Saturday, September 05, 2009

Life As Elli

Hi...this is Elli and I wanted to show you my cute room by showing you what it looked like before Mommy and Daddy made it all pretty for me! Right now I love to smile, I try really hard to laugh but I can't quite figure it out, I can stick my tongue out at you, I love my bath time (I splash Mommy a lot), I eat A LOT (Mommy says my bottles are expensive), I get the hiccups a lot just like my Mommy, I don't poop as much but they sure are messy when I do (hehe), I can say 'aaaaahhhh' really well. I hope you enjoy the tour of my room before me and after me! I'll try to make some time in a few weeks to tell you some more stories! Have a nice day!

This is Daddy getting ready to paint the boring white walls
This is my room now, don't you love my bookshelf? Mommy made me a BIG photo of everyone that met me before I was 6 weeks old so I can see them everyday and never forget how loved I am!
Wasn't this room so sad and boring? I'm glad it doesn't look like this anymore!
Grandpa bought me my dresser and I love to look at the pictures on the wall when I get my diaper changed.
This is the rocker I got from my Great Uncle Dood. Mommy and I spend a lot of time here!
This was my closet before I was born, they started getting clothes early! There are even blankets taking up room in there and that is ALL they had.
Look at my closet now! Mommy says there isn't room for anything else!! Good thing we got that dresser from Grandpa so I can have more clothes! :)
Daddy put this up on my wall, I know it is hard to see but it says 'Some people dream of angels. I hold one in my arms.' I guess that is what Mommy thinks when she rocks me in the glider below this.
This is my favorite shelf! See all my fun hippos? And the hippo frame with me and Grandma is my fav! They even put my name on the wall (and believe me, those letters aren't going anywhere!)

Monday, August 31, 2009

Life With An 80th Birthday Weekend!

I can't believe our little girl is already 6 weeks old! I'm sad that I have to leave her to go back to work next week. :( I wish I could stay home with her! Max seems to be doing a little better. He has been putting some weight on his back leg and has curled his toes! The vet said we should know by 4-6 weeks after the injury (August 10th) if he will fully heal. We have another appointment on Sept 7th.

This last weekend I went to Sequim with Elli and the rest of the fam to celebrate my grandparent's birthdays! They both turned 80 this month and we had a wonderful party for them thrown by all of their kids! Dirk told some 'old people' jokes, we had a quiz about Grandma & Grandpa and Erica and Kyle wrote an awesome poem about all the fun times spent at their house growing up! Elli was wonderful and had such a fun time meeting the rest of her aunts and uncles! I spent the night with Elli at Aunt Mardel's and Uncle Tim's house. I have a new admiration for my Aunt Mardel after seeing her house. Their entire house is spotless and organized and uncluttered. The yard is beautiful and extremely thought out. The pantry was perfect it could be in a magazine! I wish my house could look like hers for just one day!! On Sunday we went to church and Elli did wonderful, she slept in Grandpa's arms for most of the service! :)


Blowing out 80 candles!
Grandma & Grandpa and all their kids! (and their spouses)
All the grandkids (minus the Mearig kids and Melissa)
Elli with her grandparents
Uncle David with Elli
Janae got to finally meet Elli!
Aunt Nancy playing with Elli
Aunt Karen cuddling with Elli
Aunt Tammie and Elli ready for church
Elli sleeping in church with Grandpa

Friday, August 21, 2009

Life With Two Babies

So I know it has been a long time since I have really posted and I'm sorry. Hopefully I can get this post finished while the little one is napping. Last night she ALMOST slept through the night! She was cranky before bed and finally went down at 11:30. She did wake up a few times in the 3:00 hour but was happy just to get her binkie back and go back to sleep. She then woke up at 5:00. A little early for me still but we are getting there!!
Napping in her crib like a big girl

I can't believe she is already 5 weeks old! Time really does fly! Even being home with her in the day the hours just seem to disappear. I hardly have time to get anything done around the house since I'm with her all the time. She has been having an upset tummy lately, I'm not sure if it is from the formula or the breastmilk, seems that both bother her. She likes to be held with a hand on her belly with a little pressure, seems to make it feel better. At her one month check up she had grown 2.5 inches and is now 22.5 inches long and was 9 lbs 9 oz so she was much better after all that weight she lost. She is getting so big! She also had to have her 2nd Hep B shot, the 1st one was in the hospital. She really didn't enjoy that, she screamed so much she wasn't breathing. I feel bad for her but at the same time all I can do is laugh at her antics. She is smiling now and it is so fun when she recognizes me and smiles! :)
Great Grandma & Grandma Birthday Party

