friends near and far

We had a big day today!  We spent most of the afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa Neckers house where Elia met her Aunt Kim and cousin, Maddie for the first time and got to see her Uncle Joel again.  They're all in town visiting from Denver and we were so excited for the cousins to meet for the first time.  The girls were largely indifferent about meeting each other.

That's okay though, once Elia can stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time we're sure they'll be best of friends.

Plus it was fun to see Todd and Joel together with their girls.

After we got home, Mom's friends Mary-Catheryn and Beth came to meet Elia along with their kids, Boston and Lahna.  Elia is so excited to have play dates with them (and so is her mom!).

By the way, Boston has the most adorable baby blog around, The Boston News, check it out if you want to be overwhelmed by cuteness.

We're looking forward to more fun with family this weekend!

Visitors: Uncle Joel, Aunt Kim and Madeline + Mary-Catheryn and Boston B + Beth and Lahna Q
Favorite Things: Sleeping, Snuggling
Least Favorite Things: Diaper Changes, Being Hungry 

sunny days

Saturday, April 27

Mom began Saturday morning with a quick stop-in at Debbie's baby shower - we can't wait to meet Baby V!  Dad and Elia hung out while Mom was gone and by the time she got home the sun was shining - what a beautiful day!  

In the afternoon, Mom and Dad's friend Elisha came over to watch Elia for a bit while Dad went to the gym and Mom went to run some errands.  After some quality cuddling time, Grandpa L came to drop off a meal and visit for awhile.  Everyone was sitting outside and after Grandpa left, Mom and Dad decided that the only thing to do was to grill out. 

Visitors: Elisha D + Grandpa Lautenbach
Milestone: First Babysitter 


Sunday, April 28

Visitors: Grandma and Grandpa Neckers + Grandma and Grandpa Lautenbach
Dinner Provided By: Grandma and Grandpa Lautenbach

Monday, April 29

Visitors: Great Grandma and Grandpa Lautenbach
Dinner Provided By: Great Grandma and Grandpa Lautenbach

Tuesday, April 30

Elia had her newborn shoot today.  She was so well-behaved!  Mom took a few shots in process but we can't wait to see all of the shots that Allie took and put together her birth announcement.  

 

Don't worry - the professional shots are much better than Mom's iPhone pics.

Visitors: Shari M
Milestone: Baby's First Photo Shoot - Check out a few preview pictures on Allie Marie Photography's Facebook Page!
Dinner Provided By: Shari M

Wednesday, May 1

Elia is two weeks old today!

This afternoon Great Grandma Lautenbach came over and spent two hours planting flowers from her garden in our garden.  It was so nice of her to not only give us her plants but spend the afternoon getting our garden up to snuff.  She even did our weeding for us!  We are so grateful to her and are looking forward to watching our garden bloom all season long.

After Dad got home from work we went on our first family outing (outside of medical appointments) and enjoyed a happy hour and appetizers for dinner - Mom's favorite thing!  Elia slept the whole time making it a nice relaxing outing all around.

Visitors: Great Grandma Lautenbach
Milestone: Baby's First Happy Hour

Thursday, May 2

We had a nice quiet day at home kicked off with a long walk.  Mom could get used to this!  In the afternoon Aunt Jennifer came to meet Elia since she was finally better after contracting the most poorly timed bout of illness ever.  Her mom, Great Aunt Linda came to meet Elia too - she had so much fun getting acquainted with more family!

Tonight family from Denver arrives - Elia is so excited to meet Aunt Kim, her cousin Maddie, and to see Uncle Joel again tomorrow.  We're so lucky to have so much family, near and far.

Visitors: Great Aunt Linda + Aunt Jennifer
Dinner Provided By: Sarah H

our little glowbug

Wednesday, April 24

We kicked off the morning with a visit to a lactation consultant.  An hour later, we were armed with  lots of good tips to make meal time easier.  Dad stayed at home with Elia while Mom ran her first errand without the baby.  After lunchtime Jennie and Madelynn came for a visit.  It was so much fun to play with them.  Maddie was so sweet with Elia, they're going to have so much fun together when Elia's a bit bigger. 

