Andrea’s Weblog

I can’t believe it’s almost been a month since my last entry. Well,
then again I can. Things have been quite busy with the holidays and
company. This hasn’t prevented Elizabeth from reaching several more
milestones.

Elizabeth is no longer occupied by silly things like fans and lights.
Now when I sit at the keyboard, she wants to hit the keys like I do,
but her typing skills need some work. This makes computer time more of
a challenge.

She is now able to communicate what she wants. For example, when I’m
shopping she invariably decides that gnawing on my shopping list is
what she wants to do. If she doesn’t get the list then she’ll cry until
I can distract her with something else. I’ve given in one too many
times and had to decipher a wet and torn list.

She is now sitting up on her own. I don’t know when this happened; it
seemed like overnight. We were on head bonk patrol for awhile, but now
she rarely tips over, unless she’s going after a toy. Apparently, this
is how they learn to crawl. From the sitting position, they lunge for a
toy on their knees. I’m still trying to convince the kitties to give
her crawling lessons.

We are still having our extensive night time nursing sessions. For
about five days I held and bounced her back to sleep if it had been
less than 3 hours since her last meal. At the end of this, she was
still waking every couple hours and I was exhausted having to fully
wake up each time to calm her. I turned to the internet and discovered
that this is normal, which makes me feel a lot better. I think that
Elizabeth has just made it her goal to be an only child for as long as
possible. As long as she nurses every few hours around the clock, my
fertility won’t return.

Elizabeth got a new car seat for Christmas, so were adjusting to not
being able to bring her carseat into the store when she falls asleep in
the car. Her poor feet were touching the back seat of the car since she
had maxed out on the length allowed in the seat. Now we run errands
after her morning nap and try and return before she gets sleepy for her
late afternoon nap. Now that we don’t have the seat that we can bring
into stores I either have to carry her, sling her, or bring some
antibacterial wipes and sterilize the shopping cart as best I can.
Definitely makes things more complicated.

For Christmas, Elizabeth also got to have cereal for the first time. I
wasn’t going to introduce her to this until 6 months, but she exhibited
all the signs of being ready for it. Her first meal was a success as
she lunged enthusiastically for the spoon (to the delight of her
grandparents, aunt and uncle). She really enjoyed it. She was enjoying
it so much the other day that when some splatted on her high chair tray
she lunged forward to lick it off with her tongue. The diapers that
result from her cereal consumption make me wish I had put it off as
long as possible. The last few times we’ve been out in public (wearing
a disposable diaper) in the morning hours, she’s had an explosive
diaper warranting a complete change of clothes. Thankfully, the cloth
diapers have never leaked on us.

This week Elizabeth has been fussier than usual, so I’m preparing for
another round of teething. She’s due to get her top front teeth. I’m a
little afraid of what this will mean for nursing. She’s accidently
bitten me once or twice and last night she nipped me through the shirt
I was wearing. I think she was trying to latch on through my shirt
which I explained to her doesn’t work. Those new teeth are sharp!