Elliana - 1 month

Look at how big I am at one month!

Size 1 diapers

0-3 month clothes

10 pounds, 8 ounces {I gained 2 pounds this month!!}

22 inches long {I grew 1.5 inches this month!!}

Slow down my love.  Mama is not okay with you growing up this quickly.  Although Mama is certainly okay with you growing and being healthy.  Thank you Lord!

Leaving the hospital - she's officially ours!

We forgot that the carseat was "set" for our six month old Kherington, so we looked like rookies trying to get Ellie in the carseat at the hospital.  After some head and strap adjustments we were good to go though.

Lu says "Oh great, another one"

Berlin really did not seem to mind Ellie.  It's like she knows what to expect! :)  Abby on the other hand has had an adjustment.  She doesn't have a lap to sit on unoccupied 24/7 like before.  She is slowly but surely coming around.

Kherington seemed a little confused

Mama and her girls after coming home from the hospital

Daddy and Ellie snuggling

The first night home from the hospital was a little rough.  We started out with Ellie in a swaddler in the rock-n-play sleeper.  This quickly resulted in an outfit change as she spit up all over herself.  We then decided to try the pack-n-play as it seemed the incline of the rock-n-play was causing the spitting up.  This was not successful either.  She also was a hungry little girl and wanted to nurse every half hour until about 4 am.  Needless to say it was a short but long night for Mama and Daddy.  Upon seeing Grandma and Pops, I think my words were "Remind me why we have children?"  But she has been so incredibly worth it.

Pops got his wish for another girl!

Grandma and E with her crazy eyes!

Smitten

Nana and her girls

We were so incredibly thankful for family during the few days prior to Ellie's arrival as well as right after.  Nana helped so much with K prior to E arriving during the long labor and false trip to the hospital.  It was one of many moments that made me thankful to be back in Indiana and so close to family.  Grandma and Pops came up the day Ellie was born and helped take care of the home front, Kherington and the hooligans while we were stuck in the hospital.  Pops had to go back to work, but Grandma was able to stay.  It was so nice having an extra set of hands and we were so thankful for all the help with K, laundry and all of the yummy food!

First time in the swing - it was short lived, as she's not a fan

Kherington had to supervise Daddy with Elliana in the swing

Swinging

Caught her checking on sis

Ambivalent 

First time in the bouncy seat

Snoozing

Dreaming away

Elliana is similar to her sister in the fact that she is not the biggest fan of the swing.  Our swing turns 90 degrees so it swings side to side or front to back.  She doesn't really prefer either way.  She is more a fan of the bouncy seat.  Figures - the swing plugs in to the outlet whereas the bouncy seat runs off of batteries.  We are proud supports of Energizer and Duracell in this household.  I guess we should have bought stock!

Love her

Mean mugging look

I still have these moments of disbelief that she's mine

Although the first night was rough as far as sleep and nursing were concerned, Ellie figured it out very quickly thereafter and averages about 6 hours of sleep at night!  This is wonderful expect Mama really needs her to eat more often.  This is a good thing I suppose.  Although I don't necessary get that long to sleep uninterrupted, it has helped with my milk supply to have plenty in the freezer.  I have a goal to get to 10 gallons in the freezer, something that I fell short of with K!

First bath - checking herself out

Unlike her sister, Ellie loves bath time

"I'm a pro at this bath thing"

Look at those cheeks!  So delicious!

Ellie loves bath time.  She not only does great in the tub, but also getting her hair washed under the faucet.  Hopefully this continues and she can help Kherington to see that bath time and getting your hair washed is not so bad.  We only have done sponge baths this first month using the sling on the baby tub, because although Ellie's umbilical cord fell off on day 5 her belly button has had a hard time healing properly.  She has an outie due to an umbilical hernia {as did K} but it just didn't seem to want to scab and heal.  At our one week doctor's visit, the doctor put something that looks like silver nitrate on it to help with the bleeding and oozing! Yummy!!

Big sis holding little sis for the first time!

Such love and admiration

One of them looks thrilled
The other, not so much!

Both my beautiful girls sporting purple

K looks a little mischievous here

The girls and their "matching" frog jammies

Kherington loves her baby sister and loves to help.  She often asks to "hold her" but you have to watch because when she is done holding her, she is done and pulls her arms away with no concern for poor Elliana's head or neck support.  Two year olds!!

