What a Girl Wants

It has now been two months since the bambina has entered our lives and she has become pretty good at communicating what she wants (and doesn't want!) with us. For example we know she wants:

to lay on her changing pad and chit chat with anyone who will listen,

to go swimming whenever possible,

to sit like a big girl,

to have a comfortable place to rest,

to be silly,

to spend hours playing,

to share secrets and naps with her bestie,

to coordinate her outfits,

and to discuss celebrity gossip with her aunt.

However, she does not care for:

being dressed in a huge, puffy (and I assume itchy) dress for her baptism,

being shoved into her car seat in the same huge, puffy dress for the long (5 minute) ride to church,

the first dip,

being dressed like a nerd (eww, Mom, it looks like I tucked my shirt into my jeans!),

or wearing the adorable, hot pink, baby flip-flops that Mommy carefully selected and pictured her wearing while traipsing about town on our errands, accepting compliments left and right from passersby.  In fact, she rejects all shoes, which might be part of the reason she is screaming in her baptism photos...hmm.

But one thing for which I am grateful is that no matter what, sometimes all a girl wants is her Mommy.

Happy two-month-day Baby Girl!  We are so glad you came along!

Just to See You Smile

Check out the most beautiful smile of the world!

I think it is safe to say our world currently revolves around doing things to make the babes smile.  You should see us standing over her changing table making goofy noises and faces.  She even makes little cooing noises sometimes, which I believe to be precursors to a laugh or even a squeal of delight!  Our favorite game right now is sticking our tongue out.  I will do it to her, she looks at me with her signature quizzical eyebrow raise, then will study it and carefully move her mouth around and finally...pop her little tongue out too!  Which of course causes me to smile and dole out copious amounts of praise which in turn makes her smile.  Then the whole process starts again.  Good times :).

I was hoping to keep the blog updated more often, but it turns out having a baby is totally a time sucker.  And when we finally get into the groove of things a bit my sister comes home for a visit and the Olympics start!  Speaking of which, I believe I hear some women's synchronized diving calling my name.  So I guess this is all I have time to write about for now.  I will leave you with a few shots of what we have been up to lately.  Happy Olympics everyone!

 Being a Communist dictator

 Playing so hard we fall asleep

 Keeping it cool

 Loving Mommy

 Snuggling up next to Daddy

And, as always, being a little diva.

Rollin' with My Homies

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a rolling baby on our hands!

May I present to you, the rolling stylings of Ms. Elliot Noelle:

I realize our actions border on Toddlers-in-tiaras-esque, but we just want her to be the roller we always wanted to be.  Just kidding.  No babies were harmed in the making of this video.

I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!

Girlfriend is 3 weeks old today!  And so far I find her to be quite lovable :).  There are hundreds of things I love about her, with more to add to the list each day.  But, for the sake of maintaining my readers, I have whittled it down to a top 10 list, in no particular order.  I will include pictures of each lovable action if I can find them.  

Reminder: I am a first-time mommy.  If these are things all babies do, just smile and nod and let me believe my baby is exceptional.

1. On some days, if the mood hits right, I can convince her to cuddle with me on the couch.  We stay there for hours and it is heaven.

2. She almost always sneezes in twos.  It has gotten to the point that when she sneezes we just wait for the other one to follow.  (Not pictured - it is really hard to capture a sneeze, plus, how would we show two?!)

3. Her default position is to have her legs crossed at the ankles, like a true lady.  This was also her default position in the womb.

4. She sucks her thumb, but instead of closing the rest of her fingers while sucking she just leaves them all up and touches her face.  Related to this, when she gets over-stimulated or stressed out she spreads her fingers wide and touches her face.  It is heartbreakingly adorable.

5. She is not bothered by dogs.  She took to Toast right away and has made multiple furry friends since her arrival.

6. Even though she can be difficult to take when she cries, her little wailing face is so cute that sometimes I can't help but laugh out loud.  

7. She is a very curious little girl.  When she can fight back the urge to sleep or eat or cry, she is always taking in her surroundings.

8.  She folds her hands, as if in prayer.  Sometimes they are perfectly laced up and sometimes there is an extra finger where it shouldn't be, but either way it appears that she is thanking God for her food :).

9.  She is a frantic eater.  She attacks her food like a shark in chummy waters.  At the hospital the nurse even commented on how crazy she gets when going in for the goods.  (We are breastfeeding, so for obvious reason, this is not pictured!)

