Better Late than Never

Since we are posting on Lizzie's check up maybe we should let you all know how great Ellie's two week appointment went (since it happened almost two weeks ago...oops!). She is growing like crazy. They hope that by two weeks that a newborn should be able to get back up to their birth weight (newborns lose weight to start off). Our little girl was 7lbs 12oz at birth and was 7lbs 5oz when we left the hospital. At her two week check up she had made it up to 8lbs 7oz. She is growing like crazy and hasn't stopped since her appointment. She already is out of newborn clothes and seems to be getting wider and longer each day. Such a blessing to have two healthy little girls to enjoy!

Fries

Lizzie had her 18 month dr appt today. She’s in the 75th percentile for her height. 6th percentile for her weight. (No joke)

So the doc said that we should add butter, cream, cheese, extra oils to her diet whenever possible until her weight catches up to her height a bit.

We promptly went to Burgerville after the appointment. :-)

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Side note: had the Sweet Potato Fries for the first time ever – my mouth has no idea what to do with that taste. I know it’s good, but my mouth can’t categorize it whatsoever.

Cookie Creations

Lizzie recently learned just how fun baking with mommy can be. Here are our creations:

With Mommy and Daddy

LotR

S'eepy

Sometimes I get s'eepy when mommy tries to burp me after a meal.

Sup?

I sure love to read

Pretty Flowers

Thanks Papa and Nana!

Biggie

Swing

Auntie Maria comes through again.

Sleep

Praise the Lord! Two straight nights of decent sleep! Ellie's getting there. :-)

And, of course, the obligatory cute picture.

Night time

Ellie's not too big of a fan right now of the cradle we have for her by our bed. For out in the front room, we've been using this. May have to move it into the bedroom tonight. :-)

Lizzie

Ellie

For Heather

Since Laura got her own pic, it only seemed fair for Heather to get her own as well.

Background: Portland Adventist Hospital has a camera in their front lobby that gets piped into channel 9 on all of the patient TVs in the hospital. It's great for watching to see when your visitors are coming or just for people watching in general (cause most folks don't know it's there). Well, when Heather, Melissa (Auntie 'Lissa) and Kristen came to visit the other night, we showed them channel 9 and they got a kick out of it. When they left the hospital, they put on a little dance routine for us...




And not to be out done, Lisa and Jenn and their kiddos followed suit with snow angels... on carpet. (Taking flash pictures of a TV is tricky business).

For Laura

Laura, in honor of your second place finish in the baby pool, this just seemed appropriate.


I know it looks violent, but in actuality, each time Lizzie has been incredibly gentle with Ellie. This picture is no different. It's just one of them optical illusions. :-)

And the winner is...

Maria Pacovsky!!!!

Sitting in prime position by correctly predicting the day of Ellie's birth, Maria beat out Laura with a PM guess, to Laura's AM guess. Special note of honor to Heather who ended up tying Laura, despite not correctly guessing the date.

Top 5

1. Maria - 85 points
   
2. Laura - 70 points
   
3. Heather - 70 points
   
4. Fogey - 65 points
   
5. Grandma H - 65 points

Maria, hope you like coffee! :-)

1st Pics!

1st picture of Ellie ever taken

A little closer up

Dec 3

Dec 3
5:18 pm
7 lbs 12 oz
20 inches long
dark brown hair
head and chest circumference - 13 inches
8 and 9 APGARs

Eliana Joy is here. Rather smooth delivery overall (especially compared to last time). Mom and baby are doing just fine. Ellie has already started trying to hold her head up!

We're home now. Got home about 10:30 this morning.

Pictures to come. Baby pool results to come. My early money is on Laura or Maria (who claims she has to win because she's blood). But Heather could also be a dark horse third place because here time was only one minute off... :-)

Laboring Over Labor

So, after last post Jeanna offered some suggestions for getting labor going and it occurred to me that there are a ton out there. Many of which I have yet to try...many of which I won't try, but I thought it might be fun to hear what things you all have tried or heard about and chose not to try. I don't promise I will do any of them, but I would love to hear all of the suggested ways to get labor going...as absurd as some may seem.

It is Wednesday

Well as you can see November 28th has come and gone and still no baby. Dr. Fisher has now scheduled (with our reluctant permission) an induction on December 7th at 5 am. Now our hope and prayer is that baby comes before that time. However, should we have to go through with the induction it will be done very different from last time and Dr. Fisher is convinced that nothing like the nightmare that took place before should occur. We will keep you posted. Thanks for your prayers.

