Ella Grace

At long last I would like to introduce the latest member of our family. Ella Grace was born on February 16, 2006 at 2:58 am. She was very tiny weighing in at only 5 lbs 5 oz, and was born via emergency c-section. She is healthy though and growing like a weed. We were at the family doctors this afternoon, and she weighed 5 lbs 11 oz, so is growing very nicely now that she is on the outside. It turns out that there was a hole in her placenta which is most likely why she was not growing well in utero. I wonder how long the hole was there because they saw blood in my very first ultrasound way back in August, and she was already measuring small by the end of September, so who knows.
Ella has some nerve damage in her face, and is missing an earlobe, so we are being followed by a pediatrician to monitor that. Our family doctor thinks that it will repair itself (the nerve damage), and thought he noticed some improvement already. She did pass her hearing screen in the hospital in both ears with flying colours though, so the inner workings of her ear are fine. The doctors just want to follow her closely because of all of those issues combined.
Morgan and Paige are so excited that their baby is finally here, and love her to bits. I have lots of pictures to post which I will try to do this weekend. Morgan and Ella share the exact same birth weight, and were both born on a Thursday. How cool is that?
Auntie Catherine came the day I got home from the hospital, and was with us for that first week home. She was an amazing help to me, and Morgan and Paige adore having her here. Thank You Auntie Catherine for all of your help to me, and for spoiling all of us so much. You made that first week so much easier for me. Also thank you to Catherine for making the new banner for the blog!!! You rock!
It will be interesting to see how the shift from two children to three goes. This past week was our first one on our own, so we are still finding our groove. Morgan and Paige are transitioning quite well, although both are having a hard time and are manifesting it in different ways. I'm sure I'll be writing all about it over the next few months.

Here she is hot off the press, maybe an hour old. I love how alert she is. As I said I have lots of pictures that I will try to post this weekend.