Elise Maria Cavanaugh 11/4/2012

Well, she's here!  And over a month old already!!?

We welcomed Elise Maria Cavanaugh into the world at 3:13 am on November 4, 2012.  Labor was long and not my most fun time, but the doctors and midwife at the Heinsberg hospital were awesome and our bundle of joy came out healthy and a strong 8 pounds, 14 ounces!  She also has a shockingly full head of dark hair - I couldn't believe it when I saw her for the first time.

Ellie (a nickname we feel suits her and have grown attached to) was dressed in some awesome velour outfits courtesy of the Heinsberg hospital.  They loved to layer her up.

The doctor and midwife informed us after the birth that we have what the Germans call a "Sonntag Kinder".  Germans believe that babies born on Sundays are happy kids who are blessed with good luck and health for the rest of their lives.  As we've gotten to know our baby over the past month, I've come to believe this - she is a great eater and sleeper for the most part (although she does have her moments!).  She makes being a new parent fairly easy - we are very blessed.

She has some serious cheeks.  Apparently this is something she inherited from me...

Friends decorated our house German style for our homecoming!

The past month has been incredible.  Having Ellie has obviously been life altering for Colin and me, but at the same time it has felt totally natural and just as if it was supposed to always be this way.

We were lucky to have both my parents come visit, and my mom here for an extended time to help out.  And we've been fortunate to have amazing friends here who support us and bring us meals frequently, so Colin and I really have been able to just dote on Ellie all we want.  :)

Gramee with Ellie M.

Obviously there are more details that should be blogged about, but that will have to be during a different nap time!

Below are some of the pics our talented friend Elizabeth Donehue took for us when Ellie was 1 week old.  She did a terrific job and we are so glad to have such nice photos of Ellie while she was still little, because she is growing incredibly fast!

Oh and we can't forget Lola!  She has adjusted remarkably well to her new little sister... attending almost every nightly feeding and being extra protective.  We are relieved - the transition couldn't have gone any better.

 

Family of 3...

I mean, happy family of 4!

We are ready for you, Baby Cav!

Baby Cav is due tomorrow... and in spite of my hopes to the contrary, we have no real signs of labor.

On the one hand this is good because I've had plenty of time to prepare and perfect her little nursery, enjoy more time with Colin, Lola and our friends, and even catch up on Downton Abbey and my blogging... but on the other hand this 39/40 week belly is quite the thing to be carrying around.

Pregnancy has come with some expected aches and pains, but there have been some funny parts too.  One thing is how people just love to talk to you when you are pregnant.  Apparently, it makes you more approachable... Most of the time it is other mothers, which seems to be a bonding thing.  Colin and I had a good laugh in Switzerland when we were going to the train station in the morning to get ready for our big hike, and passed a mom who was pushing her double stroller up the hill.  She was all smiles at me as they approached, so I smiled back to be nice but also a bit confused if she might be looking at someone behind me?  But then, right as she passed us she said in a strong accent "Nice Mommyyyy!!"  It was like she was my personal cheerleader - really sweet - and much nicer than many of the other Europeans we run into who enjoy just staring...

I also love being pregnant around kids.  My friends' kids have pointed out that Halloween is a perfect due date because there are always parties anyway, and my baby will get lots of candy.  Another friend's son tried to look up my dress to see where the baby was when his mother told him I had a baby inside me.  And yet another friend's little girl, when asked what my belly was full of, gave the matter of fact answer of "Cake".  I loved that one!

We've been asked if we have a name for the baby.  The truth is, we really don't.  We have three names that we both like but we haven't settled on one.  We are waiting to meet her before we decide. Hopefully we'll get to meet her soon. In the mean time, here are some pics of her little room...

We are so lucky!

We've been very blessed this summer to be surrounded by supportive friends and family.  My college girlfriends threw me an "e-shower" where we managed to video conference in 12 girls from 4 different locations (San Fran, LA, NYC and good ol' Heinsberg, Germany) to catch up, open gifts and show off the bump a bit.  It was awesome and I think lasted 4 hours - we really never run out of things to chat and laugh about. :)

And, my girlfriends here threw me an ADORABLE shower, with the theme being that I'm "ready to Pop!"  They were so clever and creative with their decorations, activities and food.  I was truly touched by the whole thing - really could not have imagined anything better.  I've put some pics below.  One of the reasons Colin and I are so thrilled to be having a baby in Germany is because of this supportive community.  My girlfriends who are mom's here have made mama-hood look so fun and all of the girls have been there for me every step of the way during this pregnancy. Lucky us and lucky little Baby Cav too!

They did a popcorn bar with different varieties of delicious popcorn - cookies n' cream, snickers, jalapeno and cheddar!

