Four-peat

Are you ready for this? She's slept through the night FOUR nights in a row. Of course, now I don't sleep through the night because I got so used to getting up at 3AM. I always wake up and wonder if she has woken up and I've missed her or I wonder when she's going to wake up. Then I start to think about the proposal I need to be writing for work, remember that I forgot to put gas in the car yesterday, wonder if we need to get more insulation blown into the attic, and try to think of my third grade teacher's name. Cummings was second, Krovack was fourth and Moore was fifth, but I can never remember third. So I just lay there. Thinking.

After 10 weeks, Trudie finally came home on Thursday. My mom and dad had been keeping her since Ellie was born due to the fact that I have to carry my poor blind puppy up and down the steps. I took her to the vet today and she got on some doggie arthritis medicine. I have no clue how old she is, but I'd guess 12 to 14. You can tell what Ellie is thinking "Oh crap - did they get another one of these hairy things?!" She seems more interested in Trudie than the other two dogs. I think it's because she's white so Ellie can see her and follow her more easily. Trudie has sniffed her once so I think she knows there's a baby here, but has shown no real interest. We took the big girls to the dog park this weekend to swim and play. They love it there, but Lucy lost both of the tennis balls in the lake in the first five minutes so they spent most of the time running around and harassing the other dogs.

I've been working more from home lately and Ellie has a lot more awake time, so she spends a good portion of the day next to me in her papasan or laying on the floor playing while I type. When I need a break, I turn on the iTunes and belt out a song for her. I love how she smiles at me and looks at me like I'm the coolest person on earth. I know that in 13 years, I'm going to be the uncoolest person she knows, so I'm going to soak it in while I can get it.

I got this picture of Ellie on Sunday. I've been waiting for her to grow into that beautiful dress Ashley gave her. She was the best dressed baby at church. This shot makes me laugh when I look at it. It looks so movie-star posed when all I did was put her on her blanket and snap a picture. That's my little star.

After the shots...

After Ellie had her shots on Friday, my friend Ashley came over for a visit. Ellie was a little fussy from the shots so I felt like I had to tell Ashley a dozen times that "she's not usually like this". Famous last words I'm sure she's heard from every single friend with a kid. I gave Ellie some baby Tylenol in the afternoon, but she was fine by the evening. We took her out to dinner with us at Big Shucks and sat on the patio. She didn't sleep through the night that night, but she did do it again on Sunday night. I think it's going to be hit or miss when I get a full eight hours of sleep, but I'll take it when I can get it!

We had a pretty relaxed weekend. I taught an aerobics class on Saturday morning and then we ran errands. We found some infant sunglasses at Target, so I had to get them. I don't think they're Ellie's favorite thing to wear because when I put them on her, she moved her head from side to side trying to get them off. She looked like Stevie Wonder. But isn't that half the fun of having a baby? Making them wear completely ridiculous outfits?

We also got this picture of Ellie on Saturday... Doesn't she sort of look like she saying, "Um... can someone get this dog out of my picture?". Lucy is such a weirdo. If she sees someone else getting attention, she has to hone in on their moment. She's like that annoying guy in college who would jump in the background of your pictures to be funny.

That night, Lee was supposed to go to the Better than Ezra concert with Ben, but wound up skipping because he was tired after putting in 4 hours of yard work. Ellie and I visited mom and dad to have dinner with them and then returned home to have some wine with Elizabeth and Lee in the backyard. Pretty relaxing. Here's one last shot of the new "hands-free" way Lee likes to carry Ellie around... in her Baby Bjorn. They are quite the pair walking around the neighborhood like that.

The two month appointment

Ellie had her two month appointment today, but let's start with the really important stuff - she slept through the night last night! I've loosely been following Babywise since she the day she was born and it works. I don't think Babywise is right for every baby, but it seems like it was right for this one. On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights she woke up at 4:30 AM and I fed her. On Wednesday night when she woke up, I decided not to feed her or even pick her up. When I got back into bed, I felt like Child Protective Services was going to arrest me for starving her.


I put her in bed at 10:15 PM last night. Ellie and I both would have slept through the night, but at 5:45 AM, Lee woke me up to ask me if Ellie had slept through the night. Yes. "Well, do you think something is wrong with her?", he asked. If you never want me to sleep again, ask me that question because I immediately pictured her in her crib hanging upside down from her mobile. Then I couldn't go back to sleep, but I swore I wasn't going to go in there. At 6:30, both of us went in there and stood over her crib for a minute watching her. We couldn't tell if she was breathing so Lee put his hand on her chest and she jumped. Then she got a little ticked off that we woke her up. I don't know if this is a trend - I hope so - but at least we got one sleep-filled night!


So onto that two month appointment... she had to get her first round of immunizations today so she got THREE shots - two in one leg and one in the other. I really didn't think I was going to get upset when she got her shots because I know that getting polio is way worse than getting the vaccine for polio, but the second I put her down on the table, I started crying. For a split second I thought "well, maybe it won't hurt her that much" but once she felt the shot, she screamed and screamed until no noise was coming out of her little body. It hurts me just to write about it. She has to get the same round of shots at 4 and 6 months.


I'll end this one on a high note - As far as the rest of the appointment went, the doctor said she was spectacular. She's now 11 pounds, 12 ounces (70th percentile) and 23.5 inches (90th percentile) so she's gained 4 pounds and 2.25 inches in two months. When the nurse checks us in, I have to undress Ellie so they can weigh her. She has to stay that way until the doctor examines her which took forever since the he was running behind. It was freezing in the room and I forgot her blanket so I had to wrap her up in a big paper towel. That's the picture to the left - my poor little girl in her paper towel blanket just before her shots. It least I don't have to do this for another two months... and next time I'll remember a blanket for her and a sedative for me.

