Hiatus

Sorry about lack of reports from this week, friends.  I've been recovering from mastitis, which is totally not fun, by the way. Don't think to yourself, "I'm bored this weekend, let's get a good, rousing case of mastitis!"  The infection apparently can pop up quite suddenly.  The fever was low-grade for the first day, but peaked around 103 that first night! I originally thought I had the flu because I felt so poorly. Ugh.

Needless to say, the family has been great while I've been wallowing in fever-sweats and body-chills.  Ella spent a lot of time with John and his mom while I was trying to catch up on sleep.  But, good news now! I went to the doctor (gasp!) and got some antibiotics, so I should be bouncing back in a few days.  We are finishing up Ella's Halloween costume and accessories, so there should be good pictures of all that ready to be posted this weekend.  Hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween, too!

Pre-bedtime nap

I guess this is what they mean when they say, "sleeping like a baby." Zonked out!

Ella's first pumpkins

The artists are hard at work

John and I take our Halloween pumpkins very seriously, trying to increase difficulty with each pattern we do every year.  However, I think last year we reached our pinnacle on finely detailed patterns.  I'm pretty sure that we would have needed to take artistic sculpting classes in order to continue with the extra-hard patterns!  This year, we took a break and didn't follow traditional patterns for carving -- John picked out a gourd, but changed his mind on his original idea.  He was going to carve it, but once he cut the end off, we all decided that it was clearly a carnivorous gourd eating the tiny pumpkin.  From there, it was a group effort to make his angler fish.  I think it turned out wonderfully!

Ella's and Dad's pumpkins together. Cute side by side with scary

I painted Ella's pumpkin for her, but she did sign her work when it was all done.  We were going for a handprint or two, but she was not cooperating with that idea, so I stuck out a foot for stamping.  Ella looks so confused at what we had done to her, but she really needs to understand that as my daughter, this will not be the last time she is involved in a messy craft project!

I also went with a new design this year.  After everyone had finished their pumpkins, I just didn't have the energy to start hollowing out my own pumpkin.  I picked a simple painted pattern that wouldn't stress out my tired mom-brain, but I think I might tinker with it over the week.  Maybe add a little to it.  Not sure yet. You know me, rarely satisfied with a craft project.

Two months old!

Styling in her new candy corn hat, too!

It's my birthday!

Apparently when you are a baby, you get LOTS of birthdays! This one is a big one, though.  I was so excited that I woke up with smiles and wiggles in the morning.  Aren't I a cutie?

We had a very busy day, but it wasn't all good parties like last week.  I had to visit Dr. Cold Hands, which made me miss Second Breakfast (it's a real thing, look it up).  So I had to suffer in the over-heated doctor's office, starving to death.  Why do you always have to be naked at the doctor's office? Can't they see you with your clothes on?

On top of all that, I didn't understand that it was an extra-long visit because I was going to be stabbed in the legs... three times!  Mom said it would keep me healthy, but I'm not so sure about all of that.  It still hurt!  Dad was able to rock me until I passed out in a trauma-coma and woke up at grandma's house where I FINALLY was able to eat.  I napped most of the afternoon as I tried to recover from the ordeal, but my legs still hurt.  They would wake me up while I was sleeping, causing me to whimper and cry out.  Mom said the evening time afterwards was harder to handle than when I actually got my "shots."  Mom gave me lots of snacks and cuddles to get me through to bedtime, so that part was nice, but I still don't see why I had to go to the doctor's in order to get cuddles.  Overall, my 7week birthday was much nicer than this one.  Presents are better than shots.  I did get good growth reports from the doctor.  I'm still gaining weight like I'm supposed to and I'm 90th percentile for my height.  My head is still an enormous noggin' but that's to be expected with my genetics (Thanks, Mom and Dad, you big-headed monsters).

I sometimes get the messy milk mouth when I fall asleep while eating

Mom says that we'll take my birthday picture tomorrow since today was so eventful and distressing.

Sleep Update

I think I have found the secret to babies -- they are always changing.  Just when you think that you have a pattern / routine / schedule / habit figured out, the little goober will surprise you!  Ella has been sleeping several nights in the crib in our room and quickly resumed her nights of uninterrupted sleep as if nothing was amiss.  She just needed a few nights to adjust, I guess.  She is still swaddled (she seems to be doing better with only one change to make at a time) and is being very well-behaved with the new set-up.  Though, wish us the best since she is starting to try to roll over!  A few nights ago she flipped onto her side ... and when I rolled her back, she said, "No, Mom!" and promptly rolled onto her other side!  This means the days of snugly sleeping in the swaddling are limited.  As well as the days of my sanity.  I have a sneaky feeling that she will be a handful once she gets mobile.....

So for now, I just enjoy this sleepy face every chance I get!

Shopping!

Mom and Dad and I went to brunch with the aunties and then went shopping today.  Aunt Lara had reported that there were cute Halloween hats, and Mom just had to get some for me.  I'm still not sure about hats, but they seem okay if they don't cover my eyes too much.  Mom says that she can knit me another, larger candy corn hat next year and use the orange flower again.  The bat hat is a little big, so maybe I can wear it for longer.  No we just need to wait for chilly weather....

