Ella, 4 Months

Ah, my sweet Ella girl. Ella is a very calm baby. She just goes with the flow. Numerous people have commented that she just doesn't cry. That's not entirely true, but as long as her needs are being met, she is content to just hang out. So content, that she doesn't have a huge desire to roll over or move herself anywhere. Actually, she did roll over once a few days ago. It had less to do with a desire to move and more to do with a desire to suck her sleeves. She loves the long sleeves because it gives her more cotton to chew on. So when I had her on her stomach, she found those sleeves, and kept getting higher and higher, until BAM, she rolled over. Pretty funny, actually.

We found ourselves a new doctor here in Michigan, and took Ella in for her 4 month well visit. As an aside, I like the new doctor a lot. The entire staff was friendly and helpful, which makes a huge difference. The one "beef" I had was at the old doctor's office, they gave me a copy of her growth chart to take home, with all the precise numbers on it. Not so here in MI. This office doesn't have digitized charts, so I can see why it would be harder to give me a copy. In fact, the doctor was so impressed at the records we brought in, and kept commenting on how nice the digitized charts were. Next time I'll pay closer attention to the numbers so I can remember them. Also, they are a lot more of an estimation than an exact percentile. But that's ok. I think we'll survive.

Anyway, stats:

Weight: 14.01 lbs, 50%
Length: 25 inches, 70-75%
Head Circumference: um, 16 inches -ish? I'm not sure. Which puts her somewhere between 50 and 75%.

Yeah, real accurate there. But she is doing great, still on the tall side, but pretty average. Weight gain is good. She eats well, and sleeps pretty well, too. She usually wakes me up between 4 and 5, and half the time (maybe less) she wakes up at 2 as well. But she goes right back to sleep, so I can't complain too much (though I do, just ask Clark).

And the pooping, oh the pooping! (Get ready, I'm about to talk about poop. If you don't want to hear it, just skip on down to the next paragraph) I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Ella was not a poopy newborn. 8 dirty diapers a day? More like 1 dirty diaper a week. Which is, apparently, totally normal. But ever since we moved to Michigan, it's like the bowels have been opened. To go from 1 dirty diaper a week to 3-4 per day? It feels like I'm up to my eyeballs in poop! But, of course, then I have to remind myself that it's still half of what Julia was like as a baby. I'm trying to look at it with an attitude of gratitude that things are getting through.

Ok, enough of that topic. Ella got some shots on Friday, and had kind of a rough weekend as a result. I think her legs hurt more than anything else. She'd sit and whimper in her sleep during naptime. Very sad. But doing better today. Julia was a great big sister during the dreaded pokes. She got up next to me, put her hand on Ella's head, and sang Happy Birthday. It was really very sweet, and Ella didn't even cry for her first shot (the subsequent shots got her lungs going, though).

We all love our little Ella Bella, Ella Magoo, DroolElla. Even if she is soaking wet most of the time.

Look at that mug. Who wouldn't love that mug?