Close but no cigar

Look at her holding her head up! She's actually been doing this for about two weeks, but this is the first good picture I've gotten of it. She almost rolled over today too. She was on her stomach for some tummy time when she rolled over onto her side, but didn't know how to kick her leg over to get herself on her back. I wanted to help her, but I think rolling over is one of those skills you have to figure out for yourself.

My little dumpling has almost slept through the night for the past three nights... I say almost because she wakes up at 4:30 AM. I put her in bed at 10 PM so 6.5 hours is a pretty long time for her to sleep at once. It's a long time for me to sleep too! But I don't know what to do with her when she wakes up because by the time I feed her and put her back to bed, it's almost 5AM and then I wake her back up at 6:30 to eat again? These are all questions I need to ask the doctor on Friday.

When she got up on Sunday night, I fed her and then changed her diaper(s). I put her on her changing table, took off Diaper #1 and put on Diaper #2. She immediately pooped. Okay - that's fine. So I took off Diaper #2 and replaced it with Diaper #3. I get her all zipped up and she poops again. Even more. I was totally unamused at this point because 1) It's 4:30 in the morning and 2) I'm about to have to replace Diaper #3 with Diaper #4. I looked up at her face and are you ready? She's smiling at me. Oh you're funny alright, Miss Bright. At that point, I started laughing because she was completly tickled with herself and she looks like a little old woman who forgot her dentures when she smiles. Thank goodness grandma Connie went to Sam's Club and bought 500 diapers and 2000 wipes because I thought we were going to use all of them.

Happy Fourth!

Lee and I were very excited that it stopped raining just long enough for our neighborhood to have their annual Fourth of July Parade. Ellie was awake and alert for every single bit of it. I don't know how much she could see or if she actually enjoyed it, but she sat on my lap most of the time watching all of the entries passing by. She even had a special red, white and blue outfit for the occasion.

We took the dogs to the parade again this year. If you read last year's post about the parade, you'll remember that Morgan was so bothered by the fake machine gun fire that came from one of the army-looking vehicles rolling down the street that she hid under a car. There were no automotive fallout shelters around us this year so Morgan was forced to take cover elsewhere. Here's what she came up with:

That's right. Our 65-pound dog hid under our daughter's stroller. I am a little embarrassed for her. She could not be a bigger weenie if she tried. Then there's Lucy totally hamming it up for the camera. They couldn't be more different. That night, we grilled out hot dogs, brats, corn on the cob and enjoyed some Matanzas Creek wine.

I didn't know if she was ready for it or not, but I put Ellie in her Bumbo chair on Friday and she loved it. She much prefers being up on my shoulder looking around to lying on her back so sitting up really suits her. She was in a smiley mood so she stayed in it for a few minutes while I shook her little multi-colored elephant around for her to look at. She has her two month check-up and shots this Friday. I am not looking forward to her screaming bloody murder while they stab her in the leg. I'm going to ask the doctor about dropping the late-night feeding. Not that she's ever been hard to deal with during the 3AM wake-up, but she's getting a lot easier. I was back in bed in 25 minutes last night - that includes a diaper change and feeding. She usually goes right back to sleep which is nice, but it would be even nicer if she wouldn't wake up at all!

Ellie goes to the Nasher

We didn't really have anything big lined up for this weekend, so we decided to expose Ellie to her first taste of art at the Nasher Sculpture Center. As you can see, she was really taken by "Constructed Head No. 2", a piece by Naum Gabo.

She was equally excited by David Smith's "The Forest"...

As well as several other pieces in the outside garden.

We rounded out the afternoon by stopping at Wine-Tastic for some extra relaxation. The only time you can hit a wine bar with a baby is at 3:30 in the afternoon because nobody is there and she's asleep anyway.

I got back on the exercise train this weekend too. I've been walking for a few weeks, but this was my first time to do something other than that. On Saturday morning, I went to a spin class which went pretty well. I hadn't been to a spin class since my first trimester and my tailbone reminded me of that the next day. On Sunday, I tried to jog which did not go so well. In total, I logged 3.5 miles, but only ran 1.5 of that and about halfway through I realized my jogging shorts were too small so my butt was probably hanging out the back. You know in elementary school when they would choose teams at recess for kickball? While I was running, I felt like that girl who always got picked last for the team. You know who I'm talking about - the girl who was last in the batting order and even if your team was winning 28-0 and she actually did make it to the plate, they still told her to bunt. And when she did bunt, she could have made the best bunt in the history of kickball, but she'd still be out at first because it took her over a minute to lumber side to side down to first base and when she realized she was going to be out she walked those last 5 feet because she was totally winded by that point. That was me running. I looked like a damn lumberjack without all of the flannel.

Our goal is to run the YMCA Turkey Trot this Thanksgiving which is 8 miles. I have no clue how I'm going to do that without wheelchair assistance. I thought that working out until my 39th week would have let me just snap right back, but this is going to take some doing.

I'm so glad it's a 4 day week because that means I only have to work 4 hours from home since I'll get 8 from vacation and 8 from going in the office to work. I'm excited to take Ellie to her first Fourth of July parade too - she has a special outfit for the occasion!

Happy #31/#3!

