Elsie Marie-5 Months

Wow this month has probably been the most challenging for us, mainly due to Elsie being sick.  Although challenging, I am so loving the stage she is in right now!  She is developing such a personality and it is starting to shine through.  I just can't get enough of her and her smiles!

Elsie's weight at the Dr. on May 1st was 14 lbs 4 oz.  That was two whole weeks ago and when I weighed her at home she was close to 15 lbs.  So we will go with that-15 lbs.  She is eating pretty good-still milk only, no solids yet.  5-6 bottles with 5-6 oz each feeding.  More on the higher end than the lower end.  I think she is probably getting close to starting solids.  Our pediatrician said anytime from 4-6 months but I know that exclusively breastfeed/formula until 6 months is ideal since that is still where they get the most nutrients from.  We will probably start them soon though in the next week or so.  She is still getting about a 50/50 ratio of breastmilk to formula.  My goal is to keep pumping until 6 months so that is only one month left to go.

Sleeping has been a little off this month.  The first half of the month she did great!  Sleeping from 8pm-6pm.  Well then a few weeks ago she got sick with a cold/ear infection/hand foot mouth or whatever it was she ended up being sick with and that threw her whole sleep routine out the window. It was a challenging few nights for us.  She was would sleep until about midnight and then wake up and have a hard time falling back to sleep.  Then she was up almost every hour after that.  We would pick her up, she would fall back to sleep in a few minutes and then do it all over again and hour later.  A couple of days later when she was starting feel better she wouldn't do the whole hour thing but she would wake up in the middle of the night and want to eat.  One night she was in such a good mood when she woke up.  She wouldn't go back to sleep so we went to her room to rock.  She was looking up at me just smiling.  Then she kept putting her hand near my mouth to play with me and then she would giggle.  I tried to tell her it was night time but not play time but I don't think she got the message :).  I think she is getting back into her sleep routine since the past three nights she has slept through the night again.  For our night routine we still just change her diaper, change her into her pj's and give her a bottle.  We start this around 7:45 pm.  Since she has been feeling better we have been able to lay her down awake again and she falls asleep on her own after about 5-10 minutes.  We have started using the video monitor the past couple of nights when she goes to bed and we are still awake.  There have also been a couple of times that I have woken up to her on her belly moving her arms and legs like crazy.

Well Elsie is still mainly wearing 3-6 month clothes but last night I had to put her in a 6-9 month sleeper for bed.  Sleepers are always the first thing that she outgrows.  I am having fun (maybe a little too much fun) shopping for her!  There are some outfits that are too irresistible to pass up.  We have been trying to get her to wear sunglasses and hat when she is outside, gotta get her started on good habits.  :)

Elsie's health up til this month has been pretty good.  No major issues.  Then she hit 4 months old and it all changed.  She first started out with a cold.  I kind of expected that since I had been battling a cold, then John, so it was only natural that Elsie would get one too.  Then as I describe in this post __________ she was first diagnosed with and ear infection and then hand foot and mouth disease.  It appears that he cold is pretty much over.  We helped ease her symptoms by using saline drops, the bulb syringe, raising the head of her bed up an inch or so, and using an humdifier when she sleeps.  She has been such a trooper.  Now this past week we noticed a few dry patches of skin on her body and First Nurse originally told us over the phone that it was ringworm but after talking with the pediatricians office they think it is most likely baby eczema.  We are treating it with CJ's BUTTer and it is really helping (this is also what we use for diaper rash).  So I think she is finally on the mend.  Let's hope she stays healthy now for awhile.

Elsie is still quite the mover.  She just kicks and kicks and kicks.  She spends most of her time playing on her belly now.  She has been playing a lot in her exersaucer and then just on the blanket with some of her toys.  I start by laying her on her back but in no time she is one her belly.  She still needs support when she sits up.  She is starting to have fun with bathtime kicking her legs and splashing in the water.  One of her most favorite things to do is be "Super Elsie" and we fly her around the house.  She just laughs and giggles.  I cannot get enough of that giggle!!!!  We go for lots of walks and for the most part does pretty good in the stroller.  We have transitions out of the carseat in the stroller and just her strapped in.  I think she stays a lot cooler.She is

"Super Elsie"

Here are some photos taken throughout the month from my phone.

Hanging out in her stroller in Pella

Sporting her new sunglasses

Shows how happy my little girl is when she wakes
up.  This must have been after falling back to
sleep after her breakfast since she has a bib on.  

Elsie and Aubrey on the way to book club.  My back seat has looked like
this quite a bit lately :)

Elsie also loves her feet.   She is always finding them and sticking them in her mouth.  Here are just a few snapshots of time I have caught of her.

We have had a pretty busy month!  We have spent a lot of time out shopping on my days off which means that there hasn't been a lot of time at home. We had a great lunch with all the mamas and kiddos who are off on maternity leave.  Elsie has two new friends that arrived into this world on the same day:  Greta Elizabeth and Wyatt James born on Sunday April 29th.  She got to celebrate her first Mother's day with me and spent a weekend with her Grandma and Grandpa Fenstra when they came down for a visit.  She went to emergency room for the first time, visited her daddy in the hospital, and had her very first fever.

Wyatt James Leonard

Greta Elizabeth Rodgers