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Last Updated: Nov 03, 2009
Ella welcomes Annie June! Ella Aubrey & Annie June 1/23/2004 & 3/28/09 4:21 a.m./ 12:15 pm 8 lbs. 12 oz. / 7 lbs. 5 oz Home Pictures Stories Family Guestbook |
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I am in a bit of a daze as I type this. For the first time ever, Ella went to sleep tonight without being nursed to the brink of slumber land. We've been having sleep issues for a few weeks, with Ella waking up crying several times a night and me becoming more and more of a zombie. Our bedtime routine has always involved nursing as the last step, but we knew we had to break this habit and let Ella learn to fall asleep on her own. Not being fans of "crying it out," we were struggling with how to accomplish this. Tonight, I nursed her first, talking to her when her eyes started to droop. Then I bathed her, massaged her, and read two books to her. Finally, instead of nursing her like I normally do, I simply rocked her for ten minutes, kissed her on the forehead, and put her in her crib with her eyes wide open. I fully expected the crying to begin a few minutes later, but all we heard on the baby monitor was a little babble, and then nothing. Hooray for Ella! Let's hope this is the start of a long trend. In other news, Ella is now rolling back to front and back again. She is also "talking" all the time, saying "ma ma ma" and "ba ba ba!" 8/25/2004 - archived. 8/15/04 - original date of post. Food news. Oatmeal rocks. Peas are okay. Rice cereal is remotely tolerable. Pears? Gag me with a spoon (literally). We hope to find time to steam and puree some farmer's market apples and zucchini this weekend and test those out in the coming week. Cooper the dog is very excited about the flying food that has suddenly entered his life. Maybe this baby isn't such a bad thing after all . . . Twice in the past two days Ella has wowed us with her rolling over skills. Starting on her stomach, she looks waaaaaaaaay over her right shoulder until she is almost looking at the ceiling, then her right arm swings up, her back arches, and she rolls/falls onto her back. Very impressive. Perhaps she is practicing for the Olympics that start today. We give her a perfect 10! 8/13/2004 - - Archived. 7/30/04 - original date of post. 7/30/04 UPDATE: At Ella's check-up today, she weighed in at 18 pounds and measured just shy of 28 inches long! Go, Ella! *********** We are back in Portland after a week of visiting the East Coast. Ella first went to Maine to meet some of her Honorary Aunties; Beth, Janea, Melissa, and Tonya are Lauren's best friends from high school. There was laughter. There were lobsters. Ella practiced her newest trick of sitting up unassisted. The Aunties were impressed. After Maine came The Big Apple. Ella negotiated the subway with ease. Friendly New Yorkers offered to help out when the stroller met stairs. Ella's favorite NYC places were Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge. Finally, the end of the week found us in Albany for Spencer's cousin's wedding. Ella was passed around to all of the relatives, bestowed smiles on everyone, and behaved very well during the ceremony (except for a lone squeak during the vows - sorry Jason and Lisa)! 7/29/2004 - Archived. 7/13/2004 - original date of post. Ella ate her first solid food this weekend! Well, perhaps we should put the word "ate" in quotes because most of her rice cereal ended up on her chin, on her bib, and in the folds of her neck. Still, she seemed to have a great time tasting something other than breastmilk, and she loved chewing on the spoon! After she (and we) gets the hang of this spoon-feeding thing, we'll move on to some veggies and fruits. 7/11/2004 - 7/2/04: Happy 4th of July, everyone! New tricks from Ella this week. After a few lovely nights where she slept from 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., Ella woke up hollering at about 2:00 a.m. I crept into the nursery to take a peek, and Ella was face down; she had flipped from her back to her front! Two hours later, she did it again. We're pretty sure our girl is right-handed. She grabs at objects with that hand. We're also pretty sure she is still teething, but she can't decide which tooth to push out first. It must be a tough decision because she keeps crying about it. Despite the teething she is mostly a cheerful baby. Her favorite thing is to squeal and laugh while daddy makes funny noises in her neck. 7/2/2004 - June 22: This past weekend we celebrated Spencer's first father's day. Ella got him a bottle of good scotch (must have used a fake ID to purchase it because she is WAAAY under age), and we took him to brunch. In the afternoon friends John and Susie babysat Ella while the parents went to see a movie of Spencer's choosing - Dodgeball. A dumb but pretty hilarious movie. It is enjoyable if you check your intellect at the door. This week Spencer has a few days off work, so he is getting even more Ella time. Today they went to the zoo where Ella made friends with the elephants, sea lions, and the monkeys (see picture below). 6/11/2004 - Ella learns new tricks all of the time. This week she is busy grabbing everything, and her fists constantly seem to be tangled up in her mama's hair! She is also inching closer to being mobile; We put her down in her crib with her head at the north end and her feet at the south, and in the morning we find she has turned herself around 180 degrees. She always wants to be upright. When we put her in her car seat, she strains forward with her head and neck as if trying to sit up. Finally, we still have a lot of drool but no teeth. As I am still exclusively breastfeeding, I am in no hurry for the teeth to show up . . . 