Heaven gained a new angel...

This week we will say goodbye to my wonderful Grandma Chism. I've dreaded this day and none of us were prepared for this so soon. Last Thursday was likely one of the hardest days of my life and I know when I see her at the funeral this Friday will be worse. It came as a complete shock causing all the thoughts of "I wish I had...."
I talked to my grandma more than some of my best friends. We were incredibly close and spoke every couple weeks just to check in and catch up. I didn't see her as often as I would have liked but she was a huge part of my life. It's always the little things that mean the most--- eating Krispy Kremes until we felt sick when I had a random craving while pregnant (about 2.5, ha), she taught me to make her famous caramels, bonded over our love for scrap-booking, swapped recipes and cleaning tips (cleaning tips always came from her; Dad would say that Grandma mopped the floor until the water in the bucket was clean!), and just chatting like friends.
My grandma was certainly one of a kind! You never had to wonder what she was thinking; she told you. You never had to wonder if she approved; she let you know. I never wondered if she loved me; with all her heart. My grandma certainly did her share of complaining and didn't get along with everyone but goodness, the woman knew how to love. She thought the world of her sons and grandchildren and would tell any stranger how they all walked on water. I can remember taking her to a doctor's appointment while I was pregnant with Elizabeth. She couldn't contain herself from telling a stranger on an elevator that I was carrying her precious fifth great-grandchild and what a wonderful mother her granddaughter would be. After Ellie was born, she told me every time we spoke what a great mother I am. It means so much to know I made her proud.
While I can regret not taking a picture the last time my grandma held Elizabeth or calling her last week for the last time, I am trying my best to focus on all the wonderful times we spent together. I did learn to make her caramels so I can make them at Christmas for grandpa and our family to enjoy. I told her I loved her and heard her say it often. I have a picture of her holding my baby girl. I know she's now at peace and in paradise.
I could not be more thankful that Elizabeth and Landyn met their great-grandmother. Elizabeth snuggles with the blanket she made her each night and my brother and I will be sure they both know what a wonderful woman she was. My grandma loved Elizabeth and Landyn and couldn't wait to watch them grow. I'm thankful my grandpa will be able to do so. I have no doubt that we will all see her again one day in Heaven. I miss you already, Grandma and hope you're living it up pain-free with your mom and dad in Heaven. Wait for us. We'll see you again someday :)

Ready for football season!

I love having photo-shoots with Elizabeth so here's some adorable ones of Daddy's little Bears fan....

4 Months already?!

I cannot believe how quickly our baby girl is growing! She's developing and learning and it makes us so proud! She's developed the most beautiful little giggle. She gives it to us at the most random things now and isn't consistent with it yet but it makes what we thought was giggling before nothing to compare and the giggles we do get even more precious. She LOVES her feet! Especially when it's time for a diaper change, she wants to grab tightly to her feet and either rock back and forth or pull them to her mouth. She's still talking and smiling like crazy---our happy little girl.....unless she's sleepy or tired!

Follow-up with the doctor--- Our doctor says Elizabeth is doing great! I swear everytime we go, she shows off! Today she rolled over for the doctor after lifting her head up high yet again and wanted to stand on my legs while we talked about her. She's too darn cute. 

She weighed in at 13 lbs, 8 ounces (50th percentile) and 25 1/4" long (85th percentile)---long and lean!

Sleep training is going pretty well actually! We're sticking with the routine of bath, feed, read then in bed between 8-8:15 and she's doing really well with it. We're not being strict about it but letting her tell us what she needs. If she's sleepy before our normal start of 7:30, we start earlier. If she's content, we start later. Letting her get overtired is when we run into problems. With naps, she tends to get fussy after being awake about two hours. When this happens, I lie her in her crib and if I time it right, she falls asleep. I've had to do a few 5 minute sessions of crying it out but not too many times. She's not very interested in me rocking her to sleep anymore, which is apparently a good thing : (

Starting cereal tonight! We'll introduce rice cereal in the evening around 6 tonight (she feeds at 4 and 8).  She's still EBF (exclusively breastfed) but we'll begin introducing solids gradually. Fingers crossed that all goes well!

Sleep Training = Emotionally Draining!

Well, we decided it was time to start some sleep training this week :(
I LOVE holding/rocking my baby girl and would gladly do it until she is too big for me to hold BUT we figured we should probably do what's best for her development, not to mention help out any babysitter we ever have trying to put her to sleep. We started by reading several articles and talking with our doctor about her suggestions. Ultimately, we took a few things from the articles and the doctor and put together some 'rules' for ourselves we think will work best for Elizabeth. We want to have our doctor's input of course since she's our go-to for advice and would be most helpful for us. At the end of the day, though, we know every baby is different and are learning as we go what is best for our little girl.
We found out that the little catnap Ellie seems to need around 7:30/8 is essentially a power nap preventing her from falling asleep for the night. So, we've pushed her bedtime up. About 7:30, we begin her bedtime routine with a bath, feed and book. We've been putting her down about 8 each night now. Steve has put her down each night so far because I'm honestly terrified she'll start crying and I won't be able to take it. Thankfully, she's been pretty tired both nights so far!
The first night--- she fell asleep after a little wrestling about 8. Around 2am, she was squirming; I gave it back to her and she fell asleep. The hard part occurred around 4:30am when this happened again and she spit it out. We'd decided to not continue giving it back if she spit it out (mainly to avoid walking into her room 10 times in the night) so she began to cry. This is when we began the 5-10-15. I'll explain for anyone wanting to try this or who don't have a clue what I'm talking about. For 5 minutes, we let her 'cry it out'. After a grueling 5 minutes, I walked to her pack n'play and gave her her pacifier and calmed her down but still keeping her awake, told her I loved her and good night, then walked away. Of course, she began to cry again. Next, we had to wait 10 horrible minutes to let her cry it out. After 10 minutes, Steve calmed her down and did the same process. She began to cry yet again. For the next torturous 15 minutes, we had to let her cry it out. We both had to leave the room because it was so difficult. After it'd been about 12 minutes, we could hear Ellie sucking her thumb and slowly drifting off. Success! She fell asleep until I woke her around 6:15am to begin her first feeding.
After speaking to the doctor, she told us to not worry so much about a particular schedule but to focus on the falling asleep on her own and to let her sleep in (if our schedule permits). She also said I need not worry so much about her eating every 4 hours if she happens to nap through it. Ultimately, her sleeping at night and naps will work themselves into a schedule, making it much easier on us all.
Second night---We began her nighttime routine around 7:30 again and when Steve put her down at 8, awake but sleepy, she slept through the night! She woke herself up about 7:30 this morning happy as could be...

