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...

She's here!!!!

Ellyanna Grace Thompson
born at 2:40pm, 9 May 2009
7 lbs 12 oz, 20 inches

I know this post is long overdue, but as anyone who has had a newborn in the house knows there is very little time in those first few weeks for doing anything besides taking care of the baby. Anyhow...I'm just now getting around to blogging about the birth of our little Ellyanna Grace. She is 17 days old today and just as precious as can be. She arrived on her actual due date which was also my 34th birthday. This will certainly be a birthday to remember....along with my first Mother's Day.

Mom arrived on Thursday, May 7th and had just a couple of days to rest before Ellyanna was born. That evening Sam and I went for a walk and that was the first time I started feeling like I was getting close to giving birth. My back was hurting and I was feeling some contraction pains. We didn't walk for long considering how I was feeling. Saturday morning I had an appointment with Dr. Van de Castel at 8:00. I had been to see her on Friday as well, but I think she knew that I was getting close so she wanted me to come in on Saturday morning too. I was having contractions that morning and they started getting stronger around 7:00 when I was getting ready to leave. By the time we left the house, the contractions were strong enough that I asked Mom to drive to the doctor's office.

Dr. Van de Castel put me on the fetal monitor and could see the steady contractions, but when she examined me she said I was still not starting to dilate. We left there at 9:00 and went home. I was still having lots of contractions and they were starting to slow me down a little bit, but were not unbearable.

Sam had an electrician at the house that day putting in lights on the back patio. Having someone in and out of the house made it hard to relax in the living room, so I was sitting at the dining room table and Mom started timing the contractions. They were around 5 minutes apart, but only lasting 30-40 seconds. I figured I was still in early labor because while the contractions were somewhat painful, it was very manageable. In all the classes we attended throughout the pregnancy we were told to labor at home until the contractions were lasting for 1 minute, were 5 minutes apart and were consistent for 1 hour. It didn't seem like I was to that point, but when I was up moving around I noticed the pain was pretty constant so I laid down on our bed a little after 1:00.

Mom came upstairs to check on me and was just heading back downstairs to get the stopwatch to continue timing the contractions when I felt a pop and my water broke. I jumped up off the bed and called to Mom, but suddenly felt so sick and was in so much pain I went to my knees and was leaning on the couch in our room. It was frightening to be in that much pain so quickly. Mom knew we had to get to the hospital and went to get Sam. They had to help me down the stairs and out to the car. I am such a quiet person, but could not keep quiet with the harder contractions. I was really scared underneath it all because it came on so suddenly. Thinking back on it, I'm convinced that I basically went from early labor directly into transition with no real active labor. I was in so much pain all the way to the hospital and don't have a clear memory of much after my water broke. It was pretty surreal.

We got to the hospital and up to the labor ward and the midwife put me on a fetal monitor. When they did the exam they said I was already dilated to 9 centimeters, which was shocking to me since it had only been about 4 hours since I'd been at Dr. Van de Castel's and she said I was not dilated at all. At that point I started feeling a lot of pressure, so they transferred me to a labor room and within a matter of minutes (it seemed to me) I was pushing her out. It was all so different than I thought it would be and once my water broke everything happened so quickly. At home I was prepared for a long labor and suddenly here I was, just an hour later, at the end of labor pushing this baby out.

I didn't realize it at the time, but when Ellyanna was born she was not breathing and her face was very purple, so they didn't hand her to me or have Sam cut the cord. They took her directly over to the table and began working on her. Soon after I heard her first cries and she started getting pink. It was a much more intense experience than I was prepared for. I knew it would hurt, but was not prepared to go directly from early labor into transition so my body had no time to work up to it. By the time we got to the hospital there was no time for any type of pain relief so I ended up having her completely natural, which is what I originally wanted, but had no idea how painful that would be. If there had been time I'm sure I would have been asking for something.

During birth Ellyanna swallowed some meconium, so the doctors were concerned that she may have breathed it into her lungs as well. We watched her closely for any signs of pneumonia, but thankfully she's been just fine. Also, I'm positive for Strep B, so they usually would have put me on IV antibiotics during labor to prevent the baby from getting infected. They didn't get a chance to though because she came so quickly. We have to watch her closely for her first 3 months in case there are any signs of the Strep B. It's pretty serious if she has it, but it's rare for a baby to be infected by the mother, especially in very quick births, so I'm not too worried even though we'll be watching her.

I had a much different reaction to Ellyanna's birth than I thought I would. During pregnancy when I thought about seeing her for the first time I felt very emotional about it, but when she was born I felt very disconnected. It really bothered me that I didn't have that rush of maternal feeling, but I think I was so emotionally exhausted from the birth experience that I didn't have anything else to give at that point. I'm sure all women feel like their birthing experience was harder than most, but I was not prepared for what I experienced. Even Mom, whose given birth to three, felt it was a very hard birth. When people hear how fast I had her I usually get a comment about how great it is that it was so fast. While I've come to appreciate that it was fast, having her so quickly gave my body no time to adjust to the levels of pain. I was thrust right into transition and pushing the baby out with no real leading up to it. However, it all turned out good. We have a healthy beautiful baby and probably because it was so quick and I had no pain medication I had a very quick recovery. I never felt terribly sore and actually felt pretty good early on. I think my lack of maternal feelings at the delivery were transferred to Sam. It was cute seeing how proud he was of his little girl. I think it kind of took him by surprise how much he loved her at first sight. Throughout the pregnancy he didn't feel the connection that I did with having her inside me, but that changed very quickly once he saw her. He's a very proud daddy.

