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I don’t even know how the first 3 months went by. Now that I think back, it seems it went by so quick. All I remember is for the first 3 months, I was in a survival mode, haha. I just had to get through the day and the next day came, then the next thing you know she was 3 months! First 3 months was challenging because not only I had to face challenges of being a mom which is new to me but also I had no sleep.
She slept a lot but woke up every 1.5 to 2 hrs and wanted to feed. Breastfeeding was challenging in the beginning. My baby didn’t latch properly in the beginning and I couldn’t bear the sore nipple. Lansinoh, the nipple creme was my best friend. I tried pumping and she was bottle-fed for a few weeks. It was a lot of work to wash bottles, sterilize, and pump breast milk but it was great because I didn’t get a sore nipple. I tried feeding her from the breast again when I was healed. Luckily, she latched on perfectly this time. However, she started to reject the bottle feeding so I could only feed her from breasts. Also, when she went on growth spurts several times in the beginning, I felt like I was short of milk. I was very close to supplement my baby with formula and felt like giving up on breast feeding. However, the milk luckily came when I almost gave up and was looking for other ways to increase milk supply such as tea or medicine.
She woke up often, almost every 2 hours to feed. Also, her night and day was reversed in the beginning. As she began to sleep longer hours, she was more awake during the night and slept more during the day. I spent handful of nights like a zombie trying to put baby to sleep. What is really cute is that she would sleep for longer hours if my husband or I hold her on the pillow on our lap. Glider was a lifesaver during this time. I would sit there with a pillow on my lap, holding her on the pillow. If glider was not there, my arm would have been super tired trying to rock her to sleep. Eventually, by 3 months, her night was reversed and she was sleeping through the night for 6 hours.
When she was awake, she looked at my face a lot. She would just stare at my face for a long time. I think she was observing me. Babies at 0-3 months, they can only see within 8-12 inches from their eyes. Also they are mostly lying down so they can only see what is in front of them. So I brought visual and hearing stimulation to her every day so she can be entertained and also spend quality bonding time with mommy. I sang a lot of nursery rhymes. My baby loved it when I sang songs to her. I had to learn handful of baby songs because I didn’t know any lyrics to the songs.
At this stage, everything she did was her first so it was quite special to witness those moments: first sound (gurgling or cooing), first laugh, first smile, first grasp. Seeing her first smile and hearing her first laugh was the most amazing thing. Like most babies, she didn’t like her tummy time. Don’t worry if your baby doesn’t like tummy time. You just have to do a little bit every day and you don’t have to worry if the baby resists so much. You will see that as time goes by, baby gets stronger and eventually do tummy time with no problem. As you see your baby hold her head steady and started to grasp things, you will be amazed how fast your baby is learning, growing and developing every day. Take lots of photos and videos! Babies grow up so fast, you will love seeing how she was when she was just born or when she had a first smile.