10.  She is a great sport, putting up with all kinds of new parent nonsense.  Sometimes her facial expression says, "someone save me from these two fools!"

Ok, I guess that is all I will talk about.  As I was writing this I kept thinking of more and more things that we love about the babes.  But I think you get the idea.  We love her.  Everything she does is adorable.  Best. Baby. Ever.

Worth the Wait

 I am pleased to announce the arrival of Elliot Noelle Rammelsberg!

Born June 10 at 10:43 a.m.

8 lbs. 7.5 oz.

21.5 inches 

And as the title suggests, she was definitely worth the wait :).

This is just going to be a short blurb, with a few pictures because, well, I had a baby 5 days ago.  I am quite tired and frankly would rather spend time with my itty bitty bundle of joy than my computer.  I promise to do a bigger photo dump at a later date.

To make a long story short, my water broke Saturday morning and we were pretty sure a baby was coming right away.  God had other plans.  After being in labor for 26 hours, fully dilated for most of them, the doctor determined baby's head was too big for my pelvis and would not be able to pass through.  So, devastated, I went through with the c-section.  I say devastated because illogically I felt like a failure for being unable to do it naturally.  This is silly because the c-section went extremely well and since I was completely exhausted after such a long labor it was a relief to have someone else do the work for me in a procedure that seemed to only take minutes (I'm sure it was longer, but it didn't feel that way).  As it turns out, it didn't matter in the end how she got here, just that she did safely and healthily.  She is perfect and I am healing up remarkably well considering I had abdominal surgery five days ago and have been caring for a newborn since then :).

Here is a brief glimpse of what we have been up to:

Bonding

Meeting our grandparents and great grandparents (Grandma and Grandpa Rammelsberg not pictured even though they have met.  I just couldn't find the pictures for some reason.)

Making our first best friend

Becoming daddy's little girl

and learning what it is to be a lady of leisure

As you can see, we have been quite busy.  Now please excuse me while I get back to figuring out how to be a mommy.

Hello Due Date!

And good-bye due date!  Thanks for stopping by.

Well, the impossible has happened.  Not only have I made it to my due date, even if I went into labor right this second she likely would not be born until tomorrow.  I was so sure she was going to be early!  And when she wasn't I figured she was going to be exactly on time.  Wishful thinking... Apparently, she is like her mama and has a tendency to run a little late.  Not only is she not here yet, she has not made any indication whatsoever of her intentions to come out today.  Last Thursday we had a dress rehearsal (false alarm or dress rehearsal? Jury's still out...) because I had contractions 4-7 minutes apart for over an hour, only to discover that I wasn't even dilated (until right before we left the hospital when I was at a 1!), and since then I have been having them on and off, usually in the middle of the night.  But today, nothing!  We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so hopefully by then we will know a little more.

So what have I been doing all this time you ask?  Being SOOO bored.  It turns out waiting for a baby is the most boring thing a girl can do because a) you are so excited for the baby to come it is hard to focus on other things and b) even when you can focus on other things you either do not have the energy to do them or your feet get too swollen right in the middle of doing them and you have to stop.  So I have been spending my days reading, taking naps, working on the baby book, watching Netflix, and playing old school Nintendo.  Erik and I just discovered Yoshi's Cookie and it is good for at least a few hours of entertainment per day.  Erik has been studying for his nursing test and applying for jobs, so during those times I have to find ways to entertain myself.  Today, in an effort to relieve my boredom, my Mom took me out to lunch and then on some errands.  It was preggo's choice, so we went to Zips.  I had a hankering for some fried food, don't judge.  Then, in an effort to get labor going, Erik and I took Toast on a long walk.  So far it hasn't worked and now my back is killing me and my feet are huge!!

That is what I have been up to.  And I know what all of you hard-working blog readers are thinking: "I would love to have that kind of free time!  Why is she complaining?!"  You are absolutely right.  And although I complain, I am also incredibly grateful to have all this time to rest and hang out with Erik before our little couple becomes a family of three.  I also really enjoy all the sleeping in!  But I am just really excited to meet her, and let's face it, there is a maximum capacity in this belly and we have reached it!  I am now too big for even Erik's t-shirts...which is why I will save you all from the shameless belly shot.

Hopefully you all are having a lovely Baby Ramm due date day.  Hopefully next time we talk I will be showing you pictures of my sweet baby girl!