Ellery

Well this is different.

It's been almost a month since my daughter, Ellery, was born. Baby time came right when I was driving a group of six freshmen from a novice debate meet heading back to Buhler. I'm proud to say I didn't freak out too much, even though I wanted to. Safety first.

She was born at 10:45 the next morning weighing 5 lbs 3 oz. She's a little squirt, but she's got the heart of a champion. There's already a tremendous debate within the family over whether she's going to be a professional swimmer or a piano player. Quite a bit of pressure to put on a baby when the nurses are just concerned over whether or not she's gaining weight. Besides, she's got the look of a politician, anyway. Moot point, people.

Thankfully she has been gaining poundage, though. At the last weight check she was pushing 6 lbs and may have already surpassed that. She's healthy, and that makes us happy. Like, winning-the-lottery happy. Ecstatic. Joyful. And tired.

I expected to feel tired, but I had also expected to feel more stressed than I have been. Part of that is because she's doing well (no jaundice or other early issues) but I'm also much more relaxed around Ellery than I've ever been around other babies. I suppose a big part of that is because she's my baby and not someone else's. If I mess something up, it's my own dang fault. But then, I'm only worrying about my own guilt rather than someone else's disapproval.

We're still early enough into things that taking care of Ellery has been relatively easy. The first week and a half our biggest challenge was just getting her to wake up so we could feed her. She just slept all the time. In fact, she's only just recently started staying awake when people come to visit her.

And oh boy, does she have visitors. I've never felt so popular-by-extension. Just about everything I post on Facebook gets three times as many likes as they normally would. I've briefly thought about just mentioning her briefly in every post: "Seriously, Jay Cutler? Another injury? You're tanking my fantasy team! #Elleryjustburped"

But enough of that. A small project I worked on was this short video of Ellery. I'm going to close by posting it and getting back to grading (incredibly behind on grading, but I'm gaining).