3 months

So this is a bit late, since she's actually now 3 months and 1.5 weeks, but the Gabster has made it to 3 months!  That's a personal best for Brian and me!

3 months old on a plane!

Warning:  this is a block of text.  The pictures are at the end of the blog, and if you want to there, I won't blame you!

She's picked up some new skills in the past month.  She has definitely discovered her hands, and can entertain herself for 15 minutes just studying them, turning them over and clutching and unclutching them.  She loves to grab onto her knees and other objects and looking at how her hands appear when they're holding onto things.  She now regularly grabs onto her Wubbanub (a stuffed animal attached to her pacifier) and tosses it around (which makes her mad, since she rips it out of her mouth to toss it!).  She's so close to grabbing onto other objects, but still doesn't quite have the skills to grab at what she aims for.  She swings her hands towards objects, but mostly she ends up grabbing my hands.  She is starting to be more interested in toys (even if she can't grab them), and will study them while I hold them in front of her.  She still loves the TV, and has now carried that love to the remote control.  She spends a good amount of time studying the buttons and trying to grab it.  She's so funny when she's really intent on something--she really wants to get her mouth on it, but hasn't figured out that she can use her hands to get it there, so she just opens her mouth really wide and hopes I put the toy in.  It's like watching a baby bird!  She's certainly very good at getting her hands into her mouth, and when she starts grabbing objects, I'm sure they'll follow.

She's also a drooling machine now, and we just keep a bib on her at all times so we can at least keep her onesie from getting soaked.  I keep looking at her gums to make sure she's not cutting a tooth, especially since our friend's little girl cut her first one at 2 months!  So far no teeth!  I can see where they're going to come in though, which is scary enough for now!

I've also finally gotten her on a schedule.  For the first 2 months, I was basically letting her run the show.  Then I found a blog online (Bloggin' About Babies) that gave some loose guidelines for nap times.  It basically says that children Gabby's age can really only stay awake for 1.5 hours at a stretch before needing a nap.  I started to pay more attention to her crankiness, and realized that Gabby was following that pattern almost exactly.  Anywhere from 1 hour 20 min and 1.5 hours, she would start fussing a lot, and nothing I did would get her to calm down.  So now, when she starts fussing, I swaddle her, put in a paci, and rock and bounce her for a few minutes before putting her in her Pack N Play for a nap.  She's so much happier now, and so am I!  It's easier to plan my day when I know about when she's going to go down for a nap.  So just for my future reference when I'm reading this when she graduates high school (hi me!) here's her schedule:

7:00ish wake up, eats and plays
8:30ish back down for a half an hour nap.  Sometimes this happens in the stroller while mommy walks
9:00ish up again, eats and plays
10:30ish morning nap, this time 45 minutes-1.5 hours
1:00ish up again, eats and plays
2:30ish afternoon nap, again 45 minutes-1.5 hours
3:30ish up again, eats and plays
4:30ish sometimes does down for another nap.  She may not if she's slept a lot on the first stretches.
6:30ish witching hour.  Poor Brian; he only gets happy Gabby on the weekends.
7:30ish bedtime
*Note:  This only works when we're at home.  If we're staying somewhere else, it all breaks down!

This will all get adjusted as she gets older and stays up for longer periods of time (and hopefully drops those first and last naps).  I also will say that I have to keep an eye on her at the 40-50 minute mark of her nap.  If I don't put her paci back in around that time, she wakes up for good.  Basically, that's about the length of her sleep cycle, and she's still having some problems transitioning from one cycle to another during the day.  At night, she's all good.

Speaking of nights, she's starting to sleep in some fairly long stretches.  Her first stretch is usually 6-7 hours, and then she gives me either another 6 hour stretch, or two 3 hour stretches.  This weekend, we were in San Francisco overnight for the wedding of 2 of our dear friends (congrats, Robbie and Judy!), and she slept from 9:30-7:30, and only got up then because I thought my boobs were going to explode so I woke her up!  Her Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Joe were watching her while we were at the wedding, and fed her at 7:00 (like I do) and then again at 9:30 (because she woke up hungry), and she stayed asleep all night after that second feeding.  This was what I was trying to accomplish with the "dream feeds" I tried a few weeks ago, but it never really worked out.  Now that she's older, I think I'll try those again!  Brian wondered if maybe she doesn't get enough at the 7:00 feeding (she does usually zonk out on the boob, and my supply is lower at night than in the morning), and the top off fills her up enough to keep her asleep.  I fed her last night before I went to bed at 9:45 (it was a late night Saturday!), and had to get up at 3:30 to give her a paci, but she didn't want to be fed until 5:30.  I really hope this keeps up!

OK, so now the fun part of the post.  We spent the time over Mothers Day weekend visiting my family in St Louis, and we had such a good time!  Gabby was actually pretty good on the 4 (!) planes.  She got cranky around when she was supposed to be sleeping, but we were able to keep her pretty quiet otherwise.  I think the other people on the plane really appreciated how quiet she is--some poor 20-something guy sat next to us on 1 leg, and after we landed he said that she was a really good baby and how lucky we were.  Her crankiest leg we fortunately had a great grandmother next to us who was very understanding.  Frontier was a great airline--the flight attendants were very nice, we got family boarding, and there were changing tables in the bathrooms.  Overall, it was a much better experience flying with her than we thought it would be.

And now for pictures from our trip:

There's a buffalo ranch near my parents' house, and we took a tour while there.  Here are Gabby and I in the mule.  She slept through the entire tour!

The owner actually took us in the pasture with the buffalo.  Fortunately, they didn't seem too bothered by us.  And yes, that's a cow on the left.  She apparently wandered in one day and never left.

The llamas that apparently will kick coyotes if they come in.  Basically, a living security system.

We also got to visit with my college friends Stephanie and Lisa.  Here's Stephanie with Gabby.

This is Lia, Lisa's daughter, who is 17 months.  She's the spitting image of her daddy, Derek.

Stephanie, Lia, Lisa, Gabby and me.

Grandpa Pechenino and Gabby enjoying a moment.

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Stoehr.  I left out the ones with the dog in them.

4 generations of Dempsey/Stoehr/Pechenino/Romo women!

Second cousins!  Matt and Gabby.

With Great Grandma Pechenino

4 generations on the Pechenino side too (plus Josie).

And without Josie.

We had a great time talking all day.

Gabby heading for a nap on Grandma Pechenino.

"I'm shocked!"

Laughing at Mommy's tongue.

Saying hi to Daddy.

I still have no news on the teaching job front, but have started my University of Phoenix class again, so at least I have something to do!  I've also apparently cleared another hurdle with them, and I am starting 1 class before another one is done.  That'll definitely be a new challenge, but I'm looking forward to it! 

So congratulations to our newly weds Robbie and Judy, thanks to Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Joe for flying up, and to Grandma and Grandpa Romo for watching cousins Audrey and Olivia this weekend so we could have fun at the wedding.  The wedding was beautiful, and we love the bride and groom :)

And tomorrow is our second wedding anniversary :)