It will not stop raining. Just as soon as it stops raining, it starts up again. If we get another 0.75 inches of rain before Saturday (which we will) this will be the wettest June on record for Dallas. I'm not that upset because I've been pretty housebound for June, but I feel bad for all of the kiddos on summer break or the ones who are totally water logged at summer camp.

We celebrated our annual "big weekend" this past weekend. I turned 31 on Sunday and we celebrated our third wedding anniversary on Tuesday. We actually celebrated both by going to dinner on Saturday night at Hibiscus, a restaurant I'd been wanting to try for a while. My mom and dad kept Ellie so this was our first childless night out in 6 weeks. They said Ellie was "fussy" so she may have put her grandparents through the wringer. We had a great time, and Lee gave me a beautiful Tag watch as a birthday/anniversary/"thanks for pushing out the baby" gift. I really needed a new one since the only watch I have right now that works is a blue Timex Ironman. Not very professional. I need to look a little more professional since we were also celebrating the fact that I just found out I was promoted. Second year in a row! My boss called me at home last weekend to tell me. I told him that I guess that sealed the deal - I'm coming back to work!

Speaking of, my six weeks of "short term disability" ran out on Tuesday, but don't think that doesn't mean that I'm still not partially disabled. Despite my best efforts, some days my 10.5 pound growth precludes me from getting out of my pajamas before noon. I went in with Ellie for two hours yesterday and then I'm going in for the whole afternoon today. My mom is going to keep Ellie on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons so I can go in part time and then do about 12 hours of work per week from home. It sounds easy, but she's been having more and more awake time every day so I'm going to have to put my nose to the grindstone when her eyes shut.

If there's one thing that makes her eyes shut, it's her swing. I'm going to move it into our office when I start working so that she can take naps in it right next to me. I took this picture to show that wherever Ellie is, Morgan isn't far behind. She's so interested in Ellie. Yesterday she was in her swing asleep and I looked up to see Morgan inches from her face - just watching her, but I knew what was about to happen. In my loudest whisper/yell I said "Morgan!! NO!!", but Morgan ignored me and licked Ellie square in the face which woke her up. Poor Morgan, she always has the best intentions.

The weight loss is going well. I just found out my friend Meg is going to have her wedding in Playa del Carmen the second weekend of November so knowing that I'll be getting into a bathing suit in 4 months gives me some extra incentive to buckle down and get it done. It four weeks I have lost... 13 pounds! This totally makes my 25 pound goal before Labor Day doable. I don't want to have to buy all new clothes before I go back to work. Plus, I don't want to look like a total fat ass. It's been hard for me to exercise #1 - because I'm tired, #2 - because it's rained almost every day this month, and #3 - I only have a small window once Lee gets home, but if I go then, I don't get to spend time with him. I'm dying to use my jogging stroller, but Ellie needs to gain some neck control before that happens.

Here's one last shot of Ellie asleep on her Daddy.

Crash. Crap.

What a wonderful Friday. That was laced with sarcasm. I had so many things to do today and I can't do anything because do you see that pile of glass of the ground? That's my back windshield laying at the end of our driveway.



So what happened? I was backing down my driveway - I looked over my right shoulder and saw my neighbor's car parked in front of their house. I looked over my left shoulder and saw a truck parked in front of our house with a long trailer attached to it. Unfortunately, I did not pick up on the fact that the a-hole was parked blocking our driveway. I took the above picture with my camera phone. That's exactly where he was parked. I guess the only good news is there's no damage to the body of my car because my windshield took the entire hit.

I'm so mad. I'm mad at myself for not doing a better job of looking down the driveway, but I'm even more mad at the total jerk who decided that it's okay to park wherever he wants. I asked him why he was parked at the end of my driveway and he just said "sorry". He's the one who is illegally parked and I'm the one who pays for it. Doesn't seem fair, but that's how it is. Stupid workers park all along the street and just don't care. I'm calling the police ever single time I see them doing something wrong from now on. Uuuhh. What a way to start a weekend.

Miss Bright, they're ready for your close-up

Ellie had her 1 month appointment today. She's over 10 pounds now! I guess she takes after her mom - she likes to eat. She now weighs 10 pounds 2 ounces (75th percentile) and is 22.5 inches long (93rd percentile). Her head is still 50th percentile, but we don't want her to have a giant noggin anyway. She flirted with her doctor by smiling at him and then holding her head up and looking around the room while on her tummy. Show off. The doctor told me we were lucky to have such a happy baby. I agree.

I had Ellie's picture taken for the first time on Friday as a gift for her daddy for Father's Day as well as gifts for her grandfathers. She was so good through the three wardrobe changes and over 90 flashes going off in her face. In some of the pictures, she wore the outfit that was my going home outfit from the hospital. Against my better judgement, I let them do some "naked baby" shots. Naked babies are cute, but she looked like a little naked old man lying there with her little wrinkly butt. Ellie let me know what she thought of the idea by going to the bathroom all over the place once her diaper was removed. I wasn't totally happy with the pictures, but there was one that I really loved so that's all I needed. That night, Ellie made her first trip to a sushi restaurant. Lee and I had our first date at Blue Fish and found our dog, Lucy, there so we decided to introduce Ellie. She likes California rolls but is a little iffy on the spicy tuna.

