Sunday, May 9, 2010

Elle is 6 Month's Old

Elle has been in our lives for 6 months. I couldn't be happier. Here are some 6 months stats for little baby Elle:

-Breastfed 4 times a day, every 4 hours
-Sleeps through the night, approximately 10 hours (in our room, for at least a few more nights)
-3 naps a day (after each feeding), 1.5-3 hours each (in her crib)
-Rice cereal once a day
-Just started sweet potatoes two days ago, so far so good. Once a day, mixed with rice cereal
-Wearing 3-6 month clothes
-Rolls back to belly (to the left)
-Rolls belly to back (first time yesterday)
-Sits unassisted but supervised
-Loves to stand on laps
-Just started being interested in her toys
-Loves her jumperoo and her feet finally touch the floor
-Loves her walker and can scoot an inch or two on the kitchen floor
-Enjoys being read to
-Size 1-2 diapers (Pampers Swaddlers)

Her appointment is next week, at that time we will know her weight, height and head measurements. She will also get her shots :(

I love love love this baby. She is a complete joy to be around. She smiles first thing in the morning and doesn't stop all day. The look of joy on her face when she sees me just melts my heart. I can't believe how fast she is growing and how much she is changing. Half of a year old...that is nuts. Love you SO MUCH Ellie!!

Mother's Day

Today is Mothers Day. My first Mother's Day with my own baby. We have celebrated Mother's Day in past years with Dad and Brother, but this is my first year to celebrate on Mother's Day with a biological child. It was wonderful.

Brother gave me a card on Friday while he was here and a few gifts. He also gave me a card from Elle, a very sweet First Mother's Day card, it made me cry. I am so happy to be a mother and I am so happy to have such a wonderful family.

Dad got up with Elle this morning and let me sleep in. Too bad I was too excited to sleep in! I was like a kid on Christmas, and I am not even sure why. I just couldn't sleep in, I wanted to get up and start MY day!!

We got up, had our coffee, packed up and went up to my parents house. We had some mimosas when we got there (yum) and headed out to brunch. We had a great brunch, just the 5 of us.

When we got back to Grammy and Grandpas Elle fell asleep and so did Dad and I. It was great. I love naps. We got up around 3 and Elle ate at 4, then had some cereal and sweet potatoes (we just started sweet potatoes yesterday and she LOVES them...it is hilarious). Grandpa picked up some pizza and we enjoyed a casual dinner before heading home.

We are home now and I am getting ready for a foot and back rub....oh man this is going to be great. I love Mother's Day!!

All in all it was a wonderful day and I am so glad I have Elle. I am so proud of her and so happy to be her mom. Being a mother makes me really appreciate my own mother. I am glad I was able to spend the day with her as well.






Tomorrow Elle will be 6 months old. I can't believe how fast these months have gone.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

That's More Like It

OK so Elle is pretty much back to normal on her sleep schedule today.

That's my girl.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Elle....why do you hate naps??

Hmmmm.....Elle will be 6 months in 5 days, and so far things have been so good!!
She naps 3 times a day and sleeps through the night.

Until yesterday apparently.....

Dad had to work all day and night so it was just me. I didn't work yesterday so we had the whole day together. Typically her first nap is at 9:30am and this one went normally. Down by 9:30, up about 11:15am. I fed her a bit early and we went out and met Daddy for lunch. When we got home she should have slept. Well that didn't happen. As soon as I put her down in her crib she started to cry....and didn't stop until I got her out. I tried to rock her to sleep and she just cried...until I sat her up. Once she was upright and looking around she was fine. OK, I thought, maybe she just isn't tired yet. I let her play for about 15 minutes then tried again to put her down. Same thing, lots of crying (this is a baby who truly rarely cries...I am not kidding, so this is so odd to me). I sort of have a rule about naps and bedtimes, once she is in her crib I try really hard not to pick her up. Well yesterday I had to throw that out the window. She seriously had no interest in being in her crib and it was heartbreaking hearing her cry. I grabbed her again, tried again to hold her, rock her and put her to sleep. No luck. At this point we were approaching her feeding time so I decided to just feed her, and hope she wanted to sleep once her belly was full.
FAIL! She ate, and wanted to play. So I read to her, played with her, sang to her, the usual things we do while she is awake. I just decided to move forward with our day, as usual. Once it came time for her last nap, the same thing happened. She cried a lot, although she was showing signs of being tired she wouldn't lay down. Every time I put her in her crib she would roll over, lift herself up and look around. She would not put her head down and would not go to sleep. I gave her some time and nothing changed. I pulled her out, gave her a bath, rubbed her nighttime lotion on her and swaddled her up. I put her in her swing and hoped for the best. She hasn't been swaddled in forever and hasn't been in her swing for a nap for even longer. I was at my wits end. I know days like this are totally normal and I am sure she was in some sort of growth spurt, but it was just hard because it was me all alone all day with her. After about 15 minutes she fell asleep in the swing. SCORE!!! This was probably about 5:45pm. We had been trying to take a nap for about 4 hours. What an afternoon!! I was having a friend over to watch LOST and Elle slept the whole time she was here. She slept through her last feeding (usually 8pm-ish), and I just let her go. I figured she needed it. I got her up at 11pm when I went to bed, fed her and she went right back down.

