Elaina - 4 months

Elaina is sleeping in her own room now! The transition from her rocker to her crib was totally seamless. She usually wakes up 1-2 times per night. The first time is usually about 30 minutes after I put her in her bed and then the second time is about 5-7 hours later. It's great!! All her naps are still in her swing. If we're out and about or if she's particularly fussy in the evenings, I'll put her in the ergo and she sleeps perfectly soundly in the ergo. I love that she loves to nap in the ergo but that she no longer HAS to take a nap there. As I write this, she's actually snoozing in the ergo. I strapped her in and cooked dinner while she peacefully fell asleep. When she naps in the swing, I tuck my blankie (version 2.0) around her and she pulls it up to her face to fall asleep. She screams if she kicks the blanket off. I'm sure she would do that with any blankie, but I love seeing her all snuggly in my favorite blankie!

At the doctor last week, she's in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight (14 lbs. 1/2 oz and 26 inches. I might have the inches wrong, but I know it's more than 24). Her cheeks and thighs look perfectly chubby to me, so it surprises me that she's relatively 'lean'. She can roll over from tummy to back, but she doesn't do it all that often. 

Lately she's been learning new ways to use her voice. Compared to when Ben was a baby, she still doesn't chatter nearly as much as him. Hearing her chatter is a treat! It's not exactly raaaare that we hear her talk, but it's certainly not all the time! She sucks on her lower lip a lot! Lately, she's been sucking on it so much that she keeps bruising it!! yowch! Her bottom two teeth are also kind of making an appearance. I think it will still be a while before they really poke through, but the other day my mom noticed two red spots on her lower gums. The next day she was super fussy and I could see little indentations where the teeth are coming through. It's barely noticeable though. Speaking of fussy, this girl is hardly ever fussy! If she's fussy, I know she's hungry or tired. When she was fussy the other day because of her teeth, it was totally uncharacteristic of her! She's so easy going! She's MUCH happier about tummy time these days. We're trying to give her as much as we can to round out the little flat spot on her head. 

What else do I want to remember....let's seeeee. Nursing her. I still love love love it. Her latch has never been super fantastic. Other than the first couple weeks, it doesn't cause us any problems, but I definitely notice the difference between her latch and the way Ben used to latch. At night when I'm nursing her to sleep, I wish I could capture pictures of her every time. Her face is so angelic! And her fuzzy hair!! She's lost almost all of her super dark, long, baby hair but now she has this sweet brown fuzz that's growing in. Luckily, it's growing in evenly and she doesn't have any awkward bald areas like Ben did.

We started watching Ben and Kyler recently. Kyler tries so hard to get Elaina to smile! And he succeeds! She also looooves watching her big brother and she smiles at the random things he does. Her smile is so sweet and gentle. It's not an explosion of sunshine like some babies (Owen!). It's more like a sweet, soft, warm, spring breeze with a little blast of sunshine or something equally gentle and sweet and heartwarming! It's perfect!! 

I love love love her beautiful face. Her gorgeous, big eyes and her chubby cheeks!! And her sweet little mouth! It's so little and sweet! And she loves to smile with her sweet mouth wide open.

I don't know if it's her personality, or the fact that this is the second time around for me, but I feel so bonded and connected with her...totally in tune with her. I feel like she's my little sidekick (now that I write this, I think I remember feeling that Ben was my sidekick when he was a baby). Her care is basically 100% on me. Joel is on Ben duty as soon as he gets home. When Ben was a baby, we truly shared his care 50/50. But not with Elaina. He obviously helps with her, but since we've got another one to take care of, things are different this time around.