Let's be honest....Adelaide is going to get the shaft when it comes to monthly blog posts about her growth, she's not going to have photographs of every day of her life (at least for the first year) like Zara, and she's certainly not going to get lots of brand news clothes when her sister's hand-me-downs will serve her just fine. Life is tough for child #2.
That does not mean, however, that Adelaide is any less adored by all of us. She is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise difficult time in our lives. I want to jot down just a few things about her at 3.5 months so I don't forget.
Nicknames
Adelaide is quite a mouthful and we often get asked if we use a nickname for her. The short answer is no. The long answer is yes, but it varies.
David feels strongly that if Adelaide wants to shorten her name to any one of the many options available to her, that is her choice but we will not chose it for her. David absolutely detests the fact that even though his name is David and he always introduces himself as such, the majority of people who meet him automatically shorten it to Dave. (I did too when we first met.) He really wants to avoid that for our children. Adelaide is her name and Adelaide is what she shall be called until she informs us otherwise.
Personally, I call her lots of things. All parents have nicknames for their children...it's just the natural order of things. Some of them play off her name and some of them have absolutely no relation to her given name at all. The two most common names I call her are Lady Adelaide of the Cheeks and Smiles. The first because she has the most awesome cheeks in the world and the second because she loves to smile and show off her dimples.
I love the name Adelaide but I also love that it has such a large number of possible nicknames available to chose from including: Addie, Ada, Adele, Della, and Laidy. My favorite of the bunch is Laidy and I secretly sometimes call her that (when no one else is around). Laidy Malone sounds very regal. (Adelaide does mean noble after all.) My least favorite is Addie and I would just a tad disappointed if that was her preferred name. But I do believe it's her choice to decide what she prefers. I did the same, when I changed my name from Amanda to Lizzie in 4th grade and again when I shortened Lizzie to Liz in 9th grade. And for the record, I have never been called Elizabeth.
Stats
Adelaide was an above-average baby at birth (in terms of weight and length) and she has continued to top the charts as she has aged. The last few times I have weighed her, she has measured between 16 and 17 pounds and about 25-26ish inches.
Disposition
I find Adelaide to be a relatively happy and easy going baby as long as she is properly feed, diapered and burped. She smiles all the time now and we've even managed to elicit a few adorable giggles out of her. (Zara is often the most effective at making her laugh.) She is also surprisingly tolerant of her big sister and cousins' almost incessant need to touch her, poke her, or pinch her cheeks. She rarely cries without reason and often calms down quickly if soothed.
She started to spit up a lot (both in frequency and volume) around week 4-5 and all attempts to discover the root of the troubles were in vain, including my pathetic attempt to eschew dairy. I was beside myself with concern over her constant reflux and it magically seemed to resolve itself during our 4 day cross country drive from Utah to Virginia. I don't know if she really was allergic to Utah or sitting more upright in her carseat for so long helped alleviate her problems but since moving to Virginia 5 weeks ago, she has only had 2 larger-than-average spit ups. It helps to burp her and keep her upright for a little bit after feeding.
Sleep
Sleep issues are the bane of my parenting existence. Zara was the model sleeper until everything went to hell at 4 months and I live in constant terror that Adelaide will wake up one day and decide that sleeping with any sort of regularity is for sissies and putting her down to sleep will not be tolerated. So far, she's a decent sleeper. She cat naps a lot during the day and often falls asleep while nursing and will stay asleep if held. Despite my love of cuddling sleeping babies (seriously, I think the key to world peace has something to do with snuggling sleeping babies), I often have to put her down to attend to her sister or take care of other things around the house. She will occasionally stay asleep, but more often than not, she'll wake up within 15-30 minutes. Depending on what I'm doing, I will wear her in the baby carrier and she will always conk out and sleep in that as long as I keep wearing it.
I do love wearing her and letting her sleep on me, but I also fear having her develop such a need to be held that she won't sleep on her own. By 4 months, Zara would not sleep anywhere but on me for any nap and refused to sleep in a crib so we co-slept for about a year. I don't mind co-sleeping at night, but having to wear and/or hold Zara for all her naps was very hard on me after a few months. I feel a bit selfish saying it, but I force myself to put Adelaide down so that she will eventually learn how to continue to sleep on her own.
She is, however, an excellent nighttime sleeper (knock on wood) and will often fall asleep all on her own. (A skill Zara never developed until much, much later.) I'll often nurse her around 9-9:30pm, wrap her up like a little baby burrito and put her down in her pack n' play still awake. She'll inevitably wrest her arms free after a few minutes of struggling and will munch on her fingers and occasionally whimper just a little bit until she falls asleep, often within 15-20 minutes, and will stay asleep for several hours. Since Zara never did this, I find this behavior in Adelaide to be the mark of angels and worthy of endless praise and adulation. I don't care that other babies have been doing this for centuries....mine is a blessed baby. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that month 4 doesn't unleash the furies of hell like it did with Zara.
Other Observances
Adelaide hates tummy time, but has excellent head control and strong legs. She's great at standing on her own with very little support and assistance.She will often roll from her back to one side or the other. She hasn't attempted to roll from her back to her belly or vice versa. [Update: As of 9/12, Adelaide can roll from her tummy to her back.]
She has entered the oral fixation stage of life and loves to put her fingers or her blanket in her mouth. She has started to drool more (as a result of munching on more) and sometimes acts irritable like she might be teething, but I think she's still got a ways to go until then. She is also quite taken with sucking her thumb, which I have many mixed emotions about.
When she gets excited, she'll start pumping her legs and flapping her arms with a huge grin on her face.
Unless pinned down, she will not allow any blanket to continue covering her for any amount of time.
She also moves around a bunch. She is never exactly where I left her.
She's almost outgrown her 3-6 months clothes, which she has been wearing since she was 6 weeks old.
By this age, it was apparent that Zara's hair had a bit of a curl to it. Adelaide's foretells no such future and is lighter than Zara's was. I think Adelaide's might continue to lighten, so that it's a nice honey blonde or even strawberry blonde.
All in all, we love our Adelaide and couldn't imagine these last 3 months without her. Here's hoping I'll update again before another 3 months have passed. Of course, we need some obligatory pictures:
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