Six Weeker Squeaker Squeaker!

My Ellie the Jelly Bean is six weeks old today! Supposedly, this is when things get "easier," as most people's advice is "just survive the first six weeks." Then I hear it never is actually easy and wonder what I've gotten myself into. But yes, everything is easier now that I'm getting more sleep now that Ellie and I are champion nursers, and now that I feel more capable in handling her on my own.

Today we went to the post office to buy stamps for her birth announcements/our holiday cards. She slept the whole time, and since she was so out, I decided to walk through the mall, which is next door. Didn't buy anything (I was hoping to find a good baby's first Christmas ornament and was disappointed with the selection available) but we walked up and down and looked at stuff. Even when she's asleep, I talk to her basically the whole time, just narrating what we're seeing (or what she'd be seeing if she opened up her eyes.) Basically, having a baby gives me someone to chat with other than myself.

We're getting into a good routine. Our evenings are still tough and fussy. She'll spend about an hour eating from maybe 8-9, and then I hand her off to Tim and race to bed as fast as possible. He sits with her during what we call "fuss hour" where she basically cries, sucks on his finger and fusses until she falls asleep. She doesn't want to eat, she doesn't want to be rocked, she just wants to FUSS. Whether or not this is colic I don't know, but it is what it is. She wakes up between 2-3 to eat, and that's when Tim goes into our bed and I take over in the nursery. It's not an ideal system, but it means that one of us gets to go and crash hard and get a 5 hour stretch of solid sleep every night. Whoever is in the master bedroom doesn't have to worry about the baby, or a baby monitor, or being disturbed. Ellie then usually gets up between 6-7 for the day. Tim's up at 7 and will hold her for me or do the first diaper change so that I can use the bathroom without worrying about whether Ellie is upset (the only time I get to do that in a 12 hour stretch!)

She's so much more alert now! She'll sleep for a two to three hour stretch. Wake up, demand to eat for a half hour or so, and then we'll just spend some time talking and singing (my favorite thing is to bounce her in my lap and made up songs to the melody of popular showtunes, such as Bloody Mary from South Pacific, only it goes "Ellie Ellie is the girl I love (boom boom boom boom!)" or Everybody Ought to have a Maid from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, "everybody like to change their diap. Nobody likes to have a poopy diap!") She also really seems to like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. We'll read for a little bit, or just walk around the house and look at things, like ceiling fans and flowers. She also usually gets a case of the hiccups. It is so great when she sits there and smiles at me. She'll be up for maybe two hours total and then I'll feed her again and she's back to snoozing.

The awake times are really fun! When she's not crying, she's delightfully bright eyed and bushy tailed. She's also getting better control of her little body - she has great head control and will stand herself up on your lap if you hold her under her armpits. Still waiting for her to figure out her hands. I love when she sort of wrings them together because she doesn't know that those are her hands yet. When I change her, she has one leg that she sort of kicks back and forth like she's trying to batter down a door. Also, I think it's funny that when she yawns, it makes me yawn, but she doesn't have whatever that instinct is so when I yawn, it has no effect on her. I'll be interested to see when that reaction changes.

Tomorrow she and I both have our six week checkups. I don't know what I was thinking, scheduling my doctor's appointment at 8am. We are NOT ready by that time of the morning, but we'll do our best. I'm excited for her to meet all of the folks in the office who took such good care of me while I was pregnant. I'd planned to bake cookies to bring in, but then I had a newborn. And we know how that goes. They will just have to get my eternal gratitude.

Here's my six week old darling!

FYI, those are my feet. She has not sprouted head appendages.

Monday Movie Monday.

Fusserina and I are having a quite excellent day! A week ago, I would have not thought this was possible. We were able to be dressed and showered by 9ish, which meant that we could go to a theater in San Clemente that does Mommy Movie Mondays - early shows where they encourage you to bring your nugget. Except... when I got there it was just a regular showing of Burlesque, with non-babied patrons also attending, and only three babies in the audience. Thankfully, all of the babies were pretty well behaved. Ellie only cried during the cheesy love scene. Also, one of the other mommies also attends the Mommy Matters group on Friday, so I had a friend there! That was exciting. Afterwards, we all went out for a quick lunch. Ellie cried - her daughter slept. LUCKY. But it's okay, I can eat tacos using only one hand.

