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.