What We've Been Up To...

So it's been a while, huh?  Well, here's how our daily schedule has been going...

8:15 pm - feed Ellie
8:30 pm - get Ellie to stop crying for no apparent reason other than she is tired and hungry
8:45 pm - feed Ellie
9:00 pm - lay Ellie down in bed and creep silently out of the room, hoping that your knee doesn't crack and wake her up.
9:05 pm - flop on the couch with a snack and decide to watch a show with hubs, even though you know you should just go to bed right now
9:30 pm - brush teeth, wash face, yada yada yada...
10:00  pm - collapse in bed and pray for sleep to take you quickly
10:30 pm - get up, feed Ellie
12:00 am - wake up from falling asleep on the couch while feeding Ellie and take her back to bed
12:02 am - collapse in bed and steal some covers back from hubs, who is hogging them all
12:37 am - get up, feed Ellie
1:30 am - wake up from falling asleep on the couch while feeding Ellie and take her back to bed
1:32 am - collapse in bed and cry because you've missed your pillow so darn much
4:00 am - get up, feed Ellie
4:15 am - take Ellie back to bed
4:17 am - get one foot in bed and then hear Ellie screaming
4:18 am - pick Ellie up and watch her fall immediately back to sleep
4:19 am - lay Ellie back down
4:20 am - hear Ellie start screaming before you've even opened your bedroom door
4:21 am - pick Ellie up and watch her fall immediately back to sleep
4:22 am - lay Ellie back down
4:22.5 am - hear Ellie start screaming before you've even taken your hands away from her body
4:23 am - pick Ellie up and watch her fall immediately back to sleep
4:24 am - curse quietly under your breath and head out to the couch.  again.
4:25 am - feed Ellie
5:00 am - take Ellie back to bed now that she is actually, really, finally asleep
5:02 am - collapse in bed and remind yourself to let hubby have it later when he complains about being tired after work
5:30 am - hubby's alarm clock goes off
5:31 am - wonder why he has to have it ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE ROOM and vow to END HIM if it wakes Ellie.
6:00 am - realize you actually fell asleep when loving, wonderful hubby comes to wake you up as he's leaving because you've got to get ready for work too
6:02 am - get a drink of water from the kitchen
6:03 am - floorboard squeaks in the hall way
6:04 am - hear Ellie start screaming
6:05 am - walk in and find a suddenly happy and smiling little girl, totally ready to start her day
6:10 am - go through your morning routine while simultaneously keeping Ellie entertained
8:30 am - rush out the door to drop Ellie off at the babysitter
9:05 am - show up 5 minutes late to work
1:00 pm - leave work
1:15 pm - pick up a fussy Ellie from the babysitter
1:30 pm - get home and feed Ellie
2:00 pm - lay Ellie down for her afternoon nap
2:01 pm - race to change into "house clothes" (aka yoga pants and a tank top) and crawl into your comfy bed for some sweet, sweet sleep
2:03 pm - close eyes and take a deep breath
2:20 pm - get up, feed Ellie
3:00 pm - try not to cry when Ellie giggles as soon as you lay her down to finish her nap
3:01 pm - utterly give up for the day and plop both of you in front of the tv until hubs gets home
4:15 pm - hubs gets home and promptly asks what's for dinner
4:16 pm - refrain from telling him that he can eat whatever he effing makes and instead smile sweetly and ask what he would like
4:17 pm - refrain from punching him in the face for not having any ideas of what you're supposed to cook him
4:18 pm - throw a frozen pizza in the oven
4:19 pm - sweetly tell hubs it is HIS TURN to watch HIS DAUGHTER for a little while
4:20 pm - go to the bathroom for only the second time today
4:45 pm - get dinner out of the oven
4:46 pm - feed Ellie
5:20 pm - eat a cold dinner
5:30 pm - continue the routine of trying to entertain Ellie, who is so very tired but still REFUSES to sleep
6:30 pm - feed Ellie
7:00 pm - watch as hubs magically gets Ellie to fall asleep on his chest
7:01 pm - cater to his every need as he complains that he is now 'stuck' under the baby
7:30 pm - Ellie magically wakes up on her own
7:31 pm - contemplate giving Ellie a bath, but then realize you're far too tired for that and decide to wipe her down with a washcloth instead
7:55 pm - get Ellie ready for bed, enduring her screaming at you for daring to put clothes back on her
8:15 pm - feed Ellie
*start over from the top*

Can anyone say HELLLOOOOOO 6-MONTH GROWTH SPURT?!

So that's why I've been quiet lately.  No time.  No energy.  Nothing terribly interesting to report.  You know the drill.

Next week, Ellie turns 7 months and will *hopefully* be back to a little bit of a more reasonable routine.  You know, maybe only waking up once during the night?  I've totally given up hope of ever sleeping THROUGH the night again.  I'd settle for just getting up once.  Really, I would.

Also, next week we are taking Little Miss on her first 'outing'!  I'm really excited about it, but I'm hoping she's in a better mood or it's just going to be a waste of a day.  Hopefully we'll get some nice pictures and I'll have all sorts of time and energy to give you a nice blog post all about it.  If you don't hear anything, just assume I'm hiding under my bed and trying to pretend I don't hear the screaming.

