Milestones

Three months in, we're starting to hit some major milestones. Like rolling over. That happened on Saturday.

I really want to get back into blogging, now that I would be a mommy blogger, because these are posts I'll really want to look back on in a few years to remember. I have a list of a few other posts I want to write to record some of the big stuff from the first three months, but for now I'll start at the present and work backwards later. I am pumping once every night after she's in bed, so I'm hoping to make that time my writing time.

Penelope only started arching her back in a rolling-over kind of way a week or so ago, and on Saturday morning I set her in her activity gym, and she started to do her 99% rolled over moves again. Paul and I had watched her for a while in her crib the evening before, and she'd get 99% of the way over -- I'm talking the entire bottom half of her body was over -- but her shoulder and arm would still be wedged beneath her, so she'd lay there with her face mushed into the bed for a while and fuss, and eventually flop back over onto her back. So while she was at in on the floor, I grabbed my camera to get a quick video of her early attempts at rolling over, and while I was filming, she suddenly succeeded! Luckily I was watching her and not the screen at the time, so I both got to witness her first really huge milestone with my own eyes, but I also got it on camera! So exciting. For me.

The funny thing about rolling over is, she doesn't like it at all. She fusses or actually cries pretty hard the entire time she's trying, and she's even more upset once she succeeds, because she hates being on her belly! After that first time, the next 2 times were in her crib, so then we had to go rescue her. The 4th time, earlier this evening, was only the 2nd time witnessed, because my mom wanted to see, so we watched her rutch around in her crib until she managed it. The shoulder and arm are still totally in the way, it's just that sometimes she relaxes a little bit while she's at the 99% point, and then suddenly the arm squirts out the side and she's the whole way on her belly. I say this with authority because I've studied that video like it's going out of style.

I don't know if it's to even out the extra fussiness during roll-over practice, but the past few days have also seen a sharp increase in her expressions of happiness. She now regularly gives us big, gummy grins, excited kicking and arm-waving, and the most heart-stoppingly adorable shreiks and squeals of joy. She's cooing and making all kinds of other sounds more than ever too. Like many babies, evenings are typically a more neutral-to-fussy time, but this Sunday evening, we spent two hours with our little family of three snuggling on the couch and having a long, happy, interactive conversation and play time with Penelope. It was quite possibly the most lovely Sunday evening I've ever had. It capped off a pretty perfect weekend: Friday afternoon I finished up my work day at home while my sister played with PJ on the couch behind me; Friday night was dinner with Paul's family for his sister's birthday; Saturday evening we had Cinco de Mayo fajitas at my parents' house, followed up by some delicious Hans Frozen Custard; and Sunday evening was even more delightful than I've managed to describe it.

She's also getting better and better at reaching and grabbing, as evidenced by my listening to "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" on repeat just about every time she's hanging out in her bouncy seat now. I am pretty sure she's starting to aim for that orange handle on purpose and make the connection to the music that keeps playing. She seems so happy with herself when she gets it. Tonight while I was baking cookies, I sang along every time it played, which I think she loved even more. Seriously, who knew these parts of being a mom would be my favorite? I knew I wanted to be a mom, but I didn't have any clue just how awesome it would be.

As of today, Paul's done with school for the summer, which means I start going to work full days four days a week, which means keeping up with pumping is going to get harder. So we'll see how that's going this time next week, since with two full and two half days in the office per week I was netting maybe 100 mL more than she was eating in a week. I think I'm going to finally shell out the $15 to try a different nursing support herbal supplement the LLL ladies recommended. Here's hoping!