My free time is dwindling now that Elizabeth is down to two naps. The house also needs to stay clean (for my own happiness) and one nap is usually spent tidying up and watering our little vegetable garden in the back yard and the second nap is spent doing something for me (whatever that may be depends on the day). Therefore, quick posts. My apologies.

This week, Ellie got her first cold. We were patting ourselves on the back that her teething was finally, for the moment, over. She has four new top teeth! Although they aren't out all the way, she's already using them to chew on the hair of her doll, Susie Q. Susie Q already has a bald spot....

Because of the teething, she started making this face where she scrunches up her nose and breathes heavily in and out, in and out. We think she's stretching her gums to relieve some of the pain. You try making the face....that's what it does! It makes her look like she doesn't like peas, but she loves them!



In fact, she's now eating: apple, zucchini, peas, green beans, corn, egg yolk, cheese, yogurt, beef and veg mix, chicken and veg mix, turkey and veg mix, and rice husk mum mums. Depending on the day, she'll love something or hate something. She also loves to explore the food on her own. For instance, because of her cold, yesterday she didn't feel like having dinner so I plopped her peas on the highchair tray and she painted me a picture. The next pic is another time with corn and rice krispies, but you get the idea. There were peas EVERYWHERE.

When she's not sick or teething, she's a good little eater and most of it actually gets into her belly.



OMG

I understand the necessity and value of teeth, but why can't nature give babies a break!?

Solid-arity Sistah!

We've been experimenting with different solid foods. I started her off with rice cereal and after a few days I think she got bored with it. Then I boiled and pureed some sweet potato. Again, after a few days she got bored with it. Then I steamed and pureed some apples and she LOVED them. Especially when I fed her the puree on a piece of apple that I was eating at the time.....but then we found that she didn't sleep well at night because the apple upset her stomach!

Then I tried to boil and puree some peas and she loved those too....only to get bored of them after a few days. Back to the sweet potato.....and back to the stomach upset. So apple and sweet potato are out for the time being. I bought a butternut squash and a zucchini to try next week.

If you remember, a while back she slept two nights without feeding and then she got her second round of shots and was back to 5-6 or 7 hour stretches before needing a feed. Then we decided to do a 'dreamfeed' at 11pm so I went to bed at 9pm, J stayed up until 11 and fed her in her sleep and then went to bed. On this 'regime' she was lasting until about 6:30am. This lasted for about 2 weeks and then the stomach upsets started and everything went topsy turvy. It's a good thing I'm a scientist and I'm good at experiments! To give her a break, and to experiment with her nighttime sleeping habits, we decided not to feed her solids for a few days and not to feed her in her sleep around 11pm to see how long she would last at night without a feed. She lasted ALL night! 7:15pm to 6:30am! The amount she was taking at 11pm had been decreasing and decreasing and if she woke at night, I got the feeling it wasn't from hunger because whenever we picked her up, she calmed down and never went right for the bottle like she was famished. I guess we'll have to work at being patient enough to get her back to sleep without feeding in the middle of the night since she obviously doesn't need it. But I tell you, at 3 am, you'll try anything to get them back to sleep as quickly as possible!

 Elizabeth is also sitting on her own now!!! We were practicing over the last month or so and the last 2 weeks she really started sitting with confidence (a few face-plants will shatter your sitting-self-esteem for a while...). She no longer finds the bumbo comfortable now that she can sit on her own. We sometimes plop her in there, but she wriggles so much since it sort of cups her butt. We've moved her onto the highchair and she loves it!

She sure shows that floor who's boss, huh??

Donate something!

Every year, J and I donate to various causes: Alzeimer's, Cancer, Diabetes and Parkinson's Disease. Because of various family members, we've chosen these causes and are happy with the fact we can help out in some way. If only we could donate more..
On top of those causes, we also donate to the Ottawa Humane Society, various races that we or friends may be participating in, and people who come fundraising door to door. I also donate old clothing when Cerebral Palsy and Diabetes call for it. We do what we can!

Last year, on April 26, 2011, my grandfather, Josef, passed away. He was a long-time sufferer of Parkinson's Disease and left us at the ripe old age of 88. I wish I could have spent more time with him....our relationship grew from my grandparents visits to Canada or when I would visit the Czech Republic. With the cost of airfare, one can only guess how often I really got to see him. I would translate his eulogy for you, but I don't have the heart to do it. As my first loss as an adult, it hit me hard. But enough of my dwelling on the past. He was a feisty one with lots of great sayings like "Your feet smell because they grow from your a$$". He was great at drawing horses, and he was amazing at the violin. I miss you, grandpa!!

Being on Maternity leave, I haven't had much time to devote to my wavy/frizzy/thick hair. It grew and grew and was halfway down my back. I kept tying it back because Little Miss Grabby McGrabberson couldn't keep her hands off of it! Ouch! So, when I finally got the chance to cut it, I decided to donate the hair to the Cancer Foundation so that I could help with the making of a wig for a woman who has lost her hair to cancer. I donated through the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program because I had 8 inches and that's their minimum. I know Parkinson's and Cancer are two totally unrelated diseases, but it felt good to donate something other than money. Hair is a sort of renewable resource, so I'll probably grow it again and make another donation in a couple of years. Maybe at my next Maternity leave??

