Riley visits

We decided to get a Christmas tree. And I am glad we did. It did help with the Christmas spirit and it also encouraged me to get the Christmas presents wrapped before Christmas Eve, which is quite unusual.

But this post is not just about the Christmas tree. I wanted to share some of the Miller visit. Kristi, Wes, and their 3 1/2 month old daughter Riley came to visit. They are living in Chicago right now while Wes is going to a program there for a year. They are due to return next June. Kristi and I were pregnant together which was quite fun. We were able to groan, moan, complain, sympathize and go to prenatal yoga with each other. Neither of us was particularly fond of being pregnant and we wallowed in our misery together. Good times.

They were in Chicago when Ella was born as well as when Riley was born, so unfortunately we were not there for each other's births. Say-lave. But in light of that, we are sure that our daughters will be BFFs forever. We will force them to.....They WILL love each other. As you can see, they already do.

Having two babies in the house is fun. It is even more fun to have two such different babies in the house. It is even more fun to have such different babies in the house and to know that there will not always be two babies in the house.

Ella and Riley are about as different as they come. Riley is above the 99th percentile for her height and weight. She sleeps well and generally likes to just hang out and watch the most fascinating, entertaining, and captivating thing that we like to call life. Ella on the other hand is around the 25th percentile. She is almost constantly in motion and not only wants to see what is going on, but wants to be intimately involved in all around her. Which also means she gets tired quickly and tends to get over stimulated. Riley is 7 weeks younger than Ella and so naturally she is not quite as far along with her development. But it is funny because she is so much bigger than Ella, you expect her to be doing more. Like getting up and walking.

We had a great snow storm the day after they arrived. We haven't had one like it in about 10 years. They brought Chicago with them.

We of course had to bundle up the babies and take them out in the snow. Don't they look like they are having fun?

Okay, maybe we were being a little bit selfish, but look, Ella is catching a snowflake on her tongue!

Kristi and I did go back out in the snow, leaving the babes in the nice warm house with the daddys. We ran, we played, we made snow angels, we made snow food, and then we had to go back inside to get some real food. Got to keep the calories up to keep producing milk for those babies.

We had a big breakfast on Sunday morning with some friends. All people within walking distance because most people were still snowed in. Good food, good company.

Wes has already returned to Chicago and Kristi and Riley are leaving on Wednesday. And the holiday visits will continue when Jackie and Keegan arrive on Thursday. Ella is very much looking forward to seeing her Grandma Jackie as she has not seen her since she was 8 weeks old. I am sure many more pictures will be coming soon of that visit.

Christmas Spirit

It is that time of year. Christmas time. I was looking around our house and realizing, we don't have any Christmas decorations except for the two stuffed animals that I bought a few weeks ago at the Goodwill outlet store. If you don't know what the Goodwill outlet store is, then let me inform you. It is the coolest thing on the planet. Really. They have bins of clothes and stuff that is sold by the pound. Yep, that is right, by the pound. $1.50 per pound to be exact. You can get a lot of clothes under a pound. And stuffed animals too. So, I thought, what the heck, why not spend 75 cents and get a little Christmas spirit. But now that the Christmas season is truly upon us, my two Goodwill stuffed animals seem a little sparse. I thought that maybe we had some other decorations and so I journeyed up into the attic to take a looksee at what we have. Only Christmas tree ornaments and accouterments. You see, we decided not to get a Christmas tree this year. We decided that Ella would be too young to care and we are busily trying to pay off medical bills from the rather long, arduous birth (that story will be coming later) and just can't quite justify shelling out 40 bucks for a decoration. Well, I was sitting around the house feeling a little sad about the lack of Christmas cheer in our humble abode. Christmas music can only take you so far. And I had a genius idea. I would go over to my parents house with Ella and we would help trim their tree. Genius. We are going to be there Christmas day anyway. So yesterday, I bundled up my little bundle of joy and we set off to Clyde, NC. And voile!, Christmas spirit!

My mom, dad, little brothers, Ella and I all helped to trim the tree although Ella preferred eating the branches.

