Just a quick note as Kendall is here and Christine arrives tomorrow, so I may not post til Monday. We have been very, very sick! On Wednesday morning I came down with a little nausea...and full-on projectile vomiting. Ron had to come home from work after lunch because I was so weak I could barely pick up Ella. Granddad and Grandma came over that evening to watch Ella while Ron took me to the doctor. I apparently had a bacterial infection. Did I mention I found out our neighborhood pool hadn't been cleaned???? Oh my god! What a nightmare. Ella is fine, as are Nolan and Amy, thank god! Though my doctor thinks the pool is not the culprit of my infection....hummm? And the neighborhood association has since assured me that it is cleaned regularly...hummm again? It obviously wasn't as Ron woke up Thursday with the same thing and wound up in the ER. He was sent home with some meds and slept 18 hours yesterday. It's been a very rough couple of days and we're both feeling about 80%...just weak from no food for days. But feel better with each bite.
It was a big week of firsts for Ella. First days without nursing (my meds pass through so I have to pump and dump until tomorrow)and her first sleep-over at Grandma and Granddad's. It gave Ron and I some recovery time and I wanted to make sure Ella didn't catch what we had. She seems to have come out unscathed. She did so well and Grandma kicked Grandddad out to the couch and the girls had the whole bed to themselves. A real sleep-over!
It was an emotional time for me as it was the first night without Ella and with being so dehydrated I had no milk supply. I really wasn't emotionally ready to let that part of my baby go just yet. But since I've been drinking it's been slowly returning. I plan on nursing at least 6 months. As Auntie Stephanie says: "Teeth are god's way of saying it's time to stop nursing!" :)
Anyway, that's why there's been no posts or pics....more to come with friends visiting this weekend.
"She wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini..." Here is Ella in her new bikini that Grandma bought for her. So cute. Little girl bathing suits are adorable! She's not quite big enough for it so we will have to put it away for now. Most women spend most of their lives trying to get into a bikini, and Ella needs to fatten up to have it stay on! She's getting there, she's getting some chunky thighs and we love it!
Amy and Nolan came over this afternoon for a swim and it was so good to see them! Nolan is such a big boy, he was flirting and talking - just such a happy baby. It was fun to play with the babies in the pool. I am trying to get Ella to float or at least not drown for a few seconds if I let her go. Once she seemed to hold her breath, but the other two times she just coughed up water. I don't really let her go mind you (I'm waaaaay too scared to do that) but I let her get her head in the water. Apparently you can let them go in the water and they adjust quite well. You show me a parent that can do that, and I'll call them outta their mind! I'm going to look into a water babies class so we can learn the proper way.
She is very comfortable in the water, so comfortable in fact that she fell asleep in the pool. She had her hat on for protection and I was holding her so she could watch the other kids over my shoulder....she fell fast asleep! I laid her on a lounge chair and covered her with a towel, sopping wet diaper and all. She was zonked out! Here's the new one-piece from Grandma as well...pretty pretty.
A pretty uneventful day. Here is a sleep thing we received at our baby shower. I used it when Ella got out of the bath but now she's grown out of it and it's much too warm for Georgia summer. The pics make her look like a clan member...the Pooh clan that is! :)
Here is a pic of Ella as Miss Cranky Pants...it's an old one when she was 5 weeks, we think we'll use it as leverage when she's older. :)
I swear, Nolan and Ella are totally in sync with each other! I just read Amy's blog and it seems Ella and Nolan have special communication powers and decide just what kind of day they are going to give Amy and I!
Ella didn't sleep much, if at all today. She was alright until we went to Olive Garden for her Great Grandma's birthday dinner. We weren't there 5 minutes when she started screaming...and I don't just mean crying, I mean SCREAMING!!! I had to take her to the car to try to nurse her but she wasn't consolable. Finally after about 20 minutes, I was able to "shhhhhhh, shhhhh.." her and rock her to semi-consciousness. Ron had to come out and help me carry her diaper bag back into the restaurant. We had every intention of just getting our food to go, but she fell asleep in my arms under a blanket. So much for her wishing Grandma Beasley a happy birthday! By the time we finished dinner she was up and was able to take a bottle from her Grandad. We got stuck in traffic on the way home and it took us an hour and a half to get back, lucky for us, Ella fell asleep. Phew! I had hoped to get a picture of her with her Great Grandma but someone was being miss cranky pants.
