7 weeks and one rough night!

I can hardly believe how quickly Ella is growing. Literally each day I can see a change. I'd venture to say she's completely out of the "newborn" phase and would be considered an infant. She has more periods of alertness throughout the day and has really got a hold if holding her head up. One of the best things she does are her little coos and especially her smiles. You can look her in the eye and then all of a sudden her little face will light up and eventually bring on a smile. She loves to smile at clicking noises. So, yes, I sit with her like an idiot just clicking away. Sometimes her smiles can get so big that one eye closes. This I call, the Popeye grin. Her big cousin Megan used to do the exact same smile when she was a baby. Her coos are adorable as well. The best ones are the ones that come from seemingly no where. Just a soft little noise generally accompanied with a smile.

This little monster can't get enough of her hand!

The other night was a low point in my typical mothering philosophy, especially with the baby. Not proud of it, but let's face it: it is pretty funny looking back. Let me set the scene for you. A long day of grading almost 200 essays, dealing with two fighting toddlers all day, 6 loads of laundry, as well as some other minor chores around the house. Needless to say, I was tired. Ella decided to stay awake. Pretty much all night. Allllllll damn night. We are talking 9pm until after 4am. I put her in the cradle around midnight and for a few hours dealt with her grunts and moans. I'd try to feed her, she didn't want to eat. I'd sssshhh her and rock her. Nothing. Then, she's randomly fall asleep. As soon as I swaddled her up and set her in the cradle, her eyes instantly opened, and it was back to square one. Probably around 2:30 my exhaustion got the better of me. The words flying out of my mouth were not very nice [disclaimer: not to her, just mumbles to myself really]. Not yelling or anyhing, but just imagine a mom who's fried from exhaustion in a very early hours of the new day talking crazy talk to herself. It seemed as if anything I did wasn't what she wanted. I also ended up making a dramatic scene (apparently to myself because the rest of the house was asleep) walking to the kitchen. Slamming the light on in the hallways, going to the fridge to get some gripe water for Ella, and then coming back to the room to give it to her. As I'm stringing her the gripe water I'm praying it does the trick and that maybe it's reflux bothering her. Well, it didn't help. It sure was a long long night for the two of us. Luckily, she wasn't really crying, just up and uncomfortable. Probably the worst night she's ever had. Hopefully the last of those types of nights. How a 7 week old stays up for 7 hours straight in the middle of the night leaves me confused. Anyways, it wasn't until sometime after 4 when she FINALLY settled down and zonked out. Anyways, my night reminded me of the controversial book Go the F*ck to Sleep. Thus, why I consider this a low for me. I know wrong to think that with such a precious innocent little baby, but that dern tiredness took over me lol. And, for anyone who is unfamiliar to the book, take a listen. It's read by Samuel L. Jackson and is very relatable which makes it quite funny. However, if you are at work, have kids around, or are sensitive to bad language, I'd advise against. If you're a parent, you'll most likely die listening to it. Although you may not admit it, you KNOW you've muttered this phrase a few times...or at least thought it ;)

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Saturday Ella fully and completely slept through the night. She fell asleep around 10:30pm. I put her in the cradle around midnight. She didn't wake up until a couple minutes before 8am. Amazing. 9.5 hours. Woah! That was my first full uninterrupted sleep since like a month before she was born. It was needed. Big time. Of course, I'm not getting my hopes up for it to be her new schedule, but I can still rejoice in getting that one night. Ill take those over the up all night business she pulled a few nights before.

Tummy time with Addi