It felt so nice to be doing regular grown up stuff. Going to a movie! Having lunch! Having a conversation with a new pal! Ellie fell asleep once we hit the car, so we stopped by Auntie Sara's store to get some more baby beano and say hello. And then Ellie got a nice bath and some lunch before hanging out with Grams.

Oops, now she is awake and ready to eat again, so I must go, but not before presenting you with this picture, inspired by Auntie Sara. I call it "how do you like my new haaaair?"

Visitors.

Ellie had a busy day yesterday, meeting lots of new friends. Bob and Nancy were in town so they dropped by to say hi, and two of my best girlfriends made the trek down from LA to finally meet our little lady. She was on her best behavior all day, other than having a huge poop while being held by Nancy (thankfully, all of her poo blowout got on me instead of Nancy) and some minor fussing. We are finding that she naps better in her swing lately. Of course, this will probably only work for another few days and then she will inform us that she HATES her swing and HOW DARE we put her in it for any reason, even if she is dead asleep when we plunk her down.

Lauren has a lovely, fancy SLR camera and she took a ton of pictures, including some that capture Ellie's amazing new smiling ability. It's so nice that some of her awake hours now involve her looking at us, grinning like a loon and cooing. It absolutely melts my heart.

I mean, seriously:

How can you not adore this little face?

In further excellent examples of parenting, here is Tim doing his baby balancing trick. Check out the head control on that kid!

Lastly, here we are having a family meeting. About how stinking cute Ellie is.

Baby's First Thanksgiving!

We had a good one, though I must admit, the last few days with Ellie have been super rough. She has been very fussy, really bitey while nursing and just all around difficult. It makes me feel all around crazy, but such is having a newborn, I suppose. Thankfully, when she stops fussing, she has the cutest little face and the most kissable cheeks.

Seriously. Who is the cutest when she's bright eyed and bushy tailed and not fussing?

Here she is in her first Thanksgiving outfit. I thought about trying to get one where she's not crying, but let's be true to life. This is what she looks like most of the time when she's awake and not being fed.

And here's what she looks like when she's been napping on my chest for two hours.



Did I mention that we jumped on the trampoline at Cathy and Evan's house? Yeah, Grandma did not think it was as funny as I did. Sorry for Tim's shoddy camera work.

More Babies and Cats.

Surprisingly, of the Thiel cats, Chuckie is the one who is most tolerant of Elizabeth. I think because while mom was holding him, he was more concerned about whether or not I was going to touch him. He knows he loves me, he just likes to pretend he doesn't. BUT HE DOES, DAMMIT, HE DOES! And for those of you keeping score at home, Charles Ruckles will be 17 this spring. Can you believe it? He may outlive Sparky in terms of longevity. And will torture mom every day while doing it, with his stupidity and his stomach issues.

Ellie and I had a super rough day. I am pretty sure that she disagreed with my choice of a burrito for dinner last night. Beans are not the musical fruit when eaten through breastmilk, apparently. At least, I am hoping that Baja Fresh was the culprit and that there's a reason for her crying for about 8 hours straight today (in between farting and pooping. And then farting some more.) Poor little lady is sleeping now, and I have my fingers crossed for an okay night tonight.

I took the opportunity to download some new books onto my Nook. The last time I read a page was sitting in the nonstress test recliner on October 19th. The lending period for all of the books I had stored expired, so now I am attempting some new light fiction, since I can manage my Nook with one hand. I hope the combination of TV and sleep deprivation haven't totally rotted my brain. I foresee myself doing a lot of sounding words out though.

Couple of Pictures

I had really hoped to rely on Lulu as an extra pair of hands, since she raised four kittens on her own, before she was even a year of age. However, she mostly sleeps on the job. She is not getting paid for those hours!

Grams came over yesterday and I got to run to Target without the baby, which was nice. But then later Ellie and I went on a walk to the local park and around our neighborhood, and that was super nice. She is cleverly disguised as a bear, inside her Ergo carrier.

Last night after a feeding I was bouncing her on my legs, singing one of my ridiculous made up songs, and Ellie looked me square in the face and gave me a HUGE grin and cooed. She did it a couple of times over a fifteen minute period. I know it could just be gas, but you know what? I'm counting it as her first smile. It's a nice reward for all of the hours of sleep deprivation and nursing. The cutest toothless grin ever!

Too Cool for School.

"Oh my gosh mommy, you are SO EMBARRASSING!"

