Last week Nathan rolled from his back to his tummy for the first time. Getting to his side is easy, but going further takes a fair bit of effort, and the hardest part is moving the arm that he rolls onto! Still, with lots of effort and concentration he gets there. He also knows to tense his body when we say ‘up, up’ because he’s going to get picked up. He can be very talkative, with new sounds regularly being vocalised.

Nathan went for his first swimming session yesterday. We went to the indoor pool at Maroubra which is about 32 degrees and joined a small group of mothers and babies; there were 5 of each. It was all about singing songs and doing different actions with the babies. Oh, and lots of dunking babies. To dunk, we had to blow into the baby’s face so that he shut his eyes, and then he got dunked. I didn’t do it to Nathan, but the man taking the class dunked him twice. I thought that was enough for his first lesson since he wasn’t looking too happy after the second time. The other babies were all dunked numerous times. I was told that Nathan did really well, as babies often are very vocal in their dislike of being dunked for the first time.

Nanda and Nathan at just a week or so old

I had a dental appointment yesterday, some 2 weeks after I first felt some pain in one of my teeth. The pain wasn’t constant, it’s just been on and off. We couldn’t find where it was coming from….I couldn’t feel any pain when he dug and delved and blew cold air on my teeth, so it’s a bit of a mystery at the moment.  I ended up just having a general check up and getting my teeth cleaned.

Nathan spent the 45 minutes I was at the dentist with Nanda…when I walked out of her office with just my hand bag I felt free, like I had my old life back and I could go wherever I liked when I wanted. However, by the time I’d walked to the dentist I was missing Nathan!!! He, on the other hand, didn’t miss me!!

Nathan is 3 months old already and has been on 5 aeroplane flights. Flying with him is pretty easy, but car travel is still hard. We have worked out that most of the problems in the car are due to Nathan’s inability to go to sleep if he’s not being held, and have worked out ways of getting him to sleep in the car seat. Nothing works all the time, though, so we still have screaming sessions in the car.

Nathan is so much better now at grasping things, and that includes his own hands. He has this way of clasping both hands together and then working them in a manner that looks like he’s worried! He often pushes himself up to standing when being held, and can support his weight for a short period. He’s like a little yo-yo…he pushes himself up, collapses down, pushes up, collapses down, etc. etc. Nathan is also supporting his head well during tummy time, and can hold himself quite high for quite long periods of time now. I’m sure it won’t be long before he starts rolling over on a regular basis!  He does still have his sticky/weeping eye.

Our days usually start around 7 or 8 am, the mornings are more settled than the afternoon or evenings. Periods of being awake are usually around an hour and a half to two hours, and then the tired grizzling starts. He is still a great cat-napper, since he often wakes after only half an hour of sleep. If I take him for walks in the Ergo carrier, he may sleep for up to 2 hours, making for a happy Nathan and a tired mummy! About every second day Nathan gets a bath with either Daddy or Mummy, usually around 8 or 9 pm, and he’s popped into his sleeping bag in the hopes of getting him to sleep by 10 pm. Sometimes it works, sometimes he won’t go to sleep until midnight. He’ll then usually wake once during the night for a feed. So that’s now the day normally goes at the moment, unless we go out for the day and then it all gets mixed up! But Nathan sleeps well in the Ergo, so as long as I’m walking around he’s happy. 🙂

And lastly, I just love how he smiles with his whole body!

Nathan is now able to sit in his Bumbo seat for short periods of time, though he does sort of flop sideways when he’s tired. His reaching has a lot more direction, and can even spin the shapes on his bouncer toy bar. He’s growing quite chubby,but also lengthening since he’s nearly outgrown his 00 Wondersuits. He also dribbles a lot, though not all the time. His hands are often cold and clammy from sucking his fists…so far I’ve seen him manage to get 4 fingers in his mouth at the same time. 🙂

And just because I love the photo below….