In other news, and why I have two babies, 2 weeks ago Max stopped walking. We noticed on Sat evening that he was walking funny and by Sunday morning he wasn't using his back end at all. We took him to the ER vet here in Issaquah first thing Sunday morning and he has slipped a disc in his back. This is a very common disease with dachshunds, most common after 5 years old, and he just turned 5 according to the shelter. So they gave us some anti-inflammatory and pain pills to give him and put him on cage rest. If you have read previous posts you know that Max doesn't do well with cage rest, he gets too excited and he is supposed to be relaxing to help his back heal. So he has really just been in the corner of the living room for Max in his corner bed
the last 2 weeks. He has to be carried wherever he goes, including going outside to potty. He either pees or poops in the house daily since it is such a hassle to take him out and extremely hard for me to do it alone with a baby and him. The few times I have had to I put Elli in the carrier and Max in the stroller. Looks pretty funny strolling my dog around! We have an appointment with our normal vet on Monday to see if he has made any progress and if he will be able to fully heal. They recommend surgery but that could cost over $5k and it is only a 50% chance of fully healing him. Also, if this happens once, it is more than likely going to happen again sometime. We're hoping the vet says he will be able to make a full recovery, then we have a few more weeks of rest. If not, we have some hard decisions to make next week so please keep us in your prayers! Max tore up my blanket and his pee pad when he was left for one hour

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Life With Only Enough Time To Post Photos

Ray, his mom, his grandpa and Elli - 4 Generations
Aunt Jess and Elli at Red Robin
Sarah giving Elli a bottle at Red Robin
I was so excited to see Julie and have her meet Elli!
Funny Faces with Daddy
Elli and Isaac in the car - Isaac is smiling in his sleep!
Elli and Emma at Red Robin - she kept wanting to touch Elli!
What a big smile!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Life With More Photos of Elli

Going Home Outfit
What we came home to - thanks Jess & Vickie!
4 Generations of Women
Elli with Aunt Jess
Our little family!
Mommy and Elli - tired little girl!
When Max first met Elli
Isaac and Elli - He was happy to meet his girlfriend!
Isaac looks like he has a trick up his sleeve!
'I love you' butt on her heart onesie
Great Grandma Williams with Elli - her 2nd great grandchild
Great Aunt Mardel
Great Aunt Karen
Grandma Linda and Elli match
Big Brother and Little Sister

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Life With Baby Elli!

Elizabeth Anne Isom has arrived!! She was born by C-Section on July 15th at 4:35pm! She weighed in at 8 lbs 7 oz and 20 inches long! She was definately a big girl! Her head was 15 1/4 inches around so it was definately a big head so I'm glad we chose a C-section a week early!

We had to be at the hospital at 2pm for the 4pm surgery so we had the day to finish getting ready. Since I couldn't eat anything for 8 hours before the surgery...ABSOLUTELY nothing not even a mint, we went to the 12th Ave Cafe in Issaquah and I had a great cheese, ham, onion and avacado omelette and pancakes and it was wonderful!! It was definately hard to not drink any water all day though! We then went to Target to get more baby hangers but they were out so we went to Fred Meyer as well. We took the rest of the day to finish cleaning the house up and packing our bags. Jessica and her parents were so nice to volunteer to watch Max for the few days we would be gone so we dropped him off at Kevin & Vickie's before we headed to the hospital.

When we got there they took us to a pre/post-op room that was small and only had curtains. With all the construction they are doing inside they are having a hard time finding room for everything. Ray's dad and Joan were there really early which was pretty surprising. Turned out that everyone in the family besides my dad and Ryan showed up before we even went into surgery. They had to ask me a lot of questions about medical history and sign some paperwork and do my IV and what not. They put the fetal monitor and her heartbeat was great. They also put the monitor for contractions and I was having contractions every 7 minutes with a few pretty big ones in there. She still hadn't had dropped yet though so who knows what would've happened if we had waited.

The OR was extremely cold...it was hard not to shiver when he was about to give me the spinal block. I didn't even feel the needle in my spine which was great. Was a crazy feeling to have your body slowly go numb. I could tell they were doing stuff but all I could feel was a pressure and no pain. Ray was sitting by my head and the anesteologist was by my head the whole time as well. It only took a few minutes to get Elli out and it was amazing! I could talk and hear and know everything that was going on. They took her and cleaned her up and weighed her right away and then gave her to Ray. Ray did videotape everything from when they pulled her out to when he go to hold her the rest of the time. We then went back to the same room we started in to give Elli a bath, feed her and get me cleaned up. I knew the family was waiting but we were pretty busy with everything and then Elli wouldn't eat for our first feeding. They all finally came back...all 8 of them!! We then got moved to the mom and baby room and it was nice to finally be in 'our' room. People started leaving soon after that and then Aunt Karen and Uncle Jim showed up and got to see Elli before going to the lake for the weekend.

It was a long first night, I only slept about 10 mins at a time...not too easy to sleep in the hospital and got our first hint of what is to come in the next 18 years or so...haha!

So enjoy the few photos I uploaded of our beautiful little girl!


Before her 1st bath
Getting ready for her sponge bath
Getting her hair washed
My 1st time holding my daughter
1st time Grandparents
Grandpa Randy
Grandma Rhonda
Aunt Shawna
Uncle Randy
Uncle Ryan