Changes!

I feel like my baby is changing every single day!! 

Elizabeth is still a great sleeper.  She sleeps through the night, we usually put her to bed anywhere from 9:30pm -11:00pm and she sleeps until 7:00am-7:30am!  Most of the time she sleeps all night without waking up, but occasionally she will wake up around 4:30 to eat, and fall right back to sleep.  When we put her to bed, we usually just lay her down in her bed and she will look at the mobile and fall asleep on her own.  We are so fortunate to have such a great sleeper!  Elizabeth also LOVES her naps during the day, she still only stays up for about 2 hours at a time.  She is sleeping as I type this, and has been for 2.5 hours!

 

 

The play mat is a huge hit!   Unless she is hungry or needs a diaper change, Elizabeth is content just hanging out with her toys.  She has started to "play" more - by that I mean hitting her toys and kicking her legs.  The other day I looked down and she had rolled over on her side!  The mirror is also a huge hit!

 

 

 

We have finally started to see real smiles!  Since just yesterday, Elizabeth smiles every time David makes animal noises.  I was able to catch one on my phone, it's a little dark, but I will keep trying to get more!

 

 

David's parents were in town for the last two weeks, we had a great time and did a lot!  Elizabeth had her first boat trip and her first trip into the city.  She did really well considering she had to eat and get diaper changes in random places.  I had to change her diaper on two slanted chairs as the boat was going down the Hudson, on a bench in Central Park, and she ate in the lobby of a Marriott hotel, along with the gym of another Marriott.  (Long story short we were on the meeting level of the hotel to find a bathroom and one of the employees let us in the health club to use the bathroom there, and since no one was in the gym, I decided to make use out of the weight bench and feed her;))

 

Boat Ride on the Hudson

 



First Path Ride

Shopping in NYC

On the Boat

Times Square

While David's parents were visiting, we ate lots of good food, relaxed, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

 

 

 

 





 



Company!

Elizabeth has been spoiled with company!  Last week we had Kara, Kevin and Jill visit, and Elizabeth never has a shortage of people to hold her and take care of her!  She has been spoiled...although you can't really spoil a newborn, can you?  :)  She loved meeting her Uncle Kevin and Auntie Kara, and of course seeing Auntie Jill again.

 

 

 

Kara had a birthday while they were here, it was on Sunday, September 1st.  Happy Birthday Auntie Kara!  She shared her birthday with Elizabeth's 4 week birthday!  The morning of her birthday, Jill, Kara and I went out to breakfast, while Kevin and David stayed home with Elizabeth and watched Liverpool.  I am looking a little rough in the pic below.

 

 



My friends from Georgia sent Ellie a few outfits, here is one of them...more for David's benefit;)  The onesie is a bit hard to read in the pics, but it says "Me and my dad love Liverpool".  The outfit is adorable, but the teacher in me is annoyed by the improper grammar..since it should say My dad and I :)

 

 



 



 

 

Here is what happens when you let Jill and Kara babysit;)

 





 

 

Everyday Elizabeth changes...it is amazing how she is able to grab her toys now, she is very content sitting in her bouncy seat just grabbing at her toys.  She also LOVES her mobile over her crib, her eyes are adorable as they go around and around to follow it. 

 

On a different note, I signed up for a 5k with some friends at the end of October...which means I need to get motivated and get back to the gym.  David said he plans to hang out at the end of the 1st mile since I may not make it any further;) 

 



One Month!

I can't believe Elizabeth is already a month old!  Time does fly....people say that, but I have really experienced it this past month more than any other time in my life.  Just a disclaimer - I am sure there will be stuff on my blog that you could careless about, but I am also going to use it as a way to document the little things about Ellie so that we don't forget:) 

We have had a great month!  Elizabeth is an AWESOME sleeper!  In the first few weeks I was waking her up in the middle of the night to feed her, but at her doctor's appointment on Wednesday we got the ok to let her sleep and wake herself up.  The past two nights have been great!  She fell asleep around 7pm, woke up around 9pm to eat, then again around midnight and then slept until 7am.  David said she is definitely my daughter, not only does she snore, but she can sleep through anything - I like to tell myself this isn't just a newborn stage and it will last:)  There have been days when I vacuum while she is sleeping on purpose, so she doesn't get used to complete silence when she sleeps.

Elizabeth is starting to make a lot more noises.  When she gets upset, David makes weird noises with his tongue and she loves it, it amazes me how much it calms her down and how focused on him she becomes.  She has become much more alert over the past few weeks.  David and I have also perfected giving her a bath and she loves them now...she gets upset when we take her out.  Jill gave us a bathtub that she found in the Netherlands, and Elizabeth loves it.  The tub is shaped like a bucket and is very cozy.

 

 



 

Here are the measurements from Elizabeth's one month appointment this week:

 

Weight: 10lbs 6 oz and is in the 90th-97th percentile (up 1lb. 7oz. since she was born - the girl likes to eat!)

Length: 21 inches and is in the 50th percentile (up 2 inches since she was born)

Head: I forgot to get the exact measurement and will need to update this after her 2 month appointment - I know, I am a bad mother!!  David and I were both so concentrated on her crying that we didn't write it down!

 

Lots of people, especially when she was born, commented on Elizabeth's size and that she was so big.  To us, she felt so little, until I started going to a mommy/baby group on Thursdays.  The group meets at the hospital where she was born and is for new moms and babies that are 2 to 16 weeks old.  Elizabeth was the same size or bigger than babies older than her, I couldn't believe it!