Prayer Request

Everything is going well with Ellie and the final days of the pregnancy. Steph is progressing steadily, but slowly and it could be anyday now. We just wanted to ask for your prayers as Steph's due date (Dec. 2nd) approaches. Dr. Fisher let us know that going much past a week to 10 days past the due date is unsafe since the placenta begins to deteriorate and in some cases stops functioning all together leaving the baby without any of life's necessaries. This all means that should we get close to the due date, Steph will have to be scheduled to be induced. Sounds simple, but last time with Lizzie the induction went horribly wrong and we both vowed to never go there again, so this would be a very scary option for us (Steph especially). Our prayer request is that Ellie decides to come on her own before we even have to think about scheduling an induction. The next appointment is this Tues. Nov. 28th, at which time we will reevaluate.

Times Up!

Well thanks to everyone who put their guesses into the baby pool for Ellie. We will keep you posted as new info arrives and will of course post the winner, post the birth :-)
It has been lots of fun seeing everyone guesses as they have appeared these past few months. For Steph's sake we hope some of you are more accurate than others!
Thanks again.

Hurry Up! The Deadline is Almost Here!

The deadline for the Ellie Baby Pool is fast approaching. In fact you have 3 days 1 hour and approximately 23 minutes until all guesses must be in or risk not being counted!!!!!!!!!!
Leave your guesses in the comments. And if you have forgotten the rules (or have yet to read them) you can find them here.

Oct 31

Tired

Steph was cleaning Lizzie's old car seat (will be Ellie's) and Lizzie thought she would climb in. Guess she was tired. :-)

Pumpkin Patch, etc.

Update and reminder

Lizzie's creativity is starting to show. Just now she grabbed her Disney princesses book bag of sorts (thank you Uncle Bubba and Auntie Karen), said "Bye-bye" and headed for the door. She intentionally went out of my sight... and after a few moments, came back into sight as though she had just come back from a trip. It's pretty dang cute.

As for the reminder: don't forget about the baby pool for Ellie. Deadline is November 15. There's still quite a few folks who haven't thrown in their guess.

• Rules for Ellie's baby pool
• Leave your guess here
  

Fun in the Sand

My first time touching sand

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Burying Mommy's sandal

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Taking big girl steps in the ocean

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This water's cold and fun to play with

At the Beach

Mommy and Daddy and Me at the Beach

Still our little girl

This is from right before bed time the other night. Lizzie just couldn't quite make it.

Even though some days it seems she is growing up so fast, this just goes to show she is still very much our little girl.

Fun in the Kitchen

Daddy bragging

Our little girl is really starting to come into her own.

From this past week:

• Lizzie has started using a fork. She seems to understand the concept. Now it's just a matter of the practical use of it. She likes the stabbing food part, still working on the "get it to the mouth" part.
• Lizzie has rhythm. We all know she likes to dance, but sitting last night, listening to her GloWorm, she was clapping her hand on her leg in rhythm and on beat.
• Lizzie really has the concepts of some words down. Last night, playing on the far side of the living room, I asked her where her ball was (which was on the other side of the room out of view behind a chair). She promptly stopped what she was doing, directly crawled over to it and hit it in my direction.

That's a smart girl right there.

Eliana Pool

In celebration of Ellie coming soon, Steph and I are going to host a pool. The best part for you: it's free to throw your guesses in. The best part for us: seeing your guesses. The winner receives a giftcard from Starbucks (a $10 value!). Or, if you're really really against the giant mariner woman who is going to take over the world with her flavorfully warm caffeinated beverages, we can get you something else (still a $10 value!).

How to enter: click on the comments link at the bottom of this post. Leave a comment with your guesses for:

Date	50 points
AM or PM	15 points
Time (12 hr clock)	within 60 min: 25 points, within 30 min: 35 points
Weight (in lbs & oz)	within 1 lb: 20 points, within 3 oz: 40 points
Height (in in.)	15 points
Hair color	10 points

Bonus: for the adventurous, you can put 45 points on the line and guess the gender as male (knowing the ultrasound tech has said otherwise). Guess boy and end up right, you get 45 extra points. Guess boy and Ellie comes out, lose 45 points from what you have.

The person with the most points wins! Your guess must vary from everybody else's in at least one category.

The deadline for the pool is November 15th of 2006 so get your guesses in now!

Here's what we know: the 'official' due date is Dec 2. We've had multiple doctors pontificate that Little One is indeed a girl. This pregnancy Stephanie has been craving: bagels and cream cheese, fish, and coffee. Lizzie was over a week late and induced. Lizzie was born with dark, dark hair and was very petite.

Leave your guesses in the comments. And as always, if you leave your name as anonymous, your submission will be stricken from the record and you will be seriously made fun of.

Ellie Update

I know we haven't been keeping everyone up to date on the many prenatal doctor's visits for our little Ellie, so I decided to update you all today.

