Snuggles. Baths. Tears. Love.

Our lives have forever changed. The past two weeks have been filled with lots of love. Smiles. Tears of joy and tears of complete exhaustion. I wouldn't trade a minute.

Eloise is doing great. She is eating well and sleeping well. I'm so glad that nursing has been going well for us. It was probably one of the biggest things I was nervous about. I will say that it is probably one of the most rewarding and amazing things I've ever experienced, but I had no idea how time consuming it would be! I seriously have a permanent imprint on our rocking chair. It's bittersweet to see her growing and changing already. Check out these cheeks...

The other night I had my first scare. I had woken up a few hours after putting Eloise down and realized I hadn't heard her yet. I went to her room to check on her and she was still sound asleep. Well I fell back to sleep and woke up another 3 hours later and realized I still hadn't heard her. I thought the monitor must be broken. I ran to the nursery expecting her to be screaming in hunger, but there she laid, sound asleep. The past few nights she's slept for a 5-6 hour stretch. It's been great!

Sleep is definitely hard to come by these days, (I know, many of you warned me of this...). A couple times I've woken up in my bed and I think had some kind of hallucination where I think Eloise is at my breast and I've somehow brought her to bed with me. I feel around the bed for her to make sure she is okay, when I finally realize after a moment of panic that she is safely sleeping in her crib.

Bath time is always fun. I don't think she's sure what to think about it. She doesn't cry or anything, just has a concerned look on her face. She does LOVE being blow-dried after her bath. I love picking her up after her jammies are on and just taking a big wiff of her!

We have been SO BLESSED the past weeks with friends from our church providing meals for us. It's crazy how something as simple as eating, let alone cooking, go by the wayside when you bring a baby home. We've had so many delicious meals and desserts, it's stalling me losing some of this pregnancy weight. Justin and I so appreciate all of you wonderful people!

Things are starting to get into a routine. Justin went back to work this week. He stayed home with Eloise and I for the first couple weeks and was a tremendous blessing. I know it was hard for him to go back, leaving the two of us here. He is one heck of a husband and daddy to be bringing home the bacon for his family. We are blessed to be able to have me take 12 weeks off of work and I'll also only be going back to work part-time after that. Over the years and through struggles that we've had, God has taught me how important family is and I've realized how quickly time goes by. We are blessed to be able to stay home with our daughter and not have to take her (or pay for) daycare. I don't take an ounce of that for granted.

As I sit here and write this post, I hear Eloise on the monitor starting to squirm. When she's been sleeping for almost 3 hours, I get excited when she starts waking up to know that I get to pick her up and snuggle her. I love being a mommy...

Husband Turned Daddy...

For my wonderful husband...

What a week we've had huh? Seems like so long ago I was complaining so much about her being late and now here we are a week in to this parenting thing. 

I need you to know how much I appreciate and love you. You were an amazing husband throughout my pregnancy and have transitioned into parenthood with me amazingly as well. I truly do not know what I would do without you. 

Thank you for being my strength and support during labor. You were a great coach. (Sorry if I bruised your hand from squeezing it so hard.) Again, I could not have done it without you. I will forever treasure the moment they handed Eloise to me and sharing that experience with you. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. 

You already are such a great daddy and I look forward to all the fun and excitement that lay ahead. It will not be easy, but just knowing that we are doing it together brings me relief and comfort. 

I love that you take great pride in your swaddling expertise. Eloise loves being snug as a bug. I love that you have supported my thoughts on cloth diapers and that you have become a pro at changing them. (Even if she fills one as soon as you've changed it.) I love that you take care of things around the house now that it seems I'm forever summoned to the rocking chair to feed our growing daughter. You have no idea how much stress for me is avoided because of that. 

You are a wonderful husband and an amazing father. I'm so blessed to share my life with you and now to be blessed to share this wonderful, incredible, beautiful daughter we call Eloise. I love you.

Prayer Update

All went so well at the cardiologist yesterday! The arrhythmia is completely gone. The cardiologist told us we don't need to bring her back. She is doing perfectly!

Thank you all for all of your prayers. Blogging has been such a huge blessing for me and our family to know that we have so many friends and loved ones supporting us. Thank you.

More updates and pics to come...

World, meet Eloise...

In. Love.
In. Awe.
Incredible.

Words are not enough to describe what this little person has done to my heart. Eloise Margaret Klemsz has blessed this family in so many ways in just a weeks time. Just look at this face...

Eloise Margaret was born on March 17, 2011 at 1:14am. She weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces and was 19.5 beautiful, perfect inches long. She is one week old today and is doing great. She loves to eat. Loves it. She is a great sleeper. She makes some silly faces when her tummy is full or when she's got gas. I just love to hold her close to my face and talk to her. She seems to enjoy it, too. Her sneezes are absolutely adorable. What can I say, I'm smitten.

Ok, enough talking for now, how about some pictures...