On Saturday, Ellie attended another Junior League funding interview with me at Gilda's Club (btw - what a fantastic program). Ellie should really be getting future meeting credit for all of this. I felt like I've been getting better at packing her up and traveling with her until a little incident on Thursday. Ellie attended another JL funding interview at Parkland Hospital with me. For those of you not familiar, Parkland is the public hospital for Dallas... Let's just say if you have a gun shot wound, that's where they're taking you. They also deliver more than 16,000 babies per year and only 14% of those parents speak English. Am I painting the picture for you? We were totally safe because all I had to do was valet park in front and run up to a conference room.

I fed Ellie, packed her up in the car, and as I was driving up to the front of the hospital, I heard a "HUUUAAHH" and turned around just in the nick of time to watch her projectile vomit 30 minutes worth of breastfeeding all over herself and her carseat. She didn't have a set of clean clothes in my diaper bag because he had pooped through her spare onsie a few days earlier and I hadn't put another one in there. So Ellie got new clothes from the gift shop and was stripped down to her diaper and redressed in the Parkland lobby. It doesn't get any classier than that. I may as well been smoking a cigarette while wearing house slippers, a Hooters tee shirt and curlers in my hair.

We didn't do much on Saturday... the usual tummy time and hanging out with Dad followed by a trip to the mall. On Sunday, Ellie made her first appearance at Mass. We sat in the insane-o kid area, but we probably won't do that again since she is pretty quiet. My aunt Kathy was visiting from Memphis so after church, we went to see my parents to celebrate her birthday and Father's Day. On Monday, mom and Kathy spent the day with me and Ellie. We've been quite busy with all of our visits and visitors!

Mysterio Predicts...

Happy 1 month birthday to Ellie! I can't believe she's been here one month already. Each day keeps getting better.


While we were on vacation in Santa Fe last November, we came across a baby boutique on Canyon Road. I found the following and had to have it:





It's like a fortune cookie, but it predicts your child's future as the bag states "on a nice tee shirt". I saved it since November and once she arrived was so excited to open it only to find out that Ellie will be...



A conspiracy nut. Nice. Please note two things here - 1) The look on her face and 2) the way "Conspiracy Nut" is stretched out across that round little tummy. She's laughing on the inside.

Ellie's Big Week

I'm a little late on getting this post out mainly because I was sidelined last Friday. More on that a little later. Ellie and I had a big week - we really hit the town. We started off the week on Monday with a trip to my office. I swore I wasn't going to go in, but I needed to go in to handle a few things and plus I wanted everyone to see my little pea pod. She did really well even if all she did was sleep. Here's a picture from Ellie's "lifting the head" workout. She's getting much better and held it all the way up and looked at me for a few seconds this morning.

We didn't have any adventures on Tuesday, but on Wednesday, we went to see Once at the "Cry Baby Matinee" at a local movie theater. They say you can enjoy a film "without worrying about breastfeeding in the dark" and they have a changing table set up so I expected that it would be all moms and kids. Wrong. There were about 6-8 kiddos there with their mothers and the rest were the general public. In fact, there was this single guy there just watching the movie by himself. Needless to say, I'm glad I made a bottle for Ellie before we went so I didn't give this guy a boob show for free. She was really good through the whole thing except for at the end when she got a little fussy, but she quickly went to sleep.

Thursday was Ellie's first trip to Grandma and Granddad's house in Arlington. We ate lunch and had a good time. I saw Trudie for the first time in a month. My parents have been keeping Trudie since Ellie was born because she's a lot of work because I have to carry her in and out to go to the bathroom. I feel like a horrible dog mom. I'm going to get her back next week. Ellie wanted to take a nap, but since my mom almost crawled in the crib with her, we went home around 3:00 so Ellie could rest.

Friday is when things went a little haywire. I had to conduct an interview for Junior League at Equest for funding for the 08-09' year. Everything went great, but while I was driving home, I had a horrible pain in my lower stomach. I thought I might be hungry so I stopped to get some lunch, but the pain persisted. I kept driving because I just wanted us to get home. When I was close to home, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to get Ellie out of the car or get up our stairs so I called Lee to help us. I was getting a little upset because the pain had been there for an hour so we went to the ER.

Long story short, they think I was just having some latent uterine contractions, but it took 7 hours, a sonogram, a CT to rule out appendicitis, and blood work to determine that. It also took three IV attempts by two people and a blown vein in my hand. They send the third guy in to try to give me an IV and I told him to go fly a kite. I could have been dying and there's no way I would have let them try again. Then I found out they didn't get enough blood for my blood work so they had to stab me a fourth time. Of course by this point, I was feeling totally better so I was just ticked off I was at the ER. I had Ellie with me the entire time because she had had to eat. Poor thing. She was so good ALL DAY. Didn't even whimper. She's such a trooper.

So that was our big week. On Saturday night, we went out to dinner with the Brights again and hit Mi Cocina for dinner. Again, Ellie was really great until the food came and then she needed to be held. Lee's dad got a new dog, Bitsy, so we were able to meet her on Saturday too. Our dogs must have a small panic attack that we're adding to our already large dog family every time a new dog enters the backyard. We didn't do a ton this weekend, but next weekend is Father's Day so that should be fun.

Like our new look?

Thanks to Nicole, I now have my own personalized title bar for the top of the screen! Very exciting. I think the analytical side of my brain crushed and killed the artistic side of my brain a long time ago so I would have never been able to make something as creative. Thanks Nicole and Happy Birthday, Wayne!

After my post on Friday, Lee wanted to take part in a walk with Ellie so we took our second outing in the stroller for the day and walked down to HP Village and got some Paciugo. Ellie is a big fan of getting outside. While Lee was inside purchasing the gelato, I got this picture of Ellie waiting for her dad.

