3 Months Old!

Yesterday Hannah turned three months old! I was not able to post this yesterday because it wasn't such a good day in our house (very small naps with lots of crankiness!). Our photo shoots usually go very well and she gives me lots of smiles and good material to work with...not yesterday. She was grumpy, spit up on the first outfit and then all down my back, and wouldn't keep her fingers/fist out of her mouth. There were still some cute pictures, just not very smiley. The only real smile I got from her was when Kodak walked by her and his tail brushed her body. Here are some highlights from this month.

• She LOVES Kodak and usually smiles when he's near and will follow him with her eyes wherever he goes.
• has rolled over from her back to her tummy and the back onto her back again
• will sit for an extended period of time in her Bumbo
• loves to sit in the "big girl" part of the stroller while Mommy and Daddy work in the yard (or wash cars, etc...)
• has discovered the TV and is mesmerized by it
• loves the water (lake and pool)
• loves bath time
• loves music
• will play on her tummy for several minutes without crying (BIG improvement)
• will raise up with extended arms while on her tummy
• occasionally sequels, very high pitch
• takes naps in her crib
• goes on average 6.5 hours between feedings at night
• still needs to be swaddled to sleep, but can get out of any swaddle
• puts her hands in her mouth constantly
• puts toys in her mouth constantly (especially her baby doll and burp rag)
• grabs onto plastic rings and holds them for extended periods of time (and then puts them in her mouth)
• is somewhere around 12 pounds and 23/24 inches long

Rolling Over

Hannah has had an eventful morning. She rolled over for the first time. She was playing hard on her play mat, moving all over the place and around in circles. And then...she rolled over. She was on her back and she went right over onto her stomach. She hung out on her tummy for a while and played pleasantly. We put her on her tummy several times a day, but she only likes to be on it for a few minutes. She "complains" loudly while on her tummy. Today, however, she played and made pleasant sounds. After a few minutes, she rolled back over onto her back and continued playing with her toys. She was happy the whole time and seemed quite pleased with herself. She's not even three months old yet (okay, well she will be tomorrow)!



above: playing on tummy after rolling over
below: in process of rolling back over onto her back

In Honor of Vermell

Justin's "work mom", Vermell, died unexpectedly last week after a routine foot surgery. They think it was probably a blood clot. She was a very sweet and thoughtful lady. She made sure both Justin and I had special Mother's Day and Father's Day cards, she always kept up with Hannah through the blog and asked Justin about her in the evenings when Justin got back to the hub. The engraved door knocker that graces our front door was a wedding gift from her and the special picture coasters were a baby gift from her. Yesterday, Justin and I had the privilege to visit the Reid AME Chapel for her "Homecoming Celebration". It worked out that Justin's typical route had been cut and he didn't want to take out what they gave him, so they let a less senior driver take the route and let Justin go home so he could go to the funeral. Vermell was obviously loved my many. The church was packed, but everyone was singing and dancing and celebrating that God had called Vermell home. She was a wonderful woman who gave herself to the church, her family (2 boys in high school and girl in college) and her work. She was known as a laugher, a talker, a hat-wearer, and a loving, caring woman. These fun pictures of Hannah are on the blog in honor of her, as these are the kind of pictures she would have loved.

Sleep and Fun

Sleep has been an issue the past week. We have finally gotten on a pretty good schedule and Hannah is very used to her routines. Up until this past week, she would even average 7 hours between feedings at night (not all of that was necessarily sleeping though). Her schedule and routine have been interrupted a lot lately. She doesn't do well with that. For the past week she has gone back to only going about 4 hours between feedings at night and waking up much earlier than she ever has before. She is the textbook example of an overtired baby doesn't sleep as well. If she doesn't nap well during the day, she doesn't sleep for as long at night and if she goes to bed too late or is overtired when she goes to bed, she wakes up more often and gets up earlier. I told her the other day that it wasn't fair for her to tease me with 7 hours and then take it back!

Sunday night we had our first experience at the pool. Because she can't wear sunscreen yet and is not supposed to really be in the sun, we decided to go up to our neighborhood pool in the evening. Hannah's friends, Mary Alice and Madeline joined us at the pool along with their parents and Hannah's Uncle Trip and Aunt Llora. It was a very relaxing trip to the pool with minimal fussing from the babies (at least less than usually, from Hannah especially). All the babies were exhausted when we left but had a great time. Hannah loves to be outside and really seems to like being in the water.

Busy Weekend

Whew! What a busy weekend we had. It was fine for me and Justin, but Hannah had too much! Since Friday was Justin's birthday, we went to his parents house on Saturday for lunch. Hannah was great. We then headed out to the Parrish's Chapin Lake house and spend the afternoon/evening with the Parrish family, Williesha and John. Hannah was mostly great. She wasn't too happy when she met Williesha, sorry Willie! But for the most part she did well. Only a few minor meltdowns and mostly because she was tired. She went to bed VERY late Saturday night because a boatload of us went out on the lake (not Hannah - thank you Mimi for sacrificing watching fireworks to watch Hannah!) to watch the fireworks. Needless to say, it was quite late when we got the boat back to the Vitters with the boat and then back to Lexington. Sunday morning we got up and went to church (we didn't make it to Sunday School). Hannah was fantastic during the service. We then went out to eat with our Sunday School class. Hannah was perfect. I headed out to my weekly Walmart trip and left her with Justin just as she was getting the hiccups. Hiccups really frustrate her so she got fussy with Daddy but then calmed down. We then went to dinner at the Connor's house with the Grahams. Hannah started out okay, but then went into complete meltdown mode. She was screaming and nothing would calm her. Heather even broke out her exercise ball for us to bounce on (usually works like a charm) but it didn't even work. Not even a bottle helped. She ate, but then continued to get worse. As soon as she got in her car seat to go home, she fell asleep. I think she was just worn out. I tried to keep her same schedule as much as possible all weekend and keep routines the same, but it was different and a LOT of extra stimuli. She woke up smiling and happy Monday morning after sleeping 7 hours straight (yippee).