I decided to start a blog when Ella Rose was born so that Brendan and I could look back when we are old and grey, and remember the fun, memorable times of our growing family together. I know I’m a little behind, but with two surgeries, a baby, and a big move, I figured better late than never! After posting some pictures of Ella Rose on social media when she was just a few months old, a few people asked where I shopped for her clothes, so I also decided to add links to many of Ella Rosie’s outfits. In addition, I added links to some of our favorite and most useful baby “finds” that we’ve relied on during the crazy times of raising our first child.
It all began March 4, 2014 when we welcomed the most precious little angel into our family- Ella Rose Krueger. Ella Rose was born at 5:15 pm and weighed 7lbs 10 oz, and was 21 inches long. She arrived after a long, tedious labor (24 hours to be exact) and a c-section. We were so grateful for her healthy, safe arrival. I never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but any additional siblings to Ella Rose will arrive via c-section, as I cannot imagine going through the same experience again. With all that being said, I cannot tell you how overjoyed when little Ella Rose made her debut. I remember holding her for the first time and thinking to myself, “I’m holding a mini Brendan…” she looked just like him, and still does. One thing to mention; we have decided to always call her Ella Rose as well. We noticed “Ella” was becoming so popular, that we wanted her name to be a little more unique, and I’ve always loved full names for little girls. She is the apple of our eye and we love her more and more each day.
When we arrived home, we luckily had the help of both of our mothers, Grancy and Grandma Krueger to help us with the little one. The biggest adjustment was the lack of sleep. However, after the first month we felt like we were finally getting the hang of the whole parenting thing. Thanks to the Dunstan baby languages video we were able to figure out her cries and needs fairly quickly, as the video provided many examples of the tones of cries and what each cry meant. Another book and video we found to be very useful was,”Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp.” This book taught us some terrific ideas on how to calm a crying baby, focusing on the 5 S’s (Swaddle, Side, Shush, Swing, Suck). If one S doesn’t work, try them all!
When Ella Rose was two weeks old, we had both of our families come in for the Baptism, and had a wonderful celebration for sweet Ella Rose. We chose Laura (my older sister) and Ryan (Brendan’s older brother) to be her Godparents. She was baptized at Our Lady of Lourdes in Saint Louis, with Father Carl, one of our favorite priests.
At six weeks, I was finally starting to feel myself again, whennnnn….surprise! I woke up in the middle of the night with a weird pain in my side- I thought it was gas, so I did some tuck and rolls thinking the pain would go away haha. But it lingered and moved down, and I just knewwww it was my appendix. We went to the ER hoping it was kidney stones, but unfortunately, I had to have my appendix removed. We couldn’t believe it! That was probably the most disappointing day of my life. All I wanted to do was take Ella Rose to see the Easter bunny, since it was the Saturday before Easter, but we couldn’t. 🙁 Not only were we moving to Denver for Brendan’s new job a week later, but we had a new baby! I kept thinking, how am I going to do this? Especially with Brendan commuting to Denver for work… but I knew everything would work out and we were so grateful it did. With the help of some prayers and a sweet, loving night nurse that we hired for a week, we were able to get some extra help and luckily, we survived.
Bunny hat, bloomers, & booties
On April 28th, 2014, Ella Rose and I packed our bags for Denver to meet Brendan. It was a bittersweet moment leaving Saint Louis for the last time, as we had some fantastic memories there. Ella Rose and I flew out there late on a Monday night, with Ella Rose only seven and 1/2 weeks old. I remember seeing Brendan at the top of the stairs when we exited the train at the baggage claim area and couldn’t believe our new journey in Denver was about to begin. Here’s a picture of our first meal in Denver at one of our favorite restaurants, “True Food.”
Ella Rose was such a sweet baby. She slept the normal 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6, 6-7, 7-9 hour stretches as she grew. We figured out her happiest, smiliest times of the day were early in the morning and right before bedtime. She also took multiple cat naps throughout the day and one long morning and late afternoon nap. For the first few months of her life she sat in her bouncy chair and we read and sang songs each morning. Once she was about 7 months old, she started using her Baby Einstein saucer and loved playing with all the gadgets on there. Her favorite songs were the “10 Little Fishies, Noble Duke of York, and I’m a Little Teapot.” She also loved the song “Classic” by MKTO and “Red” by Taylor Swift. Anytime we were in the car and she started fussing, we put Taylor on to get her to calm down and it worked like a charm every time, too funny. She would also crack up when I danced to the “Cha Cha Slide.” Her favorite books, even today, are “Brown Bear” and “If I could keep you little Ella Rose.” She cooed and interacted to both of these books by 8 weeks old! By 8 weeks old, she also rolled over for the first time from her tummy to back, and by 3 1/2 months old she rolled from back to front. I was so impressed! Ella Rose loved random noises! She used to crack up to the sound of us pulling off the sticker on the wipes package, one of my favorite moments! The first time we heard her laugh really hard was at Grandma and Grandpa Krueger’s house with a fun spinning, twisting toy she was playing with when she was just 4 months old. Ella Rose went through a stranger danger phase from two to three months old and hated leaving our side. She also hates loud noises. Apparently, Brendan hated loud nosies as a baby too! Crazy, they’re even more alike than I thought ;).
Ella Rose will be six months old next week, half a year already, can’t believe it! She can sit up on her own for about ten seconds and is scooting around on her belly. It was funny because the day she turned five months old, I noticed she had her first two front bottom teeth, and was rolling everywhere! We’ve also tried some baby food with her- we’ve tried rice cereal, bananas, peaches, and avocados. That has been an experience because she is very independent and the only way she eats is holding her own spoon. She is just learning to eat a tiny bit, but we will get there. It took a little while to figure out whether or not she liked food, because at times she will close her lips really tight, shake her head, and swat at the spoon. So luckily, a friend suggested giving her her own spoon, and so far that seems to be working. I guess she just wanted to do it herself! She’s a funny little stubborn one, takes after me, I guess;)
Now, we are in our new home in Denver and are truly loving it here. We are especially excited because it’s in the area we had our eye on when we first moved here and loved it. It’s great because there is a park two blocks away, where we can use the baby swings and another park a few doors down. Ella Rose and I are bopping around town every day. We go on long walks and have met some new mommy/baby friends. Each Thursday we go to book babies at the local library and both love it. We also go to mommy and me yoga on Tuesdays and Gymboree together. She absolutely loves parachute time! Ella Rose really loves interacting with other babies and kids now, it’s like she actually notices them and reaches out to them, it’s so much fun to watch. We have both learned, staying at home together, we have to have one thing a day planned just to get out and feel accomplished. It’s been really easy getting to know people here, and there are a lot of stay at home moms here in Denver, so it’s nice and easy. Brendan is also loving his new job as well. It’s great because he’s home every night for dinner, doesn’t have to travel too much, and we get to explore Denver on the weekends as a family. It’s great. We really do love it here! We’ve already been to Larimer Square downtown, a Rockies game (which Ella Rose did not like because of the loud noise) Boulder, Botanical Gardens, Denver Zoo, Golden and Lookout Mountain. We also took Ella Rose on her first hike on the Flat Irons with our friends Sarah and TJ when they were in town. My mom came to visit last week which was great, quality time for Ella Rose and Grancy. We can’t wait for all of the other visitors we have lined up. There’s so much to do here which is amazing. Stay tuned for the next post, hopefully it won’t be too far from now!
Clothes: Since I’ve been working on this blog for a while now, the links may not lead to the exact outfit, but will lead you to the correct website page for the brand. There are lots of different options, colors, and styles, so have fun browsing! Thanks and hope you like this stylish newborn!
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