Also, please note that she wore this outfit in the hospital and I had to fold the sleeves back about 15 inches to get her hands out. My tinykins is growing up!

One Month!

We got Ellie gussied up and celebrated a little.

Dress!

Dress plus lurking cat!

CUPCAKES!

Happy one month birthday, little lady. We love you!

It's been a tough but a good month. I feel like we're starting to hit our stride and come out of the hormonal, sleep deprived fog. My csection is fully healed up and I don't have to take goof balls anymore. Feeding the baby is getting easier, and I'm figuring out how to get myself fed and dressed during her naps. I am incredibly proud of the fact that I have in fact showered every day of her life (except for the first day in the hospital, but that's because they wouldn't let me!) Mostly I am proud of how she's growing big and healthy and full of charm!

Fancy Girl!

Another good night of sleep! It may be short lived, but for now, I feel like Tim and I have an actual handle on Ellie's nighttime routine. I do the last feeding, he takes her for her hour of fussing while I go to sleep, and then once she's out, he goes to sleep too. I am getting 8 hours of sleep in pretty good chunks (last night five hours, followed by an hour, and then two more hours before 8am) and Tim sleeps from 11ish until 7. I am still sleeping in the nursery with her in the bassinet next to me, but it works for us. I can easily reach over and bump her white noise machine when it stops, and it helps that I can just open one eye a slit when trying to determine if she's making noise because she's actually fussing, or if she's just being a loud sleeper. Don't worry though, we are planning on moving her to her crib, and I will sleep in our big bed once again (especially since we just bought new fancy pants sheets on sale!)

Last night Ellie got to hang out with her Grandma and Grandpa, who like the lifesavers they are, once again brought Tim and I's lazy asses some delicious dinner. Ellie is looking forward to going out to Yorba Linda for a visit on Saturday too - maybe we will let her go through bird food at the ducks on the lake! Only if she behaves though.

Today the Ellerina and I went over to mom and dad's to back mom up in case the blinds guy came to measure after she needed to leave to pick up Sara. Instead, the blinds guy and I arrived at the same time. It meant that we were all able to pick Sara up and Auntie Sara and Ellie got in a little time together while driving back to the house.

It's amazing how fast the weeks have passed - can you believe that Elizabeth will be a month old tomorrow? Me neither. You know what that means - only 11 more months of nursing (haha...) It has been the toughest, most amazing month of my life, and it's true that it's hard to remember what life was like before. Even looking at pregnancy pictures - it's weird to me that Ellie used to live inside me. She is so different and more spectacular than I ever thought she'd be back when she was just my Baby Sequins (secretly though, she was always Jelly Bean to me.) I love her more than I ever thought possible, and seeing Tim as her sweet daddy makes me love him more every day too.

Enough mush. Today Grams gave Ellie her first ring. Here she is rocking it in her carseat, shortly before we headed out to pick up Sara.

Look at her! She's already a young lady!


This video is not TERRIBLY interesting, but it's cute. At first when watching it I thought Tim must have made it while I was asleep, but then I realized I'm on the couch next to him, telling him at one point that Ellie is not hungry, because she'd just spent an hour eating. Sleep deprivation, it'll get you. Please enjoy some baby noises, and Tim making fun of his offspring.

Wednesday Afternoon Knitting.

...it's only fun until someone pees on Jan's floor and then starts crying.

I won't tell you who the culprit was, but I'm pretty sure you can guess.

Ellie and I had a good day, following my good sleep last night. We even ran a couple of errands this morning, pre-knitting! We went to Hallmark and bought some recordable storybooks for Elizabeth and her Grandma Rosie to work on together. And then, since I was right there, I went in to UPS and got their notary to notarize the paperwork for her birth certificate. I'll mail that off tomorrow and then hopefully get all of her paperwork in a few weeks. Not sure what I'll need it for immediately, but you know, it's always nice to have on file.

It's kind of fun to take her out and about (though slightly stressful.) Everyone asks about how old she is, and then tells me how cute she is (darn tooting!) It also makes me feel proud and capable to be seen out in public, showered and pulled together. Sure, I'm not wearing makeup and still rocking my maternity jeans, but you know what? I have on a clean shirt and deodorant. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME?

Grandma and Grandpa are coming by tonight to see their little gal. She just spent an hour eating, so hopefully they'll get five minutes with her before she demands her second dinner (and hopefully I'll get to eat my dinner while it's still warm.)

