Second Month

8-9 Weeks Old

When we took Eliza home from the hospital, I had bought a "newborn" outfit for her to wear. It DROWNED her. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of her wearing the onesie in the hospital, but here are a couple of pictures for comparison. 1 week old and 2 months old:

Adorable

How could you not love a baby with a face like this???

She started to smile when she was about 2 months, but they were few and far between. We have tried and tried to catch a good one on the camera, but whenever we bring out either camera or video camera, she quits smiling and just stares at them.

This was my yellow dress from when I was a baby. Unfortunately, it was packed away in a box and I couldn't find it until Eliza was a little too big for it (the back top button is undone in these pictures). The embroidery on the front is of a little girl on the phone with the text, "What is it, Grandma?"
As I was taking Eliza's pictures, she put her hands up by her face kind of like she was on the phone. It was adorable. The last picture kind of shows how chunky she is!

This side profile shows what I call her "interested" look. She does this all the time. This picture also shows how thin her hair is getting. I don't see it fall out (in the tub, in her bed, etc), but it must be coming out somewhere. Plus, her head is growing so the hairs that are there are moving further apart which makes them look thinner...right??? :-D

7-8 Weeks Old
This is a good picture that shows her "sucking blister", which she was born with. Actually, the first one popped and fell off but there was another one right underneath it. I never even notice it, but people point it out all the time.

6-7 Weeks Old
She's too big for this frog outfit now (the feet were little frogs, it was so adorable)

Tired but refusing to sleep. She also loves to stare at things and gets this wide-eyed look.

Getting ready to cry and then crying "I'm ready for my nap!"

She always spits out her pacifier. This is while she's still happy--in a matter of seconds she gets frantic, moves her head back and forth looking for it and then starts to whimper or cry.

One night when I started to feed Eliza, she put her hand up and rested in on the bottle like "stop".
5-6 Weeks Old

Trying to burp. Sometimes she burps within 2 seconds and other times it takes 10 minutes!

Talking to Daddy.
This is a good picture that shows how big her cheeks and arms were starting to get
(and the rest of her is big as well).

This is how she always sleeps. On her side with her arms in front her her.

She loves her baths. This is right after she is done and all bundled up in her towel.

4-5 Weeks Old
Starting to fit much better in her car seat

Our Dainty Little Princess
The first picture is a good example of what I called her "bird mouth". It reminded me of a baby bird wanting to eat.

First Month

Eliza's first month brought a lot of change. She was such a good eater that she grew a little faster than I thought she would and I wasn't quite ready for that! I wish I could have weighed her when she was a month old (we tried on our scale, but it was too inconsistent), but I think she was between 8.5 and 9 lbs. Her cheeks and legs started to fill out as you can see in the pictures below.

3-4 WEEKS OLD:
Eliza has this cowlick on the top back of her hair on the right side. It was pretty bad for a couple of weeks, but now her hair is so long it mostly all sticks straight up.
She started losing a lot of her hair and we started to notice it around this time. She still has a lot of hair, but it's much thinner than when she was born.

This is a common pose she does with her hands up by her face and her legs scrunched up.

We don't think Eliza could get much cuter.

2-3 WEEKS OLD:
Tummy Time!
The doctor told us to do tummy time for 15 min 3 times a day.
Sometimes Eliza cooperates and sometimes she would rather sleep.

If I scrunch her hair after washing it rather than combing it out, it stays kinda curly.

Stretched out on her daddy's lap. He loves to hold her, and she loves to let him.
I can't believe how skinny her arms used to be!!

Pucker Lips

Eliza's 2-Week Birthday

Eliza will be two weeks old tonight at 12:58 a.m. It has been a crazy and wonderful couple of weeks. She has changed our lives and is such a precious little spirit.

Eliza was released from the hospital one day earlier than expected; last Wednesday August 6th. The doctors were very pleased with how well she was doing and released her. We took her back to our home away from home (hotel room with kitchen) expecting to stay about another week. I made up a changing table on the dresser and had all her diapers and wipes organized and everything and we ended up staying there less than 24 hours! We had been told that it would take about 3-5 business days once we were released from the hospital, but the next day at 2pm we got a call from the case worker with LDS Family Services Albuquerque Office and she told us that we were free to go. We couldn't believe it. We packed up and within a few hours were on the road home. We drove all night and pulled into town about 4:30 a.m. Eliza was wonderful the whole drive home. She just slept and ate every 4 hours when we stopped to feed her.

