New Stella pics

Stella's First Bottle

The experts say it's time to introduce bottles now (of breastmilk,) so we gave it a try. Eventually, she got the hang of it...although it was far from love at first sight! We're happy to report that after filming ended, Stella polished off a whooping 3 ounces and later went right back to Mommy without any issues. Hurray!

Big day of firsts

Stella, Susan and I had a busy day. Stella had her first real bath; she screamed through most of it but loved the part with the warm towel and hair dryer! Arbor seems to be protective of the baby already. When we were bathing her (and she was crying) Arbor was around our ankles meowing at us. This is totally out of character for her - we can only guess she was worried about the baby.

Then, we put her in the sling and took her to the farmers market, where we got some ice cream and produce. Around 5:00, we put her in the car and drove downtown to meet Rob at Legal Seafood for dinner. She was a champ! She slept in her car seat the whole way there and all of the way through a 2 hour dinner, awakening only when the check came. Good girl!

Susan leaves in the morning and Rob's taking Friday and Monday off for some family bonding. I'll be alone with the babe for the first full day on Tuesday - should be an adventure!

Video: Funny Faces

6 hours of sleep - a new record!

Our little angel is sleeping 5, 5.5, and now 6 hours at night! As long as she goes down at midnight after powerfeeding all evening, she's out for the count (as are her happy parents). I woke up at 6 and peeked into her bassinet to see her looking back up at me. Swear she smiled.

Mom had her first baby-wearing experience today. Dad's already gone for walks with Stella in his sling (see pic) and I took mine for a spin today down to Trader Joe's. She loves the closeness and goes right to sleep. I'll be using mine quite a bit when it's just us here and I've got to get some things done around the house.

Susan is here until Friday - she had a little adventure today on the changing table! Wet diaper, more pee on the table, and then some simultaneous spit up just to keep things interesting. Nothing beats Rob's projecting poop all over the place while he was pulling up her legs to wipe her, though. No picture of that - sorry! ;)

On Saturday, we had a professional photographer come and take baby shots for a couple of hours. Stella was a TOTAL ham and posed like she'd been down runways all her life. She would follow the camera with her eyes wherever he went and I'm sure we're going to have a LOT of keepers from the session. Hoping to get them in the next couple of weeks. Cannot wait!

Here's something for you guys to feast your eyes on - a video of Stella practicing 'crawling' during her tummy time.

Sheryl Posting: First Trip to the Pediatrician

Well, it took two adult women about 6 hours but we did it!
Melanie and I got Stella to her first appointment with her doctor.
First she wanted to sleep when we needed her to eat, then when she was in her carseat (for the first time) she was so comfortable she pooped--further slowing us down.
Then there was the incident with the car that was nearly out of gasoline and the carseat that had somehow become unbuckled. The latter promped a call from Mel to Rob that began "HELP".
We finally got to the office after finding this awesome parking spot. Afterwards we only had to pay a $55 fine for parking there.
But after all that, we got the info we wanted and expected.
Stella is perfect!

(This was taken right before the poop...click to enlarge.)

More photos - days 4-7

Happy One Week of Life, Baby Stella!

Below are some more photos to appease the masses. ;) We can't stop taking them - poor thing will probably inherit Rob's eyesight AND permanently see flash spots for the rest of her life!

Everything is going really well here. Stella's passing milestones every day - it's easy to see how the time will fly by. Today she had her first real poops, nursed on her own, AND her umbilical cord stump fell off. Plus, we're going to take her out of the house for the first time when daddy gets home and go on a walk together. Big day.

Grandma is here for just another few days. Thank goodness she came for such a long visit - we do not know what we would have done without her! The house stays clean, there's always food out to eat and laundry going, and a third set of arms to hold and change the baby comes in really, really handy. We'll miss her tons when she goes home but luckily, Mimi and Pops are coming in to relief pitch on Friday afternoon. Stella's very excited to meet her more of her family.

Signing off - enjoy the photos and we'll keep them coming. Maybe we'll give Stella her first bath today, too...see how light that hair really is!

Stella Fingerprinted

Stella Monday Morning

How to download photos

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note between feedings to let you all know that all photo albums here are on Picassa, which means you just click on the bottom right of the slideshow and go to the album there. Picassa will let you download these photos to your own computers and print, develop, and/or share as needed.

Our little family's doing very well with the new addition! Stella's asleep on Grandma Sheryl as I type and we should really all be taking a little nap. More news soon.

Much love,
Melanie, Rob & Stella

More Stella pictures - Days 0-4

Stella Sleeping

Stella's First Morning!

Ultrasound update

Happy Friday, all. We had an ultrasound done this morning (for lack of anything better to do) and got the below face picture from it. For our enjoyment, the doctor put a buzzer against my belly so we could see her blink in reaction to it. In case you're confused, you need to turn your head to the right and then you can see her right eye, then make out the nose, mouth, etc. Everything looked normal and healthy - there is plenty of amniotic fluid in there for her to practice breathing (which we also witnessed this morning) - and her head and body is exactly where our midwife Kelley told us it was. Kelley guessed yesterday by using her hands that she was about 9 lbs. The radiologist guessed today using various ultrasound measurements that she's about 8lbs 14 oz. A lot of consensus here!

Which leads me to some other good news - she is definitely a girl!!

Mom's here

Mom (Sheryl) arrived yesterday and is eager for things to get going so she can meet her grandchild! I'm glad to have a diversion and some company and we're headed out today to walk a mall, museum, or something that gets us out of the house.

*Hopefully* this baby will be ready to join us later this week. Cross your fingers for us!