Elsie turned four months old back on April 14th! Each month that goes by I am amazed at the changes that take place with her. Every day there is something new! We have had a very busy month!
Elsie's weight at the doctor this month was 13 lbs 5 oz and she was 25 inches long. She is really growing! She is eating about 5-6 times a day and about 5-6 oz each time for an average of 30 oz a day. She is about 1/2 and 1/2 for breatmilk to formula ratio. We made the switch to using #2 nipples in her bottles now. I am not sure how much of a difference it has made. I am still getting about 16-18 oz of breastmilk a day pumping between 5-6 times. Our goal is to make it until 6 months before I quit pumping. We are thinking about starting solids (rice cereal) sometime around 5 months.
Since Easter she has gotten herself into a pretty good sleep routine. For a few weeks around 3 months she was gettingn up for a night feeding (I think she was going through a growth spurt). Well that has now been taken out of the equation and she sleeps from around 8:00 pm to 6:00 am give or take a half an hour. The longest she has sleep straight through was on 3/22. She slept from 6:45 to 5:15 so 10.5 hours. We don't really have a real bedtime routine yet. That will be our goal for the next month. We pretty much change her diaper, get her into her pajamas and give her the last bottle of the night. Then there might be a little snuggle time if she is still a bit awake or we lay her down in her pack and play if she is sleepy. She is still in our room for the next two months before we transition her into her crib. I love when she wakes up in the morning. When we go to the pack and play to get her she looks up at us and just smiles so big! I LOVE it. She is still one happy little girl. As for naps those are a bit hit and miss. Sometimes she will nap for 2-3 hours at a time and others are just short cat naps. At daycare she isn't taking too long of naps yet since it is so easy for her to get distracted. At home she takes at least one long nap a day.
Elsie is still wearing 3-6 months clothes. Even some of those are still a little big on her. Mainly just the two piece outfits. I hope she is in 6-9 months for summer because that is what I have bought for her so far. It is mostly Carters stuff so I have kept the tags on them until the time comes. They take returns anytime as long as you have a receipt. We are still loving cloth diapers. It has been a positive experience so far. I still love buying them too. Especially the ones that are hard to get like RagaBabes and Chelory. She had her first case of bad diaper rash back at the end of March. Her poor bum was so red. I felt terrible. It cleared up in a couple of days and she got another minor one just last week.
Elsie loves to be active. It is rare for her to sit still in our laps unless she is ready to fall asleep. She kicks and kicks and kicks. As I mentioned in previous posts, she has finally learned to roll over both ways. She did that for the first time on 4/2 so just about 3.5 months old. She is constantly sucking on anything she can get her hands on. She is a MAJOR drooler and we have to change out her bib multiple times a day. We finally made the move to purchase an exersaucer and it came just in time for her to be able to use it. As you can see above we still need to put a blanket in with her but she loves to be in it. She also enjoys her play mat and is pulling, tugging, and kicking the objects hanging down. 
Elsie had a very busy month! It was her first full month in day care and I think she loves it! She is always so happy when I pick her up. There is one little boy there who absolutely adores her. He always gives her a hug goodbye and wants to hold her in his lap (he is 1 year old haha). It is really cute! Elsie also celebrated two holidays this past month. St. Patricks Day and Easter. A new friend of hers was born on March 29th, Orson Dutton Nady the Third. We also took a trip up to MN for Easter. Busy, busy, month.
Once again, another great month!! I just love this girl!
