Eleanor at 8 Months

As of this morning, Eleanor now weighs 16 lbs 6oz, has a head circumference of 17 1/4"and is 28 1/2" tall.
Compare her to William at 8 months

We are still struggling with her weight these days unfortunately. Its been a huge source of stress for me the last few months. She fell from the 75% to the 20% between 4 and 6 months, and she was weighed again at 7 months and had failed to remain within the 20% category (she was light by 1.5 oz), so that made the pediatrician concerned and she had me schedule an appointment with the lactation consultant. The lactation consultant gave me some herbs to try (Moringa oleifera plus More Milk Plus) and told me to space out her feedings a bit (I had been doing feeds ever 1-1.5 hours during the day to get as much milk in as possible, and she recommended that I stretch that to 2 hours to see if going longer between feeds would make Nora want to stay on the breast longer and get more milk). The good news that came out of that appointment, was that Nora had gained 4oz in a week, which suggested that her weight was starting to stabilize. I went back to the consultant a week later however and she had only gained an ounce, when she was supposed to have gained 2-3oz. So basically it boils down to the fact that though I am doing everything right, and Nora is actually eating the correct amount, for whatever reason, her body just refuses to gain weight on a normal curve. So I don't really know what to do next. Our next pediatrician appointment is in a month and I will talk to her then about what the next steps are. I sure am worried though :(

When it comes to breast feeding time, Nora is doing this new, really cute thing. When we go into the nursery, and sit down in the rocker and get into position, and she sees me take my boob out to feed her, she opens her mouth as wide as she can in preparation to feed. She reminds me of a hungry little bird and it cracks me up. Ever since starting the new herbs she seems to be taking longer feeds and staying longer at the breast in general. I have no idea if she is actually getting more, but the fact that I am also producing more when I pump (I used to pump 3 times and get 8oz and now I get 11-12oz), suggests that she might be.

 Solids are still going slow. She loves applesauce, pear and mango, but is iffy on banana. She will eat oatmeal but it isn't her favorite, same with peanut butter oatmeal. She will eat sweet potato but doesn't care for squash. I am trying to get more fats into her to help her gain weight on the advice of the pediatrician, so I have been roasting squash and sweet potato in plenty of coconut oil and giving that to her. I have even been adding coconut oil so some of her fruit blends. I add breast milk to her oatmeal as well. Pretty much anywhere I can, I add additional fats. But still shes not a huge fan of solids. The most I can get into her is an ounce or two. She wont really eat any real chunks of food yet and is solely on purees. My pediatrician keeps saying that she is ok as long as she is eating more solids by 12 months, so I have some time, but I still worry that she isn't transitioning to solids as well as she could be. I guess time will tell!

I have started reading her a bedtime story every night. I offer her two choices and I let her whap the one she wants to read. In the beginning she was not super excited about it, and had a pretty short attention span, but pretty quickly she got into it and now selects her preferred story with gusto and even helps me to turn (and eat) the pages.

Adding story time into the routine was part of my overhaul of our nap and bed time situation. For the past 3 months, her sleep has been just horrendous. She was getting up 6-10 times a night and during the day she was only taking a 30 minute nap in the morning, and a 90 minute nap in the afternoon. For a baby her age, she was just not getting enough sleep. I suspected the problem at night time, was that she had forgotten how to soothe herself and would wake up and need me to help her go back to sleep. So to combat that, I started putting her to bed awake, but I gave her the pacifier, and then I would listen to her grumble over the monitor for the next hour or so. Instead of rushing in there to put her back to sleep, I just let her grumble (never cry or scream), and eventually she learned to just go back to sleep. Once she had that down, she slept SO much better at night. These days she is only up once a night, if she is even up at all. More than half the time now she totally sleeps through the night. This is SO much better compared to last month (and the months before that)!In addition she also started sleeping in an hour later than she had been (so she now sleeps from 7pm to 8:30am)!

Now getting her naps to improve required a different solution. I had been swaddling her and giving her the pacifier, and then she would generally sleep for 30-45 minutes in the morning, and 1.5 hours in the afternoon. Gradually that sleep got worse and worse and I decided the swaddle must be the problem. I tried putting her down for nap just like I did at bed time, awake and in her sleep sack with her hands free and her pacifier. Her morning nap increased in length to 60-80 minutes immediately, and while her afternoon nap remained at 90 minutes, I didn't care as much because she was getting so much more sleep in the morning. That is how it should be! The one and only downside to this new schedule is that she wakes up for the day later, and goes down for her morning nap later, and sleeps longer. So she used to wake up at 7am, be down again at 8 and up at 8:30-9. So I would have between 9-12 (12 is when I start lunch time for Will) to get all of my errands done, which was great! Now shes up at 8:30, doesn't go down until 9:30 and is out until 10:30 or 11. So now I only have an hour to get stuff done, which isn't that much. So now I am trapped in the house a bit more. Oh well, its only temporary. I am just glad she is getting more sleep. She is an even happier baby these days because of it, and of course I feel a lot more well rested too!

Nora is making some mental strides these days too. She recognizes and responds when her name is called. She gets excited when Michael comes home and gives him cute little smiles. She babbles mama over and over. Its adorable! She is a very social girl and has (with the exception of one weird time) never displayed any stranger danger and is cool hanging out with just about everyone. Just like her big brother at this age, she especially loves anyone with long hair. In fact I have to keep my hair back in a french braid at all times otherwise she pulls out the stands around my face. I would be bald in a week if I let her have free reign with my hair! Just in the past 2-3 months, she has finally come to understand that Mom equals comfort. So when she was a newborn and would cry, I would pick her up and do some things to soothe her (bounce/rock, shush, feed, etc.), and she would continue to fuss for a little bit, until the things I did to soothe her actually started working. Now, when she cries and I pick her up, she stops crying immediately, because she knows that I mean comfort. So basically she has finally associated me with comfort instead of just my comforting actions, if that makes any sense. I am glad because it means that its a lot easier for me to calm her down these days. Although she is a fairly mellow baby to begin with and rarely cries, so it makes those rare moments even rarer, which is a good thing!

She is also just starting to understand cause and effect. For example, whenever I do anything that she hates, like cleaning out her nose with a Q-Tip, or putting lotion on her face, she will squirm and fuss a little, but as soon as I finish and say, "all done!" she will lay still and grin, like she understands that by me saying "all done," the torture is over. She is also learning that if she has something in her hand and I need to put that hand through a sleeve, she needs to transfer the object to the other hand first.

On the physical side of things, she is a wild child on the changing table these days. It is incredibly difficult to change her diaper or her clothes since she wants to roll onto her belly and arch her back the moment you set her down. I try to distract her by handing her interesting things to look at, but the whole thing just ends up being a lot like wrestling a small alligator. Her wildness is also translating into becoming more of a daredevil lately. She doesn't like being thrown into the air yet, or swinging around, but she does like being raised into the air, and enjoys airplane rides particularly. Amazingly I've never been puked on yet!


One more big physical stride is that she can now sit on her own for a few minutes at a time. She can't yet get into that position on her own, but once I place her there, she can sit and play with toys for anywhere from 2-5 minutes. She absolutely loves sitting up and gets SO mad when she falls over. In fact shes had her very first temper tantrums over not being able to sit up. Its been a fun preview of the toddler years. I can't wait ;)