Milestones

Today, Juliet rolled over all by herself.  She's been trying to roll over since she was about 2 weeks old, but today was the day she finally made it happen.  After her 7:00 am feeding, I put her on her tummy on our bed while I got dressed.  I turned around from the closet just in time to watch her roll over.  The look on her face was priceless.  At first, she looked surprised.  Then, she smiled and was clearly quite pleased with herself.

Juliet post-rollover

To be perfectly honest, I was quite pleased with her, too.  I grabbed my phone to take that post-roll picture and texted it to Ray.  I was (am) ridiculously proud of her for accomplishing this feat.  In reality, I understand that her ability to roll over isn't worthy of a legitimate trophy, but in a world of participation trophies... She deserves one! I'm sure Susie Morris would concede this point.

In addition to rolling over this morning, Juliet has had a few other milestones recently.  

She's begun really smiling in response to others smiling at her and talking to her.  It is so, so amazing to smile at her and have her smile back at you.  (To check that it's really smiling and not gas, I have smiled, gotten a response smile, stopped smiling, waited on her to stop, smiled again, and confirmed that she smiled again.  I'm not crazy, people.)  I think the only thing that comes close to feeling as good as that is watching her smile back at her dad.

Her eyesight is clearly developing, too, as she's starting to follow Ray and I as we move across the room.  She's actively watching us, which is so neat.  Before, she'd only look at us on accident, but now she'll watch us and turn her head to follow where we're going.  Last weekend, she was in her monkey bouncer, and we both left the room.  She started hollering, and when I walked back in the room, she stopped.  I realize this could be a dangerous habit to start.  I want her to be okay being in a room without us.  But, at the same time, it was pretty awesome to see that she's conscious of when we are with her and when we are not. 

And, of course, she celebrated her first two holidays.  Halloween wasn't too exciting for her since she's way too little to trick-or-treat.  And Ray talked me out of making her a costume, so we just put her in a Halloween onesie and a coordinating tutu I made for her.  We went to the annual Handley Halloween party at Jack and Ann's house and took pictures and just enjoyed some family time.  Thanksgiving was her second holiday, and that was kind of nice because she's starting to be awake more often, so she was able to interact with family more.  She got to meet her cousin Rachel for the first time on Friday out at my parents' house, and that was a pretty exciting moment for me.  I hope so much that Rachel will enjoy her as much as I have enjoyed Rachel over the past 19 years.  Before Juliet was born, Ray and I were discussing good role models for her.  Ray suggested then (and has reiterated this on more than one occasion since Juliet's birth) that the best we could hope for was for Juliet to be like Rachel.  Rachel is smart, funny, motivated, kind, responsible, well-behaved (without being a goody-two-shoes), and confident.  I feel very fortunate that Rachel intends to spend a lot of time with Juliet. 

As all of the stores have been rolling out their Christmas items, I've spent a ton of time thinking about how to make this Christmas special for an infant.  To be honest, I've pretty much drawn a blank.  The only things I've been able to come up with is to make her stocking and to continue a family tradition started by my maternal grandmother.  Each year, Mama Carol gave her daughters a Christmas ornament.  And each year since we've been born, my mom has given me and Patrick Christmas ornaments.   My favorites are the ornaments that somehow signify whatever was important in my life that year.  One of the neatest things about this tradition, in my opinion, is that when we were old enough to have our own Christmas trees, we've all had ornaments to remind us of home and our roots and enough ornaments so that we're not having to run out and buy a bunch.  Ray and I are going to pick a special ornament for Juliet in the next week or two.  I went in search a special stocking, but I couldn't find anything I liked.  So I decided that I would sew all three of us stockings because I need to practice sewing, right?  I went to Joann's today and found three coordinating Christmas fabrics that were not hideous, and I plan to try to get the stockings finished tomorrow.  Then, I'll take them to a local embroidery shop and have our names put on them.  But, until I can get the stockings finished and the tree up with her ornament on it, I've got to find a way to get Juliet in the Christmas spirit.  So, I've decided that it's close enough to Christmas for me to start dressing Juliet in Christmas-y attire.

She's still proud of herself for rolling over.  And I'm pretty sure she's also really excited to be wearing a Christmas onesie. ;)

We don't have another doctor's appointment for another three weeks, but I know Juliet's making serious strides in her weight gain.  The evidence is in how many clothes she's outgrown (and it's also in her chubby cheeks and thighs!).  I also think it's probably time to remove the extra cushion in her car seat since it's starting to squish her. 

I can't wait to get her stocking finished and hung, the tree up, and presents wrapped so that I can take many gratuitous pictures of her in front of it all!

