summer days

It's been a little while since I've posted here and a certain set of grandparents is itching for an update, so here's a bit of what's been going on at our house lately.

First, there was the heatwave.

Granted, compared to what the rest of the country's been going through, our two days of temperatures in the low to mid nineties probably shouldn't qualify as a "heatwave," per se. But we're used to gray and rainy around here, and Seattle babies have to make an extra effort to keep cool when the mercury rises.

We spent lots of time sitting in front of the fan and taking long, sticky naps.

There were also plenty of cool wet washcloths, which M seemed to enjoy.

Right about the time the heat broke, Miss M woke up one morning with a head cold which left her coughing and sneezing for a few days. I maintain that the wet washcloths were not to blame.

Obviously, M didn't let a little extra snot affect her over-all mood...

She stopped sniffling just in time for the excitement of minor surgery last Friday, when she visited the lovely and talented Dr. K for a--take a deep breath here--sublingual frenotomy. If you're a nerd, you can read more about ankyloglossia here. Otherwise, suffice it to say that M's tongue was too securely attached to the bottom of her mouth, which was keeping her from using her tongue the right way when she's nursing.

Other than disrupting M's nap schedule and creating an overtired monster later in the day, the quick little procedure went well. The jury's still out on her nursing efficiency, but M certainly seems to be enjoying her newly-liberated tongue.

The other big news is that M has started to laugh.

She's only done it a few times. Each time, it's surprising. And absolutely adorable.

tummy time

Every parenting book and baby-raising website talks about the importance of tummy time. There's lots about how spending time on her belly every day will keep baby's head from being flat, will strengthen her neck muscles, will help her to roll over and crawl earlier. You're pretty much a monster if you don't establish a strict tummy time regimen during baby's first few days in the world.

They do not, generally, warn you that your baby might hate tummy time.

Anytime we put M down on her belly, she'd squirm, flounder around for a minute or two, and then start howling and mashing her face into the floor. It was loud. And kind of painful to watch. As a result, there was very little tummy time at our house.

So I'd pretty much resigned myself to having a deformed, slow-to-crawl child who would have lots of things to hate me for in her teenage years.  Fortunately, a friend suggested something much simpler: Propping M up on a firm pillow.

Bingo.

Granted, it's still not her favorite thing to do, but with enough distractions, tummy time sometimes stretches to five or ten minutes.

For those of you worrying about Miss M suffocating her sweet self, I assure you that all tummy time is closely supervised. Which usually means that I, too, am spending lots of time lying on the floor. I'm kind of hoping there are developmental benefits for mamas, too...