5 weeks

Ella and her Great, Great Uncle John


It's been a good week, very busy! Last weekend we went to Ally's baby shower and out to eat with Kevin and Amanda. Ella did great. She's getting to be a very mobile baby. Tuesday we went to see a house Ella's Grandma and Grandpa Dietzman are looking at and then out to eat. Again, she did really well, although Grandma had to walk her around the restaurant a bit to get her to sleep.

Wednesday we left for Bryan/College Station. I've been worried about this trip for a while. I just wasn't sure how she would do being in the car for that long and being away from home. She did really well. We stopped once both on the ride down and back up for Ella to eat. Other than that she slept most of the time. She got cranky a few times, but Aunt Carrie was sitting in the back with her and was able to calm her down. She seemed pretty unaware of sleeping in a different place at night. She actually did great. I'm really glad we were able to go. It just doesn't feel like Thanksgiving unless we're in College Station. I'm glad we got to see everyone and that they got to see Ella. We had a really good time.

She was pretty worn out by the time we got home Friday and so was I. We went to bed about 5:30 for a "nap" and didn't get up until the next morning. She's been sleeping so well at night (knock on wood!). We've gotten the hang of nursing laying down and that's made a huge difference. She hardly wakes up, even to eat, so we don't have the struggles to get her back to sleep.

She's been smiling a little more. She tends to be the most alert in the mornings during and right after she eats. She gave her cousin Emily and her Aunt Carrie some good smiles while we were in Bryan. She also seems to be more aware and getting better control of her hands. Baby Center says she may also find her feet soon, but so far she seems pretty oblivious to them.

We have another busy week coming up, hopefully she will continue being patient about all the coming and going!

4 weeks

What a difference a week makes! This week was so much better than last. Ella seems to be doing a lot better about sleeping at night. She gave me a little trouble Monday morning, didn't want to sleep from about 5am to 10am. Fortunately we didn't have any where to be so we just stayed in bed until early afternoon once she finally went to sleep. Otherwise she's been sleeping longer stretches and going back to sleep easier after she eats.

Danny and Jenn let us borrow their bouncy seat thing which has been helpful. Ella let me work out three days this week and take a shower everyday. She has about a 30 minute limit of being in the seat, so I do everything in short segments. But at least I'm able to get some things done.

Thursday we ran errands all day. GrandMo came with us for most of the day, which was very helpful. Ella did really well. By the end she was pretty worn out though. I felt bad for her by the time we got home, she seemed completely over stimulated. I nursed her for a long time and we both crashed for about three hours.

This morning while she was nursing, we were switching from one side to the other and she was giving me some fierce eye contact. So I stopped for a minute and was singing to her and returning the eye contact when she gave me a huge, open mouth, gummy grin! It was so cute. And she did three or four times. It made my day. She did it again for me later on and Jeff said she smiled at him when we got home. I hope she keeps it up. It's awesome.

3 weeks old

This picture is actually from yesterday, but it was so cute, I wanted to use it anyway. She had her second newborn screening yesterday with our midwife. That's the heal stick test. She hated it even more this time than she did the first time. It was heart breaking listening to her cry. She was pretty worn out when we got home.

It's been an interesting week. Tuesday was kind of terrible. She didn't let me sleep more than about 30 minutes or so at a time all night and into the morning. We stayed in bed until about 3pm on Tuesday, but I still didn't really get any sleep. She was fussy and just wanting to eat every hour or so. Maybe it was a growth spurt, maybe she had a tummy ache... Who knows? But it's been a lot better since then. She's been sleeping much better at night. She still gets a little fussy early in the morning though. I'm not sure why.

Yesterday I was changing her diaper in our bed. I was just about to switch out the dirty one for the clean one when she started sneezing. Every time she sneezed she projectile pooped. I was sitting Indian style right in front of her so all the poop landed on my legs. I was so shocked, all I could do was laugh. By the time I thought to cover her little butt with a wipe, she was already done. She managed to get none of it on her, all of it on me. That's talent!

It's hard to notice the little subtle changes in her since I see her all day every day. She's making more eye contact now. She also likes to try a variety of facial expressions. I don't think it's real, but she does smile more often, like she practicing. She's pretty good at holding her head up. She can turn it from side to side pretty easily when she's on her stomach. Even sitting up, she can hold her head up on her own for a few seconds at a time. Obviously she's bigger, but the only difference I notice is that her clothes fit better.

She's so sweet and so cute. I love watching her sleep when she's got a full tummy, like in the picture above.

2.5 week check-up

We had an appointment with Ella's pedi, Dr. Sweet, this morning. Everything went well. Her weight was 8lbs 3/4oz! I can't believe she's so big. I guess despite the difficulties, breastfeeding is paying off. It's very encouraging. She was also 22inches long and her head circ. was 14.5 inches. At birth she was in the 16th% for weight, now she's 46th%. She's 76th% for length, and 82nd% for head circ.

Her umbilical cord fell off a bit early about a week and a half ago. It bled pretty good and then scabbed over again. Dr. Sweet removed that today and now she just has a normal little belly button. Very cute.

I thought she had really dry skin, especially her hands and feet, and kept putting lotion on her with no improvement. Dr. Sweet informed me it's not dry skin, she just has to "shed" off the skin she had in utero. So no amount of lotion is going to stop her from "peeling", it just has to run its course.

Dr. Sweet was super happy with her growth, especially for an exclusively breastfed baby. She said Ella gets an A+ for her two week check-up.

2 weeks old

This week has been challenging. I thought each week would get easier, but I guess that's not necessarily the case. The main challenge has been with breastfeeding. It seems like as soon as one issue gets resolved, another comes up. It's a good thing I'm highly committed to exclusive breastfeeding. She sleeps well as long as she has a full tummy, but sometimes that takes a long time and several mini naps. We're figuring it all out, I guess it just takes time!