First Time for Everything!

1. Gramps changed a poopy diaper yesterday. He also asked to learn how to turn the baby into a burrito via swaddling blanket. He is a very excellent and devoted Gramps (also a nice dad, who made me go take a nap while he chatted with his favorite girl.)

2. Tim took the first shift of the evening last night and I slept for FIVE HOURS. That's the longest stretch that I've gotten in four weeks, and it was a miracle. Tim is excellent at managing Ellie's fussy phases (of which there are many of course.)

Also, here is a picture of me and my girlfriends.

I had brought Ellie up on the couch with me because she was squirming in her sleep and I hoped she'd drop into a deeper slumber. When Lulu realized I was going to have a little lie down, she decided she wanted to be up on my chest. It was either let her lay right next to the baby, or put up with her stomping around on my csection incision. Poor Ellie - I am constantly picking cat fur off of her face. Such is the price she pays to be a member of my family.

Excellent Monday.

After a really rough day yesterday (which included the baby nursing for 20 minutes, sleeping for 5-10 and then screaming for 20-30 minutes, rinse repeat) Ellie and I had a fabulous day today. As for her behavior yesterday, around 7 I finally gave in and called the doctor's office and the nurse on call said that it was probably something out of character that I ate and the baby didn't like, so she was in nursing overdrive to try to get whatever it was out of my system, and her system as fast as possible. Nothing to do but wait it out and stay hydrated. Thank goodness Tim was home with us to refill my water bottle and help flip between football games.

But yes. Today. We had a lovely one! We slept in until almost 9, we spent a lot of time eating, and then she got in a good snoozer while I put together her birth announcement (look for it in your mail in the next few weeks!) I got a chance to eat lunch and tidy a little and then she and I went for a walk around the neighborhood for 45 minutes or so. It's nice just to get out. She slept basically the whole time, but I talked to her all the while about dogs and flowers and the weather and everything else we passed. I felt so much more human to be out and about, even if I was unshowered and in fancy pajama pants.

Then Grams came by and did some baby holding while I took a shower. Gotta stay sweet smelling for my hardworking husband! And now, more football to be watched!

Here's an out take from her birth announcement photo session

Baby Beano.

We managed a trip out to Target today and bought Elizabeth some baby beano, which should hopefully help with her overall fussiness, in addition to solving the tandem problems of burping and farting. Though, baby farts are pretty funny.

She had one good three hour stretch of sleep last night. And then chewed on me for an hour and a half, and then got passed off to her daddy at 6am so I could go and get some actual rest. Oh, it is so sad when someone comes and wakes me from my nest deep inside our down comforter. But a growing baby must be fed, and I'm just the mommy to do it.

We gave her a bath in her actual bath tub today, now that her umbilical cord has fallen off and her belly button has healed up. She thought the bath was pretty okay, which is always good. I think she mostly likes the noise of the bathroom fan. And having her hair done.

Other than that, a pretty quiet day. It's always nice to have Tim home though, so we can tag team her.

Here she is last night, sporting her very first charm bracelet, from her pal Kacky.

Here she is cheering for another Wisconsin touchdown.

Here she is getting manhandled by me.

I turned around for ten seconds in Target and look what she grabbed. Baby Sequins indeed.

Ellie and I had a much better night last night. I was asleep more than I was awake, even if it was kind of fitful. But whatever works - we tried the swing, we tried cosleeping, and then this morning she napped in her bassinet inside her crib. I think one of the solutions is her white noise machine. It's actually supposed to be a bear, but we took the guts out and then just put that in her crib with her. It makes a heartbeat type noise, and shuts itself off after five minutes. But if she fusses or if someone touches it, the beat starts up again. Super handy!

The white noise really keeps her quiet. This morning I was able to shower because I brought her into the bathroom in her boppy pillow and let her hang out, hearing the shower and fan running. I even got a chance to brush my teeth and shellack on a little eyeliner!

Then I went to mommy matters class, which was super nice. It's facilitated by a RN/lactation consultant. I asked about my concerns re: Ellie's nursing (she'll go for an hour at a time, and then cry and want to eat 15 minutes later.) She said that Ellie is a pretty orally fixated baby, and recommended getting her on the pacifier. We've bought several, but haven't found one that she LOVES. She also said that she thinks Ellie is a pretty gassy baby, which causes her discomfort and fussing. She had a couple recommendations for me to help solve that, which I am ready to put into place. The good news is that she thinks I've got nursing pretty well down. The bad news is that she basically told me to buck up because it's going to continue to be tough for another couple of weeks, and such is the nature of having a newborn.

