Our First Walk

We were getting a bit stir crazy today... it was our first day since the baby was born without company or visitors in the house... so we decided to take Ella for a walk outside. We busted out the new stroller and away we went. We made it to a park that's near our house, made a lap around the park and home again. It was so nice to get some fresh air. Ella loved it, she was a bit cranky before we left, slept during the whole walk and then woke up the second we got home... the motion of the stroller probably put her out. We can't wait for more outdoor adventures to come... she'll be ready for a pack trip before we know it! :)

Sleep....or lack thereof

Ella has been such a good baby so far, she isn't very fussy, doesn't cry much - just when she is hungry, not a huge fan of the pacifier (maybe because she hasn't fully figured out the whole sucking thing, it's tough when you've just been doing it 11 days), doesn't cry when she gets her diaper changed for the most part (the wipe warmer helps with that)....the only real rough patch we've hit is the middle of the night. For one thing she really doesn't like to sleep in her bassinet, in her mind it makes a whole lot more sense to sleep on her mom's warm chest, complete with beating heart background noise, rather than a cold quiet bed of her own. Have we mentioned how she likes to be awake for a long stretch of time in the middle of the night? Ya, about 2am she's wide awake, happy as can be as long as someone is there talking to her and loving on her....this lasts until at least 4am each night but it feels like it's been about 5 hours! Can't say we didn't know that we'd be a bit sleep deprived with a newborn but man this nightly 2am rendezvous is a bit rough!

5 Generations

Now that Ella is here there are 5 generations in Jason's family....Ella, Jason, Jason's mom, Jason's Grandma and Jason's Great-Grandma. We took a great 5 generation photo of them all. Ella is so lucky to be surrounded by so much family and so many people that love her already!

Our little family. We are all SO in love with each other!

First Sponge Bath

Until her cord falls off Ella can just have sponge baths. She had her first one yesterday. She didn't mind it too much, just screamed toward the end a bit.



On a VERY happy note her bilirubin is finally coming down...after 4 Dr. appointments this week they think we are home free with the jaundice, it will be a sunny weekend here so we're going to lay her in the sun as much as possible. The down side of that is it makes her sleepy to lay in the sun and then she's up all night because she slept all day - oh what a balancing act babies are!

Lazy Day at Home

Today was our first day home without Dr. appointments or anywhere that we had to go. It was so nice to have a lazy day at home with Ella!

Our First Day at Home

Our first day at home has been great. Ella has been a great baby, nursing well, pooping lots and sleeping in between :). She's a bit jaundiced so we had to go to the pediatrician to get her bilirubin checked and it's a little elevated still, so back to the pediatrician again tomorrow. She's waking up, so this is gonna be short, just wanted to give a quick update and some more pictures.

Sunning away the Jaundice

Ella Lydia Manson is Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had our beautiful baby girl Friday afternoon at 12:33pm.Ella Lydia Manson is her name! She weighed 7lbs 9oz, 19 1/2in long. She has tons of hair, chubby cheeks, long fingers and toes, she is just perfect! Delivery went well, we were at the hospital in labor for 14 hours, labored for 22 hours total. Made it to 8cm then got an epidural, pushed for an hour. It all went darn smoothly! We just got home today so we're still settling in. More to come later....for now we've got a baby to coo and swoon over! We are SO IN LOVE!

Japanese Gardens

Here are some photos of a trip we recently took to the Japanese Gardens. We've had a few bright warm sunny days the last few weeks, so we've tried to get outside and enjoy them. We haven't been to the Japanese gardens for a few years, so it was great to go back. The cherry blossom trees were just starting to bloom.

On a baby note... we had an OB appointment today and I am 4 cm dilated 70% effaced. T-1 week until our due date. We got the ball rolling to schedule an induction at 41 weeks if she does not decide to come before then. We are extremely antsy and can't wait to see our baby girl.

Eugene Visit

We sure missed this place! So many fun memories were made here!!!

The construction site for the new Mac Court...it's ginormous!

With our buddies Betty and Fr. Dave at Studio 1

Last Sunday Jason and I drove to Eugene for a visit. We hadn't been there since we moved to California 2 1/2 years ago, so it was long overdue. We went to the Newman Center Sunday morning for mass and got to go to Studio 1 Cafe for breakfast with our friends Fr. Dave and Betty. We hadn't told them that we are having a baby, we wanted to surprise them in person....it was so fun to see their reactions! We drove by the new baseball field at Autzen, saw the HUGE pit at the new basketball arena site, saw the new alumni building at the entrance of campus, went to Sweet Life (bought 3 pieces of cake...2 for then and 1 for later), went to the store Modern that's always been a fave of ours, and ended the day with a stop at Burrito Boy (got 4 burritos...one for then and one for later, they even gave us extra mole since we were bringing them home to Portland). It was a great trip and it was so nice to visit all of our favorite old sites. Can't wait to visit again!

Heaven in a glass case!

37 1/7 Weeks

Oh the fun that awaits us!

We had an OB appointment today and I am almost 1cm dilated, 70% effaced, and at 0 station....in english that means that the baby's head is down right at the cervix, cervix is 70% of the way thinned out and starting to dilate. As far as what that means for delivery, that remains to be known, could still take weeks for her to come, but at least there's been some progress! We were pretty happy with the news! Our to do list is complete, can't think of anything we have to do while we still have some baby-free time....we're just relaxing a bit and enjoying each other's company - cooking some fun meals together and laughing lots. Jason is making blueberry scones as I write this so I should head to the kitchen and help...just wanted to give you all an update!

This girl has one heck of a wardrobe already!