E-xclusive

Well, I think it's about time for a little post on Elizabeth - don't you?  I've been meaning to write one since, ohidunno, she was BORN.

I actually really have been trying to write an E-post for a few weeks now, kinda sad.  In my defense, newborns don't do a whole lot.  It reality, 2 month olds don't really do much either actually - but she is changing.

Overall, we've been very lucky.  Elizabeth has, so far, been an easy baby.  She is laid back about life in general.  Let's talk sleep first, since that makes up most of her day.  She sleeps a lot.  I know enough moms now to know that having a baby who sleeps vs. having a baby who won't sleep has not so much to do with anything the moms are or aren't doing, and more to do with that baby's nature.  Now, we've been following "the rules" best we can too of course and helping E develop good sleep habits and all of that, but really?  I think we just lucked out.

We've had a few nights where E has slept 10 hours straight, which is pretty awesome.  Most of the time, however, we put her down for bed around 7:30 or 8, she wakes around 2, and around 5, then up for the day around 7.  Sometimes she only wakes once.  I can't complain.  In addition to her night sleep - she is sleeping a lot during the day...which I very much believe is directly correlated to her good night sleep (and vice versa).  She can tolerate being awake for about 2-hours at a time, well, 2 hours is her max - a lot of the time she can only stay awake for an hour before she needs to nap again.  Her nap lengths vary because, unlike with Abby, I can't just stay home all day and work on her sleep.  Nope.  E gets to tag along to playgroups, errands, parks and the like.  In general though, she sleeps while we're out running errands.  She goes down for an afternoon nap when we get home and will sleep 3-4 hours.  She wakes up for a little bit and then naps an hour or two until dinner.  Then she's up while we eat, and down right after.  I think she's probably awake for 6 hours a day?  maybe?

So.  Given that.  My repertoire of E stories are limited. :)

But - she is smiley.  Oh so smiley.  She started smiling around 4 weeks old.  She started cooing around 6 weeks - and on Father's Day, we got our first attempts at giggling.  I'm not sure there is anything better than baby coos and giggles with those big gummy smiles.  Melts me.  E is totally ticklish.  Her hips and collarbone make her squint and wiggle and laugh.

Sleeping & smiling...that's pretty much it.

Oh, well, sure -she cries too.  But she only cries when she needs to.  I know her cries now - her hungry cry, her bored cry, her hey-you-I've-been-awake-too-long-and-I-need-a-swaddle-STAT cry...

The swaddle.  We loooooove the swaddle.  So does E.  Seriously - she can be in the middle of a scream fest and as soon as I strap that first arm down - silence.  We always feed her after we swaddle her, so I'm positive that she now associates the two.  She knows that getting wrapped up = food. This is good.  We're still double swaddling her - meaning, we swaddle her nice and tight in a lightweight cloth, and then we wrap her up in a baby blanket (used to be mine) over the other.  She can't really move, but she likes it that way.

She is sleeping in her crib full time now.  Moving her out of our room was a fabulous decision.  I can now sleep a little easier without worrying that I'm going to wake her up every time I roll over or flip my pillow.  E took the transition fine, which was a relief.  We moved her out of our room when she was 6 or 7 weeks old, but we really could have done it before then.

What else?  Nursing?  It's going.  We got off to such a rough start, but things are getting better.  I'm still mostly pumping, but over the past week or two, I've been able to nurse E at least once a day, sometimes twice.  It's a work in progress, but it is improving. E doesn't seem to care where she gets her food, just as long as she gets some.

Nicknames.  Most of the time, we call her "E" (as you can tell by my typing I'm sure)  When we don't call her E, she is usually Elizabeth or "baby wizzabeff"  On occasion, I'll throw out Lizzie Mae, which I'm sure will catch on as she grows.  Our other nickname that just "happened" is E-train.  It sort of grew out of a library book we got for Abs....I'm too tired to go into the whole story, but it suffices to say that the nickname comes with a little chant (like in the book).  We always change the words, but usually we chant a few lines about what E-train is doing at that moment.

Hey Misses E-Train
Red, White, and Green Train
Hey Misses E-Train
What are you doing?

I'm going "wha-wha-wha"
all the day day day
cause my milk milk milk
is too far away.

....something like that.  This is one of those things that is impossible to convey properly through the blog, but maybe I'll read this years from now and remember it.

So - there's an update.  She'll have her 2- month appointment soon (there's a chance it was today and I missed it...) and I'll have number stats as well.

Until then- know that things are good and we are enjoying both of these little girls.