Four Month Well Baby Check-up

Dr. Nasser declared Eleanor "perfect" today. He said she's growing well and that her alertness and responsiveness and muscle tone are exactly what he looks for in babies her age. He told us we're doing everything right and was just tickled at Eleanor's playfulness and reactions to other people and to her environment. She weighed 14 pounds, 8 ounces today and was 26.5 inches long. On the weight chart, that puts her right at about the 75th percentile, following the gentle curve nicely. However, that puts her off the chart in height. Rather than following the height chart nicely, the line tracking her growth jumps up sharply from where it was last month, leaving her somewhere around the 99th percentile. I felt validated after seeing that; I've been worried that I'm advancing her to the next size clothes too soon - that I'm doing something wrong, shrinking things in the wash, perhaps. No, no. She really is the size of a six-month-old baby. I wonder when she'll slow down, since it's just not in her genes to be a WNBA star.

New Things

We've been putting Eleanor in her little Bumbo seat regularly. She really seems to like being able to look around at things. Yesterday I pulled out her jumper and put her in it. She got a kick out of being the same height as the dogs. She was playing a little "game" of turning around on accident, and therefore "losing" me. When she figured out how to get turned back around she thought it was the greatest thing ever, like I'd somehow played a little trick on her. I've also been sharing water out of my cup with her. She makes a total mess, but thinks it's great fun to drink out of Mommy's cup. She gets frustrated with me sometimes when I won't share - like when I'm drinking juice or milk. Evidently, she still doesn't understand the difference and why she's too young for other things. I've also been giving her water in a bottle lately to help her get used to the bottle idea so that it's not so tough when I go back to work in three weeks. Hopefully, this works.

One at a time

Lately, Eleanor has been trying to suck her thumb. While nursing. It doesn't work out in her favor, though, because while she's nursing it's difficult to get her thumb in her mouth and what little she is able to get her thumb in, it just breaks the suction seal she has around my nipple, making it so she doesn't get anything when she sucks except for air. So, being an attentive mother, I pull her hand out of the way and reposition her latch. She's resilient, though. She gets that thumb right back up to her mouth ready to stick it in. A few times, I've allowed her to have her thumb instead, but then she gets upset with me for taking away her lunch. But she never gets upset when I take away her thumb, so I assume she wants to eat more than she wants just to suck. Also, she only brings up her left arm to do this; she never does it when she's nursing on the other side. Kelly and I are wondering if this could mean she's left-handed. I know all the literature says we have another two years to see for sure which hand she'll be dominant in, but it still makes us wonder. We each have a left-handed brother, so it is possible. I guess we'll just have to wait and see for sure!

Rolling!

Eleanor rolled over tonight! She went from her tummy to her back over her left shoulder. I think it was an accident, though, because she hasn't done it again, and because she looked surprised when it happened. She has been twisting around a lot lately when I lay her down, looking like she's trying to roll over, but this was the first time anything actually came of it. As soon as she did it, I started clapping and smiling and telling her what a good job she did, but she just laid there looking back like she was trying to figure out why I was so excited.

It's amazing how big such little things can be!

Do you want me to put my fingers in your mouth?

People seem to have some irrepressible urge that I don't understand to put their hands all over babies' faces - even strangers. Personally, I really dislike having my face touched at any point by anyone, so perhaps this is the stem of some of my frustration on the issue, but I can't even express clearly how disturbing, how disgusting, it is to me when I see dirty or just potentially dirty hands aiming for Eleanor's face when she has plenty of cute chub to tickle on her arms, legs and tummy. Even I wash my hands before picking her up or playing with her and she's my kid. I will say that it bothers me less when people I know do this, but there is still the part of me that cringes, thinking about how little I would like it if their fingers were all over my face instead. But I don't freak out. If it's a real problem, I ask the person to stop or I move away from them. And in the end, *sigh*, she is perfectly washable.

One more gross factor, even worse: peoples' fingers in my baby's mouth. Do you want me to put my fingers in your mouth? Maybe touching El's face won't ensure passage of germs. Maybe that is me instituting a level of personal quirks on my baby. Maybe. But it is never OK in any other circumstance to put your fingers in anyone else's mouth so I don't think someone else's baby should somehow not apply to that rule.

To be honest, the only place on her body I don't cringe at when people touch - and we're talking strangers here, people who I don't know or don't know their personal hygiene habits - is her legs. And of all the people I've introduced her to in the last three months, the only people who have been so cognizant of the germiness of touch have been my teacher friends and one teacher friend's boyfriend - a nurse.

This is one mom's plea to the rest of the world: please be aware that you're messing with biology and instincts, bred into mothers over the last few eons, to keep our babies safe and clean. Yes, babies are cute. Yes, they're fun to play with. But if I doubt for a second that you're clean, I'm not worrying about a little bit of dirt beneath your fingernails, I'm suddenly worried about everything else - scarlet fever, Ebola. You might think it's silly, and perhaps it is a little. No, I don't think I can protect her from everything, but it's one small gesture on your part to show your goodwill in our silent deal: I let you share in the joy of my baby if you come at her clean. Us moms work really hard for a long time to grow healthy and beautiful babies.

Reach out and touch someone

Eleanor started reaching for things about two weeks ago - just familiar toys, really, and the edges of her clothing - and pulling it toward her face. And her precision with holding on to me or my shirt while she's nursing has improved, too. However, the newest big step in that development is her ability to reach out for faces, mostly mine and Kelly's. It's great fun to see her interacting with us like that!

