Life As a New Mom: Like a Rolling (Mile)stone

Two huge milestones in one weekend… I am not prepared for my baby to grow up so fast!

My daughter, Dolores, is now eleven weeks old. I have always heard people say that babies grow up quickly, and I’d been dismissing that advice as an old adage. I mean, come on: all babies grow up. Whatever. I was wrong. It seems like she is growing and changing every day; I can hardly keep track.

She reached a MAJOR milestone Saturday night: she rolled over for the first time! I was attempting to console her during tummy time (a time when she’s placed on her stomach to encourage her to hold her head up and develop motor skills). Dolly HATES tummy time—straight up HATES it. With a passion. Tummy time, for us, is basically my hovering over her while she wiggles and screams for a solid 30 minutes or until I can no longer bear to see her so unhappy.

So there we are, in the midst of a particularly fussy tummy time session, and out of nowhere, she just rolls over from her tummy to her back. The she looks up at me like, “Hey. I just rolled over. NBD.” I am amazed and start shrieking, “OH GOD! OH GOD! WHAT JUST HAPPENED? OH GOD! HONEY, GET IN HERE NOW!”

Her Dad bolts into the nursery expecting something horrible (I felt a little guilty for screaming like a crazy person; I probably took three years off his life but… he’ll get over it), and I immediately tell him that Dolly just rolled over for the first time. We flip Dolly back onto her tummy in hopes that she’ll roll over again. We wait… and then she does LIKE A BOSS.

Cue the waterworks. I start bawling because I am so happy and proud. He laughs at me for crying; I say some un-publishable things to him for making fun of me, we laugh and then share a moment of awe. When did she grow up so quickly? I mean, soon she’ll be walking and talking and headed off to Kindergarten… okay, I’m stopping there because I am crying again. And I didn’t wear waterproof mascara today.

 Milestone two was achieved last night. Dolly went to bed at 10pm and woke up at 5:30am. That’s right; MY BABY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! I was not as fortunate, as being a mother awakens all sorts of crazy instincts in you that render you incapable of a full night's sleep. I got up every couple of hours to check on her, and at one point I even got down in the bassinette to make sure she was still breathing. Don’t laugh, okay? I’m entitled to my matriarchal insanity. I may have been up every few hours and am still totally and completely exhausted, but MY BABY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!

BONUS MILESTONE: In a fit of desperation, I gave Dolly a different brand of pacifier. You may recall from earlier posts that Dolly had pledged her unending loyalty to a certain pacifier to whom we refer as “Mr. Paci.” Mr. Paci was MIA, so I grabbed one of my (20-or-so) backups. Said backup is a different brand and an entirely different shape, so I fully expected her to spit the new paci out and scream at me with the fury of a thousand hellfires for daring to betray her. I give her the new paci. She loves it and immediately falls asleep—calm, soothed, happy.

 I’m not totally sure, but I may be getting the hang of this “parenting” thing. Maybe.