In order to appreciate the irony of today’s events I must skip back a few weeks to tell you that I have been worrying about how to manage Gianna’s “firsts” with Benoit at work all day. I knew the odds were against him for catching a first on his own time with her so whenever I thought she might be ready to creep up on one of her milestones I would get the camcorder ready, call Benoit and wait. And as it turned out, we waited and waited but the firsts never came while he was on the phone nor when I had the camcorder recording.

Today, she rolled over on his watch. He was giving me a much needed break and I was working on some newborn photos I promised for a friend when he yells from the other side of the loft, “She rolled over!! She rolled over!!”. I was up in a heartbeat and applauding our little girl’s first acrobatic accomplishment on the floor exercise, a regular Nadia Comenici that one. But, I was too late. I may have heard her first coo’s and seen her first real social smile but I had tried so often with our daily tummy time rituals to coax the elusive roll over trick out of her and yet all it took was a little daddy and me time and she was a rolling pro! It’s sweet that Benoit gets to have her performance all to himself but so weird for me all the same. I spend so much time with her given my stay at home role I just assumed I would be the one working to include Benoit in the race for the milestones. Now you can bet I’ll have a much harder time letting myself take a break from her even on the weekends. As much as I want Benoit to see all of Gianna’s firsts, it would be so special if we could both capture them together, as a family. I guess today was a reminder that if I want that to happen I need to be more attentive on my “days off” and it wouldn’t hurt if someone could devise a cool tech gadget as an early warning system for such gymnastic feats that we could plug into her little activity mat! Yes, we would buy that.

We didn’t have to wait long for an occasion to dress Gianna in a pretty frilly outfit and put a bow in her hair. She’s adorable but then, we’re biased. Here are some cute shots of her in her Easter finery. You can see more online in our photo album soon.

Gianna and I had quite the adventure on the town today. First, we headed half an hour away to the doctor’s office so my OB could pronounce me miraculously and fully on the path of recovery, my incision practically healed and all my innards shrunken to their normal non-pregnant size. Then, we hit the bank and wowed all the tellers with our sensational new smiling mechanism.

Unfortunately this did not cause them to draft massive bank errors in our favor like I had hoped but it was fun to be the center of attention for a little while. And to round out our journey, we made a stop at the drugstore to pick up that miracle of all miracles, the contraceptive pill. Hallelujah! Just in case breastfeeding full-time doesn’t protect fully against the possibility of ill-timed future little Gianna’s I now have the “mini-pill” to cover those last few percentage points of efficacy. Oh, and somehow I managed to take that $5 copay for my prescription and rack up a $70 bill in Easter candy and assorted pastel-colored baby must-haves. Hmmmm, I guess my shopping demon hasn’t been let loose in awhile and even if it was just a drugstore I showed some major consumeristic prowess. Ha, I still have the touch! Saturday we’re going to the mall baby! Watch out!

P.S. More super cute photos of Gianna have been posted in our flickr albums. Check out the new album!

The lactation specialist/nurse lady offered me no clues yesterday as to why Gianna makes such barbaric, bear-grunting, lollipop slapping squeaking noises while she’s nursing. She sat on a stool right across from me and my nursing babe for about 20 minutes, watching and listening to the wrestling match we were broadcasting loud and clear to her. Then she turns and says to me, “Well, I can’t figure out what she’s doing in there to make those noises. Everything looks fine to me on the outside. I guess we don’t really have a plan for you.”

Great. That’s super encouraging. Not even a word uttered to puff up my diminishing optimism. Not even an ill-timed joke to relieve my concerns about all these plugged ducts. Not even an offbeat, hillbilly herb to prescribe for this condition she can’t put her finger on.

So, I’m back to using my motherly instincts and hoping Gianna outgrows this orchestra at the breast she’s been performing and perfecting for the past 3 weeks. It doesn’t seem like there really are any experts out there. I found everything out by my prime researching skills and the help of google image searches so far. Damn waste of a $10 copay yesterday.

It’s just you and me little girl. We’re going to plod and push our way through this little hiccup if it’s the last thing we do. Afterall, you aren’t quitting (though you are a little more motivated with your grumbly tummy 8 times a day) so why should I? I’m in it as long as you are. If only I could muster the kind of motivational speech for us that my blogger friend xbox made for his intimate friend Spencer. (This is really a must read post folks. Go check it out.)