Sleeping beauty

Daddy's girls

I forgot how much babies sleep

So peaceful

This reminds me of K sleeping

It's a rough life

Elliana seems to like looking at the bouncy seat as well as hanging out on her activity mat.  And she really doesn't seem to mind tummy time.  She is incredibly strong and pushes up for long periods of time.  I feel like we need to skip tummy time, as this just leads to strong babies who then become mobile babies who then become trouble.  Just kidding of course!  I cannot wait to see K and Ellie playing together.

Checking out the activity mat for the first time

Can I help you Mama?

Aunt Angela came to visit.  It is funny how we have both moved since K was born and we are similar distance apart again!

Baby whisperer Aunt Angela

Because Ellie was 1 pound, 1 ounce heavier then K was, our stint in newborn clothes was shorter.  This was one of my favorite outfits with Kherington.  Ellie only wore it this one time.

Right hook!

I am thankful that Elliana was not my first baby when it comes to breastfeeding.  We have had our share of issues really from the get go.  Much of this is my bodies fault - my milk came in while I was in the hospital and poor Ellie just couldn't keep up.  This has continued to be an issue and she gets choked often.  She also has struggled more with the bottle then Kherington did.  We've explored a couple of different bottles and seem to have found one that works better.  It is a work in progress but I am thankful for my easy experience the first time around to help with this time.

Daddy giving her the first bottle at 2 weeks old
Again, notice Daddy has supervision

Must ... go ... slow!

This was absolutely one of my favorite moments.  Jared was out of town for the first time.  I was out of diapers downstairs and was in the midst of dinner.  I told K to watch Ellie while I ran upstairs to grab diapers.  Elliana was crying as she was wet and hungry.  When I came back down, Kherington was sitting here singing to Ellie.  I am pretty sure I melted into a puddle.  Love these two!  I will need to remember moments like this for when they are pummeling each other on the floor like my sister, Jessica, and I use to!

Sisterly love

Due to an unfortunate health situation with my poor sister-in-law just after she had Clay, Ellie and Clay had a delayed meeting.  We failed to get pictures when they did finally meet, when E was 2 weeks old.  So we snapped some pictures the next week to document! 

Getting ready for our visit

Clay and Ellie checking each other out

One of the first things people always comment on when they see or meet Elliana is her hair.  Especially if Kherington is around, as we all know she is such a towhead.  Kherington had darker hair when she was born, but I don't feel like it was as dark as Ellie's.  Also, K did not have as much.  Grandma tells us that Mama's hair used to have the volume/craziness/standing up that Ellie has going on.  I love her hair.  It has the coarseness of her Daddy's hair.  I feel as though it will lighten up as her little eyebrows are not all that dark, but I guess we shall see!

Bright eyes

Twinkies

Look at that hair!

Ellie got to celebrate her first fourth of July in her first short month of life.  It was an absolutely beautiful and rare day as it was only in the 70's.  It was awesome!

Parade?  I think I'll just sleep.

Ellie and Nana

Such a strong little stinker

Clay was just chilling as well

Elliana also was able to go to her first Indianapolis Indians baseball game.  Nana was gracious enough to let us come to her company's suite and hang out.  Again, a perfect day weather wise.  We got downtown early so we could park close and walked along the canal.  Ellie chose to sleep in the carrier and Kherington decided to be a stinker getting too close to the water for Mama and Daddy's comfort several times.  She had fun looking for dogs, ducks and fish.

Daddy's and babies

Aunt Jessica and Uncle Derek came to visit.  Aunt Jess needed some Ellie snuggle time.  And Uncle Derek got to hold Ellie for the first time as he was sick when she was born.

Aunt Jess and her girls

Looking like a natural! *wink wink*

We've had a wonderful first month.  I feel like Ellie has always been a part of our family and can't really remember life without her.  It takes us longer to get out of the house.  It takes some negotiation with tiny tyrant to get things to operate smoothly, but overall life is wonderful.  I feel so blessed that God has given us these two beautiful healthy girls to parent.  It's not always easy but it is always awesome!

I am making a conscious effort to not compare Ellie to Kherington.  Obviously it is inevitable, but I don't want her to always feel like she has to live up to or be like big sis.  But because I have been asked no less then a thousand times here are are the girls at one month.  This just makes me chuckle!  

Kherington - 1 month

Elliana - 1 month