Which I knew... I just wish there was a better answer. Some sort of magical solution that will help the baby sleep through the night and allow me the opportunity to be a little less stressed and a little more sane.

The good news is that there's nothing seriously wrong with anyone - we are just having regular baby and mommy growing pains. And we'll get through it, and someday all of this discomfort will be a distant memory. SOMEDAY I WILL EVEN SLEEP FOR MORE THAN THREE HOURS AT A CLIP!

In the meantime, I also went to Babies R Us and bought more diapes and wipes, and felt pretty capable there, steering the cart around all alone with my little baby friend. Hooray for getting out of the house! (and then for coming home and taking a 90 minute nap.)

Prettiest Little Blossom

Even if she is the worst little sleeper.

Three Weeks!

In a few hours, Ellie Bean will have been an outside baby for a full three weeks. It has been quite the adventure, though as we move into week three, I am feeling like I have a slightly better handle on everything. Emphasis on slightly, and only through the help of our wonderful families.

Today Ellie spent some time hanging out at Grams' while I ran and got my giant mullet trimmed. I feel like a whole new person! Grams was excited that Ellie slept in her little travel crib. Rocky and Petunia were less than enthused with Ellie's crying. Tomorrow we may go hang out with the knitters for a bit. Or a long time, depending on how Ellie naps for her various surrogate grannies and tias.

Right now she is being a regular snoozerina in her boppy pillow. I am still holding out hope that we will see a repeat performance of her 4 hour night sleep the other night. I am also getting closer to moving her into her own crib (in her Lulyboo) and moving myself back into the master bedroom. The one upside to sleeping in the guest bed is that the sheets are nicer than on our master bed. Look people, it's the little things that help me cling to sanity.

Here's a cell phone picture of my little friend this afternoon. She is very cute when she's alert... as long as she's not also crying.


And here's yesterday's cat-birthday girl.

Monday, Monday.

We are in the midst of some serious sleep deprivation, between general fussiness, gassiness and a possible growth spurt. All normal, I hear, but it's still enough to make me feel a little crazy at 3am. Thank goodness for my mom - just as I'm doing my best to keep Ellie calm, she is doing her best to keep me sane.

Ellie's umbilical cord stump finally fell off today (gross.) She was wearing a sleeper thing with an open bottom and it hit the floor while mom was holding her. I wondered what a baby could possibly drop (since it's not like she has any fine motor skills, or pockets in which to hide treasures) and there it was. Her next bath will be in her little tub!

In other news, today Lulu is seven. It's her made-up birthday, based on her approximate age when we adopted her. Lulu has been a sweet little girlfriend to me over the past three weeks, even though I don't have nearly the time to love on her that I once had. She's happy to snuggle up to me on the couch while I nurse, and if I lay down to take a nap, she's immediately at my side. When the baby's wailing, it's nice to have my little cat friend still purring away.

Baby Hiccups

Another video for your viewing pleasure. Sorry that it's sideways. It's still funny, even if you have to turn your head a little.




Here's how I managed a nap yesterday. Nothing better than a sweaty baby and a crabby cat.

We Survived Week One!

Unbelievable but true! Elizabeth and I survived a whole week without Tim being home. Massive credit goes to my mom for coming over and keeping an eye on me, and Don and Eileen for bringing us dinner several times. And to Tim, for taking over the baby watching duties when he gets home from work so that I can go and get an early jump on sleeping.

Today I went to a mommy matters class that they told me about at the hospital. Didn't make any new best friends, but it was a really nice group of women, so I will be back next week, and will perhaps be brave enough to get some phone numbers and make a lunch date or two. Then Ellie and I ran by Blizzard to meet her daddy's nerd friends. The boys were all very sweet about her, even though Ed was obviously frightened of her babyness. Andrew asks questions like, "if all she eats is breastmilk, how does she turn it into poop?" I do not know, but she certainly does.

It's nice to know that I have Tim's full time help for the next 48 hours. He's great at cuddling and calming her down, and gives me a couple of nap breaks a day. For a guy who was always scared to hold babies, he is pretty fearless with his own, and he's a champion diaper changer.

