Vesna: 7 months old!

February 26, 2020. 215 days old. 

The month of February flew by compared to the never ending January. And the first month of 2020 was hard to top, if you've read our last post! This month we celebrated my parents' big 40th Anniversary -- we were supposed to continue the celebration in Florida in April as that was our gift to them for taking care of Vesna every day, but with everything going on, we are now going to cancel that trip (at least once I can get a hold of Sun Country). And it was also Vesna's first Valentine's Day - my favorite holiday! It will forever remind me of the first Valentine's Day with Jason when I got the email from the lobby at work that I had something to pick up at the front desk. I think I still have that email saved somewhere. To my surprise, it was the most beautiful bouquet and I didn't even expect anything since we had only been talking over the phone for about a month and that week, Jason had gone completely silent. It was the best surprise! 

Now, back to Vesnic. This past month hasn't brought too many 'big' changes, although Vesna is starting to figure out how to scoot/crawl and we now wake up to her on a whole different side of the bed then where she fell asleep. We are also now hoping to transition her to her room/crib, but easier said then done. When I was pregnant, I made so many promises to myself -- I wouldn't co-sleep, I wouldn't buy baby food from the store, but feed her fresh food every day and now I am learning that things don't go as planned. In fact, we recently put a second crib in our bedroom in hopes of transitioning her from our bed, but she still refuses to sleep in it. I've resorted to climbing in there with her, which calms her down for a bit but as soon as she senses that I am going to leave her in there, she starts crying and hypervantilating. In terms of other development, she is rolling from back to tummy and vice versa no problem, scooting around by flopping her head down and then pushing off with her legs. She is also starting to get more coordinated movements by clapping her hands together when we're singing or when she gets excited (she makes a fist with one hand and claps with the other -- it's my favorite thing so far!) and she squints her eyes and smiles so big when bouncing in the jumper from happiness. I can't believe what a little happy child we have. She is also starting to eat more food and we are still going strong on breastfeeding. In terms of schedule, I nurse her in the morning, then she does a combination of breastmilk and food (banana, oatmeal and grandma usually bakes an apple for her) during the day while I am at work (I pump twice at work still). Then I breastfeed her when I get home around 5pm, then we have some playtime in her room, then she has dinner (we are still doing purees, although we give her pieces of vegetables/fruit to munch on as she gets more independent), followed by bath and I breastfeed her again before bed and we usually top her off with some more breastmilk from the fridge, but warmed up and a good night book (Jason and I each read her a book). Then she sleeps from 7pm to 10 or 11pm, wakes up for a feeding, then eats again around 1am, 4am and 7am. So as you can see our nights are still not the best, but at least she goes right back to sleep after nursing as do I. Even though it's hard, at least it's helping keep my milk supply up or at least that is what I tell myself when I am falling asleep on the bus on my way to work. Our new normal is being able to function every day on 6 hours of interrupted sleep. I look forward to the day when our bed is Vesna free, I can finally sleep next to my husband again and we are able to get 8 hours of uniterrupted sleep -- ah such joyous day to look forward to. I was supposed to go on two work trips in April and May sans Vesna, which are now being canceled or postponed and secretly I was kind of looking forward to getting a good night's sleep ha! Vesna is at music class now with her dad and I stayed home as I am recovering from a cold (I hope nothing more), so wishing everyone to stay safe and healthy out there! 

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