Happy Birthday Baby!

Eleanor turned one year old yesterday!  We had a party for her on Saturday with about ten people, mostly family.  It was a good party and she got tons of new toys and clothes!  She spent all day yesterday playing with her new push toy (from mommy and daddy).  She loves to walk around behind it.  She is so close to taking her first step on her own, but isn’t there quite yet.  Hopefully soon!  For now she moves much more quickly crawling so she doesn’t have much incentive to walk.

She’s now saying dada and versions of mom (mama, ma, nen, even Jenn recently), as well as “hi” and “up”.  Her little voice is so sweet!  She learned those last two in just the last week or so, so she seems to be learning quickly now.  I’m looking forward to hearing the next word!

She doesn’t have another appt until the end of the month, so I weighed her (on our Wii Fit, haha) and measured her myself.  She’s now about 18.5 lbs (13%) and 29″ tall (59%).  So she’s still  skinny, but not as much as before (she was 16% weight and 87% height at 9mo).  We’ve been feeding her a ton but I guess she might need even more.  Yikes!

We gave her soy milk for the first time the other day and she loved it.  I’m hoping to swap out a couple nursing sessions a day for it, but so far she seems to be treating it as more of a supplement than a meal.  Now that I know her stats, maybe that’s a good thing.  I’m planning on continuing to breastfeed for the foreseeable future, hopefully until she’s about two, which is the WHO recommendation.  We’ll see how it goes.

She popped her first molar on the 12th, which brings her grand total up to nine teeth!  Her sleeping is still all over the board, largely from the constant teething.  Though apparently I was a horrible sleeper as a baby too, so it could just be that.  I am so thankful that I’m able to stay home with her!  Besides the fact that I love being here with her, I would be a zombie at work most days.

I can’t believe my baby is one, but I also look at her and see a one year old.  This year just went too fast.  I hope the next one is a little slower, and I can’t wait to see what it brings!

Good-bye, Jim

My father-in-law passed away on Sunday, February 8th, 2009, at 2am, just twelve days after being diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.  He was in his own home and surrounded by his loving family when he passed, though we don’t know how aware he was of any of us at the last.  We spent the time recounting memories, and I think  it was the best last hours we could have given him.

Rest in peace, Jim.  You will be missed terribly.

Very sick father in-law

My FIL has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  It’s inoperable and spread to a few vital organs already, putting him at stage IVb.

He was diagnosed on Tuesday and told he had maybe a year.  Everyone was shocked, obviously.  That’s how this cancer appears to be for almost everyone: swift and cruel.  We went down to see him and my MIL on Wednesday and other than being in pain and understandably more impatient than usual, he was his normal self.  It was a good visit.  On Friday they spoke to the oncologist who told them he probably only had a few months, which was more in line with what we had been reading.  It could even be weeks.

On Saturday we were supposed to go see him in the early afternoon but they had visitors left and right, so we postponed for a few hours.  My MIL ended up taking him to urgent care (after calling hospice) in the early evening, because he was acting very out of it and having vision problems.  They gave him half a bag of fluids and did a CT scan, where they found two lesions on his brain in the area that controls the optic nerve.  We’re pretty sure he had a stroke.  By the time we saw him he could barely remember who Eleanor, my SIL’s husband, or I were, had almost no memory of the last month or so, and he seemed to be under the impression that he was recovering from an illness.

This latest turn has been incredibly hard on the family.  Everyone expected him to be lucid for the duration, so in some ways it feels like we’ve already lost him.  Having to explain to him over and over why he’s in pain, and telling him that he just saw so-and-so yesterday, etc. has been heartbreaking.  On the other hand I have to believe that it’s easier for him, not knowing that he’s about to die.  He and my MIL had everything well-prepared, so it’s not like he needed to do any last minute things.  Maybe it’s better this way.

If you have a thought to spare send one to his family, especially his wife.  There’s nothing we can do for him now, except make him more comfortable and keep him as happy as possible.  That task is taking a huge toll on all of the family, but most especially his primary care-giver.  I don’t know how she does it.

