6 month update

The 6th month picture out on the deck!

 

 

Whoo hoo - this big girl is 6 months old already!  At her 6 month check up she registered 15 lbs7 oz and 26 inches long.  Little girl is tall!  Her weight is in the 50% (much smaller than big bro) but she is in the 95% for height.  Her 6 month blood test revealed a bit of an iron deficiency but that is no surprise 1. because I often have low iron and 2. Very little iron gets through in Breast milk.  So, we're going to pick her up a multi vitamin, but probably the introduction of table food alone is solving the problem.  She'll be checked again at 9months for anemia.

She is staying strong with her 3 naps a day.  One morning, one during Eli's nap time, and another inconvenient one as I'm trying to get dinner on the table.

On her list of accomplishments, as is evident by the above photo, Nora is sitting up!  And very well balanced at that.  She began sitting up the week that I worked at VBS a week before turning 6 months.  She smoked all the other babies in there with her mad sitting up skills.  She and Eli both really enjoyed VBS.  I think Elijah would definitely benefit from a mother's morning out program.  That is first on my list once we get to Lexington.

About a week after she turned 6 months we started offering solid foods.  Her firsts were banana and avocado.  I completely skipped the cereal this go around.  Nursing is still going strong.  We've tried giving her a bottle a couple times, but she most adamantly refuses - so I hear.  She'll take a few dramatic sips so as not to starve to death I'm sure.  And then, hold out until I get home.  She also completely ditched her pacifier around 4 months as well.  I really tried to get her to like it.  Especially offering it on car trips, but she rarely took it - preferring to scream instead.  I'm not sure how we're failing on this point.  I've heard of only a few other babies that have refused these things all together like my two seem to have.

She's still screeching.  We tried to curb it as much as possible and redirect her to lower octaves.  But, I can already tell, she's going to be a talker and a playground squealer.  She's begun clinging to us when we pick her up.  Wrapping her arms and legs tightly around our necks and waists.  I love this little monkey stage!  I now can wear her on my back in our Ergo.  I love this because I can function more normally and she, as always, enjoys being along for the ride. 

She's also learned that she can sometimes muster toys out of big bro's hands and also pull his pretty blond locks.  With her new sitting ability the world is opening up to her and she is playing better than ever.  Sometimes Eli gets a bit too rough with her and accidentally knocks her down.  After which, he'll run over to us pointing and yelling - "baby down!" "baby down!"  Unfortunately, sometimes her downfall is caused by brother as well.  Other times, I have to ask.  Needless to say, the word "push" has entered Elijah's vocabulary.

5 month update

5 months have flown by.

Little girl is an awesome player, as she gets more control over her body movements she is able to reach for and oogle toys more and more.

Along with this new stage, she seems to be taking shorter and shorter naps and waking more to nurse at night than before.  She is however, settled herself into a 3 nap a day schedule.  With her first nap just about an hour after she first wakes in the morning.  You're right little girl, Elmo is exhausting! 

She's now out of the bassinet and into the crib and she has broken her way out of the swaddle for good.  Oh my how I love swaddled baby's.  Poor Eli cried too much before we learned the power of the swaddle.  Thank you "5 S's" for saving our lives these past 5 months.

One new aspect of Nora's behavior is a bit troublesome - she screeches, shrieks, high pitch squeals.  However you put it - it hurts our ears...literally.  We haven't figured out yet if it's teething, separation anxiety, or just her.  We're trying our best to nip it in the bud for the sake of all our ears, including Eli's.  He'll walk over to her and say, " no, baby."

4 month update

4 month mug shot - sorry no smiles today

she's 4 months old, folks!

Accomplishments this month:
Little girl can roll over both ways!  She surprised us all by rolling over one way and immediately flipping her self over and rolling the other way.  She doesn't prefer to roll, mind you.  It still surprises the heck out of her each time she does. 

As we hit the 4 month marker I can't help but start to think about how soon 6 months will roll around and we'll be introducing solid food.  So far this girl's growth is all me - and I can't help but think how cool that is.

She is super sweet & she already shows so much love for big brother.  She is a talker and she tends to use her voice and babbles as a way of joining in on brother's fun since she can't get up and over to him all the time.  As the second baby, she know's nothing of controlling our day or schedule - that is still all brother.  Sister tags along only.  She goes everywhere Elijah and I do whether she wants to or not - Baby bookworms, park, zoo, grocery.  This however is making her quite the easy going traveler.

At her 4 month visit, she weighed 14lbs 3 oz and was a bit over 25 in long.

