Anna updates!

Where did the time go?! Anna will be ONE in A MONTH!

I have totally failed at keeping this thing up to date. I am too busy chasing around these pretty girls, I guess!
Anyway, Anna turned 11 months old today! She is getting way too big. We started trying to teach her to raise her arms when we ask her how big she is. As in, "Soooo big!" She will sometimes raise her arms up and flap them around like a bird. It is a start!

My little girl is still pretty little. She weighs about 16 lbs, which I believe is how much her big sis weighed at 11 months. But Anna seems to have a little bit more baby chub on her legs. Not much though!

Anna LOVES eating. Loves it. She eats anything I put in front of her. She eats the fruit and veggie purees I make for her and also little finger foods. She also loves her puffs and yogurt bites. I wonder how long this non-picky thing will last...
ALSO! She finally got a tooth! Like, today! It finally poked through! It looks like there are a couple more that are going to poke through soon too. Eleven months old and girlfriend got herself a fancy new tooth! This might explain her HORRIBLE sleep habits the last few nights. Which brings me to...

Anna hates sleep. Or at least hates having a decent amount of consecutive hours of sleep. We thought Elizabeth was a terrible sleeper! I can count on one hand the number of times she has slept through the night. (I can probably count them on 3 fingers.) At least Lizzie would have a few weeks here and there where she would sleep all night.

Anna still wakes up around every 3 hours. Sometimes more, sometimes less. The last few nights, there were times where she would wake up every half hour. The only real change is the time that she sleeps. We went through a stage where she wouldn't go to sleep until 3 or 4 in the morning. That one was rough. Then for a while it was between 12 and 1 AM. Right now, for the most part, she goes to sleep between 10:30 and 11:30, which is so significantly better. The time is coming soon where she will get "sleep trained." I'm already dreading it.

Anna is still nursing, which I am super proud of. My goal is a year, just like with Elizabeth, and we are almost there!! I ended up nursing for 14 months (and one day) with Liz, so we'll see how long I can go this time. I am worried about my supply though. The tricky thing with breastfeeding is you have no idea how much they are actually getting. Also, since Anna never sleeps, I haven't been able to get an extra pumping session in the middle of the night to build up my freezer stash. So my "stash," which is in quotes because it can't really be called a stash, is about 4 bottles worth. Not good!

I think she's getting pretty close to walking. Not tomorrow or anything, but soon-ish. She can stand for several seconds at a time, then will slowly sit down (or sometimes plop on her butt).  She walks around as long as she is holding on to something, like the couch or my fingers.

I think Anna's favorite game lately is fetch. She throws something, we fetch it. It is hilarious! For now, anyway. Even if I'm not handing her something, sometimes she'll reach for whatever is in my hand(for example, her binky), and then throw it on the floor.

OH, and she also sticks her tongue out now when I do!  It is super hilarious. 

Since I have been such a failure at updating this thing, here is a list of random "Anna Firsts" that I have stored on a note in my phone. Hey, at least I did that!

• At 3 weeks 5 days, she smiled! 
• At 8 weeks, she giggled.  Such a beautiful sound!
• November 10th - 2 months old - she rolled over from stomach to back
• January 1st - 3.5 months - she found her feet! Love this.
• At 4 months old, she cried when I leave the room.  Don't love this so much.  But I do a little bit.  She's a mama's girl. :)
• January 26th - 4.5 months - she rolled over from back to stomach
• March 3rd - almost 6 months - ate baby food (baby oatmeal) for the first time!
• 7 months old - rolled everywhere!  She could roll across any room.  Also, she could sit up unassisted, but tipped easily.
• 7.5 months - Pulled herself up to sitting position all by her little self.
• Around 8 months - she pulled herself up to her knees
• Also at 8 months, she started waving bye bye! Sort of.
• At 8.5 months, she pulled herself up to her feet!  She also began crawling on May 25th!  Look out world.
• At 9 months old, she started saying "Bup!" all the time.  Love love love it.
• 9.5 months - she started dancing!!  Also, she started giving high fives. So cute.
• July 19th - 10 months - she stood up on her own for 2-3 seconds at a time. 

LOVE this little girl!!!

Updates

It hit me recently that I need to start seriously planning Elizabeth's 1 year birthday party. Huh? How can that be?? She will be 10 months old on Saturday - in 2 days! It is so weird to me that she is getting so old. She's like this big girl now instead of my tiny baby.

