Samantha at four months of age

Tuesday, 3 September 2013 – Today, Sam tried to roll over from her back to her tummy completely unassisted and on the floor. She was trying to look at me as I was sitting behind her, and once she had wiggled around so that she could see me with her head cocked at ninety degrees, she gave up trying to roll over. She also giggled at me for the first time. I’m not sure if she was amused at me sitting down while saying “and”, or if she was gleeful because she was about to be fed, but it felt really good to have it happen. The best thing was that hubby was there to see it. She also started talking to the girl in the mirror in the bathroom for the first time.

Sam has also started exhibiting teething symptoms (pulling ears, chewing hands, drooling, whinging), although I am also aware that some of these are developmental, some are tired signs, and some are signs of ear infections (although she had no trouble lying down to go to sleep). Nurofen works well for pain relief, but we do try and limit its use to desperate times when she appears to be in a lot of pain.

Saturday, 7 September 2013 – Sam officially rolled from her back to her tummy on a flat surface today. She can only do it if she has something in front of her to grab onto to pull herself over, but she’s doing it completely under her own steam, even if she is grabbing our hands to do it. We’re so proud of our little girl. She now spends a good deal of time trying to figure out how to do it when we’re not there. Once she figures out how to roll from her tummy to her back, there’ll be no stopping her.

Tuesday, 10 September 2013 – Sam’s teeth seemed to have settled down for now. No toothy pegs yet, but with the amount of gumming she does on my nipple, I can’t say I’m looking forward to teeth. She’s getting quite obsessed with watching me eat, so I suspect a formal introduction to solids isn’t too far down the track.

Sam is quite able to roll over on the bed (all the way over now...back to front to back again), but she’s still trying to figure out how to roll over from back to front on the floor. She spends hours trying, and she has the most success when she’s angry. She can get her legs and hips over, but can’t move the weight of her head and shoulders over unless she has something to grab onto and pull on. She can’t roll from her front onto her back yet on the floor, except the times when she’s not quite rolled over from back to front properly and loses her balance. She’s trying to work out the mechanics of crawling (or paddling a surf board LOL), and she can now lift her head right up to look at us. It won’t be long now until she won’t stay in the same square metre that I put her down in.

She loves sitting up too, and is starting to play around with standing, both with our support.

With summer coming quickly, I’m now able to put her in all the cute rompers that are available. I’ve discovered that pastel pink looks very wrong on her, but red is totally her colour. I’ve also got a navy Minnie Mouse dress coming, and I suspect that colour will look amazing on her. The American red, white and blue is very much her colours. She fits into 00 (3-6 months) clothes now, and only a few special 000 (0-3 months) clothes still fit.

Wednesday, 11 September 2013 – I am very proud to announce that Sam rolled over from her back to her tummy, on the floor, completely unassisted. The video is of her rolling over a week later.

Samantha rolling to play with monkey.

Saturday, 14 September 2013 – Sam just rolled from her tummy to her back for the first time, and it was so special because Brad got to see it too. I’ll be in trouble the day she puts the two motions together and starts rolling to where she wants to get. Does anyone have any suggestions for playpens?

Sunday, 15 September 2013 – Today Sam started rolling in the cot instead of sleeping, and then when she did sleep (for 10 minutes), it was in a half rolled over position. She has also started a new game of planking when she’s on the change table. She stiffens up from neck to knees and pushes herself up. Quite annoying when you’re trying to do her nappy up.

Wednesday, 18 September 2013 – Sam likes to roll onto her stomach pretty much as soon as you put her down and turn your back. The only problem is that she hasn’t yet rolled back onto her back since Saturday, so she spends a lot of her time yelling encouragement to herself to figure it out.

