Saturday, April 11, 2009

Happy Five Week Birthday, Elise!

Today our little girl is officially five weeks old! Can't believe how quickly time has flown (while seeming to take forever at the same time). She was up to 3 pounds, 10 ounces last night. Almost 1 pound more than her birth weight! They didn't weigh her while we were there tonight so I'll post her weight from today tomorrow.

Today my mom came down for a visit, and we sewed some receiving blankets for Elise. I bought a bunch of fabric on Presidents' Day (the day Elise figured out how to jump on my bladder :)), and my mom and I were planning to spend time at her house the weekend of March 20th sewing them all. Since Elise was born two weeks before that, mom and I obviously didn't get to do our sewing.

So we made five blankets yesterday in the couple of hours we had before heading to the hospital to see her. I'm mainly self-taught at sewing and hadn't ever actually sewed very much with my mom (maybe once or twice) so I learned two very exciting tricks that makes my receiving blanket sewing much easier. I've made them for friends and family in the past, but it's always taken longer than I'd like and they never turn out as nice as I'd like. Now I know how to make a much better version, and my very own daughter gets to reap the benefits.

We gave Ellie a bath during my mom's visit, and Ellie loved it again. Her dad said she's a "water rat" like he was growing up. This time the bath went much quicker since we knew what we were doing. After her bath she got all cuddly and fell asleep in my arms. I neglected to take any pictures of my mom with her so I can't post any. But I am overdue on a few pictures so I'd better get those up soon.

Last night and tonight we continued nursing practice with Ellie, and she did a great job. Her nurse, Marnie (sp?), recommended that we continue nursing as much as we can before introducing the bottle just to reinforce nursing and get her used to it. I totally agree with that train of thought, especially since she'll have to take a bottle from the nurses eventually to be able to go home and hasn't had any problems the couple of times she has already.

4 comments:

Becca Sue Congdon said...

Yay!

Nursing can be hard enough to learn with a full-term baby, so I've got lots of respect for you for working so hard at it with little Ellie! She's got so much to think about and to learn, and I know you guys will do great! I think it took us 8 whole weeks to finally feel totally comfortable, and Ethan was far from being a premie. Haha. If it hadn't been for Rachel at Beyond Birth Lactation Services, and the Oregon Nursing Mother's Counsel - we'd have given up at week 3. I'd love to connect you with their information when Ellie comes home and you guys don't have the support of the hospital staff like you do now. I'm glad they're taking good care of you guys!

We loves you!

(Me and Daniel and Ethan!)

Loey said...

It sounds like she is going to be a water baby like her Aunt Kirsten.

Anonymous said...

So excited to see her gaining weight so easily - she must take after her auntie Brenda :)

Good to see you guys tonight. Happy first Easter Ellie!

Amanda said...

Happy Belated Birthday! Hope your first Easter as a family of three was great. Next year you can dress her up in bunny ears :)