I was recording something of her the other day on the video camera and the tape ran out. It rewound to the beginning and I pressed play. Up pops little 8 week old Elizabeth. How is that the same child who is practically climbing up the walls now?? How did that little baby on the camcorder grow up so fast? I was watching the tape as my mom and I were trying to get her to laugh on film, just mesmerized by how little and different she was then, when big girl Lizzie pops up in front of me and says, "Uhh!" As in, "Pay attention to me, woman!" How is this the same child??

This girl is everywhere now. She is the world's fastest crawler. She gets into EVERYTHING. She climbs up anything that is taller than she is (which is pretty much everything because she's pretty short). Her favorite things to play with are non-toy items. She bops along to music. She STILL doesn't have any teeth! I'm afraid that five are going to come in at once. And I think that changing her diaper really should be considered for an Olympic sport.

As far as the sleeping situation goes, she is doing better (this week anyway). She goes back and forth. Some nights she'll sleep all night (like last night - 10 hours straight!) and some nights she'll wake up in the middle of the night and won't go back to sleep for 2 hours. And getting her to go to sleep is quite a chore sometimes. Especially for naps. We still have to rock/pace/hold her until she falls asleep. I long for the day when we can give her a kiss and put her in the crib where she falls asleep on her own. I really hope this day is in the very near future.

I took some tips from a few different baby sleep books and those have helped tremendously. Her bedtime routine before included nursing to sleep (or drowsy and then pacing or rocking until asleep.) But we wanted to get away from that. We don't want her to think she needs to eat in order to fall asleep. So now she eats out in the living room, then gets her diaper changed, put into jammies, then story time, then pace/rock to sleep. I do think it has gotten better, with some exceptions here and there.

I am still breastfeeding and am still planning on weaning around a year. My goal was always to go to a year and I am proud of myself for making it this far. It is hard work! Not that I don't love it. I am just looking forward to having my body to myself again! But I am sure I will miss it like crazy once she is done. That's how I roll.

Elizabeth is still eating the purees I make for her. She has done great with everything she's given (except recently she spits out her bananas). She is a champion eater so far, but I know that won't last. So we are enjoying it for now! With as much food as that girl eats, I don't understand how she is so little!

Speaking of which, she had her 9 month doctor appointment on July 28th. She weighed 15 lbs 10 oz, which is in the 6th-ish percentile and was 26.5" long, which is in the 20-25th percentile. Her doctor said she is doing great! Everyone was happy that she didn't have to get shots at this appointment. Not looking forward to her 1 year checkup...

One last cute thing: She is still using 0+ month pacifiers. When we stuck a 6+ month one in her mouth, she looked perplexed and spun it around like it didn't feel right. Now she just spits it out. What a weird kid. =)

Messy Face!

I realize other people might not care to see pictures of my baby with food smeared all over her face, but I do. =) Elizabeth has been eating solids for almost 3 months now. She started off with rice cereal, and then moved on to bananas, apple sauce, peas, sweat potatoes, avacados, prunes, green beans, and carrots. She is WONDERFUL with everything so far. There hasn't been any thing that she won't eat. I am very relieved about this! I know it probably won't last, but for now, I am so glad I don't have a picky eater! And now, here are a few food smear pictures.

5 Months Old!

These 5 months have both flown by and dragged on. I'm not sure exactly how that works! I suppose it has something to do with a lack of sleep. =)

Well, Elizabeth is cuter than ever. She just gets more amazing by the day. I am so dang lucky to be her mom because I get to spend so much time with her. She's doing this thing now when I nurse her and I'm not paying close enough attention to her. She'll pull off and look up at me and make different sounds. When I look down at her and smile she gets this HUGE smile and then turns and clamps down again. Ten seconds later she does it again. I adore this.

And she started cereal today! I can't believe she's old enough to be eating cereal. She did pretty good. I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this eating solids thing!

So Nate was up with Lizzie this morning while I got a little more sleep. They came in to wake me up and Nate informed me that they named her butt. Her butt is now called "Smelly My." As in, "Smelly My butt, moms!" (We often put words in Lizzie's mouth and when Nate is talking for her, "she" calls me Moms. Not quite sure why yet!) I think they have too much fun together. =)


Here are some pictures from Elizabeth's 5 month birthday yesterday: