A week of milestones

Claire's been a busy girl over the past week! Last Monday, after much grunting, squirming, and red-face making (on her part) and much cheering (from mom), she rolled from her back to her stomach! We were playing on the floor around noon. I'd been coaching her a lot on this rolling thing because I really wanted her to do it before I go back to school (more on that later). Once she was completely over, she still had her arm trapped beneath her. I resisted the urge to help her get it out because I wanted this to really "count" as the first roll (is that lame of me?), so I let her fuss it out a bit more until she got the arm free. I was so excited...but she was less than. After all that work, she just wanted to be picked up :)

I was so excited to actually see her accomplish this for the first time because she has to start going to the babysitter on Wednesday. We have an awesome woman lined up for her (sister of a good friend from church, has seven kids of her own, only watches one other girl full-time), but I'm still a bit sad thinking of the things I'll miss, so I'm feeling blessed to witness this milestone. Maybe I'll tell the babysitter not to tell me if Claire accomplishes a "first" while there. Or maybe I'll put the video camera in the diaper bag each day. Or maybe I'll just pray she does all the good stuff during the evening or weekends. The best bet, though, might be to follow Scott's advice (shhh....don't tell him I think he might be right :) to remember that just because I don't get to see the absolute first time, doesn't mean that it won't be awesome to see the second...or third...or fourth. I tell him it's a "mom thing," but he does have a point. We'll see how the year goes :)

Rolling does present some new challenges though. Unfortunately I only helped her practice rolling from back to tummy, and she hasn't figured out how to roll from tummy to back yet (which is somewhat backward. most babies do that first...perhaps I didn't do enough tummy time?) So she gets rather frustrated when she's tired of being on her tummy but can't seem to do anything about it. Also, putting her down to sleep is trickier because, again, she'll roll to her tummy and then get really mad about it (which isn't good for sleeping), or she'll roll part way and get an arm or leg stuck between the crib bars, which also makes for a mad baby. We're working it out, though...and now practicing that ever-so-important tummy to back roll :)

She's also made two amazing discoveries this past week: those feet down there are actually hers! And her thumb is a mighty fine pacifier. I love watching her rock on her back, playing with her feet (she's not sucking on them...yet). Even cuter is peeking in on her sleeping, sucking away at her thumb. Really, does it get cuter than that? She's still not an expert at the thumbsucking....sometimes her other fingers about poke her eye out, but I'm ok if she's not doing it all the time. Just like the paci, all good things in moderation, yes?

The final milestone: she's now sleeping upstairs during the night. I wanted to make the transition from the pack-n-play in our room to the crib in her room for night sleeping so my alarm doesn't wake her up in the morning. (I'm already going to have to wake the poor girl up in the morn when school starts. No sense in that happening any earlier than it needs to). She's a rockstar and slept through the first night in her crib with narry a peep. Which is more than I can say for me. I woke up at least twice to listen for the baby monitor. Scott indulged my testing it several different ways "just to make sure." Are there people that worry more about little things than moms? I don't think so :) She even slept through the noisy dumpster emptying at 3:45 am the second night. Really, Mr. Garbage Truck Man? Not a different time you could empty that dumpster next door? This is a residential neighborhood, for crying out loud!

So exciting times for Team McIntyre. Times that make me smile and make me sad all at one. Time flies a bit too fast sometime. God, show me how to treasure each and every moment of it :)