I also got a few toys to dangle from my carseat, which seem cool.  I like the one that sounds like windchimes, even if it is some weird hybrid of a kangaroo and a jackal.  (Is that a jack-a-roo?)  The play mat Mom found is nice and all, but I DO NOT like tummy time! Why can't Mom understand this?? Tummy time is the worst!  I have a big head and doing push ups to hold it up are not fun.  No matter how much I grunt and snort and cry, they keep trying to put me on my belly.  We are going to have such words about this when I can talk!

Who needs sleep?

Week 7 now, and we have started to transition Ella out of the rocker ("the monkey ") at night. The doctor wants her sleeping flat in a crib sooner rather than later, so we decided to give it a shot before the appointment next week. We have put the pack-and-play in our room for easier access than her crib would be in the nursery. Needless to say, Ella wants her monkey back. I want the monkey back, too. Last week, we were both sleeping for a glorious six hours almost every night.... This week, not so much. Did you know that three 2hr segments (nonconsecutive, of course, probably spread over ten hours) is not the same as sleeping for six hours uninterrupted? Very much not the same. I'm just praying that Ella gets used to the new sleeping arrangements soon; I'd like to be a functional human being again. I'm such a cranky witch when exhausted, I feel like I need to apologize to everyone around me in advance.   :(

Side note-
To be fair, Ella is not screaming all night long, but she surely is not sleeping. She has this fretful, grunting noise that wakes me up just as efficiently as crying. It's almost like she has too much room to wiggle now, even when swaddled, and she's not sure what to do with it all. In the monkey, it kept her snug and secure like a secondary swaddle and would put her right to sleep.

It's my Birthday!

This is one of my new birthday hats.  I like presents!

I'm seven weeks old now! Almost at the two-month mark.  Mom keeps saying how time is going by so quickly, but it seems alright to me.  This weekend was also Mom & Dad's two-year anniversary, so we held a big group celebration to roll it all into one.  Dad took us out to the swanky hotel here in town (my first overnight away from home!) and then we went to the Garlic Festival on Saturday.  I think Mom was worried about the overnight trip, but Dad kept telling her to calm down since we were less than thirty minutes away from the house.  All in all, it wasn't so different from a regular night at the house, but I had my monkey rocker to sleep in and Mom to feed me on demand, so what more could I need?

On Saturday, we drove out to the Garlic Festival with Aunt Jennifer and walked around in the mud.  Well, I was a snoozing baby and Mom carried me, but that is kinda the same thing.  The muddy weather didn't seem to deter people from the vineyard booths, so Mom stuck to buying presents for me.  I can't argue with that!  I got a stuffed animal, some yarn Mom is going to knit for me, and a few hairbows.  I even got my portrait drawn while we were there.  Fun story: Grandma had portraits drawn of Dad and Aunt Jen ages ago when they were my age (and then again as older kids), and she wanted the same lady to draw one of me.  The adults have been planning on tracking her down at the farmers' market where she often is around Christmas, but guess who we saw at the Garlic Festival?? It's such a small world!  We were able to get my adorable likeness captured without having to make an extra stop.

First ever Garlic Festival!

After walking around all afternoon, I got to play with the aunties while Mom and Dad went off somewhere else for dinner.  I don't know why they felt to need to leave me, but the aunties are pretty awesome to hang out with.  All in all, it was a pretty eventful weekend, so can you blame me for being tired at the end of everything?

Mini photo shoot this morning

How can I resist this sweet baby face??  I am so camera-crazy around her, trying to get good shots of her doing things other than sleeping.  The difficulty is that she is such a little wiggler!  Always has to be in motion, it seems.  Haha.  Anyway, the light was good when we woke up this morning, so I was taking lots of pictures of her stretching, smiling, and wiggling her way awake.

This is my serious model face

She's getting so long! This onesie was huge on her in the hospital, but now it fits

Look at that dimple!

Good morning!

Up and dressed and ready to face the day! Mom and I are off to the Baby Cafe.

.... Wow, I didn't know I was such a good poet!  Really though, Mom and I are going to see how much I weigh this week. I'm always growing!

Ella Rose is now on Flickr!

Ella here.  Sorry there hasn't been too much activity here lately-- I've had a bit of a gassy tummy the past few days, so Mom & Dad have been busy trying to help me out.  But! Mom did add some more neat stuff to my blog.  Now, over there on the right side of your screen, you can see a small slideshow of pictures of me (who doesn't want more pictures of the cutest baby ever?).  If you click the Play button, it will run in the small window, but you can also click to make it full screen.  If you click where it says "Flickr," it will take you to the Flickr page that Mom made for me.  She says she'll be posting the random pictures there- pictures that might not have been special / funny / important enough to warrant their own blog post,  but are still cute and people still might want to see them. Well, I mean, of course ALL the pictures are cute; they can't not be cute, given their subject matter, right? (Though, I'm not too happy of the recent poo-explosion picture making its way onto the internet.  I'm going to have a firm talking-to with my public relations team.  They seem to think that sort of thing is funny.)

Also, Mom has put in a link where you can sign up to receive email alerts when she posts new stuff to the blog.  That way, you don't have to worry about missing anything if you forget to pull up the webpage for a few days.  You will just get a handy email!  Mom says she has done that with Auntie's blog, and it works out well.

Enough tech-talk now! Back to the cute baby!

Momma finally got her some snuggles.
She was getting cranky; I had to throw her a bone.