And by the way, I know I pick on my hubby, but he really is wonderful and does help out a lot.  Something about this sleep deprivation though just makes me really loathe him.  I see him and I want to punch him in the face.  I don't know why.  Anyone else go through that??  I wasn't this mood-swingy when I was pregnant, but now ... look out!  Sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings.  Maybe you could come over and cry it out with Ellie.

Half a Year Old!

Mr. Elephant had to hold my chalkboard for me because I kept putting it in my mouth.  Thanks, Mr. Elephant!

On Friday, Ellie celebrated her 6th month-day!  She's so big I can't believe it.  I think this child must have eaten the little baby I brought home from the hospital not long ago.  It certainly can't be the same girl!

To prove it, here's a video from when she was less than 24 hours old.  She had a really pathetic, yet kind of funny, little cry, so my mom, sister, & I took this video so we could remember it.

Right near the end, you can see my mom's hand covering her back up (in the TWO flannel blankets she needed to keep warm) and you can tell just how scrawny she was. 

Me and Mr. Elephant (held by Mommy's doctor) on Day One!

I know a lot of people who have had preemie babies, so she probably doesn't seem that small to them, but just try to consider the fact that she was FULL TERM.  It is honestly a miracle that she had no problems whatsoever.  She just didn't have an ounce of fat.  Just skinny, that's all.  And she's catching up to 'average' now!  But more on that later ...

Daddy gave me some oatmeal and let me try to feed myself!

She is just the friendliest baby you will ever meet.  She loves to interact with people and gives out smiles like they're free.  Which they are.  But ... well ... you know what I mean.  Anyway, she still has her times (usually when she's tired) that she gets fussy and cranky, but for the most part she's a very happy girl.  Her laugh is infectious - and she's very VERY ticklish!

I had fun celebrating Independence Day with Grampy!

She loves swimming in the pool!  She also really enjoys making 'motorboat' sounds with her mouth and trying to chase after Maggie.  Just in the past week, she's gotten really good at sitting up on her own, so she enjoys playing that way.  She's gotten the hang of the jumperoo and the johnny jump-up and has fun in both of those.  We can almost take the pillow out from underneath the jumperoo, too!  Just about 1/2 inch more and she'll be able to properly touch.  She babbles and coos a lot and when we're in the car, it sounds like she's trying to sing along with the radio, which is super adorable.

O-M-G!  MOM!  I can STAND in this thing?! ...

... SWEET!!

(For the record, she did not pull herself up like that.  I stood her there and let her hang on to the edge for fun.  When she starts showing signs of trying to pull up, we WILL lower the mattress because we KNOW that it's not safe the way it is.)

What doesn't she like?  Naps.  Any kind of sleeping, actually.  I think she just is so interested in the world around her that she doesn't want to miss anything, so she doesn't want to sleep.  But when she misses her big afternoon nap, she's just a cranker for the rest of the night and is all out of whack until the next morning.  We've got a pretty good routine down, though, that I pick her up from the babysitter and we come home, she eats a snack, and then falls asleep for most of the afternoon.  This week that has decided to go out the window, but usually it works really well!

We gave her some cantaloupe as her first fruit on Sunday evening.  She loved it! 

Mmmmm yummy cantaloupe!

At one point, she dropped the mesh feeder and it was out of her reach and she just screamed and screamed until Andy gave it back to her.  She had a pretty good sugar rush then, too.  But it wasn't long until the sugar crash and then she was ready for bed!  I can't believe she's big enough to be eating fruit!  [Ok, enough of that, gotta keep these hormonal emotions in check!]

Check out this adorable video of her and the cantaloupe ...

So today was her 6 month check-up at the doctor.  She did amazingly well.  It was scheduled for 1:55, which is usually about the time she is eating her snack and getting ready for her nap, so I was a little worried that she would be fussy.  But she wasn't!  She gave smiles to all the nurses and office staff when I was checking her in and was really good for our nurse as well.  She had a little trouble being weighed, but that was just because she kept wanting to reach up and slide the slider things on the baby scale!  She didn't even cry when the nurse took her temperature!  She showed off all of her skills to the doctor, and got a good report on everything.  She weights 15 lbs. 1 oz. (which is in the 29th percentile) and is 25.5 inches long (which is in the 32nd percentile).  The doctor is very impressed with her progress!  She managed her shots very well.  Just three of them this time.  The first one didn't even phase her at all.  She cried at the second and third, but stopped and smiled as soon as I picked her up.  All in all, a very good trip.

We got home and she ate her snack and went right to sleep!  The last time she got shots, they made her very sleepy for the next 24 hours, so I'm hoping that maybe I can sleep the whole night tonight?  Maybe?  Ahh, probably not.  Since she started rolling over at the beginning of June, I've only gotten 2 full nights of sleep, and they were both last week.  The doctor said that giving her a snack of fruit or veggies in the evening before bed might help her sleep longer, but there's no guarantee.  Evidently it's not uncommon for this to happen and it's just something she has to re-grow out of.  *sigh*

Anyway, that's what's up!  She's going to be crawling very soon, we think.  She will get up on her hands and then flop on her belly and then pull her knees up under her.  That's all the right pieces to crawling, just not in the right order.  So as soon as she figures that out, she'll take off like a rocket.  We've got the cabinets and drawers all locked up and the baby gate installed and the outlets plugged.  I think that's about as prepared as we can be.  Oh dear, a mobile baby.  I don't know what I'm going to do!  Stay tuned!

