Whew, lots to report on this time. Since my last post we've had several new developmental milestones, a checkup, and a holiday:
This is how we roll Daniel rolled tummy to back for the first time on Halloween, then a little more than a week later he learned how to roll from his back to his tummy. We haven't captured that on video yet but he loves to show his new skills off on his activity mat, in his crib, and even when we're trying to change his diaper. We always put him to bed on his back, and sometimes he stays there, but we'll often come in to get him and find him on his tummy. Our pediatrician says not to worry, now that he's strong enough to roll over he's not at risk of suffocating if he sleeps on his tummy. And as she points out, now that he can roll over if he wants to sleep on his tummy, short of going in and turning him over again every time there's not much we can do about it.
In a less exciting but equally happy development, Daniel, who has always been a good night sleeper, can now add champion napper to his resume. Before he would nap unpredictably and too little, but the last few weeks he's generally good for an hourlong morning nap and 90 minute-2 hour afternoon nap. Two big changes helped us get there: him learning to fall asleep unassisted, and the installation of light-blocking shades in his bedroom. Not sure how much credit should go to each one, but the combined effect is that we can put him down drowsy and even if he cries a little first, he'll get himself to sleep. I think that keeping the room dark enables him to fall asleep more quickly and also to fall back asleep more easily when he wakes.
Here are the shades:
And here is his 4 month picture:
Checkup Daniel had his 4-month checkup on the 19th. He's developing quite well and really growing. He's up to 13 lb 10 oz, 25.5" long, 16.25" head circumference. He got 2 shots, his first DTaP and his second Hib. He cried during the shots but was quickly calm and didn't seem to have any trouble afterwards. Our next checkup is in January, when he'll be 6 months old.
Our first Thanksgiving For Daniel's first Thanksgiving we visited my side of the family at the ranch in south Texas. Daniel handled the long drive and sleeping away from home surprisingly well. He was able to stay more or less on his normal sleep schedule-in fact, last night he slept 11 hours straight. Which was great, except we were counting on getting on the road as soon as he was up to miss the traffic. Fortunately we all get a little more rest and still missed most of the traffic! He loved spending time with my parents, aka Mimi and Grandpa, as well as my brother, his great-grandparents, and some other famil members.
Here's a picture of him with his great-grandfather and namesake. I'm so glad he and my grandmother got to see and hold him. He's their first great-grandbaby!
We also enjoyed a visit from my cousin Chris, his wife Lisa, their daughter Caitlin, who's exactly one month older than Daniel, and Chris's mom my cousin Robin. Here's a picture of Daniel and his cute cousin:
This weekend was a big one in our house: my birthday, Daniel's Baptism, and my parents' visit for both of those occasions. This year as I rang in my 32nd birthday I thought back to last year and my most memorable birthday ever. I posted awhile back about it, so I won't repeat the details here, but November 6, 2009 was the day I learned I would be a mom, and that the coming year would be unlike any of the 31 that preceded it. While there was no excitement to match that on this birthday I did enjoy celebrating my first birthday as a mom. A particularly special moment was when Kevin was hanging up new light-blocking drapes in Daniel's room (which have already translated to better napping!) and Daniel and I were there to "supervise." Daniel was lying on the floor smiling and kicking up a storm. I started singing the nursery rhyme:
"There were 3 in the bed and the little one said 'Roll over, roll over!' So they all rolled over and 1 fell out, there were 2 in the bed and the little one said..."
Yeah, it's pretty monotonous, but Daniel loved it, especially with the movements I added in. He laughed and laughed, so I started over, this time with 10 in the bed. I had seen him laugh a little before but Kevin had been telling me Daniel really laughs a lot during the day, so it was fun to get to see that in person. Nice little birthday treat.
My parents got in Saturday afternoon and while I nursed Daniel to sleep and my dad prepared for a business trip this week, Kevin and my mom prepared a delicious birthday dinner for us. We enjoyed cheese fondue, steak, roasted carrots, and zucchini boats, and to wash it all down, a bottle of Williamson wine from a small vineyard in Napa Valley. We stopped into their wine tasting room in Yountville on our Cali trip last year because of the name but were so impressed with the wine that we ordered a case of it. We only drink it on special occasions, and we thought my birthday, the Baptism of our son and godson Alejandro, and my parents' visit combined to make a wine-worthy occasion.
Then Sunday morning came and the time change along with it. In my pre-parent life I eagerly looked forward to "fallback Sunday" as a chance to sleep in. Thing is, it seems that babies don't get the memo about how they too should sleep in a little longer. D was up bright and early at 6:45 Sunday morning, which meant even though we didn't need to be at church till 10:45, I was up for the day once he was. And then he woke up last night at 1:15 for a feeding, which he hasn't done in weeks. But hopefully another day or so will get us back on schedule.
But back to Sunday. He didn't really get a nap in before we went to church so I worried he would get fussy during the service. And I decided we would wait till we got there to change him into his Baptism outfit just before the service to make sure it wouldn't get spit up on or anything like that. As it turned out, fussiness was the least of my problems and the spare outfit was a good plan!
We always bring a bottle of milk for Daniel to eat during the sermon so that we can keep him quiet during the longest quiet stretch of the service. We decided to err on the side of caution (we thought) this time so we filled most of a 7oz bottle to make sure we'd have enough. He got a little fussy so we kept feeding him through the sermon and he ate most of the bottle. As I could tell the sermon was starting to wrap up, I was holding Daniel and he was standing up in my lap.
And then it happened. I heard a big bubbly BM. At first I thought, ah well, I guess he got his noisy BM of the morning out of the way, then I realized, I felt that. I looked down to find that we had a massive diaper blowout situation that had overflowed the diaper's capacity and gotten on his Baptism suit (which my brother wore at his Baptism 29 years ago), his crocheted booties, and my dress.
Remarkably, I kept my cool, wiped up with a burp cloth, and carried Daniel out into the hallway, Kevin following behind with the diaper bag. While I ran to the bathroom to clean up, Kevin changed Daniel into a clean diaper and the knit onesie he was in before the service. The suit jacket was unsullied so we put it on over the onesie. Funny thing is my mom had insisted that Daniel had to wear shoes or it would look tacky...here we were moments before the big event and I was just thankful I had a spare diaper and a white onesie to put him in! The Baptism itself went fine but I couldn't help but think it could have been quite the spectacle if he had had his accident 5 minutes later.
In other, cleaner, news, Daniel can now roll over from his tummy to his back! He did it for the first time last Sunday afternoon after we got back from Austin, and with Kevin and me both watching. Since then he's done it about once a day or so. He can't do it every time he wants to but he's getting better at it. I was glad it happened when both of us were there to watch, and even more glad when Kevin was able to capture it on video when he repeated the trick the next day:
So all in all it's been a busy, somewhat messy, but always entertaining few weeks for us :)
