This is how she rolls.

Essie rolled over for the first time today. I decided to give her some tummy time since she was full of freaky energy and tummy time usually works some of that out by making her furious. Seriously; I have a hard time dealing with putting her on her stomach sometimes since doing something purposely that will make your baby cry kind of sucks. (Also I am not a fan of the twee name 'tummy time' but that's what the professionals call it and it kind of just rolls off the tongue.)

ANYhow; tummy time. I put her on her stomach and turned away for a few seconds to grab a toy to put in front of her to give her something to look at. I turned around and there she was on her back, her expression totally saying, "What just happened?"

I was amazed, so I put her on her stomach once more. She immediately rolled over to her back and looked pleased with herself. I flipped her, she did it again. We waited for Andrew to come back in to the room from having his shower and I showed him. She took a bit longer the last time since she'd tired herself out a bit by this point (yay) but she did it and we had to accept that we have a baby on her way to mobility. Yikes.

She's pretty much exactly on track with this milestone for her adjusted age, so that's nice. She has also, as Andrew put it, discovered 'loud'. She's started screaming conversationally, not just to indicate she's upset. Actually; she doesn't scream to indicate that she's upset, so this is very new for all of us and extremely so for our neighbours at 11:30 last night! Whatevs, she shut up pretty quickly once I gave her a bottle and snuggled her to sleep but I have noticed that her most active, frenetic behaviours usually start when she's getting tired. She doesn't really want to get tired, so she starts kicking her legs like crazy and talking and shooting her arms around. Then she gets frustrated because damn, she's tired, and her eyes get all red and she's kind of irritable while her eyelids are drooping shut. It's cute, but here's hoping it doesn't get worse!

Also she is growing out of her clothes at a rapid rate except for one onesie that I mentioned to Andrew today. It's a magic onesie that seems to be growing with her and getting looser on her rather than smaller. She's wearing it right now! Honestly I suspect that it's just cheap material that is stretching out a bit, but I like the thought of a magic onesie. She'll always have something to wear!

Owie. But also some stuff to be grateful for.

I haven't written in a bit because I had a week from hell and haven't felt much like getting out of bed, much less writing. At first I was all, 'Oh, I won't talk about it, it's so unladylike and so very unbecoming,' but on second thought I don't really care. I'll still try to use euphemistic language so as not to offend anyone's delicate sensibilities, but other than that ... hah.

So I've been having a week of uterus pirhanas and it's been driving me insane. Since having Essie PMS has been twice as bad (maybe more, since it wasn't something I suffered from much before and I considered myself lucky.) My usual depression/anxiety combo kicks into extreme overdrive and I feel like the world is ending and there is no hope for the future for anyone, ANYONE. So far I've been thinking I'm lucky since I'm not having 24/7 postpartum or anything like that, but the week leading up to the event is quite ungood in my brain. And during the actual event? Phyisical pain like crazy.

It's tiresome and I do not want. It's yet another reason to add to the list of countable blessings with regard to having a happy, low-fuss baby. If I felt like this and had to deal with hours of screaming or sleeplessness I'm sure I'd be looking for bridges or tall buildings right quick, but Essie is so very, very good. I also often feel awkward talking about that, like I should somehow not bring it up in case I'm perceived as bragging and thus alienating anyone reading who has to deal with a baby with colic or whatnot, but I have to give this kid her props. She's posessed of an extreme good nature and I appreciate her for it every single day. Taking it for granted? Not over here.

So, that's my last couple of weeks emotionally in a nutshell. LUCKY for me there was some extreme goodness in there. My family threw me an awesome baby shower last weekend. La hosted it and did all the prep work and inviting and whatnot (because she's so incredibly awesome and beautiful.) It was full of moms and aunts and uncles and cousins and sisters and in-laws and nieces and nephews. It was co-ed (obviously) and was a BLAST. It was also hot. Really, seriously hot. Essie spent the whole time in just a diaper, even though I'd originally dressed her in a sweet pink sundress and sandals. Most of the rest of us wished we could sit around in just our unders, but it just wouldn't have been right so we all stayed clothed and envied the freedom of pink, innocent babies.

Speaking of pink, innocent babies here she is sitting in her brand new Bumbo at the shower:



SO CUTE. She's got her frog in there with her to help her fit a bit better since she's still just a teeny bit small for it. Not for long, though!

Very poop-centric, this one.

Andrew took Essie to her pediatrician's appointment last week. I stayed home, ostensibly to do some housework and make spaghetti sauce for dinner but also so that I could twirl around singing, "All alone, all alone," to myself in the empty apartment while the cats looked on.

The dishes were done, surfaces were wiped, sauce was made, songs were sung and cats were petted. Then Andrew and Essie came home and I nearly ripped her out of the sling since I had missed her sunny little self so much. After spending a while sniffing and snuggling and kissing her I got the report from Andrew on the visit.