Love that picture. After that, Ellie dozed off and when she woke up, we gave her the first big girl bath in her bath tub. I thought she would enjoy it and she did. She didn't make a peep when she hit the water and seemed to enjoy getting cleaned off. Every time I went to take a picture, Lee quickly moved his hand to assist Ellie in a modesty pose.

Then he thought a strategically placed rubber duckie would help out.

On Saturday when I was playing with Ellie, she lifted her head all the way up and looked at me from a belly down position. You would have thought she had walked on the moon based on the way I reacted to her little milestone. I almost threw her a parade. Lee wasn't here to see it, but saw her do it on Sunday morning. I can only imagine how I'm going to react to her walking or crawling. We managed to get out and about for a bit that afternoon by going to the Vespa store, Apple store, and we went to see Elizabeth at the wine bar. Do I count that as another milestone for Ellie? First visit to a bar? It's actually more of a wine tasting room. That night, Ellie had her first dinner out with the Bright Grandparents at La Paesana.

She was really good the whole meal with only a little fussing, but I think she was a little overstimulated by all of the lights, new sounds and smells.

I went to weigh in at Weight Watchers and after one week, I've lost ... (drum roll, please) FIVE pounds! I think some of that may still be fluid, but I'll take it. Giving myself some credit, I was very good last week since I'm highly motivated right now. I seriously doubt the rest of it is going to fall off as easily, but I've revamped my goal and now want to lose 25 before Labor Day. That's 5 down and 20 to go. I think I can do it.

How is it already June?

The days seemed to drag by as I was waiting for May to get here and now time won't slow down. I can't believe it's June. This week I received a notice from my company stating that I had been granted short term disability (apparently we're disabled when we have a baby) through June 25. That's only 24 days from now. I need to live in Norway or someplace where you can take off 6 months when you have a baby.

I keep on waiting for my kiddo to act up and it still hasn't happened yet. Last night she went to sleep at 11pm and woke up at 3:45am. She ate and went right back to sleep. Two nights ago, I wish I'd gotten a picture of her when I went to pick her up for her middle of the night feeding. She had on her hospital cap and had managed to pull it down over her eyes and ears all the way to her nose. She wasn't crying - she was just giving me her best "Eeeh! EEEEEEUUHHH!!" grunt and rolling around in her crib. It was the first time I'd seen her straight up ticked off and it made me laugh. I'm trying to teach her the difference between night and day so today we took our first walk.

I think she looks a little irritated because of the bumpy sidewalk. Or she may have gas. It's a toss-up. She was awake for the first 5 minutes of our 40 minute walk and then the bumpy sidewalk seemed to put her to sleep. I think I'm going to make a walk a daily routine for us. I hope the weather stays nice for a while. It was almost 80 when we walked at 11am this morning so we may have to start going earlier.

After we got back, she ate again and I put her in her crib for a few minutes while I cleaned up. I had tried to turn on her crazy-looking mobile a few days ago, but she didn't like it. Today she actually stared up at it and seemed to enjoy it. Then Grandma Beth came over and she proceeded to fall asleep from all of the activity.

Grandma Connie came over yesterday and brought my baby book. Everyone has been trying to figure out who Ellie looks like and since she doesn't seem to have many of my features, everyone defaults to saying she looks like Lee. There's a picture of me in the baby album at about 2 weeks or so and it looks exactly like Ellie. It was almost creepy - like looking at a picture of Ellie. So we'll see how she develops.

The Two Week Appointment

I'm happy to report that Ellie got an A+ at the pediatrician today, but what a day to go... Her appointment happened to coencide with the exact time a tsunami was moving through the area. I clued in that we were about to be totally underwater in exactly enough time to get her in the car seat and pull out of the driveway. It's going to take a while before I'm am a pro at getting her out of the car while tolding my purse, diaper bag and umbrella.

The whole appointment went really well and I'm glad I picked the pediatric group that I went with. I didn't know it until today, but the medical assistant for Ellie's doctor was one of my Tuesday night step regulars, so it was good to see a familiar face. Ellie was completly happy being held by her, being weighed and then being held by the doctor. Ellie has gained one pound since our visit eleven days ago so she's now 8 pounds 6 ounces. The doctor was really happy with her progress even though I've been stressing that I've only been feeding her 7 times a day rather than the "recommended" 8-12 times a day. I seriously don't know how she could eat more than she does. The doctor said that whatever I was doing was working, which was good to hear. She's also grown 3/4 inches so she's up to 22 inches long and her head is 14.25 inches. That means she's in the 50th percentile for head and weight and >95th percentile for length. She still looks skinny because she's so long.

Then we had to do something that Ellie did not like - she had to get her heel pricked for the rest of her PKU stuff. It tests for metabolic disorders. She screamed like a banshee. Poor thing. They make you sit there and hold her while they do it so I'm sure she thought I was trying to saw her foot off. That was enough activity for Ellie and she promptly went to sleep.

Two other big milestones occurred yesterday - Ellie's umbilical cord fell off and we got her social security card in the mail so she is officially a tax write-off. She's also making big strides with head and neck control. Today after we got home and she ate, I put her on her stomach for some tummy time. If you lay her down with her head facing one way and then move to the other side, she'll turn her head to look at you. Of course,she face-plants for about 5 seconds during the transition, but she works it out. When I'm holding her upright, all she wants to do is hold her head up and look around with her bright eyes. She gets a little fussy if she can't see what is going on. She's still really wobbly so she looks like a turtle bobbing along. That was Ellie's big day - it doesn't get much more exciting around here!

