Milestones

Elly is hitting quite a few milestones and I feel like I am not doing a great job of recording them.

First, she lost her umbilical cord on Tuesday November 16. Lucky for us we unzipped her onesie at the doctor so she could get weighed and it was just gone. It left the belly button bleeding, scabbed over, and nasty looking. I probably would have freaked out had there not been a nurse standing there telling me that this was completely normal looking.

She also has excellent neck control. She is capable of turning her head from side to side to look around. We have also noticed that when she is laying on our chest or we have her on her tummy she can briefly lift up her head, hold it for a couple of seconds, and let it back down. She can do it all without her head flopping around like a bobble head, so we are really proud of her for that. She must get her strength and muscles from mommy. :)

We are also noticing a LOT of smiling and other cute facial expressions!



She has so much personality! We have yet to capture a good smile on camera, but trust me when we do it will be posted. :)

Her eating habits are also spectacular. She is still on her 2-hour feeding schedule and she is eating like a champ! She nurses really well, and seems to love mommy's milk. I am still pumping, but now we are giving her the supplement in a bottle rather than through syringe. She will take the bottle sometimes, but other times she just pushes it out of the way and will go back to getting it straight from the source. ;) She knows where her noms come from... she is already one smart cookie!

Unfortunately, with the strict feeding schedule it has been hard to try and establish a sleep schedule for her. She sleeps really well during the day, but becomes almost wide awake at night between the hours of 11pm and 5am. She will doze off, but will immediately wake up if we try to put her in the bassinet. That means that either Brent or myself is always on night duty. We are hoping that once she can just feed when she's hungry it will be easier to get a better pattern going and try to work on fixing her backward schedule.

She is still in preemie clothes and diapers. They are still big on her. Unfortunately, she seems to be growing longer a lot faster than she is putting on some fat. The onesies are starting to get a little tight when she stretches out her legs, but the pants do not fit her in the waist. Poor girl is having clothing issues already. :(

The cats are warming up to her. Kenji especially is very protective and it is SO cute! Tonight I was pumping and we had Elly sleeping in the pack and play. Kenji walked into the living room, went to the pack and play and "stood up" on his hind legs and just stared in on her for a good two or three minutes. He had no intention of jumping in, it was like he was just checking to make sure she was okay. After he was satisfied, he backed away and went back to napping. It was adorable.