Essie's been spitting up a lot these days. Nothing major, nothing serious, but still she's been spitting up a bit more than we thought might be normal so Andrew asked about it. The pediatrician wasn't too worried but suggested mixing a little bit of pablum in her formula to thicken it up a bit, which might cut down on her bringing it back up.

So, Andrew went grocery shopping and came home with a package of President' s Choice organic rice pablum, which I mixed a teaspoon or so of into her next bottle. She didn't even flinch, just drank it down as usual. I did the same for the bottle after that, and when she was pretty much exactly halfway through it my brain said, "BZZZT what about constipation?"

Hmmm. Essie is always constipated these days. Sometimes her poop even makes her cry. So, I looked up rice pablum to see how constipating it is and was HORRIFIED to read what moms and doctors had to say. The worst quote likened a mixture of formula and pablum to pouring concrete directly into your baby's bowels.

I yanked the bottle away and made a fresh one, making it a bit more watery than usual, even. Essie didn't care, whatever, a bottle's a bottle. She doesn't even care what temperature it is, warm or room temperature, it's all the same to her. This was Thursday. On Friday she pooped and it was a normal poop. A pre-pablum poop, I knew, since there was no way she'd processed the bottles of concrete mix from the night before that quickly.

Fast-forward to today, Sunday, the day she'd be due for a poop after pooping on Friday. She's an every-two-days pooper, this kid, and like I said; it's often very uncomfortable and downright painful for her. Poor bug. I'd had a restless night with Essie and was napping kind of fitfully. Andrew and Essie were also in the bed, relaxing on a thunderstormy day, and I heard Andrew say, "Oh, poop." He'd done a diaper scan and seen some poop. I told him he should let her work it all out and then change the diaper.

After a bit he scanned again and said, "Yeah, poop." I was excited. I sat up to witness the triumphant passing of the concrete poop, relieved that it hadn't taken weeks to work through. Andrew opened the diaper, carefully folding the sticky tabs so that they wouldn't catch on Essie's perfect baby skin. Then. Then: he pulled back the front of the diaper and revealed the concrete poop within!

Lo: A tiny nugget of poop sat forlornly in her diaper. Not even a nugget: A pellet. She had produced one tiny, insignificant pellet of poop. I laughed. I laughed and laughed. The poop pellet was just so anticlimactic.

Thankfully she produced a much more significant poop in her next diaper and I am satisfied that our concrete worries are behind us. BUT! I am getting excited for solid foods now since it seems she can process more than just formula pretty well. Go, baby, go!

Good times, good times.

Last weekend we went to Ottawa for the annual cottage weekend at Colin's family cottage. It's something I really look forward to every year, and this year even more so since it was Essie's first time. She got to meet Colin (the birthday boy) and Jen for the first time which was very awesome.



We may have overestimated Essie's ability to deal with lots of travel, though. We stayed in Ottawa at night and traveled to the cottage in Val Des Monts during the day instead of staying there overnight. I figured it would be more sensitive to the other cottage-goers in the sense that they wouldn't be disturbed by overnight baby noises or the early rising of babies that often happens. I also figured it would be easier to care for Essie in the city and that part was definitely true.




Essie was not quite herself, though, and I think perhaps she didn't quite cope with the back-and-forthing in the car coupled with the exuberance of the cottage atmosphere as well as we'd hoped. This isn't to say she was screechy or anything. No; she was just more somber and a bit more whimpery than we're used to with her. When we had her to ourselves back at Colin and Jen's place she was smiley and sweet as usual.

But O, the good times we had eating fabulous cupcakes, playing games, talking and even doing karaoke! (It was my first karaoke experience, and even though I sucked it was fun.) There was an incident, however. Andrew usually sets off a fireworks display after dark on one of the nights, and this year the finale firework malfunctioned and he ended up burning a couple of his fingers. Not terribly badly, thankfully, but just in case it was worse than it looked Andrew went to the emergency room back in Ottawa. This meant that Colin and another lovely couple accompanied us back to town so that Andrew wouldn't have to drive, then they headed back in one car together. We appreciated that a LOT, since I currently don't have a license and couldn't drive the rental.

His burns turned out to be mostly second-degree and warranted nothing more than some bandaids, so all is well if slightly sore.



We came home on Tuesday to our sweet cats and Essie has been doing very well. She had a pediatrician's appointment today and she's just, just shy of thirteen pounds. It's a bit less than we expected based on how she's been gaining over the last few months, but she put on almost two pounds since her last visit so that's still pretty substantial! She's getting so big and active and LOUD. She's really discovered her 'complaining' voice, and it's got quite a volume. I'm not surprised, but the days of the growls are officially over now and I'm already nostalgic for my tiny, grunty little baby. Of course this big, smiley, talkative baby is just as lovely and even more engaging but damn if they don't change overnight.