ellery's "home" away from home

kyle and i (and ellery, too!) loved our stay at the hospital. (if you are in the milwaukee area, we highly recommend elmbrook memorial in brookfield). it was such a special time, we created so many memories we will always treasure, our doctor was so great, the nursing and hospital staff were wonderful. i even loved my hospital bed and sometimes wish i had it at home :)

the two days in the hospital after ellery was born were great! her first night was a little rough (welcome to parenthood!) - she woke up to eat every hour, then we had some frequent interruptions from the overnight nurse. The second night was great (you can imagine how relieved we were!) e only woke up 2-3 times and kyle and i felt so rested! they even served us a "celebration dinner" of steak, sparkling grape juice, and other yummy food. though it was supposed to be just for mommy & daddy, ellery decided to join us too :)

our celebration dinner - can you find ellery??

ellery's first diaper change - which resembled black sticky tar. yikes!

one thing that made our time in the hospital so special were the visitors who came to meet ellery and celebrate with us. we loved each visitor, each text, each voicemail that you sent. thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making us feel oh so loved. really, thank you. it meant so much to us. below are pictures of our sweet visitors:

ryan & shelly (from our small group) set their alarms for 5am so they wouldn't miss when ellery was born! they waited in the hospital for over an hour to meet ellery. such sweet friends!!

my mom - ellery's mawmaw. when she heard we were on our way to the hospital, she jumped in her car in columbus, ohio and started driving through the night to get to milwaukee! she made a pit stop in indianapolis to pick up kyle's mom, and the two of them drove like crazy ladies to get to the hospital as soon as they could!

kyle's mom - ellery's momo. so mawmaw & momo made it just hours after ellery was born!! what's (kinda) funny is that both of them were not on our texting list to announce when ellery was born! we let them know when i started pushing & then in the excitement of everything, didn't update them when she was born. we thought we would call, but once she came, it completely slipped our minds. we felt AWFUL! but as soon as they held that little babe in their arms, all was well :)

katie from our small group stopped by with the little girl she watches to meet ellery! later, she came back with jonathan so he could meet our sweet girl. they have been such great friends and our time so far in milwaukee would be a lot different without their friendship!

on tuesday, aunt keri took the train up from chicago to meet her new niece (and brought some pretty cute outfits & hats from her & uncle kris, too!)

kyle's dad hopped on a flight after work on tuesday. ellery was so excited to meet her papa!

our sweet young life "family." never did we think that we would have awesome high schoolers visit us at the birth of our first child, but i can't tell you how much their visits meant to us. the guys would like to inform you they got ellery her very first balloons. (thank you!!) and laurel & erin are so incredibly sweet!!

soon it was time for ellery to be at her "real" home on wednesday november 30th. we were so excited to bring her home, it was sad leaving the hospital. i was pretty emotional (thank you hormones!) saying goodbye to the nurses. but nothing compared to that moment when we got ellery all bundled in her car seat and kyle and i were carrying her to the car. hello world, meet ellery! we were so proud and excited driving her to our house. mawmaw (my mom) and momo & papa (k's parents) were all there to welcome our little girl! we opened her very first package addressed to ellery morgan. we introduced her to jackie. and showed her her very own room. and as our parents left, it was such a precious moment as we stood there, just the three of us. our new family in our home beginning a new chapter in our lives.