Emelia at eight months

I never intended for my baby to be so isolated. When we got home from the NICU, we secluded ourselves way more than usual in order to protect Emelia’s vulnerable immune system. This past March when she turned five months, we were on our way to normal life, now that RSV and flu were dying down. And then COVID hit and my baby didn’t really see any other people besides us for months. She went to the doctor and her PT a total of three times. She saw my mom and dad once or twice. And now, of course, we’re in Stranger Danger territory and our isolation has made things way worse. I know kids are resilient and it’s a good thing.

My mom got to hold her without Emelia bursting into terrified tears last week. We’re making progress. But it makes me sad, this bubble we’ve created around us since mid-March.

She got to experience her first beach day this weekend and she didn’t know quite what to think about it. Her big sister jumping and splashing in the water next to her was great fun. Like her sister, she loves to observe the world around her.

Nicknames: Meals, Mealie, Squish, Smushy

Weight: 17 lbs according to home scale

Length: 27 in long according to home scale

Head circumference: 44 cm

Diaper size: 3

Clothing size: 6 and 6-9 months

Eating

This girl is a champion nurser. She’s still quite distracted during the day especially if Olivia is in the room and has picked up on the fact that I want the baby to focus. That’s prime time for Olivia to come over and sit next to us while the baby flips upside down to look at her. She’s nursing pretty much same old same old. Waking in the morning. Before her nap. After her nap. Before she goes down for her afternoon one and again after in the evening, depending on how long she sleeps. Again before bed and once in the middle of the night.

She isn’t sitting on her own yet, and I’m going to bring up baby-led weaning with her PT this week since one of the qualifiers is being able to sit independently. She’s slurped on our apples and carrot sticks and loves eating a spoonful of Greek yogurt, but that’s been it. Of course there was also the lemon wedge Olivia requested we give her, which she loved. Maybe she’d be fine with eating certain things with us. I do want to get to nibbling on eggs and shrimp and peanut butter, which now as I’m typing this, I’m kicking myself for not getting going on this earlier. Honestly? We’ve been avoiding anything to do with needing to go into the hospital right now, and of course, I’m worried she’ll have an allergic reaction to something. But after I wrote this, I did some internet digging and this sitting up business may not be as big a thing as I thought as long as she isn’t slumped over and is sitting relatively up and down. So now I feel some renewed confidence and am ready to start today on getting some bits of real food into her at least once a day.

Still no sippy cups. Man, I go back to my eight-month post for Olivia and things were looking so different with her. *** Chris and I are in no way going to be able to leave on a date anytime soon unless we get Homegirl convinced that thawed milk in sippy cups are amazeballs. Will report back later.

Sleeping

Glorious. At least, from what it was. She goes down anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 pm and will wake once usually around 3-4:00 am, but sometimes later. Depending on if she’s in bed with me in the morning she’ll be up with me at 7 or 7:30, but may sleep until 8:30 if she’s in her crib. She still wails her eyes out almost every night before bed, whether it’s five minutes or thirty. If it’s going on longer, which is rare now, I’ll go back in to nurse her again, and then she’s good. She loves sleeping on her stomach now, and I’m loosening up that she’s going to smother herself. She actually sleeps pretty well on her stomach.

Her naps are good unless she refuses them. But she’ll generally sleep from 10-12:00 or so and then again from 3-5:00 or so. She does like to stick her legs in between the slats of her crib and get them stuck, which is something Olivia never did. SO that’s fun when we have to go in and rescue her. Luckily, she’s seemed to tone that down lately.

Milestones

She’s rolling like no one’s business now. All over the floor. It’s her favorite means of travel and she’ll get herself far off the blanket where the carpet is pretty unforgiving against the floor. It means no more time unsupervised on the couch. And we seem to now be over the hump where she can’t figure out how to roll back onto her back and so she screams in anger and frustration. We’re much better with that now.

We’ve been increasing her PT now to weekly (at my insistence) until she’s able to sit up on her own. Because of COVID, I was only bringing her in once a month and the exercises I got were awkward and we weren’t making any progress. It was frustrating and when I finally came back in again to her usual therapist (who had been furloughed), I told her I needed the accountability and she was fine with that. I found out Emelia has some tightness in her hamstrings which would account for her arching back constantly when I’d try to have her sit. In fact, she’s archy in general and I learned some babies are like this. “Pushy” is what her therapist said. And now we need to work on loosening up those muscles with leg stretches. (Emelia loves her twice daily leg stretches, by the way.) *****

She’s babbling up a storm now. “Ah RAH RAH RAH!!!” or “MMMMM! MMMMOOOOOOMMMMM!” or my personal favorite “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Let’s see, what else? We covered Stranger Danger. She’s also all about slamming her toys as hard as she can on her high chair while we eat, and then staring at me intently. She knows exactly what she’s doing. She also loves hurling said toys off onto the floor and cocking her head to the side like, “How did that happen?” She’s got Olivia trained to pick them up constantly all throughout meal times.

She’s also been into grabbing (hard) at faces and when I pull her hand down with a firm “No,” she throws her head back and laughs hysterically before grabbing a fistful of my cheek or hair or ears again.

Health

Not much to report here, since I’ve talked about her therapy above. She still has some slight tightness in her neck, but her therapist is happy with her range of motion and that she’s rolling on both sides.

Still no teeth. No sign of them whatsoever. Her reflux is pretty much nonexistent now.

I haven’t talked much about her hemangiomas lately, but they’re still pretty much unchanged. Though I think the one (one of two originals from her NICU days) on the back of her head is slowly starting to recede.

Personality

She continues to be my smiley baby. I tell Chris all the time that she smiles with her whole face. This baby loves life. She also has more and more to say about it lately and in her most intense “talks” with me, she furrows her little brows and looks Very Serious at me and goes, “Ah gagaga mmmmm!” Give it some time. She’ll give her extroverted older sister a run for her money.

Likes

Still digging her bath time (always with Sister. Never alone) and has started kicking and splashing her hands in the water. Stroller rides continue to be a personal favorite and since the playgrounds opened back up and as long as I have my sanitizing wipes, she’s been liking the baby swing. She still loves her toes and sucking the crap out of them. Sleeping with me. Nursing. Banging her toys or shaking her rattles. Her exersaucer. Playing peekaboo.

Dislikes

Laying in grass. People in masks. Being held by anyone that isn’t Chris, me, or Olivia, though Grandma is pretty OK. If she wants to be picked up, but I am in the middle of something and need to walk away she’ll shriek angrily at me. Physical therapy. Sitting.

Undecided about

Being in her high chair. Being held by Olivia. Afternoon naps.

Looking forward to

Our pool we ordered is somewhere over the Pacific right now and I’m definitely looking forward to that this summer. It’s a 10-foot above ground pool and it’s probably going to be our main source of entertainment being that I heard this was going to be a hot summer.

***Actually, reading Olivia’s 8-month update and seeing how busy we were with summer events is really fucking depressing right now.

*****Lies.

Past monthly updates

One month

Two months

Three months

Four months

Five months

Six months

Seven months