Memorial Weekend 2007

Life could not be better at the Bright house! We stayed in most of the holiday because Dallas was totally under water for the 3-day weekend. Ellie is still the best baby ever. I am so thankful we were given such a wonderful little gift. She's waking up more now so after she eats, we play for about 20-30 minutes on her exercise mat before she naps. She has her 2 week weigh-in at the pediatrician tomorrow morning so it will be interesting to see how much she has gained. I think a lot because I finally had to break down and buy the carpal tunnel wrist guards. I was trying to wear them most of the day, but it's too hard to pick her up with them on so I just sleep in them. They've helped a lot.

We may have to loose the swaddle soon. After Ellie ate this morning at 6am, I swaddled her and put her back to bed. After a few minutes, I heard her grunting and moving, but didn't go check on her because she wasn't crying. When I woke her up an hour later, this is what she looked like:

Houdini had completely freed her arms from her baby straight jacket. Looks like she'll be wearing footed pajamas in the near future.

One thing is for certain - I definitely did not wear a swimsuit this Memorial Weekend. Sunday marked a big day because I headed back to the scales at Weight Watchers. Uuuuggghhhh. I was "lifetime" before I got pregnant and now I'm back to square one plus some. Well, plus a lot. I knew I had gained, but actually seeing the final damage in black and white was hard. To add insult to injury, the girl trying to sign up in front of me was 5'5" and a size 4. They wouldn't let her join the program because she was within 3 pounds of her lowest acceptable weight. I think the long line of fat women behind her were waiting for her to walk outside so they could beat the crap out of her. I'm going to try to loose 20 pounds before I go back to work full time, which is scheduled to happen the day after Labor Day. I think that will be do-able once I can start working out again. I hope to get "the rest" off before Christmas. I've just got to work hard and not stop until I'm back to my goal. I'm a little upset that I'm this big, but all I have to do is look at my little Ellie and realize my life could not be better and that I'm not the first new mother who has felt like this.

I have a new fashion accessory - a sling. I thought that since Ellie likes being held so much she might enjoy being worn. She loves it. It's like a dark little cocoon. I put her in it and she stayed by my side - through laundry and other chores around the house - blissfully asleep. We had our first outing today. We went to a few stores and she stayed asleep in her carrier the entire time. Ellie also tried out her swing, but I think she's still too small for it. She needs a little more neck control before she can fully enjoy it.

The Stork Has Landed

In case you're coming to visit us, just look for the 12-foot sign in our yard:



Lee's mom was nice enough to order us a stork so everyone on our block knows that Ellie is here!! We were going to go with the billboard, but thought it was too flashy. It's very cute and we get to keep the plaque with all of the details on it.


I don't know how it's already Thursday. I hope the days slow down, but I feel from here on out, life will be speeding by at an uncontrollable pace. Ellie has had several visitors at the house this week. Our friends Shanon and Mike came by on Sunday, Anne Marie visited from Shreveport Wednesday and Thursday and Debbie visited from Houston on Thursday. Anne Marie has 3-month old Alex and Debbie has 2-year old Molly. It was fun to see all of our children together.

Ellie and I have been having a great time. She has been so good - there's a part of me wondering when my luck is going to run out on her being so good. She's been a little more alert lately, but I still have trouble keeping her awake with it's time to eat. Must be rough. She is a great baby and loves to be held - which works out for Lee because he never wants to put her down. I don't either, but I think I'm getting carpal tunnel in my wrists, so I'm going to get a sling so I can wear her while I do things around the house. Here's more of Ellie doing what she does best.

Brando's Baby

Look at the picture and say the following line in your best Godfather voice:

"Leave the gun. Take the cannolis."

That's right. My baby wears a pink skull cap.

Home With Ellie

Lee wanted me to call this blog "My Kid Is Cuter Than Your Kid", but I thought that sounded a little cocky. This is our second full day home with Ellie, and we've been having a great time with her. She doesn't do a lot - mostly sleep and eat, but it's fun just to watch her do that. So far, the highlight of her days include being swaddled and sleeping in her Papasan. If you've been keeping up the past few months, you know that we could never get a 3D picture of her because her hand was always right up by her face. Nothing much has changed with that...

I bundle her up, but somehow she always gets that hand free to be by her head. She looks like "The Thinker" sometimes which is really funny. The first night we were home was a little rough. I think Ellie was making some adjustments from the hospital. There she had constant care 24-7 from the night nurses, but her mom and dad have to sleep and she didn't want us to. At all. So last night, we had a different plan of attack - feed before we go to bed, Ellie sleeps for three hours, BOTTLE, Ellie sleeps three hours. The bottle was so much faster and less frustrating for both of us. We'll see how it works tonight.

She also had her first pediatrician appointment yesterday and he thought she looks great. She was 7 pounds 6 ounces when she left the hospital on Friday and that's what she was 24 hours later. They said that they'll loose a little weight after birth, but she is already maintaining her weight after 3 days, which is a good sign.

We also tried to wear her out a little before she went to bed with her first bath. She was shockingly good through the entire thing. She doesn't really like to be unwrapped, but we kept her pretty covered so she didn't get cold.

