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!