Ella's First Week

Ella wore the same outfit home I wore when I was born... except for the pants because she was way too small for them! haha

It has taken me some time to get around to posting the rest of our time spent at the hospital and Ella's first week home! What can I say, motherhood has been an adjustment! haha In Ella's birth story I wrote about how special those few days in the hospital were for us as a brand new little family. They really were some of the best days of my life!

Since we were admitted to the hospital late Friday night, didn't get any sleep because I was in labor and delivered the baby, we found ourselves in our new room with our sweet girl completely exhausted bright and early Saturday morning. We tried to get some sleep, but with Trevor's parents in town as well as my mother we knew that family would want to stop by and see the baby. We didn't get much rest because we spent the afternoon showing her off to family, and Trevor and I just gazing at her in total awe that this was our baby! That evening after family had left we were changing her diaper when before we could get another diaper on her, she peed all over her plastic bassinet. Trevor lifted her up so I could wipe it down, and when I looked up I see that Ella is pooing! Just in the nick of time I am able to catch it. Yes, I caught it mid air! haha If that doesn't say welcome to parenthood I don't know what does! haha It was the lovely tar like meconium poo. This seemed like the perfect time for Ella's first bath. I had opted to delay her first bath to reap the benefits of keeping the vernix on her skin as well as having uninterrupted one on one time with her after she was born. I am so happy Trevor and I got to give her, her first bath together. We also were able to redo her foot prints because when she had peed in her bassinet it had run all the way down to the little drawer underneath the crate that was holding a bunch of her paperwork! haha

As we were winding down for the night, Ella started throwing up dark fluid, which of course scared the living life out of Trevor and I. It seemed like she was chocking on it, and we quickly called the nurses. Because Ella had come out so fast, she had not only bruised her face, but apparently had swallowed a lot of amniotic fluid. We ended up having to take her to the nursery where they had to essentially pump her stomach to get the fluids out. I had every intention of keeping Ella solely in our room and not letting her go to the nursery to sleep. We were really worried about her chocking in the night on more amniotic fluid (they had already ordered she keep her bassinet tilted up), and the nurses told us that they were going to have to come in and check on her every hour during the night if she stayed in our room with us. At this point I had barley slept in over 48 hours, and had just given birth. I was spent. I don't think sleep deprivation and exhaustion has ever hit me as hard as it did that night and when the nurses told me they would be waking me up every hour to check on Ella, on top of the worrying about her, the emotional and physical toll took over and we decided the best thing to do would be to have her spend the night in the nursery so we could actually rest, and she could be monitored. Best. Decision. Ever. Trevor and I did go to the nursery to check on her in the middle of the night, in fact it was after that visit when we got back to our room that we decided on her name. I will have to tell the background on her name in another post! Even though she slept in the nursery that night I still had to wake up every two hours to pump, and take medications, but when I woke up the next morning I felt like a new human being! I think it helped that I had built up a great rapport with the nurses and felt totally comfortable letting them watch her.

Not the most flattering picture of me... haha... but I mean, how much more candid does it get then this?

Check out all the hair! I was born totally bald so this was nice to see! haha

Up until this point Ella was having a hard time breastfeeding. She didn't want to suck on anything, not even our fingers or a pacifier. We realized that, that was probably due to the fact that she felt sick and or full from all the amniotic fluid, because once they had got that all out of her stomach she was sucking and breastfeeding like a champ! Sunday our family came to visit us again, and we made sure to give ourselves time to sleep and rest so we didn't have a repeat body crash like we had experienced the night before. It was just the perfect day soaking up our baby! We were new parents learning the ropes and enjoying every second of this new life. Monday morning we were on our way home. They had done a check on her before we left and her bilirubin levels were not great and so they had told us we needed to strip her down to her diaper and let her nap in the sunlight by a window. We had a follow up appointment the next day, where unfortunately her levels had got worse. We had to get our jaundice baby a light bed and were ordered to keep her in as much as possible. Ella did great with the bed, but it was hard to not hold our brand new little baby as much as we wanted to. We were super diligent with the lights though, and it payed off because she was able to get her levels up very quickly and not have to use the bed after a few days!

Headed home!

Ella getting in her ordered sun bathing session.

Grandpa and Ella sleeping! haha

Baby Jack, Ella's cousin who is just a few weeks older then her came to visit as well! It was so fun having such new babies together. My sister even brought these outfits for them and we had to get a picture! 

Kissing Ella after her blood was taken to check her levels.

Last year all the girls in my family had bought Taylor Swift tickets for the show in Salt Lake. Of course this was just before I was pregnant, and the date of the concert landed only six days after Ella was born. Because of this my sisters and sister in laws were in town, and since so many of us were going to be together my brother and Dad decided to come up as well. Basically, we had a lot of family in town. I was so nervous about how I would feel physically, and emotionally when it came to going to the concert. Thankfully I felt great and we all really enjoyed the show! I missed Ella incredibly though and couldn't wait to get home to her. The next week Trevor's parents came up again and stayed with us for a few days so they could enjoy Ella.

Again, becoming parents for the first time has been an amazing experience and I feel like Trevor and I are still learning so much each day about what parenthood entails. We just feel so lucky we get this keep this little girl, she is ours! And she has a huge family that loves her.

Man, what a first week! If you made it through this whole post I owe you a cookie!