Working On Our Issues

We have been having issues with sleeping and wanting to be held all the time. Now, I have been reading everything I can get my hands on to see where I went wrong and how I can correct it. Miss Ellie likes to sleep on our chests or in the bed with us and she has a hard time settling down. She jerks herself awake and doesn't just fall asleep if I lay her down. She cries!!!! When she is awake she gets bored very quickly but isn't content to be placed in her bouncy seat or swing....so we've been holding her.
Ryan and I have been making a huge effort to try and get her to be a little more independent and she is making great progress so far! Keep all fingers and toes crossed! We have started swaddling her when we want her to sleep hoping she will stay asleep longer. Our little one is something of an escape artist because she can get out of any swaddle. We had a special swaddle blanket that velcroes and she got out of that. This is a picture of her in the latest swaddle blanket I've purchased. It wraps all the way around her body and velcroes underneath and on top. Now, she can get out of this one too, but it takes her much longer and she usually doesn't make it out before her nap is over.
The other pictures are of her in her new Baby Bjorn. We've only successfully gotten her in it once! This is for times when she wants to be held so she can be close to us and our hands can be free to do other things around the house. We are still very new at it and getting her in it can be a little awkward and she screams like we are cutting off body parts...but we are going to keep on trying!

Ellie Loves Bathtime

Ellie has been promoted from her sponge baths to big girl baths in her little tub! She is old enough to sit in the water now and she LOVES IT! Her eyes get really big and she just looks around at me and Ryan while we bathe her. Ryan holds her in the tub and I wash her. She's so cute taking her bath. This is a picture of her in her new Hippo towel that my friend Missy and her little girl Reese gave her when they visited us this weekend.

Last Week At Home

Wow, the time has really flown! This week will be my last week at home with Ellie and then I have to go back to work. I can't believe it's already time to go back. I feel like we just got home from the hospital. I am ready to get out of the house and have something else to do, but I am very sad to leave Ellie. Thankfully it's not every single day of the week, only Monday Wednesday and Friday and every other weekend. But still, that's a lot of time that I am normally with my little one. I am hoping to sell lots of houses so that going back is worth it.

And She Speaks!

Ellie smiled back at me for the first time on her 1 month bday at 6 am in the morning while I was changing her diaper. But today she started talking (cooing) at me. There must be something about the early morning hours because it's during this time that she seems most alert and ready to talk to me. I have noticed that for the last week she just looks like she's trying to tell me something and this morning she finally got it out. It was just 3 little coos and a few smiles but it was so precious and I could tell she was so happy to get it out! She had this excited / proud look on her face like, "Finally, I did it!" I have tried to get a repeat performance the rest of the day and haven't been successful. I'll be looking forward to our early morning diaper changes from now on!

Yesterday was Ellie's first Sunday lunch at Mamaw Dean's and Papaw Zane's! We got there and Ellie started crying. Mamaw snatched her up and disappeared with her and it got really quiet. When I went back to their bedroom, this is what I saw. Getting Ellie to calm down when she is upset can be a really hard task. She loves her Mamaw Dean!

Big Girl Bed

As I noted in an earlier post, Ellie does not like being put down to sleep in her bed, bassinet, boppy seat, swing, carseat, etc... She prefers sleeping on mine or Ryan's chests or right next to us in the bed (only after she has fallen asleep on our chests first and we roll her off to lay beside us). Today I was rocking her in her nursery and she was in a deep sleep and Ryan came in and said lets put her in her crib and see what happens. Translation: Put her in her crib and if she wakes up wailing like a wild jungle animal, no biggie for me because Libby will have to get her calmed back down! JUST KIDDING RYAN!!!! (He has done his fair share of calming down our little wild banshee!) Anyway, so we carefully put her in her crib and for those of you familiar with the Zaky...we put both of those in there and covered her up. And we watched..... and watched..... and watched....!!!! To our amazement nothing happened. She moved a little and even opened her eyes, but she stayed in there. For a whole 37 minutes! It was so exciting. When she did wake up we both ran in and were so excited telling her what a good job she did and what a big girl she was! Apparently she is only good for one stellar performance. I tried it again at her next nap and her eyes immediately snapped open as if to say, "Nice try mom, but it ain't happenin!" Oh well, there's tomorrow I guess.

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

Our First Outing

Today was mine and Ellie's first outing with just the two of us. I have to say I get extremely nervous anytime I take her out in public. She is becoming notorious for her meltdowns and I am so afraid it's going to happen while we're out and I am going to panic. 9 times out of 10 we have a meltdown just getting into the carseat and it's a toss up as to whether or not I'll get her to calm down. But today I was determined to overcome the fear and just do it .... meltdown or not! The trip was to Walmart and Target for a few supplies (and also because I am dying to get out of the house). She had a moment while getting into the carseat, but quickly calmed down and we were ready to go. She did so great! There was a brief crying spell once we left Walmart and I was putting her back in the car, but she recovered and off we went to Target. She was great in Target, but I also looked like a contestant on Supermarket Sweep. I flew through the aisles grabbing just what I needed instead of my usual lingering to look at everything. I was very pleased with how our first trip together turned out. Hopefully there will be many more to come! Stay tuned...

Reflux is the Pitts!

After the first week of being home with Ellie, we noticed that she would start screaming and screaming during and after feedings. We would change her and still screaming. We would give her gas drops, still screaming. Then we assumed she was still hungry so we would supplement her with formula....nothing was working. After talking to my new best friend, Dr. Andy...he suggested reflux might be the culprit. Ryan and I began watching Ellie very closely to see if she was showing the signs. This had to be it. After 2 days of taking her reflux medicine, she seems to be crying less at feedings. She is still doing her cranky fussy cry but it's nothing like the painful bloody murder cry from before. Thank God for pediatricians and reflux / gas medicine! Now, if we could just get her to sleep in her bed. Our little princess prefers to sleep with us in our bed....it's the only way we can get her to fall asleep and stay asleep. The minute we put her down in her bed, she wakes up and starts crying. I am reading every thing I can get my hands on to figure out how to fix it. Dr. Andy said that for now it's okay and to try and put her down in the bed during the day (has he met Ellie?) I am just nervous about her being in the bed with us...for fear of rolling over on her etc.... What i really need is for someone to volunteer to come over during the night to hold her :)

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Our first days with Ellie

Ryan and I are so glad to finally be home with Ellie. Our lives have definitely changed though. Everything revolves around our little one. She is a sweet baby and we love to just sit and look at her as much as we can. She sleeps alot right now, especially during the day. At night she is a little bit fussier, but not too bad. She doesn't like to be put down to sleep in her bassinet though. She prefers to sleep on mine or Ryan's chests or to sleep in the bed with us. We have resorted to putting a co-sleeper in our bed for now until we can get her sleeping in the bassinet. The co-sleeper is like a mini baby bed that fits in between me and Ryan in our bed. It protects her and prevents us from rolling onto her in the middle of the night but still lets her feel close to us. In the meantime I am researching and reading up on ways to ease her into the bassinet, because that is where we would prefer that she sleep. Don't get me wrong, I love having her sleep with me or on me or whatever, it feels so good. But for her own well being, I want her to be comfortable sleeping in her own bed. I am not ready to let her cry it out though....it makes me cry.

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