Today was the 26 week appointment (can you believe it! 26 weeks already which means in around 14 weeks our little Ellie will be here!). At todays appointment I took the glucose test which showed that I do not have gestational diabetes, which is great. We also got to hear her heart beat, and boy did it beat. It was really loud. Finally Dr. Fisher measured my big belly and said everything looks great.

A nice simple, almost boring doctors visit, just the way we like it. So all is well and Ellie is growing as she should. Though I must say that she has a kick that far exceeds Lizzie's when Lizzie was at this point. I hope that doesn't mean that she is going to be that much more active once she is here since I already have one ball of non-stop energy. Oh well. I guess for that we will just have to wait and see.

Lizzie on the Pot

The other day I was doing dishes while Lizzie played with the pots and pans. All of a sudden the room went from being filled with sounds of banging metal to eirie silence, and then a screach from a small child who found that pots and pans are great fun right up until you get stuck:

The Lizzie in the Cupboard

Lizzie was playing in the kitchen (as usual) tonight. I looked down and yelled for Steph to get the camera. Here's why:

Like her Auntie Maria

(What is about to follow is an approximation of what occured last night, July 31st, 2006. Since I was not present, some details may have been fudged. Pardon the pun. You'll see...)

So I come home last night to my wife and my mother (who is over for dinner) with incredible smirks on their faces. Perhaps incredulous is a better word.

Steph: "Figured out how your daughter takes after your sister."
Allen: "What, writing with poop all over the walls?"
Grandma: Chuckles "No, but close."
Steph: "All over the crib, all over her face, all over her body, on the floor..."
Grandma: "Even up and down on the spindles on her crib..."
Allen: Incredulous as well now... "When did this happen?"
Steph: "20 minutes ago"
Allen: "Did she not have pants on? Or did she take those off too?"
Steph: "I was doing laundry, so I just thought, 'Oh, it'll be okay this once...'"
Allen: "Ouch"
Steph: "And I went in there and she was just smiling..."
Allen: "So did you take straight to the bath?"
Steph: "When I opened the door, I was in utter disbelief. My mind tried to understand the situation, but it was struggling. I think I told myself, 'It's just chocolate, yeah, that's it...' I called for your mom and she came in and laughed..."
Grandma: "Yeah, I could tell by her voice that Lizzie wasn't hurt or anything, but I could tell I needed to get there... and then..."
Steph: "I picked Lizzie up and Mom started the bath for me and then she worked on Lizzie's room and crib while I washed off Lizzie. I don't know what I would have done if your mom wasn't here."

And so the story went. The next five to ten minutes were spent repeating the story from various angles, adding in new details here and there as they came. All mixed with laughter and simple incredulity.

Mom, we are very glad you came over yesterday. Your help was indispensable.

Maria, like auntie, like niece... :-)

God has answered with joy

Steph had a great ultrasound today. The tech was very helpful and very sweet. Went through everything she was doing and explained what sometimes was a garbled mess on the screen. Everything is there and as it should be.

So, that's it, have a good day.

...

...

Wait, what's that? You want to know something else? :: grin ::

How should I put it? It's a girl! Lizzie is going to have a sister. Daddy is going to be vastly outnumbered. Mommy's team got bigger. I'll be hearing: "Ewwww, boys are gross..." twice as much in the future.

We have decided to name her Eliana Joy. Eliana means "God has answered" and indeed He has.

Without further ado, meet Ellie.


p.s. A trip down memory lane. Lizzie's ultrasound picture from roughly the same time period

Echo

Well, this past Friday we took a trip up to OHSU. But not for Lizzie. This trip was for Little One. Steph had a fetal echocardiogram. Just like they do for Lizzie, only for the itty bitty heart inside Steph's tummy. :-)

And Dr. Shaughnessy gladly told us that everything looks normal. YIPPEE! Everything that they could see (and they did get the pictures they wanted) looked as it should, no holes where they shouldn't be, blood flowing how it's supposed to.

Now before you get all in a huff, we have another ultrasound this Thursday (July 27, late in the day) to look at the rest of the baby. So, come next Thursday night or Friday, we might drop a note on this here blog about the gender o' Little One. :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

A late in the day Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, and Lizzie's loving father...ok I'll tell you who...Allen! 25 today and just as handsome and sweet as ever. I love you Allen and hope that you had the wonderful and relaxing birthday that you deserved.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lizzie's 1st Birthday Cake

Strung a few clips together of Lizzie eating her first birthday cake. Well done Munchkin!

Cake movie (Hi-speed)

Cake movie (Lower-speed)

Lizzie was a little slow about it at first, but by half way thru the video, she's going full steam.

Fun with boxes