Loves books, likes peas, but sleep...not so much!

I wanted to update everyone on our little peanut and what she has been up to lately. As you can see from my title, everything is going great with exception to the night-time sleeping.

Ellison has so much energy, she loves to play, roll, read books, and exercise/dance. She puts most toys in her mouth and when they are not in her mouth she is waiving them around (sometimes hitting herself in the face on accident). She also loves being read to. Most people would think of reading as a quiet, relaxing activity, but not for our little Elle. Reading is a workout; she just loves her books so much that she can't sit still! Rolling across the room is her new thing. She rolls and rolls until something gets in her way. She hates being stopped by walls, plus they hurt, so she gets mad and doesn't always realize she needs to roll the opposite direction, so we move her back to an open space. Ellison has also been found hiding under our curtains and playing w/ them (I'm sure she will be attempting to rip them down soon). Exercise and dancing are another big favorite for Elle. I'll be sitting on the floor playing with her then stand up; she'll look at me, throw her toy to the side and then start pumping her arms and legs as if she is saying "come on Mom, show me some moves." Of course I can't help but give her a couple of my best dance moves (which consist of flailing arms and spins) or some jumping jacks and jabs w/ speed-bag arms with kicks and knees-up (I can only imagine what our neighbors are thinking)! After a minute or two I start to run out of ideas, so then I put on some music and then we just get carried away by the songs (I'm usually laughing at her and myself this whole time - it really can be quite a workout)! Jonathan loves to join in on our dance sessions when he is home from work or on the weekends. When he is here, Elle doesn't know which one of us to watch - I wonder who's dance moves she'll pick up?

Ellison has always been a good eater. From the first time she nursed up until now she has been a champ when it comes to eating (you can tell by the size of thighs, she never misses a meal). I am still nursing her which has been going really well and plan to continue until she is a year old (at least that's my plan for now). We have also been giving her vegetable and fruit mixed with rice and oatmeal cereals. She has loved all of the baby food we have given her: sweet potatoes, peas, squash, carrots, apples, pears...we mash up bananas too. She has her cereal combo around 2x a day and sometimes even asks for second helpings. I'll mix up a pretty big amount and she'll gobble it down, so I'll mix up more and she eats it up, then I tell her "all gone" - she looks at me as if she were just getting started!

Ellison's night-time routine starts around 7pm. We get her out of her clothes for one last naked play session (which she loves), then get her pj's and sleep-sack on. She starts getting cranky around 7:15pm-7:30pm, and that's when I feed her. Half of the time she will fall asleep right after she is done eating, and the other times she will fall asleep in her crib after we sing her a song or two. Now that's the easy part. Things get a little more difficult as the night goes on (it's never easy to try to function when you have to wake up from a deep sleep). Elle will wake up sometime between 10:30pm-12:30am. I try to console her first, but that's when she will usually take it to the next level. Her eyes will be closed as she cries/whines and flails, but as soon as I nurse her she is at ease and will eat then go back to sleep. She will sleep from 1 to 4 hours from there, and we will either get her back to sleep or I will feed her if it has been at least 2 hours since her last feeding. She usually wakes up around 6am and that's when we start our day. Keep in mind, during the day, Elle goes 3-4 hours in between feedings, but at night the time span shortens to 2-3 hours. She has also been known to wake up at 3 or 4am and talk it up for minutes on end, very cute, but not then, not when the sun hasn't come up yet! The funny thing is, we know she could go 4-8 hours between feedings, since it's happened a handful of times; it's just she is not a good sleeper. She prefers to sleep on her tummy. She always rolls herself to her stomach when I lay her in her crib each time she is asleep after a feeding. We analyze it all... we don't know if she has dreams that wake her up, or if she is teething, or going through a growth spurt...we make sure she is warm enough, her diaper is clean, etc. Jonathan and I have been getting up 3-6 times a night with her the last few weeks, and we are really looking forward to a solid night sleep. Every night I go to bed optimistically thinking, this could be the night she sleeps 'through the night', but when I hear her start to make her noises, I look at the clock and simply look forward to getting back in bed and getting another couple hours of sleep until the next wake up call.

In summary, I have not had a solid 8 hours of sleep in almost 6 months, and it's TOTALLY worth it because we have the most beautiful daughter who we are madly in love with, and could have never dreamed of anything more amazing then our little Ellison.