New pictures...

The new Ella

The new Ella came to visit this week, and she's throwing Hal and I for a loop. Starting with nursery time at church on Sunday, the new Ella is a happy, smiling, goofy, beautiful girl with no trace of her nasty friend Mr. Colic. We really don't know what to do with a baby that is just happy to be wherever she is at the moment--in her swing, in her Daddy's arms, in her carseat (well, I can dream). She and I were apart all day yesterday (8-4), and she did beautifully with Daddy and Grandmommy. She drank from her bottle (a fight to the death until the last few weeks), she slept in her swing (multiple times!), and she gave the sweetest giggles and smiles. Then, after a long day away from home, Hal and I knew we were in for a fussy evening. We got home and put her in her swing to tidy the living room and start dinner, and she stayed there sucking on her hands and blanket, perfectly content, for close to an hour. We didn't know what to do with ourselves--we each had two hands free to eat dinner AND we could eat it together.

I can't express how awesome it has been to care for this precious baby girl for the last 10 weeks. She is amazing. No doubt, though, that she and I have been through a war together--The Colic War, if you will. The poor thing went through 6 weeks of bad tummy issues, fits of pain, sleeplessness, and all-around general fussiness and discomfort. Hal and I thought it might never end, but low and behold, we have a happy, healthy baby. Hal says the new Ella "is my favorite". He also claims that God is blessing us for taking her to church on Sunday. I think God was just testing our love, patience, endurance, and a whole lot more, but He knew that we would do whatever we could for our precious Ella. God bless Ella, new and old!

Work and baby

Ok, preface: I'm being ridiculous, and I acknowledge that. I have the perfect setup--a part-time job 4 hours every OTHER day that brings home some extra dinero, allows me to interact with semi-adults aka teenagers and actual adults, and allows Ella some time away from me to work on being a little more independent. The truth is that I'm having a pretty rough time tonight with the idea of leaving her for the day tomorrow. It will be the first time in her 10 weeks of life that I leave her for a full day--until now we've never gone more than 4 hours apart. She could not be in more capable hands, Hal will watch her in the morning and Grandmommy (Hal's mom) will be with her mid-morning into the afternoon. She's going to be just as loved and cared for as if I were with her. Still, this first is one that I didn't expect to fret over. I have been excited about going back to work part-time because I really love my job. Now that it's here though, I realize that I've been kind of pushing the thought of being apart from her at all into the back of my mind.

Well, here's to bringing things to the forefront. I am 100% positive that I will be a better mom for having this break and that Ella will have the amazing opportunity to spend some invaluable time with Daddy and her grandparents. Ok, enough of the silliness, or as they say in Spanish "Ya basta!" (Enough already!). It's time to get back into the foreign language game.

I'm giving in

Well, let's debunk some baby book advice that I've been so hung up on for the last several days.

Advice #1 debunked: Starting at 2 months, you should put your baby down drowsy, but awake so that he or she can learn to fall asleep on their own.

Fact: Ella will only sleep on me (at least she sleeps now though!)

Advice #2 debunked: The earlier you but your baby to bed, the LATER they will wake up.

Fact: Ella goes to bed at 9:00 PM sharp. A moment too soon, and she's up at 9:00 PM sharp.

Advice #3 debunked: Don't let your baby sleep on the Boppy pillow.

Fact: Ella will be sleeping on the Boppy, as that is the only way to get her to sleep in her crib. Now, with that said, let me clearly state that her head and nose are nowhere near the pillow or in the SIDS scary zone. In fact, I check on her several times to make sure. We will discontinue the use of the Boppy the moment she starts to move around at night, but as for now, when she's out, she's out--no movement.

