Drink up

Our latest adventure has been teaching Madeline how to drink from a cup. It seems to be one of her favorite activities, even if it doesn't always end prettily. She's great at grabbing the cup and bringing it to her mouth, but sometimes has trouble tipping it back.

She enjoys it so much that she gets visibly excited - fast breaths, wide eyes and kicking feet - when she sees Lacey or me drinking something, and she reaches for our glass if she's close. Consider this a warning to anyone who may be holding her in their lap while trying to drink something - it's best to keep it out of her reach!

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On Saturday morning we fed Madeline bananas - her first fruit. We've been feeding her solid food once a day - at dinner - up to this point, and only vegetables or rice cereal. The idea is to introduce sweeter foods, such as fruits, after the child has already gotten used to vegetables. Madeline really seemed to like the bananas, and now the test will be to see if she still likes those green beans and squash.

The twenty-sixth week

Madeline was born six months ago today. It's both exciting and sobering to see how far she's come in that short period.

The exciting part has been watching her transform - literally before our eyes - from a completely helpless newborn who slept most of the day to an active, curious and intelligent ball of energy. She's moving on her own, holding conversations, sitting up, eating solid foods and sleeping through the night. She's curious and fascinated by just about everything. She has a beautiful smile and perfect, tiny hands.

The sobering aspect is the knowledge of just how fast the time is passing. There have been nights that seemed like time had slowed to a crawl. But, surely enough, they all ended. One of the first things I noticed when she was born was her toothless gums - with the arrival of her teeth last week I realized we will never again see her smile without any teeth.

It's exciting that she's growing up - we love playing with her and watching her learn. But there are times when I worry that it's going too quickly, no matter how much I try to slow things down and enjoy each moment. It's as if the moments you enjoy pass more quickly - the more fun you have, the faster the time slips away.

Squirm, roll, repeat

Putting Madeline down on a single square blanket to keep her off the dirty floor has become a losing proposition lately. Almost as soon as we put her down, Madeline will start rolling and twisting, either to reach for a nearby toy or just to be moving. This series of photos was taken over a span of about five minutes. At this point Madeline usually only rolls and squirms to one side, so she ends up moving in a circular pattern.

Support

It's amazing to realize that Madeline has complete, unquestioning trust in Lacey and me, and it's an amazing responsibility. Though she has yet to develop a rational comprehension of the concept of trust, it's obvious that Madeline has a deeper feeling of comfort and safety with her parents. She's working to discover herself, and our duty is to provide an environment where she's loved and supported unconditionally.

I thought this image portrays a taste of that dependence and support; it captures in a frame the limitless devotion that I've seen in Lacey since the first time she held her daughter.

Homemade

Lacey loves to cook, and she happens to be very good at it (which has benefited me greatly over the last 10 years!). Tonight she prepared her first homemade food for Madeline - strained green beans. (The other foods Madeline has eaten so far - rice cereal and squash - have been store-bought.)

While hardly the most complicated dish she's ever made, I think Lacey got a warm feeling inside when Madeline gobbled down her dinner tonight. There's just something rewarding about making Madeline's food from scratch, just as Lacey enjoys making our dinners in the same fashion. It's one of the first opportunities for Lacey to share one of her passions with Madeline. It's like she's putting a little of herself into it. And it's satisfying to know exactly what Madeline is eating.

The twenty-fifth week

Our hunch was right - Madeline is sprouting teeth. At this point all they amount to is a couple of bulges on her lower gum, but one of them is becoming more visible after breaking through a few days ago. (You can barely see it in the picture above - it's exceedingly difficult to photograph an active baby's sprouting tooth!)

Surprisingly, Madeline seems to be handling things well. We haven't experienced the drama that's normally associated with teething. It's true that she has many more teeth to go, but so far, so good.

In fact, Madeline has been an all-around great baby this week. She's been napping well and is energetic and happy during playtime. We had another laughing spell on Thursday, where Madeline would laugh at the least provocation from us. She laughed so much that she made herself spit up.

One thing I've noticed is that she seems happiest when all three of us are together. She'll smile and laugh when it's just her and me, but when we're all playing together or even just in the same room, Madeline is likely to laugh and talk more. Could it be that she finds comfort in all of us being together? Since her parents are happier around each other, does Madeline pick up on that feeling of happiness and security?

Another note from this week is Madeline's tummy sleeping. Yesterday she rolled onto her tummy in her crib for the first time. In fact, she did it three times that day, but was awake and energetic each time. This morning I found her asleep on her tummy for the first time. Of course, this makes her parents fret - since before she was born we've been bombarded with the admonition that she should always sleep on her back. But, aside from checking on her during the night and turning her back over, there's not much we can do.

