Ms. Amanda’s blog

Ella was wide awake this morning, so I took advantage of it and gave her some tummy time so she could work her neck muscles a little, since her occupational therapist said that they were a little weak.  She's getting really good at lifting and moving her head, and we don't have to support it for her as much anymore.  She bobs it around on us when she's hungry; I don't know if all babies do that or if it's just her...I only have two months experiences with babies. 

Here's a cute video we took today of Ella in her new chair.  Sory I have to link it to MySpace, but neither Vox nor YouTube will allow me to upload anything.  It's starting to get really annoying.  To put pictures up, I have to upload them to Photobucket first, and then put them on Vox.  Oh well, I hope you can access the link.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=35469767

Since Janine reminded me of what a nerd I was (ok, still am), here's a picture showing that nerdiness is indeed genetic:

You can really see her big ol' bald spot now, since the rest of her hair is growing faster than the part they shaved at the hospital.  But she is beautiful, isn't she?  She'll be 40 weeks on Tuesday, so she'll be technically a newborn and 2 months old at the same time.  And if you look at the last picture, she's 6 pounds now!  So she's grown to what would be a decent birth weight and has almost doubled her size since she was born.  Oh, and be on the lookout for birth announcements coming in the mail...I filled them out weeks ago and just got around to going to the post office yesterday. 

 

 

 

 

My side of the bed is the most coveted spot in the whole house.

...is finally getting to bring home your tiny little girl from the hospital.

 

Of course she wasn't too happy about it.

 

So when we brought her in the house, I immediately swaddled her and put her in the basinette of her pack and play, which was just a little too big.

 

But the sleep positioner helped with that.

 

Welcome home, little girl.  We've missed you.

Today we got to give Ella a bath.  She was pretty dirty because she'd only been able to have little sponge baths because she had an IV in her scalp.  I know that sounds pretty strange, but it's a pretty common place for nurses to put an IV in infants.  The good news is that she's completely off IV fluids, so she won't have to get poked every day!  And, on Monday the occupational therapist is coming to determine whether she can start bottle feeding yet (I'm not allowed to breastfeed yet because of my blood pressure medication).  I'm looking forward to her being able to bottlefeed, because that means no more feeding tube in her nose! 

So, here are a thousand pictures of her bath.  This might take a little while to get through, because like all new moms, I took thousands of pictures and need to show them to everyone.

As you can see, she was pretty dirty.

 

Daddy got her partially undressed and took her temperature:

 

She wasn't too happy about the bath at first:

 

But she calmed down and felt great after a second:

 

Daddy washed her hair:

 

I washed the rest of her:

 

I wonder if all new parents look this scared the first time they bathe their baby:

 

This picture of us dressing her after her bath makes it look like we're performing surgery:

 

After bath:

 

 

 

 

Even the preemie clothes are too big on her!  After I washed them, they looked like they were small enough to fit her, but she's still swimming in them!

And then she finally got some Daddy time.  Chad doesn't get to hold her as much as I do, since he's saving his bonding time for when she comes home:

 

 

It made Ella a happy baby.  She was smiling so much today!

 

And this is Laura, our nurse who has been a godsend to us:

 

 

So today was a great day for me and Chad.  Doing little things like bathing her and changing her clothes/diapers help us feel like parents.  It's hard to feel like a parent when you're not with your baby every moment of every day, but these little things really do make me feel like a mom!

I just got back from the hospital, and Ella has gained weight!  She's now up to 3.64 pounds, and she's eating well.  She just keeps getting stronger and stronger!  Tomorrow we get to start kangaroo care (skin to skin contact) and this evening they let Chad and I put our picture up on her isolette so that she can see us when we're not there.  I have a lot of trouble posting pictures on Vox, so anyone who wants to see her can go to www.victorialife.typepad.com to see her on my mom's blog. 

As for me, I got my staples out today.  I have to say that anyone who is considering having a c-section instead of doing things the regular way is crazy.  I'm healing fast, but this really sucks.  Getting the staples out didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would.  I've just been through the ringer the last three weeks, and to be honest I'm terrified that I'm going to end up back in the hospital again.  I did see my doctor today, and although my blood pressure is still high, it looks like I may be in the clear.  As long as my kidney infection doesn't pop back up, I should be okay. 

I really feel like everything just might be okay.