Paparazzi Sunday

Here are some highlights of Ella's big day on Sunday!

Sunday morning, in her PJs






Hanging out in her bassinet



Sunday night - look at those little feet!


Big smile

Date Night!

Now that Steve & I have joined the ranks of PARENTS (yikes!), we obviously can't just go out whenever we want and need to plan the infamous "date night" (hahaha) to have some time alone together. Mom & Glenn volunteered to babysit on Saturday night and we took full advantage of the offer. We went to dinner downtown and got sushi and really enjoyed the night.

Here's a pic of our little family before we went out for the evening

Grammy & Gramps and the li'l one

Some pics of Mom and Glenn with Ella last weekend




And Glenn changed his first diaper ever



Much better



Phew, that was exhausting!

Ella at 7 Weeks - February 23

Ella turned 7 weeks on Saturday, February 23. Her hands are unclenched most of the time and she is using them more each day. Her legs are often straight now, and she is able to keep them straight and bear a little bit of weight on her legs when I hold her on my lap, and can push back with her feet. When we hold her she can hold her head upright, especially when we sit her on our lap or hold her against our shoulder.

She really likes to take a pacifier now and will contentedly suck on it and just look around with her adorable eyes when she's sleepy. She's still sleeping in her swing and this week has slept 8+ hrs/night for 4 nights and at least 6 hours the other nights. We now read a few books to her every day and one of my favorite things to do is to rock her in the glider and sing and talk to her before putting her to bed.

One really neat thing is how much more interactive Ella seems - she will make and hold eye contact for a long period of time, and really seems to engage us with her faces and noises that she makes. She's very alert when she's awake is much less stingy with her smiles - she has several periods a day where she'll smile and grin and is SO CLOSE to cooing. Her smiles are just amazing and especially because she'll do so many in a row and seems so happy.

We got her a bouncy chair and we had her sitting in it on Friday night and she followed Steve across the room with her eyes while he talked to her - it was so cool to see her follow his movements like that.

Here are some pics from Ella's 7th week!

Notice the pants - they are size 0-3 months and fit in the belly but are waa-aay too long :)



Happy girl!!


sleeping angel

Exercising Again

I had my 6 week doctors appointment last Monday and he told me I am fully healed and healthy and can start exercising again, just to start slowly. I've been pretty good about walking in the neighborhood with Ella when it's warm, but I'm definitely ready to start working out again.


I managed to talk myself out of it all week but then finally said no more excuses and went to the gym on Saturday! I did some weights and 35 minutes on the elliptical; then today I did 30 minutes on the elliptical in our house that Dad & Donna gave us.


I am a little sore but so happy that I've started back again! It's definitely hardest right at the beginning so it should get easier now. I really want to go to the gym as much as possible over the next 6 weeks while I'm still working from home. Once I go back it's going to be a lot harder because I am not going to want to spend my few free hours a day at the gym instead of with Ella.

Dad & Donna with Ella

Pics from Dad & Donna's visit this week





Smiling for Grandpa



With Grandma

Back to Work

Monday was my first day of working from home a few hours a day. I am really glad I'm able to start slowly and transition back into working instead of just heading back into the office full-time. Dad and Donna came up for the day to watch Ella so that I was able to get work done but I was sooo unmotivated to really get any work done, mainly I just starting going through the 250 emails in my box that I had not yet replied to.

I felt much more motivated as the week progressed, managed to successfully be on a conference call on Wednesday morning, and went into the office on Thursday for several hours to meet with my team and start to really get up to speed with everything. It's going to be so hard to leave Ella when I finally am back in the office for good. It's so nice to be able to be with her all day and still be working.

Mom came on Wednesday afternoon and is coming over during the day so that I can get work done and she watches Ella, so that's been really nice. On Thursday night she fed her a bottle at 3am so that I was able to sleep through the night - Mom put her back down around 5am and she slept until after 10am, definitely her new record for sleeping in. It was great because I was able to get 2 hours of work in before she even woke up, and then was able to go grocery shopping in the afternoon.

So, since I've had a lot of support this week the first week back went really well. Mom will be here all week so I should be able to get a lot done this coming week and really feel like I'm back in the swing of things. But it is not easy when all I want to do is play with Ella all day!!

Evicted!

We decided to move Ella out of our bedroom and into the nursery on Sunday. She took a nap on Sunday in there (in her swing) and then slept in there Sunday night. I had the video monitor on my nightstand so that I'd hear her when she woke up to eat. I put her to bed at 10:00 pm; we went to bed around 11:00 pm and then did not wake up again until 6:00 am when Steve's alarm went off - and she was still sleeping!! We could not believe it.

I couldn't help myself, I went into her room and gave her a little poke just to make sure everything was okay (she gave out some little grunts so I know she was fine), then I took a shower. She ended up waking up at 6:30 - so that is 8 1/2 straight hours of sleep for her! She woke up cheerful (not starving) and we played with her for about 10 minutes before I fed her. It was amazing.

It's kind of funny because I thought she was the noisy one in our room but maybe we were disturbing her at night too! Last night she slept from 9pm to 3am - still a good 6 hours. We're not there yet but definitely on the road to sleeping through the night. So far the eviction plan is working well!

First trip to church

On Sunday we took Ella to church for the first time. We were kind of nervous about it and started to have second thoughts on Sunday morning and almost talked ourselves out if it, but we decided to give it a try and it worked out great! She was an absolute angel. We sat in the back and kept her in the carrier. She was awake most of the time but dozed in and out - Steve rocked her and she took a pacifier (yay!) and just quietly looked around. I think she liked the music too. She was such a little trooper and I'm so glad we went, it's nice to see how 'portable' she is :).

