Life:
Well, no tooth yet, but Harmony's teething seems to have totally calmed down. She's still drooling like crazy and chewing on everything she can get her hands on, but she doesn't seem to be in pain anymore. Oh well, I'm still breastfeeding so that tooth can just take it's sweet little time! :)
Speaking of breastfeeding, I'm worried that Harmony may be getting tired
of it or something! Maybe my milk is drying up, I have no idea. She just
doesn't seem as keen to breastfeed anymore. Ever since I started solids,
she got into the pattern of eating them at certain times and will often
refuse to breastfeed before solids because she knows they're coming.
The past few days, she's breastfed after her solids, but I think that may be due
to her 6 month growth spurt (one day for lunch she had her usual 1/2 jar
of veggies, then breastfed, then was STILL hungry and took a 4 oz bottle!).
Also, we're both sick, so maybe it's a combination of my milk supply down
a little and her need for more fluids. Today (Sunday) especially has been
terrible. We both have a cough and cold, and we've been cooped up all day
because I've been too tired to bring her anywhere. That's the first time
we've been home ALL day in like, weeks or something. It's so hard to keep
her entertained all day. She's not a big napper (although today she
napped really well because she's sick) so there are a lot of hours
to fill. She was up around 7:30, napped from 11 to noon, was up again
til 2:30 and then was up from 4:15 right on til bed, although to her credit,
she did go to bed early at 7:15. So that's nine hours of time to fill.
Some of it was eating, but we went through so many different activities and
positions. Sitting up to play, standing up holding on to me,
lying down and grabbing her toes to play, in the jolly jumper for a while...
etc etc!
Before getting sick, the week went really well. I managed to stick to my
working out routine, and went Wednesday night, Friday morning, and even made
a half-hearted attempt at doing half my workout on Saturday (but hey, at
least I went, even though I was feeling sick!). Harmony just loves the daycare
at the Y and everyone thinks she's just the cutest baby. Last week I also handed in
my first unit of the OAC course I'm doing via correspondance! I should get
the other 3 units back in a couple weeks or less, and then hopefully be able
to get through a unit every 2-3 weeks before university. I've finally
made my desicion on which university- I sent my acceptance form in to
Ottawa U this weekend. Even though Carleton is offering an extra $1000
the first year, it's sooooo much more travel time on the bus, and even when
I get my car, it'll be a pain to get to. I called some of the daycares
to check and see where Harmony is on the list. At one daycare, she's #4,
but they only have 6 infant spots, so that means four of them would have
to move up, so maybe on that one. At another, she's #13, but they have 10 infant
spots, so that might be a go if a lot of the infants are older and moving
up. 2 of those twelve people though, don't need a spot til 2000,
and there may be others who are no longer interested, so you never know.
At another daycare she's on the "priority list", which means she stands a very
good chance of getting a spot for September. I have yet to check on the other
4 daycares, but hopefully things are looking good there as well and I'll
get Harmony a spot at one daycare by September!
Another little piece of exciting news is that I finally finished Harmony's
birth announcement (cross-stitch). It's taken me so long to do! I have
so many other things I want to do for her too, but I've just got too many projects
on the go. I'm almost done putting up the shelves in the storage space,
and I bought a roll-up blind for Harmony this weekend and managed to put it up today.
I'm hoping this'll allow her to sleep in better, cause those morning when
she wakes up at 6:30, reading to play are just crazy. Although I love
going in to see her first thing in the morning or after a nap when it IS time
to get up. She hears my voice and will turn her head (and sometimes upper
torso too, if needed) to find me. I love the smile she gives me at those times,
and when I go pick her up at daycare. I always say "Harmony...! Hellooo!
Did you have a good sleepies/fun at daycare?" and she'll just look
around, find me and starting grinning ear to ear. She's such a special
baby, and I'm so glad I'm able to spend so much time with her. :)
Harmony's Growth:
Harmony said "mumma" today for the first time!!! A couple of days
ago, she said "a-ma!" and I was trying to get her to take it a step further,
and now she has! :)
I know that she has no idea what it means,
and that she's just babbling indiscriminately, but still, it warmed my heart
to hear it. She's also starting to expand her vocab with lots of other
words. She'll now tack on "ba" at the end of a raspberry, and will babble
for longer periods of time now, throwing in different consonant sounds, but
mostly around the "ah" sound- "ya", "wah", "wuh", etc.
Another new milestone for my flexible little baby- Harmony discovered
how to stick her toes in her mouth and now has tons of fun chewing on the big
toe. Luckily, she usually only tried this right after her bath, when her
diaper's still off and she can move very freely, although she'll also try
to sneak a toe suck during diaper changes and occasionally while playing.
The new food this week is apple sauce and Harmony loves it! Now she will
be able to join the other babies at daycare when they sit at the little table
(in those cute little evenflo "high" chairs that come apart to make short
high chairs) and have snack! She may be jealous that she can't have a cookie
yet, but soon enough. I tried giving her half of a Cherrio but she just started
gagging cause she tried to eat it the way she eats everything else, by
pushing back with her tongue. It didn't actually go down her throat, cause I
saw it at the back of her tongue, but I guess it just suprised her. I'll
try her again in another month or two.
I'm so amazed at how much Harmony's fine motors skills are developing!
I had placed her on the floor the other day to play, and all of a sudden
she was reaching way forward for something. She can reach so far now- she
leans far out and sometimes even her tummy touches the ground and then she sticks her arms
out in front. Anyways, I went to see what she was reaching for, because
there was no toy to be seen and it was a sequin! I guess it fell out when
I was organizing the craft stuff into a new box. She doesn't have pincer
ability yet, but she's trying very hard, and she can rake a small object into
her palm (only for it to be taken away by me much to her disapointment,
but what can I do? She'll
still learn, and it's better than her choking on stuff). Today she passed
her comb from one hand to the other. She's done it before, but more so by accident.
Today she actually looked at the comb in her right hand, looked at her left
hand, and made the switch!
Harmony is getting so amazing at pulling herself to sitting and standing.
I'll hold out my hands to her and she'll just grab onto them and start
going! I still have to pull gently to help her up, but soon enough those
muscles'll be strong enough for her to just sit up on her own. Her standing
skills are amazing. I barely have to hold on to her anymore. It's strange
because even though she's getting so much stronger in every area, she
still hates to be on her tummy. :( Oh well, I'll talk to Margo about
it at Baby & Me on Wednesday and maybe she'll have some suggestions.