Blessed

 This past Sunday Ella was blessed at Kyle's parent's church in Fort Worth. Almost all the important men in Ella's life were able to stand in the circle and add their spirit and love to the blessing: Kyle, my dad, Kyle's dad, my brother Chris, both of Kyle's brothers and Kyle's brother-in-law. The only uncle missing was my little brother--and he had a pretty good excuse considering he's in California on his mission!

Kyle gave Ella a beautiful blessing, where he said, among other things, that she would be a beacon of light to those around her. When my brother sat down, he turned to me and said, she is so beautiful Liz and the spirit was so strong in that circle. 
I am very grateful for all of our families love and support for our little daughter and I am so incredibly grateful to have her, precious Ella, she has already added so much light to my life!

My family
Dad, mom, my brother Chris, my sister-in-law Amanda and my grandma Ilene

All the guys who participated in the blessing
My brother Chris, Kyle's brothers Jeff and Scott, Kyle's brother-in-law Jason
Kyle's Dad Victor, Kyle & Ella, and my Dad

Newborn Photos

My friend Sarah, who took my maternity photos, captured some adorable newborn photos of little Ella when she was 8 days old. This was definitely not the typical sleepy newborn shoot. Ella was awake and squirmy almost the entire time, so some of the shots we had in mind didn't work out.

But even with a wiggly baby, Sarah caught some great moments! I'm gonna be honest though at 8 days post birth I still felt like crap, was going on no sleep, and didn't really fit into my old clothes yet but I refused to wear maternity clothes for the shoot! So I don't necessarily love how I look in the pictures, BUT I am still so happy we caught this newborn time in photos! Especially since Ella has already grown and changed so much since these were taken. My favorites might be the pictures of Kyle and his little girl--so sweet, I love them!!

Here's some of the beautiful pictures:

One Month

We made it through Ella's first month of life! To be honest I'm glad it's over, it was rough. But this past week things were a little better, so I'm counting on month 2 to be a great one!

At One Month:

-Ella is still beautiful. Often when I hold her, i'll just stare at her and it takes my breath away a little realizing that this beautiful tiny person is MY daughter. And I'll get to see her grow and learn and progress, and one day she'll call me mom and run to me for comfort when she's scared or hurt...

-BUT she is losing the hair on top of her head, which makes me so sad, and makes her look a little like an old man:(

-Every once in a while she'll laugh in her sleep and it is the cutest thing!

-Still has quite a few feeding issues. Feeding time is the time I dread the most. She almost always becomes extremely fussy while eating and then for some time after. 

-Still in her newborn clothes, but she is starting to fill them out a lot more.

-She is definitely daddy's girl. This little lady loves her daddy and usually calms down better for him than for mommy. It's a good thing Kyle has a month off school during the holidays to spend with us!

-My favorite hobby right now is taking pictures of Ella, and yes all of these pictures are taken in her crib. It has a cute background, the lighting is great and its right next to her changing table, so I put her in a cute outfit and then just right into the crib for a little photo shoot. Here's a few pictures just from the past couple days.

Headbands help disguise her balding head

Ella rocked this Christmas outfit at our ward Christmas party yesterday

Ella Rose

On November 16th we finally welcomed our beautiful daughter Ella Rose Poulsen! Though she was due on Nov 6th, she must have just been too comfortable in my tummy because this little lady did NOT want to come out. I tried pretty much every labor induction trick out there: walking, spicy food, lemon, pineapple, red raspberry leaf tea, sex, evening primrose oil, getting my membranes stripped, castor oil...and while I did have contractions on and off for over a week they just never progressed into active labor. 
So on Nov 15th I was admitted for an induction and after a grueling, painful, traumatic 20 hours of labor (thanks in part to a failed epidural), and one and half hours of pushing, our daughter made her grand entrance on Nov 16th at 12:32pm, a full 10 days past her due date!

She weighed 7lbs 7oz, was 19 and 3/4inches long and boasted an impressive head circumference in the 95th percentile--which caused mom three 3rd degree tears, ouch!

This post is so late in coming, because while Ella is sweet and beautiful and precious, she has also been very challenging, tiring, and difficult. We have had lots of feeding issues, in the beginning Ella was unable to latch thanks to a tongue tie which was snipped when she was just 10 days old, and we've also been dealing with a little reflux which makes for very fussy feedings and sometimes fussy hours after a feeding and very restless sleeping. And thanks to my severe tearing, my recovery has also been very slow and painful. At 3+ weeks out from delivery I can still only stand/walk for about 20mins before it gets very painful, luckily just in the last few days sitting has become more comfortable.

However, despite all the challenges we are very grateful for our darling daughter and the opportunity we have to be her parents, and here are some pictures from Ella's first 3 weeks!

*These pictures are out of order, since blogger makes it so difficult to move them around

25 Days Old

She loves cuddling with Daddy

But she also loves mommy:)

One Week Old

Hanging with her new bunny friend--thanks Lace!

This was at the beginning of my induction--I wasn't smiling for long... 

Shortly after Ella was born

Snug like a bug:)

Daddy and Daughter

5 Days Old

Smiley Girl:)

8 Days Old

First Bath--she loved it! Never cried, just relaxed in the warm water.

Mommy and Ella on Thanksgiving Day

10 Days Old

First Family Photo

Uncle Chris and Aunt Amanda loved snuggling with their new niece

Thanksgiving weekend with Liz's Family

Ella and Grandma Poulsen hanging out

Ella napping on Grandpa Poulsen

Grandma Jenson was a HUGE help to us that first week home from the hospital
and Ella loved having her there!

24 Days Old

And all bundled up for the cold Galveston weather