Elaina Grace: Almost a Year Old

Two more weeks and Elaina will be one. I rejoice with her as its obvious her newfound skills and increasing independence yields her a great deal of joy, but admittedly I mourn this milestone just a little. I mainly mourn the fact that with every passing day she’s less dependent on me (selfish I know). I am getting ready to wrap up nursing, and while it’s been a huge commitment, especially all the pumping at work, those moments will forever be special to me.

This time last year I was gigantic. Who isn’t in those last few weeks, but I felt especially large given my stage two edema, which made my legs and ankles bloat to unreasonable proportions. I have one very damning picture, that someday, when I am brave enough, I may just post for all to see. In it, I had just taken off very loose anklet socks and still my calf is bulging out over the indentation. An ankle muffin top if you will.

I remember Scott graciously trying to offer consolation as I would get ready in the morning, telling me I didn’t look too bad and my legs weren’t too big (this is while he’s trying in vain to yank compression stockings over my engorged limbs). Basically the only way to sooth my utter repugnance over my own reflection was by telling me that it would all be worth it when baby arrived, and sure enough, it’s all been worth it.

Elaina at one year is no less astounding to me as she was in those first moments when I saw her rearing up on all fours on the delivery room table. Perhaps it’s her slightly downturned mouth, which mirrors Scott’s precisely, or the broad span of her cheekbone that identifies her as mine, but there are moments of recognition that still leave me reeling thinking, “wow, this is MY daughter.”

If I were to describe Elaina presently, I would say she is lively, curious, and physical. VERY physical. So much so that I am convinced if I were to put a boulder in her path, she would certainly find a way to maneuver it. On the same token, she’s definitely feminine, favoring her dolls above all other toys and fascinated with my makeup (especially lipstick and lip balm!)

Among some of her funnier obsessions would be my portable, hand-crank breast pump. I have it stowed away in a cabinet and every day she retrieves it for play. She’ll peer through it as if it’s a telescope and wildly pump the hand crank. Someday I will remember to tease her about this.

As we entered 2012, I read that people were pushing to dash the word “amazing” from everyday vocabulary due to over use. While I agree it’s used too frequently, there’s really no better way to describe my first year of parenthood. Yes, it’s been exhausting, trying, overwhelming, and hard, but it’s also been the single most rewarding experience of my life. In other words, all together amazing.

Elaina 10 Months

Where has the time gone? The fact that I am in the initial stages of planning a first birthday party for my daughter is unbelievable to me. Where oh where did my little 6 lbs 12oz peanut go?

Elaina is up on her feet a lot these days, but not quite comfortable walking independently. She continues to be very speedy and agile and spends the majority of her days exploring. She is very quizzical and curious and points at everything she finds interesting exclaiming “dis, dis.” I assume she means “this, this.”

She is packing away the food and refuses to eat anything deemed babyish. Her favorite thing right now is chicken ravioli. She also really likes pepperoni and guacamole (even when there are jalapenos and onions in it!) She certainly does not have a bland pallet.

She continues to be enthralled with our cats and LOVES her books. As soon as she wakes up in the morning she immediately goes to her book basket and pages through all of her stories. Her favorite book is a toss up between The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss and Gyo Fujikawa’s Babies.

She continues to sleep like a champ at night, but daytime sleep remains pretty unpredictable. Sometimes we’re lucky enough to get a three hour afternoon nap, but normally it’s about an hour in the morning and an hour after lunch.

She continues to delight both Scott and me, and everyday we’re enthralled by some new feat of hers. Most recently she graced me with a big gummy kiss on the cheek, and she can now hug on command. Both of which, of course, turn us into sappy puddles of mush.

Elaina - Almost 9 Months

It’s been some time since I last posted. Elaina is nearing the nine month mark (Jan 28th). In many ways, I feel like I have a toddler on my hands and not a nine month old baby. She is very, very active, and very, very busy. For all the chaos she creates in our lives, we are thankful for her joyful spirit.