 Mommy was so overwhelmed with what just happened and was so happy that she was finally here. Labor and delivery went very well. I tried going without an epidural but after my water broke and the 2 and a half hours of contractions that followed I said sign me up! Because of the arrhythmia Eloise has, they had to put electrodes on her head to monitor her heart instead of just having the monitor wrapped around my belly. This prevented me from being able to labor in the whirlpool which was going to be what I tried instead of the epidural. She was pretty stubborn when the pushing began. Took about an hour and 45 minutes and Dr. Swanson literally made it in the nick of time. He wasn't in the room 30 seconds when I shouted "she's coming and I'm not pushing!" And then there she was. Beauty.

 One of the most amazing things about becoming a mommy is watching your husband become a daddy. I've discovered more and more ways to love him as I see him in his new role. Here he is enjoying some 'skin to skin' time with Eloise.

 Eloise did pretty good with her first bath at the hospital. She loved being under the warmers.

 Daddy is a swaddling machine!

 Sleeping beauty.

 London LOVED his baby cousin. He loved to hold her and sing to her. Absolutely precious.

 Full baby belly face. 

 Love.

 She doesn't quite know what to think about her car seat yet. 

 We've already been able to see how much Eloise loves music. She loves to be sung to and loves her musical puppy and giraffe. 

 Kissable face. 

 Chatting with Mommy. One of her "gassy" faces.

 Mommy love. 

 She seems to enjoy her bouncy chair. 

 Bath time with Daddy. 

 Daddy taught her the touchdown pose. 

 Sweet face. 

 Cloth diapering is going great. And she's just adorable in them!

 Happy baby.

 Those eyes. 

 Eloise. 

 Eloise loves her daddy. 

So that's where we are after this week of being parents. I have so much I want to blog about, but time is a little crazy right now. I promise I will do all that I can to get new pictures and updates up at least once a week. 

One thing you can continue to pray for Eloise for is her heart. The arrhythmia is still there (last checked on Monday). We have an appointment this afternoon with the cardiologist to have another EKG done. Eloise hates having this test done and this will be the fourth one. They've had various specialists look at it and they all seem to say the same thing, that they aren't worried, but they want to keep an eye on it. I just pray that it would be resolved and healed so that we can put our mind at ease and so she doesn't have to continue to have these tests done. Everything else health wise is going great. She gained back up to her birth weight plus an ounce just 4 days after she was born. The pediatrician said everything looks awesome. And it feels awesome. To be a mom. To be completely in love with this bundle. To have an amazing husband by my side. 

I. Am. Blessed.

-4

Negative four. That's where we are at in this countdown till baby girl arrives. I'm sorry she's making so many of you wait, but trust me, no one is waiting harder than her daddy and I.

I think these days that go by without her here are depressing me. I'm probably one of the most upbeat, sunny-side, positive-attitude people I know. One who tries to make everyday count and worth something. But I feel like each day and night that passes without any sign of labor starting, I feel like I've wasted a day. I hate that I'm not living life to the fullest at this point because I know something is missing. I'm in "the land between" and am having a hard time understanding what God is trying to teach me through this period of waiting.

I have realized and been thankful for many things at this point. I'm so thankful that our baby girl has made it full term and we have no reason to believe she won't be healthy and perfect. God has given her this time for her heart to get as strong as it can. I'm so thankful that I've remained healthy during this entire pregnancy and for the most part feel great, even being past my due date.

That being said, I really am ready to go. I mean really. Like I said, I don't know why God is having us wait, but I just dread thinking that there's going to be another day without her. I have thoroughly enjoyed being pregnant, but now I'm ready for that reward. Everything is ready and everyone is waiting!

Friday was my last day of work, hoping that she would have come this weekend. Today was my first day of having twelve weeks off! I'm so looking forward to it, but would prefer that most of those days I'd be sharing with my daughter. We'll see what tomorrow brings I suppose. Beware the Ides of March...

Patience Over Pineapple

So I've reached another point of my life where I'm learning (unsuccessfully) the art of patience. I hate that I haven't even reached my official due date yet and for some reason I expected her to be here already. I'll admit that the past week or so I've become more and more uncomfortable so that seems to help with me being ready for the pregnancy part of this journey to be over with.

I've been reading different articles of self-inducing tips and I'll admit, I've tried a couple already. Today I read a new one - eating fresh pineapple to induce contractions. Hmmm. Sounds easy (and delicious). Why not give it a try? I headed a different way home from work so I could swing by the grocery store. But before I got there, I thought to myself, "Wow, Erica. Really? You think pineapple is going to solve this "problem" of yours wanting your baby to come now!?" How selfish and impatient I've been. Once again I find myself praying to God what I want and what I want NOW! It's so easy to pray for what we want rather than praying that God would teach us and mold us through whatever situation we find ourselves in.

I remember learning patience waiting for when I could take a pregnancy test. And learning more when the tests were negative. Not to mention the entire length of pregnancy you ultimately are waiting to bring your child into the world. This won't be the last time in my life that patience is learned.

I turned around before I got to the grocery store. Realizing that if it is God's time for baby girl to come today, He'll make that happen. And He doesn't need pineapple to help Him achieve this.

It doesn't change the fact that I really am so incredibly excited for this to happen. And God knows that. But God also knows when and why and I trust Him.

Well, we'll see if this babe will be born on her Auntie's birthday tomorrow (the 8th). I'll welcome it! And if not, well there's always the 9th... ; )