Life:
Well, it was a weird week this week without all our regularly scheduled activities. I think I forgot to mention this in last week's journal entry (since I was so focused on the whole weaning thing) but last Thursday (like, not two days ago, but a week and two days ago), I graduated from the Intensive program at Bethany, as well as from most of the classes I took. I got my little "Parening Plus" diploma, my "Nobody's Perfect" diploma. That combined with the Buns in the Oven graduation a couple weeks ago meant no real reason to trek out to Bethany last week. However, we were still really busy! On Monday, we saw my brother! He's back in town from Nepal and got to meet the baby for the first time! He thought she was pretty cute. He took Harmony and I over to Dee-Dee's and was telling her "The baby always does this..." and I was like "What? You've only known her for like, two hours!" "Well, in the past two hours she was always like..." so I thought that was pretty cute. On Tuesday... Line came over to help in the morning, then we went shopping with Sarah during the afternoon, and at night I had a meeting to go to and I brought Harmony along too of course. We still went to "regular" stuff on Wednesday (Baby and Me and then Drop-in) so that was pretty much the same as always. BUT during Drop-In Dee-Dee paged me and I called her and she invited Harmony and I over because Dad and my mother were going to come over and they wanted to see the baby (they'd gotten into town from Nepal on Tuesday night late). So we went and saw them! It was great to see Dad again- he really loved seeing the baby, and definetley noticed a difference from when he last saw her when she was a couple weeks old. Seeing Jo-Ann again was weird since I hadn't talked to her in a year. She did pretty much what I predicted- got all teary-eyed and hugged me and didn't even mention kicking me out! I didn't really hug back. Then she asked for another hug and I was just like "Uhh... maybe later." I suspect she may try to forget about the whole thing, but I'm sorry, she's just gonna have to apologize! Something that big just can't be brushed over like it was nothing! Anyways, Wednesday still wasn't over yet! Chris got in late that night, well, really, early Thursday morning. Then Thursday we went to a Canada Day thingie up in Chapel Hill. Yesterday (Friday), I went and did my workout in the morning with Harmony, and in the evening, Chris and I went to the mall to get this month's baby stuff from him. Then Chris stayed home to put the baby to bed and I got to go out with my friends! Sarah, Krissie, Chesca and I went out to dinner and it was really fun to just be out and not worrying about the baby! :) This morning, Chris wanted to sleep in so I had to get up with the baby. She started getting really bored after breakfast so I just headed out for my workout. I had been planning to go with Chris, but oh well... :( Chris has her over at his parents' place now, so I'm getting some stuff done and having some time to myself. Then tonight my aunt Norma is going to watch the baby while we go out to dinner and maybe a movie.
So far Harmony is doing excellently being completely bottle fed. She's
still pretty much on her old schedule, although I've definetely had to be
more flexible and ready for the unexpected. One day she had bottles at
1:30, 3:30, 5:30 and 7:30 pm! I think she may have been having a growth
spurt or something! She eats less often now, although I'm still never
quite sure whether she's going to take 5-6 oz or 7-8 oz! It seemed
like whenever I made an 8 oz bottle, she'd only drink 5 oz but when I made
a 6 oz bottle, she'd be hungry for more. Now what I usually do is offer
her a 6 oz bottle for each of her day feedings, and then offer 8 oz before
bed. That seems to have worked so far, but like I said, I'm still
playing around with her schedule to see what's best.
Harmony has had a cold and cough for a couple weeks now and early in the week
she got really snotty and her breathing startes sounding a bit
more congested so I brought her in to see her doctor. The doctor says her
chest is clear, but she noticed an earache while she was checking things out!
Poor Harmony! She hadn't really shown any of the signs of having an earache-
she wasn't pulling on her ears, didn't have a fever, and didn't scream when
being laid down, so I guess it hadn't been bothering her too much. So
now she's on medication which has been just oh so fun to administer (yikes!).
We're going back sometime this week and hopefully it'll be cleared up.
Harmony's Growth:
Harmony gained 13 oz in one week!!!! I think she was either having
a growth spurt, or this is a result of being totally bottlefed,
cause, wow! That's a lot! So she's now up to 18 lbs 9 oz.
Harmony has been saying "Mumma" and "Bubba" a lot lately, sometimes
together! On Monday these two words just sprung right out and she started
saying them a lot! Once, in the middle of the night, I woke up to crying
with cries of "Mummum...bababaBA!" in the middle! :) It's really
hard to tell how much she understands what she's saying. It seems
like she general says "Mumma" when she's upset and "Bubba" when she's hungry,
but I don't know if she associates her bottle with the word bubba yet.
I ask her "Do you want your bubba?" and I'll hold it up and she'll
say "Bubba" sometimes, but... I don't know. I somehow think she understands
on some level that "Bubba" is food, because she'll say it ocassionaly when
eating cereal or something too. So that's pretty cool. Hopefully she'll
keep that up and then just be able to let me know anytime she's hungry! :)
I think the next physical skill Harmony is working on is crawling, yikes!
She's spending more time on her tummy, especially on her matress
or the matress on my bed. She even does this little half-army-crawl
wiggle where she can actually get herself forward a little bit.
She puts her head down and then pushes with her feet with her butt
in the air a bit, and then puts her butt back down and her head back
up and pushes up on her hands! It's too cute! :)