Game of capture the tongue

3 months... my how time flies

Sweet Face

Buggaboo was 3 months this past Saturday. We didn't do a whole lot to celebrate besides have family snuggle time. Our weekends are precious so we try to spend our time wisely. :) Our latest baby obstacle (we think) is teething. We're not quite sure because obviously its quite a bit early for that. But she has a little white thing coming in on her gums on the right hand side (not in the front). She's been drooling a LOT, constantly chewing on her hands, and being extraordinarily fussy. If anyone else has any clue... please let us know, we're at a loss. Ella has also been having trouble sleeping for the past few nights (and at nap time). We're not too sure if this is because she's used to napping with me and we're trying to break her of the habit, her teeth hurt, a combination of the two, OR she wants to prove the point that sleep is over-rated. I swear, once we think we have this parenting thing down pat a new obstacle arises. Besides her many woes Ella is beautiful and sweet as ever. The mornings are usually the best when both of us are ready to take on the world. She's happy, I'm happy, and I wake up to a beautiful smiling face ready to greet me. Baby life in general is going well besides the hiccups along the way. We're definitely ready to come home though and show our sweetums off to our loved ones.

Crazy Face

2 months and counting

Hello loved ones. I write this post as I hear Ella's vocal vibrations on the monitor at 1:30 in the morning awaiting our child to fully wake up and be fed. All is well in the land of the Jones'. How are we? Well, the parents out there who read our blog... you remember the days of your 2 month old and the non parents... you have no idea! A week day includes me going to bed at 10-12 waking up every 2-3 hours to feed the creature, finally getting up permanently at 6, and taking random naps through out the day until John comes home in the evening to relieve me. The best part of the week is Saturday and Sunday mornings when John goes on Ella duty and I get to sleep soundly until 1 pm. The weekends are the greatest for obvious reasons, all three of us get to love and snuggle for 2 straight days (I do miss the days where John was home from Friday - Monday). Obviously mishaps, milestones, and stressors all happen in between. For instance; John has gotten the three Ps (puked, pooped, & peed on) and has taken it rather well for a new time daddy. Breastfeeding always presents me with new challenges but we continue to prosper. Sleeping through the night and infant entertainment have been our current obstacles. My good friend Jen used a rubics cube metaphor for parenting; it seems your so close to solving the puzzle and one false move and your right back at the beginning.

Ella has had some great milestones in the past week or so. She has been smiling randomly at us. She follows a dove that makes a cooing sound with her full head (thank you to Pat Painter who gave us the cute toy). Ella tries to stand with support from mommy and is now attempting to step up my belly. Today Ella was trying very hard to roll over while we were playing so I helped her along by letting her push off with her foot from my hand. Its great to see that there's something going on in the tiny brain and she's not just a blob. Another not so significant but interesting milestone is Ella has grown out of most of her newborn outfits. A little sad that I must see some of these cute little articles go, especially the brown cords that mom sent. :( But excited that our baby is a happy healthy eating machine.

Halloween is just around the corner and John's parents will be joining us for the celebration! I will say I am very excited to have them up. I admit defeat and will ask for help with house-hold chores and general baby care when they get here. John and I are looking forward to a date night at the movies. The Boxermans are having a "1st Halloween" party for all the new parents we have met along the way in our pregnancy journey. The Boxermans, us, and two other couples we met in our natural birth class will hopefully be in attendance. What will Ella be on her first all hallows eve you ask? Why a snowboarder of course. I made a foam-board snowboard and decorated it with permanent marker and glitter glue. I then found some yard-sale booties and stuck velcro on the bottom of them and the top of the board. I also borrowed some puffy paint from Jen to create make-shift goggles on one of Ella's beanies. I'm super excited about it and pictures will come soon!

On another topic I have been getting a little home-sick lately. I am immensely looking forward to the holidays and sharing the joy of our little baby girl during Christmas time. She loves strangers so all family and friends will get their fair share of baby snuggles.

Surprisingly I got through a full post without the little one waking up. Please keep us in your thoughts, especially at 3 and 6 am. :)

Ella's Birthday

Ella arrived at 8:14 PM on 8/14 by cesarean! We have been so excited to have her in our lives! Her story starts with us (John and I) arriving at the hospital at 1:30 last Friday. Our c-section was scheduled for 3:30 but we kept getting pushed back to some some emergencies and low staff at the hospital. Finally after waiting around for quite some time they wheel me into the OR at 7:30. The epidural was pretty painful and they had to try 5 different times to get the needle in and that's not including all the numbing shots they gave me. The worst part about it was that John wasn't allowed in during the epidural. I really needed his support the most at that point and he couldn't be there. But finally they lay me down and announce that he's coming in. He arrives in his scrubs and I couldn't stop smiling. He sat down next to me and comforted me by rubbing my head and holding my hand while I felt quite a bit of tugging and pulling when they were opening me up. Then I felt this immense pressure on my ribs and chest. My midwife tells John to stand up and watch as Ella gets pulled out. Apparently she was kicking and squirming all over the place. They swooped her away and John tells me how beautiful she is. I was very calm throughout the whole operation and I couldn't stop smiling. I was so excited to meet our little girl. They asked John to go into the other room where they had taken Ella to clean her up and weigh her and give her some medicine. I could hear her crying the whole time. John finally comes out with Ella in his arms and I got to kiss her a few times. She was so beautiful. The first thing I noticed is that she had John's lips. It was such an emotional moment that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

