2 weeks old

Eliana had her 2 week check up last Thursday. She is doing great! She weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long. They told me the percentiles that she falls into and I think they were 18% and 35%.

The past 2 almost 3 weeks have been wonderful. I was very lucky to have my mom and Dave home with me and Eliana for most of that time. Mom went home on Fri and Dave went back to work yesterday. We haven't really done much exciting, just spent a lot of time loving our little girl.

She is such an amazing baby. She hardly ever cries (only when she is hungry or cold) and stops crying just as soon as that problem is fixed. She is also sleeping pretty well. She seems to know night and day. Last night she actually slept for 5 1/2 hours straight, ate for awhile and went back to sleep for another 4 hours. During the day she takes shorter naps and enjoys spending her awake time cuddling or eating. She is starting to get used to her swing and her tummy time play mat, but usually won't stay in either for too long.

Today her umbilical cord stump fell off and she has a beautiful little belly button. To "celebrate" the fact that Eliana doesn't have to take sponge baths anymore, she took her first shower with me. She really likes the warm water running over her and I think it relaxed her because right after we got out, I nursed her and she fell right to sleep. Looks like making bath time part of our bedtime routine will only help our wonderful sleeper sleep even better.

And now for some pictures!

This is Eliana's milky face, right after eating

Napping in the swing

Napping in her bassinet

Eliana Loves having her hair brushed

Eli was waking up, but I set her down on the couch
for a moment and she went back to sleep

Holding on to Daddy

Holding on to Daddy's finger

She put both of Daddy's fingers into her mouth to suck on

Sunday afternoon naptime

Laying on her play-mat and holding in her binkie

Stretched out on the couch

And finally... Eliana's brand new belly button
Our little Eli Button!

Two Projects Down!

Well, just mere hours after talking about the projects that were on the slate to help us further nestle ourselves in...on my last day off, I knocked out two! Our income tax return hit and we were able to manage them.

I started with the garage. Got a couple of heavy duty shelves
and moved the one we already had (which is broken and will
be replaced) into the corner and placed the two new ones
along the wall at the one end of the old shelf. My Army gear
now has a place to live where it isn't clogging up closet
space!

Project #2 was our storage closet. Previously
all you would see when this door was open was
my Army gear on the floor, as well as a number
of boxes, my gun cases, and a few shelves
peeking above the mess on the floor. Now,
thanks to the shelves in the garage and these
new shelves, we have a lot more horizontal
surface on which to spread our extra stuff!
Lisa actually helped me out hanging these
shelves, she even drilled a hole or two!

We are supposed to get our ceiling fans tomorrow and the maintenance guys are supposed to come and install those for us. Not far behind that will be our bedroom closet...which the maintenance guys will also do, since it involves removing the old shelving in addition to putting in the new ones. It's so exciting to have everything coming together!

A Tour of the New Home

So, here's a look at our new place. It took us a while...but, we've got it to a point that it really feels complete. There are still a few things we are working on to further make the place our own. But, here is the tour:

Here's the view of the exterior of the home. Our bedroom is
the window you can see on the right.

This is looking in the front door. To the left is the living
room, to the right is the kitchen/dining room.

Here's a corner to corner walk through our living room/
office area.
Our living room is easily the most used room in the house, as this
is where we have the TV and the office. It is a very comfortable
room, but still very spacious!
I love my office! We found this beautiful L desk at Office Depot
and it fits the room very nicely. Now...we just need a newer
computer that will actually allow me to work online without
the computer freezing up every few seconds!

Our kitchen.
One of the things that we both really like about this setup
is how the kitchen opens into the dining room. It really makes
the area feel bigger than it really is...it also helps with clean up
since the sink is right there!

Our dining room, with our beautiful, new table!
We don't eat many meals here just yet, but we have already
decided that it is our goal to try to establish a family tradition
of eating meals at the table where the entertainment comes
from talking to each other, rather than from watching the
television.

Our back porch and back yard. Eliana's bedroom is the
window on the far left in this picture.
Yet again, an area of the home that doesn't see much use.
But, once we start piecing together our home in greater
detail, we will decide what we want to do with our porch
and yard. Eliana will certainly want to come out here to
play at some point.

A look down the front hallway (from the front entry.)

Our utility room, complete with our new washer and dryer!
This is the door to the garage.

Our garage. Notice the new bike! This will be my new
primary mode of transportation to and from work to
help me get in better shape, save money on gas, and allow
Lisa to have the car a bit more.
This is one of the areas of the house that is going to be
improved upon. I'm planning on getting a couple more
shelves to put in the little alcove so that we have some
more shelves for storage.

More a point of reference than anything. But, notice the
clever storage of our iron and ironing board?

Our bedroom with the beautiful bedspread and pillow set
that my sister gave us for Christmas.

Our closet. This is yet another project in waiting. There isn't
as much shelf space as either Lisa or I would like, so we're
planning on getting some wire shelving to put in here to
give us a bit more shelf/hanging space.

Our tiny, little bathroom. There is an entrance from our
bedroom (top) and from the hallway (bottom). Special thanks
to Mickey Mouse for taking that first picture for me!