 

Seven Weeks

Over the past week and a half, Juliet has tended towards excessive fussiness between the hours of 3:00 pm and 10:00 pm.  Thankfully, she is rarely fussy the entire seven-hour stretch, but the 7:00 pm feeding always seems to fall within whatever hours she's going to be fussy.

I should stop right here and explain what I mean by "fussy."  Instead of going down for her nap and staying down, she'll wake up frequently and cry.  No amount of time is enough for her to cry it out.  You can go in the nursery and put her pacifier back in her mouth, but that will only last a maximum of 15 minutes.  Then, she spits it back out and starts to cry again.  On bad days, she just cries the entire time, even if you hold her.   On the worst days, her crying is actually screaming and sometimes quite shrill.  And on these worst days, she will sometimes scream through her feeding.  It can be extremely frustrating because you know she needs to eat, but she is just so beside herself that she won't settle down and actually eat.  In a moment of sheer desperation early last week, I stood up and swung her from side to side (twisting at my waist) while trying to feed her.  It was the only thing I could do to get her to stop crying and eat.  I'm surprised she was able to eat like that and not throw up, but hey - whatever works.

This past Thursday, Ray and I worked out a tag-team gym schedule.  He went to the 5:00 pm class, and Juliet and I met him there in time for me to work out at 6:00.  He took Juliet home with him and was sure to leave in plenty of time to give her the 7:00 pm bottle.  She had been just a little bit fussy for her 4:00 o'clock feeding, but nothing major, so I didn't think about the possibility of Juliet being a challenge for Ray.  My mistake.

When I walked in our front door at 7:15, Juliet was screaming.  I winced and immediately felt sorry for Ray because I know how frustrating it is to feed her when she's like that.  I turned the corner into the living room, and my poor, sweet husband was sitting on the couch in his workout clothes with a bottle in one hand and Juliet in the other.  Over his ears was a set of Army-issued ear protection.  That's right.  He was wearing the same ear pro he wears on combat missions and on the shooting range.  It looks pretty much like this:

I somehow managed not to laugh and asked if he was okay.  He explained that she'd reached a pitch and volume that were such that he could feel his eardrums vibrating.  Ear protection was the only option at that point.  After a few minutes, I showed him my swing-and-feed technique, and we got her to finish most of the bottle.  It's days later, and I'm still unsure about that whole experience.  On one hand, I find it hilarious that our seven-week old daughter reduced my husband to wearing ear pro.  One the other hand, I'm really sort of disappointed that I didn't think of using it myself.  I so wish that I had gotten a picture of this scene.  I would have made it our Christmas card.


Here's proof, though, that they both made it through okay.  Saturday morning snuggle time with Dad.
                                     

Say Cheese!

Juliet has learned to smile a real smile (as opposed to smiling while passing gas).  At first, we weren't sure since she was smiling after her meals, which is prime time for gas.  However, I was changing her one afternoon, and I noticed that she was smiling like I was smiling at her - a different kind of smile than her usual one.  So, I stopped smiling and waited until she stopped.  I then smiled again at her, and she smiled back at me!  When Ray got home, he was holding her and smiling at her while talking to her.  She smiled back at him, too.  It is the most amazing thing to watch her smile in response to our smiles.  It feels like our first real communication.  Until now, communication was largely Juliet crying and us trying to figure out what she needed.  We talked and sang to her, of course, but she didn't really respond.  This smiling back at us feels more like an actual exchange.

I think I've mentioned that Juliet loves bath time, so we get lots of smiles from her in the tub.  My favorite smiles, though, are the ones that I get from her when I go in to wake her up.  There is nothing better than having our daughter smile as soon as she sees me leaning over her crib.  Watching Ray elicit smiles from her is amazing also.  When he gets a big smile from her, he will laugh and comment either on how awesome she is or how funny she is.

I think turning over will be her next milestone, but I'm looking forward to hearing her laugh.

One Month

Today, Juliet is exactly one month old.  In just one month, she has:

• Gained two pounds
• Grown more than two inches in length
• Shifted from several middle-of-the-night feedings to just one 3:00 am feeding
• Outgrown several onesies
• Peed, pooped, and puked on us countless times
• Kept us up all night several times
• Learned to manipulate us into coming back into the nursery at her beck and call
• Learned to self-soothe
• Taught us patience
• Jammed to a lot of Van Morrison
• Started to focus her eyes on us and other objects in front of her
• Impressed us with her strength 
• Taught us new depths of love
• Given us an appreciation for each other 
• Helped us count our blessings each and every day