That afternoon we went to the doctor for Elia's one week check up.  Elia weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs. even - so big!  Because her weight gain is back on track, we don't have to wake her up in the middle of the night to eat anymore - hurrah!  The doctor sent us to the lab just to re-check her bilirubin levels since her next appointment isn't until she's two months old.  Grandma L came to visit for a few minutes and the doctor called back to say that her bilirubin levels were high so they were sending over phototherapy lights for her to wear 24/7 until those numbers went down.  The lights make her glow like a firefly!  Thankfully, Elia didn't seem to mind the lights.

Visitors: Jennie and Madelynn C + Grandma Lautenbach
Dinner Provided By: Jennie C
Latest Nickname: Glowbug 

Thursday, April 25

Elia survived her first night of phototherapy and we went back to the lab to see how she was doing.  After that, we spent a quiet day at home filled with lots of snuggles.  Unfortunately, we found out her levels were down but not far enough so that meant another day of phototherapy and labs again in the morning.

Biggest Challenge: The phototherapy machine has to be plugged in, making it feel a bit like a tether.

Friday, April 26

Mom and Dad woke up feeling (wait for it...) rested this morning!  Elia ate great yesterday and each of us only got up with her twice overnight.  Since she's eating better, we were up for shorter amounts of time and it made a world of difference.  After such a nice sleep, Dad went to work and Mom took Elia back to the lab.  When we got home, Mom's cousin Allison stopped by to drop off dinner and meet E.  We had a visit from church's Care Committee, they brought a meal that we'll eat this weekend - how lucky to have double dinners!  We took a little nap and then Grandma L popped in for a few minutes before Elia got hungry again.  After a snack, we got the call that her levels were down and we could take the lights off of her - yay!

Since she was no longer tied to the machine, we decided to give tummy time a try while we waited for Dad to get home from work.  

Elia still needs to work on it.  She was much better at regular play time and warmed up to the sweet face she saw in the mirror.

Once Dad got home, we took a family walk around the neighborhood.  It finally feels like spring around here!  

We go in the morning for what we hope will be her last blood draw for a while, wish us luck!

Visitors: Allison B + Mayflower Congregational Church Care Committee + Grandma Lautenbach
Dinner Provided By: Allison B

welcome elia grey!

If you're reading this blog you likely know that our daughter, Elia Grey, was born last week.  She came into the world at 10:49 PM on Wednesday, April 17.  She's a little peanut weighing in at 6 lbs, 5 oz at birth and she was 19 inches long.

We were fortunate to have an amazing birth photographer, Allie of Allie Marie Photography, there to capture Elia's birth.  To see those photos please visit Allie's blog here.  She did a beautiful job of capturing the anticipation, joy, and emotion of the day and we're so grateful to her for that.

As you can imagine, this blog is going to be pretty baby heavy from here on out.  We want to remember as many moments as we can in the midst of all of the new we are experiencing

Today I want to recap what she's done in her first six days on Earth.

Wednesday, April 17

We arrived at the hospital at 3:00 AM for induction.  Elia Grey Neckers was born almost twenty hours later at 10:49 PM with two sets of loving grandparents anxiously looking forward to her arrival in the waiting room.

Biggest surprise: She is so little! We were expecting an 8 pounder.
Biggest challenge: Birth!  Elia was taking her time so we had a little help in the form of a vacuum to get her out.  She was born with the sweetest little cone head.
Visitors: Grandma and Grandpa Lautenbach + Grandma and Grandpa Neckers

Thursday, April 18

 

We made it to the postpartum floor at 1:30 AM, happy and exhausted.  Elia spent the next several hours in the nursery while Mom and Dad rested.  That morning we enjoyed lots of skin-to-skin time and naps.    Elia is a little jaundiced but not enough to need phototherapy.

Biggest surprise: She has hair!  A full head of blonde locks.
Fun Fact: She has stork bites which we found out Great Grandpa Lautenbach has too - apparently if they run in the family, they'll stick around for good.  Such a sweet connection to her family!
Biggest challenge: Staying awake.
Visitors: Grandma and Grandpa Neckers + Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Lautenbach + Aunt Emily + Grandpa Lautenbach + Miriam D.

Friday, April 19

At noon we were discharged and home by 12:30 PM.  While we were in the hospital, Grand Rapids experienced a ton of rain that led to flooding - thankfully, our house was nice and dry for Elia when we got home.  We had lunch while my parents and Aunt Emily visited and then I rested a bit before Uncle Joel, Grandpa N, and eventually Grandma N came to visit.  Mom and Dad were in bed by 8:00 PM.

