Pella Tulip Time

This weekend my mom and dad came down from Minnesota and we decided to go to Pella's Tulip Time.  Pella is a Dutch community and they celebrate thier Dutch heritage every year with their Tulip Time Festival. I have wanted to go for the past couple of years but it has never worked out.  It finally did this year and I was excited to see what this was all about.  One of the biggest attractions is the massive amounts of Tulips that are planted throughout the city.  Unfortunately, with this years warm spring the tulip blooms have come and gone so we missed out on that.  

Throughout the day they have different performances by the dancing duchesses.  Here they are below doing one of their songs.  They sing and dance in full costume traditional Dutch songs, in wood shoes and all.  

We met up with Marc and Amber and the kiddos too.  They were there enjoying the beautiful day.  It ended up getting pretty warm though.  

We visited the Historic Dutch Villiage which was original homes to Pella when the Dutch immigrated there.  It is also where Wyatt Earp spent a few of his childhood years.  In each of the buildings they had volunteers from the community demonstrating what life was like back in the day.

I am not sure if you know this but I am a sucker for wood cut out photo opportunities.  Of course we had to take a photo here too.  

This is what takes place right before the parade.  The streets need to be scrubbed before the Tulip Queen can come down during the parade.  It is a yearly tradition for the people of Pella.  It is amazing how many of them there were!!!!  Hundreds of people of all ages.  They would use buckets and splash the water onto the street and then all the people would walk down scrubbing it.  What I love most is how the people of Pella get involved in their city's event and thier heritage.  It was pretty cool to see.  

It was a wonderful day and a wonderful weekend.  Elsie sure was tuckered out by the end of the day though.  She must have been tired because she has taken a 3.5  hour nap this morning which of course has allowed me to update the blog :)

Elsie's First Sickness

Elsie made her first trip to the emergency room.  For the past week or so Elsie has had a cold, no fever just a cold. Saturday evening she started to get a bit fussy and Saturday night she did not sleep very good.  I figured it was because of her cold.  Well Sunday she had her first real fever at 102.5.  So I called First Nurse and they had me count her respiration.  Up to 50 a minute is safe but Elsie's was about 55/min so they had us come in.  They said that it normally gets worse as the day goes on so we might as well go in and getting it checked instead of waiting around all day and then having to go in the evening.  So we headed over to Ames.  In the meantime they had us give her some tylenol.  Well by the time we got there her fever was down to 99 degrees and her respiration were down too.  When we finally were seen the physicians assistant told us her ears were red so her fever must because of an ear infection.  They gave us a prescription for an amoxicillan and sent us on our way.  Her 102.5 fever was the last fever she had.

 

This picture was from Saturday night. I finally got her to fall asleep 

after trying for quite a while.  

Waiting so patiently :)

John decided it would be a good time for a nap since we sat

  in the room for almost 3 hours. 

So Sunday we went home and I could tell Elsie did not feel well.  She was up almost every hour crying and wanting comforting.  It was a long couple of nights since none of us are used to this.  She would cry and cry and cry and we would have to hold her so tight to us to get her to calm down.  It was a good thing we didn't have daycare on Monday because she wouldn't have been able to go.  Monday during the day Elsie was back to her old self again.  Happy as can be except she hated taking the antibiotics.    We were supposed to go visit some friends at camp but decided we better not do to much with her being sick.  Monday night however was the same as Sunday night.  We were up again quite a few times during the night.    No fever since Sunday but I could tell things just weren't right.  I thought maybe her ears were hurting when she laid down because she would fall right back to sleep the minute she was in our arms. 

 We decided to take her to daycare since she was on anitbiotics, no fever for over 24 hours and she was happy on Monday during the day.  Well when I got her dressed that morning I noticed a rash on her belly.  Uhhh I thought for sure it must be a rash for the anitbiotics.  So I took her to Jo Jo's and had her take a look at it.  She thought the same thing.  After talking about it we decided to leave her at daycare and I would call the pediatrician to see if we needed to switch antibiotics.  

Well they wanted to see her and could get her in right away so back to Jo Jo's I went and took her in.  It did not take the doctor long to tell us the initial diagnosis was wrong and she did not have an ear infection.  What she did have was Hand, Foot and Mouth disease.  The doctor found a small sore on the roof of her mouth and one small dot by her wrist.  I have heard some nasty things about this virus but it appeared Elsie had just a mild case of it.  She said that this strain going around also leaves a rash on their body too.  So no more antibiotics and we just needed to manage the symptoms since there is no medication for it.  She said she would no longer be contagious once she was fever free for a couple of days.  She said by Thursday she should be safe to go back to daycare since she hadn't had a fever since Sunday.  We have no idea where she picked this up from since we know no one who has this.  

Since she was unable to go back to daycare she came with me to work.  We made up a nice little bed for her so she could take a nap while I got some work done.  Wednesday I was off from work so we stayed home but Thursday she was back at daycare.  Wednesday night she was sleeping so good and then around 1:30 am we had a tornado warning so I had to get her out of bed and of course she woke up and slept terrible the rest of the night.  Thursday night she was back to her old self sleeping through the night.  Her cold is still bothering her a bit but hopefully that will clear itself up soon.  

During this whole ordeal it just broke my heart knowing she felt so terrible and there wasn't much I could do for her :(.  I guess that is just part of being a mom.  

Easter 2012

This year we spent our Easter weekend in Minnesota.  It was a great weekend spending time with family.  We had dinner at my parent's house on Sunday with both my Grandmas, my parents and my sister's family.  It was a nice time visiting and for them to be able to spend time with Elsie.  Elsie got an Easter basket from the Easter Bunny, Grandma and Grandpa, Great Grandma June, and my sistser's family!!!  What a lucky girl!! It felt like Christmas.  It was a wonderful, beautiful day!