The German hospitals like to keep new babies and mothers for 5-7 days, but we stayed for 3. We stayed long enough for Ellyanna to have her first pediatric checkup, but I was very ready to get back to my house on Tuesday afternoon. I was glad that Sam was able to stay with me through the nights. It was pretty tough to get any sleep those first few nights (actually...it still is). She is so beautiful though. It's strange to go from just the two of us to having a baby. At times it still feels like a dream or that I'm just taking care of someone elses baby. I'm definitely still adjusting to having my own child. I was so happy that she had lots of dark hair :) Most importantly she is healthy, but there was a part of me that was hoping she would have dark hair. She looks so much like a Hosier baby. Everyone we see says that she looks like Sam and she really does, especially across the eyes, but she looks alot like my baby pictures too. We think we see little dimples on each cheek too. It's so precious when she smiles. I know at this age it's just a reflex, but it's a promise of what's to come.

Granted she is only 17 days old, but we've had a hard time getting her to sleep in her own bed. She is happiest laying on someone's chest (can you blame her?), so for the first 10 days I held her while trying to sleep at night. Around her 11th day Mom started staying up with Ellyanna at night and sleeping in the rocking chair so I could get some solid sleep. You forget how wonderful it is to be able to just go to bed and not have the responsibility of a baby. One night with Mom she actually slept in her crib for 3 hours at a time. That was a real milestone. I had to get up a couple times through the night to feed her, but I was getting a couple hours of solid sleep in between which was a real blessing. The following two nights she was very fussy. I think she was having some tummy problems. I have gas drops that we were giving her, but she just cried non-stop for those two evenings. I'm still getting to know this new little addition and seeing what works with her. Then, last night, was the first night she slept in our room. She was in bed with me more than in the co-sleeper, but we're making strides in the right direction.

It took quite awhile for Ellyanna's umbilical cord to fall off. Last Thursday we were scheduled for newborn photos, but because her umbilical cord was still on and it was a very rainy day the photographer rescheduled us for tomorrow. Finally, last Saturday(23 May) when we went to change her diaper we saw that her umbilical cord had fallen off through the night. It's so nice not having that on her belly anymore. The last couple of days before it came off it was just hanging by a thread and was bleeding a little. It's so nice to just have that sweet little baby belly under her clothes and to not have to be careful of the cord anymore.

There is so much more I could write about our baby girl, but my mind is still a bit of a mush and I can't really put all my thoughts together coherently right now. Even this post took me about a week to get together. I started it when she was 10 days old then kept trying to update it. Today I just decided to get it done, but even that has taken all day. I'll try to start posting more regularly, especially for the grandparents who can't see her everyday. I'm going to quit rambling now and just post some pictures of the last couple weeks with our precious baby girl.

Saturday morning at Dr. Van de Castel's office. I was having contractions here and was on the fetal monitor.

The first time I saw and held Ellyanna - she was just minutes old. My first thought was that she looked like my Grandma Hosier.

Getting to know my little girl. She was still so white from birth and her little hands and feet were so cold.

Sam holding his little girl

Ellyanna all bundled up. We were still in the labor room. She was probably just 30 minutes old in this picture.

It's hard to believe I'd just given birth to this little bundle.

Getting her hair rinsed.

While still in the labor room the midwife weighed and measured Ellyanna

I so wanted to be up and seeing what they were doing with Ellyanna, but it was during that first hour after giving birth and I kept feeling like I was going to pass out, so I had to resign myself to watching from the bed.

In the German hospital they dress them in the hospital clothes. Here she was getting clothes on for the first time.

Getting to know our baby girl

Several hours after birth we were finally in our room

Me with my baby girl

Grandma with her newest grandchild

Grandma and Ellyanna Grace

Since I was giving birth on my actual birthday, Mom and Sam brought the cake and presents to the hospital the following day (Mother's Day) so we could celebrate.

Getting weighed on day two. She dropped to 7lbs 6oz

Daddy and Ellyanna

Our little cherub

Precious!

Getting ready to head home on 12 May 2009

Leaving the hospital on our way home

Finally home! That's when exhaustion hit me.

Sleeping peacefully her first night at home.

Going on our first outing

Getting her hair combed

Sam having some one on one with Ellyanna

So cute!

Ready to head out. First time she was wearing a little dress.

The midwife weighing Ellyanna (23 May). She was up to 8 lbs, 5 oz.

Walking around Feuersee

Enjoying an ice cream cone in downtown Stuttgart.

Getting ready for our first time going to church with Ellyanna (24 May).

These past 2 1/2 weeks have just flown by. It's been so great having Mom here and I'm already dreading the time when she leaves. She's been such a great help, but besides that it's just been nice having her around. I so miss being near my family.

Sam's been able to be off work since Ellyanna was born. Today was his first day back, but it was nice having him around so much. We've been getting to know our little girl and just getting through the days. We're still trying to get her days and nights switched around. Hopefully I can get better at posting updates. Until next time.