The hallway between our bedroom and Eliana's room. There
is, as you can see, another door between the bathroom and
Eliana's room. This is a walk in storage closet. No pictures
of this, though...it is a complete disaster! The only a shelf space is a
1' shelf along the back wall in this 8' x 3.5' closet, so it is mostly floor
space. Naturally, most of the things that are presently stored in
it are on the floor. This is yet another project that we have in mind.
We are going to put some shelves in here as well to get things
off the floor and on shelf so that we have access to whatever
is stored there and not just whatever is closest to the door...so, no
pictures until we've put more shelving in to make the space a little
more usable/presentable.

Finally, we have Eliana's room. Believe it or not, I actually
helped arrange and decorate this room. Not sure if you can
see it, but I installed new hardware on the little chest of
drawers that's sitting under the window. They used to be
these really loose handles, but we found the silver ones
that were one solid piece. We both really like how it looks.
About a week or so before Eliana was born, I went in, put the
crib sheet on and arranged the stuffed animals on the crib
because I was so excited for my little girl to finally come!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Pictures with Daddy

We wanted to get a few newborn pics. Today's photo shoot was with daddy. Maybe tomorrow we will do some other shots, but for now enjoy!

Welcome to the world Eliana!

Our little one is finally here! She arrived on Thursday night at 11:18. Weighed in at 7 pounds and 19 1/4 inches long. She was perfectly healthy and scored a perfect 8 of 8 on her APGAR.

Now the story, don't worry it's actually not one of those scary labor stories, but if you don't want to read I understand just skip to the bottom for pics...

So backing up a bit my Mom arrived on Mon because Dave would be in the field and I didn't want to be alone in case Eliana decided it was time to come. Dave left Tuesday morning for the field.

I had my weekly dr appointment on Thursday morning and we were kinda hoping that when he checked my cervix I would be far enough a long to send me straight to labor and delivery, but I wasn't. I was almost a 4 and about 60% effaced. So mom and I went back home to continue our wait for the big day. I called Dave to report to him what the dr said and he found out he could come home for a couple hours to shower. When Dave got home we decided to go for a walk together...who knows it might start something right? As we left I had been feeling some mild cramps for about the last, but I felt the same thing last week after my pelvic exam and it was nothing. I told mom and Dave about them because they did seem to be coming at regular intervals. Dave timed them for our entire walk and they were actually only about 2 min apart. I figured they were just practice because they didn't hurt at all, but after calling the dr to see what he said (he told me to call at any signs because he suspected I wouldn't have strong labor signs as I had yet to feel a single contraction but was dilated so far). The receptionist who answered didn't even ask the dr she said to come in just to see. So off we went to the hospital...Dave sure we would be having a baby that night and me sure that they would be laughing at this silly pregnant women who "thought" she was labor but really just had gas. I even made Dave leave our bags in the car. As you already know Dave was right. When the nurse checked my cervix again I was a 5 almost 6 (just 4 hours later). Because I still wasn't feeling my contractions, the dr wanted to speed things up by breaking my water and/or starting some pitocin. We decided to try breaking my water first...after an hour of monitoring still nothing. On to the pitocin....almost immediately I had 3 stronger contractions in a row back to back...still not really painful, but no longer able to ignore them. Eliana didn't like the pitocin much either and I had to lay on my side and wear an oxygen mask to get her heart rate back up. My concept of time after this point was completely gone, but the pitocin was started somewhere between 6 and 6:30. The contractions were getting stronger, but I was feeling unsure about getting a epidural. I had always planned on having epidurals during labor, but why get one if the pain wasn't bad and they tend to slow things down. I felt really conflicted, what if the contractions got even stronger and I couldn't handle the pain anymore? but what if I don't really need it? I asked Dave to give me a blessing hoping it would bring me comfort and help me come to an answer. It was comforting, but I didn't get an answer, it said that if I got the epidural the drs hands would be steady and if I didn't the pain would be bearable. I took this to mean that the decision was mine and mine alone and either way would be ok. I felt confident that I could do this without an epidural and had faith that I could indeed bear the pain. So on we went, the contractions getting stronger and closer together. Somewhere around 10 or so I was ready to start pushing. Unfortunately for me, my cervix wasn't quite effaced to 100% and the dr wanted me to wait. I spent the next 45 min (so mom says) breathing through the contractions and trying to avoid the urge to push as much as possible. Also at this time I was allowed to get off my side and labor in a sitting position which surprisingly made my pain tolerance go up. Finally I was allowed to push, but the dr wanted me to stretch more so as I pushed the nurse stretched and messaged me to help prevent tears. I guess the dr thought I would still take awhile because he left the room, but after 4 or 5 pushes Eliana was here (delivered by my nurse). They placed her on my chest and I got my first look at our little girl. I did still have a few tears, just small ones along the sides (the dr called them skid-marks) so while I got stitched up they took Eliana to weigh and measure her and all those other test they do right away. Dave left my side for the first time in quite awhile to go watch. Speaking of, he was really great during labor. He stood by my side and held my hand through every contraction and he was the one who really got me through the time I wasn't allowed to push. I'm sure I couldn't have done it drug free without his love and support. Anyway, it was a long night, but when it was over we had our baby and both her and I were healthy.

OK now for some pics...

Our first family photo!