5 months

She was talking to me during pictures and I was able to capture her starting to babble something : )

Size: Still in size 2 diapers. In very little 3 month clothes and then in 3-6 and 6 month. I can tell she is getting bigger, but I don't know what her weight or length is since she doesn't have a 5 month well check.

Eyes: Same; a deep blue, with some very faint brown trying to come through. I have a feeling they are going to stay this way...

Hair: Medium brown for the most part with a lighter brown at the roots. It kind of looks like she has highlights, too. In the past her doctor has said people pay for what Ellie has going on, ha ; ) And it's starting to get a little wavy as well! 

Sleeping: We finally have a schedule, Hallelujah!!!! She gets up between 6:15-6:40am, then goes down for her morning nap between 9/9:30am and an afternoon nap between 2/2:30pm! Her naps are 2/2.5 hours which is really nice. And bedtime is between 7/7:30pm. One day it all kind of clicked and it was wonderful; everyone is sooo much happier! She's thriving off of a schedule, imagine that ; ). This last week we started sleep training her too by following the Ferber method. It's been going amazing!! The first night was a bit rough (no surprise there), but by the second night she was soothing herself to sleep fast and sleeping 10+ hours straight. Wow were we shocked. And she's been doing this ever since, too...did we get lucky or what?! Soothing herself for her morning nap goes great as well, however her afternoon one is a little rocky. I have faith she'll take care of that one soon though. She had been swaddled every night since day one, so we weren't sure how she'd take without that along with getting sleep trained, but as I said, she's doing marvelous with it all! Before we started sleep training her, we were having her fall asleep in our arms, then putting her down and it was getting exhausting for us. We knew we wanted to start creating better sleep habits for her and were doing a lot of reading and asking around for advice on the subject. Praise God for helping us with all of this, as it was getting a tad bit stressful for me to say the least. I'm already missing her falling asleep in my arms...so I may go in and look at her more often to see her sleeping (enter heart eyes like no other on me and Steven's part).

Eating: Still nursing and taking a bottle like a champ! Haven't introduced any solid food yet, but she's showing a lot of signs for wanting our food-staring and grabbing whatever we have. I'll be talking to her doctor soon to see when we should start implementing things into her diet. She loves putting things into her mouth, so I won't be surprised if she's a fan of real food.

Milestones:

• Soothing herself to sleep. She does suck on her middle and ring finger at the same time to help soothe herself and I find it precious
• Grabbing our faces, which we of course love 
• Pulling her toes up to her mouth to suck on...oh her flexibility and inclination to put anything and everything in her mouth
• Kisses! She leans in sometimes with her mouth all wide. Slobber and sucking is what you get...a bit much, but oh so sweet 
• Holding on your hands to pull herself to sitting from laying down
• Pushing herself more to standing from a sitting position (all while we are holding her for support)

Likes:

• Being in water! We went swimming the other day and she enjoyed it. Plus it's been super hot, so I'm sure it feels refreshing
• Our phones...I'm trying to not be on it much in front of her anyways, but when we are, boy her eyes get locked in on it and she leans in to grab it
• Playing with her hair sometimes while she nurses and sometimes while she's in her car seat. It's so cute
• Being on her tummy. She rolls to it fast whenever we put her down and she sleeps on her tummy as well (now I have hope for her bald spot to fill in!!)
• Swinging her arms up and down
• Her new stuffed zebra, named Stacy by Steven. It...she...has several different sensory items attached to it and it goes on her car seat

Dislikes:

• Holding still for diaper and clothes changes. Thankfully she doesn't fuss for either of those anymore, but she just loves moving so much and it makes doing both of those a little tricky
• The iron/Vitamin D supplement we started giving her (liquid form). I don't blame her, it's funky smelling and tasting. (This is recommended for all exclusive breastfed infants-no special concern for her in particular just an FYI.)

Before Ellie was on a schedule life was a bit hard on me (and her...and Steven sometimes). I really like having plans and knowing how things are going to play out during the day and days to come. With Ellie's naps all over the place and it taking forever to get her down and to stay down it was taking a toll on me. Plus, all this was causing Ellie to be crabby a lot of the time, so no one was truly feeling their best. I was trying to give it all time and figure out her cues; it took a lot of trial and error figuring out what worked best for her and doing things before it was making her overly fussy, tired, clingy, etc. Thankfully God gave me the patience I needed, because it was running thin...very thin. Even though she doesn't know better and it's partially a learning experience for her, too, I was having too high of expectations I think. Parenthood is always teaching me things, and there is still oh so much to come.