D. Family Coffee Break

Ella bug had a fun-filled 3-week weekend.  (Too much?)  :)  My brother and his family drove down from Sacramento to meet Ella.  Boy, was she welcomed with so much love not only by my brother and sister-in-law, but by my three fabulous nieces.  They are so in love with Ella and spent the entire time wanting to hold her and even just watch her sleep!  (Exciting, I know.)  I knew they would be good to her, but good just doesn't seem to capture how much they love her.  I can't wait until she is old enough to actually interact with them! Wyatt's sister-in-law, Mary forwarded me an online seminar called Moms On Call, which teaches you the ins and outs of newborn care- mainly how to survive with a newborn at home.  I watched the 0-3 months in two days and began to implement the tips and tricks.  Although we haven't been home every minute of the day to implement it, I've already seen vast improvements in Ella bug's behavior.  For example...

Baby Ella is just over two weeks old.  We had a rough transition in the beginning because Daddy had to go to Seattle for business during week two.  Luckily, my mom was able to stay with me to help care for Ella.  Now that he's back, I think Ella is re-familiarizing herself with Daddy.  We've also begun transitioning the bedtime feeding with a bottle.  That way Ella can have some bonding time with Daddy.  Bottle #1 didn't go so well- 2 ounces of milk wasted.  So for bottle #2, I only filled it up with 1-1.5 ounces of milk just in case she didn't take. Surprisingly, she took it and we warmed up another 1.5 ounces.  Yaaay!  We'll try again tonight and hopefully come Friday night, Mommy and Daddy can leave Ella with Mama Bernadette during dinner so we can attend my sister's bridal party dinner.  (Cross your fingers, folks!)   Although I've helped to take care of numerous children, nothing compares to the experience of taking care of yo...

Baby Ella arrived unexpectedly last Saturday morning and since then our world has changed drastically (and by world, I mean our life in our tiny apartment).  Every moment is consumed by feeding and by the time you're finished burping and changing the diaper, it's time to feed again. I'm not going to lie, I kind of feel like a dairy cow.  Hahaa.  I've heard that babies don't know the difference between night and day, but it sure seems like this baby knows exactly when to sleep (during the day) and when to stay up (all night long).  She seems to have kept the same pattern from her "in the womb" days.  Daddy-to-be is now just Daddy and he's doing an amazing job with helping me out with all the feedings and diaper changes.  I'm pretty sure he's a pro at changing a diaper now.  If there were ever a diaper changing competition, I'm pretty sure he would be in the running for first place. :P I feel so overwhelmed by all the emotions of being a mom...

It's 3a.m. and I'm blogging.  On a "normal" day (which these days no longer exists), this would be out of the question.  However, like I already implied... my ...I mean, our days are no longer "normal".  Let me tell you how my weekend started and ended... Last Friday morning I had an appointment with my doctor to come in to monitor my contractions (if I had any at all).  At 10a.m. I was told that my contractions were barely there...just itty bitty...and that we would probably be seeing baby Ella earlier than her due date, but definitely not that weekend.  Okay, well, if I wasn't going to have this baby this weekend, then I was not about to miss my lunch date with my friend.  Off we went for a burrito, enchilada style.  :)  When I returned home from the doctor's office to wait for my friend, I felt a sudden...umm...cramp?  No, not a cramp...but something like it...but sharper.  The pains kept coming in intervals of 30 seconds, about ...

I was on the phone today with my brother, Kyle, and was telling him about my emotionally charged moment in a parking lot as I dropped off the hubs at work after having lunch with him.  As I drove through the aisle of the parking lot, a parked car quickly backed out of it's spot without looking.  My natural instinct, of course, was to stop, rather than move forward.  Thankfully, however, the car quickly stopped itself from hitting the front passenger side of my car, where the hubs was sitting.  I pulled into a spot to calm myself down.  My heart was racing.  Wyatt turned to me and asked, "Are you okay?"  I just could not find the words to respond.  (Strange, I know.)  I was breathing so heavily and I think he realized I was about to freak out and said, "We're fine.  She didn't hit us."  He was right.  The driver had stopped quickly enough and everyone was safe.  However, I still could not get myself to calm down.  3, 2...

Hello, there, blog.  I have some good news for all of you out there.  After having our Facebook chat cut off because our home computer couldn't support two open window tabs (seriously!), my brother, Kris has saved the day!  He came over on Saturday and is letting us borrow his laptop!  Hooray!  He just about saved my maternity leave.  Let's face it- How long could I really go without blogging and how long could you all really go without any updates of the baby?  I mean, baby Ella is almost here- 11 days (hopefully!). So what have I been doing on my maternity leave?  Finishing up some odds and ends in the nursery, usually one errand a day (because that's about all this pregnant body can take these days), and spending quality time with a little Miss McKayala.  Every morning, I check my email and after a few minutes, I look under the desk and she's laying on my feet, asleep.  If I move to the room to clean or to the kitchen to cook, there ...

Happy 37 weeks to baby Ella!  I'm currently blogging from my sister's computer, while visiting her.  Our home computer is just a tad bit too slow and until we get a new one, the blogs will probably be random...whenever I can get to a computer that will support all this blogging nonsense.  I've been on maternity leave exactly one week today and it hasn't been exactly how I thought it would be.  I spent the first two days of my leave picking up last minute baby items and stocking up on toiletries so that the hubs and I don't have to leave the apartment for awhile once the baby is born.  I'm sure all the errands would have taken a normal person one entire day to accomplish, however, it took this nine month pregnant woman a good 2-3 days.  Why?  Because after half a day out and about, I'm easily exhausted and need to get home to take a nap and once I've woken up from a nap, it's time to cook dinner and I just can't get myself out of the house anymor...