Christmas in Cleveland...

Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year!

Well, we spent 11 days in Cleveland with Joshua's family before visiting my family (I will post next about our visit with my family in a few days...stay tuned!).

We arrived a day early because Wheeling was supposed to get an ice storm, and we didn't want to get stuck there for an extra day or two. Our car was packed to the gills. Norah had stuff piled up on either side of her in the back seat. Not sure how safe that would have been in an accident, but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

We had a great time in Cleveland visiting with all of Josh's brothers, their wives, dogs and his parents. (We missed Aunt Katie and Steve and hope to visit with them soon.) Norah of coarse was a big hit with everyone! She got lots of quality time in everyone's arms and even took her first evening walk in the Baby Bjorn with Grandpa Elek and met one of the neighbors. She got lots of fun presents from everyone as well. She also got to meet her extended Elek relatives and some of her cousins fed her!

Enjoy the pictures!

Norah's first evening stroll with Grandpa Elek!

Grandma and Grandpa Elek

(I am making a picture book for Norah with all of her grandparents,
aunts and uncles, so I thought I would include those pictures!)

Uncle Tim and Aunt Marisa

Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Jim

Aunt Charlene and Uncle Jeremy

Napping-Mom, Norah and Gizmo
(our dog who is living with mom and dad Elek until we can keep her!)

Napping again-Norah and Dad

Cousin Chris getting ready to feed Norah. He did great!

Cousin Scott feeding Norah

Cousin Allison holding the now youngest cousin in the family

This is Norah's crib that Grandpa and Grandma Elek bought and put up at their house since we do not have room for it in our small apartment. It is nice that she has a place to sleep when she visits and we will have it for when we move in June! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

Here is a close up of the crib set! Elephants!
(I couldn't flip this one for some reason.)

Thanks for taking the time to look at all the pictures!

Visitors!

Norah has had some recent visitors in Wheeling before we left for Cleveland.

Two of my close friends from Pittsburgh came to visit the day after my birthday which was very much needed. Joshua and I had an all-nighter with Norah the night before and she had not been feeding very well, so she had pretty much been crying all day and could not be consoled by the time they arrived. It was helpful to be able to hand her off so that we could have a break. As soon as our friend Allie held her she was quite. That's when I let my guard down and cried because, well, it is just a little stressful at times when you can't figure out how to help your new baby. It's great to have friends and family help out when you are so tired and can't think of one more creative way to settle your new one.


We enjoyed lunch and conversation with Allie and Erin and we got to meet Lucy, Erin's second little girl who was born one month before Norah. It was so nice to be with my friends. I wish I had been a little more putt together and not so emotional, but that's what they were there for, was to meet Norah and support Josh and I, which is exactly what they did!

This next picture is of one of our students "Chevy." We met Chevy on our New Orleans trip last year. (Chevy is her nickname.) Chevy and I became almost instant friends once we really got to see how goofy each of us was. She is a ton of fun and I'm so glad she got to come and meet Norah because unfortunately Chevy is leave WJU and will be joining the Air Force this coming April. We will miss Chevy very much!


We are now in Cleveland, so I will try to post some more pictures from here soon! We are enjoying the down time. Norah has her crib set up here too, so I will get some pictures up of that as well.

Week One!

Norah is one week old today! She had her first pediatric appointment today and everything looks great! We have been pretty tired lately and not been able to blog or e-mail out pictures alot, but I thought I would take a few minutes to share some of my favorite photos from the week at home.

This first picture is of Norah in the hospital sleeping under the blue light because she had jaundice. We loved these little black foam glasses she had to wear and thought she looked like a little superhero! We figure this is how they make superheros, they give them these glasses and bake them for awhile after they are born!

This is Norah on her trip home from the hospital. Her clothes are a little big, but so cute! She is just too sweet!

This is one of my favorites! She likes to have her hands next to her face alot. She had her hands up around her face in her sonograms too!

This is two of Norah's cousins that came to meet her. Ellie is on the left and Cora on the right.

These are my grandparents McCowin with their three great grandchildren! They love being great grandparents!

When we got home from the hospital some guys from our dorm made this welcome home sign! We loved it!

These are the women from my family that came to visit. (L-R) My mom and she is holding Ellie, my Aunt Linda, my grandma, Cora being held by my sister-in-law Heather and me. And Norah of course!

This is one of our first family pictures!

This is one of my favorite moments in the day, which happens several times each day. When she is ready to feed I put her up on my shoulder to get situated for feeding and she starts to make out with my neck, then cheek and then nose! It tickles so much and is the best feeling. She is so sweet!!!


This is just a cute one!

Joshua's brothers all came to visit too and Marisa our sister-in-law! We loved having them! (L-R) Jim, Tim, Jeremy, Joshua and Norah (front and center)

Uncle Jim drove from Virginia so he stayed with us for two nights. He and Joshua played lots of XBOX and Norah played too! I loved this picture of her little bum!

So there they are, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. More to come for sure.

Norah is Born!

Hey, this is Joshua posting for Rach. No time to write a full post, but you can go here to see pictures of Norah and the delivery if you want to.

Trying to Induce Labor

Well, we've tried almost everything we can think of to induce labor, and nothing has worked. So, we decided we would try to guilt Norah into coming out. We figured if we baked her a birthday cake, she would HAVE to be born. So, we baked her a delicious chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and wrote "Happy Birthday Norah!" in home-made vanilla frosting. The cake was very delicious, and... ultimately ineffective (so far at least). So, even with an honest to goodness birthday cake, Norah's still not born. Ugh. Tuesday it is.

Here's the cake!

Norah didn't seem to be motivated by the guilt, but we ate the cake anyway. (We went to our friend Katie's house and ate while we decorated her Christmas tree.) Now... all we need is for Norah to actually be born.

P.S. Our apologies to Uncle Tim for Norah not being born on his birthday. Maybe next time.