The many emotions of a newborn

You know how Helen of Troy is said to have a face that launched a thousand ships? She aint got nothin on Elliott! Watch for the stuck-out bottom lip, it'll melt your heart. This was taken on 7 January.



We got a sad one, now here's when Elliott first started smiling. It might have even been when Jacob saw him smile for the first time. You have to catch it at the beginning, he gets mad pretty early on. Taken 28 December.

We're back!!!

So we're sorry to have kept everyone waiting, but as we are computer illiterate with a capital C.I., it took us a bit to figure out our new camera. It's awesome by the way. This video was taken just a few days ago. Elliott is growing sooo much!! He now weighs 12 pounds and he's 21 inches long, he's a chunk. :)

I'm not sure who all has heard the story of the blessing, but in case you haven't, here it is. Jacob blessed Elliott at our house because we didn't want to take him to church with all the germs, it being RSV season and all. Jacob started the blessing just fine, it was same old same old. When he got to the easy part, the part where he gave him his name, he blessed him as Elliott John Smith. Yeah, our name is Ashley. For those of you who don't know, we got the name Elliott from the musician Elliott Smith. I guess that's what was on Jacob's mind during the blessing, so it was too bad he was the one saying it. :) Needless to say, we were all trying pretty hard to keep it all in so by the time the blessing was over we all pretty well lost it. We bring it up quite often, just to keep Jacob humble. Feel free to call Jacob at any time to make fun of him for his blunder. :)

Elliott is so much fun. He's smiling so often now, and his smile brightens up a room. It's sooo cute! He laughs just a tiny bit too, but not as often. His favorite past times are getting his bum changed, being bathed, and in general being naked. Can you tell now who his dad is? He's such a cute little guy, and he's such a blessing to us. I really think Jacob and I get along better now that he's here. Not that we were on the verge of divorce before or anything, but we fight much less now than we used to. I think mainly because he's mellowed me out, Jacob didn't need to change. :)

We took some family pictures a couple of weeks ago, so as soon as they're in we'll upload those too. I can't continue to deprive those who live out of town the cuteness of this kid! :)

The story of little Elliott

So our little guy is here! He was born on Monday, November 17th at 12:54 pm, was 7 lbs 6 oz and 18 1/2 inches long, so he's just the right size. Chelsea told this story in her blog, but I think it's funny so I'll tell it in mine (It's my story, after all). When the nurse took Elliott over to clean him off, she was fixing his hair and said, "Should we comb your hair like daddy's?" then took one look at Jacob and said, "Nevermind." That's Jacob's favorite story to tell lately. About 45 minutes after he was born, they took him to the NICU because he was grunting, they called it. He was making noises when he was breathing that he shouldn't have been making. They said that it was just a precaution and that he should be back down in the healthy baby nursery in an hour or so. It turns out what was happening was that his lungs weren't secreting the soapy stuff they do to keep them from sticking together when he inhales. They were totally developed, it was just a minor problem. So they put him on a little breathing tube with oxygen up his nose and a feeding tube down his throat, but it wasn't working. Finally they had to inject him with the secretion stuff but by that time he wasn't eating properly. Bummer! So he wasn't eating, but there really wasn't anything I could do because I was recovering from just having had my guts taken out of me. Long story short, by Tuesday night he was eating so he finally was able to go down with us on Wednesday morning.

He spent all day Wednesday and Thursday with us, but we made sure to let the nursery have him during the nights so we could have some good sleep (Not that that happens in hospitals, they kept on waking me up for one reason or the other and poor Jacob had a hard time sleeping on the chair-beds they supplied). The food was terrible, but we decided to stay an extra day just to make sure Elliott was for sure ok and his circumcision was healing well enough. We left yesterday morning and got home around 10:30 and have been busy with him ever since!

