Growing more

Sweet Pea is growing and changing so much these days.  She has had several growth spurts lately and is really getting tall.  Her new 3-6 month pajamas already fit and I'm sure she'll outgrow them pretty soon too.  She's still really skinny so I have to buy size 3 months for bottoms because her waist is so tiny (even some of those are still way too big on her) but six months for the tops because she's so long.  We just got her a bunch of six month onesies last week-- they already fit just right, so I guess we'll be moving up in those soon too.

She's getting such a fun little personality too.  Definitely louder and more opinionated than when we first got her.  She screamed through her entire occupational therapy session last week.  Really screamed.  I don't necessarily like the OT myself, but she and Sweet Pea really don't seem to mesh.  Not sure how much longer we'll keep up with that...  Of course while she was screaming for the OT, her caseworker showed up early for her visit, then our case manager decided to drop in for an unannounced visit.  What a zoo!  But I think it was good for them to see that side of Sweet Pea and that she was so completely soothed by me once I held her.  They said it shows she's in the right place and we hope to keep her here.

She's eating some more solid foods now.  After a bumpy week of crying everytime we tried to give her plain rice cereal or oatmeal with formula, now she's really liking pretty much every pureed thing I give her.  She did not like the applesauce I gave her the past couple of days.  I'll try again later, but I'm glad she's able to show us when she doesn't like something.  She's so funny when there's a little extra texture in her food (from the cereal or when I gave her mushed up avocado that I could never quite get completely pureed).  If there's a big chunk, she'll just sit there with it on her tongue and refuse to try to swallow it until I give her a drink of juice to help it down.

Her second tooth finally came in yesterday.  It's still not fully there, but you can definitely see it now.  This one has been trying to come through for weeks now.  It was all red and swollen, then just a little bump, now you can finally see the white little tooth.  Her first tooth is getting much bigger-- unmistakable now, even though she doesn't like to show it off.

She's starting to go to sleep on her own for naps now.  I can usually just lay her in her crib and she'll eventually fall asleep on her own.  She still needs to be bounced/rocked from time to time, but she's napping in her crib almost exclusively now.  No more having to put her in the bouncer or swing to get her to sleep.  Such a big girl.  She's in there babbling away right now, hopefully trying to fall asleep  :)

We go for her sleep study tonight.  I'm not sure what to expect from this.  It will be the first time for her to sleep somewhere else since she came to live with us.  I'll be with her and will try to approximate her bedtime routine as best as possible, but I'm really not sure how it will go.  I'm dreading that we have to drive 40 minutes to the sleep clinic.  She's doing much better on short car rides and even some long ones too, but not always.  We went to visit some friends about an hour away this weekend and she did great in the car all day, but once it was dark out she completely melted down.  She cried almost the entire way home and eventually worked herself up so much that she threw up all over herself and her carseat.  Of course, once we got home and got her in the bath, she was her usual happy smiley self, but Shannon and I were way stressed by the whole thing.  Hopefully we don't have a repeat tonight when it will just be me and Sweet Pea in the car.

I've got a really busy weekend ahead.  The children's grief camp where I volunteer is this weekend.  I'll be coming home to sleep, but I'll be leaving before Sweet Pea wakes up and getting home after she's already in bed, so I don't think I'll see her at all on Saturday.  That will be really weird for me.  We spend so much time together, she's such a part of me.  Hopefully I'll be busy the whole time and won't be worrying about her.

I think she's finally fallen asleep now, so I should go get myself ready and pack for tonight.  The other baby I keep is with his grandmother this week, so that's been a welcome break.  I had imagined having so much free time without him here and getting so many little projects done around the house, but it's been so busy this week.  My to do list still has so much on it!  Who knew one little baby could keep you so busy?  ;)