So, it feels a little more like Christmas, but our house is still looking awfully Christmasy sparse. I don't know, should we get a tree? Will Ella look back one day and say, "hey, why didn't we have a tree for my first Christmas?" What do you think?

And I have to just post this picture. Uncle Joel playing with Ella while she is in my lap. Funny.

Rolling

Ella has started rolling over. She started rolling from her back to her stomach yesterday. Of course it was while I was at work and she was with her Nana. We now have a slightly more mobile child. Where did our baby go? They grow up so fast!

Acupuncture

Yep, it is true. We have given ourselves over to Eastern medicine. Well, not entirely, but I decided to take Ella to see an acupuncturist yesterday. Not having very much experience with acupuncture myself and being a practitioner of Western medicine, I am of course just a wee bit skeptical. But, I know that many people swear by acupuncture to ease many different types of ailments. In fact, if you have it, they can pretty much claim to help it. So, in light of Ella's sleep issues, I thought, "why not?" I am willing to try anything. And they don't actually stick needles into your baby. They use a practice called shonni-shin treatments and Tuina massage without the use of needles. There is a community clinic on Mondays at The Women's Wellness and Education Center for only $25 for the initial visit and $20 for follow up visits. And you even get to make appointments so you don't have to sit around and wait forever. I was taking Ella in for sleep problems and digestive problems and of course, wouldn't you know it, I actually had to wake her up from a nap to get to our appointment on time. Seemed a little counter productive. Oh well. The acupuncturist, Natalie Allard, was actually very down to earth, very nice, and offered plenty of practical advice to help with the sleeping problems. She spent a large amount of time with us and the nice thing about alternative medicine practitioners is that they really listen and take many aspects of the problem into consideration, not just focusing on the main problem. After talking for a while, she performed the gentle technique which Ella found quite harmless and may have even enjoyed. And the results? Well, of course it is hard to know for sure, but she went to sleep on the first attempt last night and although she woke a number of times, she was easy to get back to sleep which is unusual. There were no inconsolable crying fits. And tonight, the same pattern so far. But is is only 8:20 PM. Who knows what the rest of the evening may hold in store for us. But I am hopeful and encouraged. There is definitely an improvement. Coincidence? Maybe. But I am willing to give it another shot next Monday. I don't really care why she is sleeping better, I just care that she is. And maybe I would try acupuncture for myself at some later time for some future problem. Who knows? It has been around for a very long time. There might be something to it.

Date Night #2

So, tonight Eli and I had date night #2. All day we spent trying to figure out how to work it out to go see a matinee movie. (We also tried to arrange it last weekend so we could go). We didn't care what movie we were going to see, we just wanted to sit in a movie theatre together and zone out watching some overpriced, overdone flick in uncomfortable chairs. Just like we used to. But of course this time it had to be in the middle of the day because Ella still needs so much attention from mommy in the evening hours. So, after about 20 phone calls and arranging things, we decided to drop Ella off at her Aunt Joanna's new house (she moved in 2 days ago) so we could try to catch the 4:05 showing of "The Men Who Stare at Goats". Ella must have known we were trying to organize to get out to have some fun without her because she decided not to take naps today. So of course we were late getting over to her house. We had to make some stops first, and when we got there, there were some family members there that are in town visiting my folks that I haven't seen in about 16 years, give or take. That took a few minutes. We kept glancing at our watches, watching our chances to go see a movie slipping through our fingers. Not going to happen this weekend either we began realizing. But grasping for some opportunity to have some alone time without baby, we decided to slip out for an early dinner. We said our goodbye's, handed over Ella to her doting aunt and away we went, feeling just a little apprehensive due to the fact that Ella was running on about 45 minutes total nap time today after a pretty restless night. In case you are wondering, it is not easy to find a place to eat dinner at 4:45 on a Sunday evening in Asheville. We checked a few places and ended up at Papas and Beer on Tunnel Rd. Always a good choice. We had one adult beverage and just a little bit of adult conversation and were back to pick up our baby by 6 pm. We were informed that she was quite a good little girl, but of course as soon as she saw us she began crying, remembering she was tired and maybe just a little hungry for some "milkies". So, we still haven't gotten out to see a movie, but we did have a successful date albeit just a little bit early for dinner. I guess there is always next weekend....