Mama finally gets some sleep + 10 mo BFing blinkie

I put up a ten month breastfeeding blinkie.  Wow, ten months!  Crazy!  The last few months of breastfeeding have been a breeze, especially compared to the first few.  Eleanor still has her moments of not being the nicest nurser – especially when she can’t breath because of a cold, poor thing – but for the most part she knows exactly what she’s doing now and how to do it without hurting me.  Even with her seven teeth, she very rarely does something that hurts me.  The only time she comes close to biting is when she gets distracted by a sudden noise or something.  I was so worried about breastfeeding a baby with teeth, and now I’m a little surprised that more moms don’t talk about how easy it really is!  I guess that’s probably partly because few women even breastfeed this long these days, and the majority of ten month olds don’t have seven teeth.  Haha!  Hopefully a few moms out there can learn from my experience.  I always enjoy learning from other people’s successes and mistakes before embarking on my own journeys!

Last night was the best night for sleeping that we’ve had in this house in I don’t know how long.  Eleanor was up only once to eat!  She gave us a six hour stretch of sleep.  To give you an idea of how rare that is: I woke up engorged and leaking! I never leak anymore, at night or during the day, unless I’m nursing her on the other side.  I hope my body gets the chance to adjust to this.  I know it will in a few days, if Eleanor just keeps this up!

As you can probably tell I’m in a very good mood today!  A little sleep can work wonders.  : )

Just another daddy’s girl!

In the last few days Eleanor has decided that John is her new favorite person, and she’s also saying dada appropriately!  It’s enough to break a mama’s heart, though at the same time I’m so proud of her for saying her first word.  Haha!  Being a mom is quite confusing at times…

I remember my siblings going through phases where they preferred one parent over the other, then switching back, so hopefully this is only temporary.  I’ve also read that babies usually say dada before mama because they understand at an earlier age that daddy is a separate being from them.  They think of mommy as being the same person as them (separation anxiety is a symbol of them starting to understand that mommy is a separate person after all, if I’m remembering this correctly.)  I just keep telling myself all of this so that I don’t get jealous!  It’s working.  Kinda.

I think she might be teething again, since she’s chewing and drooling and sleeping like crap.  Up every 1.5-2 hours all night long, and usually only nursing will console her back to sleep.  Ugh!  This is her typical teething pattern, though she tends to take a long time to pop the teeth.  She’s been doing this for three weeks now and I am running on empty.  John took her yesterday morning and let me sleep in and I slept until 11am!  I usually hate doing that – such a waste of a day – but I obviously needed it.

Nothing else new going on.  I’m already over winter and want spring to get here.  That’s one problem with going down to So Cal for the holidays: you get a taste of lovely weather and it makes winter seem interminable.  We went to the local nursery last week and bought some indoor plants, which helps.  I really want an indoor lime tree, but can’t really justify spending $50 on something that I will very likely kill!  I think I might just go buy a few limes and plant the seeds.  And maybe make maragaritas.  ; )

Dispatch from the road

I have internet access at my aunt and uncle’s, so figured I’d post a quick update on us.

The ride down was fine, though a bit hairy in parts.  We left a day earlier than we had wanted to because of the weather, and I’m glad we did.  The first day on the road was nasty.  I have a pic of the freeway as we were leaving the first hotel, which I’ll post later.  It was basically a pure white road with no lanes!  At least we were one of the only cars on the road.  Our car trucked through it just fine.  Eleanor did wonderfully in the car, sleeping the majority of the way.

At some point on the way down, all three of us and most of my family came down with a cold.  We’re all still fighting it.  Figures, but what can you do?  Just life.

Disneyland was fun, though quite a bit harder with Eleanor than I had hoped it would be.  She had a few major breakdowns on rides, which was not so fun, the worst one being on the Finding Nemo ride!  Ugh.  (For those who don’t know: it’s a submarine.  Yeah, imagine a baby screaming on a submarine!  It was awful.)  For the most part she was a trooper and slept quite a bit in her stroller.  Her favorite rides were Small World – she was enthralled! – and Dumbo.  Riding through Small World with her made my trip.  She was so excited and happy!

We got to my aunt and uncle’s – my uncle is my father’s brother -  in So Cal on the 26th, and had a great first evening here.  However we woke up to the news that my paternal grandfather had passed away in his sleep the night before.  : (  My grandpa successfully fought off lymphoma two years ago – it was Christmas time when he was diagnosed – but never truly recovered.  He’s been pretty ill ever since, and we’ve been worried several times that we were about to lose him.  So his death was not exactly shocking, but still felt a bit out of left field.  He had been doing pretty well lately.  My grandma seems to be coping well.  In a way it was the best possible timing: we would all have come down here for his funeral anyway of course, but this way my grandma also has help making arrangements, etc. and has all of her family around her for support.  One of my uncles lives with her still, so I’m sure he’ll keep her good company in the future.  (She lives about an hour and a half away from my other uncle, so I’m glad she has someone closer.)

