It’s hard to believe it’s only been six days since our little girl was born! It has been such an exciting time and I can only imagine what the future holds. We’ve been very fortunate so far; she’s eating great, we’re getting a reasonable amount of sleep, and we’ve had a lot of support.

Yesterday we went for our first car ride, which was quite an adventure. We drove to Nordstrom and Ellie and I waited in the car while Brian went inside. Then we drove to a couple of neighborhoods to scope them out for a potential future residence. Nothing serious yet, but just thought it would be fun to look. Ellie was a champ, but did get hungry along the way and she had a huge bright yellow poo. For those of you without kids, apparently this is a very normal color for newborn poo – fascinating, I know!

This morning we went to our first doctor’s appointment at Ballard Pediatrics, which is incredibly close to our house. Ellie was pretty good there as well and the check up was fantastic. Everything is looking great and Dr. Allen even mentioned that Brian and I looked better than most new parents he sees. That meant a lot to us, as we obviously are not used to this sleep schedule and are learning things every day about our newborn. Ellie grew 1/2 inch to 20.5 inches, which means she’s in the 80th percentile. She also lost a little weight, so now she’s 7 lbs., 11 ounces, in the 75th percentile. Her head circumference is normal, in the 50th percentile.

It’s hard to believe that our baby girl has been here for less than two days now. It’s been a very exciting, surreal couple of days and we’re loving every minute of it.

Wednesday was my last day of work and on Thursday morning I woke up at 7 am with warning signs of labor. We called our midwife, who walked us through the process of when to page her again. I took a bath and about an hour later, started having rhythmic contractions, about 4 minutes apart! They were lasting about 40-60 seconds, so after an hour, Brian paged Erin again. After hearing that things were progressing so quickly, she decided it was time for her to come over. The labor tub was delivered and when Erin arrived at about 10:30 and the contractions were about every three minutes for a minute. At 10:30 I was dilated 3 cm.

Because I took a bath in the morning, there was no hot water for the labor tub. Brian and the team got it heated by about 1:30 and I got in. It felt so much better to get in the tub! I only labored in the tub for about 20 minutes and then about 40 minutes later it was time to push.

Ellie was born at 3:10, about 7 hours after contractions started. It was absolutely an amazing out of body experience. We feel very fortunate that everything went so quickly and so smoothly. Our team of midwives were absolutely fantastic and Brian was the best doula ever! I wish everyone I know could have such an amazing wonderful experience. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw our little daughter come to us and start making noise.

She’s been on the typical eat, get gassy, sleep schedule and we’re adjusting to sleeping on her schedule, which is tough, but definitely worth it. Here are a few pics of our little Eloise Jean Thompson, weighing in at 7 lbs, 14 ouches and measuring 20 inches long.

We’re a little less than a week from our due date now and getting very excited to meet our little chica. I’ve been focusing on relaxation and doing all the right things to get my body ready to deliver this babe.

I’ve done reiki twice in the last month, which has been a very interesting experience. I’ve been feeling really great for the past month and I think this might have something to do with it. I also have gone to acupuncture twice and have gotten my prenatal massages. I know this sounds like I’m very spoiled and I know I do have it good, but I really do recommend this for all you pregnant gals out there! And my recommendation is to keep your eyes out for some good LivingSocial or Gilt Local deals so you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to pamper yourself at the end of your pregnancy.

The other things our midwife recommended are primrose oil caps and raspberry red leaf tea. I have yet to purchase the latter, but am hoping to do so this weekend.

Last Sunday I realized all of a sudden that Ellie had dropped. Monday we went to our appointment and I was measuring SMALLER than before; my belly went from 40 cm to 38.5, so now I’m right on track again! I’ve been trying to be a bit more active, doing a half an hour or so on the elliptical while watching Today Show clips about Whitney Houston (ok, that was just yesterday) and going for walks when the weather cooperates.

I’ve got three more days of work left, assuming she doesn’t come early and those days are really packed with meetings. I’m going to miss seeing my coworkers everyday, but probably not as much as I’m going to love every minute of being with Ellie and Brian!

A few weeks ago we also had another baby celebration with the Eastside Crew, so I wanted to post a pic from that very fun evening. Thanks to everyone for throwing such a wonderful get together!