 

We are getting out more and more...I feel like I have turned a corner this week, I feel much more  comfortable taking her out without breaking into a sweat every time she cries.  Tomorrow we are going to ferry into NYC, it will be her first "out of state" trip....who cares that it's only a five minute ferry ride to get there;)  And, of course we are taking a TON of pictures...so many that we gave in and spent the $$ on an actual camera!

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Lauren

We welcomed Elizabeth Lauren 4 days early, on August 4, 2013 at 7:35pm.  She weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. 

On Saturday night, August 3rd, David and I were going to bed and David said "I just need a good, full night of sleep". HA!  Around 2am I woke up from what I thought was my water breaking.  I woke up David and called the doctor.  The doctor told us to head to the hospital.  So, we gathered up a few last minute things, we both took showers, and were headed out the door.  We arrived at the hospital around 3:45am and by 5:00am they had admitted me and we were in our room.  At that point we both rested, I took another shower, and we waited for my parents and Jill to get there.  Luckily, Jill was visiting my parents that weekend, so she was able to come with them.  I walked around a lot in the morning, just because I knew once I got the epidural I would be stuck in bed.  Around noon I started to feel my contractions, but the pain wasn't so bad that I couldn't handle it.  By 1:00pm I decided I should be the epidural because I didn't want it to be too late or get to the point that I couldn't stay still.  After that, my disgusting  gourmet lunch arrived from the hospital cafeteria and my back started to hurt.  We assumed it was due to the position I was lying in, so the nurse came in to help move me up a little bit.  The pain was not getting better, so they increased my pain medicine.  My family decided to go eat dinner around 5:30 because the nurse said it would still be hours before I would start pushing.  But, as soon as they left, I started to feel the contractions again - even with the epidural- so they checked me and said I was ready to push!  I started pushing around 6:30 and Elizabeth was born at 7:35pm!  The doctor let David announce the sex of the baby, and he also got to cut the umbilical cord.  After the nurses and David weighed her, bathed her, I fed her, and all that good stuff, my family came in to meet her.  By 10:00 we were moved into our other room for the rest of the hospital stay.

 

 

We were in the hospital for two nights.  It was a great hospital, all the nurses were so friendly and helpful, and my doctor was great (of course there are 5 doctors in my practice and the one doctor I had never seen before was the one on call that night, but we really liked him).  Ellie stayed in our room with us the entire time, she could have of course gone to the nursery, but we didn't want to give her up!  I was in a lot of pain when we headed home on Tuesday, and it took me about a week to feel better, I feel like the labor was the easy part!  Now we are enjoying life (a little sleep deprived) and the blessing that God has given us!  We waited a long time for Elizabeth and she is perfect!!!

I'm not exactly looking as good as Kate Middleton did when she left the hospital...but hey, I stopped wearing my maternity clothes last week, so that has to count for something;)!

32 and 2 weeks!

The weather has finally cooled down, last week was brutal!  The temps were up to 100 a few of the days, so I stayed inside in the AC.  I don't know how David does it, going to work in the summer heat dressed in suits and riding the subway.....gross! 

A few weeks ago we went to a park only about 30 minutes away right on the New York/New Jersey state line.  It was pretty hot out so we didn't do too much walking, but it was beautiful overlooking the Hudson River.  The pictures are taken from the New Jersey side.  As you drive up the Palisades Parkway, there are a ton of places to stop along the way for the views and hikes.

 

 

Last week my parents came for one night to drop off some things for the baby.  I knew I wanted a glider/rocking chair, but while many of them are very comfortable, I think a lot of them are ugly.  So, a while back my parents offered us a glider from the Amish Country as a baby gift.  A couple months ago we went to visit them and went to some furniture stores in the Pennsylvania Amish country to find one we liked.  (I have to admit though, David and I prefer the Amish country of Ohio much more...for not living in Ohio that long we seemed to have made a lot of trips up there.)  We found a chair we loved, so my parents picked that up and brought it to us last week.  The ottoman is not finished yet, but should be in a couple more weeks.  I still need to get a cushion for it, but it is surprisingly very comfortable without one.  The picture doesn't do it justice, maybe one of these days I will use an actual camera instead of my phone.

 

 

 



On Thursday I celebrated my 32nd birthday.  Why is it that as you get older, birthdays get less exciting?  David took the day off and we hung out, I had a dr. appt, and we went out to dinner.  He surprised me with a bracelet from Tiffany's with a place on the bracelet for me to get the baby's initials engraved on it - which we have yet to come up with...ahhh!!! 

 

On Wednesday I had an early birthday celebration lunch with my friends Liann and Ellie.

 



Yesterday we went into the city, and I am so glad we did, the temps were in the low 80s!  We went to the Met for a few hours.

 

Can you spot David in this picture below?

After the Met we walked through Central Park and then went to a BBQ place for lunch/dinner that I have been wanting to try.  We ate a lot, but I do not feel guilty...I am 38 weeks pregnant and walked from 86th street to 26th street (with minimal complaining might I add;)).   Don't worry, this was shared between the 2 (or 3;)) of us!

Last weekend David hung some stuff in the nursery.  This is the only picture I have taken...I am waiting for the rest of it to be finished (no rush David, the baby could be here any day;)).   There is some meaning behind the framed pictures.  For as long as I can remember my mom has sent me Winnie the Pooh cards, and I have saved them all.  I went through and picked a few out (most of them she sent to me in college) to frame.  The two green frames are pictures of David and me that were at my shower, and the "Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow" was a print I found online a few years ago that I always wanted to get for a nursery.  I think the Doxology is one of the first things I had to memorize in Sunday School. 

As of today I am a little over 38 weeks....2 weeks (let's hope it's not longer!) to go!!