We celebrated Easter this year with some neighbors & a low country boil.  Nora mostly slept through the entire party swaddled in a scarf on the screened in porch floor amongst all the hustle and bustle.

Life's Happening

So I took a little break from blogging.  If you hadn't noticed.  I think mostly it was only my mom who did!  We've been busy actually living life not so worried about documenting it.  However, weeks (and months) began to pass - and as we all know babies KILL braincells and this blog is my only hope of remembering anything about my babies lives or ours together.  (Seriously, Rob has to remind me about things from my own wedding and even babies births')  Awful awful memory I have.  It's a blessing and a curse :)  So when I'm old and gray, snuggled under a blanket I've made out of eli & nora's old baby clothes (don't even think I'm joking - I'm already saving my favorite onesies), I can remember all the funny pronunciations and developmental victories and long long days of sweeping graham crackers and scratching dried banana off of doorways with my finger nail - ahh, memories.

Before I begin posting the onslaught of drafts of nora's 4-5-6 months of life and a very grown up 2 1/2 year Elijah post, I hoped to catch up family and friend-family on our own lives.

Welp - I guess the biggest news is that we are moving to Lexington, KY at the end of the month.  Rob is beginning a PhD in Economics in the fall at the University of Kentucky.  UK was a great choice for us as it hosts the Center for Poverty Research.  Rob hopes to influence through writing, research, and teaching how poverty and justice issues are handled at the community and national level through an economic lens on the poor and marginalized in our society. We are so ready and excited to begin this next chapter of our lives which we didn't anticipate beginning for a few more years.  The program lasts 4-5 years, so it's very likely we'll be leaving Lexington with a rising kindergartener and second grader!

Along with this move, of course comes the grind of actually - physically moving.  Ugh, I hate moving.  I hate it with a most intense passion.  Some well meaning innocent acquaintance recently asked me, "do you like moving?"  After she heard how much we'd moved in the past 5 years.  To which I replied, "no - but we're good at it."  And, it's true.  This move has been a bit easier so far than the past ones.  The ease of this move coupled with Nora being so little and Eli freaking out whenever I pull out another box; however, has pretty much cancelled out any noticeable gain from our mad packing skills, though.  Several friends have given us boxes, and we've got a truck reserved for the 20th of July.  Our house is sold and we've bought a beautiful home in Lexington.  We'll close on both the same day.  All in all, we're taking care of business.  It's tough, but I keep telling myself, the worst will be over in a month.  And not to over-dramatize or spiritualize, but we feel like God is continuing to call us out and down our path to learning how to love like Jesus and bring his Kingdom closer.  I'm more excited about Lexington and the work God has for us there than I have been in a long time.  That makes the move, the stress, and then transition all worth it.  Or, worth it most days.

We've held several jobs between us over the summer.  Rob worked at Lowe's for a little while and became the reigning Lawn and Garden Specialist in our family.  We really both enjoyed him working there, the only tough days were when he closed and missed our bedtime routine.  But, I saw him more while he was working there than I had in awhile - It was awesome for our family.

Meanwhile, I've continued with teaching Bradley Classes and doula-ing with Open Heart Doula right up to the end of our time in Knoxville.  I am awaiting my 27th Bradley baby's arrival having taught 54 Bradley students while in Knoxville just over a year and a half of teaching.  Our whole family was quite busy recently with my last two doula clients giving birth just days apart from one another.  I am so thankful for this role serving moms and families.  I'm still hoping to attain DONA certification and possibly IBCLC certification to become a lactation consultant.  With our young family, however, this is a long term endeavor that I'll chip away at slowly over time.

I've already scheduled my first few classes in Lexington and am excited to begin again there.  I don't expect to take doula clients right away after our move.  I really feel like we need to settle in a bit first and get used to our new surroundings and schedules before adding the unpredictability of birth to the mix.

We're really going to miss our neighbors and friends.  A lot of the couples I had in class became good friends and we couldn't have asked for better neighbors in our neighborhood.  We became a part of peoples lives in really cool ways here and we are praying that God has more things like that for us in Lexington as we use our gifts and abilities there.  I've made Eli a shutterfly photo book entitled, "Eli's Big Move - from Knoxville to Lexington"  It's full of all his favorite things and people in Knoxville.  I'm hoping to take some of the confusion and anxiety of moving out of the equation for his 2 year old brain.

Below is a sneak peek of our new home in Lexington.

Front porch and yard

Back yard chicken coop and fire pit

Swing set for Eli and Nora Cate