Baby accomplishments and company

I am so proud of our little girl. Various things that I've worried about since she was born have just worked themselves out. I was worried about how I was going to get her to sleep in her own bed, but when it felt right I swaddled her and put her in the co-sleeper and she just went to sleep. She has been regularly sleeping 5 hours straight at night. She wakes up for a feeding then goes back to sleep for another 3 hours. She fusses some, but eventually goes to sleep. It's just been working so great .

Another thing I've been fretting about is getting her to take naps. It seemed like every time I lay her down she wakes up and is not getting any real sleep through the day unless I'm holding her. The only place she sleeps at all is on the couch. As I've said before I want to get her taking naps in her crib so I can get some things done while she's asleep and I don't have to worry about her rolling off the couch.

Well, yesterday I knew I was going to be very busy. We had friends coming over in the evening and I needed to get the house cleaned up. So, when she started getting sleepy mid-morning I took her to the nursery, fed her, swaddled her and laid her in the crib. She slept for 3 1/2 hours in her crib! It's been really hot lately, so I put a fan in there, turned her lullabies on quietly and she really slept. I have the baby monitor so I can hear her if she starts crying. I just couldn't believe how easily she went down.

I attribute her sleeping on her own to being swaddled. I've become a real believer in swaddling. It almost seems cruel to me because she squirms and grunts trying to get her arms out, but once she goes to sleep it helps her stay asleep. If she's not swaddled she constantly wakes herself us with throwing her arms around. Mom kept telling me I should try swaddling her. Once again - Mom knows best. I should have tried it a long time ago, but felt bad about binding her.

My little burrito - all wrapped up

This morning again I put her to sleep in her crib and she's been sleeping now for 2 1/2 hours. I know she'll be waking up soon though because she was so tired that she wouldn't nurse before I laid her down. I love being able to put her in her crib and have just a little while to get other things done - like blogging :)

We finally have curtains up in our house. I won't say they are my favorite, but I'm really happy just to have the windows finished. It's been a pain getting them finished here in Germany. It's been hot so we've had the rolladens down to help keep the heat out, but once it cools off it's nice to be able to open the windows and have privacy from the neighbors.

I mentioned that we were having company over last night. Jerry and Heide are in Germany visiting their family and were able to spend an evening with us as well. It was really nice seeing them again. It's been at least 2 1/2 years since we last saw them. Sam's family has know them many years. I just met then when we were dating. They lived in Hawaii when we were there, but now live in Arizona. Anyhow, we really enjoyed having them over. They are the first of any of our friends from the states to meet Ellyanna. I'm sure they will rub it in to Sam's parents that they met their granddaughter first.

Here are a few pictures from last night-

Sam, Heide, Ellyanna and me

Sam, Heide, Jerry and Ellyanna

Heide had a Grandma's touch. She would hold Ellyanna and put her right to sleep.

Well, I hear a little girl squirming around in her crib, so I better go check on her. Until next time...

Ellyanna's 1st pediatrician appointment

Friday, 26 June
Well, I didn't get to Dr. Van de Castel's yesterday. She had an emergency so my appointment has been changed to Monday. I did, however, go to my appointment with Dr. Schafer. Thankfully, both kidneys look great. Since we have to wait until I'm finished breast feeding Ellyanna before he can do the more in depth test he wants me to come back every 6 months for ultrasounds. I really don't think there is anything to be concerned about, but just to be safe I probably will.

At the New Parent Support group on Wednesday some of us Moms (that still sounds funny to refer to myself as a "Mom") were talking about how much our babies weighed. I've been really curious about how much Ellyanna is weighing these days so we went over to the WIC office and used their scale. Our little girl, with clothes and diaper on, weighed a whopping 12lbs, 6ozs! We have a little chunky monkey on our hands!

Tuesday, 30 June
Several days have passed and I'm just getting back to this post. I was just reading back to what I wrote about how big Ellyanna's getting. This was made abundantly clear last night when I realized she's actually growing out of some of her 0-3 month clothes. For the first time I put a 3-6 month tee shirt on her. I think I'm going to have to move up a size for her sleepers too. It's a shame that her 0-3 month clothes were barely used. I'll hold on to them in case we have another little one in the future. She's only 7 weeks old, so I really didn't expect her to grow out of her clothes so fast. She's a healthy little girl though.

I fall more and more in love with her every day. She's so precious! She's really interacting with us when we talk to her now. When she wants to eat she starts sticking her tongue out. So, Sam was holding her the other evening and she was doing that and he stuck his tongue out at her. She studied him for a moment then broke into this adorable smile. I see why parents make fools of themselves to get a smile out of their child. It's so rewarding to see that sweet little smile.

Here are a few pictures from this past week -

So sweet...

Hanging out on our bed

Nothing better than sleeping in Mom and Dad's bed

The whole bed to herself :)

Reading the paper with Daddy

Wednesday, 1 July
Ok....did it again. I don't seem to make much headway on the blog during the day. Started on it again yesterday and got busy with something else. Oh well, maybe I'll get it posted tonight.

We took Ellyanna to her first pediatrician appointment today. Thankfully, she didn't have to get any shots. We do have to go back in just a couple of weeks for her first set of immunizations though. I don't really like the idea of having her immunized due to all the controversy surrounding the possibility of high rates of autism being linked to certain immunizations. However, since we live so close to the eastern block countries where immunizations are not common we feel it is more necessary to have Ellyanna immunized so she's protected wherever we may travel. We leave the outcome in God's hands and pray that there are no serious problems.

We really liked the doctor and it was so fun to see her being checked over. He did an ultrasound on her hips to ensure they're developing correctly. He checked her all over and declared her to be a very healthy baby. She now weighs 12 lbs, 15 ozs and is 22.4 inches long. Our little girl is growing and growing. It seems like every time I change her diaper I see another little fat roll. It's adorable though. On the growth chart she is just above the high range, but the doctor had no concerns. She's only having breast milk, so she's just a very healthy little girl.

We asked Dr. Becker how long we should watch for signs of Strep B in Ellyanna. When she was born we were told we should be careful until she was 3 months old, but Dr. Becker said the real concern is in the first 6 weeks. Since she is now 7 1/2 weeks old he said there was no reason to be concerned that she might contract it. I'm very thankful for that.

Here are a few pictures -

Ellyanna with Dr. Becker

Having her hips scanned

This has become a nightly ritual. Waiting for us while we get ready for bed.

Waiting patiently...

Still waiting...

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...