30 weeks or 7 months!

Today is August 26th.  It is 6:30 pm.  This time 7 months ago, Ellie was about an hour old.  Oh how things have changed in those 7 months!  She is the light of our lives!

Although it is hard for some people to believe, it has been kind of a tough week for us.  I guess I am just spoiled with her going down so easy and never really fussing unless she's hungry.  I can't pinpoint what the culprit of this unusual behavior is so I just keep telling myself it is a phase.  I am sure there will be many more of these "phases" in the coming years that will be much more difficult!  I will also say that I am missing Don's night help like crazy.  By the time bedtime rolls around I am tired and frustrated so I am sure that rubs off on her.  I am working on that!  Football season seems to be hitting us all extra hard this year so that doesn't help the situation.

Mother's Day Out has been wonderful so far.  I feel refreshed and accomplished, and she is getting used to being away from me for a few hours.  It is a wonderful, beautiful thing! We also did the church nursery for the first time last Sunday.  The workers said she wanted to be held the whole time...surprise surprise...spoiled baby!!!

Ellie is also sitting up on her own, all of the time now!  She looks so big sitting on the floor or in the pack n play.

We have also transitioned into high chairs at restaurants and that is so much easier!

Here is Ellie with her friends Ali and Emily.  Those are 3 sweet girls!!!

She is still going strong with the baby food.  So far she has had sweet potatoes, sweet peas, carrots, squash, pears, peaches, bananas and apples.  The only 2 foods she has given me a dirty face with have been green beans and prunes.  I think next we are going to try smashed avocados with banana.  Sounds delish doesn't it??

This is an idea of her daily feeding/sleeping routine: (this may seem crazy or "off" for some people, but it works for us.  It still varies daily depending on where we are and what we are doing)

6:30 am:  Wake up, 8 ounce bottle

9:30-10 am:  Rice cereal mixed with fruit and 4 oz bottle (most of the time she never finishes this bottle)

morning nap

1:00 pm: some sort of veggie and 4 oz bottle (I have cut back to a half jar due to tummy issues)

afternoon nap

4:00 pm:  the leftover half of the veggie and 4 oz bottle

7:00 pm:  8 ounce bottle

BEDTIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  

Teeth are not our friend!

It seems that this week our family has endured lots of teeth/dental issues.  I have pretty much diagnosed little E as a full blown teething baby.  I could be totally wrong...but I am really trusting my instincts on this one.  She has not been herself all week, and has really enjoyed using all of her little teething gadgets.

Don has endured some dental work this week as well.  I don't think I mentioned this in my wedding post, but he SWALLOWED his front tooth (it was a fake implant) at the rehearsal dinner the night before my brother's wedding.  Needless to say, we were at the dentist the morning of the wedding having a temporary replacement put in.  There was NO way he was going to be in all of those wedding pictures toothless!  It is funny now, but I was really sick to my stomach that night when it happened.  Poor thing, he has the worst luck sometimes!  Well long story short, the temporary tooth came loose and he was taking it out at night to keep from swallowing tooth #2 until he could get to the dentist.  One night At 3 am, he woke me up in a panic looking for the tooth.  It was NOWHERE to be found.  The only thing we can come up with is that Minnie got a hold of it and ate it.  So he has been walking around school and football camp for 2+ weeks toothless and finally had a little bit of time yesterday to get the first stage of this "tooth reconstruction" taken care of.  I guess I didn't realize the extent of what was going to happen yesterday, because it ended up being pretty major oral surgery!  He called me while I was picking up Ellie from MDO and said he was at home in bed and asked if I would go pick up his prescription from Walgreens.  He was pitiful!  I felt so bad because he had really made it out to be something minor when in fact he described it as worse than wisdom teeth.  He will have to heal for 2 weeks and then go back and have more work done and the new tooth put in.  I have to admit, we enjoyed having him home yesterday even under the circumstances.   I hope all of my babies are on the mend and will be back to themselves soon!

29 Weeks

Yesterday was a rough day and I was starting to wonder if Ellie was getting sick.  She didn't really nap and was never that interested in eating (totally out of character) so today I am trying to get us back to normal.  She has been a little fussy today but is eating better and taking a good morning nap in her crib.  I know there is a little tooth in there that is starting to torment us both.  There's just got to be!  I am just glad she seems better today.  So instead of making a sign and getting her dressed up, I decided to let her rest and take her picture as she was napping.  Is this not the sweetest thing?  I could just sit in there and watch her sleep all the time.  She looks so peaceful and angelic...because she is!  I just love her to pieces:) 

Here is our little 29 week sleeping angel...

A few weekend pictures...

                    Getting ready to go inside on first day of MDO

                Friday night girls dinner with a few cousins

Trying on cousin Matti's crown at her pageant on Saturday

HAPPY MONDAY!

28 weeks, big news, and lots of pics!

I am a day late on our weekly post...but I had to go out of town for work so we are just getting back into our routine.  Here is our big 28 weeker! 

 Nothing too new to report other than she has started rolling again...and all the time!  She has also started to pull up with her arms some....could we have a crawler soon??

We actually DO have something new to report...VERY new actually.  As of Monday, we decided to do a once a week Mother's Day Out program at church! This was a very last minute decision, but one we are exctited about.  I will admit, I am nervous to send my 6 month old to MDO already, but it's just once a week for a few hours and I know she will do great!  So I have been scrambling around getting everything ready for her to go TOMORROW!!  That's right, she starts tomorrow!

