The Bucket...

Many of you know about my living arrangements and for those of you who don't, there is NO bath tub! One of mommys friends found the perfect solution, the bucket bath. This video is for all of you skeptics out there. I LOVE my bucket, it reminds me of being nice and cozy pre-birth. This is now part of my new nightly routine as mom and dad are searching for some sort of schedule, ok mostly my type A mom. My routine starts with a bottle, then the bucket, next a baby message, then a book and finally some time rocking in my chair. So far this new routine has contibuted many sweet dreams for me and my parents.

Stella's Firsts

So I'm six weeks old now and have already accomplished quite a few things:
- Slept through the night
- Took a bath
- Had a diaper blowout
- Went on a road trip to Cleveland
- Went on a road trip to Toledo
- Rolled over (mommy thinks daddy helped me, but I did it all on my own!)
- Shopped at Nordstrom
- Went out to breakfast at Echo with mom and dad
- Rode a two-wheeler (just kidding)
- Smiled at mommy when she made funny noises with her tongue
- Had the sniffles
- Forgot to go to my one month doctor's appointment
- Played in the snow
- Met a cute older boy and let him hold me
Mom and dad are hoping that "slept in my crib" is the next thing to add to the list, but I really like sleeping in my lamb seat for now. Here are some more pictures!

All my apologies for taking so much time off between blog postings... Looking back at my old posts, it's funny to see what I was writing about on December 13th. I mean, I'm a month old now.. twice as old now as I was then. I don't want to use all of my stories and material on my first blog back, but I'll give you a quick summary of what you've missed and here are some pics of me in my Christmas gear.
First, Gigi and Pops came to town, we celebrated Christmas early, and opened up some presents! Then, Mom, Dad, and I went on an extended vacation to Noanie and Papa Jeff's. It was nice to get out of the apartment but for some reason it wasn't the first vacation I had envisioned. I was thinking beach and I got Toledo. That's okay.. we still had fun.
All of mom and dad's friends showed up to meet me the very same night we arrived. There are so many perks being the first baby born to both sets of grandparents and of all of my parents' friends. I am a hot ticket. I am in demand. People buy me stuff and want to hold me. It feels good to be loved.
I met a lot of my dad's crazy family on Christmas Eve and now I know where Aunt Jenny learned how to (or how not to) control the volume of her voice. I don't think there were ever less than 5 people talking at the same time and somehow they all understand each other. Aunt Jenny also helped out when I took my first real bath and was always around to help take pictures of my pretty face.
On Christmas Day, Santa found us in Toledo and we got to open presents. Uncle Joe and Aunt Jeana stayed over night and both of them practiced on me so they can get ready for their baby who is due in July!! I can't wait to have a little cousin who I can show the ropes to and cause trouble with.
Then we went out to a Japanese steakhouse for dad's birthday and I was such a good girl sitting in my pumpkin seat while they ate. The waitress thought mom looked so good for just having a baby, she asked her "where you fit her?" Everyone thought that was really funny.
After that, Noanie and Papa Jeff went on a trip to Florida and I helped mom and dad make sure that Uncle Jake didn't have a New Year's Eve party. He's such a rascal, but he was good at making me stop crying when nobody else could.
Finally, we got kicked out and had to come back to Cincinnati. That's okay though. I haven't been back here in what feels like a lifetime. Stay tuned for my next post.

My Second Week

What a big week at home! We went to the doctor and I gained almost a whole pound since I left the hospital. I keep both of my eyes open now instead of just one. I have been learning how to use my hands to scratch myself. I love to move my legs around and don't like being swaddled anymore. I'm learning to hold me neck up already. Unfortunately, I also picked up a few bad habits this week. I decided I like sleeping in my bouncy seat instead of my Moses basket and I really like falling asleep in mom's arms. Noanie came this week to help my mom take care of me so my dad could get some sleep and study for exams. Sometimes when I am ornery, dad tells me about the classes he's taking and it puts me right to sleep. Law school sounds boring. I turned two weeks old yesterday and we celebrated by going to a holiday party. It was a lot of fun and everybody thought I looked really cute in my little red holiday party dress. Today we are going to the grocery store. After dad finishes finals on Tuesday, Christmas vacation starts and we're going to get out into the hustle and bustle. I need to finish my holiday shopping and maybe pick up a little something for myself.

Big City Visitors

What a fun first weekend at home! First, Great Aunt Becky, Whitney, and Peyton stopped by on Saturday to meet me (they wanted to take me home with them). And Aunt Julia and Uncle Andy came and visited from New York and helped my mom and dad out. I can't believe how many relatives I have and something tells me there are a lot more that I haven't met yet. Aunt Julia is really good at helping me go to the bathroom. Every time she held me I took a nice big loud dump just to let her know how happy I was that she came. And Uncle Andy cooked mom and dad some delicious pasta and soup. Hopefully I was a good girl and made a good impression because I really want a cousin to visit in New York!

My Video Debut

Aunt Jenny and Uncle Jacob stopped by tonight to hang out with me.. check out the video!

My First Few Days

This blogging stuff is soooo much easier from outside of the womb. I don't want to get into the gross details, but there were some things about trying to type from inside there that were a little complicated.
By now, some of you have heard the story that mom and dad went Christmas shopping at midnight madness on black Friday in an effort to induce labor. And it worked. But that's not the whole story. A few months back, mom and dad were talking about the ideal day for me to arrive and settled on November 28th because it was after Thanksgiving, still in November, and on the weekend so everyone could come visit without hassle. As the first born granddaughter on both sides of the family, I didn't want to disappoint so I made it happen.
Mom started having really bad contractions on Friday night at about 8 and by 2am dad called the doctor for some advice. He told them to get to the hospital, but when we showed up and after walking around the 3rd floor for an hour, nothing was happening other than mom being in a lot of pain. So, the nurse gave her two Ambien, smacked her on the butt, and sent her on her way. Apparently the Ambien was supposed to knock out the pain if it was false labor. But if it was real labor, the nurse said "she will know it." By 10am, she knew it. Back at the hospital, the laps around the 3rd floor started working and mom was 5cm at around 1pm. That was good news, because it meant the epidural could be administered and the worst pain of mom's life was over.
By 6pm Saturday night, the doctor showed up and it was time for mom to start pushing me out the slide. It was not fun. I got smushed. I could not breathe. I was covered in goo. I turned purple. But I clean up nice. At 7:59 I arrived and by 8:30, I was already looking good.
After a lot of time meeting crazy aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas and a great grandpa, we wanted to leave the hospital. The doctor said I was ready to go and we were home Monday at 4, less than 48 hours after I graced the world with my presence. Since we've been home, I've been doing a good job eating and napping and thanks to help from Grandma Ellen, my mom and dad have gotten some sleep too. Tomorrow I go to the doctor for my first checkup.
Now that I'm on the outside, you can expect more regular blog postings so make sure to keep checking!