Life with Ella Bella

It has been a while since we have posted. We are now officially living with an infant, and life as we know it has changed forever! We love having our little girl home! She wakes us up in the middle of the night, which for some of you might seem like an inconvenience, but considering the alternative we are happy to get up and feed her.

Sleeping through the night has gotten easier as the days have passed. She usually wakes up every 3 to 4 hours. Joe and I have come up with a system where I take the early shift and he takes the late shift. Ella sleeps in a white bassinet with pink ribbon. She periodically grunts throughout the night, and I wake up an average of 15 times a night just to make sure she’s breathing. At first the bassinet was at the end of the bed so Joe and I would have to get up and walk over to make sure she was ok. We moved the bassinet to my side of the bed and it is rolled up right next to the bed so that all I have to do is reach my arm over and feel her tummy move up and down.

During the day we usually have one or 2 fits of crying that end up with Joe and I looking at each other with complete bewilderment. Neither of us knows how to fix the problem! We are getting better. We have learned that Ella likes to be propped up on our shoulder where she can look around and see what’s happening in the world. We have learned that she is the queen of 15-30 minute cat naps and just about the time you think she’s gone to sleep for hours, she wakes up ready to play. And the most important thing we have learned is that Ella LOVES to eat! A bottle will fix almost anything. I, as the mother and the provider of her food, had to learn the hard way that whatever I eat, Ella also eats. So when I loved that cranberry walnut tart and proceeded to eat most of it, Ella’s poor body didn’t respond to the dried cranberry’s very well and she had some pretty severe gas. Mom felt guilty for that one!

Our house has officially had a baby explosion. No one tells you that when you have a kid your house suddenly gets hit by a tornado! Luckily reinforcements arrived just in time (GiGi got here yesterday) so the kitchen is getting a much needed cleaning. She even washed our sheets, thankfully. Until last night we were sleeping on sheets that had been peed on, puked on and had milk spilled on them. It’s just coincidence that all of that was on Joe’s side of the bed :).

Now we’re trying to figure out what kind of schedule to get her on, when to start and exactly how to go about it. We’re new at this parenting thing, so I will be soliciting a lot of advice from all you parents out there.

On Thursday we went for a follow up visit with the Physical Therapist (PT), Occupational Therapist (OT) and wound specialist. They all are pleased with Ella’s progress in every way. The PT and OT said that she is developing just as a 6 week old should. We need to do some specific exercises with her toes, but other than that she’s all baby! The wound specialist said that her legs look good and are healing nicely. She still gets new blisters almost every day, that’s just how it is with EB, but Joe and I know how to take care of them to get them healed.