Explosive!

We do not have any pictures, but you wouldn't want one anyway.

Up until this point, we have been fortunate not to have been pooped or peed on...until today. As I was chatting on the phone with my sister, Jared kindly decided to prepare Ella for her bath. As he was running the water, I heard a yell from the bathroom. I was wondering what was happening. Figuring it wasn't all that bad, I went to the bathroom 5 minutes later. I should have came sooner! Ella decided her tummy was full and need to make room. So, what'd she do? She pooped on the counter, the sink, her dad, and basically the entire bathroom. To make things better, Gracie decided she needed to join in on the action to try and help clean it up with her tongue. She was quickly shooed out of the bathroom. So, we got Ella in the bathtub and started the process when we began to see bubbles come from the water. At first, it was just the toots, but was shortly followed by the real thing. So, we had to repeat the process again.

Ella did not seem to mind; she smiled through the whole ordeal.

I Want A Horsey!

For Christmas, Ella's uncle Chris made her a beautiful rocking horse. We can't wait until she is big enough to ride it, and we think she feels the same!

Milestones

Well...we were talking this morning and decided we were either going to quit our blog or get on the stick and start writing. We have realized there are so many things that we could write about! So, here you go!

Ella has:

-discovered her tounge and now chews on it

-discovered that her smile melts her parent's heart

-discovered she can use her voice, so she has been busy cooing
-discovered it is really fun to grab things and put them in her mouth (her favorite is her toy elephant)
-discovered it is not fun to get her nose sucked out
-discovered it is not fun to be in the hospital

We have had an amazing time watching her grow and learn new things. We could sit for hours and just watch her, and sometimes we do. Thankfully, our families do not expect a spick and span house!

Precious Moment

Well, it has been a few weeks since we updated our blog. Ella has continued to grow strong and healthy. She is a very good eater and is putting on some weight. Her belly is defintely growing and she is getting chubby cheeks! We think she is pretty precious.

This past week our family had a scare. We found out Tuesday morning that Grandpa Eben had a stroke. Thankfully, he is recovering well. He was able to regain movement in his right side very quickly which was a huge answer to prayer.

We went to the hospital Tuesday afternoon. It was Ella's first trip to Iowa and she did quite well. The key is to make sure she is fed and tired before putting her in the car. It was very important for us to have Ella go visit Great Grandpa Eben because he has only seen her one previous time. He was able to hold her and we were able to capture a precious moment. We hope and pray that she has many more precious moments with her great grandparents!

Week 2

It is hard to believe that Ella is 2 weeks old. It is crazy how fast the time goes! Jared returned to work this week and did half days. It has been nice to slowly ease back into days by myself. Jared has been such a great help and I am so thankful he has great work flexibility and time off to take. I do not know how I could have done this by myself the first weeks. We have said a lot of prayers for single mothers. I do not know how they get through the days.

A glimpse into our daily routine goes like this: wake up, change diaper, eat, some awake time, then sleep time...repeat this process continually.

Ella still has been a good sleeper for us, which we are very thankful for! If you know us, you know how much Jared and I love our sleep. God was watching out for us! In fact, we have a hard time taking our eyes off her when she is sleeping because she is very expressive! Here is a short clip to show you...We hope you enjoy as much as we do!

Here are some random pictures we hope you enjoy as well!

Sometimes it is very difficult to wake Ella up. Here is one morning feeding where Ella wished that we would just leave her sleep!

Relaxing in the bouncer.

Time with Grandma Fluth.



Time with Grandma Norberg.

Cousin Logan getting his first peek at Ella.

Week One at Home

We've survived our first week at home! It seems unbelievable that Ella is already 9 days old, but we have done our best to treasure each moment as it arrives. We've also tried to capture as many of them in photos as we can, and we'll try to share them as well.

On our way out of the hospital we discovered that Ella's bilirubin numbers were too high, so we have spent some time this past week on the lovely "Wallaby 3" system. While a bit cumbersome, I think it actually soothes Ella as she sleeps (something her parents greatly appreciate). It also makes her look like a pretty cute glowworm.


We have also enjoyed the many faces of Ella, it seems her expression is constantly changing!

We've been blessed by the fact that Ella is a good sleeper. We have been waking her up during the night after 4 hours so she can eat. We are really praying that her sleep continues in this manner, it has really helped us as we try to avoid exhaustion. This is Ella this morning as she was having a difficult time waking up for breakfast.


We were thankful today that Ella's sleep/eat schedule aligned well so we could attend church this morning. Here is Ella and Daddy after getting ready for church.


This afternoon some of us are watching the Vikings/Cowboys game, and others are napping. Clearly 3/4ths of the family has decided to nap!

Ella Beth

After months of anticipation, our daughter has finally arrived! Ella Beth was born on Friday, January 8th at 10:32pm. She weighed 8lbs 6ozs and was 21 inches long. In the days since, we have learned much, slept little, and fallen in love with our precious gift.

As if 9 months isn't long enough to wait, Ella kept us waiting at the end as well. We checked in to the hospital at 7:30pm on Thursday night, and started drugs to induce the labor shortly thereafter. In the next 27 hours, we spent a lot of time staring at machines like this:

All of the waiting and struggle of labor paid off the second we laid our eyes on Ella Beth. She came out wide awake and full of life!


Even though it was the middle of the night, we were blessed by having family visit shortly after the birth to share in our joy. (Having trouble getting these pictures uploaded!)

After everyone had left, and we were transferred to our recovery room, it was wonderful to get a few relaxing moments as a new family.

Stay tuned...we will continue to add more updates as we get the pictures, videos, or - most importantly - energy!