Afterward I get carted up to the postpartum room where I spent the weekend. I got discharged Tuesday night. Everything went by so fast for us. Ella has been doing great and we visit her everyday in the NICU. I'm attempting breastfeeding and so far it is going very well. Since Ella is a preemie she still has to get the bottle after I feed her just because we need to make sure she gets enough. We can't wait to bring her home and the rumor is that will be happening on Tuesday! So soon!

Here's a picture to leave you with. John's blog is updated more often but only includes pics, they are all very adorable.http://ellalynn.blogspot.com/
(I promise I'm not choking her :) )

New Blog!
John's been updating it with a LOT of pictures of our Ella. Here you go:
http://ellalynn.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!

So today has taken a dramatic turn for our baby. We went in for a regular appointment this morning. We had to get an ultrasound to measure how far away my placenta was from my cervix (originally it was 1.5 cm away and it needed to be 2). The ultrasound showed the baby very healthy and we got some great pictures (and she's still a girl, we made sure to ask!). The ones I'm posting are of her face. She definitely has Jones lips and Krueger nose (with a little Jones upturn). Both of these pics she's pursing her lips. She was very active for the tech. The midwife kept telling us how healthy the baby looked. I think she was gearing us up for the news.



The news is this. The midwife tells us we have to get a c-section in the next 1-2 weeks. This is because since my placenta is "lobed" (has two different parts) one part is on one side of my cervix and the other part is one the other. How convenient! And one very important vein is connecting the two. If this vein gets ruptured by my water breaking than BAD NEWS BEARS! So they absolutely do NOT want me to go into labor.

So John and I accept this fact that we are to become parents sooner rather than later and we head home to start our preparations. By the time we get home the midwife calls us and tells us that they need us back downtown in order to for a specialist to examine me. And she says "You also have a chance of delivering today". So in a bit of a haze John and I pack lightly (we did have a bit of a discussion about what baby blankey to take and we opted for this ugly bright yellow thing which I wasn't too excited about) and head downtown... again. The specialist takes a looksy. She tells us since the placenta is connected to the baby that I'm not necessarily at risk but the baby is at risk for bleeding out because its all fetal blood and not any of my blood in this vein. She gives us the option to deliver today or tomorrow. Obviously we choose tomorrow because NOTHING is ready.

The rest of today has been full of us talking to close family and friends and sharing this scary but exciting news. We are getting ready to go out to our last dinner as a couple with no children and maybe stop by babies r us to pick up some preemie clothes and some other needed accessories.

Wish us luck and keep us in your thoughts tomorrow. I go in at 1:30 to prep and 3:30 is the scheduled c-section. Tomorrow John and I are going to be known as mommy and daddy!

32 Weeks!

32 Weeks! Actually I'll be headed into 33 weeks on Monday, but whose counting? Jen, Jon, and my John, and I had a pregnancy day today. We went to Prentice Hospital and got a tour. We were pretty impressed with the hospital. The L&D rooms are HUGE! And the bathrooms with the showers look pretty awesome too. We met up with another couple from our natural birth class and went and had breakfast afterward downtown.

The new prego update is that I have gestational diabetes. Its not that bad but it still sucks. I really have to watch what I eat. No sweets for me :( . John's a little worried that the baby might be overweight when she comes out but I'm pretty sure she'll be fine and healthy. The GD does mean though that I can't have a water birth. I really had my sites set on it, but what can you do? I now plan on just staying at home for as long as I can and labor in my own tub and then head to the hospital and chill in the shower until she's ready to pop out.

Mom and Dawn came up this past weekend. They brought some great snack bars for my GD and some cute baby clothes. I plan on going through them tomorrow and start putting it all away (its been a week already, eeks!).

John was pretty funny the other night. The baby had hiccups and he was messing with her. He got really worried about her and thought something might be happening, like she was choking on her cord or something. He felt better once he realized she was just hiccuping. He's felt her move around a lot since so he knows she's okay.

Anyhoo, here are some 32 week pics for your viewing pleasure. I'm trying to gain only 1/2 lbs. each week from here on out. Its been going pretty good so far. :)