First smiles!!

Pulling his hair out???

Here's Eli's first bath in the real bathtub - His umbilical cord stump fell off a while back, but there was a little crusty black chunk that held on, tucked inside the bellybutton, so I waited until it fell off before doing the "in the water" thing...

A few pics from the backyard... Check out my cute little belly.

And my loss of hair!! Seriously. Where has all of his hair gone in the past 2 weeks? It's not like I've been finding it everywhere. Sure, a stray piece here and there, but he's lost a TON of the hair from the *top* of his head. Not the typical back of head, Dr. Phil ring like most babies get (although, I'm sure that is still coming...).

We've been seeing the first signs of smiles - Here's the start of one...

3 weeks!!

Wow, time has flown! Eli has been a great baby so far. He started out with 4 hrs between feedings at night and somewhere between 2.5-3 hrs bewteen feedings in the daytime. He has been throwing up entire feedings on occasion, so I have been trying to feed him more frequently, with more burping, thinking he's been getting too much milk at once. Some days it works, others - not so much.

Here are some pics from the past week or so...

Ben is very sweet to little "E-I". "Ben hold EI, mommy?? One more time."

Grandpa Tom and Barbara stopped by for a visit...

A few more of Eli...

I love these next 3... How sweet is this kid?????

The first attempt at tummy time - which of course ended up with some spit-up...
My friend Lauren and her sweet baby, Camden (3 mos) stopped by for a visit, too. Eli slept thru most of their visit :)

On our own

Grandma and grandpa left yesterday... Very tough to see them go. Here are a few pics:
Helping "Betty Crocker" with some chocolate chip cookies...
She even let Ben lick the beaters!
Today was my first day completely on my own with both boys. The AM went well, until I got brave and attempted a short trip to the park with Eli in my ERGO baby carrier and Ben on foot. We got there fine and Ben played well, BUT, of course, had no desire to leave the park on his own, so he got drug by the hand the entire walk home... Lesson learned.

Eli is doing very well - Eating for the most part about every 3-4 hours. Even at night. I am one lucky mommy. He has had a few spells of throwing up all of a feeding, but the advice nurse seems to think it was a burping (or non-burping) issue. He gained his birth weight back very fast - Born at 8 lbs 9 oz, the next day 8 lbs 2 oz, the next day 8 lbs 1 oz, and 4 days later, back up at 9 lbs even. He is a pretty happy little guy, and we are very lucky!!!

Here are some Ben-ims from the past few weeks that I want to remember:

• When grandma attempted to share Ben's cookie, Ben replied with, "Grandma, get your own tookie".
• When I had finagled both boys onto my lap, Ben says, "Mommy holding two guys".
• "I need a beer".
• "Grandma, play cars" "Grandpa, play cars" "Mommy, play cars" "Daddy, play cars" This little boy is on a serious car kick...
• "Does grandma have nipples? Where are they?"
• "Holy cow" "Ohhh, man" and " Oooo, doggies"
• Also, while kicking the soccer ball around with grandma in the backyard, Ben started up a random conversation, reminiscing about watching fireworks in the backyard in late July - describing the colors, etc. that he saw.
• He also likes to have the door at the bottom of the stairs closed every night when he goes up for ni-night so "Bears don't get you" or "Raccoons don't get you". Poor kid and his irrational fears.
• Also, last week, when I was attempting to put Ben down for a nap and he was really struggling to go to sleep, I told him he could just have quiet time and read some books for an hour until I came and got him. It was quiet in his room for quite a while, then suddenly, he starts screaming, "Mama, come here!!". I go peak in the door and here he is with both hands and one leg *completely* covered in A & D (the clear diaper rash cream - petroleum jelly-stuff) that he had found in his room. I wish I could have grabbed my camera, but I didn't want him to touch anything...

We have one funny big brother on our hands!

12 days old!

The past 12 days have certainly been a blur... I can't believe that Eli is already 12 days old! I don't know how we would have handled these days without the assistance of grandma and grandpa... I think we could have handled Eli on his own, but throw a 2 year old into the mix (who is pretty well behaved, but needs some attention - as all 2 year olds do), and we would have been in over our heads on our own.

4 days old... Sleeping like an angel.

Hanging with Big Bro Ben.

The next 2 are when Eli was 6 days old...

One with mommy...

Daddy with his 2 boys...
Ben having fun in the backyard! Smelling the hops with grandpa.
Looking like such an *older* brother!!

