Quiet weekend

Molly got her shots on Friday. She hardly cried at all. It was amazing considering she screamed Wednesday when the nurse put her on the scale, AFTER the nurse took her rectal temp (but not during!?!), and when the nurse held the tape measure along her body to get her length.

On Friday, two nurses ganged up and got her in both thighs at the same time. By the time they had the Band-aids on she was smiling at them.

The pain caught up to her in the evening, though. She cried and cried, and only then did I remember that after her 2-month shots the doctor told me to give her a dose of Tylenol as soon as we got home. Nobody mentioned Tylenol this time and I forgot. So we gave her a dose, then we gave her a bath to soothe her while we waited for it to kick in. Her father (who skipped a karate event to stay with his little girl) read "The Hunting of the Snark" to us in the bathroom to enhance the soothing effect. By the time we were done, she was back to her silly self.



The rest of the weekend we relaxed at home. Molly's new developments were low-key. She found her left foot, and can grab it with her left hand. She can hold herself in a sitting position for a few seconds longer than before. Twice she went down for a nap without being nursed to sleep (that's actually a big one for me).

Mostly she just hung around, got lots of kisses and kicked back with her daddy.

Almost there...

This morning I put Molly down to play on her back on the floor gym while I ate breakfast. At one point she got quiet so I looked over. She was about 3/4 of the way rolled over.


I think she was looking at the cover of the book propped up behind her, Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers (one of our favorites).

All she would have needed for a full turn was to get her lower arm out of the way.

She didn't seem to think it was a big deal, though. A few minutes later she rolled onto her back and resumed chatting with the elephant and arguing with the giraffe (They've had a feud going on for about a week now. She ripped him off the frame. Apparently he asked for it.)

4-month check-up

Molly had her 4-month doctor visit today. She weighs 16 pounds, 6 ounces. She's 26 inches long and her head is 16 inches. That means we're back on the growth charts. According to Baby Center, her weight is 75th to 90th percentile. Height is 90th to 95th. Yay!

The only weird thing was that her temperature was 0.1 degrees below a fever. She seems fine to me, but the doctor said we should probably wait a couple days to do her shots so we're going back Friday.

There are so many tiny developments every day that it's hard to keep up. Two days ago she stayed in a sitting up position on the changing table without tipping over. We've been trying it on the floor, and she can hold the position for a few seconds now (before she would fold forward until she squished her belly and cried). I tried to get a photo, but I was a little too slow.
















Also, yesterday she was sitting in my lap holding my hands and she stood herself up. She did it again today. Usually I have to pull her up to a standing position.

These are not the milestones you read about in baby books, but they're pretty exciting for me!

First kiss?

I had Molly on the floor in my lap this afternoon at our next door neighbor's house, and her youngest son Teddy (almost 2) was very interested in "bee-bee-bee-bee" (translation: baby). He pointed at her face, poked her ear, swiped at her head and generally played with her in his toddler way.

Molly watched him with wide eyes, talked gibberish at him, grabbed his shirt and touched his hair.

Teddy must have taken this as encouragement, because at one point he leaned in toward her with open lips -- baby kiss! It was all cute and innocent until I realized he was aiming for her lips. And there was my little baby with her little open kiss mouth waiting for him to plant one on her.

I'm not sure if they actually connected before we pulled them apart. There's a fine line between cute and creepy.

The other silly moment of the afternoon was when Teddy's 5-year-old brother walked up to Molly and me while we were nursing and asked, "What does Molly have in her mouth?"

4 months old

Molly turned 4 months old yesterday. She celebrated with a visit from Grandma D, lots of play time, several wardrobe changes (due to an unusual series of spit-up events) and a walk around the neighborhood.

She slept very well last night.

For the past few days Molly has been practicing the motions of rolling from her back to her side. It's just a matter of time before she rolls over. It's exciting, but I'm not ready to have a mobile baby. It's so nice to be able to put her down on a blanket on the floor in any room and know she'll stay.

She also spends a lot of time chewing on fingers, hers and anybody else's she can get in her mouth. She sometimes gets toys in there, too, but she's not very good yet at figuring out how to get an object in there without her fist getting in the way.

We're hearing her little laugh more often now, too, and it's funny to see what makes her laugh. She laughs in her car seat, both in the back seat of the car by herself and looking out the side of the stroller when we walk around the neighborhood. She laughs at her reflection in the mirror. And when I take her into the bathroom with me, she thinks the sound is really funny.

One of her more interesting new skills is the ability to grab hair and pinch skin. She has a strong grip. She likes to pinch the skin on her Daddy's neck. She also pinches sometimes while she's nursing -- ouch!

She's also getting more squirmy when she sits on my lap. She lifts her head high, rolls onto her back and scooches off to the side. Soon my little girl will be moving around!! Yikes!!

Her Cracking Up Cracks Me Up

On the bright side ...

Molly doesn't seem too troubled about being sick.

