First letter to Baby Ellie

Baby Ellie,
You will be 4 months soon! I knew time would go fast, but I never thought it would fly by. You have finally outgrown newborn size, which makes me think you are getting so big, but really you are still pretty tiny. Even though you are 4 months, you will be wearing 0-3 month clothes for a while still. Your size has nothing to do with your appetite though! You eat more than most babies your age. We still feed you a special formula for your tummy troubles, but you seem to like it. We would normally be introducing a few solids right about now, but you are so tiny, I don't think you are quite ready for that yet.
You love to play.  Your favorite toy right now is the singing Puppy. You seem fascinated by all of the songs Puppy sings. Speaking of singing, you absolutely LOVE when Daddy sings to you.  You seem especially fond of The Beatles.  When you are sad, Daddy will pick you up, sing Eleanor Rigby, and dance in the living room. He thinks its fun to call you Eleanor, even though that's not really your name. Daddy also gave you the nickname "Little Cub", he says you look like a little cub when he holds you up in the air, it's fitting since some people call Daddy "Big Bear"
You also love your playmat. When you are laying on your mat, you can now grab all the dangling toys and shake them.  You also try to put them in your mouth. You also love to put your hands in your mouth.
You are such a sleepy girl! You have been sleeping through the night since you were 5 weeks old. Even though you love to sleep, you hate taking naps. I think you are worried you will miss something fun. You have to have a bottle in order to nap, and you have a hard time napping unless someone is rocking you. Miss Leslie says you nap much better at daycare, you must just want Mommy to hold you til you fall asleep. If you don't get a good nap in, you are a cranky little baby and will eventually fall asleep in your crib for an early bedtime. Even if you go to bed at 7pm, you will sleep until 7:30am.  You are happiest in the morning right after waking up. You give us gigantic smiles and can't wait to start the day. Mommy loves to pick out your clothes, sometimes I will let Daddy do it, but I do a better job.
One of Daddy's jobs is to give you a bath. We play music for you (usually The Beatles).You love bath time, however, you don't like to get out of the bath tub! We make sure there is a bottle ready for you and you snuggle with Mommy until you are nice and warm.
We have been on one walk, which you loved, but it's too cold out to go for more walks. I can't wait for it to warm up so we can enjoy the sunshine! You do love to go shopping with Mommy, you look around at all the lights and colors and your really seem to love your stroller rides.
You don't seem too interested in your furry pet, Tucker. Sometimes you will stare at him, especially when he is thumping his tail. You don't seem to mind his Puppy kisses.  Tucker tries to sneak kisses in when Mommy and Daddy aren't looking, but for the most part, he just likes to cuddle with all of us on the couch.
You have been giggling and babbling for a few weeks now. You love to read books with Mommy after your breakfast. You can now grab the pages and try to pull them to your mouth. If Mommy let you, I'm sure you would try to eat them all. You rolled over once, but Daddy was at work and Mommy was in the kitchen.  Please roll over again so we can actually see it this time! You love people, you love when we blow raspberries on your face or belly and I think your favorite thing to do is watch TV. Daddy bought you a Baby Einstein DVD that you love.
Everyone said you looked like Mommy when you were born, now that you are 4 months old, everyone says you look like Daddy, I think Daddy likes this. You have proven to have quite the personality already and we can't wait to see what month 5 brings! We love you more than anything.
Love,
 Mommy

A little behind

On October 17th, 2011 our lives changed forever.  Ellie was born at 10:30 am, weighing 6 pounds 3 ounces, and 18.5 inches long.  She was delivered via scheduled C-Section due to her being breech. The procedure went well, Ellie had a little labored breathing, but nothing that concerned the doctors too much. During the 4 day stay at the hospital, Ellie decided she didn't want anything to do with breastfeeding. After many, many failed attempts, and realizing Ellie was losing too much weight, we finally got concerned enough to switch the focus on just trying to get her to eat somehow. The third day in the hospital we were told to spoon feed her. After a full day of this, it was just too much, so we switched to the bottle. Ellie seemed to like that and everything was on track then.

There's not much I can say about our hospital visit.  It was painful, but holding my beautiful little girl made it seem so easy.  Shockingly, she slept quite a bit, even in the hospital she was a pretty easy going baby. I will always remember not wanting to fall asleep so I could hold her all night, and hold her I did! Daddy stayed with us the whole time and changed his first ever diaper and all the rest while I was recovering! We fell in love with Ellie the second we saw her.  We have the most amazing, beautiful girl in the world, how blessed are we?