Rolling, rolling, rolling!

Well a lot has happened since my last post! One being shorter naps by the little munchkin, so that's one reason for less posts, haha. Within one week, Emily figured out how to roll back to belly and belly to back!!! Yay!!!! Although, as my friend Summer says about her daughter, this means it will be almost impossible to keep her on her belly now to work on her arm strength. She is almost immediately rolling back over once she is on it. I have been amazed how much this has opened up her curiosity in the world around her. She also in the same week started getting her bottom up in the air and her knees under her a little bit. So I do see much hope for her motor development!!!

We still had Early Intervention come to evaluate her. They actually came on Tuesday, before she was able to do tummy to back. I am glad that they came because they did find that she is behind in all areas except cognitive development. The only one that was significantly behind was gross motor. She has qualified for assistance, and even though I am seeing progress, the physical therapist pointed out ways that Emily has compensated and put herself into non-ideal positions to get comfortable. For example, when she's on her belly, she will frog her legs out instead of laying them flat and keeping her feet close together. I am excited to have a PT coming to visit us every 2 weeks to show me how to help her play and use her muscles appropriately. I think even the few suggestions they gave on Tuesday helped her to be able to roll over by Thursday. Amazing! I just didn't know how to help her until they pointed out what was holding her back. I don't think we'll need too many visits from the PT to catch her up, but I am SO thankful that they are coming to help. I also requested a special instructor for communication development. Emily might just be a very quiet little girl, but she is not babbling with vowel consonant combinations yet. Most of the time I hear "aaaa", "mmm", and "ga" and sometimes "ba", but not "bababa" or "mamama" or anything. The communication instructor comes for the first visit this Wednesday and the PT on Friday.

Another big change is that I was able to start Emily on a bottle last week! She LOVES it! Go figure :-p. Wouldn't take it at all for months and now she acts like she's been taking one the whole time. Right now I am combining breastmilk with formula to keep the taste a bit familiar, and I think she hasn't had a problem with the cow's milk formula- hallelujah! I so don't want this girl to be restricted in her diet like I was. She has been having one bottle in the middle of the day and last night was the first night to give her one at bedtime. I know they say that the last nursing of the day is a baby's most prized one, but it didn't seem to phase her. I think her favorite one is when she wakes up from her morning nap. If I try to sneak a diaper change in before her post-nap feed, she lets me know that wasn't her plan!!

Sleep is still a mess at night, but it is a little better. She is going down around 6:30-7:30 (depending on if she'll take her third nap) and wakes up an hour into sleep and cries for a bit. Then she's usually out til about 2ish. From there it is a party in her room until either 4:30 or all the way to when she is ready to be up for the day (sometimes 6...ugh!) Could be teething, could be reflux, could be that she was working on rolling over and is now excited about that. Last night it was that her legs kept getting out of the leg holes of her sleeper and two legs would get caught in one hole. Lovely. Sometimes she cries hard and is really awake and other times she just seems to moan out loud off and on for an hour even though her eyes are closed when we go in there. I started her back on Zantac on Friday, so hopefully that will kick in this week and we can see if that helps!

Greg and I had a fun date afternoon on Saturday. Our friends Rachel and Brent have a 9 month old daughter named Aubree and they graciously had Emily over for an afternoon so that we could run some errands and hang out together. I was able to find new glasses!!! :-) It might seem like a silly errand to run on a prized date afternoon, but that would be an almost impossible task to do with Emily right now. I wanted Greg to give me his input on which glasses he liked, and I wanted to take my time. The ones I picked out in a panic last summer when my glasses broke and I had no contacts were just not "me". I have hated those glasses from the day after I bought them. I LOVE my new glasses!! They actually look a ton like my old pair from before the summer pair. I sighed and thought to myself, "There you are. I've been looking for you." I wish so very much that I could wear contacts, but my eyes dry out by about 4 hours into the day. It is just not worth it.

I am heading over to a lady's house down the street this afternoon to trade out baby clothes. Emily is still comfortably in 3-6 month pants, but the onesies and sleepers are getting a bit tight. And I am ready for something new for her! We've been in 3-6 months for more than 4 months now! It is a great ministry this lady has. She has boxes and boxes of donated clothes, toys, bottles, bibs, etc. at her house and she gives you what you want for free and asks you to bring stuff you are no longer using. Love it!! :-)

Well, Emily is getting up from her nap, so I better hop off. We are trying bananas for the first time today- yum!