Biggest surprise: Confusion at pronouncing her name.  We thought we were being quite phonetic.  For the record it's pronounced El-ee-uh.  Like "Ellie" with an "a" at the end of "Elliot" without the "t" sound at the end.
Biggest challenge: Staying awake.
Visitors: Jennifer C.  + Norma R. + Grandma and Grandpa Lautenbach + Aunt Emily + Uncle Joel + Grandma and Grandpa Neckers 
Lunch Provided By: Grandma and Grandpa Lautenbach from Olga's
Dinner Provided By: Grandma and Grandpa Neckers from Marie Catrib's

Saturday, April 20

Elia slept 5 hours straight on our first night home - wow!  We had a nurse come for a routine welcome home visit then Brittny came to meet her before Aunt Emily came over.  Grandma Lautenbach spent all day preparing a really delicious butternut squash lasagna complete with homemade sauce (if you knew Grandma better, you'd know how impressive this is, cooking is not her first love) for Aunt Emily's birthday dinner.  After dinner Elia met Uncle Matt via Skype - he currently lives in Beijing so it will be a few months before he's able to meet her in person.  After that call, she had her first bath.  It wasn't her favorite thing in the world but we're guessing it will grow on her.

Milestone: Elia's First Bath! 
Visitors: Brittny M + Grandma and Grandpa Lautenbach + Aunt Emily + Uncle Matt via Skype
Dinner Provided By: Grandma and Grandpa Lautenbach in honor of Aunt Emily's birthday!

Sunday, April 21

Before heading back to Chicago, Aunt Emily stopped in for one last visit.  Since the weather here took a turn for the better, Elia went on her first walk around the neighborhood.  We didn't go far but it was so nice to get out of the house and into the sunshine.  After that, we took our first family outing on a drive down to the Grand River to check out the flooding.  It turned into a big day with a spur of the moment visit to the pediatrician because of the amount of weight she'd lost so far.  It was a little unnerving but we were sent home with a plan to help her gain more weight as she gets used to nursing. A bigger day than expected, for sure!

Milestone: Elia's First Walk 
Visitors: Aunt Emily + Sue and Gary McLain 
Dinner Provided By: Great Aunt Sandy

Monday, April 22

We kicked off the day with another trip to the pediatrician to check Elia's weight.  My girl had gained 3 ounces overnight - what a star!  After that we headed home and hung out until Sarah came over with Parker after lunch.  We played for awhile and Sarah even brought over some snacks including two cakes that read "Welcome Elia" - what sweet friends we have!  When Dad came home from work we took the stroller out for the first time on a short walk around the block before "meeting" Uncle Drew, who lives in Salt Lake City via Skype, What a fun day!

Milestone: Elia's First Stroll
Visitors: Sarah and Parker H + Uncle Drew via Skype
Current Nicknames: Bug, Sweetheart, E, Baby Badger, Peanut, Little One, Pumpkin, El, Darling, Sweet Cheeks

Tuesday, April 23

It was a quiet day today.  We made some progress with nursing and had a lovely nap.  Uncle Matt sent Elia a bouquet of beautiful spring flowers and Grandma Neckers came over to visit for a little while after work.  After she left, we relaxed all evening.

Visitors: Grandma Neckers
Loads of Baby Laundry Done Today: 2 

We are madly in love with our little one and can't wait to see what each new day brings!

thirty six

If I were a better blogger my first post of 2013 would have come months ago.  If I were a better blogger, I'd have written about each of my fantastic baby showers including beautiful photographs of each of the events.  If I were a better blogger...well, you get the picture and the fact is, I'm not a better blogger.  I'm busy and tired and thirty six weeks pregnant and I haven't updated the blog in months.

Since the last post much has happened including multiple baby showers with family, friends, and co-workers.  Todd and I continue to be overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support that we've experienced through each and every week of this pregnancy.  I feel like a broken record saying it but we are so, so genuinely grateful for all of the wonderful people in our lives and BGN is so lucky to be so loved already.

As I mentioned, I'm not a better blogger and therefore, I did not beautifully photograph each of my baby showers but thankfully I have at least some photos from each one largely thanks to my mom who is a total trooper and happily attended four (4!) of my baby showers.

We have amazing, loving people in our lives.  What fun we had celebrating.

Twenty three days until she's due.  Then the real party begins!