Crib craziness

Now that Madeline knows how to move around, it's hard for her to stay still. She can often be found sleeping on her side in her crib, having fallen asleep in mid-squirm. This morning we found her all the way on her tummy - it was the first time she's completely rolled over in her crib, and she seemed proud of herself.

Sitting up, and . . . a tooth?

As I've written in recent posts, Madeline is getting much better at sitting by herself. She still topples backward occasionally, but can mostly right herself if she begins to lean too far in any other direction. She likes playing with toys that dangle or are placed in front of her on the ground.

But the big story over the past few days seems to be the arrival of Madeline's first tooth. On Monday night during bath time Lacey noticed a new spot on Madeline's bottom gum - nothing more than an elongated red mark. On Tuesday the area seemed a little more white. The problem is that Madeline isn't very good about letting you look into her mouth. She won't open on command and, when she does open up, her tongue gets in the way.

She has been a little more fussy over the last week, she has lots of drool and she likes to chew on everything - all possible signs of teething. And it's right about the time that many babies start getting their first teeth. But I guess we won't know for certain until that first pearly white makes its appearance.

Lightening locks

Madeline was born with an unruly whorl of dark hair and slate-gray eyes. In a world of bald babies, Madeline often draws notice for her thick locks, and while her eyes have become deep blue like her mother's, her hair has remained dark.

We expected that her hair would lighten over time. After all, both her parents were flaxen-haired toddlers. It's not uncommon for babies born with very dark hair to lose that hair in the first months and become brunette or even blonde within the first year.

But Madeline hasn't lost her baby hair - it's just getting longer and thicker. And recently, especially in certain light, it appears that her hair is also lightening, taking on an auburn tint. Will she eventually be blonde? Only time will tell.

Getting away

Lacey and I took the weekend off. From parenting, that is. Saturday was a milestone birthday for Lacey, and we celebrated in style. We dropped Madeline off with Grandma and Grandpa England for the weekend and headed for the posh Tides Inn resort in Irvington. The Tides is only about 30 minutes from the Englands' house, so we were close enough in case we were needed.

While Lacey and I were getting custom treatments at the resort spa, swimming in the pool overlooking Carters Creek or dining on crab meat, Madeline was enjoying the afternoon and evening with her grandparents and Aunt Hannah. We hear things went pretty smoothly for them.

This was our first night without Madeline since she was born almost six months ago. We didn't have too much trouble with the separation, although we sometimes were curious how things were going. I was pleasantly surprised that Lacey and I were able to refocus and not spend the entire time talking or thinking about the baby. We had fun adult conversations and enjoyed a carefree, mostly unscripted weekend.

Madeline didn't seem to have too much trouble without us, either. Her sleeping schedule was thrown off a bit, likely because of the change in surroundings and the different people. But she still slept through the night on Saturday and was otherwise an "angel," according to Lacey's mom.

Also this weekend:

Madeline had her first taste of "real" food tonight when we gave her some squash with dinner. We've been giving her rice cereal for three weeks now and it's as if she's grown bored with it. From what I hear, the rice cereal doesn't taste like much - its purpose is to give her practice with solid food and not necessarily to enhance her palate. Madeline is still working on her mastication skills but she seemed to enjoy the squash, or at least wasn't wholly offended by it.

The twenty-fourth week

This week seemed to pass quickly and unremarkably. Madeline and I visited my injured brother almost every day this week since he's mostly confined to the couch. I like to think that a happily babbling baby helps lift his spirits as he works through his recovery from a motorcycle wreck a couple weeks ago. It also gives us a chance to get out of the house and gives Madeline some new scenery for a couple hours a day. Once settled on her blanket on the floor, she's happy to put on a show - talking and laughing, playing and rolling over.

We're also giving Madeline plenty of practice at sitting unassisted. She does pretty well but still needs someone close by to catch her if she starts to list. But she's improving at righting herself when she leans and using her hands to catch herself. Today she sat for several minutes without any support while she played with the dangly objects on her jungle adventure mat.

It may be just me, but I think her speech is evolving as well. She's getting in more hard consonants - the b's and d's and g's - instead of relying solely on the long vowels. (Above, she's pictured talking to the purple toucan). There just seems to be a little more variety to her sounds. But there's still the occasional, well, whatever you call this!

Laughter

It's getting easier to make Madeline laugh. Like many of her new skills, laughter came out of the blue and then retreated for weeks. It's been difficult to find a consistent way to make her laugh. If she's in the right mood, she'll giggle when you jiggle her tummy or brush a soft cloth on her face.

Yesterday she had her first real bout of laughter. Once she started, she couldn't stop. She would catch her breath, and then as soon as Lacey or I would make a movement or noise Madeline would crack up again. It lasted for a minute or two, and by the end all three of us were teary-eyed from laughing so much. I don't know if there's anything that's more fun than a laughing baby.

