What we've been up to

It's a rainy, dreary day here in Germany. A day that would make it easy to stay in bed...that is if we didn't have a little munchkin that makes sleeping in (or at all) rather hard these days. When we first came over we heard so many people complain about Germany's lack of sunshine that we were a little concerned that it would always be overcast. That hasn't been our experience though. It does rain quite a bit during the summer and it has it's share of cloudy days, but there are quite a few really beautiful days too. I actually rather enjoy the rainy days.

I'm still trying to figure Ellyanna out. At this age I feel kind of bad some days because it seems like all I do with her is nurse her, change her diaper and she's sleeping again. I know most of that is her age, but I still feel like I'm not interacting with her enough even though when she's up I'm talking to her and holding her. She sleeps alot, but not generally with long naps. She sleeps for 30-45 minutes at a time then wakes back up. A couple of days she's taken long naps and that's really nice so I have a block of time to do things around the house. I'm trying to get her to start taking naps in her crib or the co-sleeper in our room, but her favorite place to sleep in on the couch. I'm not as comfortable with her on the couch though because I have to watch her more closely. I put pillows out in front just in case she would happen to roll, but still check on her all the time.

For now she's still sleeping with us, but we're going to start trying to have her sleep in the co-sleeper. A part of me wants to keep her in our bed. It's so sweet to have her snuggled up close to me and watch her sleeping so peacefully. She's such a doll baby. I know all parents must have the same thoughts, but I could just watch her sleeping for hours on end. I'm just amazed that this beautiful, perfect little baby belongs to us. What a gift!

Two weekends ago the changing table finally came in at the PX. It took so much longer to put together than the other pieces did. Everything takes so much longer when you have to stop every so often to take care of a baby. I'm still getting things put away in the nursery. I'll post pictures when it's done. I know Mom will want to see it.

I have two doctor's appointments on Thursday. Sam won't be able to go with me, so I'm a little nervous about taking Ellyanna to both of them by myself. One is with the kidney doctor. He wants to just check my kidney now that I'm no longer pregnant. Once I'm finished breast feeding Ellyanna I'll have to go back for more in depth testing, but it involves having dye injected and that wouldn't be good for the baby so for now it'll just be an ultrasound. Also, I'm going back for my checkup with Dr. Van de Castel. Next week we have Ellyanna's first well baby checkup. When Sam called to get the appointment he was reprimanded for calling so late. I guess we were suppose to have her in by 5 weeks, but it took us awhile to find a pediatrician. Our midwife gave us the name of one that speaks English. Hopefully we're happy with him.

Well, I started this post several days ago. It's now Wednesday and I'm just getting back to finishing it. We had a milestone with Ellyanna last night. Two actually, if you count this being the first day her hair is not sticking up at the top of her head as a milestone :) I think it's getting a little longer and able to hold itself down better down. Anyhow, the milestone I was originally talking about is that she slept in her co-sleeper last night! Yea!!! I've been concerned about how we would transition her out of our bed, but it just happened very easily last night. She was very fussy and kept throwing her arms around, so I decided to swaddle her (which she normally does not like) and when I laid her down in the co-sleeper she was asleep in minutes. She slept for 3 hours and woke to nurse. When she was done I swaddled her again and put her back in the co-sleeper and she slept for another 3 hours. I was so proud of that accomplishment.

In just a little while we're going to Panzer for the New Parent Support Group and the PX. I really enjoy getting out of the house these days even if it does take a lot longer. This past weekend I started using a carrier with Ellyanna and it makes going into stores a lot easier. Her car seat is so heavy, but carrying her in my arms is hard while shopping. Using a carrier which leaves my hands free has worked out much better.

Well, that's about all that's going on with us. Here are a few pictures of Ellyanna over the last couple of weeks.

Tummy time!

Ellyanna's been having a little problem with cradle cap, so in the mornings I put oil on her scalp before bathing her. She was sleepy so I put a little hat on her so oil wouldn't get on the couch.



