Time Flies....

Well, after many failed attempts at writing and completing a blog post I am now committing myself to finishing this one. I am on my lunch break at work, the room is quiet and I am determined to let you know what we have been up to! It has been some time since my last post and a lot has been going on. Ellie started what I have found to be called the “4 month Wakeful” about one week prior to turning four months. Prior to this period, she was sleeping through the night, going down anywhere from 7:15-8 and sleeping through until about 5 or 6am. It was glorious. During the 4 month wakeful, she started to get up in the middle of the night around 1 am and she seemed to be starving. Naps were difficult during this time as well, and she was overly fussy. (When I say overly fussy, I probably just mean she was fussy in general, because she is usually never fussy, unless she’s hungry or tired.) But this fussiness was occurring when all of her needs had been met, she didn’t have gas, she didn’t have a fever, she didn’t show me signs of anything, there was no real reason, she was just down right cranky. About two weeks in she started to wake twice in the middle of the night, at 1am and about 3 or 4 am, again, starving. This was right about when I went back to work for good, and I was exhausted. At about 3 weeks into the 4-month wakeful, or, when she was about 4 months and 2 weeks old, she was at what I would call the peak of this whole 4 month wakeful business. She was getting up between 5-8 times a night, sometimes hungry, sometimes fussy, sometimes screaming at the top of her lungs. It was truly a test of my and Paul’s patience.
Throughout this whole process I was Google-ing away of course, trying to figure out what the heck was going on with my child, and I found a great deal of info. Right around 19 weeks, babies go through a huge developmental milestone where not only are they learning new skills physically such as rolling over and tri-podding, but they are also learning new cognitive concepts such as recognizing patterns and becoming familiar with voices and sounds. At this time they are becoming more aware of the world around them. I read that babies during this stage can become very distracted while nursing and can eat less because they want to know what that dog is barking at, or who just came in the room, or why the baby is crying on the television. It all started to fall into place in my mind and it all started to make sense to me. The more I read, the more I realized that what I was reading was exactly what Ellie was going through, and here I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and how to fix it. I think I need to be more like Paul and just relax a bit…


Here is Ellie with Benny, my best friend Tiffany's son, during our trip to Utah. He is one month younger than her.

Well we are about one week away from Ellie turning 5 months old and I want to say that I hope this 4 month wakeful is on it’s way out. We are back down to waking up only once in the night, at 1 am, and she seems very tired and not as hungry, so I am almost thinking that she is just waking and eating out of habit now. She’s slept through the night only two times in the past two weeks, but that is better than what we have had. Like I said, I am back at work now, full swing and I’m not that happy about it. I know that I have to work so that I can provide for Ellie and her future, but I truly wish I could stay at home with her. I never thought I would want to be a stay at home mom, but I do. Some mornings I have a really hard time leaving her, usually Mondays. Our nanny is phenomenal, she does a great job with Ellie, so I am very thankful for that, I just miss my Ells while I am gone.



We started to give Ellie formula because I am not able to produce as much as she is eating while I am at work. She took well to the formula and doesn’t seem to even know the difference. Put food in front of her, and she won’t discriminate, she likes it all, just like her mamma! I plan to continue breastfeeding and pumping for her as long as I can, even if it is very awkward pumping while driving from school to school, haha. It’s important to me to provide the best that I can for her, for as long as I can, so I am hanging in there. I can’t believe that in just about a month we will be starting her on solid foods. The doctor said we could start at 5 months if we wanted to, but I am not sure if I will just yet. I have been looking into Baby Led Weaning, which is a way to feed your baby finger foods from the get-go, surpassing purees altogether. I need to read up some more on it, but so far I like what I have read and I may just implement it into our routine.
Well I know there is a ton of information that I am leaving out of this post, and I will try to be better about posting. Ellie is currently rolling all over the place. She doesn’t like to be on her back anymore. If you put her on her back and walk away, she will be on her tummy in no time. She is starting to try to crawl/creep. On her tummy, she’ll lift her butt up in the air and unfortunately, she will do a face plant, because she doesn’t understand how to use her arms for crawling yet. She is very vocal, and loves to laugh and smile. She thinks that it is just hilarious to look in the mirror while she is naked, right before bath time. She sure does grab onto things now, such as our faces, our hair and she loves to grab onto Paul’s cheeks and chin because 90% of the time, it’s pretty scruffy feeling. She is starting to sit up with assistance now, I like to have my hands close because she has done a face plant or two, on accident. She is turning into our little ham, because she smiles whenever you take out the camera and start to snap pictures. Overall, we are so blessed and so happy with our life right now. She is becoming more and more of her own person and it is so much fun to watch. Alright, well, my lunch break is over now, so, until next time…..