Updates

This entry will be about the newest and latest updates. I have spent most of my entries on recounting specific accounts of adventures in Ella land. But I know that some of you might just like some of the fun facts of Ella (and Eli and I)'s development.

Ella is going on 5 months old. She loves to laugh and almost always has her tongue sticking out of her mouth.

Ella LOVES the dogs. I think she takes after me in this regard. When I was a baby and young child, my mom said that I was quite the animal fan. I still am, obviously, since we live with 2 dogs, 2 Chihuahuas, and 1 cat. As you may have noticed, I did not say 4 dogs and 1 cat because the Chihuahuas deserve a category all their own. They are kind of in between dogs, cats (they use a litter box), prairie dogs (they love to get into trouble and burrow deep under covers), and yes, I will say it, rats (of course because of their size and their propensity to have little hair.). The dogs share the mutual affection. They love Ella. They love to give her sloppy kisses (we are always running interference). She in turn loves to pat them, grab their fur, ears, whiskers, and of course try to shove it all into her mouth. The chihuahuas mostly tolerate her presence. They liked her better when she was a bump wrapped up in a blanket that could not grab and flail. Oh well. The cat, he thinks she is just fine. No real feelings one way or another. He does tolerate her grabbing fistfuls of fur, ears and skin quite well and I think just likes the attention as he usually gets little of it because all the other ones demand so much.

Ella still sleeps in her Amby hammock at night and most of her naps. You can read about the hammock here. She is still not a great sleeper and we are afraid to rock the boat if you know what I mean. Occasionally we put her into her awesome, beautiful, hand built crib that her Grandpa made her for her naps, but invariably she wakes sooner than if she were in her hammock. I am sure we will transition her at some point before she graduates from high school. She does love to play in the crib though!

People say Ella has found her thumb. I guess it was lost for the first few months. But lately, she thinks it is pretty cool and often has it stuck in her mouth. Either that or her big toe. I guess she likes the first digits of her extremities. I haven't been able to get a picture of it yet because every time I take out the camera she becomes a ham for the camera starts smiling and laughing. Silly kid.

She definitely recognizes those that she is familiar with and when baby daddy comes home from work, or when I come home from work, her whole face lights up and she gets this look on her face that just about melts your heart and turns your insides into pudding.

When she wakes up from naps, or in the morning, (if she has slept enough), she has this most adorable expression on her face. It says, "wow, that was a great sleep. I am so refreshed! What new thing can I explore and learn about now? The world is such a fun and interesting place!" Yep, I get all that from one expression. Really.

She loves to look at books. Turning the pages (usually backwards) and touching them. I think she is going to be reader. I hope anyway.

It is hard to get a good video of Ella in all her glory because when the camera comes out, she gets so distracted by it, she forgets what cute thing she was doing. But here is a little taste of what delicious experiences we have with our babe.

Click here to to link to youtube.

I am still dairy free. At least my diet is. I am producing ample quantities of dairy. I am getting used to it, but it is hard when people bring tasty treats into work and I can't partake. Even when they know I am not ingesting cow's milk, they still bring treats with butter or other milk fat in them. They have great intentions. But to most people, when you tell them you are going dairy free, they think: milk, ice-cream, obvious dairy. They don't think about that little, teensy weensy bit of dairy in the milk chocolate in the cookie. Oh well. It is worth it. Ella has no more blood in her poo and has obviously much less GI distress. The day you find out you are pregnant, the sacrifices start and I have this strange feeling that the sacrifices probably won't ever end. It is a good thing it is worth it. The joys far outweigh the piddly sacrifices. I mean, who needs sleep and dairy anyway?

Anyhoo, that about sums it up. I remember a little bit of panic the first couple weeks after Ella was born. What have we done? Our lives are changed forever! I miss how simple life used to be! But now, I can't imagine life without her. My life feels so much fuller, meaningful, and magical since she came into our lives. Rock on Ella!

