Ella's First Year: Week 4

Back to Classes for us
Spring break ended for us this weekend, so Catherine and I both returned to the classroom, which meant that Ella got to start attending law school classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays while I was at Longwood teaching. On Tuesday, Ella went to Criminal Investigations. Professor Coughlin didn't notice her at the beginning of class, but about ten minutes into it, she saw Ella and stopped in mid-sentence and excaimed, "Oooh. The baby's here!" She came over to her and cooed over her for a second and then proceeded with class. A little while later, a student was answering a question and Prof. Coughlin was standing near Catherine's desk when Ella raised her head, stretched, and let out a big sigh. Prof. Coughlin and about half the class couldn't help but stare at her sigh back.

Then on Thursday, Ella went to Schools, Race, and Money, where Professor Ryan began class by welcoming their "newest member," and hoping that "baby Ella would be the only person to sleep through class that day." And she did sleep through just fine.

Of course, for me it wasn't so easy to focus on my teaching, not at home trying to prepare for classes and especially not while I was down in Farmville, where I spent a lot of my time wondering what Ella was up to and running around trying to find someone else in the department who wanted to see more pictures or to talk at length about how many hours she'd slept or what noises she'd been making. Everyone at Longwood has been very understanding about my need to gush over her.

One month check-up
At her one month check-up Ella was 8 1/2 pounds, which meant she had gained one-and-a-half pounds over birth weight, and 22 inches long.

All of the nurses went on about how beautiful she was--which of course, wasn't news to us, but it's nice to hear it from professionals.

When they went to weigh her, she pooped all over the scales, so I grabbed her and moved her over to the examination table to get her cleaned up, and just as I finished cleaning her & was about to put a new diaper on her, she peed all over the table and herself.

Because we actually went in a few days before her 1 month birthday, they couldn't give her the second Hepatitis B vaccine, so we'll have to take her back soon to get her shot.

Ella's First Party
The Longwood English department had a pot-luck dinner party at Jena and Dennis Burges's home on Saturday, so Catherine and I bundled Ella into the car and set out on the drive down to Farmville. Ella screamed like a lunatic for about 5 minutes on the way down, almost long enough for us to get out of Charlottesville, and then passed out. We arrived a little early, which gave Catherine a chance to feed Ella before everyone showed up, since she woke up hungy after her long trip.

Of course, Ella was the hit of the party. She mostly paid very little attention to all the new people, in fact she slept most of the party. Or at least she slept until Catherine and I sat down to eat (of course) and then she got just a little fussy. Jena held her for a while, and showed us a bunch of new holds for when she's gassy. At one point near the end of the night, Ella started to cry and Mike Lund poked his head around the corner and asked "Was that a baby crying?" After a short pause he added, "Well, good she is a real baby."

Milestones
Ella actually started to roll over. She was laying with us in bed and turned from her back to her side, then slowly from her side to her front, but once she got there she didn't know what to do. She started squirming around and got really unhappy, so we flipped her back over and she settled down again.

She's kind of, sorta crawling. When I set her down on my stomach, she'll kick and drag herself up my chest until she can nestle her head under my chin, and then she usually starts grunting and thrashing her head from side to side. Eventually she starts to suck on my shoulder or my bicep and pulls my chest hairs if I'm not wearing a shirt.