Elizabeth had her two month appointment yesterday. She is now 23.25 inches (80%) and 11 pounds and 3/4 ounce (60%). She is healthy and doing well. She will start at Ben's school tomorrow when Mom goes back to work.
March 31, 2009
March 26, 2009
March Madness
It has been a while since we have shared any updates. This is our first “official” family blog post, but I have copied over all the previous posts from Ben’s baby blog onto this site so they are all in one place. The McCulloughs have also broken down and are officially on Facebook now. We never thought we would see that day, but enough peer pressure and missing out on “status updates” during the week pushed us to join. So if you are on Facebook, look for us and let us be your friend!
These past couple of months have been a total joy and learning experience for our whole family. We are reliving all of the newborn milestones with our sweet Elizabeth. It is a joy all over again and brings back so many memories of Ben’s newborn days. Elizabeth (or Ellie or Baby Sister) is doing really well. She is like Ben in many ways, but definitely has her own personality. She is more vocal than Ben was at this age and we are working on figuring out all of her requests. Ellie eats about every three hours (day or night) which is great as we know our schedule, but tiring as that makes for short stretches of sleep for Mom in the night. She is growing and changing weekly, and even daily sometimes. Her looks are really changing and she is filling our her clothes more and more. This last couple of weeks or so have brought us the start of Elizabeth’s beautiful smiles. It is so rewarding to see her sweet grin after weeks of wanting to see that personal connection. Next week, Elizabeth will start going to “school” with Ben. In preparation for that, we tried her first bottle last week. It was successful and she didn’t seem to care as long as she was getting milk somehow. Pacifiers have been a different struggle though. That was a surprise as big brother loved his “paci” at first sight. We have found that Ellie will take a Soothie brand pacifier, but not every time she wants to be soothed. So far no other brands have been successful, but she is becoming easier to soothe as the weeks continue. She has started to like her swing and likes to play in her activity gym. Elizabeth has also started batting at toys and kicking at them.
This time around has been much more relaxed in the fact that this isn’t the first newborn in our house. A lot of first time worries aren’t leaving Mom and Dad anxious and we have been able to focus on getting to know Elizabeth and enjoying this time. The added blessing this time is that we also get to see Ben become a big brother. That is more of a joy than we could have imagined. He loves “Baby Sister” so much and wants to do everything for her and with her. “I wash baby sister! I change baby sister! I share my orange with baby sister! My turn to hold baby sister!” It is too bad that we can’t fulfill all of these requests, but we do our best to accommodate. Ben is the lead toe washer for Elizabeth at her bath time. He is an excellent companion in the back seat of the car with his “Shh, shh, you're okay, baby sister!” Ben enjoys holding his sister and will give Mom or Dad a turn when she gets squirmy or one of his toys suddenly calls his name. The love he already has for her has surprised us most of all and it brings joy each day to our family.
Ben also still enjoys his solo adventures at school. His new classroom upstairs is filled with new friends and some familiar faces from previous classes. He enjoys the new play centers in the classroom and comes home with a new story about his adventures each day. Ben is becoming more and more articulate and his humor is really developing and keeping us all on our toes. He is his own biggest fan and gets tickled and very pleased with himself when he has told a joke. With the changing weather, Ben has been able to spend more time outside. He has a new basketball goal and loves to go “shoot it!” with Mom or Dad in the evenings. Ben has passed the thirty pound mark, so he continues to be a growing boy. He was weighed at our most recent trip to the doctor’s office when he had an “ouchie” near his eye that required some steri strips. (A toy ambulance escaped the hands of one of his friends at school. Oops!)
Well, this has gone on long enough. Hopefully future posts will be more frequent and shorter.
These past couple of months have been a total joy and learning experience for our whole family. We are reliving all of the newborn milestones with our sweet Elizabeth. It is a joy all over again and brings back so many memories of Ben’s newborn days. Elizabeth (or Ellie or Baby Sister) is doing really well. She is like Ben in many ways, but definitely has her own personality. She is more vocal than Ben was at this age and we are working on figuring out all of her requests. Ellie eats about every three hours (day or night) which is great as we know our schedule, but tiring as that makes for short stretches of sleep for Mom in the night. She is growing and changing weekly, and even daily sometimes. Her looks are really changing and she is filling our her clothes more and more. This last couple of weeks or so have brought us the start of Elizabeth’s beautiful smiles. It is so rewarding to see her sweet grin after weeks of wanting to see that personal connection. Next week, Elizabeth will start going to “school” with Ben. In preparation for that, we tried her first bottle last week. It was successful and she didn’t seem to care as long as she was getting milk somehow. Pacifiers have been a different struggle though. That was a surprise as big brother loved his “paci” at first sight. We have found that Ellie will take a Soothie brand pacifier, but not every time she wants to be soothed. So far no other brands have been successful, but she is becoming easier to soothe as the weeks continue. She has started to like her swing and likes to play in her activity gym. Elizabeth has also started batting at toys and kicking at them.
This time around has been much more relaxed in the fact that this isn’t the first newborn in our house. A lot of first time worries aren’t leaving Mom and Dad anxious and we have been able to focus on getting to know Elizabeth and enjoying this time. The added blessing this time is that we also get to see Ben become a big brother. That is more of a joy than we could have imagined. He loves “Baby Sister” so much and wants to do everything for her and with her. “I wash baby sister! I change baby sister! I share my orange with baby sister! My turn to hold baby sister!” It is too bad that we can’t fulfill all of these requests, but we do our best to accommodate. Ben is the lead toe washer for Elizabeth at her bath time. He is an excellent companion in the back seat of the car with his “Shh, shh, you're okay, baby sister!” Ben enjoys holding his sister and will give Mom or Dad a turn when she gets squirmy or one of his toys suddenly calls his name. The love he already has for her has surprised us most of all and it brings joy each day to our family.
Ben also still enjoys his solo adventures at school. His new classroom upstairs is filled with new friends and some familiar faces from previous classes. He enjoys the new play centers in the classroom and comes home with a new story about his adventures each day. Ben is becoming more and more articulate and his humor is really developing and keeping us all on our toes. He is his own biggest fan and gets tickled and very pleased with himself when he has told a joke. With the changing weather, Ben has been able to spend more time outside. He has a new basketball goal and loves to go “shoot it!” with Mom or Dad in the evenings. Ben has passed the thirty pound mark, so he continues to be a growing boy. He was weighed at our most recent trip to the doctor’s office when he had an “ouchie” near his eye that required some steri strips. (A toy ambulance escaped the hands of one of his friends at school. Oops!)
Well, this has gone on long enough. Hopefully future posts will be more frequent and shorter.
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