More pictures anyone??

Ella's turtle move.

Feet - a genetic gift from Daddy.

A few self portraits of Mommy and Ella.

We spent Sunday afternoon celebrating a belated Mother's Day with Eric's mom. The rest of the family couldn't resist stopping by for another visit with Ella.

Cousins-Aunts-Grandma

Mia - otherwise known as "the Baby Hog". Good luck getting her to share Ella!

Story time with Grandma Cook.
About a week after Ella was born, little Miss Maria FINALLY arrived home to her Mommy and Daddy all the way from Guatemala. They have been waiting forever to bring her back to the U.S. to stay, and we were so excited to introduce Ella to her. SO exciting to welcome both new additions to the family!

Fingers Just Don't Satisfy

Ella helped buy me a little sympathy when she unleashed her sucking power onto Daddy's finger. She's no fool however... fingers just don't satisfy.

"Night, Night Grandma Brunsting"

Grandma left today after pampering and caring for us non-stop. We're definitely going to miss the clean clothes, ironed shirts, food, and snuggling... Thanks for taking such good care of us! Who knows what we would have done without you! Ella promises not to grow too much while you're gone! We love you and can't thank you enough!!

(P.S... we loved having Grandpa here as well... he's not as talented with the crock pot but he sure does have the snuggling thing down!!)

(Another new post below...)

Ella's 1st Bottle

Since I'll be returning to work in about 6 weeks, we're going to have to introduce Ella to bottles every once in awhile. At the recommendation of our Pediatrician, we opted to try one tonight... since she'll be 2 weeks old tomorrow. (Hard to believe!!) They recommend waiting long enough to really establish her breastfeeding, but not too long that you can't get her to try anything else. I've been pumping on occasion, so at least we can still give her breast milk. So while I prayed that she would not totally refuse the bottle, but also would not like it TOO much, Eric fed her. She seemed a little confused at first... but then took off with that talented suck reflex of hers, polishing off 3 ounces in no time. Thankfully she quickly reassured me that I'm still her favorite... and went on to breastfeed for another 10 minutes. Apparently no damage done so far! But just to be safe... I think I'll limit these two to "bottle bonding" once every other day or so...

I think Daddy prefers this over diaper changing... (although he's made me pretty proud even in that area so far)!

"Wow... that bottle thing sure fills my tummy up a whole lot faster!"

I think he finally won her over!

What's wrong with this picture??

Ironic isn't it? The two people getting the most sleep around here... caught napping!

100% Daddy

Daddy

Ella

Mommy

Life with Ella

Wow... I guess it's about time to update! I hesitated in the first few days... just because I was afraid of making any more enemies than I had previously with my labor and delivery story! See... the first night went to bed about 11pm... I finally woke Ella up around 3:30am (after checking her a few times throughout the night to make sure she was breathing)... she nursed well for about 40 minutes... and then went back to sleep. I woke her back up around 7:15am that morning. The several nights that followed were very similar... and so here we are. She was evidently born to breastfeed so really no issues there. My only complaint is that a very powerful jaw and sucking reflex accompany her talent! She had a weight check at 4 days of age and she had gained 2 1/2 ounces in 2 days... which is pretty impressive for a breast fed newborn who typically would still be losing a little bit. My petite little baby will be 20 pounds in 4 months probably, so I'm trying to enjoy her tininess while I can!

To make some of you feel a little less resentful, my boobs were really sore for a couple days, I'm still waddling around with some episiotomy discomfort, and last night was a little tougher... She was a little gassy and didn't fall asleep until about 1am. :)

Other than that... I'm totally in love and I'm having a blast. Eric started his clerkship experiences for Pharmacy this past Monday, so mom and I have been introducing Ella to the art of shopping and dining. We've also enjoyed introducing her to friends and family. I get tired around 4pm or so... but other than that I've really been feeling great thanks to Ella's great sleeping habits. We're waiting for the bubble to burst any day now... but for now, I'll enjoy it day by day.

Here's a few more pictures for your viewing enjoyment!

Cousins Alyssa and Mia

Grandma Cook, Aunt Julie, and Cousin Emma

Kickin' back trying out my new bouncy seat...

