A 1 Month Old Update!

 

My baby turned 1 month old! How did that happen?! Where has the time gone?! The weeks have just flown by!

We marked the occasion with a little photoshoot with her and her monkey! 

She wasn't keen on him at first...

 

Infact she wanted to get as far away as possible...

 

but then she started to feel the love...

and by the end they were best buddies, arm in arm and everything!!

Here are some of the things Ella is loving at 1 month old:

Her playmat/jungle gym - she will lie under here for up to a good 20 minutes now looking at all her animal pals, her favourite seems to be the white tiger! She is even managing to hit some of the animals dangling down too, although we think this more by accident at this point. 

She loves listening to the music and she does these really cute cooing sounds when she is happy.  I just had to take a video

She LOVES her Daddy! Everything is more fun when he is around! She especially enjoys when he does the 'this is the way the lady rides' rhyme with her.  

She likes to lay across your lap, while you pat/rub her back.  When Mommy does this, we also play a baby mozart clip from youtube which really calms her down and she will lay there for ages being pampered!

I'm happy to report she's a Kings of Leon fan! I'm pretty sure she couldn't be anything but...since I listened to their new album on continual repeat whilst I was pregnant and so it's what she's used to, but if she's ever crying and won't settle I can whack a KOL tune on my phone and she's happy in no time! Comeback Story and Wait for Me seem to be her faves! Although Daddy will report that she likes drum and bass too...the verdict is still out on that one!

The hairdryer.  She sits in her little forest friends vibrating chair while I get ready in the morning, and it's positioned in front of the mirror which she seems to enjoy.  At the same time I dry my hair and she loves the sound of the hairdryer! In her first few weeks of life it would put her to sleep every time, I even got an app on my phone that played the noise and when she was struggling to nap we would play it.  These days it doesn't put her to sleep, but it does calm her down.

Her animal book.  This was a gift from By's work.  I didn't know babies can only see black and white when they're first born so she loved looking at these black and white pages with animals on.  The dog page is her favourite - which Byron is just thrilled about! 

The bath - she loves floating around in the water, moving her little legs around and looking at her bath book she has (thanks Auntie Nad!).  

Things she doesn't love so much:

Getting out of the bath - mainly because that means she has to be naked which she hates! She really doesn't like to be cold! We warm her towel up in the tumble dryer, so when she first gets out we wrap her up all snug and cosy, but then as soon as you start putting her nappy and clothes on the tears start!

Same goes for getting her nappy changed, the cool air is just too much of a shock for her! 

Being weighed by the health visitor - again she has to get naked for this!

Swaddling - we tried this at the start as we read that babies love to feel cosy and be wrapped up tight like when they were in the womb, and it's supposed to help them sleep through the night better because their involuntary arm movements don't wake them, but she hated it! She loves her arms and hands to be free, so baby sleeping bags are working out much better for her!

When we stop at red traffic lights in the car, she just loves motion so almost instantly falls asleep whenever she is in the car/in her pram...

 but as soon as we stop at a red light she knows the car has stopped and she starts to cry! In Ella's world she would like all traffic lights to be green!

Sleeping in her moses basket in the day - at night time she goes down everytime after a feed perfectly and sleeps away...but in the day, she knows it's not as warm and cosy being in there as it is falling asleep on Mommy so that is her preference! We're trying to break the habit, but sometimes she's just too cute and snuggly to put down!!

As I said at the start I can't believe 4 weeks has flown by so quick! I still remember the day she was born as if it was yesterday! So for now we're just soaking everything in as much as possible and enjoying each moment because we know they will pass all too quickly!