The Eleanor Update: 48 weeks.

This week is going to be a short update.

Foods:  Nothing new that I can remember

Sleep:  She's had a couple of days where she will wake up early and take a good morning nap and then refuse nap in the afternoon and want to crash at 6 pm.  I don't let her though because then she will be up super late, but she is rough for that hour.

Misc:  She rode on this toy of my nephews over the weekend.  She had a blast and kept crawling back to it.

I have an 11 month old ...

Am I really going to be the mom to a one year old in just a month?

She sleeps through the night about half the time (from 8:30/9 pm ish to anywhere between 6:30-8 am).

She's close to walking.  She can stand unassisted for anywhere between 5-10 seconds.

Finally figured out how to say "mama:.  Also can say "hi" "dada" "bye" "uh oh" and I'm convinced she says other words by repeating us.  We were watching Frozen one night and it sounded like she said Elsa.  I even looked at Rob and asked him if he heard that and he had too.   She's pretty vocal as well. 

She nurses every 3-4 hours during the day.  When she wakes, before morning nap, sometimes after depending on if it was a good nap, before her afternoon nap, once more in the afternoon before bedtime, before bedtime and usually one or two other times.  She is at the point where when she wants to nurse she will try to lift my shirt up of pull it down.  I'm not ready to wean her yet, although in the next few months I'll try to drop a session.  The pre-sleep ones will be the hardest and I don't know how to go out that. 

She loves rice, pasta, blueberries, cheese and is starting to like yogurt.

Eleanor has developed a little sass on her.  She was playing in her ball pit -which is a favorite toy now - with this drumstick toy and I didn't want it in he mouth when she dove out of the pool (Which she does often) so I took it away and moved it out of her range.  Then I walked out of the kitchen, she dove out, crawled to it and brought it back into the pool  She's sneaky and can be a little bit of a wild child. 

Still in the infant car seat although I leave it in my car most of the time anyway.

She's in size 3 diapers (disposable), 6-12 month onesies, 12-18 month pants, 18 month shirts, and I've got 12 month footie pajamas ready to wash because her 9 month ones are really snug.

In short she's still a social happy easy going little girl.

You can always check out any of the weekly updates for more detailed information.

As for me, I'm doing good.  Rob's ready for another baby.  I'm not.  I still haven't gotten my period and even though I know it's possible to get pregnant and never get it I also don't want being pregnant to mess with breastfeeding.

UPDATE: I weighed her on the 8th and she was 20.6 lbs.

The Eleanor Update: 47 weeks

My sisters birthday is today thus the onesie choice :)

Feeding:
She tired and liked meatloaf. I bought these Gerber cookies for her to snack on and she liked them.

We bought blackberries and she liked those as well.  She loved the pizza we had and was a little unsure about the cucumbers but didn't like pickles.

Misc:
She was sick last week but is better now (I however have been dealing with a head cold/allergies/whatever) for almost a week.

She's getting better at standing unassisted.  It's still very sporadic, but she can go maybe 5 seconds.

She's been loving her little ball pit this week.  I set it up earlier this summer but she was kind of whatever about it, but now she climbs in and out of it a lot.


We had a playdate this week.  I met them (the boy is a week younger than Eleanor I think) at the breastfeeding group I went to when she was little.  Then we saw each other at the babywearing group over the summer and upon chatting learned we lived less than 2 miles apart.  It was great to get some adult interaction and since our babies are at the same stage it was good to get them together as well.

Sleep:

For the most part her naps are better, but with the holiday weekend and being out an about her sleep as been seriously disturbed and I am tired.

She's been going to bed later than normal and trying to not nap all day.  I don't know if the nap thing is maybe her transitioning into one nap, but I think she still needs two.

Usborne Books Review and Giveaway (Ends 9/6)

I received a product for review.  No other compensation was given.  All opinions are my own.

We love to read books over here, and even when I'm not reading them to her Eleanor will sometimes grab one and sit for 10 minutes flipping the pages.  Sometimes it's upside down or backwards, but the point is that she likes it and is developing those reading skills. We also visit the library a few times a month and Eleanor loves it.

So when Cara reached out to me wanting to work together on a review and giveaway I knew it was a perfect match.

Cara is an educational consultant with Usborne books.   Usborne has books for babies all the way up to middle school age.  They carry board books, chapter books, sticker books and even e-books and story apps.  

Cara gave me the opportunity to pick a few books and I spent almost a half an hour trying to decide.  I checked out the books by age, by season, by style before making my choices.