To Bed

Ella has been difficult to get to go to sleep at night lately. It took 2 hours and 45 minutes to get Ella to go to sleep last night. Yes, you read that right, 2 hours and 45 minutes! This is how bedtime went:

Around 7ish, we start noticing that we have a baby that is getting tired. She does not get sleepy, she starts to get fussy. At this point we usually have bath already done and jammies ready.

Next, I take her to the bedroom and we have a nice little snuggle/nurse time. She drifts off and I have a fleeting hope that maybe, just maybe tonight she will go right down to bed without a fight. I slowly, oh so slowly, start to scoot myself to the edge of the bed. Each move I make she begins to suck again. I do not remove her from her security latch yet. I pause between each movement. The bed creaks and I wince as she kicks her legs and starts sucking once again. Okay, she is settled back down again. I unlatch her from the breast. Everything is okay so far. Oops, back on the breast again. Hmmm, that is not going to work. I think I will try the pacifier. I try the sneak pull the baby off the breast and quick stick the pacifier in her mouth. Smooth transition. I feel smug. I got this in the bag this time. I slowly put her into her hammock. Eyes pop open and stare right at me. She looks at me like, "How dare you!". She doesn't immediately fuss. I think that maybe, just maybe if I stay in there and rock and bounce her hammock she will drift off to sleep. Wishful thinking. She keeps yanking the pacifier from her mouth, turning her head side to side and kicking her legs. I know if I leave her in the room, she will just scream, so I pick her up and half heartedly try to bounce her on the ball for a few minutes. She does not seem sleepy at all. Her 10 minute nurse/snooze has refreshed her. Time to play. I dejectedly walk out of the room with baby in tow. The baby daddy looks at me and says, "I was afraid that is what I was going to see". I give a tired smile and Ella and I go to the couch to watch a few minutes of a movie I have been trying to get through for a couple days. I am 18 minutes into it. She sits contentedly on the couch with me for about 10 minutes. I am now 28 minutes into my movie. Instead of nicely drifting to sleep, she starts to get fussy again. Time to start try number 2. Baby daddy's turn. He bounces her for a few minutes. All I hear is crying. He comes out of the room. Has not given up yet. He wants to try a "dance party". This is when we turn on pandora radio, turn the lights off and dance while holding Ella. Sometimes it soothes her to sleep. Not this time. I decide to try again. Back to my fall back, nursing. She starts to drift off to sleep. Maybe this time it will work. This time I skip the pacifier and go right for the hammock. This doesn't work either. She wakes up again. I walk dejectedly out of the room again saying, "I give up!" Baby daddy decides to try again. He holds her in the bedroom. She just screams. This goes on for about a half hour until I can't stand it anymore. I feel like my heart is being wrenched out. Why won't she just go to sleep? I go back in there, take her from baby daddy and hold her close while bouncing her on the ball. 20 minutes later I put her asleep in the hammock. Whew, one more night down. Or at least until she wakes up in a few hours ready to nurse. The good thing about babies is that they change so fast that everything is temporary. One day soon, we will be able to lay her down at night and she will go right to sleep. I am sure of it.....

On a brighter note, she has been taking lovely naps. She goes right to sleep and wakes up smiling and refreshed about 1-2 hours later. She is much better during the day and takes such delight in everything around her. Everything is new and wonderful to her and her laugh will absolutely melt your heart.

No one can tell you how hard, difficult, heart wrenching, terrifying and completely beautiful, wonderful and amazing parenthood can be. And this is only the beginning.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Yesterday was Ella's first Thanksgiving. And though she could not partake in the feast (at least not first hand), it was a special day for the whole family. It was also especially special for me because I had Ella's aunt, uncles, Nana, and Papa to help take care of her so I could get just a little R and R. There were actually people almost arguing over who got to "bounce" her to sleep for her naps. I got to read half of a magazine (yes, it was a parenting magazine) Mmmmm, the luxury! For most of the day, there were no fewer than 2 people gazing upon the babe.

