Feeding Update

Since Kermie and I have both been off with Ella, we decided to try a new formula. Due to our last experiences, we were both a little timid trying something new (given that the past two experiences she has thrown up for hours after eating). Dr. Q recommended trying Soy formula to see if Ella had any reaction like she did with the regular formula. As of today, three days into our experiment, Ella has had no reaction at all! She did not like the taste at first, but I have been very slowly adding half an ounce to each bottle of breast milk. She is now up to 3 ounces of formula and the rest is still breast milk. She is loving it so far and seems to be much more satisfied after each bottle. She is even going 4 hours between feedings and slept until 8:00 this morning! I still plan to mix formula and breast milk for a while (possibly the winter months), but plan to talk with Dr. Q in more detail at Ella's four month check up on January 14th. This is such exciting news for all of us here at the Donovan house!!

A Look at Ella's Life at 3 1/2 Months

Here is a look at Ella's life :)


Age: 3 and 1/2 months

Nickname: Princess (Mommy), Beautiful/Pretty (Nana), Ella Bee (Kim)

Favorite TV shows/videos: Anything on TV! Ella somehow always finds the TV in a room. Lately, however, she has been watching her Baby Signing Time videos, Max and Ruby, and The Backyardigans. These shows are more educational than what mommy and daddy like to watch.

Favorite Foods: Her bottle. Mommy is trying to get her to drink her Soy Formula, but she hates the taste of it.

Favorite things to do: play with her links, keys, bead ring, sit in her bouncer and flip Toucan, put her hands in her mouth, read books (or chew on them), snuggle with mommy at nap time, take baths and float, spit bubbles, lift her head, listen to herself make noises


Favorite Books: Baby Einstein Farm, all of her mirror books, Rainbow Fish


Favorite toys: any toy she can suck on, her bouncer

Favorite animal: ChaCha, Roxanne, Jake, and Garth

Favorite song: any and all of the ones mommy and daddy sing

Favorite cousin: Ava:)

A Very Merry First Christmas

Ella had a very Merry First Christmas! She was able to spend Christmas Eve at her Grandpa Rob and Nana's house and then visited Nana's family at Nanny and Grandbubby's house. On Christmas day, she spent the morning with mommy and daddy and opened presents from Santa. She also spent Christmas Day at Aunt Jackie and Uncle Geoff's house and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Cain's house. Of course she had no idea what was going on, but I think mommy and daddy enjoyed spending this special time with her. She opened all sorts of toys, books, clothes, and even some money. She will be able to play with it all very soon! One of mommy's favorite toys as a child was her trampoline and this year Aunt Bekah got a new one, so Ella sat on the trampoline too. Ella laughed, talked and giggled both days. She was too preoccupied with everything around her to nap very much at all. Here are a few pictures from Ella's First Christmas.

Happy Birthday to you and you and you!

This past weekend, Ella was able to celebrate at three birthday parties! Her Grandpa Jack's birthday was on Saturday. Happy Birthday Grandpa Jack! And, since daddy will be gone to Colorado on Nana and mommy's birthday, we celebrated them on Sunday. Happy Birthday Nana! I'm sure we can all agree Ella was our most favorite gift this year!

growing...growing...Ella's 3 Months Old!

Today, Ella turned 3 months old! It seems just like yesterday her daddy and I drove to the hospital not sure of whether or not the time had come. And, now we have a beautiful, three month old Ella Chase. She has grown into such a gentle and sweet little baby girl. She is full of laughter and is beginning to show her own personality. Here are a few updates on Ella at 3 months old.

• Ella had her first cold this past week, but has gotten through the worst of it. She loves to cuddle and sleep when she is sick. I found myself snuggling up to her every night in bed with our faces against each other. Cuddling every night in bed has become something I crave everyday when I get home. Before long, she'll be able to hug me back :)


• Ella LOVES bath time. Each night when we get home, we take a bath. She sometimes holds Mr. Turtle or Mr. Crab and we always read our Rainbow Fish bath time book. Her new favorite thing is floating in the water and kicking her legs. She gets so excited!


• Ella is still fascinated with her bouncer. She likes to hold the monkey and she spins the toucan.


• Ella is still sleeping in her bassinet because her room is too cold this time of year. However, she's getting to be a little long :) Soon enough we may be moving the crib into mommy and daddy's bedroom. She sometimes takes her naps in her room though and loves watching her mobile.


• Ella is becoming very strong. She likes to feel her feet hit the ground. She raises her head very well from her tummy position and will hopefully be rolling over soon. We have been practicing rolling off of mommy's belly to the bed. She giggles.


• Mommy is wanting to pump less and supplement formula at least once a day, but Ella has decided she likes mommy's milk best. She refuses to eat the formula. The doctor said we can mix the breast milk with formula to see if this helps. I tried mixing it and she drank it, but she threw up again all night. I am thinking she might be allergic to the proteins in the formula. So, as for now we will keep pumping until the doctor gives us some suggestions.
  