Looks like the funeral is going to be this Saturday, and we’ll be staying for that.  We were originally going to leave on Friday.  John’s work is very generous and gives him three days of bereavement leave even for his spouse’s grandparents, so that’s great.  He has enough time saved anyway, but it’s a nice bonus.

We’re hoping for an uneventful conclusion to this trip.  The roads have cleared quite a bit, so at least there’s that.

Another Christmas blinkie

I saw this phrase on a onesie the other day, and it is so applicable around here right now:  “All mommy wants for Christmas is a silent night!”  I made it into a blinkie and put it on the graphics page.  As usual, save to your comp and host it elsewhere (Google Picasa, PhotoBucket, ImageShack, etc.) Thanks!

New blinkie

I’ve had “Auld Lang Syne” stuck in my head for a week, so I decided to make it into a blinkie.  It’s on the graphics page!

New pics and 9 mo appt

I put up a few pics from this past Sunday.  She was so cute in her little red tutu!

We had her nine month appointment today.  John was able to come to this one, which was great!  I always forget half of what I wanted to ask and half of what she tells me, lol!

Eleanor’s weight has dropped to the 15th percentile, while her height has gone up to the 81st!  She’s long and lean.  A little too lean though, so her doc wants us to add more fat to her diet.  We’re also going to add in a second meal every day, which I’ve been doing occasionally but without any consistency.  Her doc wasn’t too concerned about it though, and said it could just be her body type since her daddy is tall and we’re both pretty thin.  Other than that she’s doing quite well, and meeting all of her milestones.

She had her second flu shot and first polio vacc (we’re still following Dr. Sears’ alternative schedule), and did well for both.  We picked up vitamin D drops at the pharmacy, since her doc wants her on those during the winter, but we haven’t tried giving them to her yet.  Her doc also wants us to cruch up one Tums twice a week and mix it in with some fruit puree to feed her, since she can’t have any dairy.  I need to go look that up and see if there’s something better to give her.  Her doc didn’t seem so sure about it, and I remember Tums making me sick as a kid.  I don’t want her to be calcium deficient though, so if that’s the only choice we’ll have to do it!  Mmm, Tums-apple sauce!

Sleep breakthrough!

I’m almost afraid to post this, for fear of jinxing it, but I think I’ll risk it.  Last night and tonight Eleanor went down for bed, in her crib, with no fussing whatsoever, and promptly conked out!  She also did it for a nap today.  I’m just floored.  I don’t know what happened to my screaming sleep fighter, but I kinda like this Eleanor better.  Now the test will be tomorrow when I’m home alone with her: John’s been the one to put her down every time so far.  We’ll see if she’s just as happy for me.  Only problem now is that she’s still eating about four times a night, I think because of the growth spurt.  Or the teething.  Or who the heck knows at this point.  At any rate, it’s exhausting.

Today was the Christmas celebration with John’s family.  We had a great time!  Yummy food, good presents, and of course great company.  It’s nice hanging out with John’s family since they’re all adults now (well, except for Eleanor now.)  I feel like everyone’s on the same page and the group is more cohesive.  It’s different for me since there are still actual kids in my family.  I’m still not quite used to family gatherings of all adults.  Not that I don’t like hanging out with my family, it’s just nice to experience something different.

Eleanor got a couple of awesome gifts, including these water blocks by Plan Toys that we had put on her Amazon list, a cool little outdoor pool (little cold now, but should be lots of fun come summer), and a knit bear that’s as big is she is that grandma made for her.  She didn’t care about the opening of the presents, though she liked the bows, but she really loved the blocks and the bear.  It was so cute to see her face light up!  It’s interesting to see her memory start to form.  Used to be that a toy was new to her if she hadn’t seen it for two minutes, if that.  Now she recognizes toys that she hasn’t seen before and gets very excited to play with them.  We can also very clearly tell when she’s truly interested in a toy or when she just wants to check it out because it’s new, but it’s not all that interesting.  I can’t wait to see how she reacts to the rest of her Christmas gifts.