So that's it from the Bright house. Until I can actually get out of the house, I'm sure the blogs for the next couple of weeks will consist of more Papasan and bath pictures. Such is life. I'm feeling better by the day (I'm not even on pain medicine!) so hopefully that shouldn't be too long from now. I am a little weepy, but I think that's just the hormones; however, Lee is starting to think I'm undiagnosed bi-polar. I'm so thankful for all of the visitors, well wishes, cards, and phone calls from so many of you. I would love for you to meet her so just let me know if you'd like to stop by for a visit! I'm excited that Debbie and Anne Marie are coming in town this week. Hope to see you all soon!

Welcome Ellen Elizabeth

Please welcome the most wonderful miracle we could have ever asked for:

Ellen Elizabeth

Born May 16, 2007 at 12:33 PM

7 pounds 13 ounces

21.25 inches

If you've ever had a hard labor or delivery, then you may not want to read this because I probably had the easiest one in history. Ellie made it one day longer than I did, but barely. I started having some cramping on Tuesday afternoon and then on Tuesday night I started having some contractions that were unevenly timed. I didn't know if they would stop or slow down so I went to bed. Around 1am, I woke up with stronger contractions so I got up and started timing them. Around 1:30, I woke up Lee to tell him that I thought it was time to go to the hospital.

When I got to the hospital, I was 1cm dilated and since I had NEVER been dilated before, I was very excited about that. The contractions became more regular and stronger so I decided to get an epidural... mostly because I was about to barf from the pain. Literally. But first I had to get the IV so they had a line. This was by far the worst part of the entire process. First I gave blood samples which went okay. Then the nurse tried to give me an IV. Trust me - I told them all about the horrible veins I have and nobody listened. She didn't get the vein. So they sent in Nurse #2 who failed and then Nurse #3 who blew out a vein in my hand. All the while I'm contracting so 4AM was sort of a low point that involved mild profanity. Nurse #4 got it in there. Once I got the epidural, I went to sleep.

Lee can remember more then I can, but I do know that I went from 3.5 cm at 9AM to 9 cm at 11:30. Around 12:20, they decided that I should try to push. If you read above what time she was born, you might be clued into why this was so easy for me. I pushed through the first contraction and she crowned so they told me to stop so they could call the doctor up (by the way - Darth Vader did not wind up delivering my baby and don't act like you're not secretly disappointed). As soon as the doctor came up, I pushed once and most of her head came out, pushed twice and the whole thing was out, pushed the third time and the rest of her popped out. So my total push time equaled about 45 seconds.

When she came out, she cried a little, but didn't fuss much as they cleaned her up. Lee was the first one to hold her while they worked on me and I really thought he'd never put her down. I finally got to hold her and these two huge eyes stared up at me. I knew she knew who I was and she also knew who Lee was because she would look over at him when he talked. I couldn't believe how alert she was. She also looked a little confused because I'm sure she had planned to spend the day swimming again. After we had some time with her, my mom and dad as well as Lee's mom came in to see her.

She's only been here 36 hours, but I can't believe how easy she has been. She's so agreeable. And she's beautiful. I can't believe how perfect she is. She's asleep in my lap right now. We get to take her home tomorrow and I'm very excited for her to see her new home. And for those of you who are interested in me, I'm fine. I have been walking around all day and think I'll be back to my old self in 2-3 weeks. I hope.

Here are some more pictures... there will be more to come!

Mother's Day 2007

You may have guessed - Ellie is not here yet. At least I know I'll be a mother next Mother's Day, and on the bright side, I know that Lee will be a dad for Father's Day. Again - it's just as well because I had some stuff I needed to finish at work on Monday, and I had a big meeting at Junior League last night I didn't want to miss. When I was born, I was six days late so maybe she's trying to beat my record. If she makes it till midnight, she'll do it. My next appointment is tomorrow and I'll have a Biophysical Profile (BPP) then. Based on that, we'll see if she can go another week. I'm interested to see how much they say she weighs. She's still kicking around in there, but I can tell room is pretty limited.

When I got home on Friday, the Baby Rock CD's we ordered had arrived. Now Ellie has Coldplay, U2, The Cure, and Bob Marley in her collection. I think this may be Lee's favorite thing in the nursery. We met our friends Mike and Shanon for dinner at Zushi Sushi and then came home and sat in Ellie's nursery and listened to some of our new CDs. That baby has the most comfortable nursery. Walking in there makes me want to go to sleep - which is the idea.

On Saturday, I went Katy's house for Lauren's baby shower. Lauren is having a little girl too so there was a ton of cute little girl things there. It was there that I met Buzzkill while standing in the buffet line.

BK: So when are you due?
Me: I was due on Wednesday so I'm 3 days overdue.
BK: OHMYGOD. Are you miserable? You must be miserable.
Me: No. I'm fine.
BK: Are you sure you're not miserable? Because you look miserable.
Me: Really - I'm fine.
BK: Wow. I don't know how you're holding it together because I'd be miserable.

Thank you for the pep talk, Buzzie. And rest assured, I will not call you if I ever need to be talked off a ledge.

We celebrated Mother's Day at our house with the Rogers and the Brights minus Elizabeth who had to work. I don't think people wanted me to cook, but I was voting on staying at our house because that way I wouldn't have to wear shoes. I never thought that developing Smurf-like feet would play a role in my decision to stay in or go out, but here I am. We had a good time and Lee gave me a nice gift - some pajamas to wear after the baby gets here. They're so comfy!

More news tomorrow!

