Week 26

Hello all and welcome to Post Natal Week 26!

To be accurate, Estella is 25 weeks and 5 days old. To be even more precise, she turns 6 MONTHS OLD TOMORROW! I can't believe that! To me that is absolutely crazy. It has been the quickest 6 months of my life.

Estella has become such a fun baby. She was always fun, but at this point in her life she is genuinely happy 95% of the time she is awake. She only fusses or complains when she is hungry or tired. That's it. She smiles all the time. All the time, except for when you have a camera near her. For some reason it is extremely difficult to capture her young, toothless smile on film. However, with how often we take photos of her we have managed to preserve a few smiles.

So here are some cool new happenings with the little girl.
1. She can sit up by herself. Now she has been sitting up with props for quite a while. And this last month or so she had been threatening to do it all by herself. But last weekend it was like a switch was flipped and now she can do it. Mom and Dad were (and are) so proud.
2. She is a little bit of an inchworm. She isn't crawling yet, but she pushes her butt up high and then uses her feet to propel her forward. Very cute. But I know this will only happen for a short period of time. She will be crawling soon.
3. She is still very tiny in comparison to other babies her age. I'd say that at 6 months she is between 13 and 14 pounds. I won't know for certain until June 1st when she goes for her next Doctor's appointment. By then she will probably be over 14 pounds.
4. She loves going to her daycare. The ladies there take such good care of her. However she has recently taken to crying when I leave. This breaks my heart but makes me feel good all at the same time. I have a feeling this won't be the last time I have conflicting feelings in regards Estella.
5. Speaking of the daycare, they keep the children there very engaged, which I love. I now have 3 original Estella Salera-Okdeh pieces of art. Finger paintings, but everyone needs to start somewhere. They are hanging on my fridge. They also took Estella's first "school" photos. Ha! They are cute, with the pull down backdrops that feature giant crayons. A total racket for the price they charge, but it is her first, so of course we bought them.
6. Estella is still a great sleeper, but she has changed her sleeping pattern a little, which makes it equally less and more difficult for me. She falls asleep, without fail, by 8-8:10pm every night. That's easy. I get the rest of the night to relax and hang out with Eric. Nice. She sleeps soundly until 2:30 or so when she gets up to nurse. So that is 6+ hours. Not so bad. But after that it's a crapshoot what she will do. Does she get up every hour until I have to get up to nurse? Does she only get up one more time? Or my favorite, she then falls asleep for the rest of the night? I never know so I can not really prepare. I really don't want to fall asleep at 8pm with her. I do have things I have to do and I want to enjoy some time with my husband. But I also can't function well if I get 3 solid hours of sleep a night with the rest of it being interrupted. Eric really can't help too easily as he does not have the breasts that are required to nurse the baby. So it falls on me. I'm not really complaining, I'm just tired.
7. I recently had to pack away some the clothes she has outgrown. She still fits nicely into her 3 month clothing, but is mostly in 3-6 months right now. So all of the newborn stuff and winter stuff had to be packed away. I didn't expect to feel anything while packing the clothing away, but I was a little sad. She's still so tiny and she is still a baby (my baby) but she isn't that tiny anymore. Again, I am shocked to say she is 6 months.

So I'm sorry there haven't been many updates as of late. I really enjoy writing them, I just have difficulty finding the time. I have just been loving the time with my family. My little 3 person family that is so beautiful. This is the best time of my life so far. What is truly nice about stating that is I have been able to make that statement for as long as I can remember as an adult. Life is good and it keeps getting better and I don't want to be anywhere else then where I am right now. I'm trying to soak it all in while this lasts because I know that it will all move by so swiftly. Most of you know I have a tendency to look and plan for the future and not live in the moment. I have noticed this a number of times regarding Estella. I have to convince myself to knock it off. Yes, plan for the future. No to looking at her and thinking about the day she leaves for school or something, anything else. It happens often enough to bother me. It happens often enough so that it crowds and clouds my thoughts. I can't be upset, sad or frightened about a moment that hasn't happened yet although I know is coming. There is no sense in that yet it still hurts my heart. So I feverishly fight to live in the moment. It's hard for me, but I think I am getting better at it. Ask me again in a week and the answer may be different.

I hope that this message finds everyone well. It is my intention to start doing this update a little more frequently but please do not hold it against me if you look in your mailbox next week and you don't have a message. I will eventually send one out.

Love to you all,

Desiree