Pictures of Ellaria

I told RJ to get a shirt on, but he wouldn't.  

We love the ruffle bum! 

Announcing:

Back to the Grind

 Today we got back to normal life.

My mom went home yesterday, and Rhett went back to work this morning, starting with clinic at 8am and going right to the ER to work until 10pm.

So the newborn vacation is over.

It was fun to have my mom with us and she's always so much help.  We eat really great food and have fun just hanging out.  I'm feeling pretty great compared to my recovery with RJ, so I feel physically up to doing everything on my own now.

So we'll see how I do with two kids solo now.  So far so good.  Having to up my multi-tasking skills, but I had a shower and we were all dressed at least by noon today. :)

I just hope RJ continues to be a good boy with Ellaria around.  My mom was so fun for him, playing with him all day long and I know he'll miss his fan club when it's just us again.

Ellie smiles a lot in her sleep, and a few times has chuckled.  It's really cute.

Ellaria had her first bath.  She is so quiet.  Her cry is really soft and more of a squawk.  So far she's just a chubby, sweet, little girl.

Chubby Ellie

Big Brother

I was really nervous at RJ's reaction to having a sibling in his life.

I assumed he'd feel dethroned and resent the baby.

But so far he has done so well.  He just loves Ellaria.

He is quite possessive of her, and every morning comes in and asks: "Where's my sister?"

The majority of the time he refers to her as "his sister" rather than "Baby Ellie", which is what we've always called her until she came. 

The night we brought her home from the hospital, we came in and RJ was just jumping up and down so excited and happy to have Baby Ellie home.

We were only home 15 minutes or so and they called Rhett to say he needed to go back with Ellaria because they forgot some things and didn't discharge her all the way.

What a pain.

So Rhett got her back in her car seat and was loading her in the car and RJ freaked out.  He just started sobbing yelling: "Don't take my sister!" Rhett explained they would be back, and went in the garage, and RJ was just breaking down crying: "my sister! My sister!"

So he got to go to the hospital and my mom went with to wait with him in the car so he'd feel OK about Rhett taking his sister.

Here he is giving Ellie all her gifts from Grandma, just piling them on her.

He went to run errands one day with my mom and ran in the house and over to Ellaria and said: "It's OK Ellie.  Don't be sad, RJ is home."  (She was totally asleep)

He loves to help fetch diapers, spit rags, or give her a binky.  He also loves to kiss her probably too much.

But there have been things that have been hard with RJ.  The whole early morning birth and crazy schedule messed up his sleep schedule, thus falling asleep at dinner. 

He's also regressed a little with potty training.  He hadn't had accidents for weeks, but has wet his pants a few times since she's been born, which I actually expected and I'm just glad he doesn't want to be a baby himself and go back to diapers or anything.

He's been loving having Grandma here to play with him and she's a lot funner than I am right now.  Also having his dad around has been fun for him, here they are making "bugs for fishing" = tying flies.

He's excited to go fishing, but I told him he can't fish with his dad until the trees grow leaves.  So every once in a while he'll look out the window and tell me the trees are still "nakie" = naked. 

So things are going well here at our house adjusting to the new baby and getting used to our little family of four.

Here's Ellie 5 days old.  She had a doctor's appt early because she didn't get the full antibiotics before she was born.  She weighed 7 lb 13 oz, so she's gained 3 oz.  I was glad, we want to keep those cheeks chubby!

So far she's been such a good baby.  She's so quiet.  She's really only cried hard once, when I was making foot and hand prints--she did not like that.

Everything has been easier this second time around.  The delivery, my physical recovery, and her temperment are easier than it all was with RJ.

She's just a sweet little squishy girl we love! 

Obviously she sleeps a lot. 

HER WARDROBE:

The night we were able to bring her home from the hosptial, I realized all the clothes I did buy for her were too big.  I wasn't sure how big she'd be, so I didn't buy newborn size.

So her first night I put her in a onesie that fit from RJ with basketballs.  She already looks so much like RJ, wearing his clothes, it looked like a baby boy.  Rhett said: "so we have no girl clothes for her?" I told him we do in a couple months, and it's not a big deal what she wears.

So the next morning Rhett took RJ and they went and bought her girl newborn clothes.  He came in and told me he went a little overboard, but at least she will look like a girl with all the clothes her dad picked out for her.

That morning I put her in her new clothes and gave her to Rhett, as I was leaving the room he told Ellie: "I know you don't care what you wear, but I do.  I want you to look like a girl." 

Then our best friend Molly gave us another huge gift of a feminine wardrobe, so now she can look like a girl and I put away all the baby boy jammies I'd been planning on using.  I guess it's probably a good thing she has people looking out for her fashion. 

