Three Month Update - Finally....

Well, first an apology to my mother for not getting this out sooner. Life has been full of work, chores, cookouts, football games, more chores, and of course keeping little Elle happy (it is getting easier...). Before I forget I would like to get a congrats out to Corey and Dana Poturalski. They will be entering the world of no sleep. Have fun....

Ellie is now 3 1/2 months old. Everyone asks if it seems like time has flown by. I tell them it feels like Ellie should be 7 months old by now. However it has been a great 7 months, I mean 3 1/2 months. You learn a bunch and at a very fast pace. You learn that there are very little things that can make you laugh, smile, and make you happy. A smile or giggle (yes she does giggle a bit) from Ellie, a new behavior that she has learned, or the best, sleeping for 6-7 hours straight. Although I do have to comment, because I would be in grave danger if I did not, that Stacy takes charge at night. Stacy gets up with Ellie. Feeds her and gets her back to sleep. She is a pro now. I appreciate more than she knows. I do try to help on the weekends, but I sometimes disrupt the pattern they have. Ellie has begun to "talk". She has her own mumbles and chatter. I cracks me up.

We just had a first professional pictures. Ellie was great. She did not smile as much as we would have liked, but we were very pleased with the outcome. We will be getting those out to those who would like some. Beware though...patience is essential. Anyone who knows us know that we are not the quickest on getting these types of things out. I believe Stacy is still working on getting the thank you's out for the baby showers. We will get them out though.

Anyways, here are the new picts. Enjoy.

In all her glory. I think she cried though after the OSU game.


Her facial expressions expand everyday.

Gotta love the hat.

She has a tendency to suck on her bottom lip.

She loves to watch Baby Einstein. Corey...start the collections now!

We did go up to Interlochen, MI for a wedding two weeks ago. I wanted to get some pictures in of the cabin that we stayed in. To say the least, it was incredible. Newly built in 2007, it sits on Duck Lake. Has a huge fire place. All wood inside and out. Pretty cool. We will definitely be there again. It is kind of hard to see, but the entire counter there in the kitchen is one piece of wood.

The kitchen.


The view...

More News From the Farm

Well I know you all know about Ellie. And I know that I need to upload more pictures. My mom has been doing a great job on her website, better than me. BUT, there started to be some jealously around the house with the animals. I think that were going to start a revolution if I did not mention them and get some picts up. Most of you have met the crew. However there was an addition to the chaos on Tuesday. We saw a dog at the local store (via the Animal Shelter). We saw him on Friday and talked about it over the weekend. We said that if he was still there come Monday or Tuesday, we would try him out. Cutter (our lab) gets lonely and we felt he needed a friend. One that would tire him out. Needless to say we picked up Sam on Tuesday. He has been pretty good so far. They wore each other out pretty good an Tuesday. The dogs have been behaving pretty well. It did not take long for Sam to "respect" the invisible fence. Cutter is loving the exercise. They both stay in the barn at night and do not seem to mind it. Anyways...here are a couple of pictures of the motley crew.

The cat in all her glory.

Cutter hanging out.

Sam just getting home.

He is pretty cute. We were told that he was part Lab, part Retriever. But we think he might have a little boxer or pitbull in him. Not sure.

Some, Not a Bunch...

Short and to the point. Three months old already...Holy Smokes...

Boy, How Quick They Change!

Well Ellie is now almost 11 weeks old. "They" say that everything changes at 3 months old, so we are getting there, not quick enough. Although I have to say things are getting easier as the days go by. She can somewhat entertain herself. She is sleeping better, although not last night... She seems like she is getting more into a pattern. I have the great pleasure to do some babysitting tonight. Stacy has to go to a meeting. Stacy has been trying to work at home and at the same time take care of Elliott. She is doing a way better job than I would. She is a great multi-tasker. We went to the doctors about two weeks ago and she was weighing in around 10 lbs (I think, probably need to remember these things).

I have been trying to remember to take more pictures. Most of the time I forget. I get home from work and get going on our "pattern" of food, taking care of Ellie (somewhat) while Stacy gets some work done, then sleep. So not much time for (or time to think about) pictures. But here are a couple of shots taken in the past couple of days. Enjoy.

Just after getting her diapers changed.

Concentrating on a "movement"....

I had to get one of her crying. Seems like all the pictures that we download of Ellie is of her smiling and being happy. Well believe it or not, she is not always that way, especially when she gets into her car seat.

Dazed and Confused

She loves her baths. And loves to have a warm blanket to wrap up in (Stacy insists on putting the blanket in the dryer before Ellie gets out of the tub).

More Updates and Pictures Soon, I Promise.

I have been trying to get Stacy to join the "excitement" of adding to our blog site. I think she has been busy, not sure what with.....

Anyways, I will be downloading some more pictures soon. It seems like our/my free time has dissappeared. From working, playing with Ellie, trying to keep the yard/barn cleaned, and battling bats (yes we have had a vistor last week), my time is spoken for.

Some updates (text version) regarding our little girl. She has been doing well. It is amzing how quick they change and how they start notincing things. Ellie seems to be getting the hang of how a 24 Hr time period works. The sleep pattern is becomgin just that, more of a pattern.

I do have to run, should have started this entry a bit sooner. More will come I promise.

I do want to instert one picture. Just made me smile (because it is true...)

OK, OK, OK......

This time no captions...seems people just like to look at the pictures.

I guess this would be her one month pictures. People ask if the first month has flown by. This is my answer. If you take it as a whole and look back, it has gone very fast. BUT...if you take it night by night at 200am-400am, it sometimes feels like she should be a teenager by now.

