Heading to Elverson early to deposit Corinne's check and it was raining. Foregoing a wet walk I tried out Dad's elliptical machine. Goodness I am out of shape! After one mile (which took 10 minutes...eek) I had burned less than 100 calories and Ellie was starting to fuss so I gladly stopped and fed her and tried to put her to sleep. She wasn't interested in sleep (she's been sticking with her 30 minute nap schedule) so I packed her up and drove her around a bit stopping at Kelly's house to drop of a pair of shoes for baby girl Fenton.
Ellie had fallen asleep and took a brief nap by the time we arrived at the Mountz home. Grandma seemed pleased by Ellie's presence and Donna showed us pictures of the wedding her and Doug had attended on Monday evening. It was a Costic Christian wedding between an Egyptian groom and Chinese bride. The groom's parents are on the faculty of Eastern with Doug and Donna so that is why they were invited. The weirdest element of the wedding was probably that it was on a Monday. Very budget friendly. Donna asked us to stay for lunch so I tried to put Ellie down for a nap. She has not been sleeping well (still) and I was unsuccessful. Sitting in the bouncer during lunch she kept Grandma entertained with her serious stares and sporadic smiles.
Arriving home around 2:00 I put Ellie down for a nap in her crib. It took me a while but I was successful. During her nap I cleaned up the house and prepared dinner. Grandpa, Grandma, and Mommom were coming so I prepared cranberry beef roast, rice, green beans, salad and rolls. Grandma made apple crisp for dessert and Mommom brought a loaf of fresh bread.
Our company arrived at 5:20 as I was preparing the gravy and heating up the rolls and green beans. Ellie was hanging out in her crib watching her crib toy so Mommom and Grandma went and grabbed her. Jon had a meeting that began at 4:00 and went later than planned so he was late. Our guests were very flexible and gracious and we sat down for dinner when Jon arrived.
Ellie was definitely overtired from her inconsistent napping schedule so I spent more time than I desired in her room trying to put her to sleep. Finally I just decided it was better to spend time with our guests and then after they leave spend the extra time putting an overtired baby to sleep.
After our company departed I spent some time feeding and trying to put Ellie down to sleep. My difficulty is that Ellie has decided she doesn't want to sleep. When I would lay her down she raises her head in the air, arches her back, and wails. At nighttime she is too tired to protest, fortunately. I did make the mistake of changing her diaper halfway through the night. When I laid her back down she woke up to fight the sleep. 45 minutes later she finally was back to sleep.
Saturday morning Jon brought Ellie into bed with us when she woke up at 7:30. Although it's not a terribly early time, it was nice to lay around and enjoy the slow speed of life. About an hour later we woke up and had our usual eggs and toast for breakfast. Jon needed to go to the DMV to renew his license so he left around 9:30.
Ellie and I went to Mom and Dad's house to practice for worship. Ellie was tired and a few songs into it was crying whenever we played - it was just too loud. She was particularly opposed to the flute, which I completely understand.
All three of us arrived home at the same time. Jon said the line for the DMV was out the door and into the parking lot. I was actually surprised he arrived home so quickly. Fortunately he had all of his paperwork correct so he avoided any unnecessary delays.
We discussed our plans for the day and we decided to go into King of Prussia since I needed to return some articles to Ann Taylor and Jon wanted me to pick out a birthday present or two. We thought if we left at 4:00 we could pick up dinner. Since it was only noon we had some time to relax so we watched the first episode of season three of Downton Abbey. I put Ellie down for a nap on her side. I realized that she was struggling sleep possibly due to not wanting to be on her belly anymore. She fell asleep after a bit which surprised me. So we watched our show while baby slept. Afterwards we decided to just head to King of Prussia right away since we could possibly miss Saturday night traffic and come home for dinner. Omar had been away for over two weeks in NYC visiting his Dad so we had not seen him for a while.
We made our returns, I picked out a jacket for my birthday, and we popped in a few other stores. Ellie was going on almost 4 hours of awake time (after a 30 minute nap, mind you) so we headed home. She felt asleep in the car for 30 minutes before we arrived home.
Jon washed the cars and I fed and put Ellie down. Ellie did not want to sleep so I decided I may as well do something fun so I mashed a banana and fed her some. She didn't seem to mind too much at first but as we tried more bites she seemed less pleased. Then Omar and Jon went and picked up our pizza.
Ellie went to bed at 7:00 and we all hung out in the basement. Since the next day was church Omar did not stay very late. Jon and I even had enough time to watch an episode of Horatio Hornblower (Fun fact: The sailor "Matthews" plays William's father in Downton Abbey).
Sunday morning came very early. Dad wanted us at the church by 7:45 but we pulled in at 8:08. Sorry, Dad. We led worship first service then I ran home during the sermon since I had forgotten the dessert for the lunch at Mom's house. Mom was hosting the annual Women's Retreat planning committee lunch. After church Jon dropped Ellie and I off at the meeting while he went to his parent's house for lunch. Ellie didn't want to sleep in Mom's crib and I didn't want to miss the meeting so I held her. I hope she wasn't too distracting! Towards the end she fell asleep out of complete exhaustion. Meetings are tiring!
Jon had gone up to the Middle School to play soccer with some people from church so he picked us up after they were finished. We went home and I put Ellie down to sleep in her crib on her back. I really can't believe she doesn't want her stomach anymore! She only sleeps on it when she's really tired or already half asleep - like after I nurse her in the middle of the night. It will be interesting to see if it continues.
Ellie only slept about 30 minutes and woke up right as we were getting ready to head to evening prayer. She was very tired and out of sorts but we wanted to make an effort to go to church. We decided that I would nurse her and try to put her to sleep while holding her in the back and text if I was exhausted. We didn't want to put her in nursery since she was just overtired and I thought it wouldn't be fair to the nursery workers. After trying for 25 minutes I texted Jon and he came out of the service. There happened to be a soccer game replaying at Doug and Donna's (convenient, huh?) so we went over there. I put Ellie down up in Donna's crib and after 35 minutes she finally settled down and slept. I tried so many positions - her stomach, her side, her back, swaddled - she just didn't want anything but sleep. I fortunately had just read the Baby Whispers advice on putting an overtired baby to sleep and I persevered and it worked. She slept for 45 minutes.
Doug and Donna came back from church and invited us to stay for dinner. Doug cooked up some omelets and Donna toasted bread. Ellie woke up prior to dinner and kept us all entertained. Jon held her for the first half then I took over when I was finished eating. We headed home when she started getting tired at 9:00 (and in time for Doug and Donna to watch Downton).
Ellie went right now after just a few paci-poppings laying on her back in her crib. I didn't even need to swaddle her. Little baby is growing up!
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| First bites of banana |
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