I didn't have time to order dishwasher safe labels to stick on everything, so I made my own for now.  We have to label everything from bottles and spoons to baby food and formula, so I think I have it all covered. She's got plenty of diapers, wipes and changes of clothing...I hope I remembered everything!  I even made my own bag tags to stick on her diaper bag...fun fun!

Don is still working hard, crazy hours during football camp...we are ready for the season to start and camp to be OVER!!  And still no LU news for all of those that may be wondering.  We are trying to remain hopeful and optimistic that we will receive good news VERY soon!

Until next time (which will become less frequent now that I am on the road and such) enjoy some pics of this sweet face!!

Ellie's friends and another first

Ellie has gotten to visit with a few friends this week!  Don's childhood friend Sarah (I now consider her a sweet friend too!) was in Jackson to take her baby to the doctor and called and said they wanted to stop by so the girls could meet!  I was so excited when she called because we have been talking about getting together for a while now and it just hadn't worked out until this week.  Baby Ivy is just beautiful and SO sweet.  She was born April 2nd so she and E are about 2 months apart.  This isn't the best picture ever, poor Ivy had just gotten shots and Ellie was in desperate need of a nap and covered in sweet potatoes, but I know this won't be the last time we get these sweet girls together!

We also got to see Leigh and baby Will again this week and I finally got a picture of them together.  Will is so sweet and cuddly...he made Ellie seem like a wild child!  She has this squeal she loves to let out (especially in public) and she was pretty wound up!  I feel like I have now become that parent I used to talk about and say "why don't they just stay home...they need to do something with that baby!"  It was still a lot of fun getting them together again.  Here they are...both snoozin.  So sweet!

Finally, this morning we met Emily for lunch and ran to Hobby Lobby.  I decided it was too hot to carry her big heavy carseat into the store and since she has been sitting up so well, I thought why not try sitting her in the shopping cart?!  Doesn't she look so big here?  I can't believe it!

The whole reason we went to Hobby Lobby today (tax free weekend...yuck!) was so I could get a pretty frame for one of her 3 month portraits.  I love it and can't wait to get it on the wall!

Now the questions is...do I dare to brave a trip to Target on tax free weekend?  We need wipes and formula in a major way!  There is NO WAY I will even think about going to Wal Mart.

27 Weeks

I guess it's time to give up on the signs...although I know I will never remember each week without them!  Good thing I am planning on making the blog into a book so I can have it all together.

Here is our big 27 week old! 

This weekend, we moved over to size 3 diapers.  Size two's are still fitting so we are finishing up the big box we have at home, but De De had 3's at her house so we just used them. 

Ellie, you have now tried sweet potatoes, carrots, pears and prunes.  You still eat your rice cereal every morning for breakfast and have a veggie for lunch and dinner with bottles in between.  I am not sure how carrots are doing with your tummy.  That's the reason for the prunes this morning if you get my drift:)  You love sweet potatoes and you didn't seem to just LOVE pears like I thought you would.  You open wide for your veggies (and I am so proud!) but never really seemed to open wide for the pears.  I thought that was interesting. 

You are sitting up better each day, but still not completely on your own.  You pull, tug, and yank on everything...especially my hair and your rose lamp on your changing table.  You are one nosey, curious girl!

Mommy Brain

I have a serious case of "mommy brain", and I'll be the first to admit it.  I lose my phone and keys at least 5 times a day.  I'll walk into a room to do something and immediately forget what I went in there for.  Last summer, at 12 weeks preggo, I had pregnancy brain and we missed our flight to Hawaii because I looked at the arrival time instead of departure time!  I will have to say, that was not completely my fault.  My travelling partner (AKA my husband) never even bothered to look at the our flight and trip itinerary so....it could have probably been avoided, but it's all ok now:)

It took me an entire week to pack and plan for all of us to head an hour up the interstate to Memphis for Matt's wedding.  I was so proud of myself for planning ahead and being organized until we got to  my parents house and I realized I forgot one of the most important baby items...BOTTLES!  How could I forget bottles?  Don't worry, because she had 400 outfits, 500 diapers, 25 books and toys galore, but I forgot bottles!  My child had to eat!  Good thing my mom has back up at her house and Don was coming the next day so he could bring them, but seriously?  I am at a loss.  People swear up and down that they asked me to do something or told me about so and so and I have no recollection of it whatsoever.  This drives me INSANE!  I used to think I was pretty "with it" and had it together, but now with a 6 month in tow...you can pretty much forget it!  I just hope it will eventually get better.  I don't like this  feeling at all!

But I will have to say...she is worth it!!!!!

Weddings and carrots

I think we have finally recuperated from a busy, fun weekend!  My other baby, my little brother, got married!  I cried like a baby walking down the aisle and during the entire ceremony, but it all was so beautfiul and I am so happy for him and Rachel!  I didn't take a single picture all weekend because I left my memory card in my computer at home, so I had to steal these from a few people (hope that's ok!) so enjoy!  Thank you to Ellie's wonderful babysitters that came and helped us out tremendously this weekend.  I don't know what we would have done without you!!!!!

Me and my nephew Grant!

A few of the bridesmaids and the bride

The very handsome Best Man, my Daddy!

Back view of the bride and groom

In other news, Ellie started eating carrots yesterday and loves them as well!  At this point, she will eat whatever we give her.  I even let her have pears before naptime and she scarfed them up too!  At lunch time today, we decided to surprise Daddy at work with food since he is super busy.  The last 2 nights he has gotten home late and we have been in bed so I figured if we wanted to see him, we might as well go visit!  He loved it.  He is wearing a new goofy (but practical) hat that they got today.  This heat is killer!

I will be back soon with at 27 week post!