Friday, 27 September 2013 – Sam met her grandparents (my parents) for the first time this week. She has really enjoyed all the extra attention that this brings, and all the extra toys they bought her. She has been a little grumpier that usual, due to quite a number of things. She’s going through a growth spurt (or a wonder week), a sleep regression (trying to roll), teething, and she’s also been chronically overtired for the last week. All this combined to make a tired baby who was starting to wake in the middle of the night for extra feeds, and a stressed out mum who wasn’t getting any time to herself. At the worst point, we were down to 9 hours sleep in 24 hours, which is 5 hours short of her usual 14 hours, and this happened for three days in a row. Luckily, I decided to unload of my BFF (she’s already had one baby, and her second is only a week behind Sam, so she’s either going through the same thing, about to go through it, or has been through it before), and she had some good ideas for getting things back on track, starting with the 7pm sleep, which had disappeared this week. She’s been feeding at 5:30pm and 6:30pm, with the bath at 6:00pm, but we’ve changed the bath to 5:00pm, and this seems to have made a big difference. Fingers crossed the good sleeping continues.

This month’s favourites

Pram links – Sam loves to feel and hold the links, wear them as bracelets and chew on them.

Bright Start monkey – Sam grabs this toy around the crinkly middle and tries to stuff the whole thing into her mouth. It’s quite comical and she clearly loves the feel of it in her mouth.

Lamaze ladybug – This toy is primarily a teething toy, so it spends a lot of time in her mouth, but she also likes to feel the yellow loops on the side.

Summer sleep suits – This is the perfect outfit for bedtime at the moment. Cool enough for the warm nights, and warm enough for the cool nights with an extra blanket.

Samantha – 3 months old already

Sam is sleeping 8.5 hours at night, from 10:30pm to 7:00am. I love my sleep, and I love that I am able to get a full night’s sleep in one chunk, and at the proper time. I also love walking into the nursery to be greeted by Sam’s adorable smile and excited wiggle as she waits for me to take her into my bed for her morning feed.

Sam weighs 6.1kg and is 60.5cm long. She has put on 2.5kg and grown 10.5cm since birth. She is rapidly growing out of 000 clothing, and I am enjoying buying some 00 clothing, which I also needed to do because the season has changed rapidly here, and I didn’t own much in the way of summer clothing for my little girl.

Sam struggles with gas, mostly farts, and at times I have needed to treat it with gripe water (the non-alcoholic variety). It appears to be a whole heap of oils that have pain relieving properties, and seems to work reasonably well and quickly.

We took Sam to church for the first time when she was 9 weeks old, and we have continued to do so every week since. She behaves fairly well, and if she gets overwhelmed then she just goes to sleep.

Sam is rather ticklish, although she only shows it at this stage by grinning and wiggling, not giggling.

She is quite happy to sit down and play with toys or pram links for about an hour every day. It is really interesting to watch her learning about whatever she’s playing with, even if it’s just her hands. She spends hours watching their movements and linking her fingers together and examining them. She watches me put sanitiser on my hands, and I expect one of these days she will start copying me.

Sam found her thumb this month, and her sleeping and self settling has improved dramatically. She never really took to a dummy – it was a device to be spat out and cried over – but now that she has found her thumb, there is no need for one.

Sam prefers to be carried the majority of the time so that she is facing the world. She wants to see everything and take it all in. She has discovered television, computer and mobile phone screens, and she’s fascinated by them. She has discovered that there’s a little girl in the mirror as well.

Sam practices her chuckling most mornings, although the giggles are at random things at the moment. The first time I heard her giggle, I was trying to put her back to sleep in her pram. The hood was down, and I heard this chuckle from within the pram. Needless to say, all attempts at getting her to sleep were abandoned after that.

Sam has rolled over…once. She rolled from her back to her tummy while she was on our bed. She had been feeding in the middle of the bed, and when I hopped she rolled into the divot where I had been lying. She then spent five minutes wiggling around trying to figure out how to get her arm out from under her body.

Mummy & Baby Favourites 0-3 months

So, for those of you who are new to favourites blogs and vlogs, a favourites post is where you list of all the favourite products you’ve used during a particular time frame, basically as a means of recommending them to other users.

