The past few days have been full of more firsts around here. On Sunday night, Maddie slept from 7:30pm until 6:15am. Normally, she's up for a bottle around 2am or 3am, so this was a bit of a shock. So much of a shock that we decided to wake her up because we were afraid something was wrong. But, it turns out that at her age, a 10 or 11 hour nighttime sleep is considered "sleeping through the night".
On Monday, we took bets on whether she'd sleep through the night again. I figured it was a fluke, like those couple of 9 hour nights she had. But sure enough, she slept through the night again! So I had my fingers crossed for Tuesday night, but she was up for a bottle at 2:30am. Oh well--we still have hope that she's starting to get on a longer nighttime sleep schedule!
All this came at the same time that Maddie decided she really likes play time--both tummy and on her back, or sitting up against one of us. Before this week, if one of us put her down on the floor to play, she'd spend a few minutes staring into her mirror or looking at a toy before crying and wanting to be picked up. This was definitely true of tummy time. Maddie definitely did not want to spend time lifting herself up or rolling over, so she'd just put her face down on the floor and cry.
Well, this week, she's suddenly interested in her toys and being on the floor. Thanks to a brilliant suggestion from my sister, I used some of her links to hang toys from her playmat/gym further down to where she can bat at them. She loves it! Right now, she's fascinated by a set of teething keys and an O-ball that rattles. And because I took the mobile part off of the gym in order to hang more things off of it, she's now able to be entertained by the flashing lights, which she loves! In fact, today I put her down on the mat while I filled bottles, and she entertained herself for a whole 15 minutes and was squealing and doing her own version of giggling the whole time (this was another first--normally she doesn't like play time by herself).
In addition to her gym, we also have a soft blanket that we put on the floor with some toys for tummy time or just another spot to play. This week, Maddie lifted herself up with locked elbows for the first time (usually she just rests on her forearms) and also tried to do an army crawl. She can't get too far though because she has only figured out how to move one arm and one leg--since she can't seem to shift her weight yet, this leaves an arm stuck underneath of her :) The good news is that she's enjoying tummy time, which makes us happy because we can tell that she's getting stronger every day that she does it. When she's lying on her back on her blanket, her favorite toy is a plastic snail that has a mirror, can rock back and forth and lights up and plays music when you touch it. When we first got the snail a couple of weeks ago, Maddie never touched it, just stared at it until one of us pushed it to turn on the lights and music. Then, she constantly batted at it. This week, she seems to finally have realized the cause/effect of the lights and music--she hits it, waits for the lights and music to stop and then hits it again. She's a smartie pants!
The other big news here is that Maddie is starting to get her first teeth. Most babies teeth around 4-6 months, but it's not uncommon for them to start at around 2 months. And, like everything else she has managed to do early, this is no exception. We started to suspect something was up when she started drooling like crazy. Then she started biting her fist. Then she started refusing her pacifier and only wanted something in her mouth if she could chew on it. She's also been a lot fussier at random times of the day. The crummy part about her teething early is that there isn't much she can do for herself. We have plenty of teething toys and rings, etc. but she can't hold them. She's dependent on one of us to do that for her. We've tried frozen washcloths, which were okay for about 2 minutes and also tried using the toothbrush designed for baby gums which helped a little. So far, the most successful tool has been her Sophie the Giraffe. She'll chew on the ears or face for about 10 or 15 minutes to calm herself down and relieve some of the pressure. Of course, it comes with a caveat--you have to be holding her chest-to-chest, and you have to be either walking or rocking back and forth. Do you think insurance covers the attachment of a third arm?
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