Ramblings: Luna Marlena's Eighth Month

This  month's photos can be found HERE.

While I type this (with one hand) Luna is fast asleep in my arms, my playlist is playing a mix of my female artists and the only lights on are those of our beautiful Christmas tree and the “Love” light Cesar made for us the other day. It’s all very peaceful and relaxing! It has, however, been a really, really busy month again! With the wonderful last minute visit from my mother, and then Luna being super ill during Thanksgiving, and all through this I had to work about 10-15 hours a week on some writing assignments, I didn’t even see December 9th coming up until it was here! Luna is 8 months old now and it’s the last month of the year. Last year we were looking forward to our last Christmas as a couple and anticipating this coming Christmas as a family of 3. We both hope that by next Christmas we will be a family of 4, so we are going to make this one extra, extra special for Luna, as while she won’t remember it, she will at least have photos and videos to look back on.

I actually don’t know what Luna’s weight is anymore! When we went for her cardiologists check-up at the beginning of the month she was 18lbs. Bear in mind that 2 weeks before that she had been 19.5lbs at her pediatrician’s. Then when we went to the pediatrician’s 2 weeks ago she was 20lbs, and then 5 days later at the hospital she was 15lbs. I know every scale is different, and the last one was after 5 days of being sick, so I’m guessing she is somewhere between 18 and 20lbs. I was dreading the cardiologist check-up. It’s hard keeping an infant still for all of the tests, especially the echocardiogram because it takes a while. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be this time around! I sat on the bed and nursed Luna while the technician did the tests. Once our cardiologist had reviewed everything we met with her (she’s so absolutely lovely I just want to hug her every time we see her). While Luna’s ASD hasn’t got any smaller and she will most likely still have to have an operation before she is 5, we had some really, really good news. Her pulmonary stenosis, which can get bad really, really fast, has gone away! Her body corrected it all by itself. We are both so relieved. Now I am just hoping that her ASD will decide to close by itself too. I’m so glad we had this appointment before Luna got a viral infection and then Roseola as I would have been even more worried!

Between the cardiologist visit and Thanksgiving/Luna being super ill, my mother came over for a week. It was the first time she had actually been able to visit while on holiday, the two other times that she has visited she was also working (she was here for Luna’s birth though). It was wonderful to have her here, for her to have loads of time to cuddle Luna and talk to her and play with her. She was able to witness the emergence of Luna’s first two teeth (bottom), and Luna’s unwillingness to ever sleep. I’ve been known to fight sleep a lot in my life and have developed a high tolerance to sleep deprivation, but I would really love it if Luna would realize that she isn’t missing out on anything (as I write this, now at 10pm she is happily playing in her baby jail – earlier fast asleepness was just an evening nap). Cesar and I also had our first date since before Luna was born (I think the last time we went out together was when I was 40 weeks pregnant). We were gone for about 3 hours during which we had dinner in an Irish pub in Sunnyside and walked to the Irish shop so I could get tea, crisps and chocolate). My poor mum! Luna cried for 2/3 of the time that we were gone! When we walked in you could tell she thought we had abandoned her – and then her face just lit up and all was forgotten. It was nice to go out together like that, but both of us are quite happy relaxing altogether at home nowadays, so I don’t know when we will revisit this date thing. I also don’t want to put Luna or anyone else through the crying thing again! I know that we are always together, and I know that she has separation anxiety (unless she is with Cesar she will cry if I leave the room), but in my opinion it’s just a phase, she’s just learning that objects and people can come and go and she will get used to it at some point in time. My mum, who happens to be an amazing photographer, took some wonderful photos during her stay, all of which can be viewed HERE.

So, Luna started pulling herself up to a standing position a few weeks ago, and what began as a very wobbly endeavour, is now becoming more and more confident. She can now sit down from a standing position which reassures me to no end as I have been trying to break falls whenever I can, but sometimes I’m just not fast enough. She also seemed to figure out how to crouch down to pick up a toy this morning, and then pull herself back up again. She likes to hide toys under things and will scream with delight when she finds them again. And then, for the most endearing one, she started calling me “mehmeh”. She has been saying “mamama” and “dadadadada” amidst other things for a while now, but my mother kept saying that she was calling me “mama” while she was here. I just passed it off as babbling, until one day she stuck her arms in the air, looked at me and said “mehmeh!”. It only happens when she wants to be picked up or she falls over, but it makes my heart melt! Her favourite words are still “KA!!” (said in a sort of sharp whispery, kind of channeling Gollum, voice) and “DA!” (said in the same voice).

I look at pictures from 8 months ago and can’t believe how fast she has grown in such a short space of time. Her face is beginning to change just slightly, and while she is still the spitting image of her Daddy, she is beginning to look a lot more like me as a child. She has so much personality already, such a little person now. She’s going to be just as stubborn as her mother! I love her unruly hair that I refuse to cut until she is 1 – I know it may seem like a silly superstition, but when can you have unruly hair if you can’t when you are an infant?! She was born with a full head of hair, but with bald patches that are now finally beginning to grow in. So she will keep all the curls and devil’s lock and dreadlocks for the next few months. And then maybe we will get matching haircuts ;)

I started writing this over 24 hours ago, and between spending quality family time together on Cesar’s day off, finishing up writing assignments and getting (exciting) new ones, and playing in the snow that didn’t stick, time is running away from me. All I want to do right now is curl up next to a sleeping Luna in our bed and hope for more than 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Hahaha :D I will probably end up posting this tomorrow anyway. I’m so excited for the rest of this month!! We have so many fun activities planned and I love that we are starting all of our own Christmas traditions. There will only be a few more of these monthly posts, as I am not planning on doing them every month after Luna's first birthday. Maybe every quarter or so! I was telling my mother the other day that I had been really bad at filling her baby book up, and then realised that I have been doing these monthly posts, so I guess that fills that requirement!