Ella's favorite pastime... napping. (Just like Daddy)

Thank goodness for Grandma! Without her... we wouldn't have any food or clean clothes!

Greetings from PostPartum!

(I wrote most of this yesterday morning but computer problems in the room kept me from getting it posted!)

Well Good Morning Friends!

How fun it was to hear from so many of you "stalkers" yesterday. Don't think I didn't know you were out there... I just didn't know who you were! 60 some votes on that whole weight guessing game. Hmmm... I can't seem to muster up 5 comments on a good post but somehow 60 people can place a vote on the weight of my kid! :) Anyway... we loved hearing from you. Eric was refreshing the website regularly and reading me your messages. I'll admit, I enjoyed them a bit more after the epidural was in!

Overall however... while some of you will disagree big time, some of you will hate me, and others will flat out not believe me... I can honestly say that labor and delivery was truly a piece of cake!!! No kidding! I feel a little guilty in admitting that I had what you would probably call the best case of birthing scenarios occur that one could ask for. You know it's good when the absolute worst part of it all were the penicillin infusions through my IV and the stupid blood pressure cuff squeezing my arm so hard I was sure it would fall off. The first 5 hours of the induction I felt hardly anything at all... much to my families dismay. Everyone got so bored they started willing the suffering to begin so they could have some action. Nice, huh? I really didn't dialate much beyond the 4cm that I was at when I arrived. We were so disappointed that my wonderful doctor was not able to be there... but she of course couldn't help getting sick, and the doctor on call was great. He finally did decide to break my water around 2pm since I hadn't progressed very much... and that was about all it took. Less than a minute later contractions started... and I think I was dilated to 7cm in less than 2 hours! I put off the epidural as long as possible but things got pretty painful really fast. My contractions were less than a minute apart so sitting still for the epidural alone about sent me over the edge. Once it was in though... life was good again... for about 15 minutes until my blood pressure started dropping lower and lower. I went from feeling wonderful to feeling nauseous, lightheaded, and very drugged out. Ella had a few dips in heart rate so on went the oxygen mask and I received a shot of Ephedrine to raise my pressures. It was pretty intense... and just so I can make the labor story a little more dramatic... I plan to always tell Ella about the moments when we all thought I might die in childbirth. :) ;) Hey! It could have happened!!!

Within moments of my resurrection... I was fully dilated and the nurse had me try pushing. I could feel contractions but no pain... so was able to push pretty effectively. A few practice runs and she immediately called the doctor to hurry up so we could have a baby. He took his sweet time... wrapping up a conversation on his cell in the hall... while we all waited patiently with Ella's head protruding. He walked in and gowned up... I asked if I should push... he said "sure!"... the nurse said, "no"! I went with the nurses recommendation since I could see Ella in the mirror pretty clearly. Finally the doc was ready and probably about 4 pushes later she was here. I actually thought the whole pushing thing was fun. It didn't seem hard and I could feel the contractions - but no pain at all.

It was all pretty cool... (except the near death experience of course)... she latched on and took to breast feeding right away like a champ. I don't know what I expected her to look like, but she doesn't look a thing like whatever it was... her eyes, nose, dimpled chin, and 6 inch long feet are all Eric... I think she maybe got my lips. Seems unfair that I have to carry and birth her... and all I get are some matching lips! Oh well... he does have way better legs than I do so I guess I'll pray she gets those too...

We got home this afternoon and I was more than ready. Ella has decided she would prefer to eat or snuggle rather than lay in her bed and sleep (big surprise)... so some babysitting by Grandpa and Grandma while I napped was in order. Max surprisingly enough seems to kind of like her. He snuggled up right next to her on the couch and is hanging out close to anyone who holds her.

Here's a few more pics to tide you all over... I'm sure there will be more to come. And I'm sure there are more fun things to share about the last few days that my tired brain can't recall at the moment... so stay tuned!

How about some PICTURES!!!!!

Meg will update the blog in a day or two describing the delivery and such, but here are a few of the hundreds of pictures that were taken

Meg, Eric, and Ella

Ella sucking her thumb

Ella and Grandma Cook


Ella and Grandpa Brunsting