One month check-up

Ella had her one month check-up today with Dr. Gollnick. She now weighs 8lbs 4oz and is 21 1/2 inches long! She is getting so big!! She has great head control and is smiling! We just can't get enough of her!

We really can't believe that we have had her for one month already, that just a little over a month ago, I was still pregnant with her. Each day that we have her, we realize how much she fills our hearts with so much joy. SHe truly is the light of our lives!!

4 weeks old already

Ella had her first tub bath that she didn't scream!!! It was so fun to watch her look around and try to figure out what was going on. She really seemed to enjoy it! Hopefully she will sleep well tonight after her bath with Johnson's Bedtime Bath lavender scent!! We will have to see if that is just a gimmick, or if it really works....we will keep you posted!

Christmas Eve

The Cheely's came over today for our Christmas dinner. We had great food and lots of gift giving and recieving! I guess, technically, this is Ella's First Christmas!!

Ella totally unaware of all the fun!

The McGraths and Hughes

The Hughes were all over tonight for some Kanasta!

Butler Bulldogs

Tonight we went to another Butler game at Hinkle Fieldhouse, but this one was extra special because Collin got to sit on press row with Scott, and Grandma Jenny, Grandma Judy, Aunt Sally, Uncle Steve and Brad all came to the game. It was so much fun. We, of course, saw Claudia again, it was so neat to see how both of the girls had grown! The Bulldogs won again...they are on a hot streak!!!

Brad with Blue, THE Butler Bulldog

There Here!!!

Grandma Jenny and Uncle Collin arrived late last night, or early this morning as it may be...2am...from Florida. Grandma Jenny decided to drive the 16 hours without stopping for the night! So today we visited and Collin met Ella for the first time. I think that he was a little nervous at first to hold her, but once he did, he didn't want to put her down! We went over to Great Grandpa Meyer's house and Betty made us a great dinner. It was a very nice visit.

White Elephant

A side view of Scott's uncle Jim and cousin Brad
Chad, Jessie and Grandma Hughes in the background
We went over to the McGrath's tonight for a Christmas White Elephant gift exchange with Scott's family. His Uncle Steve and cousin Brad were in town from Wisconsin, as well as his uncle Jim and aunt Sally. We were sad that the rest of his cousin's couldn't make it, but we will hopefully get to see them soon!

Belly Button Issues

Unfortunately, we had to see Dr. Gollnick a little earlier than we had hoped. Ella woke-up this morning with puss coming from her belly button. Her cord fell off a few days ago, but it wasn't totally healed... Dr. Gollnick was going to admit us to the hospital for IV antibiotics, but because she wasn't running a fever and we promised that we would check often and take her to the ER if she began to run a temp...she decided that we could go to Community North Hospital and get some blood tests, and if those came back OK, we could just do oral antibiotics. Thank goodness that Scott's Aunt Sally was with us because it was a very difficult day for both Ella and Mommy. They sent us to the in hospital lab, where they stuck her twice with no luck, then had me nurse her to see if her veins would "plump-up"...that didn't work. So they sent us to the pediatric unit where they stuck her again and finally got what they needed! The Dr. on call was supposed to call us with the results to let us know if we were OK to stay at home or if we needed to go back to the hospital. When she called, the news wasn't what we expected...the blood that they got from Ella had clotted, which means that they couldn't run the tests on it that they needed. Ella was still without a fever so that Dr. said that we could stay at home and start giving her the oral antibiotics. It was a scary ordeal, and Ella was fine through the whole thing! It really makes you thankful that you have a healthy baby and your heart goes out to those who don't!! We got word a day or two later that the infection that Ella had was a staph infection and it was cleared up in about a week...good as new!!

Christmas Cookies

I made the snicker doodles!Jessie made the cookies with the Hershey kisses on them!
I was trying to be discrete when nursing Ella...
Icing and decorating away!!!
The winning cookie...it is supposed to be reminiscent of someone...can you guess???
It's Dirty C!!!!
All of the cookies...
And more cookies....
Grandma Judy bought Ella a special outfit for the occasion, it had gingerbread men on it! It was adorable!!

