Four wonderful months with this beautiful girl, and I am amazed by how much my love for her seems to grow every single day. Every new thing, every giggle, every smile, every cuddle – I just cannot get enough of this sweet, sweet daughter of mine.
I decided to think of a few categories to write about each month for updates rather than just aimlessly writing things. I think sometimes that can delay me from writing, but I do a lot better with a good framework. Two blogs that I follow regularly have done updates about their little ones, so I am taking a note from their books. (Peanut Butter Fingers and Daily Garnish – both great blogs!) These are the categories (could always change I suppose…):
- Highlights & Milestones
- Loves
- Dislikes
- How am I doing?
Highlights & Milestones
This past month we attempted a camping trip with Miss Eleanor. I was so excited and ready to take on this challenge, and boy was it a challenge. I found myself thinking so, so differently about what to bring and how to make it all work. Our car was completely full, and it was only a weekend of camping!
The trip was our Annual Base Retreat. I love this event every year, and for several years, I was part of the team that planned it. Although I didn’t grow up camping, I’ve come to appreciate it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am a “camper” haha, but nonetheless, I enjoy it. Camping with a baby, though? Not so easy. The first night was so rough because it was quite cold, and I was so paranoid about Eleanor staying warm enough. She woke up often to feed, and I tried to get to her super quickly so she didn’t wake anyone else up. Needless to say, I woke up the next morning having barely slept and not feeling too great.
We ended up making that our only “overnight stay”, and we headed home each night for bed after a full day of fun with everyone. There were over 200 people this year, which is so crazy to think about.
We also started a new quarter at the base, and with that, there are 70 new students hanging around and learning. It’s funny being a mum in community like this because people LOVE babies and often know them before or more than they know you. It’s great to see how much everyone loves Eleanor, though.
A big milestone for Eleanor this month was that she started rolling from her belly to her back. I really thought she was going to do it the other way first because I couldn’t get her to like tummy time for long enough to really practice the rolling. One day, tummy time just didn’t seem to be as big of a deal, and then all of a sudden, she just rolled over. It was so cute because she wasn’t quite sure what happened. She’s done it off and on for the past few weeks now. She’s getting closer with rolling from her back to her belly as well, but she still can’t seem to get her arm out of the way.
Finally, just before ringing in her “4 month birthday”, Eleanor decided to have her first trip to the hospital. I’m not going to go into details as to what happen except to say that it was quite possibly one of the scariest moments of my life. All is well, and she was appropriately taken care of, but man, I hope to never do that again!
Loves
Eleanor absolutely loves her hands. She stares and chews on them all day long.
She loves her little bunny blanket thing – what do you even call those things? She also loves this little rattle that has a pink horse on it.
She loves playing on her activity mat and making sounds at all the things hanging from it. She loves the “anticipation sound” – I am not sure how else to describe that one, but needless to say it gets BIG smiles every time.
She loves her Daddy and will smile at him all day. She also loves mornings, and after she’s had her feed and I’ve set her in her swing, turned lights on, gone to the toilet and grabbed brekkie, she squeals and smiles with delight when I come back in the room. It’s as if I were gone for hours. It makes you feel good haha.
She loves walks in the pram for the most part, and she still loves ceiling fans and lights.
She’s starting to love FaceTime (in moderation), and she’ll smile at Grammy and Papaw and Grandpa and Grandma when they talk to her. She loves moving and part of me thinks her tiny frame is part genetics/part exercise. The girl does not stop moving! She’s doing leg kicks all day long.
Dislikes
She still dislikes the bath to a degree. She’s fine while in the bathtub (albeit, I am with her b/c that’s the only thing that’s seemed to work with her), but within minutes of getting out, she starts screaming. We think she is not a fan of being cold.
She also dislikes the car. This might actually be her biggest dislike. She doesn’t do it every time we are in the car, but she does freak out here and there, especially if she is even the slightest bit hungry. I was thankful for a friend riding with me once and hearing how bad she gets. Sometimes people shrug you off, and they say, “Oh some babies just don’t like the car.” To me, this cry is quite extreme. It’s not a whiny cry. It’s a work-myself-up-to-the-point-of-choking-and-throwing-up-my-own-spit cry. It’s the kind of cry that takes at least 5-10 minutes and a good feed after getting her out to get over. Hopefully someday she will grow out of this, but in the meantime, we’ll keep trying and praying each time we go somewhere.
I wouldn’t say she dislikes tummy time anymore, but she still barely tolerates it. I will say she has come a long way with it in the past month so that’s really good.
I am starting to think she dislikes big, big crowds. She loves people, but I think if there’s too many people or too much going on, she’s not a fan. We have to be careful to hold her close in those times and not pass her around too much, as I think it’s a bit too overwhelming.
She dislikes medicine. We learned this in the past week or so when we tried to give her baby panadol, and she spit it all out everywhere.
How Am I Doing?
I am doing…ok. If I am being honest, this last week has been incredibly hard. I was already feeling a bit anxious when she had her first little cold last weekend, not to mention the whole scare and subsequent trip to the hospital. It’s been full-on, and I have had revelation upon revelation about myself, about being a mum, about God, and about my precious little girl. I’ve never known love like this, and it’s hard and scary to recognize how much you love when confronted with a scary situation like last week.
I am learning, though, and more than anything, I am feeling hopeful for this journey. Hopeful to learn. Hopeful to grow. Hopeful for many smiles and laughs.
Leave A Comment