Me and Mommy's amazing doctor in the hospital - Day One.

The Nursery - Final Product!

So, it's finally done.  Well, it has been for a while, but I'm finally getting around to showing it to you.  You would not believe how hard it is to find time to snap a few pictures and upload them!  Ok, so as a reminder, here's what the room looked like before we bought the house ...

And here's what it turned into as we moved in ...

Then we painted it ...

And built the crib ...

And then Ellie was born and progress slowed waaaaaaay down!  But it's done now - or at least really close to it. I keep coming up with new things that I want to add, haha!

Why don't we just take a photo tour?

The embroidery sign on the door, made by my sister ...

(sorry it's crooked - Ellie was losing patience at this point!)

Crib, immediately inside the door ...

Old picture, from before she was born, but it still looks the same!

AWESOME mobile, also made by my sister ...

Next to the crib, the reading corner with my awesome glider...

Here's a closeup of the shelves that we put up here.  Several years (two houses) ago, I found these at a thrift store for a little bit of nothing and picked them up.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but they were just too cute, so I had to have them.  We (and by that I mean Andy) gave them a fresh coat of paint and they add just the right *something* to this corner!

We received the piggy bank, the cross, and the adorable porcelain bootie as gifts, and I picked up the picture frame at Target.  I decided that I'd make everything on the shelves pink so there was a splash more 'girly' in the room.

Across from the reading corner is the bureau that we refinished.

We use the drawers as storage for linens for the crib and changing table.  The cubby houses our cloth diapers (and some disposables for the babysitters).

And the tall section is her 'book shelf'.

Eventually, we plan to put actual shelves in there, but for now, the crates will do.  Unless she gets another book.  Then we're in trouble.  That's actually only 2 thirds of her books - there's another crate full in the living room!  Not that I'm complaining!

The animals on top are made by TY (yes, they're still around!) and are called Beanie Boos.

I found them at the store where I was working when I was pregnant.  I just love them to bits and thought they were too cute to leave there!  It took me forever to find the zebra, though.  Eventually mom and I found it at Kohls on a random trip.  Some day maybe I'll let her play with them, but for now they're just decoration :-)

Next to the wardrobe is the dresser with the changing pad on top.  The drawers are very handy to store extra diapers and wipes, clothes to grow into, and extra bulky quilts and blankets.  Stuff that you don't have to access terribly often.  On top we have the changing pad and the wipes warmer (which is currently unplugged because it's warm enough around here!) and the cream and spray that we use on her bottom.  It functions incredibly well and I really like the setup.

Above the changing table is the name sign that I made (with a lot of help from Andy and my sister).  It was quite a project.  So much so that I have an entire post dedicated to it.  I've just got to upload the pictures...

Next to the dresser/changing area we have two little trash cans - one for her cloth diapers and one for trash.  And her hamper - nothing terribly impressive there.  I thought that by getting one white can and one black we could keep track of what goes in what, but after washing several wipes with the cloth diapers I decided they needed labels.  Some paper letters and few coats of Mod Podge later and we have cute cans that don't get co-mingled!

Then there's her closet.  

Such a big closet for such a little girl!  On the top shelf we have bins for too small clothes (which I need to just move into plastic tubs for storage, but I haven't gotten any bins just yet, so that'll have to wait a while longer) and baby proofing supplies (which we need to get down and start installing!).  The clothes are hung up by size.  The wire shelves I had left over from college.  I got the small bins and the baskets from the Dollar Tree and the fabric bins on the bottom came from Target.  The small bins on top hold little things and they each have a chalkboard label, so I can change the contents as I see fit.  

The baskets in the middle hold pants, socks, and onesies (that aren't a part of an outfit).  On the bottom, we have toy storage (for toys she's not ready for yet), health things (like an extra thermometer, bulb syringe, dental hygiene kit for when she's older, bubble bath for when she's older, etc. ), and other various things she's not ready for yet (like sippy cups and utensils and such).  On second thought, maybe all that should go on the top shelf, haha!  Like I said, I'm never quite done with it.

And that's the whole room!  I'd like to get a clock, but I need to find one that doesn't tick.  If it ticks, it will broadcast over the monitor (which is VERY sensitive) and keep me up all night.  My Aunt Carlene also cross stitched this BEAUTIFUL quilt that I would like to turn into a wall hanging and put somewhere in the room. 

Maybe above the trash cans and hamper?  I don't know.  I need mom to come help me with that one sometime :-)

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour!  Ellie turns SIX MONTHS on Friday and has a checkup next Tuesday - check back to see how BIG she is now and for a never-before-seen flashback video from when she was first born!  (haha, how's that for a cheesy teaser?!)