Eloise at Four Months

WEIGHT: 10 pounds 15.5 ounces (1st percentile)
HEIGHT: 24 inches (28th percentile)
CLOTHES SIZE: Newborn (but only some, like the onesie above!) and 0-3 Months
DIAPER SIZE: One

LIKES:
 - Chewing/sucking on her tongue and hands
 - Singing with her daddy and listening to mom's singing
 - Bathtime
 - Raspberries on her tummy
 - Mirrors
 - Beatboxing and whistling
 - Sitting up and standing (with help)
 - Being outside and stroller walks
 - Lightbulbs
 - Dropping/the feeling of falling

DISLIKES:
 - Overly stimulating situations (like being surrounded by her loud and adoring fans)
 - Laying down while being held
 - Not being fed the second hunger strikes
 - Nap time
 - Loud, sudden, and out of the ordinary noises--especially while nursing
 - Car rides when hungry

FIRSTS/MILESTONES:
 - Baby Blessing (13 weeks)
 - Singing (13 weeks)
 - Sleeping in her crib at night, not the bassinet (14 weeks)
 - Little taste of food--licking fruit and loving it! (14 weeks)
 - Sleeping in her crib during the day (15 weeks)
 - Falling asleep on her own and self soothing during daytime naps (15 weeks)
 - Plane ride! (16 weeks)
 - Visit to the state of Washington (16 weeks)
 - Dip in a pool (16 weeks)
 - Little tiny teaser giggle (16 weeks)

RANDOM NOTES:
 - Eloise was blessed by Dustan this month <3
 - Anything that comes in contact with her mouth will be licked
 - Consistently sleeping about 9 hours straight every night (10:00 pm to 7:00 am)--only woke up twice in the middle of night this whole month!
 - Nursing about 5 times a day
 - Has developed a consistent and hilarious pooping face
 - Still arms down swaddled at night and for naps (though she has been escaping more often)
 - Met her first set of great grandparents (the Nielsons) and a lot of extended family!
 - Almost exclusively sucks on her left hand
 - Lovely bald spot on the back of her head, haha

On February 25th, Eloise received a sweet baby blessing from Dustan. We had some wonderful family and friends in attendance. Some of the points Dustan mentioned in her baby blessing was that Eloise would have a spirit of optimist and show others how to live a happy life, to keep the commandments and be virtuous, that she will be quick to learn, that Eloise can find someone who loved her as much as we do and take her to the temple someday, and to show her love to others. I adored Dustan's blessing and the wonderful father he is to our little girl. Eloise looked like a little princess in her dress, and did so well (despite a few of the pictures below, haha). It was a great day!

If you've read our previous month's blog post (here), you know that since we implemented a schedule, Eloise has been sleeping through the night great (naps were another story). We began to notice again that she didn't seem very hungry by the time her last feeding rolled around at 10:00 pm, and would be so exhausted she would barely eat. So we decided to drop another nap and feeding and move from a 3 hour loop, and altered Eloise's schedule to about this:
7:30 am - Wake Eloise up, feed, play, nap
11:00 am - Feed, play, nap
2:30 pm - Feed, play, nap
6:00 pm - Feed, play, nap
9:00 pm - Feed, bath, down for the night

Overall, this schedule went really well! We're still following it now, and Eloise is doing great. We're so proud of our girl!

The results of a single sneeze while suffering from her second cold :(

About halfway through this "month", we moved Eloise from her bassinet into her crib when she sleeps at night. And it went flawlessly! She didn't even seem to notice the change. This was a major blessing, since we decided to start nap sleep training the next week and we really needed something to go well... The crib has some soft, plush sheets that we hope will help prevent some of her back-of-the-head hair loss, haha.

Soon after moving Eloise to her crib at night, we began sleep training for naps. Up until that point, Eloise would refuse to nap unless she was being held by one of us in a dark room with white noise. Between holding Eloise while nursing her and holding her for naps, I had little to no time during the day to get things done. And I didn't want to do chores when Eloise was awake and ready to play! Therefore, sleep training. I had already tried a gentler approach to sleep training a couple weeks prior where I would check on Eloise and sooth her if she was crying, but she usually ended up even more mad when I left the room again. So this time I waited about 15 minutes if she was crying straight, more time if it was intermittent. The first couple days were just horrible. I felt so bad all day long :( She didn't sleep one bit for the first couple naps and just cried. She only slept a little for her last nap of the day. Thankfully, this didn't affect her nighttime sleep! The next day was about the same. From there on out, it just got a little better each day. We're still working on it. Most naps, Eloise will fuss and cry for about 10 minutes before falling asleep, and will usually wake up once or twice and fuss during the nap before going back to sleep. Occasionally, Eloise will refuse to nap altogether. But she is doing so great overall! I feel like I can get a million things done during the day now!

Escaping her swaddle during naps, haha

My mom flew Eloise and I out to Washington this last month to spend some time with the family. On both the flight there and the flight back, Eloise did so well! It was a bit stressful, wanting to make sure Eloise stayed happy and didn't disturb others, but it was fine. Everyone at the airports stared at her hair and commented on her cuteness. Dustan and I may have a big head about her ;)

The visit to Washington was so fun. Basically, we spent a lot hanging with family and friends, playing games, eating good food, and watching movies. Eloise took her first dip in a pool on this trip, and did pretty good. She screamed pretty good at first, then calmed down and just seemed concerned, haha. I hope she ends up loving water and swimming as much as I do! I'll add a few more pictures of our visit later, when I have them :)

We just barely had Eloise's four month appointment. Eloise is overall healthy and happy, but our pediatrician is a little worried about her slow of weight gain. (As you can see in her stats listed at the top, Eloise is only in the 1st percentile for weight and had only gained one pound in two months.) So, Dustan and I are now on a mission to get our girl more calories each day and fatten her up! I'll write more on that next month, but our current game plan is so try and increase my milk supply, supplement with just a little bit of formula, and introduce rice cereal. If you have any advice, please send it my way! But Eloise is still a happy, developing, smiley, and active girl that we just love spending each day with <3