Five Months

Our baby doll is 5 months old! And she LOVES people. Ella's favorite thing is when people talk to her and smile at her, she has absolutely no stranger danger at this point and will happily go to anyone and everyone. Ella smiles easily for people, but its hard to get good laughs out of her, daddy is the best at this!

She is sleeping better. Thank Goodness! Pretty much the day she turned 4 months we did cry-it-out because we couldn't handle getting up with her 7-10 times a night anymore! Our big problem isn't and never has been getting her to sleep, it was keeping her asleep! Basically what we did is we made her go to sleep on her own, which didn't take very long, but then if she woke up and cried for us we wouldn't go in unless it had been at least 3 hours since she last ate, and then we would only walk in, feed her, walk out. It took a few nights and lots of crying:( but we got her down to only waking 2-3 times a night. Usually she goes to bed between 7:30-8, wakes to eat around 11, wakes to eat around 3, wakes up for the day between 6-7. So much better than before! This is do-able, especially if me and Kyle take turns, we can get some pretty decent sleep. And once she turns 6 months I'll probably start working on trying to drop one of her night feeds.

At 5 months Ella:
-Still loves music, mommy singing, clapping hands, snapping fingers
-Loves it when mom makes animal sounds "what does the cat say? Meow..."
-Loves stroller rides
-Likes being outside, when she's fussy those are my go-tos, outside and walks in the stroller
-Can roll over both ways, but its very rare, maybe once or twice a week, she'll roll
-HATES tummy time, she'll hold her head up for 5 seconds or so and then usually just face plants into the floor and cries
-Wears 3-6 month clothing and size 2 diapers
-Loves playing with her toes and trying to eat them!
-I often get "She looks just like a girl version of Kyle." or "She's a mini-Kyle, just prettier" haha, but she's got her mama's eyes!
-Still exclusively breast-milk fed
-Still dairy-free

Kyle's parents came in town for a weekend
 and Ella was in HEAVEN having two more people around to love on her and play with!!
In this picture we were having a picnic with Kyle and friends after they completed a triathlon.

Four Months

4 month stats: Weight: 12lbs 13oz, 25th percentile Height 23.8 inches--almost 2 feet! Also 25th%
And this time her head circumference only came in at the 56th percentile, down from 86th, last month so she's growing into her noggin!

Ella girl is 4 months old! Actually I'm a little late on this post, she'll be 5 months in just 10 days! BUT this post is about the month when she was 3 months old, up until she turned 4 months. And to be honest it was not a good month.

It all started with vaccinations at 3 months old which made her a fussy, no sleeping baby, the next week she got her first cold, it was so sad! The cold continued in the trend of a fussy, no sleeping baby, and she out grew her bassinet that she slept in. So since she was sleeping terribly anyway, we decided to go ahead and transition her to her crib--yikes! It's been about 4 weeks now since we did that and it's still a struggle.

Anyway basically all month she was fussy and slept terrible. We're talking we were up with her anywhere from 7-10 times a night, EVERY night for about 4 weeks. And since she didn't sleep well at night she was always tired and fussy and red-eyed during the day and she was fighting naps like crazy, ahhh! Kyle actually had a week of spring break during this time and he got so frustrated with constantly fighting with her to sleep, that I think he was pretty glad to get back to school and away from being around her so much:(

Thankfully, things are quite a bit better now, but they didn't get better until after she turned 4 months, so that'll be in the 5 months post. BUT despite all the struggles and fussiness we still love our little girl. And we think she's the cutest baby around:)

We also had to take her to a cardiologist at the beginning of this month. Ella was born with a heart murmur, but that's pretty common in babies so the Doctors weren't worried about it at first. But when she still had a heart murmur at 3 months they wanted her to see a cardiologist.

This is Ella in her little patient gown at the cardiologist. They found that she has two different holes in her heart. An ASD and a VSD. For right now they're just gonna keep monitoring them, and hopefully they won't cause any issues, but if they do start to cause problems in the future then she may need to be put on medication or have surgery.

Also, during this past month my grandaparents were able to come down the Galveston for an afternoon and meet Ella! We have 4 generations in this picture! Ella loved meeting her great-grandmother:) And now for some more picture of my beautiful daughter!

This was the very first 3-6 month outfit I put on her!

Ella has really gotten into sucking her hands this past month, and she now puts everything into her mouth!

She rocks the Leopard and Llama look!

Playing with her Elephant:)
Kyle's PA class actually gave us this stuffed elephant as part of a baby gift, and she loves it!

Ella and Grandma Jenson in their matching spots!

Always so happy after bath time

Our little family:)

My little brother Nik, came home from his mission a few weeks ago so went up to my parent's house for his homecoming talk and my older brother and his wife flew in for it too! We had a blast hanging out with everyone!

3 Months

Just chilling in my crib. peace sign.

Ella is 3 months old! And I swear she is getting cuter and cuter each day! She's also getting more smiley and talkative and interactive--its so fun! I like her so much more now, ha! And she likes me so much more now too, its great. When she sees my face and I talk to her she just gets the biggest smile and she'll look at me like I'm greatest thing in the entire universe and then she'll start cooing and gurgling so loud and kicking her legs--I love it!

We have FINALLY made some progress with sleeping this past month. Ella will usually give us one 5-6 hour stretch at night, followed by 2-3 hours after that. So I usually only have to get up with her 3 times a night, plus once to pump. Which is way better than every 2 hours on the dot, plus twice to pump. Hopefully this continues to get better.

We also had her first vaccinations this month which was awful. Ella had a fever for the next day and a half, and was very fussy and it threw off her sleep for an entire week--ahhh!

But the other thing they did when we were at the Dr.'s office was take all her measurements! Here are the stats:

Height: 22.6in--28th percentile
Weight: 11lbs--25th percentile
Head Circumference: 41cm--81st percentile

So she has a small, skinny body and a big head!

At 3 months Ella:

-loves music, all types and especially when mom sings
-loves to suck on her hands, and is starting to put everything she grabs into her mouth
-coos and gurgles and blabs and squawks and makes all kinds of noise
-loves it when people talk and interact with her and is usually very smiley
-rolls on her sides and scoots down in her swing and bouncer
-is a horrible, horrible napper = lots of fussy time due to a tired baby
-her hair is getting thicker on top, yay!
-still sleeps in her bassinet at night next to mom
-and mom still exclusively pumps and is still dairy free

Buddha Baby!
Kyle balancing Ella in his hand

Valentine's Day

All snug in her towel after bath time

Still sporting her band aids from her vaccinations,
We got them a little later than usual because I wanted to schedule them on a day when Kyle could come too!