All has been going well for me - with the exception of a Day 6 - 2 hour, horrendous cramp-fest, with a slight fever, that took this mommy out of commission for 2 days.

For those who need their newborn fix, but are too far away, here is a quick clip of Eli doing the typical 'squirmy-random-newborn-arm-movements' with a 'melt your heart' face...

While we had help here, we also took on a few tasks: sorting through a ton of kid clothes, removing air conditioners and moving a ton of junk from storage after taking our house back off the market... No way could we have done these without help - Thanks grandma and grandpa!!!

Tomorrow is the big day. Grandma and grandpa are leaving to return to MN, and daddy is heading back to work. I will take Ben to his daycare/ pre-school in the morning, so Eli and I can have some time to hang out... We've been pretty spoiled so far always having someone to watch/ hold/ burp/ change a diaper on both boys that this could be a tough transition... (I think daddy held the record with 10 poopy diaper changes in one day). Ben will probably have the toughest time missing his playmate, grandpa... We will ALL miss them and appreciate all of their help! Thanks mom and dad!!!

Announcing Elijah Morgan!!

Born at 8:32PM on August 31

8 lbs 9 oz, 20.5 in

We are thrilled beyond belief!

First visitors - Grandma Jeanne, Papa Doug and big brother, Ben!!

Ben was very sweet and gentle with his baby brother.

Ready to head home
The next morning Ben greeted Eli with bed-head and all!
We got a visit from Uncle Aaron and Aunt Rhonda

The details of the birth story...

I awoke at 2AM on Tuesday early AM with some contractions. I started timing them - they varied anywhere from 10 minutes apart down to 6 minutes apart. I didn't get much sleep (obviously...), even though the contractions weren't super strong. In the morning, we called in the stand-by baby sitters, Grandma Jeanne and Papa Doug to watch Ben. They headed our way, but my contractions weren't really progressing, so we all hung out at our house until about 1 in the afternoon when I called my OB's office to report what had been happening. They suggested that we come in and get my cervix checked for progress in their office and then head to the birthing center to get admitted if things looked promising. At about 2PM, I was at 3 cm, but the baby was still fairly high, and after some discussion we decided to just get admitted rather than drive back home... Good thing, because my contractions intensified fairly quickly after that, and we checked in to the birthing center and ordered an epidural fairly quickly. I got it at 4:20, and got some rest. I started feeling some pressure and they checked me around 7PM - I was at 7cm, and pretty much getting close to having the baby. At 8PM, my doctor arrived, broke my water and then the nurses and doctor all left the room for about 15 minutes. When they returned, I was ready to push. The doctor was a bit concerned because the baby's head, which should be face down, was actually sideways in the birth canal. I pushed a few times and the doctor tried turning the head, but he kept slipping back to the sideways position. I guess that the baby's heart rate was dropping pretty low at this point (60 to 90 beats per minute), and I pushed a few more times and then the doctor asked if I was OK with a forceps delivery. Whatever was best for the baby - of course... So after a total of maybe 15 minutes of pushing, and a heck of an assist from the forceps, little Elijah was brought into this world! Turned out that the umbilical cord was around his neck (which is fairly common), which was probably causing his heart rate to drop so low. He was "floppy" at first (meaning not very active), but as soon as they got him to the warmer, he let out a big cry, and started flailing. His oxygen levels were low, so they gave him some 'blow by' oxygen and he perked right up. He did swallow some amniotic fluid (which had some meconium in it), so they suctioned some fluids from his stomach and mouth right away. They worked on him for quite a while before I got to hold him which was so hard. I couldn't take my eyes off of him once they handed him to me. His little head was just perfectly round (no cone head for this guy!), as was the rest of him. Quite a different delivery than Ben's where I pushed for 3 hours...

This little guy is nursing like a champ and is a pretty happy little guy so far. My parents arrived yesterday about 4PM from Minnesota.

I think Ben is really liking this 'new baby brother' thing, because he is getting lots of attention, new things to play with and new books to read. Having a new baby in the house *really* makes Ben look so much older. It's like he just grew 5 inches, gained 10 lbs and added 50 words to his vocabulary... Andy's comment on our first night home with Eli after dealing with a late-night wake up by Ben "Wow - I think we have a 10 year old in there - he is SO big!"...
A few more of precious Eli... He looks a lot like Ben in this one and not much like him at all in the next one...