Pictures!

Here's a few shots of Ellie in her cute outfit yesterday... which we had to change her out of shortly thereafter because it's so hot in our area that we let her sleep in a diaper (and then wrapped up like a burrito.)

Here she is, just hanging around. Tim made her clap her feet together for awhile. It's the little things.

She is almost done with her newborn scaliness. She has incredibly long fingers and toes, much like her daddy. Hopefully she will not have as many problems with her feet as he has though.

Close up of her darling, darling little face.

On a programming note, she slept from midnight until almost 4:30 last night. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing. And then she went back down at 5 and slept until 7:30!

Thursday Evening.

Ellie and I had a pretty fabulous night of sleep last night - between 10pm and 10am, I was asleep for more than 6 hours, so that's miraculous. Part of it she did spend sleeping on me, but most of it she spent in her Lulyboo or on her big boppy pillow.

I am also getting better in general about always answering yes when someone asks me if I want to go lay down while they watch the baby. YES TO SLEEP! Also, I am doing better on "just say no to crying." It has been 24 hours since I last wept for no apparent reason. Oh hormones, thank you for giving me a break.

Today mom came over with lunch and then we took Ellie to Target, to buy diapers and also to get me out of the house. Ellie normally enjoys time in her carseat, but she got pretty nutty at Target and I ended up carrying her around in my arms, where she fell asleep. Probably better that I couldn't try on too many outfits. It also encouraged mom and I to bust out my ergo baby carrier and moby wrap, to try to figure out if I could babywear Ellie. The answer is yes, so that's good.

Auntie Sara came by for a little bit this afternoon as well and go to help change diapers. Hey, any time someone else wants to change a diaper, I am all good with it.

Other than that, things are pretty quiet around here, as one would expect when living with a little critter who spends her day sleeping, squaking and eating. Tim and I have had a couple of hours here and there where Ellie just WON'T stop crying and we can't figure out what's wrong with her... until she suddenly trumpet blasts a huge poo. Such is the glamorous life of a new parent!

I took the cutest picture of her today, post-bath... but then I accidentally deleted it. DANG IT. She looks real good with her hair did. And considering that yesterday while on the scale she peed, and then the pee went all down her back, she needed a bath, good hair or not. Her cord has still not fallen off so she only gets the washrag, but we're looking forward to busting out her baby tub not too long from now.

Before the Baby Starts Crying Again...

Just a quick update. We went to the doctors this morning - Ellie is up to 8 pounds, 12.5 oz. So she gained almost an ounce a day over the past week. She's a good eater, and it makes all of my nursing woes worth it. She had a good three hour stretch of sleep last night in her bassinet (and then fussed for the next four hours. You win some, you lose some.)

We also made our first social visit and hung out with the knitters this afternoon. I spent 7 hours away from the couch! It was a MIRACLE.

The Littlest Voter.

So, Ellie and I survived our first day home together, thanks to some help from Grams (thanks Grams.) Overall, Tim and I don't know what we'd do without our families so close by.

Things are getting easier every day, but I'd still define my current state of living as "survival mode." For example, baby will sleep on my chest for a half hour, allowing me to sleep for fifteen of those minutes? Fine, do it. Fifteen minutes of sleep I wouldn't normally have. Today I did manage to get a shower in all by myself, during the only time of the morning that Ellie wasn't fussing. I am not quite sure what her deal is, and I sort of miss my baby friend who would sleep for two hours straight between changings and feedings. It's cute to see her more alert, except I'm not really sure what she wants. I suspect it's that she wants to nurse for three hours straight, and let's be honest, I'm not capable of that. We're trying to keep her off a pacifier for now, so she ends up sucking on one of my fingers instead. Which still does not leave me with a lot of room to roam.

This morning the Ford family walked together to the local elementary school to vote. Ellie was very excited about her first bit of democracy.

I know, she's a little slumpy. It's not her best shot.

At 10:30 tonight Ellie will be officially two weeks old. She's really growing up. Even her little face is changing - she looks more like a baby and less like a squishy newborn. She spends more time alert and looking around at us. I still love all of her little squeakiness. Tomorrow we're back to the pediatricians for her two week check up - hopefully all of this eatin' will have her a few ounces up.

In closing, this baby is cute.