I can’t believe as I sit here writing this that my gorgeous little Arthur is 3 months old. Wow, time has gone quickly. It feels like just yesterday we were putting him in his car seat for the first time and taking him home from hospital. He’s definitely not my squishy little newborn anymore, so I thought I’d have a quick chat and update you all on his 3 month old baby milestones. Remember: it’s natural to want to compare your baby to other babies, but they all develop at different rates and hit milestones at different times. Whilst knowing what milestones to expect can be helpful, please do not directly compare your baby to another. If you are ever in doubt about your baby’s development, please call your health visitor who will be able to properly advise and provide support. It’s also important to remember that we all have different favourite milestones!
Arthur was born at 7 pounds 1 ounce, so just a little below average on the 25th percentile. This was to be expected, though, as I was induced early. Instead of then dropping his birth weight, he showed us he was a greedy little boy and after a few weeks he had quickly jumped up to the 75th percentile! This was so lovely, as we didn’t need to have any concerns about his weight or growth, and it’s been so great having a cute chubby little baby! His most recent weigh in was 14lbs exactly – I can’t believe he now weighs a stone!? He also started wearing his 3-6 month clothes at around 2 months old, and we’re already wearing some 6-9 month clothes too… we’ve got a big boy on our hands!
We’ve been so lucky with Arthur since very early on. Apart from that tricky first week or two, where he only slept whilst being held and cuddled (more on that in the ‘Your baby will learn to sleep on their back!’ section in my Advice for New Mums: Surviving the Early Newborn Days), Arthur has graced us with sleeping brilliantly in his own bed. From about 2-9 weeks old he would sleep from late evening, to around 2 or 3am, when he would wake for a feed. He would then go back down until 7-8am. We were getting about two lots of 3-4 hour sleeps, so we couldn’t complain!
More recently, from about 9 or 10 weeks old, he’s completely dropped his night feed and started sleeping through! He goes down around 9pm and sleeps until about 7am. Although – he does stir around 4-5am, where he sometimes wants to come into bed with me for a cuddle for the remainder of his sleep. It’s been really nice having him go down at such a reasonable time, as it gives Taylor and I an hour or two once he’s gone to bed to catch up on housework, shower, do some work on our laptops etc. Where we’re having such good sleeps, we’re both waking up MUCH more refreshed, which is lovely. We always play white noise during his sleeps – he loves it!
Breastfeeding wasn’t successful for us, and Arthur has been entirely formula fed since Day 3 of his life. Arthur went from being a very greedy baby feeding 8-10 times a day (which was CHAOS on the bottle washing front!) to settling down to 5 feeds a day, roughly at the same time he started sleeping through. He now has 6oz bottles, 5 times a day, at roughly 3 hour intervals throughout the day.
I guess one of the big 3 month old baby milestones is probably tummy time and head control. Arthur was always pretty impressive with his head control (although I bet all new parents say that!). Obviously, we had to support his head and neck when he was first born, but within a week or two he was already trying to hold it up on his own. I probably haven’t been quite as strict with routine tummy time as I should be, but he’s somehow still manage to fully master his head control – we don’t have to support his head/neck whatsoever and he can completely hold it up on his own. It bobs around like a pigeon a bit if he’s getting his balance but the fact he holds it on his own is pretty darn impressive if you ask me!
Movement wise – he hasn’t yet mastered rolling. In fact, I don’t think I’ve even seen him even attempting it, yet. Not sure when that’s meant to happen, but I’m sure I’ll update you over on Insta when he makes that first move!
I know I keep saying this but I really do believe we got extremely lucky with Arthur. He’s fully mastered the art of smiling and doesn’t really stop smiling if he’s awake. He’s so happy to be spoken to, and will make the cutest little coos and gurgles back at you in conversation. His little face lights up when he first sees Daddy’s face when he’s home from work at evening, and then spends a good twenty minutes smiling and glued to him – it’s probably one of the parts of the day I look forward to the most as it breaks my heart (in the best way possible!) every day.
We’re also very lucky in that Arthur isn’t really a crier. He gives really strong feeding cues (most of the time!) so we rarely get to the point of hungry tears. His nappy never seems to bother him either, so he never cries for a bum change (but then again, I change his nappy probably far too often). The only tears we do get are sleepy/ bedtime tears – he’ll let us know when he’s ready to go upstairs and begin his bedtime routine by having a little wobble, or when he sleepy and needs comforting in the daytime for his nap.
Want to know what it’s like to stay in a hotel for the first time with a 3 month old baby? You can read all about my birthday weekend away with Arthur’s first hotel stay here – I think that was probably our most impressive 3 month old baby milestone!