8 month photos

It's so exciting to witness the development of Elise's budding personality.  I had to fill out a long worksheet describing Elise's personality and sleep habits (more on that later) and the two adjectives that stand out to describe her are "energetic" and "sensitive".  It's hard to know what makes Elise unique because I don't know of that many babies to compare her to but when other people interact with her, one of the first things they mention is her high energy level, as evidenced by her constant desire to bounce.  She can bounce for as long as someone is willing to hold her. 

She also has quite the sensitive soul.  She has a very strong attachment to mommy and she wants me by her side AT. ALL.  TIMES.  She's doing great with her new babysitter but when we are playing at home, I can barely get up to use the restroom.  Some of this might be separation anxiety but she's definitely been a bit more "attached" than other babies I've seen.  Elise is also quite the keen observer.  People comment how alert, focused, and observant she is.  She is sensitive to new surroundings and notices the small details.  She studies peoples' faces intently and watches for their reactions. 

We're still having sleep challenges.  We tried sleep-training her using the Sleep Lady Shuffle (a somewhat gentle approach to sleep-training, a la letting a baby scream to sleep) but after 7 days and nights of crying, she showed absolutely no improvement!  So many of my friends have babies who immediately learn to sleep within 3 quick and easy nights.  Not with Elise, no.  I was hoping to get her trained before our big PNW trip but it became clear that we needed outside help.  After our trip, I hired a sleep consultant and we just received our sleep plan.  It looks like it's going to take a good month to get all of her sleep habits in order!  We started training tonight and I laid down with Elise and did not nurse her to sleep like I normally do.  Well, the entire time she is pulling down my shirt and fussing so I finally had to have Bry take over.  Commence the screaming.  She wanted mommy but she finally slept after about 30 minutes.  Please pray that she learns how to sleep QUICKLY and without much trauma!

I have been really enjoying motherhood but I reached a point today where I felt so overwhelmed with all the different hats that I'm juggling (and on top of having a bad day) that I just broke down crying.  It was the first time in my life that I cried due to being overwhelmed with responsibilities.  I'm usually pretty good with multi-tasking but I've reached a new level of multi-responsibility with being a mom, a wife, a student, a professor, and a researcher.  I think the mom part is taking the biggest part of the mental pie.  I've been having a hard time with leaving Elise with her babysitter and I feel all sorts of guilt for not being able to do anything really well.  I think I'm just entering a new season of life and I have to readjust my expectations.  Not an easy thing to do.

But when I look at sweet Elise's face, I just melt into total happiness.  There are so many moments in the day when I just want to drop everything and hold her forever.  We are so blessed to have such an amazing gift from God.