Christina at three months old

Today baby Christina is three months old. Time seems to be flying!

Christina at three months:

• She loves to be held.
• She loves to be touched---I know all babies do,  but she seems to especially like and respond to touch. She seems to like her hands, head and face touched. She loves when I use a cradle cap brush on her head (And her cradle cap is ferocious! Any tips on getting that controlled are welcome!)
• She enjoys bath time and usually will wake up during her baths.
• She responds and calms down to my (loud) voice.
• She prefers me over other people.
• Shes loves to be in her Babybjorn.
• She still hates sunshine, it is painful for her eyes.
• She still loves to be tightly swaddled. I have learned how to swaddle quite well. (I never learned with James because he hated being swaddled literally from day one.)
• She does wonderfully on outings and enjoys being in the car.
• She doesn’t seem to mind all of James’ kisses and hugs and touching (I think she would cry if she did). It's likely good stimulation for her.
• Her crying frequency is increasing (which in her case is a good thing). Before she hardly ever cried but now she shows some desires or discomforts and expresses it through crying. She generally cries because she wants to be held. She rarely cries over hunger. As long as she is held she would just happily hang out like that forever and is fine to never eat.
• She doesn’t coo or socially smile or look at you. Sometimes when she is sleeping she will smile and actually laugh and her body will shake like she is laughing, but she’s never smiled or laughed awake.
• She prefers breast milk and nursing over bottles and formula (big surprise, not) but due to her lack of weight gain, I cannot breastfeed her for nutrition and pumping is ineffective at this point. Sorry la leche league.
• Her right eye is still a mess. Her cornea is scratched and is having difficulty healing because she’s unable to close her eyes which causes dryness and leads to abrasions.
• She hasn’t gained any weight in two weeks. She only weighs 7 lbs, 10 oz. and is 21.5 in. long. Her lack of weight gain is due to a number of possible factors. She will not eat an increase in volume (she’ll clench her jaw or just sit there with the nipple in her mouth and not suck) so we increase the caloric value for the same volume, which she’s not fond of either. Also, due to her trisomy, her metabolic rate is such that she is just small, but no growth is still worrisome even with that perspective. Lastly, it is likely that her brain just doesn’t work right, meaning she doesn’t know how to grow, she doesn’t recognize hunger, nor care about eating to facilitate growth. She has a poor suck-swallow reflex. A feeding tube may still be in her future, but for her and our family, we want that to be a last resort measure.
• Her nicknames are: baby, sister, baby sister, sissy, baby Christina, Tia (Brian hates Tia though), sissy Christina, and other similar variations!
• Her skin is so soft and the top of her head smells so yummy. I love her milk breath and love to give her kisses.
• She seems happy and content and she is very loved.