I am especially thankful this year. I try to be thankful every year on Thanksgiving and of course try to be thankful every day other than Thanksgiving, but at least there is a day set aside to really remember what you are thankful for. I like Thanksgiving because it is really one of the only (if not the only) holiday that is not selfish (except maybe the part about getting to feast on huge, delicious quantities of food). This year I am thankful for many things. I am so thankful to have a healthy baby girl. I am so thankful to be in a position where I only have to work a couple of days a week so that I can spend most of my time raising my baby girl. I am so thankful to have my mom close by and that she is willing to come and take care of my baby girl on the days that I do have to work. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful, loving husband and father of my baby girl. I am so thankful that I am healthy and all those that are dear and close to me are healthy. I am so thankful to have enough food to eat. I feel like the luckiest person in the world.

Now time to recount the feast. For those of you that don't know, I am eating dairy free at the moment. As it turns out, my baby girl, is allergic to cow's milk protein. Or so it seems. She has had significant GI distress and blood in her stool which has improved dramatically since I went off of dairy. It is especially difficult to stop eating dairy. It is hard enough to stop eating ice-cream, butter and consuming milk, but there are also a plethora of other foods that have dairy products in them. Whey, casiene, and all derivatives. Even those products that advertise "dairy free" are not actually dairy free to my chagrin. Even hot dogs, deli meat, and even some brands of canned tuna have dairy product in them! Okay, enough about that. But this leads me to my Thanksgiving Day feast. I was a little concerned that perhaps my feast may not be as delicious as it has in previous years. I need not have worried. As it turns out, coconut milk is an excellent substitute for milk in a lot of dishes. So this is what I ate:

Turkey and coconut milk gravy

Vegan green bean casserole (which I made) made with coconut milk

Balsamic and brown sugar glazed carrots ( I also made this dish)

Sweet potato and pecan dish

Rolls with dairy free margarine

Homemade cranberry salad

Homemade applesauce

I decided not to partake of my allotment of coconut milk mashed potatoes because it turned out more like coconut mashed potato soup.

For dessert: dairy free pies: pumpkin pie made with real pumpkin and coconut milk; pecan chocolate chip pie; cranberry pie; all topped with a little vanilla bean coconut milk ice cream.

So I think maybe I should buy stock in coconut. And I guess we will see if Ella is at all allergic to coconut!

Ella hanging out with one of her canine friends, Bean on Thanksgiving day.

All in all, a great day. Ella even did not pitch a screaming fit when it was bed time.

What a Day.

Hair Loss

So, every time I take a shower I lose enough hair to equal about the size of one of my Chihuahuas.

There could be five possible reasons for this.

1. I am going bald

2. I am so tired and stressed out that I am losing my hair

3. Our drain is tired of being clean

4. I need to make room for the grey hairs

5. I didn't lose any hair while pregnant (a nice side effect that keeps a nice, full head of healthy looking hair to go with the whale of a body) and so now my body is making up for it

Which one do you think it is?

Date Night

Okay, so Eli and I had a date tonight. Let's just say that it was quite interesting and just a little different than it used to be. Let me explain.

We decided to venture out of our cozy little home tonight with our precious darling girl Ella. A friend from work was having an art show and we thought that we shouldn't miss such an event. So, we left the house after a diaper change, clothes change (Ella), diaper bag pack, cute little shoes on Ella, but they didn't stay, so changed back into socks, then finally ready to go. Strap the baby in and load up in the car. That was the easy part.

We get to the art show no problem. Put Ella in the Beco baby carrier and strap her on Eli. So far so good. We grin at each other and think, "see, we still have lives, we can still go out for a nice evening." We look at all the wood art, talk to a few people. Someone says, "what a well behaved baby", we look at each other and grin again. Okay, baby now starting to get a wee bit fussy. We have been there for about 10 minutes. It is about 6:15. Eli bouncing and swaying up and down now. Time to leave.

