Spring has sprung!

Sleeping in her big girl car seat...

Eating her bath toys...

Crazy bath hair!

Chillin' in my robe :)

Such a doll!

Look at those teeth!

Pretty Princess :)

Ella & her foam noodle video :)

Our weekend in pictures

Ella is 8 months old today!

The best part of waking up....

Sleepy girl :)

Eating her toys...

Playing with Grandma Teri on Saturday

Watching Daddy mow the lawn in between rain showers :)

Eating a rice stick (in pieces)

Yum!

Play time with Auntie Lisa at Grandpa & Grandma Sitton's house :)

Mommy & Ella... wow she is a big girl! Showing off her Nike's :)

Sleeping Free

(Ella & Mommy 3/12/11)

We have started the endeavor of having Ella sleep unswaddled & arms free. Preemie’s especially like to be swaddled because it makes them feel like they are tight in the womb. They can have reflexes while sleeping where their arms go up and it wakes them up. But this little preemie is outgrowing her sleep/swaddle sack and they do not come any bigger!

It was totally heartbreaking (for me) having to let her cry herself to sleep. She is at the age where if her needs are met (she is fed and has a clean diaper) you are supposed to let them cry. She cried for 45 minutes and I watched her on the monitor the whole time. I wanted to cry myself. Then she finally fell asleep and only woke up once for a pacifier the whole night. It’s cute she is now a belly sleeper like me :) So last night (night 2) she cried for about 30 minutes and then fell asleep and slept until 6am! Success!!

So hopefully every night she will cry a little less... because Mommy cannot go to sleep until I know she is content and sleeping soundly. Daddy on the other hand can fall asleep with her screaming in the other room! Ha!

Big girl car seat

Miss Ella has officially outgrown her infant car seat!  No more hauling her around in that thing… the new car seat stays in the car. Our little preemie… is not such a little preemie! We are so proud of our strong little fighter. She has more than tripled her birth weight and grown over 10 inches in height! Boy how time flies when you are having fun! :) She will be 8 months old on March 21st.

                         July 2010 1 week old                     

January 2011 6 months old

Happy Friday!

Drool machine :)

She LOVES her cabbage patch doll... she eats his face! You can see a little of her tooth in this one. Her second bottom one is starting to appear as well... they are pretty darn cute! :)

She really looks like baby Cody in this one.

Watching "Baby Einstein" ... happy as a clam :)

The bathing beauty :)

Back to normal :)

Ella is finally feeling better!! YAY!! :) She is back to her silly always smiling self :) Boy did we miss that! We had a great weekend. Saturday Grandpa and Grandma Sitton came down to visit. Grandma Sherie brought Ella lion socks.... she loved them!! (Pictures below)

Sunday Cody went for a 10 mile + bike ride on the country roads near our house. He got a road bicycle for his birthday. While Daddy did that us girls and Sammy went on a walk. Then we headed downtown Salem to just walk around. It was very relaxing.

**Showing off her Lion Socks**

Ella holding her own bottle... usually doesn't stay in her mouth.

Mommy, Ella (the pink bear) & Sammy enjoying the brief sunshine :)

She loves being outside... so much to look at.

Happy Friday!

Ella finds Sam's tail

Sick baby girl :(

Well we had an eventful 4 days…..
Last Thursday morning at 4am (also Cody’s birthday) we woke up to a screaming baby in her crib…. She was burning up. 103 degrees!! We gave her Tylenol and called the doctor’s office. We couldn’t get in until 10:30 though and at that point Ella would not eat anything. At the doctor’s office her doctor noticed she was wheezing while breathing. The doctor couldn’t confirm if this was early signs of asthma or just due to her lungs being so premature. So we’ll have to keep an eye on that. We did an Albuterol inhaler for 10 (LONG) minutes (Ella screamed the whole time) and the doctor came back and rechecked her lungs… after hearing a significant improvement she prescribed her with an inhaler for us to give her anytime we hear her cough and wheeze. She said she had a bad virus and for us to give her Tylenol and Motrin every 4 hours. Even with that and cooler baths we couldn’t get her fever below 102. She was so hot and only wanted to be held, when you held her she would just cry and moan in your arms. Broke Mommy & Daddy’s hearts :( She had the fever for more than 54 hours and was not a happy little girl. This was the sickest Ella has ever been. It was so scary; we felt so helpless & were literally exhausted with no sleep. Grandma/nurse Teri stayed with us Friday night to help out and give us a break to get some sleep. She took her temperature and listened to her lungs.
Ella is finally starting to feel better today… still has a cough and stuffy nose.

So needless to say we are VERY ready for spring & summer and no more sickness! :(