The Adventures of Anne & Charlie: Monthly Update

This past month has been a good one for Anne. In terms of developmental milestones she is coming along nicely. She started reaching for her toys and putting them in her mouth. She has started turning her head toward human voices. She will follow a conversation, turning her head back and forth to look at whomever is speaking. She can almost roll over from her back to her front. Since she hates tummy time she is rarely on her tummy so we aren't sure if she can roll over from back to front yet. Apparently that is supposed to come before back-to-front. Her neck and back are becoming stronger, and with just a little bit of support on her lower back she can sit up. She sits quite nicely in the Bumbo these days.

Anne has also started smiling and cooing crazily every time she sees her own reflection in the mirror. I guess she thinks that baby is pretty cute. We have a tiny Narcissus on our hands.

We have put Anne in the Jolly Jumper a few times. She tends to either stomp around or eat the harness. See photos below.

About 3 weeks ago we started trying to put Anne down for proper naps in her own bed rather than sleeping on people all day long. We thought she was a bit young to try cry-it-out so we went with the "no cry" nap solution. It is basically tricking your baby into being happy sleeping in the crib. At first we could barely get Anne to fall asleep in her playpen during the day and if she did it was only for about 15 minutes at a time. After a grueling three weeks, she is finally starting to sleep much better. She still needs to be rocked and sung-to until she is almost asleep, but then she will sleep for anywhere from a half hour to one and a half hours about four times a day. So, it is slowly getting better and if we are lucky we can have a few hours to ourselves during the day.

At night Anne is doing wonderfully. She sleeps for about 10 or 11 hours a night, usually with only one feeding in between. Often she goes 8 or 9 hours straight. Since she goes to bed at about 8 pm, Mom and Dad often get a couple of hours in the evening to regain their sanity.

Last Saturday we went to Archna's wedding and left Anne with Grandma B for almost the whole day. Anne behaved quite well and, except for the car rides, it sounds like she barely cried. It was very nice for Mom and Dad to have some time off and it was comforting to know that it is possible to leaver her with someone else for a while. Thank you Grandma B!