6/3/2004 - Ella had her 4-month check-up (can you believe it has been four months?) and got her second round of immunizations this past Friday. Her fondness for shots has not grown. She was weighed and measured, and she continues to be an "overachiever." She weighs 15 pounds and 11 ounces (90th percentile for weight) and is 27 inches long (97th percentile). Her head circumference is only 80th percentile, however. A petite noggin! Pop (Grandpa Terry) is in town this week filling in since our day care provider is on vacation. He is enjoying his Ella time, despite her tendency to spit up on him. Mostly she is all smiles. Wish him good luck as he tries to get her to nap! 5/24/2004 - Ella has met "the Mouse." Our trip to Flordia for Ella's Great Grandma Danner's 90th birthday was a great success. She did well on the plane flights, charmed her relatives with lots of smiles, didn't cry when she met Mickey Mouse, and slept through the night at Grammy June and Mom-Mom Linda's. Click on the pictures tab to see more photos of the trip. Now that we are home we are trying to establish a more consistent sleep and nap schedule - not an easy feat. Ella likes to fall asleep while using her mom as a human pacifier . . . 5/14/2004 - Ella's hands seem to always be in her mouth, and we have a lot of drool. Could teeth be on their way? Stay tuned. At the end of this week we head to Florida for Mother's Day. Our first cross-coutry trip with a baby. Wish us luck . . . 5/3/2004 - We all survived the first week of day care! Ella was smiley and happy every morning when I dropped her off before work, and Spencer found her smiley and happy when he picked her up at noon. I was the only one in tears the first couple of days! Spencer bought a Powerball ticket in the hopes that we'd win the $100 million, get to quit our jobs, ditch day care, and spend our days playing with Ella. We didn't win. It was worth a shot. Ella seems to have figured out that her hands are attached to her body; she stares at them in a very concentrated way as she moves them around. She is getting much better at holding her head up, and she loves to stand up with mom or dad's help. 4/26/2004 - Hope you all had a Happy Easter! What a week - I went back to work in the afternoons leaving Spencer and Ella to figure each other out. He's had some breast milk in the bottle challenges, and Ella had one meltdown that nearly gave her poor father a heart attack and definitely raised his blood pressure! But yesterday went pretty well, with Ella being smiley and happy - even taking a short nap with her papa (she is not a good napper, just like her mama). Next week I'm back at work full-time Monday through Thursday, and Ella will be at Miss Linda's for day care in the mornings. It has been a challenge to leave Ella, and I cry every day on my way to work! Hopefully we will all soon adjust to our new schedule. 4/16/2004 - Ella has found her thumb! Last night we noticed that as she tried to fall asleep in her co-sleeper, she waved her right arm around until it landed in her mouth. She then sucked/chewed on her hand until she went to sleep. Miraculously, she slept until 4:15 a.m. - six hours! That is her longest stretch yet! Yea, Ella! In a couple of weeks Ella's schedule will change pretty dramatically as Lauren goes back to work, Ella goes to day care for the mornings, and Spencer takes care of Ella all afternoon. We will wait for a couple more weeks after that to make the transition from Ella sleeping in our room to sleeping in her own crib. Wish us luck! 4/2/2004 - Grandmother Ann and Grandpa Butch have been in town this week to visit the now 13-pound baby Ella! They took her to see the Chinese Gardens, but she mostly slept for the entire outing. They also gave Ella some pansies and rosemary to plant in the yard; we are trying to encourage Ella's green thumb. Ella continues to smile and make the cutest vocalizations. She also has started to grab at things that interest her, like her yellow sun rattle. She survived her first round of immunizations this past week, but she did not enjoy them. Her face turned the most amazing shade of crimson as she howled in response to those needles! 3/25/2004 - Uncle Marty comes to visit! Marty has been in Portland for a few days teaching Ella the finer points of the NCAA tournament. Ella's bracket isn't looking so hot, but she picked teams based on uniform color. This isn't the most effective system. New Ella events: she now rubs her eyes when tired, she smiles interactively (especially in the morning after her breakfast of mother's milk - I get lots of beautiful grins!), and she coos. 3/19/2004 - Our Ella is almost 11 and a half pounds now, and she's enjoying her first full sunny week in Portland. We keep telling here that all of this warm weather is just a fluke and that in a week or so the rain will come back to stay until after the Rose Festival in June, but I don't think she believes us. In the meantime, we are having fun taking walks through the neighborhood to see what's blooming and setting up her battery-operated swing on the back deck. 3/11/2004 - ELLA SMILED this weekend! These weren't gassy smiles or funny half-smiles in her sleep; she stared right into my eyes and gave me a full on smile. My heart melted, an orchestra played, angels sang - the works. In response to my delighted coos, she smiled a couple more times. One smile makes all the pain of labor and breast-feeding worth it. She's precious! 3/2/2004 - NINE POUNDS EIGHT OUNCES! We had Ella weighed at the doctor yesterday, and in the past 14 days she has gained one pound and one ounce! That is over an ounce a day (check out Lauren's higher math skills), which is well over the 1/2 to 1 ounce that the average baby should be gaining each day. We just knew she was above average . . . Glad to know that letting her eat as often as she wants to is paying off. We want a big, fat, healthy baby! Thanks to all who wrote or called with their support and advice. 2/21/2004 - Grandpa Mike and Mimi (Grandma Vicki's chosen nickname) came for a visit this past weekend! There was lots of cooing and oohing and ahing and passing around of the baby. Ella is the best Valentine . . . 2/17/2004 - After our weight-gain worries of the weekend, we had GREAT appointment with the lactation consultant today. Since yesterday, Ella has gained 3 ounces! We are very pleased and relieved. And we are still letting her eat whenever she wants . . . so, off I go to feed our Ella!
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