Smiles

The last few weeks Ellie has started smiling like crazy. I finally caught it on video this afternoon! It takes a while but wait for it...it's worth it. Sorry it's sideways again...that's annoying I know.

Playground

This morning Anna came over with Ty, Ben, & Paige to play at our neighborhood's playground. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time playing. Anna & I got a chance to catch up a little and I got to spend a little bit of time with Ben & Paige our newest family members! Here are a few pictures from our time together.

Ben with his new glasses.

Sweet little Paige

Paige and Ellie getting better acquainted

Ty & Ellie

Ellie all tuckered out!

Two Month Check Up

Today Ellie went for her two month check up. Brad met us at the doctors office because he wanted to be there for her first shots (what a sweet daddy is he?). Ellie did well and only cried for just a few seconds. She was a brave little girl! We told her that if she was older we would get her a treat but since she can't have anything but breast milk we would treat ourselves instead.

Here are her stats as of today:

Weight: 10 pds 10 oz
Height: 22 inches

Wiggle Worm

This week we transitioned Ellie from the bassinet in our room to her crib at night.Since she's still so little it hasn't been an issue at all for her. Even though I was a little sad it is good to have our bedroom back to ourselves now. It has been so fun to go into her room each morning to get her out of her crib. The first morning Brad went in to get her he called me in saying "Brooks, you've got to come see this!" Some how Ellie had rotated herself a full 180 degrees and her feet were where her head was laying when we put her down. Yesterday morning Brad took these pictures, although they're not as impressive as the first night it's still pretty funny.

Two Months Old

I can't believe that today Ellie is two months old! She is such a sweet girl and we are so thankful to be her parents. Here is a list of some of the things Ellie is doing these days:

1. She absolutely loves bath time, especially having her hair washed! This is great especially since we still haven't been able to give her a real bath yet (her umbilical cord stump is still hanging on!)
2. She also loves to have her diaper changed. More times than not she coos during the process showing her delight.
3. Ellie is a good eater. I never have to worry about her food intake...she lets me know when she's hungry and does so with great enthusiasm.
4. Ellie loves being outside. If she gets fussy we just take her out and she calms down almost every time.
5. She is a strong little one. She has great neck strength and loves to show us how long she can hold her head up. Her favorite thing to do is to stand up and look over my shoulder.
6. Ellie is sleeping pretty consistently through the night on her own accord. Most nights she goes from 10-11 pm until 5-6 am without a peep. During the day though she has been a short napper, but we are fine with that as long as she's in a good mood and doing so well at night.

For some reason I couldn't rotate this video, but here is Ellie waiting patiently while Brad and I ate dinner tonight.

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter weekend with lots going on! Ellie's Aunt Leah came for a visit on Friday and stayed until Tuesday morning. It was great to have her here so that she and Ellie could spend some time together. Last time when Leah came Ellie was only 2 weeks old so she was a lot more alert and fun this time. This was also a great weekend because on Saturday night we finally met two new family members, Ben & Paige at the airport. Anna & Tim finally were able to come home with their two new little ones and it was such a joy to share in their new family!
On Sunday Ellie made her debut at church. Other than the fact that she didn't go to sleep until the service was almost over she did fairly well. There was just too much going on for our little curious girl to close her eyes! Brad is on set up team this month so by the time I got ready, got her ready and we got to church I was worn out. It was worth it and really good to be back into the swing of things.

Here is Ellie in her Easter Dress

Family Picture

Aunt Leah

On the way to church for the first time

Oh, what I would give if...

Oh, what I would give if Ellie would learn to self-soothe already! I know she is just 7 weeks old but putting her to sleep at night has been such a challenge this week. During the day for some reason she doesn't have much of a problem and goes down with little to no fussing. There have been a few times lately that she will just fall asleep on her own in my lap or in the bouncy seat which shows us that she can fall asleep on her own. That's what makes the evenings so frustrating!

It's so hard to know what to do here...cry it out (which we're nowhere close to) or continue to soothe her to sleep (which can take anywhere from 5 to 60 minutes!) I agree with Brad that she is so nosy sometimes she gets angry when we swaddle her and begin rocking in the glider because she knows what we're trying to do and she doesn't want to sleep! Last night she was practically asleep in the swing so I took her out, got her to sleep, put her in her crib and within a minute she was awake crying. We have decided to start waiting 5 minutes before going in to soothe her to start giving her a chance to learn to fall asleep on her own. So, we gave her 5 minutes and Brad went in calmed her down after 5 minutes or so and laid her back down. The next time I went in and picked her up but all she wanted to do was eat so Brad took her back and he repeated the process for about an hour! All that and she only slept for maybe 30 minutes. I felt bad because I couldn't help. The problem with this method is that she gets herself so worked up that she wakes up and doesn't want to go back to sleep. We want to give Ellie the gift of health sleep habits, but we are struggling.

We just don't know what to do here. I keep praying for wisdom to know what will be best for Ellie and us. It's exhausting and leaves Brad and I with little to no time alone together, which we desperately need at this point! I know one day I will look back and long for the days where I rocked her to sleep but at this point it will be a long time.

Big Girl

Ellie fell asleep in my lap today and I just happened to get her smiling!

I can't believe how much she has changed just in the past few weeks.
She looks like such a big girl in this picture!

Ellie in Action

I'm not sure what happened with the sound here but I'll try to fix it...at least the video itself uploaded.

Play Date

Sawyer and Ellie zonked out on the couch!

Today Ellie had her first play date! This morning we headed to Wake Forest so my friend Lori could cut my hair. We were pregnant at the same time and she had Sawyer exactly one week after Ellie was born. This was the first time I was able to see Sawyer and he is so precious! He has such a great head of hair (which is perfect for his mama to be a hair stylist). Ellie slept during my haircut and I held Sawyer who was wide awake the whole time just looking around. We were thankful because we both had visions of them screaming at the same time!
After Lori finished Shelly brought her 15 month old Toby in for a quick cut and then we headed to lunch. Ellie and Sawyer fell back asleep at the restaurant and we had a nice, quiet lunch. After lunch we stopped by The Village Deli to get a few cookies and headed to Shelly's house to hang out for a while. Overall it was a great day and we had fun spending time with friends!