At one point on Christmas Eve, she got very fussy. She wanted to be able to look around but didn't want to have to work at holding herself up. I tried to have her use the Boppy to sit on the couch, but she kept wiggling and kicking, so she would slide unless she had something to press against. I then tried putting her Boppy into her wagon. It wedged her in enough that she could stay mostly seated without any effort from her but she also could have her legs free to kick. She ended up taking a supervised nap in it.
She impressed everyone after we all had dinner. She got hers once we were all done. My dad was holding her after he finished feeding her and she let out a burp loud enough that she interrupted everyone. We all congratulated her on her big burp.
She has started needed a "smile break" when she is eating sometimes. She will look up at you and smile, then she goes back to eating. When she is nursing and needs to take a smile break she will pull herself off and then need to find it again.
During Christmas dinner she kept eyeing everyone's plate. She kept smiling and moving her mouth like she was chewing while we were eating. Bill let her smell his wine and she tried to taste the glass. She got really smiley and leaned in intensely when we got to dessert and she saw Bill's pumpkin pie.
After dinner we played a fun game where we would put a cloth coaster in front of her on the table. She then would claw at the table, kick, and try and pounce on it until it got knocked down. Then we either picked that one up or put a new one down for her.
She has definitely left the innocent stoneground mustard poops stage and have moved on to the more stinky ones. They are also a lot smoother in consistency.
She definitely enjoys having more people around. She also likes to go places and look around. All that means she gets more attention, but it also means she doesn't want to nap. We can fix that with a bit of time on a boob or a trip in the car.
Week 18:
She has a bad case of the FOMOs (fear of missing out). She has to be able to see everyone when we are eating and doesn't like laying in her wagon unless she can see someone.
I attached a towel and a piece of a highchair belt to see how she would like getting pulled around on it. She kept grunting with frustration when she can't get herself to move on her own, so I figured I could help. She liked that a few times but then got grumpy. It's possibly because I wasn't taking her in the directions she wanted to go in.
One of the nights we all stayed up late playing a game. Mary helped to get her to sleep but then she woke up when we were finally done and I went to put her in her bassinet. She somehow stayed asleep going out in the cold. It didn't take too long before she was out again.
On New Year's Eve she really liked trying to stand "on her own." She is getting good at keeping her feet flat and her legs straight. Balance is nowhere near where it needs to be to hold herself up. She also liked bracing her butt on the table while putting her feet on someone's legs and trying to stand that way.
When we got home from the cabin and I laid her down on her playmat, she showed the "other baby" how to blow raspberries.
She has become more interested in her hands and feet. She will hold her left hand perpendicular to her face and cross her eyes to look at it. She has also started wiggling her toes when looking at them and grabbing at her toes to feel them.
After her 4 month appointment on the 3rd we were in the basement when she wanted to be held against me on her tummy. She then leaned over, put her mouth on my arm and blew raspberries against my arm. I know Bill has tried to do that on her tummy a few times. She smiled really big when I laughed at her and she did it a few more times.
Week 19:
She is making use of the knowledge that if she holds both of her hands together when she rolls onto her tummy that she won't have one trapped under her. She will also sometimes fling an arm to the side if she wants to roll back onto her back. A few times I've seen her roll onto her stomach, reach for a toy, and drag it back towards herself.
I saw her trying to use blowing raspberries to self sooth. It was pretty funny to watch her go "Ahh *pbbt* aaahhh *pbbt* aah".
We took her to Bourbon Boulevard to meet Karin. I'm glad she was awake for that. She was a big hit with all the employees we saw. She helped me pick out what to eat by grabbing at and hitting the menu. It was hard to tell if she picked the duck or the steak with lobster tail. I went with the duck breast.
She is very regularly grabbing and holding onto her own toes. She is also getting better at sitting but still can't support herself. She will lean forward and will sometimes hold herself up with one hand, but will lean too far forward when she wants to use that hand and will complain. She is really good at using her legs to stand. She has no balance, but is strong enough to hold herself up.
Her poop is starting to become thicker. Her doctor told us that we should be seeing her poops condense and happen less frequently.
On Tuesday she started to figure out that she can roll places. I put her on her play mat with her legs facing the center of the room. I went and made a bottle for her and started my lunch. While mine cooked I took her bottle upstairs to see if she was still hungry. She had rotated 90° and was on her stomach. That's fairly normal now. While putting my drink and her bottle down on the side table she proceeded to roll a few more times in the same direction and was over 2 feet from where she started. I heard her crinkling the bag to my pretzels.
She still hasn't figured out crawling, but she is getting better at getting around on her own. She will roll and rotate to get to a toy, or most of the time roll and rotate until she stumbles upon a toy.
She will sometimes give us a shy smile. She will smile and then look away while still smiling. Starting to practice early to break all those hearts in the future.
Her raspberries have been getting juicy. She sometimes has a mouth full of spit and it just all comes out when she blows her raspberries. She is also trying to combine them with her pterodactyl squeals.
Week 20:
She has decided that to fall asleep while nursing at night, it has to be on the left side. During the day it can be either side, but she gets fussy and refuses to eat before her last feeding of the night unless it's from the left side.
On Bill's birthday we all went to go watch Moana 2 in the theater. She was mesmerized by it at first, then she enjoyed watching us eat popcorn. After a bit she also got hungry so I mixed up a bottle. When it got to the really exciting part of the movie she pooped. That was fine until she used her diaper again and I felt a warm and wet spot. The theater doesn't have a place to change her, so I took her out into the hallway. After a quick diaper and outfit change she was hyper but then fell asleep once Bill was holding her again.
She is getting closer and closer to being able to sit all on her own. She is learning that if you put your hands on the ground and push back you won't just fold forward. It does, however, making reaching for things more difficult. She has sat on the floor by herself for several seconds multiple times now.
She's started adding longer strings of sounds when "talking" to us. She will tell us "a-hoo-who-hua-hoo" a few times a day.
I thought she had pushed her soft spot in while eating. She is now as tall as the chair is wide. I sat her up and her soft spot was visible, I ran my hand over her head and it felt dented on. I took her into our room to see what Bill thought, but by the time we got down the hallway her head had rounded itself out again.
Week 21:
As per usual, she charmed everyone at Rocky Horror. She slept through most of the movie, so she had plenty of energy to smile at everyone backstage and even talked with Mickey for a short while.
She goes between having days where she is good at napping and days where she doesn't want to nap at all. I try and give her at least one contact nap because I know she will be out for at least 45 minutes that way.
Rotating is getting easier for her. She is still unhappy that she can't crawl forward yet, but the rotating has been helping some.
She is back to really enjoying bath time. She has started kicking the water more and bracing herself with her feet on the end of the tub. She was fascinated when I had the shower head spray onto her hand.
She is getting more and more interested in food. She was watching my hand and opening her mouth when she was laying on my lap and I was eating some peanuts. She is also reaching for our plates and bowls more and trying to put them into her mouth.
It might have been a coincidence, but after I came back upstairs from making her a bottle she kept fiddling with the area near her hip. I've been trying to show her to tap her diaper when it needs to be changed. She did indeed have a full diaper.
She always gets a huge smile on her face when she sees Tank. She will look at him and kick to get his attention and show how happy she is to see him. He is unimpressed with her, but has sat on the arm of the chair when I've fed her and let her touch him a few times. He will also climb onto the Boppy when she is asleep so he can also get some lap time.