Books generally range from $5-$20, which is pretty typical prices compared to what you would pay at a store or other online retailer.

What's really cool is that when you order from a consultant your books have a 50% lifetime replacement value.  So if your baby has the nickname of Princess Destruction (I'm looking at you sweet Eleanor) and decides to rip it up or throw it in the bathtub you can replace it for half price.

The Under the Sea book is a chunky board book.  I didn't realize actually how chunky until I received it.  I thought it was cool because she has no other books like that.  We also loved it because she has so many books about farm and zoo animals but oddly none about sea animals.

Comparison of the page thickness compared to another board book.

Reading it in the car

I also choose two other books as well.  I think I'm going to hang onto That's not my fairy until Eleanor's birthday but we have read When I love you at Christmas a few times.  I love Christmas anything and will probably read that one all year long. 

That's not my fairy is a touch and feel book and has the different textures on each page.  When I love you at Christmas is not a true baby friendly book (because it's not a board book) but the pages are of a thicker paper so she probably couldn't destroy it before I caught her.  Haha.  It is super cute though and is short and repetitive (each page ends with the phrase 'That's when I love you')

Cara has generously offered one reader a $50 credit to shop her site.  This could get you some great

books.   Enter below on the form.  

But even if you don't win, you still kind of do because Cara has also offered a 10% discount for those who order from her.  You will have to directly let her know your order as Usborne books doesn't have a coupon code option yet.  You can do so by emailing her at usbornecara@gmail.com and she will send an invoice to you.  Shop Here!

But but wait, there's more.... You can enter to win a free book on her page. and then everyone who's order totals over $30 will be entered in another drawing to win more free books.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Girls Crochet Headbands Review and Giveaway

It's no secret that I LOVE headbands for Eleanor (and yes that totally deserved caps!).  So when I was given the opportunity to review some from Girls Crochet Headbands I was excited.  I didn't know what they would look like until they arrived so it was fun anticipating the arrival. 

She has a lot of pink in her closet so finding something to pair with the pink bands was not really difficult.  She wore the cherry blossom to church with a pink and orange dress (seen below).  The black and pink shabby chic flower I paired with a pink top/skirt to accent the pink in the headband.

I'm really not that awesome at styling clothes/accessories though so coming up with something for the blue bands is harder.  I really do love that blue bow and have never seen anything like it.

All the pretties

Close up of a few

Some of the headbands were a little snug on her.  I know they should not really be loose though and it's basically because my sweet child has a huge head.

The headbands are well made.  None of the embellishments came loose, and I always try to tug them loose before putting them on Eleanor just to be safe. 

Girls Crochet Headbands sells more than just headbands however.  They sell rompers, tutus, dresses and all things girly.

They have offered one reader a $10 credit to use on their site and will include free shipping as well.  Enter below on the rafflecopter form. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

The Eleanor Update: 46 weeks

Sleep

One night last week she slept 13 hours! She woke once in that time frame to nurse, but I was like whoa!  

Actually she's been going to bed around 8:30/9 and sleeping until around 8 and usually waking once to nurse as well this week.


Oh and then I wrote that and that night (Saturday night) she wouldn't go to sleep until after ten and was up for 2 hours in the middle of the night.  It never fails that I write that and then she does that. She did however sleep from 9:30-7 last night without waking.  We took a walk this morning about 45 minutes after she woke and she fell asleep and slept for 2 hours.  Falling asleep in the stroller isn't unusual but falling asleep an hour after waking, and staying asleep during the transfer to the crib kind of is. 

Feeding:
We went to Logan's this week using a gift card we had from Christmas.  Rob got a steak and shared it with Eleanor and she seemed to like it. And she loooved the rolls!  But who doesn't?




Rob gave her some honey bunches of oats.  I wouldn't normally because it's sugary but I was sleeping when he did.

Also she had raspberries and seemed to like them even if she was hesitant at first.

Misc:

Working on birthday stuff.  I'm having a hard time not falling into the whole pinterest party trap.  I wound up ordering invites from Sam's Club (picked them up today and they turned out nice, and super cheap! $11 for 30).  My budget was $200 for everything (food, gifts, decorations etc...)but I'm right there and don't have food   We went to  Party City over the weekend and had a little bit of fun,

She stood for 2 seconds on Sunday before lunging at me.

Earlier this summer I bought this plastic rocking toy from an online yard sale but she was to young/small.  I put her on it on Friday and she loved it.

My parents picked her up a water table at a sale and that was also another fun toy she has enjoyed.