Overdue

For the two of you who have not called or e-mailed me in the last 24 hours, I am still pregnant. It's just as well because I had a ton of work I had to wrap up this week. That's made the week go really quickly, so it's a blessing in disguise. I celebrated my due date by having my annual review on Wednesday. No pressure. Lee thinks that my work involvement is keeping me from going into labor, but if the threat of an annual review doesn't throw you into labor, I don't know what will. I've decided that if she doesn't come next week, my absolute last day of work will be May 18. I was really hoping that it would be today, but who knows.

On Thursday, I was in the elevator on the way up to my office with a lady I'd never seen before. She turned to me and said, "When are you due?" Without trying to look bitter, I smiled and said "yesterday". Based on the look on this woman's face, I figured out that people you don't know do not want to hear that they are suspended 12 floors above the earth in a tiny steel box with a woman who is past her due date. They would rather hear that you have head lice or the bird flu. At least they'd have a chance to recover from that. If the elevator gets stuck, delivering some random girl's baby is not on their "Top 100" list of things to do. So from now on, I'm going to tell people I'm due "next week" to avoid mass hysteria.

That's all the news I have. My Branch Davidian baby remains holed up in her uterine compound. Ellie, here's a piece of advice for you - come out. I have never been a part of a standoff, but based on what I see on TV, they never end well for the person standing off. Most of the time they involve tear gas and a SWAT team; however, in your case, it will involve Pitocin and a team of doctors. So do yourself a favor, listen to the hostage negotiator (your father) and walk out of there peacefully because if you don't, we will come get you. Love, Mom.

Groundhog Day

So I went to the doctor yesterday. I'm still the same as I was last week. They could induce if I was dilated at all, but I'm not. In order to decrease my odds of having a C-Section, I'm opting to wait as long as possible to induce, but there's a chance I'll still have to have one since she's right at 8 pounds or just over now. I go back next Wednesday for the doctor to do a big ultrasound to make sure she's still okay and to measure her. If she's not under any stress and I make it that long, I'll check into the hospital at 5pm on May 22 and deliver her on May 23 - that means she'll be 42 weeks. I'm going to make her get a summer job if she waits that long. Of course, all of this may not happen if I go into labor naturally, which could happen at any time. If I have her on May 23, I keep on picturing that SNL skit where Will Farrell is delivered and he comes out a giant man and says "WOW! I am RIPE!". Lee thinks this means she'll be tardy the rest of her life.

That is the baby update. I'm still working and I will until I go into labor or else I'll be sitting at home by myself burning vacation time. I am still working out. I didn't teach it, but I went to my step class last Tuesday and I'm going to go again tonight. I'm keeping it light. If something happens, I'll post on here before going to the hospital... so keep checking the blog for the latest news!

Other than that, I'm starting to enter that "holy crap, I'm having a baby" mode. I was watching videos on Babycenter this weekend and saw a video of a mother giving a baby a bottle. It suddenly occurred to me that I don't have bottles. Seriously - what mother doesn't have bottles? Well, that would be me. Then I started wondering "What else don't I have"?!! I thought we had the big stuff with the crib, car seat, and diapers, but if I'm forgetting bottles, what else am I forgetting? Ellie is going to arrive and freak out because she'll know I'm totally clueless. Babies are like dogs. They can smell fear. Anyway, I went out and bought bottles so now I have a boob backup.

I'm also going a little schitzo and hording food. "Preparing for a nuclear winter" sounds a bit extreme, but I know that's what everyone thought I was doing at the grocery store on Sunday. I don't think our pantry will fit any more food. Why I'm afraid of Lee going hungry, I don't know. I walked through the aisles dumping food into the cart like I'd never see a grocery store again. I seriously have enough food to cook about 15 different meals. I'm a little afraid I'll have to have the C-Section and then I won't be able to leave the house for 6 weeks or something crazy.

We also got a few more things for the nursery. Mom and dad brought over Ellie's toy chest and Lee assembled it. We needed a place for all of the toys and stuffed animals she's already acquired. We also bought a CD Player/Clock so she can listen to her music. My friend, Amanda, gave me a CD of lullabies that are set to Coldplay songs. Lee and I liked the music so much that we found the Baby Rock Records website and bought lullaby albums from The Cure, Bob Marley (Lee's picks) and U2 (my pick). We're hoping Ellie will learn the classics early.

Looks like I amy not be a mother for Mother's Day after all! Hope everyone has a good week!

CSI: Dallas

WOW WOW WOW. The final days before my maternity leave have not been without excitement because today, I am playing the part of James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller "Rear Window". I am so mad I don't have my camera with me right now because I just watched Dallas Police pull a dead body out of the extended stay motel behind my work. You read it right. Dead body. All morning, we watched the crime scene people taking pictures and there were three cop cars outside the room. I don't think it was anything too horrific because they had the door wide open, but we couldn't see anything. And then a few minutes ago, the pulled out the gurney and hauled him out of there covered with a blue tarp. I know it was a "him" because I called the motel as they were taking out the body. It went something like this:

Me: Hi - I work in the office behind your motel and I'm watching them remove a dead body from one of the rooms...
Man: Uh-huh.
Me: And I'm just wondering - what's going on down there?
Man: I'm not sure.
Me: Did you know there's a dead person out there?
Man: Yes.
Me: Is it a man or a woman?
Man: It's a man.
Me: Did you see him?!!
Man: No.
Me: Was it a murder?
Man: I'm not sure. They're investigating right now, but I don't think so.

POOR. That's a man for you, isn't it? I need more information. It couldn't have been that bad because right after they hauled him off, the cleaning lady went in there with her little cart. This is why I love my window seat.