Gosh…what a beautiful summer we’ve been having lately! The
weather has been just perfect…not too hot or humid…the days just seem to fly by…I
apologize for the long posts lately…when I get a chance to write, I really let
it all out, lol!!
Elena has been doing pretty good…we have our challenging
moments but thankfully there’s a lot more fulfilling moments…I am so grateful
for how often I laugh these days, really laugh…I can’t remember any time in my
life that I’ve laughed more often than these last few weeks…the other day Elena
did something funny, I laughed then she laugh which made me laugh harder which
made her laugh harder…it was hilarious!
Switching to 3 hour feeds was easier than I thought it would
be…but I wouldn’t say it was completely easy either…I do feel like we have a
semblance of a schedule & routine now though. It’s amazing what a
difference that one extra hour between feedings makes…we have time to do things
& I am confident going out more…Elena is eating better & sleeping really
well. She wakes & nurses about 9am, nurses again about noon & naps,
nurses around 3pm & naps, nurses about 6pm…we’ve been taking nice long
walks in the evening at about 7pm & by the time we get home, I give Elena
her bath & that takes us to her 9pm feeding when she settles for the night.
Fantastic…for a week…then this last week Elena woke up in the middle of the
night 3 nights in a row. I’m not really complaining since she nursed & went
right back to sleep…but since then, she’s not going to bed after her 9pm
feeding anymore. She falls asleep but wakes up after 40 minutes & stays up
until midnight but then goes down for the night…I guess the 12 hour sleeps were
too good to last but I’m guessing that since she’s getting more consistent day
time naps, she only needs the 9 hours at night…and 9 hours is pretty sweet so
I’ll take it. The challenging part is the 20-40 minutes before she’s due to
eat…she can get very cranky & fussy…not every time but often enough…I can
usually distract her but I often just give in & feed her 10-15 minutes
early.
The one thing that soothes Elena 90% of the time is if I
sing to her…I’m not being humble or self deprecating when I say I can’t sing…I
truly have no musical talent & am completely tone deaf! So am completely
flattered that she loves my singing so much…my other singing issue is that I
don’t remember most of the lyrics to kids songs so end up doing medleys of a
bunch of songs, lol! Anyway, one of the songs she likes the most is “Old
MacDonald Had a Farm”…easy for me since I know all the words ;) & I think
Elena loves all my goofy animal noises (our Old MacDonald has monkeys &
elephants on his farm!)…because of Elena’s love of this particular song, I
remembered having a toy when I was a kid that I think many of us had, The
See’n’Say where you pull the string & it makes the noise of the animal the
arrow was pointing at…well lo & behold Fi.sher Pri.ce has made an updated
version that I finally tracked down! Elena loves it!
I didn’t end up starting Elena on cereal just yet even
though the Dr gave us the green light…I was so excited for her to start that I
went out & bought bowls & spoons & Rice Cereal that I can add
breast milk to…then I just didn’t feel confident that she was quite ready…I
can’t really explain why, it was really more of a gut feeling but I’m just not
sure she’s quite ready…she’s showing great interest in watching us eat &
other signs she’s almost ready but the one thing that was catching me up was
this tongue reflex thing…I don’t quite understand what I should be looking for.
If anyone can describe this for me, I’d greatly appreciate it.
Now I will leave you with a few photos since I haven’t
posted any in a while…
A Laughing Moment
The day we put her crib together...doesn't she look tiny in it?!?
Playing in her Exersaucer
Out for our evening walk
