Ellie is 8 months old today! She's grown and changed so much in the past few weeks; she's hardly that little tiny peanut we brought home from the hospital in July. I guess because we're with her every day I don't always notice the changes, but when my parents were here last week I saw just how big she really is when my dad was holding her and I remembered how small she was when he first held her. I read somewhere that babies grow more from the time of conception until their first birthday than they will for the rest of their life combined. I believe that! 
We had to put bumpers up around Ellie's crib. She moves around in her sleep so much she kept getting her arms and legs stuck in the slats. These are breathable bumpers, so they're safe. She likes to use them to try to climb in her crib. Her mattress is now at the lowest setting, which is just high enough for her to chew on the top rails. My mom made some rail guards for them, since she was getting teeth marks from her first two (bottom) teeth in the wood. 
She is about 17.5 lbs, and can now wear her 9 month clothes. Mostly she's in 6 months, but some brands she can fit in 9 months. She still has her blue eyes (strange, since Jeff and I both have brown eyes). She likes to play in her exer-saucer and her other favorite toy is a steering wheel that her Grandma gave her. 
Ellie crawls all over the place, and pulls herself up to a standing position whenever she can. She's let go of the furniture a few times, and has been able to stand on her own for a few seconds at a time. She really is looking forward to being able to walk on her own, but her legs just aren't quite ready for that. 
When Ellie really loves what she's eating, she'll grab the spoon out of my hand and try to feed herself. We've added a few things to her diet this month, including turkey, carrots, blueberries, brown rice, rutabaga, and yogurt melts. With the exception of the yogurt melts, I made all of her food. Her favorite food is still banana, but she's a good eater and always tries everything we give her.
The recent time change to DST has been a difficult adjustment for her. She's been sleeping late, and staying up late. The other night she was up until 10 pm! We're working on getting her back to her 8 pm- 7am sleep schedule. She's also been waking up in the middle of the night again. Sometimes she wants to eat or have a diaper change, usually she just wants to cuddle or play. Hopefully, she'll outgrow that soon, since Jeff and I both need our sleep!
My wound debridment surgery was canceled last week because my wounds have healed enough my doctor was concerned she'd stop progress by opening it up more. Since last week though, I haven't made any progress. I've got two little holes in my abdomen, they look like red beady eyes! They are both 0.3 cm deep, and about 0.8 cm X 0.5 cm (length & width). We started using a new packing material this week, that my doctor hopes will make a difference. I'm on antibiotics again for infections (OSSA staph infection & an anaerobic bacterial infection). Fingers crossed that the antibiotics combined with the new dressing will do the trick and the wounds will just close right up! I'm definitely having more pain today than is normal, so I hope that's healing pain caused by a regeneration of nerve endings in the area. Other than that, everything is going well.
