Life:
Happy Easter everyone! I'm actually writing this on Monday instead of my usual Friday or Saturday, so if the times seem off, that's why. Harmony got a big purple bunny from me, a big yellow chickie from her grandma, and a big fuzzy lamb (and baby lamb) from her dad. Things are actually going suprisingly well with his easter weekend visit. He took her on Friday afternoon to his parents' place, and I mostly slept and watched tv! :) There were tons of chores to be done, but I just couldn't bring myself to get my butt in gear to do them... On Friday night I got to go to one of my favorite restaurants (HooDoo's!) with some of my friends and it was just so nice to have adult conversation for once! Chris brought Harmony home at about 11:30 Friday night and after nursing, she didn't seem too tired, but I put her in her crib anyways, sang her a song, tucked her in, gave her a kiss, and then left the room. Her eyes were wide open and I fully expected her to start crying in a minute or two to say "Mom! I'm so bored, why on earth did you just stick me in my crib?" but there wasn't a sound and when I peeked on a couple minutes later, she was totally sound asleep! So it's so great that she's starting to settle herself off to sleep.
On Saturday morning, Chris took Harmony over to his parents' place again (and I went back to sleep for another couple hours!) and on Saturday afternoon he came over to play with her here because I didn't want our breastfeeding schedule to be interupted any further. I was able to pump a bit, but I wasn't pumping as much as she was eating and I didn't want to spend the rest of this week having her playing "catch-up" with my milk supply. As is was, she did a bit of extra nursing on Saturday night and during the day Sunday, but at least she slept just as well at night. Chris is also over today, and I've actually been able to get a lot done. I can't wait until Harmony is old enough to start learning to play by herself because then maybe I can get the same ammount of work done *without* having someone here in a "mother's helper"ish role.
Sunday was the big Easter dinner at my grandmothers (yum!). Harmony got a really cute little pink and white bunny from my grandmother, as well as a nice yellow outfit that will probably start fitting this summer -which is good, as it is a summer outfit... :)
And now to go back and look at the rest of the past week...
Last Saturday (as in, the 27th), I got Harmony's ears pierced. She screamed for the first minute, and they did the second ear while she was still upset over the first one, and then her crying dimished to upset little sniffles and then in less than 20 mintues, we were sitting up in the food court, and Harmony was happily looking around. I picked out adorable little mini pearl earing and they look so cute on her! And now maybe people will stop asking "How old is he?" :)
Tuesday was Harmony first day of daycare. I stayed with her the whole morning and afternoon and she did really well. She even napped during naptime! On Wednesday morning, she was in daycare while I got set-up with my corespondance course (I can't start yet because it takes two weeks for them to mail you the books) and then did a few crafts. They brought her to me after about an hour, but she didn't really seem hungry or anything. I think she just needed to be reassured that I was still around. On Thursday we returned to Bethany Centre and had a special Easter lunch. Then we went over to the Grace hospital (next door to Bethany), with all the kids wearing paper bunny ears! I got lots of pictures, Harmony was the cutest kid there, I swear! :) She fell asleep as we were leaving so when we got back to Bethany, I just put her down in one of the daycare cribs and went down to Coffee Club. Harmony stayed up in daycare for at least an hour before they brought her down, but again, she seemed fine once she was with me.
A little bit about Bethany, since a lot of people reading this may have no idea what I'm talking about... Bethany is "The Bethany Hope Support Centre for Young/Single Parents" and it's run by the Salvation Army. It's a two floor building, plus a basement, and it's where I've been going to the program "Buns in the Oven" every Tuesday (they have a kitchen in the basement where we cook our meals). The daycare is on the main floor and the three E.C.E.s (Early Childhood Educators) are Dixie, Carolyn and Steph. They start taking babies from four months on, and I think we'll be able to keep going to Bethany for programs (if we want to) until I'm 24, but I probably wont hang out there much after I start school in September. I've done a couple programs there ("How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk..." while I was pregnant and "Growth Group" last month) but I will soon be going for most of the week starting the end of April. One of my programs ("Anger Stress Management") starts next Thursday, and then another few programs ("Parenting Plus" and "Nobody's Perfect") start the 27th. I'll start doing my correspondance course as soon as my books arrive by mail (probably in a couple weeks). They have a room set aside Monday mornings for the moms doing ILC (Independent Learning Centre) and Dixie said that it was ok if I leave Harmony on Monday afternoons as well if I wanted to keep doing schoolwork, since there really aren't any other good programs Monday afternoon. That's one thing about Bethany, if you leave your child in the daycare, you have to stay in the building, and you have to be doing a program, not just hanging around. But that suits my needs just fine. I hope she starts adjusting better to daycare soon so that she can stay up there for the full two hours while I do programs.
Harmony's Growth:
Harmony had a doctor's appointment on Thursday morning and had her shots. This time she had absolutely no reaction at all, which was great. She didn't even bleed after the shot or anything, and only cried for less than a minute! Her length is now 24.5 inches, her head circumfrence is 16 inches, and I forget what she weighed at the doctors, but she weighed 14 lbs, 14 oz on Tuesday at the Well-Baby Clinic, which is double her birth weight, yay Harmony! They say that most babies should double their birth weight by 5 months, so she's ahead of schedule!
Good news, Harmony's little blisters are finally gone! She still shows signs of teething, but whatever those two little white dots on her gums were, they're history, which is a relief. Her skin is also clearing up- she's had mild exema for a lot of the winter, but not that the weather is nice and she's getting more fresh air exposure, it seems to be clearing up.
My little girl has also learned to scream. Not crying, just screaming- high pitched and extremely annoying! Sometimes she does it and it seems like "talking"; she wont be upset or crying, and will throw the screaming in with other syllables in between. Other times she'll throw it in while she's crying to further indicate her distress. It really hurts my ears sometimes but I've talked to a nurse about it and she said it was most likely just Harmony's way of further exploring her vocabulary of sounds... yikes! I like the laughing and cooing sounds much better, thank you, I'll even take crying over this but hopefully she'll calm down with it after she's worn out the "newness" of this skill like she's done with most others.