Elaina is on the move all day long. Her favorite thing to do is trot back and forth with her walking cart. We basically have to pry the toy out of her fingers. She’s all over the house, crawling at what we consider “super sonic speed” and meddling in everything (cabinet locks here we come!) She has a sincere interest in baby dolls, kitty cats, and the remote control.

While she is sleeping better, she became very ill in December, and went into a small sleep regression following her recovery. Currently she is trying to cut multiple teeth, so we’re again having a tough time at night. Oh, how I long for the day when sleep is not an issue!!

Speaking of sleep, we love our video baby monitor. By far, it’s been one of our best purchases. Not only does it help us to feel comfortable, but it’s great for spying. We’ve discovered that Elaina is a bit narcotic come nighttime. Several months ago we began putting tons of nuk’s in her crib at bed time. This way, when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she can easily find one and go back to sleep. For about the last month or so we’ve watched her hoard her nuks. When she gets in bed, she arranges all her nuks in a big pile. She’ll them systematically go through and suck each one until she finds one she likes. Then off to bed she goes. She also throws her nuks out of the crib when she wants us to come and get her. She knows that if she tosses out all her pacifiers we’re bound to come in her room. Scott and I will be in bed and we’ll hear, “clunk . . . clunk . . . clunk” and sure enough, we’ll look at the monitor and she be standing up and throwing them out one-by-one. What a rascal!

Elaina - 7 Months

My little helpless daughter is helpless no longer; in fact, she is quite bound and determined to do things on her own. She found her mobility several weeks back and has enjoyed crawling all over the house with her toys in tow. However, more than crawling, she likes climbing—her toys, our furniture, other babies! Yes, turns out she’s a little brute. At small group the other night, she crawled right over top little Isaac who posed a road block in her route. Up and over his bum she went.

While sleeping has gotten MUCH better these last three weeks, she now knows how to stand up in her crib and I will find her holding onto the rails, banging her Nuk, demanding a 3 a.m. snack. If I try to put her down, she just stands right back up. And this is how parenting will be I guess-- just when I get a handle on something, a new something will emerge that will require handling.

She’s also started waiving “hi” and “bye.” Just this morning while I had her sitting in her crib playing with some toys as I finished getting ready for work, our little cat jumped into the crib with her. She immediately greeted kitty with a waive. This of course melted my heart. Once she stops grabbing fistfuls of the cat’s hair, I am sure they’ll be good friends. At this point, I am predicting “kitty” to be her first word.

As for the word front, Elaina remains fairly quiet, and I rarely hear her babble. And while I don’t think she is shy AT ALL, I think she is just too busy to focus her attention on speaking. However, it does make me a little sad that some of my friends that had babies at the same time are getting to hear those much coveted, “mama’s” and “dada’s.” That will be truly great!

Elaina - 6 1/2 Months

Well, it’s time we start baby proofing. About a week ago I noticed that Elaina was getting up onto her knees quite regularly. This turned into scooting several days later and has now become a full out army crawl. She’s also discovered that she can pull herself to a standing position and is trying to climb everything around her that offers the necessary leverage to get her onto her feet. She is incredibly proud when things work in her favor, and very sad when she loses her balance and falls. I definitely don’t think she’s crying out of pain, but rather out of disappointment. The girl has some tenacity, I’ll give her that.

Yesterday we brought up a couple of her walking toys including a little musical push cart. She was able to hold on and walk for about 4 ft. at which time she burst into tears. I think the wheels propelled her faster than she was anticipating and she became nervous and didn’t know how to let go. It was very funny to watch, and I know that it will be no time before she is gleefully pushing that little cart all over our home.

In other related news, I am pretty sure that stranger danger has set in, particularly around men. My sister and brother-in-law were gracious enough to take her for several hours this past weekend and Elaina did not want to be left alone with Uncle Travis. Instead she needed to be with her Auntie Ann. Poor, Trav. He’s so nice to her, but the rejection will only be temporary I am sure. The same situation was replicated at my folk’s house this past Monday. She was all about Grandma, but not so about Grandpa. From what I’ve read, this is very normal, even healthy for this stage of development; however, I can’t help but feel bad. In time I am sure she’ll again be batting her eyes at these men in her life.