Two of my awesome co-hostesses - Missy and Cathleen

My co-hostess Katy and me... Katy was 37 weeks pregnant when she did this, and I do not really know how she managed!  Our little girls will be a bit less than 2 months apart :)

My co-hostess Erin diligently working on the game they thought up - "Name that Celebrity Baby". They know I like my US Weekly's... :)

Gorgeous array of desserts - Pink Pop Rock Cupcakes and Cake Pops.  They even made extra so Colin could get leftovers...

They filled out these cute "words of wisdom" cards - such a sweet keepsake.

Delicious lunch of poppyseed chicken salad, fruit salad and my favorite blueberry scones

Everything had these cute labels.  Really it could be a shower on Pinterest. 

Thank you girls for the amazing shower!! 

Meg's visit!

We had a great summer of traveling and visitors.  When we got home from Switzerland, my awesome roommate from Atlanta came to stay with us in Heinsberg at the end of her extensive travels while on a sabbatical from work.  Meg and I lived together for 2 years in midtown Atlanta - we miraculously found each other on Craigslist and it was all meant to be from there.   She is also Lola's second mama.  In fact, when Lola and I picked her up from the Aachen train station, Lola knew just who she was and was happy to sit in her lap for the drive home and the rest of the weekend.  It was cute to see those two reunited.

 

After traveling all over Europe and Africa, Meg was content to be in Heinsberg with us, and we were so glad to have her.  We went to dinner in Maastricht and Meg was able to come to the baby shower my friends threw me. It was great to have her here!!

32 week bump visits Maastricht

I really have no clue what we are doing in this picture, but I think it had something to do with how full I was of the delicious Thai food we ate... hmm...  likely I just felt like I might pop which has been a theme for several weeks now!

Final Babymoon: Swiss Alps and Some of France

I suppose every trip for the past nine months has been a sort of "babymoon" for Colin and me, but our trip to Switzerland was our last big trip before we started "nesting" so I guess that makes it our official Babymoon.  It was the perfect last trip - it was so easy to enjoy the beauty of the Alps and delicious Swiss fondue and rosti's.  We had gorgeous weather and perfect clear skies for Colin to go to the top of Jungfrau, and we also enjoyed driving back home while making a few stops in France - Annecy, Beaune and Nancy.

On our arrival day to Lauterbrunnen, we took a short hike to the nearby Trummelbach waterfalls.  These falls were pretty cool as you actually had to enter the mountainside to see them.

The next day was our highlight.  We took the train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, bought  a picnic lunch and took a gondola up the mountain to Lauberhorn.  From there, we took a quick steep hike to get a view opposite from the Jungfrau, and then hiked to Kleine Scheidegg for magnificent views of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.

Map of Alps in the Berner Oberland

We loved the cows just hanging out on the mountainside.

Showing off my 31 week bump.  At the top of this mini peak, we were approached by an Ob-gyn from San Diego who confirmed my suspicion that I probably shouldn't go to the top of the Jungfrau, but he was impressed that we made it up the steep hill with the bump.

Colin snapped a bunch of pics from the top of Jungfrau. 

When Colin came back down from Jungfrau we hiked a bit more before training back to Lauterbrunnen.

Our couple of days in the Swiss Alps were awesome and probably one of Colin's favorite trips so far.  On our way home, we drove through France so we could hit up a few more destinations.  Our first stop was Annecy, a quaint French vacation town.  

 

We rented paddle boats and paddled around the lake for a bit.

We also enjoyed a final dinner of fondue before strolling the town in the evening. 

After Annecy, we drove north through the Burgundy region to Beaune, which we loved.  Its a cute little town in wine country with a fun market and a very interesting old hospice, which dates back to 1443.

We were actually so impressed to learn that this old hospice was still used until 1971.

We decided Colin should do some wine tasting in some of the old caves in town. 

We liked the D-I-Y style tasting.

We continued wandering some of the old sites in the town before heading out to do some tasting in the countryside.

Several wine bottle purchases later (we always justify this for our collection to bring back to CA), we continued our drive home and stopped in Nancy.  The only thing we knew about Nancy before stopping there was that it was on our way home.  We were shocked to find its old town absolutely gorgeous.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner in this old town square and then watched a laser light show with a bunch of other townspeople until we all got rained out.  We had kind of scoffed at the idea of a laser light show when our hotel concierge told us about it, but were actually quite impressed with the whole thing.  We'd definitely stay in Nancy again if we head down that direction in France in the future.

Pretty great babymoon!  Its been easier to slow down on the travel than I thought.  We had hoped for one final trip - possibly to Berlin- after this one, but we have ended up just staying home and getting ready for the baby instead.  Its been a different sort of fun for us, but we are definitely enjoying our final weeks with our little family of three (Lola included).