Faces of Ellen

Ellen is definitely a sleepy baby (so far--now I've just jinxed myself). So getting pictures of her with her eyes open is more than tricky. Here are a few to hold you over for now.

Mom & Emily date

Since I've come home from the hospital, Emily has been (understandably) attached to me. So this morning we went on a little "you and me" outing to Starbucks for some hot chocolate--which, consequently, Emily is not a big fan of. Next time we'll just have to bring juice for her. On the way home we stopped and said hello to her friends at school. It was a good date.

First outing (a two-parter)

This is Ellen gearing up for her first official outing--to Burlington/Baby Depot.
We went there because Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma Steele bought us an awesome double stroller. It's unlike any I've ever seen--it comes with a front red seat like Emily is sitting in, but also has an attachment so that the carrier (any brand) can fit. The red seats can either face forward, backward, or center (so they could see each other). I love how versatile it is.
We decided to take a walk down the street to our neighbor's (friend's) house.
Ellen tested out my new sling--I need to raise it up a bit, but it worked really well.
Emily jumped on the trampoline, which she LOVED.Then Ellen rode in the stroller on the way back.

Stolen moments in the bouncer

Emily thinks that the bouncer is her own personal recliner, so Ellen doesn't get to spend much time in it. Yesterday we snuck her in when Emily wasn't looking.

The girls

As you can imagine, Em had to get in Ellen's bed...and have a pacifier. But then she insisted that Ellen have a blanket like hers, so we had to find a suitable one for Ellen to hold.

Watching Ellen

We moved Emily's steps (for washing hands in the bathroom) to Ellen's crib so that I/we wouldn't have to keep lifting her up to see Ellen. It's been a favorite spot, although Emily gets very concerned when Ellen doesn't have her pacifier.

Some videos

I confess--I uploaded all of the Emily & Ellen videos in order to get the one of Emily spinning. Our camera is recording in a weird format that makes it hard to preview videos, so I just uploaded them until I found the dizzy video.

El and Em compared

Ellen
Emily
Emily (the nose throws everything off...)
Ellen

Coming home

updated post

For those of you who checked earlier, I've changed the post entitled "the story"--I added/changed the video, and the post didn't show for a while...

Enter regression/jealousy

After Ellen's diaper was changed in the bassinet, Emily had to have hers changed in the extra bassinet. Then she had to have her pacifier and a blanket, too. This is really the only thing she's done so far, other than the normal stuff involved with missing me because I was gone for two days.

Why we named her Ellen...

I'm pretty sure she has Grandma's exact eyes--or at least they're Hale eyes. So name #2 just didn't make the cut.

More Ellen

More from Saturday

Our first visitors--three of our youth group kids (Kara isn't pictured, but she was there, too).
I didn't get all of my antibiotics prior to delivery, so Ellen had to have some blood drawn. A regular bandaid looks so big on her!



The new L & D unit opened about two weeks ago. So while Jon was just playing around when he took the picture, you can kind of see how big & nice it is. This time I was able to stay in this "suite" the entire time--no tiny postpartum room. Jon is sitting on a loveseat, and behind him the entire wall is windows, which makes it really nice & open.

The Story

8 pounds, 20 1/2 inches long


I woke up Saturday morning just after 6am with a pretty strong contraction, and they came every 10 minutes. I got up with Jon & Emily just before 8, thinking they'd go away if I got up. I got ready, fixed my hair, and decided to throw things into a bag while I waited for them to get "consistent," like the books say. So, you know, while I'm straightening my hair and have to hunch over the sink, I'm thinking "These are too sporadic--they're supposed to be every 5 minutes, not 6 then 8 then 5 then 4..." Around 9 we headed to the hospital, and around 9:30 when I was being hooked up to monitors and asked questions the nurse finally checked me and I was 8 cm...definitely labor. I'm pretty sure my first words after that were, "Can I have an epidural?" So they started IVs and everything and I got my lovely pain relief. Ellen came after only four or five pushes at 11am. It was almost too easy...

Meet Ellen Lucile Steele

No baby yet

Thursday's post

Today was a relatively uneventful day at school. I got a new student, which is really odd to me, seeing as I'm only able to orient him to my program for two days before the sub takes over. Keith & Jessie took us out to dinner tonight--who knows when the next time will be. We're supposed to have really stormy weather tomorrow with a cold front (mind you, that means mid-60s), so maybe the weird barometric changes will put me into labor rather than just messing with my allergies. I'm not optimistic about a 4/4 baby...

Two more days

We have decided that I won't go back to work next week, so I only have two more days--woohoo!

(Yes, this is your Wednesday courtesy post. Today's appointment revealed no new news.)

Things I've been meaning to post...

You can tell you're a blog addict when you think of things to post in the middle of the night or other random times. Here are some things I've been meaning to say, but never have (and I know I'll still forget some)...

*I love skype. I like that Emily knows what her grandparents look like even though they're far away, especially since she can't talk on the phone at this point. I also love that I was able to watch
Grandma's memorial service from 2,000 miles away--I think it helped with the denial & grieving.

*I cried more today at Emily's last day of school than I did on her first. I am just so grateful that she's had such awesome teachers who teach her and love her and are good to her. I've heard so many horror stories of bad daycares/teachers, and we've had a WONDERFUL experience.

*Why is Bambi a bimbo girl name when the deer in the movie is a boy?

*The ending of "How I Met Your Mother" last night was hysterical.

*Two of my favorite videos that I can't believe are actually REAL:

Today's "I'm not in labor" post

After we made cookies yesterday we went outside to play. Emily is definitely an outdoors girl--she is always asking to play outside. So we colored with sidewalk chalk and then she ran back & forth tackling Jon & I.