Here she is on the way there (in her first 0-3 months outfit!) - she definitely looks less than thrilled at the upcoming trip


With Daddy once we got home - much smile-ier now :)


And just look at those lips!!!

Ella is 6 Weeks Old - February 16

Ella turned 6 weeks old yesterday! The most amazing thing this week was that on Friday night, she slept from midnight until 7:00 am...I woke up a few times wondering when she'd wake up, and although she stirred and made some noises, she didn't actually wake up until 7 am. So Steve and I got 7 whole hours of sleep - a major first! She went to bed earlier last night and so she did wake up during the night, but it's really nice to know that she's able to go for a really long stretch.

She smiled a lot this week, and not just in the mornings. On Friday I was holding her and Steve walked into her vision and said hi and smiled at her, and she smiled back at him; it was so sweet. She does still smile the most in the mornings. Now I'm able to sit her up in the boppy on the bed while I get ready in the bathroom and I can see her the whole time and she'll just quietly look around.

Her arm movements are much less jerky and she is somewhat purposefully using her hands. She'll swipe at our faces and can curl her hand around our fingers with intent instead of reflexively.

Valentine's Day was on Thursday and Ella received her first mail! Aunt Erin sent a Valentine's card and an adorable sundress as well as a book that we can put photos in to show her how many people love her. And Steve had a Valentines teddy bear sent to our house for her (and 2 dozen beautiful roses for me!!) - so she had a great 1st Valentine's Day :).

Wednesday the 12th




Check out that hairdo!


Me and my girl

Super Baby

Little superhero, flying through the air...

Nudie Pics!

Usually when I change Ella's diaper I try to do it as quick as possible because 1) she tends to like to go potty again once her diaper is off, and 2) she really doesn't seem to like being naked. Well yesterday when I was changing her she actually seemed to enjoy herself once I took off her diaper and she rolled over and started squirming around pretty happily. I decided to take a risk and go get the camera...YUP, she did indeed go again on the changing pad but it was totally worth it to get these pictures!

Ella at 5 Weeks

Ella turned 5 weeks on Saturday and here's an update on what's new with her.

She seems to have a lot less jerky arm movements now, and moves her arms a lot more calmly. She always tries to suck her hands and put them in her mouth. I feel like it won't be too much longer until she can actually suck on her fingers or thumb. When she's hungry she'll frantically try to stuff her whole hand in her mouth as if that's where the food is from :).

She looks very thoughtful and alert, and will study our faces for several minutes at a time. Light streaming in from windows catches her eye and she'll focus on curtains or blinds where the light is coming in.

She is much more receptive to being swaddled and we're swaddling her almost every time we put her down to sleep. Morning is definitely her favorite time of the day, she starts each day in a really good mood and that's when we get our smiles from her. We put her in bed between us in the morning and enjoy her cheerfulness then when Steve leaves for work, she and I go back to sleep for a few hours in bed together. It is such an awesome feeling having her curled up next to me sleeping and she really looks like a peaceful little angel.



Every day we have play time and tummy time and she can lift her head up on her tummy after a few minutes of concentrating. Here she is during playtime yesterday.




We are somewhat getting into a routine at night now, and last night Ella slept from 11:45pm to 5:20am. She takes a nap while we eat dinner, then when she wakes up I feed her and we give her a bath. Then Steve puts her to sleep and we wake her up around 10 to eat for the last time for the night. We're still working on it but the past few days she has slept for a really good stretch and it feels like we might actually be getting close to consistency - or at least a semblance of it.

For baths, we've moved her into the infant tub up in the bathroom and while I won't go so far as saying that she LIKES bath time, she no longer cries throughout which is definite progress! Some pics of her in the tub - and no, these will not be on my keychain 10 years from now :)...







Glenn came this past weekend and got to spend some quality time with the sweet girl




And John discovered that Ella is a 'hat girl'

First Smiles!!

Ella gave us her first 'true' smiles this morning - 4 big gummy open-mouthed grins - it was adorable!! She's been getting close the past few mornings but this was really it. We had her in between us in bed and Steve was talking to her and moving his hands back and forth and she just broke into a grin. Her eyes crinkled then her mouth opened really wide and curled up at the sides - then she did it 3 more times. It was precious. Then she gave me one more when I was feeding her a little later. I hope she starts smiling everyday now, it's awesome! Now, if only I can catch in on camera...

Pretty in Pink

Friday, February 8 - her outfit is just too cute not to take some more pics!

Glenn 'n Ella

Fast asleep on her Gramps :)

Practice Smiles

I really am so excited for her first real smile. In the meantime, I am enjoying all the little 'practice' smiles.

Look at that face!!

Ella at 1 Month

Ella turned 1 month on Tuesday, February 5. I brought her into work to introduce her to everyone and she was such a little champ! She was awake most of the time and really alert, she let everyone hold her and was really content. Near the end though she got really hungry so I knew I needed to get home to feed her - I put her down in her carseat to get ready and she fell right to sleep while I rocked her seat and I was able to stay and chat a while longer while she slept - I may have to try to the rocking the car seat trick again!

It was very good because it did feel nice to be at work and around everyone, and made me realize that I'll be OK when it's time to go back and although it's going to be so hard to leave her, it'll work out and I will make it work.

Later in the day, playing in her gym


Lifting her head during tummy time


In her glider (on one of the rare occasions she decided to accept a pacifier!!)

Sunday afternoon nap