Tummy Time

Yesterday, Kaydence had her first official "tummy time." Until now, tummy time consisted of laying on mommy or daddy's tummy for awhile. But I decided it was time to try out the tummy time mat yesterday. I'm not sure if being curled up in a ball and sleeping counts for "tummy time," but we tried.

I'm convinced Kaydence is an overachiever because she is already lifting her head almost entirely on her own and on more than one occasion she has tried to crawl. Yes, crawl! When my mom was staying with me, we had her laying on her tummy while we gave her a sponge bath and she scrunched up her knees underneath her and literally tried to scoot herself. Then tonight we had her on her tummy mat and she did the exact same thing and actually scooted herself off of the mat -- her feet were where her head is supposed to be. We were shocked! But I should mention that on both occasions she wasn't very happy about the position she was in, so it was pure frustration that got her to move.

We've had a somewhat rough week. Kaydence is having some tummy issues after she eats and she screams out in pain. Sunday night was so sad -- we had a hard time consoling her. The past couple nights have been a little better, but her evening feedings are the worst. She is usually fine until the late afternoon and then that is when all the gas starts to build up in her tummy (at least that is what I think is happening). By her 8:00/8:30 pm feeding, she is in terrible pain. We've tried gas drops, but they don't always work. Poor thing, she drinks so fast and doesn't burp, so that adds to her pain. I've heard that dairy can sometimes upset a newborn's stomach because their digestive systems aren't mature enough yet. So I decided I'm going to go off dairy and see if that helps. This is going to be a huge sacrifice for me, since I love all things dairy, but it will be worth it if it helps my cute one.

All Kaydence still wants to do is eat and sleep. I noticed today though that she is becoming more aware of her surroundings -- she was studying things intently today. She even looked like she was responding to my silly baby talk and I thought I maybe got a smile (or maybe it was just gas). Hopefully within the next week or so we'll get to see a smile that we know isn't just gas.

Here is something random. Kaydence is an extremely messy eater. She gets milk everywhere -- on her face, clothes, and me. It makes me laugh, but doesn't make me want to feed her anywhere but at home. I hope that gets better. That's all.