I have to say, her good mood is a pretty good antidote to my own sniffles. Good thing she's here to look out for her Mommy.

I got the humidifier pumping in her room, so we're going to go have some lunch in there ... oooh, and change a diaper! :)

Sick, yet again

You know it's going to be a rough day when the baby wakes up with a stuffed nose, struggles through a feeding and then vomits it all up again -- all before Daddy's alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m.

We were all up late last night trying to get Molly to sleep. Was it the cold starting? Teething? Who knows? I've had this cold for days and I could hardly keep my eyes open. Then when she finally went down, I couldn't sleep. I'm trying to avoid nasal decongestants because I don't want my milk supply to dry up. This is brutal!

Now the two of us are a sad scene. She makes awful congested noises when I put her down in her crib, so I'm letting her sleep on her side on the Boppy in my lap. This is fine, except the sound of me blowing my nose startles her awake every time, even if I do it quietly. Coughing is bad, too. So I'm just sitting here try not to let the tickle in my throat get the better of me.

I know children get a lot of colds, but why am I catching every virus that's floating around? Ugh! I can't wait for the cold season to be over.

Family resemblance?

So many little changes

We woke up Sunday morning to find Molly turned sideways in her crib. That's a first! She can scooch -- yikes!
















She was catching up on sleep after a long day at Eve's birthday party Saturday. She had a great time watching all the little kids run around. We had a good time comparing her to all the little girl babies who are about twice her age and just about the same size. Here she is in her pink party dress:











Just in the past few days Molly has gotten better at holding toys. This morning I put her down on the floor and she picked up her plastic keys, then a stuffed monkey, then a different stuffed monkey.

She laughs more often, too. This morning at play group she laughed when another mom said hello. (She also fell asleep sitting upright in my lap, which I'm pretty sure was a first -- so that's what happens when we skip morning nap!)

Trip highlights

Though we were in Rochester for just a couple days, we got to see a lot of family.

On Sunday, Anna and David and Lucy hosted a party at their house. Molly slept on her grandpa for an hour and a half.



Monday we went to the diner for breakfast, then visited Molly's great uncle Bob while he was waiting for platelets. Molly had her first tiny "hair cut" to contribute to his amulet. Lucy and the rest of us contributed, too.



Molly spent plenty of time both days snuggling her grandmothers, her aunt and uncle, her great grandparents and her great aunts. She also played with cousin Lucy. It was the first time that Molly seemed to notice her cousin, or any other little kid for that matter. They're going to have so much fun together when they get older!




I updated photos on Shutterfly, if you want to see more. Go to mollyk1207.shutterfly.com or click the link in the bar on the right. The pictures from the trip are in the "Molly at 3 months" album. I also added an album of photos from when she was 2 months old, including many photos that have been posted on the blog.

Phew! That's done!

We're back

We had a fantastic trip to Rochester this past weekend (I'll post pictures soon, I promise). Molly slept for most of the drive in both directions, which was fantastic! On the way home yesterday she was so silly at the first rest stop that I could hardly get her to eat. She was mesmerized by a ceiling fan.

Now that we're back, I'm going to work on her naps. Last Thursday, right before the trip, I had a breakthrough and finally got her to sleep for more than 45 minutes at a time. The problem was that she was falling into a deep sleep while nursing, then I would carry her to the crib. We had gotten to the point where that was the only way she would fall asleep. After consulting numerous sleep books (Weissbluth, Pantley, even the dreaded Ferber), I got the idea to nurse her only until she is MOSTLY asleep, then to put her in the crib drowsy but awake so she can fall asleep on her own. This is very basic sleep advice that I've known about for a long time, but it's not as easy as it sounds. If she's awake when I put her in the crib, then I walk away, she complains. Ordinarily I would pick her up.

She was so overtired last week, though, and I was so sure she was ready for a nap that I let her squawk for a few minutes. Then, like magic, she was silent and slept for two hours! We did this all day Friday and she took several nice, long naps. It even worked, sort of, on our trip. Molly took a solid nap in Lucy's crib and in the crib at Oma's house.

I'm having a hard time getting back in the routine this morning, though. I've lost my sense for when she's truly tired and when she's not, so it's hard to tell when to leave her in the crib and when to pick her up. Plus, I'm enjoying having the baby all to myself again so all I want to do is snuggle her. I've been letting her sleep on the Boppy in my lap.

Other new developments:
This weekend Molly started (occasionally) grasping toys and holding onto them. Before she would only hold a toy if you pried her fingers open and put it in her hand. She has also gotten really interested in putting things in her mouth, and she does this by leaning toward things with her mouth open. This was particularly funny when she went for the little stuffed monkey my mom gave her, which has a slightly open mouth, which she aggressively french kissed.

Molly has also developed a lovely loud high-pitched squeal. Sometimes it's an angry squeal, sometimes it's happy. I think she likes hearing her loud voice. It's cute ... so far ...