Elsie's First Easter Basket.  And of course it has to
have two new spring colored diapers :)  How did
the Easter Bunny know that is just what she wanted ;)

Checking out what's in the basket

Time for a little snooze before dinner

Allie on an Easter Egg Hunt.
Next year she will have some competition!!

Allie putting on her shades.  It was really bright outside.  I love this photo
because she looks so much like Tami!

Tami, Derick, Allie and the baby on the way

Elsie Marie-Two Months

Today our little girl is 2 months!  We are having so much fun at home and I can say I LOVE this phase that she is in.  We are starting to naturally fall into a routine  of eating, sleeping, and playing.

Her at home weight is about 10.5 lbs  (We have her 2 month appointment tomorrow so I will give the official measurements then).  She eats between 6-8 times a day and between 22.5 to 28 ounces a day.  She is getting more breastmilk these days about 2/3 breastmilk and 1/3 formula.  Which I am really happy with.  I wonder if I will ever catch up to her needs...who knows.  She is still pretty impatient when it comes to when she wants to eat but she isn't as demanding when she wakes up from her naps.  That may be because she  isn't sleeping as long or as often

She has worked her way into a sleep schedule.  She takes a couple of naps a day and then has been sleeping really well at night.  We have her last feeding around 10:30 and sleeps anywhere until 3:30am-5:30 am.  Lately more on the 5:30 range.  Let me say it has been nice.  When she gets up that late she doesn't really go back to sleep but that will work out okay for when I go back to work.  She does on most days take a morning nap and afternoon nap and will sleep for most of the evening (7:00-10:30 ish when we move upstairs and get ready for bed).

Sleeping in her Daddy's arms is where she spends most of her evenings.

Still loving the cloth diapers.  Yesterday I put on one of her newborn diapers and pretty sure it may be the last time she wheres it.  I can hardly get the velcro to latch.  As for clothes some of her 0-3 sizes are getting a little small.  I better get some photos of her in more of her adorable outfits before she completely outgrowns them.

She is interacting so much more these days.  I LOVE it!  I can't get enough of her smile.  She loves to be in her swing, in her bouncy seat or on her playmat.  In the past week or so she has really found an interest in the things hanging above her head.  Mornings are fun for us because she is always smiling and cooing-another thing she has been doing a lot more of.  

We have done a lot over the past month.  Elsie attended her first "Book Club" night, went to lunch with Steph, a friend from camp and her two kiddos, went to her first Superbowl party, has enjoyed dinner a few times with some friends, and made another trip up to Minnesota where she attended a wonderful baby shower in her honor (separate post to come soon), had a sleepover with her cousin Allie, and Grandma and Grandpa Fenstra (we left for a few hours), and finally got to meet her Uncle Tony.

Below are the comparison of her one month and two month photo.  Not too much of a difference but I imagine that will change as the months go on.  

Can't wait to see what she has in store for us next month!!

Elsie Marie-1 Month

One month ago our little girl was born and what an adventure this past month has been. It has been a learning process for us all, and I have enjoyed every minute of it!  I look back at some of the pictures taken of her right after she was born and she has already changed so much.

Her current weight taken at home is somewhere between 8 lbs 14 oz and 9 lbs.  She is my little chunker :)  She is eating anywhere between 2 oz. to 6 oz a feeding.  She also likes to mix up how long she goes between feedings.  Sometimes is is 3 hours and sometimes it is 5 hours.  She is still eating a mix between breatmilk and formula.   We are currently at a 50/50 ratio which I am pleased with.  Of course I would be happier if she was getting more breastmilk but we are doing better that I had expected.  She definitely lets us know when she wants to eat and has very little patience as we get it ready.  

We have made the switch to exclusively cloth diaper.  Yay!!  It took us a few weeks we are finally there and  she has not be red at all since the switch.  So far what we are doing is working great.  She is still in newborn size but we have also been able to use some of the next size up and some one size diapers.  They are so cute and I love snapping pictures of her in them.  

Not only is she getting so big she is getting so strong!  She is really getting a lot of strength in her neck and can hold her head up for a decent amount of time.  She loves tummy time and we try to do it often.  She has discovered her hands and are mesmerized by them.  At times she looks like she is checking out her biceps but in reality she is checking out her hands.  When she sleeps, she prefers to have her hands out.  We don't really swaddle her anymore, especially with her arms in.  She gets really upset. She loves her daddy's made up songs and listening to my stories.  She hates getting dressed but has finally stopped crying when we change her diaper.  She is officially out of newborn clothes and has moved up to the 0-3 size.  

We like to take outings to get out of the house every now and then.  We have lunch one or twice a week in town with John, Grandma Bev, and Grandpa Dale.  We have also had a girls lunch with Lisa and Kara.  On the days we don't go out for lunch we have lunch at home and if we are lucky John gets to join us.  She had her first dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and also out at the country club.  She does so good and mostly just sleeps her way through dinner. With all the beautiful weather we have been blessed with this winter we have had the chance to get out for a walk or two as well. She has made one trip up to Minnesota and will be going up soon for another trip where she will finally get to meet her Uncle Tony.  

The bunny is to show scale and I plan to use it to compare month to month photos.  

I love looking at her little nose, mouth, fingers, and toes.  I can't get enough snuggle time and I love watching her as she starts to wake up.  Her stretches are adorable and the sounds she makes are so cute (until she starts crying because she wants to eat now).  I can't imagine anymore what our life without Elsie would be like.  She is truly a blessing and I can't wait for all the adventures that are up ahead.