So, what about dinner? I am very hungry at this point. I haven't hardly eaten all day because I am going dairy free due to baby GI upsets and today just on a whim, I decided to avoid wheat as well. Got to figure out why she is not sleeping at night. We decide that sitting down to dinner would be a tragedy at this point. What should we do? Well, we start our walk back to the car and pass a cute little new restaurant called Chai Pani, a "street Indian fare" with a walk up counter. Perfect. We enter the restaurant. Ella is momentarily calmed. But then the fussing continues. So Eli decides what he wants, tells me and decides to walk around Asheville for a while while I order and wait for the food. So, I order while they continue on. I sit at the bar and order a $1 PBR. Can't beat that. This night is rocking! When the food arrives I carry it out and meet up with my husband and now quiet and happy baby. We continue our walk back to the car. We pass the local independent bookstore, Malaprops, and see a calendar in the window that we want to take a look at. Title, "Freaks in Asheville". We used to take some nice inexpensive date nights here. Sipping on some coffee and reading a little together. Why not?, let's enter. We walk in, find the calendar, flip through the first couple pages. Baby beginning to ramp up again. Okay, time to go. Quick kiss in the aisle so we can call it a date and back out onto the street and onward to the waiting vehicle. Strap the baby back into her carseat and drive home. She cries the whole way home. We are back in our snug and cozy home by 7:45. I eat my take-out Indian food while Eli puts Ella in her jammies. He eats while I nurse her. Okay, time to try to bounce her to sleep. Whew, she actually went to sleep. So far. Did anyone ever warn me that things would change after having a baby? It is a good thing she is so darn cute.

Looking old

I have figured out why people with kids always seemed to look so much older to me than those of the same age without kids. It is lack of sleep for sure.

Before Ella

I can't remember what life was like before Ella. People tell you that when you are pregnant. They say, "everything will change," "it is the greatest thing ever", "you will forget what your life was like before kids". All true statements to be sure. I knew things would change. Of course they were going to change, I mean come on, I am having a baby! That one was an obvious. And I sure was hoping that it would be the greatest thing ever. But the not really remembering what life was like before? That one was hard to comprehend. But I have found it to be true. I have vague recollections of a life where I would come home from work, get on my bicycle, go for a ride, eat dinner at say 9 PM, watch some TV show or read a book and go to bed around 11 PM or so. Staying up late on the weekends to watch a movie with the hubby and sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Getting good solid night sleep. Going for long all day bike rides with my friends. Okay, I am starting to remember what it was like. But the funny thing is that those things seem trivial now. They were once so important, and I feared losing them. Now, they seem a small piece of the life pie and the bigger piece is the family that Eli and I are creating. Not to say that I don't miss the pre Ella activities, because sometimes I do. But having her seems greater than what I might be missing. I have been there and done that and I am pretty sure that one day I will sleep again and probably even go out on all day bike rides.

But this time with Ella, I treasure. When I look at her sometimes I think that my heart might explode and I wonder how it is possible to love something this much.

Sleep

I used to think I like to sleep. But I have found that sleep is overrated. It is amazing how well a person can function without sleeping. I can walk from one room to another and completely forget why I came in there, but sometimes, just sometimes if I walk back to where I started I will remember what it was. I am beginning to think that dark circles are becoming (and Eli of course agrees with me). And I am getting a lot of good practice waking up and falling back to sleep. Which I probably have only done about 136, 456, 871 times since I was born. (Half of which have been in the past 4 months). In fact, I am so used to not sleeping that when Ella happens to actually sleep for more than say 3 hours at a time (a rare occasion) I wake up anyway and wonder, why is she still sleeping. Is she sick?

As you may have noticed, the above pictures are from when Ella was quite a bit younger. That is because she does not sleep now. She is the amazing non-sleeping baby. Okay, actually, she does sleep, but it is so precious a time, that I dare not try to use the camera to take a picture lest it wake her up. And there have been many a time that I have felt like strangling one of my endearing little pups when they have decided to start a barking fest just as she is drifting off to sleep in that precarious state between sleep and awake. Right on the brink where she likes to hover for so long to give ample opportunity for something to keep her on this side of wakefulness. Sometimes the only thing that keeps me from booting the dogs out the door and on to the street is thinking about Lady and the Tramp. Poor Lady. Poor Tater, Pita, Lola, Yogi.

But then one of my sanguine pups walks by Ella and she lets out a big belly laugh and flails her arms towards them and I think, yep, she takes after her mom. And I decide not to break out the euthanasia solution.