Last night was our first night alone with him, and I think we handled it well enough. He's still alive anyway. :) Jacob didn't sleep much because he was nervous, excited, all of the above... But I slept just fine. Thank you, Percocet! He sleeps a lot, he's a really good baby. He hates to be bathed and to have a dirty diaper or to have his diaper changed, but those are really the only times he cries. When he does cry, even when he's screaming, it's really easy to calm him down. He just likes to be cuddled by anyone and he'll be fine. He's such a blessing to us and he's more wonderful than we ever imagined he would be. We are so so grateful for him and that he's home and healthy. We're grateful for all the thoughts and prayers said in our behalf and can't wait for all of you to meet him!

Cute, cute, cute Elliott is HERE!!!!

It started off a bit rocky for him in the NICU, but he's here and healthy now. :) I'll have to post the story separately, but I just wanted to show some pictures. He's cute, right?!

95% Chance my eye!!

Yeah, so yesterday we went to do the amnio, bags packed expecting to stay in the hospital for a few days. (Because, you know, the doctor said that there was a 95% chance he'd be born this week.) The amnio was soooo not a big deal, which was good. I suppose I'm used to needles, though, but I was stressing bigtime and I didn't need to, as it turns out. So anyway, they did the amnio, I was feeling confident, and about 45 minutes later they came back with the results. Here's what happened:

Nurse: OK, Ashley. (Of course she called me Ashley, because she just glanced at my chart and didn't realise that's my last name) I have a frown on my face. Baby's not ready to come.

Me: Really? They told me that there was a really good chance he'd be ready. How long do you think it'll be? (I was thinking maybe, like, the next couple of days)

Nurse: I'll have the doctor come in and talk to you about that, but there's a scale that we go off of. The scale is 1 to 50, and we don't like babies to come if their numbers are less than 50. Your baby is at an 11.

Me: ... *sniff*, *sob* ...

So the doctor came in and said that since he's so under-developed, there wasn't any point in doing another amnio. He'll for sure be ready when I'm at 39 weeks, so I just scheduled a c-section for November 17th. So no Elliott Barack, no Elliott Fawkes. He'll just be Elliott John. Actually, November 17th is my late grandmother's birthday, so we could go with Elliott Leone. He may have a problem with that, though...

So I'm sad. I'm glad we have the technology to know that he's not ready yet, but I had this idea of what would happen, you know? Jacob is bummed too, but he's glad to have a for sure day. So that's what's going on... Elliott just needs to cook a little bit longer. Which is cool, I guess. :)

Baby updates...

So I realized that I was leaving people in the dark when Syd called me asking what the scoop was on the baby front. Sorry, I should get on it more often. :)

I went in for an ultrasound last week, and they said that the baby is doing fine, but that he was 6 lbs 4 oz. This concerned me, because 4 weeks earlier he was only 3 lbs 6 oz. I talked to my doctor today about it, and he said that one of the weights was off. He said that there was no way that could happen, because even if I was having a hulk baby he'd have to be pretty upset, and right now my baby doesn't have any emotions. Did I mention that our doctor is totally perfect for us? Yeah, he brought up a hulk baby. It's like he's Jacob every now and then. :) We also scheduled our appointment for our first amniocentesis, it's happening on November 3rd. What does that mean? Well, I'll explain. When they determine that his lungs are okay, (I'm willing them to be okay. I'm not doing that more than once!) they'll probably deliver him that day. At the longest, they'll wait until November 4th but they're thinking November 3rd. Since we'll be in the hospital for the big day, (i.e. voting day) I'm trying to fill out the paperwork I need to send in an absentee ballot. We're thinking of changing his name too. If he's born November 4th, Elliott Barack Ashley. (Sorry, grandma.) If he's born November 5th, Elliott Fawkes Ashley. (Remember, remember the 5th of November...) What do you think? :)

Our camera is on its way finally! We sent it in, so hopefully we'll have it in time to post pictures of the little guy. I'm sure we will, I'm glad we're getting it in!! And I think that does it as far as the updates are concerned. Love you all!!