For Mummy

U by Kotex maternity pads – These were the most comfortable maternity pads I tried. They didn’t leak, and they didn’t come apart when they got full. I had the wingless variety.

Avon block colour singlets – These singlets were and are very easy clothes to wear while breastfeeding. They’re comfortable and easy to layer up to suit the changing weather and heat needs, depending on where you are and what you’re doing.

Light blue with white polka dots brunch coat from Target – I use this as a nightie. It has buttons all the way down the front, and is very easy to breastfeed with in the middle of the night.

Samsung Navibot robotic vacuum cleaner – This was my birthday present from my husband this year, and I’d be lost without it. I was never big on vacuuming anyway, which has always been a problem for my husband’s dust mite allergies. However, he has noticed a big improvement since running this clever little machine every day, and the floors always look presentable now. He chose this one, because it maps the room and cleans logically, instead of randomly.

Coles breast pads – I tried both these and the Rite Aid ones, and the Coles are my favourites by far. They last 24 hours easily without breaking apart.

Nursing cover – I am an overly modest person, and I certainly would not be game to nurse in public without my nursing cover, although I’m sure I manage to flash anybody that could be bothered to look.

Hand sanitizer – I have some on my change table and in my nappy bag, and I am so glad this stuff was invented. We use it on our hands every time we change a nappy.

Baby by Smallnest app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch – This app is amazing! Brad and I both have it on our phones and it is synchronised. It keeps track of feeds, sleep and nappy changes. I use to track which side I fed from last, how long the current nap has been going for, how long she’s slept in the last 24 hours, and how many wet nappies we’ve had in 24 hours.

Avon’s Anew Aqua Youth Gel Cream – Avon sent me this as a gift for Mother’s Day, and I didn’t use it initially because I was still pregnant. I started using it a few weeks postpartum because my skin dried out so much, both from the hot water in the twice daily showers I was taking and from the dry air that accompanies winter. I love it because it’s a gel that stays on your skin for a long time, rather than a cream.

For Baby

Newborn stage

Sleeping bags and night gowns – For a winter baby, these outfits are functional and warm, and they make the endless nappy changes easy (particularly important at midnight).

Snappies – These make doing up terry cloth nappies a breeze. They are a “T” shaped piece of stretchy plastic that works similar to a bandage clip.

Cotton On stretchy swaddle and big muslin swaddles – I was given a lot of swaddles, but I found that the little swaddles quickly became too small, especially for my little Houdini. I had three big muslin/cheesecloth swaddles and one Cotton On swaddle and they were big enough to fold down the top to keep escaping hands in and fold the edges under far enough to be tight and secure.

Infant stage (Winter Season)

Sleep suits – Great for night-time sleeping and especially cold weather.

LS Bodysuits – Great for general daytime wearing up to around 21 degrees. The snaps make for easy nappy changes, which are more frequent during the daytime at this stage of life.

Singlet suits – Greatly preferred over normal singlets, because they snap up under the nappy and don’t ride up.

Terry flat nappies – This is such a versatile item! In the beginning, we used them for their original intended purpose as nappies. However, we now use them as burp cloths and spew rags to protect clothing and any surfaces Sam is laying on.

Bibs – Very important to protect Sam’s clothes when she is posseting and dribbling.

Bepanthen – We tried other nappy rash creams, but unfortunately any creams containing zinc oxide make my MCNs leak, as they form a barrier on the nappy as well as the bottom. This is the only cream that we have found that doesn’t contain zinc oxide, and it seems to do a pretty good job too.

Lamaze lady bug teething rattle, Playgro ‘Clip Clop’ donkey, and Bright Stars monkey – Sam’s three favourite toys

Least Favourites

Babylove newborn disposable nappies – These nappies are my least favourite, because they made poo stick to Sam’s bottom.

Baby pants – Such annoying pieces of clothing, particularly with frequent nappy changes.

Rite Aid breast pads – I found these pads didn’t last 24 hours where others would. They came apart fairly quickly.

Singlets – As mentioned before, disliked because they ride up.