Flannery turned four months on Aug. 30th.
Oh my, I am late on this. I don’t know if I’ve ever been so late for such an early update. I was asking myself why this could be? Why did I miss this particular update? Then I remembered. It’s because this was the month of sickness.
Early in August Eldore and I came down with something. He was laid out in bed with a fever, but I could function alright if I took ibuprofen to bring my fever and headache under control. The day after our symptoms started, Flannery got sick. Her fever was quite high for her age, so I took her to the ER just to make sure things were alright and there wasn’t something more going on with her.
While we were there she tested positive for Covid.
They did x-rays and gave her something for her fever. Once her fever was down and she felt better, she gave her first belly laugh there in the exam room.
By the time I got home with her several other kids and Jeremy were showing symptoms. The next day we all had it.
It was hard to see her sick, though she really came through it pretty well. She had the fever and lethargy and some coughing. She was just so somber and sad. She has such a smiley, sunny personality that it was heartbreaking to see her so clearly out of sorts.
After about a week she was on the mend and smiling again. How glad I was for those smiles! It took longer for me to be back to full capacity, as it were, which is why this update slipped past my radar.
So she started laughing this month. We brought up the Famous Ikea Gym Toy for her to play with–one of the only toys to last through all seven previous Kranslings! It has been as big of a hit for her as it has been for everyone else. She spent this month swiping at it and listening to the lovely clacky-clack sounds it made when she hit it.
Therefore this month was also the first she began to hang out on the floor. Previously when she was out in the Colloquium, she would stay in her basket. Now that she was playing with the gym, she was on the floor, though sort of corralled in a spot where she couldn’t be easily run over by people who weren’t used to having a baby on the floor. Her Fan Club (mostly Eldore and Beatrice) LOVED having this new easy access to Flannery. I don’t think she spent a single moment alone while she was down and playing–which of course suited her just fine. What she was less amenable to was being left by herself. She’d let you know if she needed someone to come talk to her.
But even then, she wasn’t much of a fusser. She’s really been so mild mannered, and very smiley and friendly. She doesn’t like loud noises, but other than that she’s not given to grouchiness or crying.
She’s a little baby, long and skinny, and when weighed at the ER that first night was about 11.5 lbs. At her four-month appointment she was right at 12 lbs. Her littleness has been somewhat stressful, but her pediatrician noted she’s still following her weight curve and isn’t concerned yet. Even though both Clive and Anselm were always very small, too, it’s not something that’s been easy for me. I hadn’t done any night sleep training for her at all as I don’t want her to drop any feedings yet–however I was starting to get an inkling that those night feedings were disrupting her daytime feedings. She didn’t hardly want to nurse during the day at all.
She’s as blue-eyed as she can be. No more wondering! But her hair is a different matter, as it just doesn’t seem to be growing much. Poor girly–she’ll be bald until 18 months, like her big sister Elvie was!
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