Jillian,

You are three months old now, baby girl.  With your brother, the three month mark held so much weight in my heart.  It was when I needed to return to my full-time job.  It was the day I placed my baby in the arms of his daycare provider and cried the ugliest of tears.  It was one of the hardest days of my life.  Putting you in the three month onesie brought back all those memories.  And reminded me how drastically our lives have changed in those two years.  And most importantly, how thankful I am to be staying at home with you through this milestone.

This month brought some fun firsts for you.  Your first flight [to Chicago].  Your first train ride [to Minneapolis].  Your first Christmas.  Your first time meeting your aunt & uncles.  Your first time meeting your great-grandparents.  And, in your sweet way, you smiled through it all… even though somewhere along the way you came down with your first cough [that ‘first’ wasn’t as much fun as the rest].

This month has been more difficult than the last two though.  We discovered that you will NOT take a bottle.  And are fiercely upset about the fact that we’d even consider such a thing.  While I’m thankful there’s no daycare deadline looming to complicate this bottle refusal even more, it still brings quite a bit of worry.  One evening I left you with a full stomach, to run a quick errand, and returned home one hour later to find you inconsolable and refusing the bottle your Dad lovingly prepared for you [which you shouldn’t have even needed during such a short outing!]  It gives me a bit of anxiety.  What if something comes up and I have to be away more than 3 hours?  But we’ll get through this together, baby girl.  I know it’s just a phase.  [Also, thank you to everyone who gave various bottle tips on my facebook page– we’re trying a few suggestions this week and it’s looking good so far!]

Just two days before you turned three months, we moved you into your new big girl crib.  It was the first night in your entire existence that you didn’t sleep beside my bed.  You were sleeping sweetly next to your big brother instead, in the room that the two of you now share.  But, for some reason it felt like I’d just sent you off to college.  I felt the absence even though you were just one door away.  [well… until the wee hours of the morning, when I brought you back in our bedroom for fear of waking your brother…]  How could someone I didn’t even know a few months ago, have taken up such a firm residence in my heart?  I’m so thankful for you, Jilly Bean.

Love, Momma

 

This year, I’m joining a few photographers in a blog circle where we share monthly letters to our children.  If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out Cicely’s letter to her children!

 

Read more about Jillian’s first year:  her birth  I  one month  I  two months

I used these same onesies to document Colin’s first year.  This blog launched midway through, so you can check out those posts here:  eight months  I  nine months  I  ten months  I  eleven months  I one year