Happy Mother's Day

To Me!!!

Family Pictures

We have been taking lots of family pictures the last couple weeks...

Violet, Ayden, & Elyana with Grandpa & Grandma Jill

The cousins!

Ayden loves his little sister

Violet, Ayden & Elyana with Grandma

Ken, Ayden, Elyana & I with my mom and my grandparents

Her first two weeks...

Here's what Elyana has been up to her first two weeks....

Sponge bath - check out the curly hair!

Lots of sleeping!

A visit from Grandpa

Lots of love from big brother

The shirt says it all

starting to stay awake

A visit from Grandma Newton

so precious

lots of naps with daddy

First real bath - 5-11-12

so sweet

She is the perfect addition to our family!

Elyana Paige Newton

After the wedding, we went back to the hotel and went to bed.  At 1 am, I woke up because my water broke!  I knew it was a possibility, but didn't actually think I would go into labor while we were in Redding.  We packed up our room, called my mom (in her room down the hall) to come get Ayden, then we checked out of the hotel and headed back to Roseville.  I was having pretty painful contractions right from the beginning, but luckily they leveled off or it would have been an even more uncomfortable 2 1/2 hour drive. We stopped at home to get our hospital bag and arrived at the hospital at 4:30 am. 

I got my epidural about 8am and was able to sleep off and on.  My dad & Jill came in the afternoon, followed not long after by my mom, Ayden, Matthew, Dominique & Violet, who had just arrived back in town from Redding.  I was very comfortable thanks to the miracle of the epidural!

After 1/2 hour of pushing, Elyana Paige arrived at 5:30pm. Because she had already passed meconium, the doctors took her off to the side of the room to clear out her lungs.  After a few minutes, they cleaned her up, weighed her and I was able to hold her.  She weighed 9 pounds, 3 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long.  She has lots of curly dark hair and big, chubby cheeks!

She's a big girl!

We told Ayden that he got to be the first visitor. 
After she was cleaned up, he came in and was very quiet, taking everything in.

I love this picture!

He is so sweet with her!

Opening his big brother gifts

cousins - Elyana, Ayden & Violet

sleepy girl

I'm already enjoying playing dress-up!

We spend one night in the hospital, were we were up off and on all night.....it was a long night.  We were able to go home right when she was 24 hours old.  She is a very good baby.  She sleeps at least 3 hours at a time at night, so I haven't had to get up more than twice in the week since we've been home.  She is content to just lay around and take everything in (when she is awake, that is).

Ayden is a great big brother.  He can be a little smothering at times, but really loves his baby sister.  He does wonder why she sleeps so much, though.  He is anxious for the time when she can play with him!

Mr. & Mrs. Neal

On April 28th, my cousin Melissa got married in Redding.  We had so much fun celebrating with Melissa & Christopher!  I didn't get any pictures of the bride and groom, but lots of Ayden & Violet...

Cousins!

Violet is so beautiful!

Fun with bubbles

Ayden, Melissa & Nathan

Our last picture as a family of three...

Five and a Half!

We celebrated Ayden's half birthday with half of a cake!  He was pretty excited.  I wanted it to be a surprise, but he was getting something else out of the garage refrigerator and saw it.  He came upstairs and told me, "Mommy, I saw something...."  I told him I wanted it to be a surprise and he said, "you know I don't like surprises."