I have no doubt we'll be faced with several nights where things don't go as smoothly and we'll be forced to suffer through the 5-10-15 but last night made us hopeful!

Napping--- Ellie naps very well typically. She will usually stay awake in the morning for 11/2-2 hours, then take almost a 2 hour nap. She will either fall asleep when I take her on a jog or while watching cartoons and I'm sitting next to her getting work done. She'll take another midday and afternoon nap but doesn't seem to go down as easily for these. I'm usually rocking her or we go somewhere and she falls asleep in the car. I'm going to be forced to do the 5-10-15 I'm afraid for these now to further the development. The worst part will be doing this on my own without Steve's support.

I know once we get this under control and have a schedule set we'll be a much happier family, especially Bailey who normally very protective, gets as far away from Ellie as possible when she begins to cry :(
Fingers crossed for a short self-soothing process!

3 Month Pictures!

My friend Lisa has a great camera and was thoughtful enough to take some 3 month pictures for us. These are a few of my favorites...

This dress was mine as a baby...

Growing like a weed...

3 MONTHS!!!

This last month (let alone the two before) has flown by! I cannot believe our baby girl is already three months old! She just continues to grow and develop and it's definitely bittersweet---we LOVE watching her grow and develop a greater personality but she's growing too quickly!

She began rolling the day after her two-month birthday and thinks she mastered it. This last week, she decided she's done rolling and there's surely a faster way to get where she wants to go! She's begun to lift her hips up and try to pull forward on her activity mat. I'm afraid she may be entering the first early signs of crawling.

She also likes to grab her bottle! She tends to keep her hands near her mouth when she eats anyway, but she will hold the bottle on her own for a few seconds. Each time I see Steve letting her do it, I tell him to stop because she's too little for that, ha.

We're adding more and more to the 'outgrown pile' each week! She's wearing mostly 3 months clothes but some 3-6 month pj's. She still needs the extra length but has a little extra room in the width---our skinny girl.

Eating---  Breastfeeding is still going great! We've been on a 3 hour eating schedule, beginning around 7am for the last few weeks. She began to only eat about 10 mins max at each feeding though, sometimes as short as 6/7 minutes, so this weekend we're working on extending her time between. My short-term goal is to move to 3.5 hours, ultimately making it a feeding every 4. Keeping her naps in line with this is our best bet. I tend to keep her awake for about two hours at a time, making the most of naps and holding her off for the next feeding more effectively. We try to give her a bottle (pumped milk) each day as well but will likely be taking a time-out on this as Steve pulled his shoulder out of socket yesterday morning for the third time and will be in recovery for a little while (potentially surgery); poor Daddy is struggling without holding his baby girl. For me, it's more laziness than anything else. I don't feel the need to give her a bottle if I can just feed her myself.

Nighttime routine--- We also began a nighttime routine with Ellie a couple weeks ago and she seems more set on it than us sometimes! We give her a bath about 9 and let her have a little play time; she loves to splash. She's such a wiggle worm that sometimes I fear she's hit her head on the tub but more than anything, it's a great time for Steve and I to spend together with Ellie. After her bath, I nurse her then we read with her and snuggle. She seems to be very interested in Dr. Suess so we've been reading those mostly. It doesn't hurt that we're big fans as well. She typically falls asleep while we're reading to her, which is always a nice bonus.

Sleeping--- We've been blessed with a baby who began giving us 9-10 hours at a time around 7/8 weeks old. Well, after about a month of that, this last week she decided to begin waking up around 3/4 again. We'd try to rock her back to sleep but ultimately, nurse her for about a half feeding and she dozes off again. We think it may be a growth spurt and are hopeful it doesn't last!

Speaking of sleeping, the doctor wants us to start some sleep training. She says to wake her up before we lie her down at night and for naps to allow her to put herself to sleep. We tried the 5-10-15 one night and it went horribly. Miss Elizabeth does NOT like this and naturally, would much rather fall asleep with her mom and dad. After a little researching and discussing, we've decided to abandon this tactic for now. She still seems a little young for it and to be honest, I don't terribly mind my little girl falling asleep in my arms. I have a feeling someday too soon, we'll be wishing she'd let us rock her.

We're taking a few 3 month pictures with a friend tomorrow and will post them as soon as I can!

2 Month Follow-Up....

Better late than never I presume....

We had Ellie's 2 month doctor's appointment on the 14th and it went great! She weighed in at 11 lbs, 13 oz and 23 3/4 inches long---growing like a weed! She looked great and when the doctor wanted to see her hold her head up, I think Ellie held it higher than she ever has---show-off; she told us she was holding her head up like a 4 month old! Everything we were supposed to expect to start happening according to her, we'd already noticed. Rolling---did this the day after her 2-month birthday; smiling/cooing---constant! The doctor called her a super baby :)