1 Month and some ;)

It has been so fun having Briella Rain in our family! She has "showered" us with so much joy! She continues to grow.. weighing in at 9lbs and 10 oz she has come pretty far from her birth weight of 6lbs and 6oz. She has grown out of her newborn footies but only because she has long feet :) She doesn't fit into a lot of newborn clothes anymore but 3 months is still too big for her tiny body! She sleeps pretty well for the most part at night but still hasn't given up her two feedings. Until she does I am loving my time with her rocking her and feeding her.

As you can see she loves her binky... she still prefers the soothie to other pacifiers for now. She was using an Avent bottle and we tried the Dr. Browns but have decided that the Born Free Air Vent is the best for this gassy girl! She is taking about 5 oz. at feedings... for now... she loves to eat ;)

Gracelyn continues to love her baby sister so much and loves being able to help out! We have started bathing them together and not only is it nice to get them both done at the same time, but Gigi loves to help by pouring warm water on Ella's belly to keep her warm!

We have been really trying everything we can to get this little girl happy. She is one clingy fussy baby and always has so many bubbles in her tummy making it so so painful for her to be on her back. A few new things we have been happening to our sweet girl...
-We began exclusively pumping and bottle feeding her... she was taking in too much air when gulping as she nursed.
- We are giving her "Little Tummy's" gas relief drops.. these are amazing!
- We took her to the pediatrician for her jaundiced skin and eczema... she is on a hydrocortizone cream twice a day for her skin and has her blood tested to make sure the jaundice wasn't wasn't connected to a livier disorder. Praise God it is just the proteins in my milk making her yellow and should fade in 2 -4 months.
- She was spitting up A TON! Projectile! so the Doctor gave me a few options; we could thicken her breastmilk with rice cereal... of course this means I would have to continue bottle feeding and give up nursing. Or we could put her on Zantac twice a day to help with the reflux. I was also encouraged to start a CRAZY STRICT diet if she doesn't get any better... no dairy, soy, nuts, wheat, eggs or corn in hopes of finding an alergy and therefor helping her tummy... obviously this will be our last resort! Right now we are supplementing with Nestles Good start formula since it breaks the proteins down better than other formulas... so far she is still spitting up but her tummy seems to be doing better. If this continues to help I will try introducing her back to nursing in a month or so when her tummy matures a little more... I am not going to give up my nursing time... I only got to nurse Gigi for three months because of an ilness and I am determined to nurse Ella until she is at least 9 months! So until then I will continue to pump and  freeze the milk in hopes of using it one day when her tummy can handle it a little better :)

So anyway that is our struggle right now and praying to the Lord for guidance and direction since this is all new to us! David returns to work from his amazing paternity leave and I will have the girls all to myself. I am excited to start a routine and get back into a good schedule. I can't wait to take my girls out with me :) I am not naive I know it will be harder without him but I am looking forward to the challenge after all a stay at home Mom is what I have ALWAYS wanted to be and now I am so blessed to be able to stay at home with my sweet girls!

This is a small glimpse of what it will be like i'm sure ;)