One day last week we walked to the Apoteke to see if there was anything we could get to put on her face. For the last 4 weeks she's had a lot of skin problems which started with baby acne. At this point her face is just very dry, but the cradle cap seems to be getting a little better. Anyhow, this is Ellyanna in her stroller.

This is the first time she fell asleep in her crib. She didn't sleep for a long time, but it was a milestone.

Her favorite place to nap is on the couch.

These little shoes were given to Ellyanna by Cheryl. They are so cute and I was trying them on her and had to get a picture.

Daddy and Ellyanna after church on Father's Day

Seems like she's always sleeping for her pictures

She was getting very fussy at this point

Ellyanna is 1 month old!

It's hard to believe, but our baby girl is already one month old (yesterday). What a month this has been! In some ways it was the hardest month of my life, but so worth it! We're still trying to figure this little person out. She's such a sweet baby. Any frustration comes from my own lack of experience. She doesn't take good naps yet, which I'm working at. She sleeps great as long as she's being held, but as soon as I put her down she's awake. It'll get better though.

Just two days ago she gave me a real smile. How sweet that was! She's sleeping with us, so I'm not getting real restful sleep and when Sam gets up for work I try to move her over from me a little so I can stretch out and get a little more sleep. Well...that hasn't worked yet because as soon as Sam gets up she starts her noises. She goes through about an hour of stretching and grunting and squeaking...none of which I can sleep through. Two mornings ago after trying to sleep through her noises for an hour I looked over at her and said something about not letting Mommy sleep and she gave me the cutest grin. It was the first time she actually responded to me saying something to her. She's done that several times since and it's so precious. I love seeing her respond to me.

Yesterday she took a bottle from Sam for the first time. We wanted to wait until she was well established with nursing before introducing her to a bottle, but she took it with no problem. I'm really glad because I want Sam to be able to feed her sometimes. It's such a sweet time that I think he should have an opportunity to experience it.

Today Ellyanna and I went to our first New Parent Support group. It was so interesting to see the different babies in all the various stages. I noticed two very distict types of babies. The one has a more long and lean body and bald (or very little hair) and the other has the very short and chubby body with lots of hair. Looking around the room it seems all of the babies fit into one of those categories. Ellyanna has the chubbier body type and holding her I felt like she was a real chunk compared to some of the other babies. Seriously, there were other babies there that were quite a bit older than her, but seemed much smaller. She certainly has no problem in the weight department.

I called Wendy, the midwife, this week and asked her to come by to give Ellyanna one more checkup because she started getting baby acne about two weeks ago and it just seems to be getting worse. I figured it was normal, but knew I'd feel better hearing it from the midwife. Of course, that's what she said and that it will eventually go away, but may take some time. While she was here we had her weigh Ellyanna. I knew she was getting heavier and sure enough she was 10 lbs, 3 ozs. Like I said....she has no problem gaining weight. I love all her little rolls though. I know I'm biased, but she just seems to get cuter every day.

Here are some more recent pictures of our little munchkin -
When we first brought Ellyanna home we were very concerned about how Gabby would respond to her. The first couple of days we watched Gabby very closely when she was around the baby. She seemed interested, but almost like she was looking at a prey. Since then she has become very protective of Ellyanna. When the midwife comes Gabby follows her around and stays very close when she's checking out the baby. Also, Ellyanna's crying really upsets Gabby. She meows and follows us around biting and slapping at our feet. Almost like she's reprimanding us for making the baby cry. We still watch her closely, but I have no concerns about her intentionally hurting Ellyanna, which is a real relief to us.

Sitting with Daddy one evening

The other day I had Ellyanna propped on the boppy for some tummy time and it got really quiet. When I went in to check on her I found her fast asleep on the pillow.

That boppy looks pretty comfortable. You can see in this picture how bad her baby acne is.

I just thought she was so cute sleeping on the couch.





So comfortable in her bassinet.

