The Third month

My last month of maternity leave and my last catch up post, I think!

We did a lot of going out and about and I was having fun being a mommy!  We did my Color Me Mine playdate for 3 girls from school, which was fun for them to see the baby.  Cordelia already loves Guity, she is just a natural baby person!!  After, we went home and changed Cordelia out of her flowered dress and into her white lace vintage-looking dress, so we could go to Steamstock, a steampunk music festival..  We had found the dress at the Gap and it was the only one....and in her size!!  Jason's mom had knitted them both matching aviator caps, so they looked amazing.  Cordelia was on her best behavior, hardly fussing at all, and even got used to her hat.   Everyone loved her and told us about our gorgeous baby, but we already knew that!!

I started visiting school about once a week or so.  I brought Guity some flowers at the kindergarten presentation to thank her for taking care of all the kids.... it was my first time seeing many of the parents!  They were very nice.  We went and got pizza after.  I talked a lot with Joanne and she offered me some of her kids old things, as they were moving.  The next weekend was the graduation picnic.  It wasn't as emotional as it would have been if I'd been around all summer.  I felt like I had made my more "hardest" goodbyes when my maternity leave began.  It got pretty sunny and although we tried to keep Cordelia shaded, she got a light sunburn.  :(  I called the doctor's but they said it didn't sound like she'd need to come in.

 I also went in to work and did some orientations for new families and a meet and greet with the parents.  I left Cordelia for the first time for a few hours, but was able to pick her up from Jason at camp immediately after.

During this month, Cordelia had difficulties sleeping.  Every time I'd set her down in her bed, she would immediately start thrashing and wake up.  I read that sleep experts recommend that babies be placed in bed when they are drowsy but not asleep, so they would learn to fall asleep on their own.  But that did not work for Cordelia!  I bemoaned it as a cruel joke!  Instead, the best advice I received from the internet was to put my clothes in the bed and warm it up with a heating pad.  Heating the bed did the trick and now we always do it before setting her down.  During the day, I was conflicted about trying to make her sleep in her bed (which her naps would only last about 20 mins, max) or if I should work on establishing more set "nap times" for the morning or the afternoon, since it seemed like she might be getting more regular.  Ultimately neither got solidified, especially with me returning to work, but at least she began to stay asleep at night.  And then right around the time she turned three months old, she started sleeping through six or seven hours, before waking! It's been incredible.

I wanted to be sure I made a note about gunk.  When Cordelia was a few days old, my mom commented on the amazing amount of gunk that can gets into a baby's skin folds.  This is true: you will be amazed.  Cordelia's neck was the primary gunk zone, as it was quite inaccessible. Milk, spit up, drool, sweat, all of that collects in the hidden valley's of the neck.  Also we would find a stray cat hair or bits of lint.  EW!   Cordelia's neck folds were always moist and red, and a thin layer of yellowish crud.  Eventually the crust would get kinds dry or just think enough and it would flake off or be enough to rub off.  Also, it REEKED  I was worried she had yeast growing in there, but the doctor did not think it was yeast at her 2 month appointment when I asked him about it.        He did not give me any advice that resolved it; I think it was a pointless battle.  But we tried putting some cornstarch in the folds to dry it out.  A mom at school suggested Aquaphor, which maybe did a bit more for the redness than the cornstarch.  I did a bunch of googling and found a really entertaining blog post someone had written about stinky baby neck cheese, comparing it to all kinds of fine fromage.  I really enjoyed it, wish I still had the link.  The other place Cordelia gets gunk is behind her ears. For some reason, the folds of her ears get a little oozy it seems, and then it dries into a fine layer of crust.  The only thing that has really helped the battle against gunk is Cordelia gaining more neck support.  Around when she reached 11/12 weeks old, she started getting more of a neck.  This still has not put an end to the neck cheese, but at least we are seeing more improvement.