Realization by me: She is a baby, not a robot. She does not like the baby book, and she will fight everything it says. She is her mother's daughter, and she does not appreciate unsolicited advice from a book, even if the authors are world-famous baby whisperers. Therefore, Ella and I will be sleeping (through the night!) together in the rocker in her nursery until she's a little older. This worked very well last night. I put her down in her crib at 9:00 PM, and she slept until 2:15 (Whoop! for all the Aggies out there). Then, I nursed her on the Boppy and let her fall asleep on the Boppy, on my lap, in the rocker. We slept until 5:30 AM, and even drifted in and out of sleep until around 6:00. That works for me!

A few pictures since I have been slacking in that dept

Ella's first smile captured on Camera!!


Doing her best Gene Simmons

Attentively watching her favorite toy


Watching her new mobile

A schedule? Yes, please.

Well, I've been reading in my Baby 411 book that Ella should start to have a schedule in the next few weeks. I don't believe it, but we'll see. More accurately, I think that it's time for me to help Ella form a schedule. I realized today that up until now I've been doing everything on demand--whenever she seems hungry, I feed her; whenever she seems happy, we play; whenever she seems sleepy, I put her down for a nap. The only thing we have so far is a sleep ritual: bathtime, put on jammies, eat, bed. This has been going really well--Ella tends to go almost immediately to sleep. HOWEVER, the issue comes with her first night feeding (that could be 3 hours post-bedtime or 6 hours post-bedtime, but there is always at least 1 night feeding). Now, you may say to yourself, "One night feeding? How wonderful!" Don't be fooled, though...I was in the beginning. Turns out that this night feeding turns into a 2 1/2 hour marathon awake session that is usually from about 3 until somewhere around 5:30 AM. What's to be done?? I'm at a complete loss. I've read from multiple reliable, professional sources that children her age cannot soothe themselves yet. I've experienced this first hand over the last several nights as we've transitioned her to her crib. She tries, but cannot soothe herself yet, although I see progress. Just today she woke up from a nap (I think because her tummy was hurting), cried for a few minutes, then went back to sleep. I heard her sucking on her hands a little while later (soothing technique). However, she does not apply this behavior to her middle-of-the-night wakenings yet. I've started writing down every feeding and nap that she takes from today on so that I can hopefully have a better schedule in mind. At her age, she should be getting 14-16 hours of sleep in 24 hour period. Also, I think this will help me to see how much she is really sleeping during the day. They say that putting babies to bed earlier will actually help them sleep longer at night. Last night I put her to bed at 8:45 instead of 9:30. She woke up 4 times during the night. I'm pondering that today. Wish her (and me) luck as we start this new scheduling thing! Let the games begin!

2 months old and 2 firsts

Ella was 2 months old on Tuesday, and Hal and I can hardly believe it. Some days it feels like she's only been her 2 days, other days 2 years. We decided that in honor of her 2 month birthday, it was time to try two new things: her crib and a pacifier.

I guess that's not exactly an accurate description--we've tried the pacifier. In fact, we've tried 4 different types of pacifier. Until today, Ella was completely uninterested. Then, a magical thing happened. Carrie told me about these MAM pacifiers, so I gave them a try right before her nap today. Now, I haven't mentioned this much, but Ella has really been throwing us for a loop for several weeks now with her fussiness. There are the obvious cries for food, sleep, etc. but she should win a gold medal for the "random, I'm-perfectly-fine-but-totally-miserable" cry. At least, that's what I thought she was trying to tell us. Apparently, she was just looking for something to suck on to soothe herself, because once she took that pacifier, she stayed in her crib for over an hour just looking at her mobile and sucking away! It was a complete breakthrough! She has since taken it twice more today, and we're thrilled to have a happy, content baby.

As for the crib, Tuesday night was her first night sleeping all alone in her room in her crib. She did splendidly; Hal and I were miserable. She slept for 5 hours, then nursed, then went straight back down (which never happens) for another 3 hours. Hal and I slept for 5 hours, and then stayed up talking about how weird it was that she wasn't in the room and were we sure that the alarm was working on her bedroom window in case robbers decided to steal our baby on her first night in the nursery. I even caught Hal red-handed on the computer before bedtime looking at pictures of Ella in the hospital and on her first week at home. His little girl is growing up, and it's hard and wonderful at the same time.

