11 weeks

Here is what is going on with Elisha this week according to babycenter.com;

Your little one first discovered her hands a couple of weeks back, and now she's downright fascinated with them. Watch as she examines them, puts them in her mouth, and tries to suck on them.

Don't worry if your baby becomes a bit obsessed with her newly discovered digits: This form of self-comfort can be very soothing for your baby — and can possibly give you a little break, too.

This week, when you go to pick up your baby, she may be able to lift her head and hold it up for several moments, or even longer, while lying on her back. When sitting with support, she should be able to hold her head steady and erect.

When she's on her stomach, you might see her lifting her head and chest to about 45 degrees as if she were doing mini-pushups. You can offer encouragement by sitting in front of her and dangling a toy.

For a fun game that also develops her neck muscles, place your baby on her back and slowly pull her up by her hands to a sitting position. Slowly ease her back down, and repeat. She should be able to hold her head in line with the rest of her body as it's pulled up.

Your baby may be ready for a jogging stroller at 4 months, but stick to smooth pavement for now. Running trails will be too bouncy for her at this point, unless she can hold her head up well and is able to sit up. When her head is steady, she may be ready for a backpack with good support and a headrest.

Reading to your baby, even at this young age, will pay off. Hearing you read helps your baby develop an ear for the cadence of language. Varying the pitch of your voice, using accents, and singing will make the connection between you and your baby that much more interesting.

If she looks the other way or loses interest while you're reading, just try something else or give her time to rest. Take your cue from her responses.

You'll find plenty of good books to read to your baby — such as Goodnight Moon, Good Night Gorilla, and The Big Red Barn. Choose board books that have large, bright pictures and simple text — or even wordless books that have pictures for you to narrate. At this point you needn't be slavish to age guidelines. Books designed for older children can captivate a baby if they have clear, crisp images and bright colors.

You can even read out loud to your child from something written for adult ears — try reading from the newspaper, your favorite novel, or a magazine. Whether it's Shakespeare or the latest bestseller, if you enjoy reading it, your baby will like hearing the rhythms of your voice.

Elisha is doing great.

He's getting bigger, and more alert and interactive all of the time.

He is such a good baby.

Right now he sleeps from 8 pm until around 4 or 5 ish in the morning.  He also takes a bit of a morning cat nap at some point, a 3-4 hour nap in the middle of the day, and maybe another cat nap sometime in the afternoon or evening.  We usually spend our mornings on the go, running errands, or having playdates for Noah, so Ellisha is very flexible and catches little bits of sleep along the way... usually in the stroller, or car.

With Noah I worked around his schedule, and catered to his needs, but with Elisha, we're mostly just pulling him into what we already have going on.  At first I felt a little guilty for this, like this is a problem.  But the more I think about it, the world does not revolve around any one person, or baby, and him learning that a little sooner than my first born doesn't seem like such a bad thing to me.

With Noah, I adhered fairly strictly to sleep scheduling and parent directed feeding models.  With Elisha, I am still trending towards those models, but with a lot more flexibility than I had with Noah.  He pretty much naturally settled into a schedule on his own, so I didn't have to force that issue.  The main difference with Elisha is that I rarely give him the opportunity to "cry it out", as I did the majority of the time with Noah.  This isn't really due to a change in my parenting philosophy, but is more a reflection of me not wanting Elisha to wake up Noah, or our neighbors (whose bedroom wall is against the wall that Elisha sleeps in) in the evening or middle of the night with crying.  The good news is that Elisha seems to fuss less, and go to sleep a lot easier than Noah did (and I thought that Noah was a good and easy baby).  He goes to sleep in the evening usually without fussing one bit, and the same with any middle of the night, or early morning feedings.  On multiple occasions, I remember that Noah would lie in his cradle crying endlessly, and the only way that I could get him to stop was to bring him in bed with us.  I have never had to do that with Elisha, he has never been fussy or unable to sleep in the middle of the night.

Elisha enjoys his swing, and way prefers sitting up straight to laying down.  He is very alert and aware, constantly glancing around a room and taking it all in.  He also constantly rubs his hands together like he is doing in these pictures, and frequently sticks them in his mouth.

As of now, he has completely quit taking a pacifier or a bottle altogether.  He doesn't want anything to do with anything plastic in his mouth.  Noah was the same way, and I thought it would be different this time around by never going more than a week in between bottles, but he quit anyway.  One week he took it, and the next he flat our refused, even though I've tried multiple nipples, bottles, and people giving them to him.