On the Mend

I guess we never really told anyone outside of family and a couple friends that Eleanor broke her collarbone in delivery. The diagnosis came about a week after she was born. When she was born, the pediatricians that were in the room noticed that she didn't have much movement in her right arm and contributed it to possibly her nerves being stressed. The next few days we noticed that she didn't use her arm all that much, and that her grip in her right hand was definitely not as strong as her left.

At our next Dr.'s appointment, he asked if she had gotten an x-ray at the hospital and said that he believed her collarbone was broken. He said that if it was broken it would heal on it's own and there would be a lump on her bone in the next few days. Sure enough at our next appointment her bone had developed the hard lump. After a couple days of pinning her arm sleeve to her shirt and being careful when we picked her up making sure to not hold her under her arm pits, her arm seems to be getting better. We still have an appointment with a neurologist on Monday, though we don't think it's completely necessary at this point.

Also, Eleanor had broken lots of blood vessels in both eyes when she was born. I guess being a 9 lbs. baby isn't all it's cracked up to be. At almost 3 weeks old she still has a couple broken blood vessels in both eyes, but they're looking a whole lot more clear than the day she was born.



And lastly because her umbilical cord fell off we were able to give her a real bath. These days they suggest that you don't clean the umbilical cord with rubbing alcohol since they say it prolongs the process of it falling off. To me it seemed like the umbilical cord was more grungy and disgusting and smelled funky. It came off in pieces too rather than one solid shriveled up piece. Every day it's looking better and less funky.

Unlike her brother, she hated her first real bath.

This is Ethan in one of his first baths.

She was much more content in the towels, but maybe that's because she pooped through both of them and onto our duvet cover when I took this picture.

And lastly, Ethan's disinterest in Eleanor has been slowly deteriorating. He now will give her a kiss at bedtime, will sit by her without crying out, "I don't want baby Eleanor!", and is still sensitive to her when he hears her crying. For some reason if he hears her crying in her swing, he'll go over to her and apologize saying it's his fault. Not sure why he does that and we try to tell him it's ok for her to cry and it's not his fault, but he insists it is. Sweet boy.

Don't mind the boy pj's on Eleanor. She typically wears girly ones, but man she spits up a lot. She brought it upon herself.

Successfully giving Eleanor her pacifier.

We're on Our Own

Now that reinforcements have left the Mudrick household, I guess it's time to update the blog. We've been busy around here with my parents, my brother Tyler and his wife Summer, my sister Natalie and childhood best friend Lindsey in town over the last few days. Don't worry, not everyone was staying with us, but it was great to have family around that could entertain Ethan for hours on end (and if they couldn't, the trusty iPad could for them). Ethan will sure miss the attention, and we will for sure miss all the help entertaining Ethan and Eleanor holding/snuggling so that we could relax. My angel of a mother even stayed up for 3 hours in the middle of the night with Eleanor crying most of the time so that Ben and I could sleep. At least I know now to stay away from pesto for a while.

Eleanor's 1st visitor, and baby holder extraordinaire.

Yes, we got my Dad to hold a baby. Unbelievable.

Lindsey quickly became known as "Aunt Lindsey" and stole Ethan's heart when she brought him a Buzz Lightyear present and watched Toy Story 3 with him.

Auntie Nattie and baby Eleanor. Not to be upstaged, she brought a stuffed animal elephant from India that had a Buzz Lightyear laser (aka a bindi) on top of it's head!

Since we can't get Ethan to hold Eleanor, this is as close to a family portrait that we have.

Life with 2 kids is going well so far, though I haven't spent more than 2 hours alone with both kiddos, so I guess I'll have to report on that some other time. Ethan doesn't seem super interested in Eleanor, though he does say, "Aww, Eleanor sad... baby Eleanor crying." which makes me believe that he really does love his sister. He will offer her his toys on occasion and her binky, but will not kiss her or touch her at all. He also refuses to call her anything but "baby Eleanor" which is funny since when we call her Ellie, he will quickly tell us, "No, not Ellie. Baby Eleanor." He overall seems to be adjusting well to life with another person in the house.

Sleepy smiles never get old.

Like her brother, this girl can make anything look good.

Ethan has managed to stay occupied with the bat cave that Eleanor so generously brought for him when she arrived.

So that's what's been going on around here. Plenty of fun, great guests, good food and lots of spoiling us and our kids. Is it too soon to ask for people to come back and visit?!?