Annabella Rose

Seeing how by the time night comes around, I'm in no mood to write-I thought I would try naptime and see how that goes. Here's a bit about Ms. Annabella Rose...

Annabella is now 8 months old. Where the time went I am still trying to find... She is an amazing ray of sunshine in ALL of our lives. To imagine our life without her-you just couldn't.

Eating:

Boy is she nothing like the boys! It's like pulling teeth trying to get her to eat! Even Tony mentions how the boys would open their mouth waiting for the next solid. Not her. She clamps it shut! And the funny thing is, she's much bigger than the boys were at this stage. She's got rolls they NEVER had! She's not on any strict schedule. Sometimes that's good, sometimes not so much. It would help me to know what to expect, like I did with the boys. But on the other hand, I'm not limited with what I can do with the boys-like storyhour. If I had to stay home because it was her nap, we wouldn't go anywhere, and I might just go crazy! She drinks formula every few hours. Trying to get 6oz at a time is not easy. She may drink 4oz, and then she's good for at least an hour, if not more. Drives me batty. So-on average, I'm going to guess she gets at least 20oz/formula a day. Not sure if that's good or not, but she is not a huge eater. Or when she does-it's in large amounts? I don't know. Most days when it comes to solids(cereal, fruits, veggies), she doesn't open her mouth and we have to find a way to get the food in. I may give her a spoon, or something else to chew on and that tends to work. We did start the Gerber puffs right after 8 months. She's done well with them. The first few tries were ok, now she's an old pro!

The boys were eating mostly table food by the time nine months rolled around-as we were in Italy. I'm not so sure Annabella will be on that same time table! Who knows-maybe that's what she'd rather eat anyways?

Sleeping:

Well, yet again, she did things a bit differently. At six months, the boys were STTN as well as going to bed by about 7pm. Annabella? Nope. She was still waking at least once a night, if not twice depending on the time. She would eat, but never a full feeding. She might have 2 ounces one night, 4 ounces the next night. You just never knew. I had a feeling she would STTN on her own though. I was hesitant about CIO with her, probably because she's my last baby, and she's a girl-I know-totally sexist-but I just couldn't bear to hear her cry. And I was the one getting up with her in the middle of the night, not Tony. And it was also one-on-one time I had with her. No matter what time of day it is-she is ALWAYS smiling. Even at 3am, so how could you possibly be mad at her? Anyways...I'm happy to say *knock on wood* that she is going to bed when the boys do-within the half hour, and wakes up around 7am. There are a few nights here or there that she does wake to eat, but it's usually quick and it's at least 4-5oz. So she must be hungry! I'm happy she's pretty muh figured this all out on her own. Tony has done some modified CIO with her-he'll put her down when she's not fully asleep(I don't) and she may cry, but I'll be honest-he gets it done. She goes to sleep within ten minutes, even if it feels like an hour!

Talking:

She is such a little talker! She is a biggggg babbler! I swear she'll be talking in no time! She has, "dadadada" and "nanana" as far as I can tell so far. The other morning she woke up and I went to her crib and she was softly, as if she was whispering, saying "dadadadada." It was so cute. I did it with her later on, and she seemed to repeat what I said. Sometimes if you talk to her, she'll talk back, often times much louder. Not sure if that's a good thing or not! ;) The boys had EI for speech until they were 25 months old. As of now-I don't think she'll need it. The boys weren't much for babbling, although they certainly did it. Just looking back it seems like they were quiet in comparison. And Annabella also has the tendency to put EVERYTHING in her mouth! The boys NEVER put anything in their mouth. Never. I thought it was weird then. Apparently-it's a good thing, to an extent, to do that. It sets them up for speech later on. Interesting. I think she'll do just fine!

On the go:

On November 20, 2009, Annabella rolled from belly to back. Took her long enough! ;) And on February 4th, 2010, she rolled from back to belly. It seems like it takes so long to get from back to belly. And itn's not like she wasn't trying! She'd be on her back and arching like crazy. It was just trying to get that leg over! As for sitting up, she wasn't quite sitting around Christmas. She had JUST started to get the strength to do so. I remember having her sit for photos. I say she was good for a few seconds. And then by January, she's been great with sitting! I still put her in a boppy pillow to protect her. Doesn't help we have hard wood floors. And she just recently has gone from sitting to a crawling type position-getting on all fours, or almost. And, speaking of all fours... She does get up on all fours, and rocks, and that's about it! LOL! She has moved her legs forward, but hasn't figured out that she needs to, or can, move her arms as well. The boys both started crawling at nine months(within three weeks of each other), so it will be interesting to see if she does the same.

Odds and Ends:

*When Annabella sleeps, she sucks on her two fingers. Generally it's her right hand. You know she's getting tired when her fingers go in her mouth. She also sucks on her fingers when you are feeding her, thus making it quite difficult to feed her! To me, it's a comfort thing. I love when she does it. I'll worry about the orthodontist later! ;) And it's so darn cute when you can hear her sucking on her fingers on the monitor!

*When I change her diaper, I sit to the left of her on the bed, while she lays down. Whenever I do this, she rolls to her left and grabs onto my arm and immediately starts to smile! I then start saying, "No!" in a joking manner and she cracks up! I just love her to pieces!!!!

*She ADORES her brothers! Oh my goodness! I LOVE watching them interact! She especially loves Nicholas-as he makes her laugh quite a bit! He'll jump around or dance, and she is in fits of laughter. With Anthony, they seem to be more close in the sense of if she's sitting with me, he'll come up to her and kiss her, or touch her cheek, or talk to her. He really is so gentle with her. To see the love between all three of them-it just melts your heart.

I am still amazed that I have a little girl. When I stop and think about it, it just brings a smile to my face. She's such a beautiful little person, inside and out. I can't imagine my life without her and I am blessed beyond words to call her mine.