Grandpa Jim holding Ella while the women slaved away in the kitchen!

Ella already trying to learn to bake...what a little over achiever!
All of the McGrath girls!
Jessie with her "portraits in cookie" of each of us!


Last year, Judy, Jessie, Grandma Hughes and I got together at Judy's house to bake Christmas cookie, and boy did we!! Jessie swore after last year that she may be late to every baking party because that was far too much work. So this year Judy had done most of the baking before we got there, and unfortunately Grandma Hughes wasn't able to be there...but we had a ball!! We made so many cookies! Ella was such a good girl the whole time, Grandpa Jim just held her and only gave her up when she needed to eat and have a diaper change.
Jessie and I usually ice all of the sugar cookies, and last year we had a contest on whose cookie would be decorated the best, and we let all of the guys be the judge. I can't remember who won last year, but Jessie was defiantly the winner this year! Here are some pictures from the day....and the winning cookie!

2nd Doctor's Appointment

Ella had her 2 week check-up with Dr. Gollnick today. She weighed 7lbs 8oz. That puts her weight in the 23rd percentile. She is 19 3/4 inches long, which is the 25th percentile. She is doing great, so we will be back to see Dr. Gollnick in another 2 weeks!

2 weeks old

Grandma Judy and Grandpa Jim just can't get enough of Ella...they stopped by tonight just to see her!

Our sweet little girl is two weeks old today. I can't believe how fast time has gone and how much she seems to have changed already. She has always been an alert baby, but she is starting to be awake a little more. She is trying to get on a schedule at night. We have started to let her sleep in her car seat because she sleeps longer periods of time. I may get a full 4--5 hours at a time when she sleep in her car seat, which is amazing!!!! She is nursing very well and we can't wait until her doctors appointment to see how much she has grown. We cannot express how much we appreciate all that everyone has done for us! We could not have made such ans easy transition into parenthood without all of the love and support from our family and friends! You all have been amazing and we can never thank you enough for all that you have done for us...we can't wait until you all start having babies so that we can return the favor tenfold!!

We cannot believe how blessed we are that we have a healthy little girl. Our hearts grow with love for her everyday and we cannot imagine our lives without her. She is by far, the best thing that has ever happened to us and we thank God everyday for our little piece of heaven, our little miss Ella!

Butler vs. Ball State

Ella is exactly one week old today, and we went to her first ever Butler game at Hinkle Fieldhouse. It was soooo nice to be out of the house! I don't honestly know how people with new babies keep themselves in the house for six weeks...I would go stir crazy!!! I was going stir crazy and it had only been a week!!!

Ella did great at the game...slept the entire time. The noise didn't seem to bother her in the least. We kept her in her car seat for the game, and there wasn't many people there, so we weren't sitting near anyone. We were sure to keep her away from anyone that looked like they would stick their faces too close to her!!

I think she did better than I did...I can't believe how sore I still am! It was pretty painful walking up the stairs to our seats, and lets not even talk about the car ride through the pot-hole filled streets of Broadripple...TORTURE!!

Butler won...so I wonder if that means that Ella is a good luck charm?? She better not miss any games just in case!!

We also had the opportunity to meet Ella's first friend, Claudia Christine Antcliff. Claudia was born on Thanksgiving night. Her mom Kelly was an assistant to Scott's dad Jim in the Butler Sports Information Office, and Kelly and I got to spend the last part of our pregnancy's going to Butler games and sharing all of our aches and pains! It was so great to meet her, she is so beautiful with her head full of hair. I know that Claudia and Ella will have lots of fun in the coming years playing together.

Here is Ella in her Bulldog outfit...Grandma Judy got her other little hospital hat embroidered with Bulldogs! We wanted her to be in Butler Navy Blue, but we were too afraid that people would think that she was a boy. So she wore an all white outfit, with her hat, and her pink socks! We were still asked if she was a girl or a boy!

Here are the two tired mommy's and the precious little cargo!

The girls meeting for the first time...hopefully they are more excited in the coming months!!!

Here is little Miss Claudia Christine...we are so glad that you are here little one and we can't wait to see you grow up into a beautiful little lady!!!