Mom, what is his problem?

I had an appointment at the birthing center today that, because she's rarely far from me, I took Eleanor to. Afterwards, I was sitting on the couch in their living room area making El's page in their scrapbook with her sitting on the sofa behind me. There was another couple there with their seven-week-old son, who was unhappy with life ths morning, it seemed. While his mom was getting checked out, his dad was walking around the place with him and stopped to talk to me and Eleanor. When this dad stopped next to the couch to chat, Eleanor, who had been sitting contentedly, playing with her hands and talking animatedly to me, stopped and stared at this crying baby. I looked at her to gauge her reaction to the crying. She looked at me soberly, raised her eyebrows, and turned bck to the baby, eyebrows still in the air until te father-son pair walked on, to which she responded with returning to her hands and chatter. I could almost hear her thinking, though, Oh my goodness, Mom, what is his problem? Doesn't he know how loud he is? What a bother! It totally cracked me up!

Sleeptastic

Eleanor has been sleeping a lot again. She started off sleeping nearly 24 hours a day, then went through a period of a few weeks where she was awake almost ten hours a day and now she's back to almost continual sleeping again. When she is awake, she's happy and alert, but these days you have to be looking for those golden moments between naps. If she wakes up on her own, or even with one of us right there welcoming her to the day, she wakes up fairly cheerfully - especially if she's waking up from a long period of sleep. But if she wakes up before she feels ready to, she wakes up cranky and ready to nurse herself right into another nap. I guess all this sleeping means she's growing some more.

One cute new development from the last few days to report: Eleanor has started hiding in shyness sometimes when she smiles. It's adorable! She'll turn her face into my chest and cover up with her hands when someone else gets her to smile really big. And sometimes when we're not holding her but get her to smile big, she'll just cover her face with her little hands and peek at us. Oh, and she's started smiling for strangers this last week, too. Her first recognition smile outside of me and Kelly was my mom when she was probably five weeks old and her first smile for a stranger was this Monday at Sears. It's fascinating to watch her own personal evolution!

Last Saturday, we went to a reunion with all the couples from our birthing class. We ate, shared our birthing stories and talked about all the cuteness involved with having babies in the home. While sharing birth stories, we learned that Eleanor was the largest baby from the bunch at birth - something that surprised us because we're not the biggest people. Here's a picture of Eleanor with all her little baby buds.

Also, I've been wanting to get these pictures posted for a while, but the last time I tried the system wouldn't let me. These are from Eleanor's first bike ride in the sweet trailor from Grandpa and Nana.

Abandon the Sheep

I had to put my favorite baby pajamas away for the long sleep last night. El's sheep pjs are now too short for her. I guess at 24 inches long (and 11 pounds, 8 ounces), it's time to start looking into bigger clothes. I hope our next baby is born a little smaller so s/he can wear those sheep pjs longer because they're darn cute!

Eleanor had her first doctor appointment Monday. Dr. Nasser was excited about her growth and said she's doing very well over all. We asked him about what we thought was a tooth, but he said it's actually just a cyst - evidently it's normal and babies get the on their gums all the time and they're easily confused with early teeth. We were happy to hear that. We know she's growing fast, but we aren't ready for her to be four months ahead of the game with teeth.

At her appointment, she received her first shots, which she handled pretty well. She gave her best mad cry, but was quickly pacified with nursing. I don't think it started hurting until later that evening; then she spent some time crying and whimpering (which made me cry with her) until Daddy came home with some baby Tylenol. The next day she was back to her usual, chipper self.

Oh, and speaking of pjs, I just noticed that the ones she is wearing tonight won't last us much longer either.

Yeah...It's been a while...

But I plan to do more consistent updates again. The goal is at least one weekly, like I used to when I was still pregnant.

School's out and I'm officially a stay-at-home mom for the next ten weeks or so. Those last two-and-a-half weeks back went quickly, thank goodness, because they were hard! The first day was the worst. I wore black eye liner that day to encourage me to not cry - there's just something in knowing that if you cry that you'll get black smears all over your face to act as a great deterrent. By the end of the two-and-a-half weeks it still wasn't easy, but by then I was so close to the end that it was manageable. Eleanor had excellent care givers each day I had to work who each brought her to me at lunch so I could feed her, but it was still stressful for her, too. By the end, she was refusing bottle feedings until she was too starving to resist and was fighting sleep during the days. I think it will be much better when I return in the fall - she'll be nearly five months then and will have had the whole summer to learn that I will always be there.

We had our last midwife appointment Thursday. El weighed in at 11 pounds, 8 ounces and was 23 1/2 inches long. That puts her in the ninety-seventh percentile for height and the ninetieth percentile for weight. I've already had to put up some of her 0-3 month onesies because they won't snap any more and I've pulled out some of her 3-6 month clothes in their place. She's learning how to hold things better in her hands, can hold her head up on her own pretty well, and will follow me and Kelly walking past her, even if we're on the other side of the room. When Kelly gets home and comes to say hello to her, she turns on the big smiles - she definitely knows who he is and is excited to see him. She can laugh now, too, although her laughs aren't necessarily triggered by anything specific. She is awake and alert for a good portion of the day now. That's some of my favorite time watching her because as she looks around at her surroundings it's obvious that she's thinking hard about something, like she's trying to figure out what things are and how they work. Her gaze is intelligent, almost calculating, and makes me wonder what's going on in her head.