Elaina 2 months

11 lbs, 9 oz. 24 inches. 

What to say about Elaina. The first thing that comes to mind is her sweetness. I know. It's shocking to hear a mom of a new baby girl say this. Lately she's been cooing and talking more. But it's so gentle and sweet! Her voice is so quiet. I remember Ben's coos were so full of vigor and he talked sooo much. Elaina's are so gentle and sweet and she doesn't talk a whole lot. In the morning when I pick her up out of her rocker, her whole face lights up in a giant smile. I'm happy to see you too, baby girl! For a few days, she would stay wide awake at night. Every time i laid her down, she would wake up. When I picked her up again, she would greet me with a gigantic smile. It was impossible to stay frustrated with her!

I would say Elaina is an average newborn. She's not the most difficult, but she's not the easiest baby I've ever heard of (*cough*...Eli, Owen...*cough*). Her crying is pretty predictable...tired, hungry or needs a change of scenery.  The biggest challenge is still her sleep. We carry her until she falls asleep and then she usually sleeps for 30-45 minutes. Depending on what's going on, sometimes we'll try to put her back to sleep for a longer nap. But in the afternoons and evenings she needs to be held for her whole naps. At bedtime, I sit in our room with her for 1-2 hours, nursing her and holding her before she's asleep for the night. This works fine when Joel is home and able to put ben to bed...but It makes me sad that I don't get to help Ben with bedtime and its rough when Joel has evening meetings. I feel like I'm chained down by her sleep. She's still only awake for an hour between each nap. After feeding her and changing her, it doesn't leave me any time to get out of the house to di anything. I'm constantly waiting for her to either wake up or for the hour to be up until I have to put her to sleep again. As much as i loooove tiny newborn sweetness, I cannot wait to have a little bit of a break!!!

She has started to hate her car seat a little bit less. She doesn't scream bloody murder for every car ride any more, although we still have lots of crying. 

This weekend i took both kids up to Kirkland to see Aimee and Alicia. Alicia's baby girl, Ella, is only four weeks younger than Elaina. I was so nervous of how Elaina would do. She screamed the entire hour drive on the way up, but then she slept soundly in the ergo for our visit. Seeing Aimee and Alicia was just what I needed. I was feeling a little down with the recent gray weather and lack of human interaction! My visit with them perked me right up. 

As for Elaina's skills...I've noticed she's tried to grab her toys several times. And she was reaching for Ben's face this morning. She likes watching me roll a soccer ball around. I was singing to her yesterday and that really made her coo. Also, I had her do tummy time on a cushion. My back was turned and she rolled over and fell off the cushion. Oops! She was notttt happy about that. I'm excited for the upcoming weeks when she will start to develop more skills and be even more social! Like i said in the beginning...she's just so sweet!!

I love all her facial expressions!

And lastly, I loooove nursing her and wearing her