Life:
Not much has changed since I last wrote (especially since I was late in making the last journal entry and it's been less than the usual week!). Harmony and I went to our usual programs this week and she did pretty well in daycare. We spent some time Thursday night and all day today helping to care for my aunt's three youngest children, and wow, is that helping to cure my urges for a second child soon! The kids are almost 2, almost 4 and 6 and there are alot of arguments between them, alot of "Hey! We don't hit!"s and "Well, I think it's Andrew's turn for picking a movie..."s. I also spent one morning last week looking after Sarah's two kids, and it definetely was a handful dealing with Bailey's 2-year-old curiousity, Arianna's 9-month-old quick-crawling and picking stuff off the kitchen floor skills, and Harmony's constant "pay attention to me!!!" cries, all at the same time.
But all this has helped you see. I was recently griping about how there would be such a gap between Harmony and my next child. By the time I finish university, Harmony will be 4 and a half, unless I go to school every summer as well. Then I'll probably want to find a job and get settled there before having another child, so that's another year or two! I was hoping to have a 3-4 gap between my children, because I think if you space them too close together (under 2 years), the first child doesn't really get as much attention as they fully deserve, but that if you space them too far apart, the siblings don't really have much in common, and don't really relate to eachother very well. Also, you'll finally get the first kid out of the house and then have the worst of the second child's teen years to deal with! Not to mention the hand me down issue, as well as trying to raise the second child the same way as the first even with changes to what's safe and what's not being made on a yearly basis! See, that's why I thought 3-4 years would be ideal... Obviously that plan isn't going to work, but at least after this week that seems like waiting a looong time might be a better idea! :)
Harmony's Growth:
Harmony probably now weighs over 16 pounds. She was weighed on Tuesday and the total was 15 lbs 14 oz- up 8 full oz from the previous Tuesday. I'm continuing with the cereal morning and nights, but her growth will probably still slow down quite a bit, just because she is becoming more active.
Nighttimes have been going a lot more smootly this past week, and Harmony even pulled a few 11-7s!!! She still has a 4 oz bottle each night- I figure there's no use trying to catch up my milk supply if the bottle is going to help her sleep longer and since Chris will be taking her again in a couple weeks. I remember giving her the bottle every night up until 6 weeks and I forget exactly why I stopped, maybe because it was a lot harder then than it is now since now that Harmony is over 4 months, I no longer have to sterilize her bottles and water. This makes making a bottle much easier because now I just put some warm water in an already clean bottle (washed in hot soapy water) and add some powder and there we go.
Harmony is almost rolling. She can now flip herself completely on her side, and I've tried putting toys just out of her reach to encourage her to take it to the next step, but no go. I'll just let her take her time though, I'm in no hurry to have her getting into everything! :) It is pretty exciting though, as is every little milestone.