4 Weeks Old

Life has changed so much in the past 4 weeks, it's hard to even know where to begin. When we first brought Ella home from the hospital she developed abnormal jaundice immediately and had to be treated with phototherapy. Suffice it to say that she basically had to be attached to a tanning bed for 48 hours. Her blood bilirubin level reached the high-risk zone so we had to go back to the hospital the next two days after we brought her home so they could test her. I cried every time they gave her a shot and probably took it harder than she did. The doctor thinks this happened because the amount of formula we were giving her to supplement the breast milk (mine hadn't come in right away) was not enough and our blood types were incompatible. This meant that my "o" blood destroyed some of her red blood cells leaving her with more bilirubin than the average newborn and it was more difficult for her body to break down. Needless to say, it was not a fun way to start our lives together.

We quickly got into a routine as a family and the baby was on a 3 hour feeding schedule in no time. She spent the first week pretty much sleeping 24/7 and now is only sleeping about half of the day or less. We had visitors every day for 2 weeks straight (and no, I am not exaggerating). This might sound annoying, but it was actually really helpful and made it easier for me to adjust to my new life with a baby. On the days where I am totally alone it is easy to get depressed about being inside all day. I have to constantly remind myself to take walks and get outdoors no matter how difficult it is to drive or travel with her. Last week we took our first 2 hour trip to Grammy & Poppo's in Ventura. Johnny was amazing and drove us so that I could sit in the back with Ella. She slept the whole way there and the whole way back (it is all about timing :). She is so lucky to have 4 great-grandparents who absolutely adore her. I've been horrible about taking pictures and videotaping so I am really going to work on that this month (especially with the grandparents).

Nights are getting easier every week. She tends to go down around 8pm-ish and, about half of the time, won't wake up until 1am giving us a nice little block of sleep (we are super lame and go to bed around 9pm every night). Because we do it together (he feeds her, I pump & change her) we can be back in bed in about 15 minutes. Our only issue at this point is that she has a 4am feeding and then wakes up every morning at 5:30am for no other reason than she wants to be in bed with us. We (actually it's kind of Luke's fault because he gives in to her) now have created a very demanding child who is in our bed every morning.

I absolutely love watching her grow and change everyday. She smiles now on a regular basis, coos, and farts and poos like it's nobody's business (sorry Kara :). She is so big that every where we go people always think she is at least 3 months old and are shocked when I tell them her age. She has outgrown almost all of her newborn stuff and is wearing 0-3 month clothes. I can't believe she is nearing 11 pounds! My little baby is getting so big so fast and I just want the time to stop.

We had her first formal photo shoot today (I won a free photo session with my Mac 'N Madi basket) and I am DYING to see the pics. I have to post her 4th of July pics too because her outfit and bathing suit were too cute for words.