil bub, like her older brothers, has also had to deal with my overproduction and fast letdown. I’m definitely grateful that I don’t have supply issues, but I also have to deal with (a lot of) mess, and my babies have to deal with gulping real quick. Chloe’s learned like a champ to drink really really fast so she’s doing well, though it gets a tad embarrassing if the room is quiet and you can hear her gulp and slurp loudly!

 

Chloe’s typical serious face.. if she’s not screwed it up and screaming 😉 She’s definitely not a smiley baby. Hunter was the same, born with a very serious look and it took great effort to get him to crack a smile. Plus he would often cast his (in)famous Death Glare at strangers cooing at him (oooo the embarrassment!!). But Hunter is now a really smiley and friendly kid, so I suppose there is hope for Chloe 😉

 

The boys treat Chloe as their living doll, which is surprising as both of them have zero interest in actual dolls.. yet are fascinated with her.

One day, Hunter was playing and cuddling Chloe.. and suddenly blurted out “She’s just soooooo cute! I CAN’T STAND IT. And I can’t believe she’s ours”

Oh my heart 🙂

The kid had wanted a baby sister for a looooong time now, so is over the moon that he has a real life baby doll.

He can dress her, and will carefully and methodically put on all her clothes, and even her little socks and headband. And she’ll watch him quietly with her big eyes just staring at him.

Both kids are also really tolerant, as she – more often than not – is screaming/fussing. Especially in the evenings. But they will either quickly go up to her to try and settle her (it almost never works), or try their best to ignore her if I ask them to back off and let me handle it.

They’re both sweet older brothers.. and if there’s one thing I’m grateful for, it’s their patience and love toward her.

 

I’ve officially been cleared to exercise! Mm hmmm… I am gonna say goodbye to Mom bod, thanks. I’m planning to get back to doing yoga, barre, HIIT training, and good ‘ol running.

I’ve started this week, and my muscles now have that delicious post-workout ache that I have missed for so long! Flexibility is awful and strength is equally dismal.. but I suppose it means I can only improve from here.

 

I love comparison pics, and this one is particularly cool because it shows such growth in just 3 months. Look at the difference in those legs!!

Oh my darling. You are such a “high needs” attention-seeking baby.. and you sure do scream a lot… and yet I somehow have so much patience (quite surprising to me, as I have zero chill too, normally). I feel that since you are my last child, I should really embrace and savor all the good bits and all the bad bits of you.

I put up with all your emotional torture and I put up with all the physical pain you cause me when you insist to be carried 24/7… just to get a precious smile from you.

I cannot BELIEVE I was never interested in having a daughter. Now that I have one, I realise how wrong I was. Our family was never really complete, until YOU joined it.