She slept until about 7:30am, which is becoming the norm for her. So now here we are....today was very similar to yesterday. I had to work so I knew she would be a little off, but I expected better than what I got. She slept in the car on the way to work for probably 30 minutes (8:45am-9:15am). She didn't sleep again until after 2pm, and once again she only slept for about 30 minutes!! (Again, we were in the car, on our way home from dropping a friend at the airport). Once I got home she played with Daddy for a bit since he didn't get to see her yesterday. He tried to put her down for a nap and we had a repeat of yesterdays cry fest. I had a feeling she wasn't going to go down easy, it was almost time to eat. We decided to just let her stay up until her next nap, after her feeding. She ate at her usual time, played for a bit and when it was time to sleep just played in her crib. She managed to turn herself 180 degrees while in there. She wasn't crying this time (THANK GOD), but she also wasn't sleeping. I gave her about 30 minutes of play time in her crib before I grabbed her, stripped her and put her in the tub. I gave her a nice long bath, followed by her nighttime lotion and laid her back in her crib. Within 5 minutes she was asleep.

She went down about 6pm, let's see if tonight is a repeat of last night, where she just sleeps the rest of the day. If she does, that is fine. Maybe now that she is getting a bit older it is time to revisit her daily schedule. These past two days have definitely been different from what we are used to, but hey, this is motherhood....I have to learn to adapt.

It is hard looking back at the day and realizing so much time was spent TRYING to get her to sleep. These are times we could be playing, going for walks, reading, etc. I am going to really watch her over the next few days to see what she wants. Like I said, maybe she is growing and things will go back to normal, or maybe things are changing. Lots of babies take 2 naps a day, maybe Elle's time is here.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend was pretty uneventful. We had a beautiful day Friday, the temperature was in the 80's!! That is great for Michigan in April (or early May even). I headed into work and dropped Elle off at Grammy's. Dad and Brother were planning on coming up after school.

Work was normal. I got about half my work done before I had to head back to Grammy's for Elle's noon feeding. I got there and she was still napping. I helped my mom make lunch while we waited for Ellie to wake up. She started to stir and of course Grammy ran right in and got her up. Which was fine, she needed to eat anyway. We played for a minute then she ate. As soon as she was done the boys arrived.

We had lunch outside on the deck, and I actually got sweaty!! It was so nice to be out in the sun. Grandpa and I headed back to work after lunch to finish up and Grammy, Dad and Brother stayed and played.

When I got back from work Elle and Dad were napping and Brother and Grammy were playing on the beach. I met them down there and we did some exploring. We found some great pieces of sea glass for our collection. It was great. I can't wait for summer to really be here so we can swim, go on the boat and jet ski and just spend lots of time at Grammy and Grandpas!

We had to leave soon after Elle woke up because I had to pick up my friend Chrissy from the airport. Her grandmother had passed away early in the morning and she was flying in from NYC to be with her family for the viewings and funeral.

The airport pick up went well and we came home and had some wine while we visited. I talk to Chrissy almost everyday but it was still great to actually be together. She loved seeing Elle and was impressed by how much she has grown! She hasn't seen her in about 5 weeks and at this age, so much changes so fast.

Saturday was a lazy day. Laundry, cleaning up and playing. Brother had a friend over and that kept him occupied all day. I even had a chance to head out to Target. I seriously love that store.

I went through Elle's clothes and got all her 6-9 month clothes out and washed. It was so exciting to see all the cute stuff she has for summer! She has some super cute dresses, I can't wait for her to wear them all!

Today (Sunday) I got to sleep in! Well not really, but sort of. Elle woke up at 7am, which is odd for her. She usually sleeps until 8. We got up, played for a bit, then she ate. I was so tired...all I could think about was going back to sleep, so after she got done eating, I swaddled her up, put her back to bed and hoped for the best. Yeah right. She wasn't quite ready for her nap yet. So.....I got Dad up and asked him to take her so I could go back to sleep. AND HE DID!!!! What a guy!! I am seriously so lucky. He took care of Elle, and by this time Brother had gotten up as well, so he took care of him too. When Elle finally went down for her morning nap, Dad took Brother out to breakfast and left us to sleep. It was great! I finally got up at 10:45. That was amazing. AND they brought me french toast home!

I went to a bridal shower this afternoon that was really nice. It was a wine tasting and it was fun to get out of the house. I didn't know anyone except the bride-to-be but I didn't care. The food was good and I got wine!! Plus I thought it was exciting to see all the presents! It made me want all new stuff....I love Crate and Barrel!

Tonight we are going out for a BBQ and for the Wings game. I hope we win! I really, really hope we win.

All in all it was a great family weekend. I love it when the four of us are together and can just relax. I wish I had some pictures but the memory card is full and although all the pics are uploaded to my computer, they are not yet on Dad's so I can't delete any off the camera. Maybe I will ask for a new memory stick for Mother's Day.