Ellie Meets Real Life

We're on Day 4 now and starting to move toward some sort of routine. Crystal and I are both most comfortable in a groove so there's a natural inclination to search for a basic pattern for life. I'm not sure that's exactly conducive to life with a newborn, but it's a beginning.

The first item on the agenda is figuring out how to eat. We're primarily interested in how Ellie gets her daily caloric intake, which is mainly in Crystal's court. Fortunately there are books (and the web, of course). But even more helpful is the community midwife system. A midwife comes by the home each day for the first week or two after delivery to check-up on things. Ellie seems to be much more compliant when the midwife is watching (and working her magic) with latching-on, not falling asleep during feeding and not wailing so much that she loses focus on the goal. No matter how desperate things seem, we can always rest on the fact that the midwife will be here again soon!

Of course, Ellie's not the only one who has to eat around here. So Rob tried out the Snugli today while making his peanut butter sandwich. Though eating said sandwich was delayed for awhile because another Ellie-admirer (and gift-bringer, thanks Andy and Louise!) showed up mid-sandwich.

Another daily necessity is email, especially with those wonderful, supportive notes that you've all been sending and that we hope to respond to before Ellie gets to kindergarten! It won't be long before she starts trying to pound the keyboard herself, but for now we can conveniently hold her while writing to y'all. (I read a funny story recently of someone's young child who was randomly playing with the mouse and managed to buy a few items with Amazon's one-click ordering system before daddy noticed). I'll hold off before teaching her the finer points of Java programming.

Well, I know you didn't come here to see pictures of Crystal and me, so here are a few of our lovely lady herself. These final two are from a minute-long video that helps capture Ellie's personality better than still pictures can. Click on the left image to see a lower quality version that's more appropriate for dial-up connections. Click on the right image for a higher quality version. For those still in the dark ages, may this be one more reason for upgrading to broadband!

lower-quality video (320kb)

higher-quality video (3.7mb)