An update on Ella's world

All about Ella:

 - She's 5 months and 2 weeks old.  She weighs around 8kgs already and I've had to start packing away the 3-6 months clothes already, she's bursting out of them!

 - She adores watching her big sister, whether she's playing in the garden, or just sitting playing on the tablet, Ella just stares and stares.

 - She's been sleeping in her own room for the last two weeks.

 - She loves our Moms&Babes class every Thursday, she's so good during the whole class, enjoying each activity, from the aeroplane movement song, to bouncing on a big ball, to the massage. Really fun for both her and me!

 - Her face lights up when she sees me and her pappa.  Precious.

 - She's enjoying eating! Loves fruit especially, and sucking on ribs and bacon!

 - She's (mostly) very easy to put to sleep.  Her awake time is on average, two hours, then she has a nap.  Usually an hour nap in the morning, then midday is her longest sleep of between 2-3 hours, and then a short late afternoon nap.  I literally just wrap her in her blanky, put her in her cot with her dummy and leave her and she goes to sleep.  Sometimes if she cries I just turn her on her other side and then she goes to sleep.

 - Unfortunately, she doesn't sleep well at night.  She goes to bed around 8pm, then wakes up at 9pm, 11pm, 1am, 3am for a bottle, and then awake for the day between 5am and 6am.  That's on average.  Then we've had a few nights where she's been awake every single hour through out the whole night.  Difficult!  Most of the wakings I just turn her around and give her dummy back and she sleeps again.  Sometimes however, after her 3am feed, she thinks it's playtime and we've had nights where she's then awake for an hour and a half then... eeeek!!

 - She enjoys sitting in her pram with a few toys, watching the world around her.

 - She's a content baby, mostly.  She happily lets other people hold her, usually.

 - She can sit on her own for a couple of seconds at a time.  Actually holds her balance very well, think she's not far from doing proper upright sitting.

 - She was literally sick with alternately snotty nose and cough for 8 weeks.  Two paed visits, and two gp visits later, it had eventually become a secondary infection and she was diagnosed with bronchiolitis.  At the same time, I was diagnosed with pneumonia and Mia with upper respiratory infection.  Ella and I were on antibiotics and Mia on cortisone syrup. It was a hectic week, but we got through it and luckily all better now!

 - Mia made her laugh so much, when I told Mia we're going to all bath together and we can put a fizz ball in the water, Mia said to Ella, "we're going to be all fizzy!" And Ella laughed and laughed, so for 5 minutes Mia didn't stop entertaining her with "fizzy!" and bursts of laughter followed. My heart!

 - Ella is not such a snugglebug like Mia was.  She often doesn't even want to be held when she has her bottle, I have to put her in her cot and hold her bottle for her.  She also doesn't like it when she wakes up and I want to lie in bed with her - she gets very cross - she wants to be upright.

 - Ella doesn't like the UbbaBubba sling at all.  But she does like being swaddled for sleep time.

 - She's not keen on her dummy during awake time, even if she gets upset.  Only likes her dummy for sleep time.

 - Her hair and eyebrows are darker than Mia's were at this age.

 - She's fascinated by Nala, so cute how she watches her.

 - I love the way she reaches out to touch our faces, and the way her hands gently come together when she's exploring a toy.

 - This precious little person has completed our family.  We're all so in love!