Hopefully no one gets tired of seeing pictures of Ellyanna, but both of our parents, siblings and friends live far away and this is the easiest way to post pictures for them to see. We are so enjoying our new baby. She's just the most precious gift and we take the responsibility of being her parents very seriously. There is so much we have to learn about her, but it's a process and we're growing each day as parents. We love seeing the (almost) daily changes in her. We would love to be able to share her with our families, but it's hard with us living so far away. We hope they will be able to know her a little through the pictures we post on the blog. Until next time...

Maternity/Newborn Photo Sessions

This post has lots of pictures. I finally received the CD of pictures from our sessions with the photographer. I'm happy with how they turned out.

The maternity photo shoot was done at an old monastary called Kloster Bebenhausen on 26 April. I was almost 39 weeks pregnant. We were concerned about the weather because it was looking very cloudly when we left the house, but it turned out really nice. Here are a few of our favorites from that day.













For the newborn photos we went to the photographer's studio. It was 27 May and Ellyanna was 18 days old. Last post I mentioned how badly that morning started. Our time with the photographer that day was very hard. Ellyanna was fussy from not sleeping all night and I was exhausted. I didn't expect any of the pictures to turn out well, but it shows how good the photographer is that she got some good shots out of that day. I was glad that Mom could be here for the pictures because I wanted a picture of the 3 generations. Here are some of my favorites from that day.

By ourselves again....

Mom is on her way home. We took her to the airport this morning and I am so sad that her time here is over. It's times like this when I really question us living overseas. It's so hard to be away from family and not have them in our every day lives. It really breaks my heart that they won't be around Ellyanna. Mom and I will be on the webcam alot and keep in touch like we always do, but it's just different with a baby. I want her to know Mom and Dad and it's hard with us living so far away. Anyhow, I've been shedding my share of tears today :(

Along with missing Mom I've had a little anxiety about being at home alone with Ellyanna. I'll be fine, but for the last month, since having her, I've not truly been alone with her. I always had Mom to turn to when she wouldn't quit crying or just needed to be held. It was so great having Mom here. She just had the touch with Ellyanna. Whenever she was fussy and I had a hard time quieting her I could hand her to Mom and she would calm right down.

I wish we could have had time to get out and visit some places around Germany with Mom, but I'm thankful that she didn't come with the idea of doing lots of travelling because it didn't work out. She was much more realistic about it than I was early on. Before having Ellyanna I thought we probably could get out some, but all along Mom said she was coming to help with the baby and not for travelling. I think she knew from the beginning that we wouldn't get around to doing much more than taking care of the baby.

We did take a drive to the Black Forrest one day and another day we went to downtown Stuttgart, but Ellyanna was so young that whenever we went out I felt irresponsible about it when we got home. She was just too young to be out doing alot. That first week Mom was here the air conditioning in the car quit working. With the days getting hotter we didn't want to have Ellyanna out in the heat with no AC to cool the car off.

The first couple of weeks after Ellyanna was born I felt so good that I did more than I probably should have. I wasn't getting much sleep (maybe 2-3 hours a night), but didn't really want to sleep through the day because Mom was here and I wanted to spend all the time I could with her. I didn't want to sleep her visit away. Mom kept telling me that if I didn't get my rest I would eventually crash. Sure enough...the morning we were scheduled to go for the newborn photo shoot Mom came up to find me sobbing in the kitchen, holding a crying baby. Ellyanna had not slept all night and I didn't know what to do for her. She was crying constantly and I was at the end of myself. Sam had to get to work, but called the photographer and got our appointment pushed back a little bit. Mom took the baby and I calmed down. It was pretty hard there for a little while. Our nights have been better with Ellyanna sleeping with us, but I know I need to start having her sleep in her own bed. It just breaks my heart to hear her cry. I do need to start working at that though.

I hope to get more consistent with my blog updates. Eventually, I think our lives will settle into a better routine and I'll be able to get more done in a day. Right now I don't feel like my days are very productive, but I hold out hope that it'll get better. Meanwhile, I'm so enjoying our baby girl. I know this time will go by much too quickly. She's precious and I love holding her, which is a good thing because it seems she wakes up as soon as I put her down. Well, I believe I hear another poopy diaper in the making so I better sign off and go tend to that. Until next time...