She:
>Has this adorable habit of sucking on her first two fingers of her right hand and draping her left arm over her face. I think it’s our favorite thing, and it usually means she’s sleepy.
>Will suck anything in the vicinity of her face with vigor! Has no teeth yet, and seems to actually be drooling less than a month ago.
>Has become so much more interactive in the last couple of weeks, moving more, babbling more, moving purposefully more…it’s so fun. She recognizes my husband now too and looks straight into our eyes.
>Is wearing all 6-month clothes and medium cloth diapers.
>Has these nicknames: Mermaid, The Maid, Sweetie, Rooster, Baby, That Rat (my husband…I don’t know).
>Discovered her feet, and likes to grab them both at the same time during diaper changes. She also likes to violently kick both of her legs, which makes changing her difficult and bath time extremely splashy.
>Went on her first road trip, to Austin and back in the same day, and slept through all but 45 minutes of it.
>Still loves strangers and shows no anxiety about being away from her parents.
>Got sick AGAIN which is one of the worst things ever. Double ear infection this time. Took antibiotics without much of a problem once we got the hang of it.
>Is kiiind of starting a bedtime routine. After her bath I nurse her and rock her to sleep, put her in the crib, stick her fingers in her mouth, and she’s good! Then I totally bring her back to my bed when it’s time for me to go to sleep.
Crying…to smiling:
I:
>Haven’t done ANY of my Christmas shopping yet. (It’s in five days!) This is an indicator of the state of my life right now.
>Feel so accomplished when I am able to lay Meredith in her crib to sleep at night, and I still have time to myself before I go to bed. But I miss her then, too.
>Am finally to the point where I am starting to be able to think about maybe possibly cooking dinners again. But only if they’re recipes where I can just throw things in the Crock Pot and turn it on.
>Can distinguish between all her different cries now, and have named them. There is The Whine, The Attention-Getter, The Quack (this one means she’s really serious and is commonly accompanied by tears), The Hiccup (if The Quack is not promptly attended to), The Gurgle (things have gotten really out of hand), and all sorts of combinations.
>Am STILL so emotional because of her. No one should let me read or watch anything having to do with babies or children. Even if it’s happy! I WILL cry. (Example: The end of Breaking Dawn Part 1. That’s just embarrassing.)
>Am so happy I finally figured out how to give Meredith her medicine! I squirt a little in her mouth with the syringe and then stick her fingers in her mouth and she sucks. Repeat the process until it’s done.
>Feel like I’m in a constant state of unimaginable joy, but sometimes sorrow deeper than I ever expected springs up out of nowhere, as if I’m losing Meredith already. It’s probably part fear and part excessive nostalgia, but whatever it is, I don’t like it.
>Know that becoming a mom has changed and influenced me profoundly, I hope for the better.
Growing too fast!
For reference:
From Cait:
She just has THE cutest face. Those cheeks! Those eyelashes!
From Kim Hodgson:
What a doll baby!
From Marchar:
Kathleen, she is soooo precious. Wish we could be there for Christmas. I sent a package to your mom. It contains a number of things but one gift for Meredith needs to be opened before Christmas Eve. I want pictures!!!!
From Trish:
What a little doll your Meredith is! Beautiful pictures and she is just gorgeous.
My babe will be 8 months on Christmas so it’s fun to read this post with a little bit of nostalgia. It’s so wonderful when they start becoming more interactive and their personalities come out more.
It’s fantastic that you’re writing about your feelings, too. Really wish I had kept better track. And I totally cried during last week’s episode of NCIS when Gibbs delivered the baby. What a mess. ;)
Hmmm–looking for a place to subscribe to follow up comments if you do that?
From kapachino:
I have a plugin that will email you when someone replies to your comment!
I have so much nostalgia in general that I knew I needed to keep track of my experience as much as possible. I don’t have time right now to do much journaling apart from this so I try to be thorough!
Thank you for your compliments about Meredith! I sure do think she’s cute. I bet 8 months is so fun. Every month so far seems to be my favorite, and yet I don’t want her to get any bigger!
From Christine:
Oh man, the rolls on her arms are SO CUTE! I probably shouldn’t gush over baby fat, but I will anyways. She is such an adorable baby!
From Ashley:
I hate to be a broken record, but she is so adorable!
From Megan:
She is adorable!
My nephew drooled a lot before any of his teeth came in. When his teeth started coming in, he stopped drooling. He’s almost ten months old now and has six teeth, and he doesn’t really drool at all. So maybe the lack of drool means she’ll start getting teeth soon. :)
I love these updates on you and Meredith!
From Jill:
Oh my, she is just getting cuter and cuter! My husband calls our baby Rat too, haha! What is with men and their weird nicknames?!
From Holly:
So adorable! I love the close-up of her smiling :) Topher started sucking on his fingers as soon as he discovered his hands and he still does it when he’s really tired!
From steph anne:
Aww, she is so cute and I love her long eyelashes!