a sweet, monthly update of our third daughter, elliot.

we're late to the party this month. it was the trip we took to arizona last week. but on january 6th my sweet elli turned four months old. can we even believe it? in a way it feels like she's been here for-e-ver. but then it also seems like i was just in the hospital.


actually - i was getting up from nursing her in the middle of the night last night and then laid her down in her crib and i remembered how terribly those two simple tasks hurt just a few months ago. getting up while holding her and bending to lay her down. it was her giant head, friends. (93rd+ percentile.) it made recovery a doozy. especially compared to kaye and sawyer both having tiny heads. ooooookay - overshare.

but now we're four months out. my gal - she's a chunk with the chubbiest neck and the rolls on her little wrists are so tight. i'm four months out and i'm still a little chunky and i can't seem to find a bowl of ice cream i don't like.

but before we dive into eating habits - if you need to get caught up, you can find elli's birth story here.

and then one month / two months / three months.

as i was saying...we took off to arizona last week, but before that was elli's first christmas! she received everything she asked for which was exactly nothing. actually, she really did get spoiled. her sisters were absolutely jazzed to open each gift for her and then shove it in her face aggressively and talk to her in an extremely high pitched voice. if i could show you my impression you'd laugh...then cringe. i can't tell you how many times i tell one of them to get out of her face or to be gentle.

those sisters. they love hard. they love deep.

after christmas was, of course, the new year. we had a party and i think elli only inhaled one or two fragments of the millions of confetti that burst from the balloons. (i'm still finding it all over the house.) elli counted down with the big girls at 7:30ish pm and rang in the new year by chugging a bottle of...nothing. boob. she chugged boob.

but, between christmas excitement and then being passed between at least 10 different sets of hands on new year's eve - we have yet to hear her cry. i'm scared to say we have a magic baby because i said sawyer was a magic baby (and now look what we're dealing with)...but elli might really be a magic baby. she's just so so fat and happy.

ELLIOT | 4 MONTHS

 nicknames | kaye has taken to calling her boobies...i think because she has super chubby boobies. it's the cutest.

 size | i can't keep this girl in clothes. she's right around 16 pounds, which i think is a little above average...but i'm certain she's quite tall...and has giant feet. her little 6 - 9 month jammies are tight in the feet and she's quickly outgrowing the length. please. slow. down. her head continues to be large and in charge, but she's officially in complete control. she can hold it up for however long and tummy time ain't no thang. so, even though her melon is giant...she's strong. so strong.

 sleep | mehhh...she's not the very best sleeper i've ever seen. we need to work on the length of her naps. she's in this weird stage where she needs more than two naps a day but the length of the naps don't need to be long. she just needs little refreshers here and there. this results in three short naps (30 minutes) a day and one longer one towards the afternoon. i'd much prefer two long naps...so hopefully those are in our near future.

at night...yes. gold star. our gal goes down sometime between 6 and 7pm. we try to get it as close to 7pm, but if my gal wants to go to sleep...she definitely let's you know. when she's sleepy - that's when the fussing begins. but as soon as she's in her crib she cozies right in and it's lights out.

we really didn't have to do any sleep training with her at all. we lay her down awake and she knows it's sleep-time. but as we learned...this doesn't always stay.

with kaye - once she was finally sleep trained she was the best. even when we put her in her big girl bed she wouldn't get out of bed in the morning until we went in and got her. sawyer on the other hand never needed sleep trained...until now. she's a naughty little thing who gets out of bed and bugs kaye as she's trying to go to sleep. she also (typically) wakes up super early. in fact...i'm surprised she wasn't up an hour ago (5:30am).

 eats | my sweet gal. she's a great eater...can you tell? she eats every three hours, on those nose. at night i'll nurse her before bed and then we just recently dropped the 10pm-ish session and moving into just nursing once in the middle of the night around 3am. it had to happen. four months of waking up multiple times a night will wear a girl out. plus, at 16 pounds, she's fine stretching it out at night.

also, when i take elli in for her next appointment we'll start talking about real food! i think she's ready. she basically glares at us with envy every night at dinner. girlfriend wants to get her hands on some goods.

the downside to her eating? when i came back from california last month i had a TON of frozen pumped milk. like...over 150 ounces. and guess what...elli refuses to take a bottle now. it's like...after those four days of taking a bottle she decided she was done with it. no more. no thanks. boob only. kaye pulled the same crap back in the day.

loves | elli continues to have all the heart eyes for her farmer. she saves her very biggest smiles for him. she enjoys taking showers. she likes being packed around the house so she can watch me wash dishes or make dinner or run on the treadmill. she tolerates her sisters but soon will love them and all their toys. payback. elli also excels / loves to drool and chew on her hands incessantly. teeth soon? maybe.

dislikes | my gal doesn't like to be sleepy and doesn't like to be hungry. that's about it. she's such a good girl.

tomorrow we're back to reality. back to school. back to swimming lessons. my farmer is probably going to try and pretend he has all the farming things he needs to do. vacation has been nice, but routine can be nice as well.
elli girl - how did we get so lucky to have you? you're our very best gal and absolutely adored by everyone who meets you. 

sawyer at one month / kaye at one month