One side note, the other cute little baby in the picture is Ellie's cousin Owen (Stacy's brother Doug's son). We had a pretty eventful weekend up at Silver Lake this past weekend. Thanks again to Neil and Katie (and Katie's parents) for the hospitality. Again, some of my costumers asked if I had a relaxing weekend...? Well, it was fun and the weather was beautiful. However on the weekends I get to wake up and take my turn with Ellie. So it seems like I took a couple more naps than normal this weekend.

Anyways enough with the boring chatter, bring on the princess...

Happy Days...

Not so happy days with Great Grandma...



One of the peaceful moments of the day.




The face that says I am not awake yet.





She loves to lay on her stomach.

Things with Ellie are going well. We recently learned about overfeeding and its affect on a baby's mood/behavior. If you overfeed, you get a very fussy baby. one that does not want to sleep. After Stacy went to the doctors, they told her that Ellie was getting too much food and that she was getting 'gassy' (aka very uncomfortable). So I think we figured everything out and everyone is getting a bit more sleep.

One grandma is leaving today. My mom was up for the past couple of days and was a huge help. Andrew and Faith came up. Hopefully they had a good time. Faith discovered electricity. Not a big fan of the shock collar.

We still appreciate every ones help that we have been getting. One of these days we are going to have get everyone together that helped (move, work, babysit, ect) and have a big cook out to show our appreciation.

We'll keep you updated....

Without the "binky"

A bit more....

I am going to keep putting pictures up until she gets embarrassed by them.

Everyone is still doing well. Although the only one in the house that is still trying to figure out what all this new noise is coming from is the Hooker (aka the cat for those that are not aware of the other "princess") The cat takes off like a bat out of hell when Ellie begins to tell us that she is not too happy. Pretty funny to see a cat take off up stairs in a state of confusion. Ellie has her moments of complete breakdown like she hasn't eaten in weeks. The nights are OK. I cannot complain to much. Stacy has been amazing. She does very well soothing Ellie at night when she gets fussy. Ellie can sleep for 3 Hrs at a time, which gives everyone a bit of a rest.

We go to the doctors today to find out if she is gaining weight. Cross our fingers.

More pictures, per popular request (Mom)

Well I was told by some people that we need to keep the pictures going. We are still having to adjust to our new sleeping schedule. For instance, I was unaware of the persistance a four day old baby can keep a scream going. A set of lungs that girl has.

We had the first doctors appointment yesterday. It was a pretty quick visit. A quick weight check (6 Lbs 8 Oz) and an officail length of 19 3/4". We go in on Thursday to see if she is gaining some pounds (she is eating like horse so things should be working out).

Here are some more picts:

I had to get one in of our original crew

You can tell when she is nice and full.

Trying out the new toys.

Ejoying a quick clean.

More Pictures.

I wanted to get some more pictures out. We have been very busy with the "adjustment" of our schedules. I have been able to get some pictures in here and there. Stacy is still recovering from the past couple of days. She is coming around though. Soon she will be sipping back Cosmos and feeling normal again. Here are some pictures of the past couple of days (sort of backwards, still getting used to this blog site).


Finally Leaving

At peace, peace that is few and far between....

Stacy, Elliott and my grandmother (now a great-grandmother)

An hour or so after surgery.

I wanted to get some more pictures up. I have had a little free time here and there to take pictures of the little one. Stacy is still recovering from the past couple of days. She is coming around. Soon she will be herself again. She is looking forward to a cosmo. Well here are some more pictures of the past couple of days.

Clarification...

I was wrong. After talking with Stacy, I realized that I spelled Elliott's name wrong. Two 'T's instead of one.

What a Day!

It is 948pm on a Thursday. We are sitting in the mother/baby room experiencing our new addition to the farm. It was an amazing day(s). I will give the cliff note version of the past 26 Hrs. Everything started last night at 7pm. We went into Sparrow to see if an inducement would get things going. And boy did they! The short of it was at 800pm we were at a 1. After some treatment and time (like 4am) we were at a 4 and things were booming. Booming to the point that and hour and a half later we were at a 6! I cannot say how much pain there exactly was, but I could tell that Stacy was not digging this whole thing. We finally got into the labor room and things were still going. Stacy received more treatment and the waiting game was on.

I will let Stacy take it from there (when she gets back to feeling normal). But, at 125pm on Thursday the 3rd of July we introduced Elliot Jo Lynn Byers to the world. Let me say a pretty intense day! Whipped everyone's ass. She came in at 7.1 ounces and 21 and a half inches (with a pretty crooked head).

The main purpose of this post is that I wanted to get some of the pictures posted.

Right after she was born.

Some eye drops...

And the crooked head....

Couple's Shower

We had the couple shower yesterday at Nathan and Kelly Hude's house. It was a great time and we appreciate all that everyone did. From organizing to the food, everything was amazing. We would like to thank all those that came out (even if there were some that were feeling under the weather). Great time playing CornHole.

The presents that we received were just perfect. The diapers and wipes are those presents that are not glamorous, but are probably the most useful. Elliot will definitely "use" everyone of those things.

Again thanks to all those that came out. We are looking forward to a great summer. Very busy.....

Doug

Intro

Stacy

I know that you do not have all the free time in the world, but I thought that it would be useful to start recording the life we once knew and comparing it to the life we will have when our family adds one more girl. I will try to add to the blog as much as possible. Hope that you have a great birthday! I love you.