Overall, everything is going well. For the most part, Elaina is a very jubilant little girl and she expresses her joy with ease—be it her wide smile, her constant swaying, her routine melodic humming, or her kicking legs. However, we’re still severely battling bedtime, and naps have also become a challenge as of late. I long for the day when I can just set her down in her crib and she’ll just drift off to sleep. Presently, nighttime includes long bouts of crying and multiple night waking’s. In other words, we’re a tired bunch. Nonetheless, the happiness outweighs the heartache. And even if this were reversed, it’s still all worth it . . .

Elaina Five Months

How is it possible that my tiny little baby girl has been in the world for five months? Though she has been sleeping really poorly for about the past month and a half, I must say, this stage of development has been the most fun yet. We’re actually seeing personality vs. universal baby behavior. And what we’re seeing may be giving us a run for our money . . .

If I were to describe Elaina right now, I would say she is very upbeat, high energy, and extremely enthralled in everything/anybody. She is without question a mover & a shaker. So my fears of having a stoic child are completely dashed. In fact, just like her mama, she appears to be highly expressive. With this comes very easy smiling, but also very easy crying. When she’s well rested, it seems she is all about going with the flow. However, when she’s tired, the world has ended and there is no pacifying her (this trait, it seems, she also shares with her mama).

We’re not quite sure how much she weighs presently, but I am guessing she’s pushing 16 lbs. Her new fascinations are feeding herself. Whether it’s holding the bottle or using her spoon, she wants to be in control of these tasks. She’s also now sitting up unattended and rolling all over the house. At her four month appt. the doctor suspected she would be crawling by now, but the fact that she isn’t doesn’t bother me at all. Like I said above, I think this child is going to give us a run for our money, and the longer she is sedentary the better!

So last night Elaina belly laughed for the first time. She giggles from time to time, but last night was the first time I heard her really laugh hard. It was bedtime and I was nursing her before putting her down. All the sudden I heard her working out a big poop and I groaned and said to Scott, “oh no, she just pooped.” After I said this I heard a big giggle. I looked down at her and she was full of smiles. I said, “Elaina, did you just poop?” Again, more giggles. I said, “poop” and there were more chuckles. “Poop!” huge fits of laughter. I said “cat!” to see if the laughing would continue, but nothing. I said “poop!” a couple more times and each time it elicited the same laughter. I guess five months is not too young for bathroom humor to be comical.

Elaina, your name suits you. You are indeed a little sunray. You could melt hearts of stone with your smile. How dearly beloved you are.

Elaina Lately . . .

So my little girl is almost 16 weeks old. The fact that 1/3 of her first year is almost complete is extremely shocking to me. While I feel like I have pretty much figured out her likes and dislikes at this point, I still know very little about her personality. She keeps a tight lip on things. If I were to deduce some personality characteristics from what I’ve seen thus far, I would say:

• She’s a girl who needs her sleep. She’s a good sleeper/napper but if she goes without, she gets VERY fussy!
• She seems fairly laid back; she never fusses when it comes to getting dressed or changing diapers. We’ve also dunked her in VERY cold water and she didn’t mind at all
• So far she seems reserved/shy. While she is somewhat chatty at home, she is rarely chatty with strangers. Though we’ve heard her laugh a couple of times, this is still a really rare occurrence. Hopefully we don’t have a little stoic on our hands! That wouldn’t bode well for her overly exuberant, expressive mama!
• She loves music and stories. I suppose this would be true of any baby, but I am hopeful that this means she shares my love for the written word and maybe possess my musicality? . . . we’ll have to wait and see on this one.
• She likes men! While she smiles with ease, she smiles almost instantly as soon as a guy gives her a little attention. Scott might have a run for his money on this one . . .

We love you Elaina bana booboo! You’re our sweet, sweet girl. Without question, you make our world brighter.