Ellie's 4 month birthday!

Our littlest gal is now 4 months old!
She is changing so so much.
I thought I was going to get to have a little mini me this time but I am now not so sure.
Her looks are starting to change and as I look at pictures of her big sister Caraline when she was Ellie's age I am seeing that Ellie is looking exactly like her then! (Which means she will prob end up looking like her daddy)!
But guess that's quite alright because her big sister looks like daddy and think she is just super duper cute!

BIG BIG changes in our house this past month.
The sleeping started and we are loving it!
Well let's just say the sleeping at night has started, daytime sleep is still a work in progress!
She usually just takes little hour naps, at the longest, but then will maybe every other day have an after noon nap that is from feeding to feeding time.
But at night we are getting 11 hours pretty much every night!
Both girls go down at 730pm and we see them at 630 in the morning!

Elleanor is on a schedule, which we start with our first feeding at 630.
She eats between 5 and 6 oz every 3 hours.
She still takes naps between each feeding with the longest being after her 1230 feed.
I try to put her and Caraline down at the same time after this feeding and can at times get a good 2 hours to myself (LOVE it when this happens).
Ellie's last feeding is at 630pm then we have a little bit of family playtime before the girls both get put down in about an hour.

The past few days have been a little rough.
The drooling and fussiness are here and I think I can see where the little bottom front teeth are going to start trying to come through.
She has been waking at night the past few nights, I think because of her teeth? because she just wants to be held but a little bit of tylenol has been helping.

She has also learned a new sound, which I am not that fond of.
It is this super high pitched squeal, which she likes to do at times just to hear herself but then she also now does it when she is crying, can't wait for her to get over this!
She coos and coos and has started throwing some goo, goos in there.

Caraline is absolutely in LOVE with her little sister.
She never ever seems to be jealous of her and she is always so interested in what Ellie is doing.
C talks to her and gives her hugs and kisses constantly!
LOVE THIS!

Skills:
still rolling over, just from belly to back. starting to try to go the other direction.
sitting well in her bumbo seat.
picking up toys and being able to get them to her mouth.
at times wakes up in the morning talking instead of screaming, wish this would become ALL the time.
she is also loving to reach out and touch people's faces.

Stats:  Just went for our 4 month checkup this morning.
Height 26in - 97%
Weight 13lb 15oz - 50%

I'm sure there is so much more that I could include but for now this is it, we are so exhausted, a 2 year old and an infant are definitely HARD work!  However, we wouldn't have it any other way! LOVE my girls with all my heart!

photo time

I missed the 3 month mark for photos of Ellie so we did 4 month photos instead.
and since we were doing them we thought we would go ahead and try to get some family pics too.
let me just tell you that our 2 year old was a complete mess the ENTIRE time.
we did however manage to get a couple of cute ones and of course an adorable 4 month photo of Ellie for the dining room wall.

this is Caraline's new face, that she is doing ALL the time

LOVE our little family!

and those pretty curls.

there's daddy and that sweet girl's silly new face again:)

tickle time!

our too cute little 4 month old!

for our black and white wall in our dining room. LOVE IT!

another one making the dining room wall!

and this one for the hubster's and my bedroom!

even though it seemed it was a disaster we came away with so many great memories, thanks again Heather! You are the bestest!

 

embrace the camera october 20,2011 - daddy style

daddy and his sweet girls!

pumpkin patch 2011

this past friday i got to leave work early, which never happens on a friday!
i also got to pick my girls up from the babysitter, which i also never get to do!
so since we had no plans and tim wasn't having basketball practice, we decided to make it a fun family afternoon/early evening.

first off to the pumpkin patch.

caraline's first time on a horsey!!!

really wanted to get a cut pic of the girls together but the huge 2 year old fits we are currently having got in the way of that so the first up is the only one we could get, so we got a few of  Ellie laying on the ground by herself since her sissy wouldn't pose with her:)

after the pumpkin patch we thought we would try taking the girls out to eat for the first time ever with both of them!!! you would have thought we were crazy with the way we had to leave the pumpkin patch (that would be carrying C out screaming), but what the heck, we were hungry!
the girls did AWESOME!!!  of course it was 5pm, so the place was pretty empty, but still they did great!

embrace the camera day

more zoo fun!

3 months along!

a few days late on this post but Ellie girl turned 3 months old this last Tuesday!

we didn't go for her well check until the friday after.
here are the stats:
length: 24 1/2 in. 90th% (tall girl)
weight: 12lbs 13oz 75th%
head: 15 3/4in 50th%
she got 1 shot and she does absolutely wonderful with them.
she just lays there on the little table smiling and cooing at the nurse and then cries out for maybe 2 seconds after the shot and then its all over with back to happy baby.

that's right I said "happy baby".
which is pretty much what she is these days, that is during daytime hours.
don't get me wrong she still has an occasional off and we still have a small fussy time in the evening but for the most part she has turned around during the day.
her naps aren't quite as long as I like but she takes them and is still pretty happy when awake even with a short nap.
as for nighttime we are still struggling.
she has been a  horrible sleeper at bedtime.
we were still up several times during the night.
our doc said "brandi leave her in her bed and see what she will do, do not get her up"
so for the past few days that is what we have done.
it has been rough on everyone, even Caraline but we are seeing some progress!
last night for us was pretty much sleeping through the night!
Ellie woke up twice, once at 3am and then at about 430am, both times she had rolled over to her back.
usually this totally freaks her out and there has been no getting her back to sleep but last night all we had to do was roll her back to her tummy and she went right back to sleep!
doing this took a total of maybe a minute and a half!


happenings:
the rolling over business definitely wasn't helping with our sleep progress.
this big gal sleeps on her belly and right at her 12 week birthday she decided she would start rolling over to her back and freaking out after she did it.
she is also very good at holding her head up and I'm hoping we can start some bumbo seat sitting very soon, I think she will really like it!
the smiles, coos, and squeals are coming all the time!
during the day she really only gets fussy for 2 reasons, poop and sleep.
she still has the biggest, brightest blue eyes just like her sister (we are hoping they are here to stay)!
her hair is still dark, out in the sun it is a very pretty auburn color, can't wait for more of it to come in so we can really see what color it is!
she loves her bouncy seat in the morning, we put it on the kitchen table and she can be a part of our morning routine of coffee, breakfast, dishes, and making bottles.
she also loves to play underneath her activity gym, which is what we routinely do after she has her bottle and before naptime.
she is also starting to like her bjorn much more, we took her to the zoo this past Saturday and used it and she did great in it!
she loves to watch her big sister Caraline play too!
and Caraline loves her little sister, she wants to tell her "Hi  Baby" all the time and give her kisses constantly!!

Things are definitely looking up in the Maxeiner house these days! Couldn't imagine my life any other way!

Embrace the Camera, Sept. 15, 2011

Here is try #1 at safari family photo:

#2 was much better!

This was right before I stepped in a hole and fell forward with Ellie! Luckily hit my knees first and caught myself with my left hand.  Thank goodness for the Bjorn, she didn't hit but it scared poor baby!

Tim with Caraline and his hot pink backpack he now totes everywhere.lol!!!