Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Seven Months

Eleanor Margaret turned seven months old last week!  With each new month comes so much more excitement, also many more challenges.  Eleanor is a vibrant baby.  She is always so happy and bubbling over with joy.  She is aware and strong and determined.  And so much fun!
We hit many major milestones this month.  The first: Eleanor's teeth!
One day there was nothing, and then the next day I felt the sharp impact as she nibbled on my finger.  And then two days later the second one emerged.  Alex and I never noticed a difference in her behavior or personality while she was cutting teeth.  She never showed signs of discomfort or fussiness related to teething.  We got very lucky with these first two teeth.
This month Eleanor also started sleeping through the night.  If her six month was identified by little or no sleep, this seventh month could be described as the exact opposite.  Almost right at her six month mark she started sleeping through the night and we haven't looked back since.  Even while in Missouri last week she did excellent.  Of course getting her to sleep through the night wasn't an easy process.  We slowly whittled away each nursing session and eventually went cold turkey on soothing her at night.  And then one morning we woke up and realized we hadn't once checked on Eleanor at night.  It was an amazing feeling, but also terrifying!  I remember leaping out of bed to check on her and sighing with relief when I saw that she was alive and well.  
I still feel that way when I wake up in the morning from a full night's rest.  After seven long months of broken sleep it feels amazing to sleep through the night again.  Thank you Eleanor!  And sleep training!
Eleanor surprised us one morning as we walked into her room and found her sitting up in her crib.  This was the first time she managed to go from laying down to sitting up all on her own.  Over the course of the month I found her several times sitting up when I remembered leaving her on her belly or back.  With my back turned she was learning new tricks.  Finally I caught her with my own two eyes, and the camera and now she does it all the time.  We are struggling to get her to learn to crawl because she goes from her belly straight up into sitting.  
This month Eleanor came down with a terrible virus.  After running a very high temperature for four days her doctor's recommended we spend the night at the children's hospital in Charlotte for observation.  It was a difficult experience, very stressful, but we made the best of the situation.  Our little girl was in high spirits the entire evening.  The following morning her fever broke and we returned home after a fitful night of sleep.  We were happy to be home and not anxious to return to the hospital again anytime soon.  When Eleanor gets sick, she gets really sick!
Adventure was the theme for this month.  We took a chance and went camping with our little girl.  We had a blast hiking and sitting around the campfire.  She slept well in her daddy's arms on the air mattress.  She was a trooper through a ten mile hike and being outdoors all day.  We certainly want to do more camping with her this summer.
 Another big adventure for us this month was the two of us flying to Missouri without Alex.  We survived the flight and the trip and are happy to be back home with our number one guy!  
Life with Eleanor gets sweeter and sweeter as the days pass.  We get to know more of her personality each day.  She continues to amaze us in every possible way.  I look at our little life, our little family and our little home and I can't imagine how I got so very lucky in life.  I joked with Alex yesterday how silly we were to think we weren't yet ready for babies.  Now looking at this sweet child, I can't imagine ever going back.  I wouldn't want a single day of my life to be without her.  
Happy Seven Months baby girl!
What an awesome month!  At seven month's old Eleanor loves to swim, sit up, eat solid foods (and lots of them).  She likes to try to crawl and get around, she moves with intention and determination.  Eleanor loves when people smile at her and talk to her and is very responsive and exciteable.  And her very favorite thing is still swinging. 

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