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.

New blinkies, sleep woes

I put up a nine month BFing blinkie, and two Christmas blinkies.  Cutting it close to the holiday, but better late than never.  : )

Tomorrow is John’s family’s Christmas.  Woo-hoo!  I’m so excited to put Eleanor in her little outfit, and to see how she reacts to presents.  She loves paper so I have a feeling she’s going to have a ball!  We’ll be getting a workout keeping her from eating all the wrapping everywhere.

Nora has been horribly fussy for a couple weeks now, first with the cold and now she’s teething (again), and I hit a wall last night.  She wouldn’t go to sleep no matter what we did, even after giving her Tylenol, so John finally just put her in her crib with her favorite blanket.  He checked on her after five minutes of crying and calmed her down a bit, then after another five minute stint she was out like a light!  I was shocked!  She’s been screaming bloody murder for 30 minutes to an hour every single night – and that’s with me holding her and attempting to console her – and some nights has refused to sleep until past midnight.  So for her to fall asleep after just ten minutes, and at a reasonable hour, was amazing.  I’m really hoping for a repeat tonight.  I *hate* leaving her alone to cry in her crib, but I have to think it’s the lesser of two evils here.  John wants to try putting her in her crib on her own for naps too, but I think we’ll tackle that when we get home from our trip.

It’s been too long!

I’ve been busy enjoying summer and early fall with Eleanor, and lost track of this blog!  I’m sure all you mommies out there understand.  : )

We’ve all been doing well.  I’m still BFing Eleanor, though she’s also eating some solids now.  She’s eating one “meal” a day, though yesterday she had two and we’ll see what happens today.  So far she’s liked everything but avocado, though she loved the taste of guac John gave her the other day.  I make most of her baby food, and have successfully stuck to all organic things to date.  We’ll see how long I can keep it up!  She’s still sensitive to dairy, though it’s not as bad as before.  Nw if I eat it she gets a little fussy and gassy for a few days, which is mean to do to her but not nearly as ill as she used to get.  I’m hopeful that she’ll outgrow it by the time she’s a year old, though I’m planning on BFing well past that so that we don’t have to wean her to other milk.  I’d like to avoid giving her cow/goat/soy/etc. milk for a while (she reacts to cow and goat cheese, and we’re not completely sure about soy), and rice milk has almost no nutritional value.

Eleanor is trying to learn how to crawl right now, though we won’t be surprised if she walks before crawls.  She loves to stand up and can do so for a few seconds completely unsupported now, though it’s hit or miss.  She stands at her activity table until she gets bored, or tries to lunge for something else and topples over.  She doesn’t seem to quite get that she can move her feet *before* moving her body, lol!

She’s gaining well and growing like a weed.  I’m not completely sure what her stats are right now (forgot to take them at seven months), though I think we’ll be moving her into the next car seat soon.  We got her a Britax Marathon, which I’m happy about.  I feel safe moving her into it.  I’ll miss the ease of carrying her in her infant seat, but she’s getting too heavy for me now, anyway!

Nothing else much is going on in our lives.  I’m a  political junky, so I’m loving all the election stuff.  I’ve also been sewing diapers for Eleanor, since I finally figured out I could probably do it better on my own and for less.  (Bamboo fleece is a wonder fabric!  It absorbs so much liquid, and is very thin.  For once my cloth-diapered baby doesn’t have a huge bubble butt!)  Oh, and we’re heading to Disneyland for Christmas!  I’m so excited about this!  We haven’t been in probably five years, and of course this will be Eleanor’s first time.  I think she’ll be too young to enjoy it, but we sure will.  : )  We’re going with my immediate family, and also visiting some relatives down South for a week after, so it’ll be a long trip.  Should be fun!  I just hope it isn’t too stressfull with Eleanor.  We’ve taken quite a few smaller trips with her (across the mountains to see Grandma and Grandpa), but nothing like this.

I hope to be a better blogger in the future, though I’ve always been bad at this sort of thing, lol!  Maybe I’ll expand out a bit from just writing about Eleanor…