Ellie Update

Ellie didn't really mind tummy time! She actually fell right asleep! Maybe it's because she spent all that time on her tummy in the NICU! Ellie went to the Doctor yesterday for another weight check and she now weighs 8 lbs. and 6 3/4 oz.! We were very happy! And...we don't have to come back to the doctor for another weight check until her 4 month appointment on January 15. So obviously, Dr.Duff thinks she's gaining pretty well these days. Yesterday we tried feeding her every three hours instead of two...she didn't do the greatest, but Ben is convinced she needs another day to see if she's ready. Over the night time she ate only around one ounce for the feedings,but then this morning she was ready for sure! She ate 80 mL which might be an all time high! Today Aunt Audrie came to help out caring for Ellie so that Mom and Dad can get some more homework done - the time is sure ticking fast to get our classes done before the next semester starts up again! Mom's officially back to work at Jardine, which is bittersweet. I miss my co-workers, but at the same time - I'm really having a hard time with the fact that I won't be able to care for her 24/7 much longer due to the many lovely roles that I am playing at this point in my life! So yesterday was our first day at Lori's. Aside from my breakdown, the rest of the day was filled with fun catching up on life (Lori and I became good friends when we were undergrads here at K-State) since the crazyness of Ellie coming early! Bill and Lori have an adorable 17 month old, Bridget who is full of energy. Ellie is going to love watching Bridget run non stop. So far she's slept through Bridget's screams! We are very blessed to have such a wonderful woman and mom to care for our little Ellie while Mom and Dad finish up school and work. We're going back on Thursday (both me and Ellie) for another day for Lori to get used to all Ellie's needs (the monitor, the caffeine, etc!) Really, it's more for me though and I'm grateful that Lori's ok with me hanging out too! Friday will be Ellie's first morning with Lori with out mom! Prayers for me and Lori for that matter! So I pretty much wrote before how I was giving up on nursing...well, I hadn't tried nursing for maybe a week until Christmas Eve I was like...what the heck..I'm gonna try again. So I did and Ellie was a different baby! It's like the lightbulb turned on and she nursed really well! Now we've been nursing about 3 times a day and it's going well for the most part! It was a nice Christmas gift!