Birth Story

I know some people aren't interested or care, but for those that are, here's our little birth story bringing Ellaria into the world.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO READ ON...

Can you tell who's who?

One of these babies is RJ and one is Ellie. I'd say they look a bit alike.

RJ is on top.

Hospital

PHOTO OVERLOAD FOR FAMILY

We are home from the hospital!  I hate being in the hospital--the OB wasn't done sewing me up and I asked when I could go home.  Rhett teased me about it later.  But they made us stay 36 hours because labor went too fast and Ellaria didn't get the 4 hours of antibiotics she was supposed to from my having strep B.

So here's some shots of our time in a tiny corner room in the hospital.

I should say, this hospital was about 500 times better than with RJ in Missouri.  The nurses left me in the birth mess for 4 hours, and RJ was still had blood dried on him all day until 9pm that night when I asked where I could give him a bath.  I had to have a roommate in Missouri, which meant we had to share a bathroom and she wasn't very hygienic.  To describe that entire hospital stay in one word: hell.  Maybe a little dramatic, but I felt like the crazy lady in Happy Gilmore that jumps on top of his hood and pleas: "Get Me Outa HERE!"

This time I still wanted out, but it was just because I hate being in the hospital.  Good facility and staff. 

Here's Ellaria right at birth.

Here's Ellaria around 24 hours old.  She did well her first night.   Grammy, Rhett and RJ went home and I opted to let her sleep in the nursery and they'd bring her to me to eat.  Someone told me once: "with your first you keep them with you in the hospital the whole time, then you get smart and let them go to the nursery."  So it was nice to get a few hours sleep.

 Our hospital room was pretty tiny, and so we spent a lot of time squished in there.  RJ was really good, watching cartoons....

...but after a while got cabin fever and started jumping off the walls.

So Rhett took him to run to the store, then planned to take him to the pet store to look at animals, but he kept saying "No! go back to see Ellie!"  So I guess his little sister is better than a monkey.

RJ has actually LOVED his baby Ellie.  I liked this picture of his huge hand.  When he first held her, he unwrapped her hands and kept staring at his own, then looking back at hers, totally amazed at how small her hands were compared to his.  (Granted, he has big hands like my dad) 

The boys adore little Ellie.

This is one of my favorite pictures so far of Rhett with his little girl.

Rhett has wanted a daughter forever.  A few years ago he showed me a photo of one of the residents in Kirksville with his family and he had 6 girls and he turned the computer screen my way and said: "the luckiest guy in the world".  So this little girl is pretty exciting for all of us, but especially her dad.

Ellie looking up at Papa.  She never opens her eyes.  Maybe 20 minutes a day so far.

Sweet little tongue.

My mom left at 4:00 am from St. George the morning she was born.  I called to tell her I was in labor and going to the hospital and was shocked she was already on the road to come...mother's intuition or something.

We're so happy to have her here to help, especially RJ who is loving someone fun around here for once.

Stink eye.

We think Ellaria looks a lot like RJ.  Rhett was talking to his mom on the phone telling her Ellie has the "thick Crapo brow" and saying she has the mean face too--perma-scowl, but maybe she'll grow out of that.

Here's me.  I got petechia (busted capillary vessels) again from pushing--so nasty spot face to go with my nasty roots.

I made it in black and white so you can't tell...as much.

We're so happy to be home and doing well.  I'm recovering physically so much better this time than with RJ and actually feeling pretty great.

Thanks for the well wishes and hopefully we'll be down near family soon so you can see her in person.

Ellaria Phoebe Crapo

We welcomed our new daughter Ellaria Phoebe Crapo to the world this morning. Jessica and baby are doing great.

7 lbs 10 oz, 20.5 inches

Chubba Cheeks

After church today we went to Rhett's Residency Clinic to check out Ellaria.

Their sonogram equipment really stinks, and Rhett just took photos with his phone, so they're not the best shots.  I put arrows everywhere so you can maybe see what's what.   Her face is on the side with her right side down, the top of her head at the left of the screen. 

The biggest things we noticed were the huge cheeks!  Also her dad's thick brow bone.  She looked pretty squished.  Rhett measured her head and it was 9.5cm in diameter, which has a crude estimate of her being 7.2 lbs.  That would be nice if she was just a little 7 lb, but I saw the huge cheeks and it reminded me of rhino RJ's first appearance with jumbo cheeks, thighs, and double chin.  Hopefully she's just small and fat.

So we're 39 weeks.  I have my last appt this Tues. where we'll schedule my induction most likely for Monday March 21.  As much as I hope to spontaneously go into labor, we'll probably have to kick this little girl out of there with a bunch of Pitocin.

Last I knew, Rhett is planning on delivering Ellaria and she'll be his 50th delivery.