Mommy and Ellie pictures

Today my mom took me and Ellie out and took our pictures. I didn't have any pictures of the 2 of us that I liked so this was something that absolutely needed to be done! :)

Ellie was very cranky! She didn't really want to get her pictures taken today.

So I sang to her. That makes everything better!


I even got her to smile a little bit!

My first experience with cloth diapering.

Okay, so I just have to write a blog post on what happened today. It's just too funny! Well I had to change Ellie's diaper today, like always, and I found that I only had one diaper left. I started to put it on her and she decided that that was the perfect time to start going potty. I didn't know what to do so I decided to make my own diaper. We have some of those flat cloth diapers here that we normally use as burp cloths. I put that on her, but I knew that she needed something to go over the cloth diaper so that her car seat didn't get soaked. The only thing that came to my mind was a garbage bag, so I cut one and tied it on her. Luckily she didn't go potty before we bought her diapers because I don't know how well this diaper would have worked. Below are some pictures. :)

4 months!

Ellie is 4 months old now! She's a big girl too. At her last Dr. appointment she weighed in at 15lbs 13oz which was in the 90 percentile, and her height was 24 2/3in. long. She is hitting all of her milestones right on time and is very healthy! Once again it was sad to see her get her vaccinations, but she reacted great and was back to her happy self a few hours later. She is showing more of her personality all of the time. She will just "talk" to anything for long periods of time. It's so cute. She laughs a lot more too. We are on a great schedule now! She takes all of her naps without a fight! I put her in her crib, give her her pacifier and she is out. Every once a while she will pull it out on accident so I'll have to put it back in her mouth, but that isn't a problem for me. She will usually sleep for about 45 minutes at a time. She has been going to bed earlier too. She used to go to bed at around 10:30 P.M. and would sleep for about 8-9 hours. Now she is going to bed at 7 or 8, waking up after sleeping for about 8 hours to eat, then sleeps until about 7:00 A.M. It is nice to have some time to myself in the evenings. I can get a lot of stuff around the house taken care of.

Sorry!

I'd like to apologize if I offended anyone with my last post. I wasn't trying to put down other parenting types, in fact I think they are great! I was just tired of other people putting me down for the way I am parenting my little girl.

Mommy pressure

Before having Ellie I was so excited that I wouldn't have to work (you know, the type of job where you get paid). I looked forward to making my own decisions on how take care of my baby, and I wouldn't have to worry about other people putting me down for the way I raised my baby. Now that I am a stay at home mom I have learned that it is a lot harder than I expected. Don't get me wrong, I love staying with my baby all day everyday. There is just so much more pressure. I do get to choose what to do with my cute little girl, but I have learned that everybody thinks they are baby experts. I'm just going to make a list of all of the things some people think are wrong.

Some people think it is bad to:
be induced
have an epidural
have a c-section
feed your baby formula
get you baby vaccinated
let your baby watch any amount of T.V.
use disposable diapers
let your baby cry at all
put your baby in a crib
use a swing or stroller to help your baby sleep
let your child eat any solids before the age of 6 months (including rice cereal)

I'm sure there are more things to write, but that's all I can think of right now.

So I got my labor induced, had an epidural, feed my baby formula, got her vaccinated, I let her watch some T.V., I use disposable diapers, I've had times where I couldn't get Ellie to stop crying, I don't co-sleep, sometimes I take Ellie for walks in her stroller just because I know she will fall asleep, and I will start feeding her solids as soon as her pediatrician tells us it's okay.

So as you can see, I am a terrible mom (I'm being sarcastic).

To me what really matters is that Ellie is happy and healthy! I don't neglect her in any way, and she is very loved!

Now I have vented and I am going to move on and continue enjoying my baby. Judge away!

2 & 3 month stats

So I have neglected my blog once again, due to this cute little baby that I get to play with all of the time. She has changed so much this past couple of months! She is such a cute and happy little girl!

2 months:
weight: 12 lbs 4 oz
length: 22 3/4 in.

Ellie started sleeping through the night! She hasn't stopped since then! I consider myself to be EXTREMELY lucky because I have heard that only a small percentage of babies do this at this age. If only nap time was that easy! She was and still is hard to get to sleep during the day. She seemed to get very fussy at around 4 P.M. and would continue to be fussy until bed time. One the bright side she started smiling at us. She started out just smiling at her Daddy, but did eventually start smiling at me too. There was one night I was putting her to bed and she was just looking at me and smiling. I went to close the door and she had stopped smiling for a little bit. As soon as I got back her face lit up and she started smiling again. It was so sweet. She started cooing a little as well. We packed up her bassinet in the middle of the month and started using her pack n play. I'm sure she would have done fine in her crib, but I wasn't ready to sleep in a separate room. She became a big fan of baths. She will calm right down when we put her in her little tub. She ate 2-3 oz. every 3 hours.

3 months:
weight: about 14 lbs
length: around 24 in.

Ellie is really talking a lot now! She loves when I make different sounds. She gets really excited when i say papa, click my tounge and make kissing noises. She also loves "singing". One day we were riding in the car and I heard her making her noises. When I turned the radio down she stopped, but she started right back up when I turned it up again. She will also sing with me. She started giggling. It is the best sound ever! She also rolled over for the first time 2 days before her official 3 month b-day :). I was very surprised. I wasn't expecting that to happen at all! She is still sleeping through the night with no problem, but needs extra help taking naps during the day. I have now noticed that she gets tired after being awake for about an hour. Things that help her fall asleep are rides in the stroller, and rocking her to sleep. I can't put her down though. She will wake right up and won't go back to sleep. She eats 4 oz. every 3 hours.

1 month old!

I can't believe Ellie is already 1 month old! The time has gone by pretty quickly. It has taken a while to adjust to having her here, but I think we are getting the hang of this parenting thing. Sometimes it can be tough, usually just when she is crying and I can't figure out what is wrong, but it is usually good. She has really grown! She was 7 lbs 4 oz. and 19 in. when she was born. Now she is about 9 lbs and 21 in. She still fits into most of her newborn clothes, but some are getting a little tight! She is such a sweet little baby. She is very cute, even when she cries. She loves being held, cuddled and talked to. She is also starting to like swinging in her baby swing. She hates being put down so this is a great thing! Every once in a while she will even fall asleep in it. When she is wide awake she will sit in it quietly for about 5-10 minutes before she starts crying. When she is done swinging it is pretty hard to get anything done because she thinks that she has to be held. I can tell you that I get plenty of T.V. watching in most days! Sometimes I'll have to get Steven to hold her so I can do something so I don't go crazy :). Besides being put down, some of her other dislikes are baths and the nasal aspirator. She is slowly getting better with the baths though. Hopefully soon she will like them. She sleeps very well during the night. She usually only wakes up once or twice for a diaper change and quick feeding and goes right back to sleep. This is the only time she will let us put her down in her bassinet.