Life with a Newborn

* Lots of pictures at the end!

Life with a newborn is hard. You get practically no sleep and this little person is depending on you to feed her at least every 2 hours. John and I were zombies for the first week. A couple of my favorite moments from nighttime feedings include:

- Me falling asleep propped up on my elbows while I was trying to sit up to feed Ellie.

- Since I feed Ellie John gets to change her diapers in the middle of the night. When I was trying to wake him up to change her this conversation ensued...

Me: John can you change her diaper?

John: Mmhmm. (No movement)

Me: John can you change her diaper?

John: Yeah. (No movement)

Me: John can you change her?

John: Have Walter do it.

Me: He'll bite her bum.

John: What? What do you want me to do? 

Eventually he did wake up enough to change her diaper but did not remember the bit about Walter.

- And this gem from last night... I told John to change Ellie's diaper. He put her down on the bed and I went to the bathroom. When I came back from the bathroom he was fast asleep and Ellie was still laying there with a dirty diaper. I woke him up and talked to him while he changed her, but this morning he had no memory of any of it.

I've always heard, "Breast is best!" and it's the natural way to feed your child so it should be easy right? Wrong! The first week of feeding was very very painful. I dreaded every feeding and my body tensed up every time Ellie latched on. A lactation consultant saw us before we left the hospital, but she was running around from room to room and couldn't spend much time with us. After a week of pain I decided to see the lactation consultant at our pediatrician's office. She told me I was doing everything right (which was a relief), but that Ellie just wasn't putting her bottom lip down. That one little thing caused so much pain. She also showed a different position to hold her which helped out a lot. Nursing isn't perfect yet, but it is so much better!

My mom came and stayed with us for 2 weeks. It was great not having to worry about anything around the house.

Our first family photo. In the future hopefully we won't look so tired.

This was the day Elinor came home from the hospital. Walter was very curious about her.

John's company sent flowers and a onesie. 

Classic milk coma

Her angry face

John kept laughing and taking pictures during this particular little meltdown.

Walter loves to lick Ellie's face and try to take her socks and mittens.

We gave her a bath and her hair ended up like that. 

She's pretty adorable, especially in her polka dot pants.