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.