I can't wait to sell our house and get the heck out of here! I am so tired of noisy, disrespectful neighbors. The girl next door comes in at all hours and cranks her stereo so that the base reverberates through our house. We've left notes on her door many times and have finally called the police a few times. She is getting better and will usually play her music during the day instead of midnight or 4am. The people behind us don't look to be home but some friend or family member has decided to through a party. There are cars on lawns and their stereo speakers are out in the yard. They've been playing music all freakin' afternoon. At 6:30 we finally called the police...not even sure if they showed up as it's now 7:30 and the music is still going. No one is even in the yard, they are all over at the pool...all gazillion of them. Grrrrr! Ella finally napped at 4 for a couple of hours and we're hoping to get her to fall asleep in an hour at her bedtime. I'm going to be peeved if the music keeps waking her up. I'll make Ron phone the cops again soon. I know, I'm such a downer but I'm sick of paying homeowners fees to live in this neighborhood.
At lunch I took Ella to the pool and for once, there weren't a billion kids in it. We got to play all by ourselves and Ella has started kicking when you hold her in the water. We didn't stay long as she gets cold quickly. Going to take a bath and then it's bedtime...I hope!
Okay, so I took some pictures at the BBQ for Ron's work, and when I got home, the camera didn't have any pics on it. I'm not sure how that happened so here's a couple more from last week when Steph, Matt and Christin were here. Ella is so in love with her godfather, Matthew.
He could get her giggling and talking (she's on his lap in this first pic) and when she was exhausted, he could calm her down and get her to sleep...and he can't even nurse (we think he's Superman!). Her godmother, Stephanie, is definitely not going to be the disciplinary...teaching her all the things kids should know but parents wished they didn't. Steph will have her blowing milk out her nose, flicking food at her parents and blowing "raspberries" before she's one. We can't wait to go to Toronto in September to see them again!
Here's a pic of our visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. The memorials are beautiful and Ella liked the water around MLK's tomb. Thank you Auntie Christin for the cute baby sunglasses. Now we can go to the pool and look especially stylish with the Nemo swim diapers!!!
Okay, one more Canada day pic before I go to bed....
July 1st was Canada Day and we took Ella into her first pub for a drink on River Street in Savannah. Here she is with Auntie Christin looking at the drink menu. She wouldn't be half Canadian if we didn't start her early! ...
...And she wouldn't be half American if she wasn't the first one to pass out! Hee Hee, that's for all you Canadians out there! We know the Americans can't handle Canadian beer, or in Ella's case Canadian milk :)
Today was a boring, sleep-in day. Ella was up at 3:30 and then again at 7am for a feeding. I brought her back to bed with me at 7 and we slept in until 9. The rest of the day was very boring, we just played on her gym mat and in her jolly jumper and then she napped in her swing. We are going to be well-rested for the BBQ tomorrow afternoon at Daddy's work. It will be the first time Ron's co-workers will meet Ella. We're getting ready for bed and Ella just head-butted me in the mouth. I'm hoping I don't get a fat lip tomorrow! (Erin - remember Corfu?) I hope I don't have to avoid the BBQ because of baby abuse! :)
How much do we love the jolly jumper! After a perfect day of shopping (of course) and a solid 2 hour afternoon nap, Ella is in the best mood and so totally on schedule. Have I said how lucky we are with her? :) We pulled out the jolly jumper tonight for the first time and Ella is in baby heaven. She's always kicking her legs and trying to stand and the jolly jumper allows her to get her jump on. She
LOVES
it!!!
The best part about it - I can attach her to a doorway and get stuff done around the house...or play on the blog which is much more fun. Here's to hours and hours of play time / mommy time / exercise time! This is one of the best inventions...this and the swing (aka mechanical babysitter).
It was so nice to have a full night sleep after a week of excitement. Ella slept very well and Daddy got up with her this morning so I could sleep in...until 10am! We are all well rested and back on schedule with nap time and bedtime. Such an easy baby. We grilled out at Grandma and Grandpa's for the 4th of July. It was nice to visit, relax and then go home with leftovers. I feel spoiled when I don't have to do anything.
Ella's already in bed and sleeping like, well, a baby. I'm going to pick a book and relax. Tomorrow I'm off to Babies R Us to check out high chairs and pick up some rubber spoons for Ella to play with. Soon she'll be on baby foods so I'll let her get used to a spoon and maybe give her some rice cereal out of a bowl instead of the bottle she's been getting.
I'm also going to pull out the jolly jumper and see how she likes it, she's always trying to stand when you hold her anyway so might as well give her some entertainment too. It's a big week for our baby, lots of new things to try out!