• Ella loves the Christmas tree. Whenever she decides to fuss, we take a trip to the tree and she just stares!


• Ella also is becoming more of an avid t.v. watcher! I think she enjoys the t.v. more and more each day!

• Ella enjoys doing cheers. We spell her name and move her arms. She has such fun doing this!

• Ella's naps are becoming a little longer. Her morning nap is consistently 2 to 3 hours, her afternoon nap is anywhere from 30 min. to an hour and her evening nap is usually about an hour.
  

• Ella is grabbing objects more often and now brings them to her mouth.
  

Mommy and daddy love Ella so much! We are very excited to see how she changes over the next three months.

aacchhoo!

For the past two days, Ella has not felt like herself. She has had a runny, sniffly, sneezy nose. Her eyes have been watery and she has been wanting to sleep a lot. I had caught a cold last week (more than likely from one of my 10 students with colds) that lasted several days and so did her daddy. I think she has now caught the cold. Last night she did not even wake up from her evening nap to eat :( She was so tired that she slept for almost 10 hours. I am hoping she bounces back quickly!



We attempted to take a few Christmas pictures of Ella this past weekend with her being tired and cranky and a few of them came out cute. Thank you Kim!

Happy 11 Weeks Ella

On Friday, Ella was 11 weeks old! It is crazy how time flies by and how big she is getting. Here are a few updates on Ella and a few pictures of her past week.

• Ella has started a funny thing with her head: She turns her head from side to side over and over again. It is very funny! We caught it on video.
• Ella has a fascination for the television. The other night Kermie sat her in her Bumbo in front of the t.v. in the living room and she watched it for about 10 straight minutes. She will be getting Baby Signing Time for Christmas, so soon she will be watching educational t.v. :)
• Ella loves her bouncer! She is beginning to get bored with her swing and gravitate to things that move, have lights, or make sound. She still enjoys swinging in the morning after her first feeding and in the afternoon after eating. Yesterday, she reached for one of the toys hanging on her bouncer. She grabbed it and moved it!
  
• Ella loves Lamar the Star! Her daddy named him and she loves the sounds Lamar makes.
• Ella smiles constantly and laughs out loud when she gets really excited. It is fun to watch her move her arms and legs as she gets excited.
• Ella sometimes likes to play instead of eat. When she is eating in her Boppy she likes to kick off Mommy and do a "back bend" as I like to call it! She is so squirmy :)
• Ella is still sleeping through the night (9:30-4:30ish). However, a few nights this past week she woke to eat. I think she may be going through a growth spurt.
  
• Ella likes to suck on her hands more than her "Patsy" (Kermie named it as well). I think she is beginning to find her thumb! I am hoping this wont be a habit that is hard to break!
  
• Ella is still not a big napper, but is becoming more consistent. She always naps in the morning after eating, around lunch time (only for about 20 minutes), and in the afternoon. Her first and last nap are always the longest. She sometimes "cat naps" at other times too. I am really wanting her to sleep because it is very important for brain development at this age.
  
• Ella is eating more and more these days, but is still not consistently eating the same amount. She eats 4 to 6 ounces every 3 to 4 hours. She is getting "chunkier" everyday :)
  
• Ella is a wonderful baby girl who makes her mommy and daddy very happy!

A Trip To Richmond

On Saturday, Ella took a trip to Richmond to visit my aunt Jill and uncle Bobby. Jill and Bobby have lots of animals! They board and breed puppies, have a monkey, turtles, cats and probably a few things that I am forgetting. Ella was able to pet some of the Yorkies and even got a kiss from one of them. Here are a few pictures from the trip!

Ella's First Thanksgiving!

This past week was a very big week for Ella: it was her very first Thanksgiving! Although she was not old enough to enjoy all the yummy food, she did get to enjoy all her wonderful family! Being that my family is so LARGE, we have three places that we visit on Thanksgiving. Ella's first trip was to her Nanny's house where she visited with family members on her Nana's side of the family (the Bramel's). Everyone enjoyed getting to see Ella and how much she had changed. I enjoyed getting to draw a child's name for Ella to buy a Christmas gift for this year! Just one of the perks of being a mommy :) Here are a few pictures of Thanksgiving at Nanny's house.





Ella also got to venture out to her Granny's house where we ate Thanksgiving dinner with Kermie's family. It was Ava's first Thanksgiving too, but she actually got to enjoy the food! She definitely did :) We were able to take lots of funny pictures of the two of them! I'm sure Christmas will be just as much fun!!





Lastly, Ella was also able to attend Thanksgiving at her Great Grandma Cain's house on Sunday. We just missed some of my family from Ohio, so I was not able to catch them in a picture with Ella, but we will get one at Christmas! Enjoy!






Sunday was Jackie's birthday too! I have posted some pictures from the birthday party :) Happy Birthday Aunt Jackie!