"Solids"

August 15 - Beautiful girl

There have been quite a few "firsts" here in the Fike household. Yesterday, Ellie laughed for the first time. An actual, real laugh. We were swinging on the porch swing and I was being silly with her and she laughed, twice. It was so cute! I can't believe my baby girl is laughing. She has been squealing with delight for a couple of months now but never actually laughed.

Last Monday we started her on solids. The first thing she had was rice cereal. She was not really a fan and kept making a face but I gave it to her once a day for 4 days anyways. After that we moved on to Avocado. She LOVED the avocado. No yuck faces at all. The last thing we have tried is Bananas. Again with the "yuck" face. This morning I mixed it with some rice cereal and she seemed to like it a little better. I think the Avocado is still her favorite though. She actually opens her mouth wide for the Avocado where as the others I kind of have to coax her into eating it. I also have been giving her a couple of sips of water after her solids. She is still confused by this and makes a face whenever she drinks it. I think it is funny because water doesn't have a taste :-)

First bite of food- look at what she is doing to her toes :-)
"hmmm, what is this?"

"o.k, I get it mommy..."

At her last doctor's appointment ( on August 14th) she was 24" long and 12.5 pounds. 50th percentile in height and 25th percentile in weight and head circumference. She's a little girl-just how I like it.

My sweet baby girl still is not sleeping through the night and mommy is tired. She normally wakes up twice to eat and goes right back to sleep. I am thankful that she goes back to sleep and I don't have to stay up for more than 15 minutes most of the time but it sure would be nice to sleep an entire 8 or 9 hours without waking up :-) I guess the time will come; until then I am actually embracing the middle of the night feedings and enjoying the extra time I get to spend with her. I told mom Ellie was mad at me and that's why she wakes me up but mom said, "no, she is mad ABOUT you". LOL, I guess that is true :-) My sweet baby girl.

Taking a Nap on the sofa

Ellie and I went to Haven's 8th birthday party a couple of weekends ago. I cannot believe that my little nephew is already 8 years old. It seems like just yesterday that I was giving him a bottle and tickling him "good morning". He is such a sweet boy.

Right now my little baby is sleeping peacefully in her crib. I just wanted to do a quick update and now I am off to catch some zzzz's before she wakes up again.

I've changed my mind

At Brennan's party with Daddy

Happy baby after Church

Good news, I am still nursing and pumping. Since I last posted everything has gone much smoother. Not one to give up, I just kept pumping and finally, NO MORE ENGORGEMENT!!! YAY!!! Ellie has been successfully nursing a lot more than before and I am not pumping as much.

For a while I was mainly pumping because Ellie would fall asleep every time she started nursing but she is much more alert now and has no problem eating a full meal before nodding off :-) She is playing with toys now and looking at books. I can't believe how much she is changing. The red that was once in her hair is now gone and has been replaced with a light brown color. I guess she won't be a red head after all. She weighs about 12 pounds and is just so beautiful.

My mom and I have finally figured out how to use the web cam so Ellie has been able to see her Grandmomma and Grandaddy :-) I'm trying to make sure she doesn't forget their faces since they are gone for such a long period at a time. Also, I bought Ellie a "look book" so that she can see her family all the time. It is just a baby photo album that holds about 8 pictures. She likes to look at it and chew on it.

Other than that, Stephen and I have been getting things done around the house. We had two ceiling fans put in last week, stained the front porch and side deck, and are having two new doors installed in about a week! Very exciting stuff around here. I laid some little tiles in my bathroom and the next project is hanging our window treatments in the bedroom and in the other living room. We are going to get that done before Saturday night hopefully. As soon as I get off this computer and get showered Ellie and I are going shopping for hardware so we can hang the curtains :-) Oh, and, Ellie has become much more mellow while in the car. Now she plays with her toys instead of screaming bloody murder (most of the time). Good times, Good times.

Leaving Brennan's birthday party