Rolling Over

Last night, Katarina rolled all the way over from her back to her belly for the first time. When I went to her room to answer her cries for a 1 AM feeding, I found her lying on her stomach with her upper body propped up on both elbows. She has been rolling most of the way over for a few weeks, but she hadn't yet made it all the way before last night.

Even though Michael was called in to work several times last night, I think he still managed to get more sleep than me. My silly baby was up every two hours as if she were still a newborn! Of course, those nighttime interruptions of slumber don't prevent Kätchen from being fully awake and ready to play in the morning, at which point she'll scream at me until I stop trying to rock her back to sleep and just start playing. Then I get the biggest morning smiles! Yesterday, I grabbed the camera to preserve her morning faces:

I discovered that our bed is an excellent photography studio, with the headboard as a backdrop and the windows providing natural light. However, Katarina was so wiggly that the early-morning rays were not enough light to capture a still shot without flash, aside from the one above. After a few blurry attempts, I added the external flash for the following two shots, taken five minutes later.

Katarina is also grabbing at objects and trying to hold them or bring them to her mouth. She wants to gnaw on everything.

Kätchen loves to sit in her Bumbo chair and watch her big sisters play. Her big sisters, in turn, love to put on shows for her. One day Katarina watched Gabi until she was so exhausted that she just fell asleep in her Bumbo. Oops!

Katarina is just two days shy of being 5 months old. Last Monday, one week before she'll turn 5 months, I finally took her to her 4-month check up. She measured 24 ½ inches long (50th percentile) and weighed slightly less than average at 13 lbs 4 oz (35th%). Her head circumference is also average at 16 ¼ inches around (50th%). She is a perfectly-proportioned baby! I get so many compliments on how adorable and doll-like she looks, especially with her happy smile.