Playdate and bottle controversy

Ella had her first playdate yesterday with her new compadres, Porter and Claire. All three babies really took to the blowup pool Carrie put on her patio. As soon as I figure out how to add the pictures to this blog, I'll put a few up that we stole from Kristen. We have all determined that Ella is the chunker of the group--and I love it! I can't believe how rolly and fabulous she is. Hal says that his side of the family all grew quicker than their age bracket, so we'll see if Ella continues the tradition. I was always the smaller of the girls in my classes at school, and Hal was always bigger than the boys, so maybe she'll even out.

We started Bottle Boot Camp yesterday. Until now, Ella hasn't taken to the bottle at all--in fact, it has been quite the battle to get her to even touch it to her lips. However, today we had a breakthrough! My mom and I went to a nursing boutique called "Special Addition" to buy me a better breast pump. Well, 2 hours, a lot of discussion with the lactation consultant, a new, much more efficient (albeit expensive) pump, and 1 $14 bottle (what?!?! They make bottles that expensive!?) later, Ella's tummy is officially full of pumped and bottled breastmilk after her last feeding. She really took to it! She must get that expensive taste from Daddy. So, how did I celebrate? By downing two margaritas from Chuy's and taking a bubble bath. Is there any other way?

8 weeks old!

Today Ella is 8 weeks old, and I can hardly believe it! Summer has flown by, and I didn't even notice. We've had record-breaking heat in Texas--lucky for me I haven't been outdoors more than a handful of times. I never really considered the fact that having Ella would keep me at home as much as it has for the last two months. The good news is that I'm a homebody to start with, so I've only gotten stir-crazy once or twice.

On another note, let me review the definition of sleeping through the night (at least as the experts see it). By the way, who are these experts? I'm sure they have credentials that would put this post to shame. However, I don't see how "sleeping through the night" can actually be categorized as a 5-6 hour stretch. That is just ludicrous, and I refuse to accept that definition, thus I will henceforth be referring to Ella sleeping through the night with quotation marks. Example: Ella "slept through the night" last night (from 1:00 AM to 6:30 AM). True story. Now, I will say that this is a marked improvement from the past two weeks, and because she fell asleep on her Boppy pillow and I couldn't move her without waking her, I did get up to make sure she was breathing at least twice. However, I still got pretty good sleep. Of course, the last time she did this, she didn't sleep for longer than 2 1/2 hours for the next 3 nights in a row. Still, progress is progress.

Infant Swing and Sleeping Beauty

It is official: Ella loves her infant swing, especially for her morning nap time. She's sleeping peacefully in it as I type and has been for the last 2 1/2 hours! I may be jumping the gun, but I think we have the beginnings of a daily routine (at least until evening comes and all bets are off). We've been waking up around 8:30 or 9:00 AM, we go outside and spend time rocking in the outside rocker, and then it's time to eat and nap-at least for Ella. It's been about two weeks now that she's gone down for an AM nap around 9:45 or 10, and she's stayed asleep for at least 2 hours. I expect another nap around 3 this afternoon, and I will hopefully be able to join her for that one.

Good news on the work front: Round Rock called and offered me 1 class of Spanish 1 every other day from 2:30-4:00. This is an answered prayer in so many ways. First off, it's only a few hours a week, so I won't be away from the baby too long. Secondly, those few hours pay the same as subbing two FULL days a week, which I was going to do just for a little extra cash flow. Thirdly, it's a steady job, unlike subbing which is hit-or-miss. I'm very excited to be going back to see my kids, but equally thankful that I will be at home with Ella so much this year.

Pictures from the weekend

Well, I've decided maybe I will post on this thing. I'll leave the flowery language to Laura though. I will just be providing my favorite pictures out of the thousands I'm taking. Enjoy...