My sweet Ellianna,
What a month we have had! Busy would be an understatement. You...You have been busy developing and moving. Long gone are the days where we could place you somewhere safe on the floor and walk away without worrying about what you will get yourself into. You are such a busy-body! You always have been a 'mover' but now that you have the means to get yourself where you want to go, you are enjoying this freedom. We have been busy with family visiting. Busy with work and school, looking forward to graduation. Busy planning a much anticipated family vacation. And busy trying to balance life.
Oh little one. Where should I start? You are now getting yourself out of sitting onto your tummy and from there; the house is yours. You still love to sit and play with your toys, watch your dogs, and flip the pages of your books. However, now that you are so fast crawling on your tummy, this is your preferred position. Crawling has given you the freedom to explore...you are opening the doors on our coffee table, trying to open the kitchen cabinets, opening the bathroom drawers, and you love to crawl straight for your puppies. You are amazed with their tails, trying to grab their tails, and trying to put their tails in your mouth. Your puppies? Well, they are a little skiddish with your new mobility and once they feel you grab their tail, much to your disappointment, they walk away. Your pups do love you, often giving you kisses and making you laugh just by looking at you but the pups like to be the ones approaching you.
Other changes this past month is you are now pulling yourself to standing. You are still new to this skill and a little unsure about what to do once you are standing but you do enjoy yet another position to look at us. You are also getting onto your hands and knees and trying to crawl in that position but continue to crawl on your tummy. On April 12, you started saying your first word, 'ba ba ba.' You have been teething real bad, full of fussiness and crying but thankfully, your top right tooth is beginning to break through the gums. You are also pinching me now, but only when nursing. This pinching gives me daily reminders to trim your fingernails. You have this habit of taking off your socks however your feet are usually warm so most days you remain sockless. This past month, you also celebrated your first Easter and made your first trip to the zoo.
You continue to enjoy the new solids we have introduced. You are now eating cauliflower, chicken, barley cereal, avocado, and mango. I had intended on introducing more but time got away from us this month. You continue to impress everyone by drinking water from a straw. You are doing so good with self-feeding finger foods. So far, you are
feeding yourself Cheerios, peas, and bananas. I imagine you could be
feeding yourself more foods, we just haven't given you ample opportunity
yet. We haven't introduced juice yet because of the sugars but that time will come soon enough. You are eating either 4-ounce bottles and/or 4 ounces of solids every 3-4 hours and we try to give you a bottle or nurse before your solids so your calories continue to come largely from breast milk.
On April 15, I took you into to the pediatrician concerned you may have
an ear infection because you were crying so much at night and refusing
to nurse on the right side. Turns out you had a blister inside your
left cheek and your ears checked out fine. The doctor was concerned it
may be the beginning of Hand, Foot, Mouth disease but thankfully, we
never saw blisters elsewhere and within a week, you were back to normal. At that appointment, you weighed 17 pounds, 5 ounces and length of 28 1/4 inches. You are wearing size 6 month clothes, 6-9 month sleepers, and size 3 diapers.
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| Walking around the zoo in your new backpack carrier! You loved it in there for 90 minutes without fussing. We just wish the sun shade was bigger to protect your skin fully but it was a nice alternative to pushing the stroller. |
With all these changes and more movement during the day, my friends kept telling me you should start sleeping better because you will be more tired. Well, little one, you follow the beat of your own drum and you sure proved them wrong. It seems that you love moving so much, you feel sleep is a waste of time. More days than I can count, your total nap time is less than 1 hour. Even in the middle of the night, you start rolling around in bed and before I fully awaken, you are either crawling or pulling to stand using me as leverage. The frustrating part is getting you to fall asleep. The nights where you refuse to fall asleep, you are busy smiling, scrunching your nose, talking...you just keep wanting to play. If I try to keep putting you to sleep, you get more upset and we spend 2-3 hours before you give in to falling asleep. If I let you play, you are so happy with more floor time. You have a strong personality and fight falling asleep. Some nights you are sleeping from 9 pm - 8 am while other nights sleep occurs from 11 pm -8 am. We continue to co-sleep so when you wake at night, neither you nor I fully awaken and you are quickly nursed back to sleep. If there is one positive of your sleep habits, even as a newborn, you never had days and nights reversed. I know that someday your sleep habits will finally improve! I just hope and pray it is sooner rather than later.
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| Our family at the Gladys Porter Zoo, April 13, 2013. |
This 9-month milestone brings with it so many wonderful memories. While pregnant, I remember reading about the importance of giving your body and life 9 months to return to normal post pregnancy as it took 9 months for all the changes to occur that gave us you. I don't think anything ever returns completely to normal after having a baby but we are doing so much better now than those first few months with scheduling, routine, and knowing you and your needs. It's so amazing to think that during the 9 months of pregnancy, we developed hopes and dreams for you and while we still hold onto those, it is you that makes those hopes and dreams a reality. So, while I admit it makes me sad to think of how close you are to your first birthday, it is you who has brought so much life into our lives and have given us so much to look forward to experiencing with you. You have turned our dreams into reality sweet baby girl. We love you and can't wait to watch you continue to grow and amaze us!
Our day began at 3 a.m. as Miss Ellianna decided that was an ideal time to practice her standing skills. For 2 hours. Thankfully, she finally understood that her mama needed more sleep and we went back to bed til 8. Ryan began our day by making his homemade blueberry pancakes and Elli joined us for breakfast by eating her first pancake. Ryan and Elli were excited for me to open my gifts and of course I was teary eyed. I don't blame lack of sleep or hormones. I found myself reflecting on the last few Mother's Days when my heart ached so bad for a baby and I said a quick prayer for all those couples out there who are struggling to become parents as we know firsthand how heartbreaking it can be. However, as any couple who goes through the horrors of infertility understands, when you finally receive your miracle, you appreciate each milestone so much more than words can express.
Saturday, April 13 we all went to the zoo and a good time was had by all. Ryan and I had previously been to the zoo with Savannah and Amy and again, we were pleasantly surprised with how big the zoo is, not huge by any means, but large for where we live. We treated my dad to lunch at Whataburger, which is a Texas chain and apparently the burgers are good. We also made an 11:30 p.m. drive to the grocery store due to a restless, fussy baby in hopes of the vibrations of the cart would lull her to sleep. Took about 40 minutes walking around the store but she did fall asleep! That moment of sleep lasted 30 minutes once we returned home. :(
