Rolling Rolling Everywhere

Yep - that's right! Stella has mastered her back to front roll, finally!  On Saturday, October 1st (just 1 day before her 5 month birthday), Stella rolled from her back to her front!  She's been close for almost a month but her pesky shoulders have always gotten in the way.  She even gave her daddy a repeat performance when he got home.  Gone are the days of an immobile baby!  She is also making rocking movements when she is on her belly, telling me she is preparing to learn how to crawl...YIKES! Not sure I'm ready for that yet.  I haven't even begun to baby proof our house!

On another note, many of you know that Stella has been sleeping on a slight incline since she was born because she has had pretty bad reflux and would often spit up all over herself while sleeping.  Well, we have gotten to the point where we are ready to transition her to her crib so we are attempting to get her to sleep flat on her back.  This has proven to be a difficult task.  On night 1 - she woke up every 30min-1 hour.  I had a huge paper due for my master's program the next day so Matt was Super Daddy and was up with her the entire night unless she needed to eat.  On night 2 - she woke up every 1-1.5 hours so we were a little better.  My paper was done so we tag teamed that night.  On night 3 - She slept 1.5 hours but I was awakened to the sound of her choking and gagging on her spit up.  I shot out of bed and Matt picked her up, flipped her on her belly and patted her back until she started breathing again.  This was more than her average amount of spit up...she was laying in a pool of liquid and had aspirated quite a bit of it.  That is one of the scariest sounds I've ever heard.  After something like that, you can hardly sleep...listening for every breath to make sure she is ok.  Last night - night 4 - she slept about an hour before waking up and then wouldn't go back to sleep without being rocked.  Rockstar Daddy took night duty, once again, and would get her to sleep but the second her body or head hit her mattress, her eyes would spring open and he'd have to start bouncing her again.  Finally around 2am, he gave up.

She seems to enjoy sleeping on her side, which helps ease my mind a bit because if she spits up, she won't choke.  However, she could easily roll to her belly and then I worry about her airways being blocked.  I know she is strong enough to lift her head if needed but everyone has new parents so paranoid about putting babies on their back to sleep that you become VERY fearful of them ever rolling or sleeping on their belly at night.  Night 5 will be tonight...Let's just say, I'm not looking forward to bedtimes as much as I used to.

On top of that, Stella is teething.  She has 2 little teeth that have made their appearance and I think she has a few more that should cut through soon because she is a drooly, slobbery mess!  On top of that, she has had cold like symptoms (runny nose, watery eyes) which all come with teething and everything has become a teething toy to put in her mouth and gum on, including me.  When I was feeding her last weekend, I got bit for the first time.  YYYYYOOOOOUUUUUUCCCCCCHHHHHHH!!  Not pleasant, especially with those 2 little razor sharp teeth on the bottom!  She's done it several times since then and it is making breastfeeding less and less appealing.  So...do I pump 24x7 (which I hate doing) so I can bottle feed her breast milk or do I cave and give her formula (which I didn't want to do)??? I'm still debating...I want her to get to at least 6 months before deciding anything so hopefully she won't be too much of a biter for the next month.

It is really hard to believe that it has been 5 months since Stella made her entrance to our world but even with all of the hard stuff that I've written above, it really does just keep getting better and better! She laughs and smiles more.  She grabs my face to pull me in for a big, slobbery wide open mouth baby kiss.  She loves to look and talk to Coach (our dog).  In fact, she thinks that Coach is around for her enjoyment.  The other day, Matt and Coach were playing with a stuffed soccer ball and Stella turned into a giggle monster.  She just laughed and laughed every time coach got the ball and shook it.  She is just amazing in every sense of the word.  I never thought that I could ever be so consumed, emotionally and physically, by something but I am.  Being Stella's mommy is an amazing gift (albeit overwhelming and tiring at times LOL).