9 weeks

Merry Christmas! Ella had a great first Christmas. She was such a trooper going from one gathering to the next. She had a few melt downs here and there, but overall she did a lot better than I anticipated. She got so many nice gifts from our family and friends- thank you to everyone!

8 weeks

I don't know why, but Ella's favorite place is her changing table in her bedroom. We don't change her diaper in there often right now, but we usually change her clothes in there. She just loves it though. Every time we put her on the changing pad, she gets big smiles and some times even giggles. She tolerates getting her clothes changed the best in this location. So Friday I took her to the changing table to try to get a picture of her smiling for her eight week picture. She was smiling as usual as soon as I put her on there, but every time I put the camera in front of her, she stopped. This was the best one I could get... Her "real" smile is an ear to ear, big, gummy, open mouth grin.

Her day time sleeping is still not great. She still sleeps really well at night as long as she gets ok sleep during the day. But if she's over tired at bed time, she and I both have a long, restless night. I'm not really sure what the problem is during the day. She seems to be unable to go to sleep without a lot of help from us and even staying asleep is problematic now. She did take a few naps by herself in bed this week, but they got shorter and shorter as the week went on and by Friday she would only sleep a few minutes in the bed. It's like she gave it a try and decided sleeping alone is not for her. I wouldn't mind her sleeping in the sling for every nap if she always slept well, but even that's not a guarantee. It's frustrating, but I suppose we'll just keep trying different things until we figure it out.

Tummy Time

Ella had some tummy time today. I can't say she loved it, but she tolerated it better than last time, so about five minutes. Long enough to get some cute pictures though. The cats were very curious about what she was doing on the floor.

7 Weeks Old

This is Ella in her Bumbo. She's still a little too small for it, but she's getting close. She was able to sit up in it and hold up her own head for a few minutes, then Jeff had to help her. She seemed to like it. We got the camera too late, of course, but there were lots of smiles when she was first in it.

This week I got a few giggles with her smiles. I don't think anyone believes me since she's only done it a few times and not when anyone else is around. Oh, well! It won't be long before she's laughing for everyone. She's interacting with us a lot more now. We usually get a few minutes before and after she eats when she's alert and not sleepy and cranky. We talk to her and sing her little songs and she looks all around and gives us big goofy smiles. It's my favorite part of the day!

6 weeks

That's Ella all wrapped up in her sling. I'm so happy she's asleep in there! We've been having some issues with day time sleep this week. She seems to be wanting to stay awake more, which is fine, but then when she gets sleepy she fights it. She gets cranky and wants to nurse non-stop. She'll fall asleep nursing just to wake up 10 or 15 minutes later, still cranky, still sleepy. So when I saw that cycle starting today, I put her in the sling and walked around till she fell asleep. I left her in the sling on my lap and then on the couch next to me and she's been asleep for about an hour and a half. Yay! She continues to sleep well at night, thank goodness.

I went to my Doctor's office yesterday to get caught up on my vaccines. While we were waiting, I snuck Ella onto their baby scale and got her weight: 10lbs 15oz! That was with clothes and diaper on, but still. What a big girl! Her two month check up isn't until Jan. 3, so we'll have to wait a while to check it again. She's getting to be such a little chunky monkey.