Another piece of the puzzle

Madeline started pushing up months ago. Then came the squirmy legs and the swimming motions. Along the way there were rollovers - first tummy-to-back and more recently back-to-tummy. This week, for the first time, I've seen Madeline actually push her hips off the ground with her legs, making a bridge-type formation. She hasn't gotten her chest and hips up at the same time, though.

Madeline, ever curious, will now struggle and reach for objects placed nearby when she's on her tummy. Through her increasing squirminess she's actually moving herself along. I can put her on the floor and in a matter of minutes she'll be a foot or two away from her original position, and often at 90 degree difference. Sometimes we'll go to get her from her crib after a nap, only to find she's now sideways at the foot of her bed.

These are all pieces of the puzzle that will eventually be Madeline's full mobility. She's showing an accelerated interest in things beyond her immediate proximity, and once she masters these basic motions and capabilities, she'll be unstoppable.

The twenty-third week

We've had some major distractions this week - I have largely been focused on my brother, who was injured in a motorcycle wreck last Saturday morning. As a result of my preoccupation, Lacey has been with Madeline most of the week.

The time I have spent with Madeline has been fun - she's been taking shorter naps during the day this week and, therefore, has had longer stretches of awake time. When she might have previously slept for an hour and a half in the late morning, this week she's been going down for about 30 minutes per nap. But we can't really complain - she's usually in a great mood despite sleeping less. Perhaps her longer overnight sleep sessions have been giving her more energy through the day (Madeline has been regularly sleeping until about 6:30 every morning this week, and going to bed at about 7 or 7:15).

Madeline continues to find new and fascinating distractions, including her own feet. Between the foot-grabbing and the almost-rolling-over, diaper changes have become exponentially more difficult. And her new propensity to reach for anything that's in front of her is making it harder to do things with her in my lap - like read the newspaper or eat lunch. But it's so much fun to watch as she soaks up everything about her surroundings, knowing that it's all new to her.

Four things

I wrote last week that I need to find activities that help us break the mold of our day-to-day life. As a result I've decided to come up with four things to do this month that are new and different. I'm willing to count just about anything outside routine activities such as going to the grocery store or our daily walks in the neighborhood. Just something to make us get out of the house and out of the routine.

The first of our four things is illustrated above - my grandparents were in town today and we spent some time visiting with them and going out to lunch.

Hopefully my goal of four new activities each month will help us stretch out of our comfort zone, but keeping it to four things makes it a realistic target. Just posting this entry gives me a goal to meet, a means of holding myself accountable. And breaking out of the routine just a few times a month can help the routine feel more comfortable on those "regular" days.

A big day (and night)

I mentioned last week that we were going to end Madeline's 9 p.m. feeding since she had stopped waking up on her own at that time. Lacey eliminated it for the first time on Friday, and Madeline woke up at 4:30 a.m. that night, ready to eat. But last night she slept all the way through the night, going down at 7 p.m. and sleeping soundly until 6:30 a.m., for a total of almost 12 consecutive hours.

Almost three months ago I wrote about Madeline's first full night's sleep, but that represented an 8-hour stretch after the 9 p.m. feeding. I am going to consider last night the first night Madeline slept entirely through the night. At just a shade over 5 months, it's about the time we were told Madeline would be sleeping from mid-evening to the morning, even though there were times along the way we would never allow ourselves to believe that she would sleep more than 4 hours at a time!

This afternoon Madeline accomplished another notable achievement: she rolled from her back to her tummy. My last entry detailed how Madeline was getting closer and closer to this goal. She's moving so much now that we were hardly impressed when she rolled from her tummy to her back (the easier maneuver) three times yesterday. But today's feat was something to be lauded.

Though she enjoys sitting and playing (as in the picture above), Madeline still spends most of her time on her back. For a tummy-to-back roll, someone first had to put her on her tummy. The fact that she can now get herself from her back to her tummy without assistance means she's going to be more autonomous in finding ways to explore her surroundings.

The twenty-second week

This week Madeline has gotten closer than ever to rolling from her back to her front. This type of maneuver takes much more coordination and momentum than a tummy-to-back roll.

When she's on her back she'll often roll to either side, throwing her opposite leg over and coming this close to going the distance. For practice I'll lay a toy just within fingertip reach near the side of her head. She'll turn and crane her neck and reach with all her might. I have a feeling she'll get there soon.
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Also this week, Wednesday was the first day that Madeline has taken all her naps in her crib. For a few months she had been taking daytime naps in the swing, its gentle motion often a surefire way to make sure she stayed asleep. She's been sleeping at night in the crib for some time, and we moved her morning nap from the swing to the crib a couple weeks ago.

The ultimate goal is to ensure she's not dependent on being in motion in order to sleep. We've been working gradually to replace swing naps with crib naps in tandem with our efforts to get her to sleep more soundly on her own at night, which seem to have been largely successful up to this point.