I quite like the haircut too...although once I washed it and let it airdry (which is all I have time for) it was back to it's wavy/thick/unruly self. But who cares! Someone with cancer will get my hair and that's awesome!!! I ask whoever reads my blog to go out and do some good...donate something. Whether it's a monetary donation, hair, volunteer time, clothing, toys, anything, it'll make someone else out there that much happier. Isn't that worth it??

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! Part deux.

Well, I have been thrown off the seat off my chair (re: ending of last post). What a week!!

In the last two weeks she has gotten not only one, but TWO teeth. I'm sure the top incisors aren't far behind as her cheeks and nose were bright red all day....unless she somehow got into the melon flavoured vodka last night, haha.

She finally started to roll over. A couple of days ago she was like 90% of the way there, but would always go back on her back. Now, in the blink of an eye, she rolls over onto her stomach. In the wee hours of the morning (last night it was 4:44am on the dot) she rolls over, then gets extremely frustrated that she can't roll back. However, as I write this, she is 45 minutes into her nighttime sleep, she's rolled over and she eventually fell asleep on her stomach. I had rolled her back on her back but she immediately rolled over again!

Her mega diaper rash is finally going away thanks to some prescription cream. The diaper rash is a result of the teething.



Today we gave her Gripe Water for the first time. What is Gripe Water? It's a liquid containing sodium bicarbonate as well as other natural ingredients like dill. It helps with sour stomach due to teething. Babies swallow a lot of drool when they are teething and this can alter the pH of the stomach contents. It seemed to help her get more comfortable as she was obviously in a lot of tummy pain today.

On top of all these things, she got her second round of shots this week and is super cranky.

But at least we get all this out of the way, right? Then it'll be smooth sailing for now on??? Right??? haahahhahahhahahahha

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!

Ellie slept, for the first time ever, all night. That's right. 11.5 hours. 7:00 pm to about 6:40 am. No middle of the night feed. No crying from her teething or mega diaper rash. On the other hand, it was my night and at 1 am...and 2 am...and 3 am...I was looking at the video monitor thinking "Hello?? What's going on??? Something must be wrong if she hasn't woken up yet...". So I didn't get as much sleep as I could have, but that's entirely my problem, not hers!! J turned to me at 4:30 am and says "have you fed her yet?" and I said "NO! I'm lying here going crazy cuz it's weird that that she hasn't woken up yet..." and then I started babbling and he obviously wanted to go back to sleep. I finally fell back to sleep around 5 for an hour before J's alarm went off at 6.

I will be blown away by this all week, I'm sure....and today she gets her second round of shots, so we probably won't see this again for a while. But still, I'm so...I don't know...PROUD of her!!!

There are way too many factors to know how to recreate this blissful night: we ran a fan in her room all night because of the recent heat. She was only in her diaper and a t-shirt under her swaddle, she started sleeping on her side a few days ago and spent most of the night that way (and also rolled over the other day, so now we'll be on to the swaddle-weaning!), she had bad naps all day and must have been exhausted, she got a lot of fresh air yesterday with the gorgeous weather...the list goes on. Either way, now I know that sleeping through the night is at least possible!!!

So along with the rolling over (which I'm not really sure if it was conciously done or if she just used gravity when she was on her side) and starting to sit with only a little bit of help,



she's cut her first tooth. All that drooling and hand-chomping proved me right!



Everyone was telling me it was too early for her to be teething and when I felt the sharp top of that first tooth, I called J at work and left him a message in my "really high-pitched excited voice" (my high school friends out there have all heard this voice!). Jeez, he must think I'm crazy...

It's been a wonderful past few weeks....I'm on the edge of my seat wondering what's going to happen next!

4 months old (tomorrow)

J and I have been worried about the future weaning of the swaddle. It's such a prominent part of Ellie's sleep ritual that I'm scared she won't be able to sleep as well without it. However, I'm sure she'll adapt as all babies do!

Anyways, a couple of weeks ago she started arching her back a lot more and sometimes we'd even find her asleep in that position. She wasn't crying out in pain, so we knew it wasn't from gas or reflux. She was on her way to rolling over.

If I'm behind her when she's lying on the ground, she'll arch her back and throw her head way back and look at me. She'll even swing one arm over to try to get momentum.
Unfortunately, she's not fully aware of her legs and the farthest she'll get is onto her side. Then she turns her head into the blanket she's on and grunts and grunts until she gives up. I can see she's getting so frustrated! I've even helped her along and turned her legs so that she ended up on her stomach. She then smiles for about a full minute while she takes in the new vantage point. And here I was thinking she hated tummy time...

Another thing we constantly see is drool. See the bib in the next picture? It's not from feeding her, it's because once she's in the Jolly Jumper the drool just starts pouring from her mouth. I'm assuming it's because she smiles more and since her mouth is more open it just comes out! She's chewing on lots of stuff: plastic rings, fuzzy toys, fingers...this is another way for her to explore different things.


Lastly, she's discovered her vocal chords and lungs. Specifically that combination. She'll take a deep breath, pause, and then screech. Over and over again. And again, and again. You'd think she's upset, but she's not. She's having fun...especially since we have high ceilings in our family room and her screeches echo a bit. It's like the room is full of babies!