On Monday we had an appointment with our pediatrician--usually they see babies at 2 weeks, but the hospital wanted a follow up around the 10th day. Eliza had gained back her birth weight weighing in around 6 lb 6 oz and was 19.5 inches long (her smallest birth weight that we're aware of was the Monday and Tuesday morning before she was released from the hospital when she was 5 lb 15 oz). At her appointment, the doctor said she looks great.

She is a little mixed up with her days and nights. During the day once she's fed and changed she usually falls back to sleep (I've been trying to do tummy time and keep her awake for a while but there are times when she just refuses!) but at night once she's fed and changed she's wide awake for a while. Usually I'm up sometime around 1 or 2 until 4:30 or 5:30. It might take a while, but we'll get her on the right schedule. So I'm a little tired/groggy at times, but she is sooo worth it. I've waited for for her for so long that I could never resent having to stay up with her. She is such a blessing and such a sweet girl with a little squeaky cry (before her full-blown cry) and her daddy and I love her.

My Aunt emailed me some questions so I thought I would post them here. They're a little outdated/late, so sorry about that:

*How did the court go?

We weren't there, but the case worker told us that Lauren did great (she relinquished her rights before a judge on Tuesday, August 5th). She was very committed to placing Eliza with us told us that she knew we were the right parents for Eliza. I'm glad she was able to continue feeling good about that decision.

*How is Eliza's pnemonia?

The blood work that they continued to do throughout her stay at the hospital never showed up as irregular, but because of the x-rays that were taken when she was first born, they continued to do the antibiotics. They took her off oxygen after about 3 days and continued to monitor her, but everything (oxygen, blood pressure, heart rate etc) stabilized and other than the monitors telling us that nothing was wrong, she wouldn't have needed to be hooked up to them after about Sunday or Monday.

*Does she drink a bottle okay?

She has been GREAT with a bottle since they first gave her some when she was a couple of hours low (her blood sugar was showing a little low at the time thus the feeding). She is a good gulper and for the most part a good burper. She consistently ate 2-3 ounces in the hospital with even a few 4 oz feedings every 4 hours. Since then she's pretty consistent with 4 oz, sometimes 5 oz. She had no problems getting the sucking reflex down.

*How long do you get to spend with her every day?

When she was in the hospital, we could have been there 24/7 if we would have wanted and could have held her every waking moment if we wanted. We didn't do that of course, but fortunately we got to spend a lot of time with her. The nurses let us change and feed her whenever we were there, too. And I gave her a bath on the Sunday that she was there.

Here are some cute Eliza facts:

*She loves getting her hair washed at the end of her bath.

*She hates getting her diaper changed. I always thought wipe warmers were the stupidest thing ever, but I've registered for one.

*She loves stretching. I stretch her during feedings before burping, but she also stretches on her own all the time. She often scrunches her face and purses her lips while stretching. I've yet to record it on film, but I will..

*She still has quite a bit of fuzzy hair on her cheeks, arms, and ears.

*Aug 11th during her night feeding she started this new trick of sucking but not swallowing. The milk runs all down her chin and onto her bib. She does it regularly now. It's when she is first being fed (usually after waking up). So I take the bottle away, give her a minute, and then she starts sucking and swallowing normally. It's a little strange.

*She makes the cutest squeaky whimpering noises usually before she starts crying

*Everyone who sees her comments on her big feet. I have nothing to compare her with, so I don't know--they look small to me ;)

*She gets the hiccups after almost every feeding.

*As of her last diaper change, her cord still hadn't fallen off, but it looks like it's really close to doing so.

I hope this post is satisfactory. If you still have questions about anything, please ask. I'll do my best to post more regularly and answer questions in a more timely fashion ;).

Little Dolly

This was taken at 1:00 a.m. when Eliza had finished eating but wasn't at all tired. She is a perfect doll and her parents little angel.

Sleeping Beauty

Sunday, August 10th

Getting Ready to Cry

Hmmmm.....

Sun, August 10, 2008. She stuck her finger in her mouth and we caught it on film. Josh thought it was the cutest thing.