Ellie Laughing

She's laughed for her mom and her dad but she thinks her great grandparents are far funnier:

Ellie's 5 months old!

I tried taking pictures of her on her 5-month birthday. Out of 60-some pictures, not a good one in the bunch. But we did get a good chuckle out of a few of them. So here are some of the highlights... er, I mean, lowlights.






P.S. I swear there was no booze in her bottle!

Ellie's 4 months old!

She had her 4 month pediatrician's appointment yesterday, and wow, is she big!
Length: 26 inches
Weight: 17 pounds, 10 ounces
The doc said she's "off the charts," and that her weight is perfect for her length.
She hated the shots, but did better than last time.

Jump around, jump around...

Ellie + Jumparoo = Fun!

Finally diggin' the tummy time!

For more tummy time pics, see our flickr page!

Happy Fall, everyone!

One year ago today...

We got married!

She's three months old!

Here's a couple videos...

All I want for Christmas...

People keep asking us what they should get us for Christmas. (Really, you people do your shopping this early?!) To the left, I put links to our Amazon wish lists, in case you don't feel like searching for them. Note: this is not a shameless gift request! Just a convenience thing for my MIL (Hi, Meg!) who is a wish list fanatic. :)

A picture is worth a thousand words

I really don't know what to say about this, other than that it cracks me up. I call it, "Asleep on Mom's Lap."

Ellie likes the Jumperoo

Hooray! She's finally big enough for the Rainforest Jumperoo. This thing is just a whole lot of coolness. It makes noises and has all sorts of groovy lights and things to play with. Her feet barely touch the floor, but she's figured out how to bounce, and is having tons of fun! (More pics in our flickr.)

Tummy Time!

Ellie is finally starting to like tummy time. When I told her pediatrician how much she hates laying flat on her tummy, he suggested we try propping her up on the Boppy pillow... and here's the result! (I'm pretty sure she's the cutest baby ever.)

Dear friends and family

Welcome to our new (and hopefully improved) website. We've added a link to our flickr album at the left. If you click on it, it'll take you to a whole bunch of photos, from our wedding, to honeymoon, to Ellie's birth, to today. Whenever we add new photos to flickr, you'll be able to view them from here. We promise we'll update the site often, so check back for more photos and videos!
Love,
Ryan, Molly, and Ellie

Ellie's 2-month doctor's visit

Weight: 13 pounds, 6 ounces
Height: 23.5 inches
Ellie is a growing girl!
She had four shots, which she did not like at all!

Ellie, Month 3

A picture from our trip to the Botanic Garden. For more pics, see our Flickr page.

She smiles!

Ellie at 6 weeks

Hehe

I promise we won't become those parents who post these videos every 4 hours. But some people need to see Ellie in action!

Our first family photo

Mommy looks like death warmed over, but that's what 10 hours of labor will do to you!

Ellie Claire Landek

8 lbs, 0 oz
20.5 inches long

(More pics to follow of course)

Week 39... one week (hopefully) left!

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! She continues to build a layer of fat to help control her body temperature after birth, but it's likely she already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of her skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

Week 38

Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs between 6 and 7 1/2 pounds (boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls), and she's nearly 20 inches long. She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb. Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old.

Week 37... Full Term!

Very exciting milestone for Peanut today... she's officially full-term. Here's BabyCenter's weekly update:

Congratulations! Your pregnancy is now considered full term — meaning your baby is developmentally ready to handle life outside the womb. (Babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 weeks are post-term.) Your baby probably weighs a little over 6 pounds at this point and measures between 19 and 20 inches, head to heel.

We were told today that our baby is "bigger than average," so don't put a lot of stock in the 6-pound estimate given above. Peanut's Mommy and Daddy were both sizable babies at birth, so we're expecting this girl to be a big one, too!

33!

33 more days till peanut time!

Week 35

Your baby's getting big. She weighs a tad over 5 pounds (think bag of sugar) and is just over 18 inches long from head to heel, and it's getting so snug in your womb that your baby isn't really floating anymore. But tighter quarters don't mean less-frequent movement — your baby should still be kicking at the same rate she always has. Your baby's kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — the next few weeks are all about putting on weight.

Week 34... Slacking off!

Okay, so it's actually halfway through week 34 already, but here we go anyway with the weekly update:

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is probably almost 18 inches long from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Her central nervous system is still maturing, but her lungs are well developed now. That's great news in case she decides to come early. If you've been nervous about going into preterm labor , you'll be happy to know that 99 percent of babies this age can survive outside the womb — and most have no major long-term problems related to prematurity.

The Baby Shower, May 20th

Thanks to everyone who attended! We had a wonderful time!

Week 33... But I don't want a conehead!

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds and measures 17.2 inches. Thanks to her recent weight gain, she's losing that wrinkled alien look. Most of your baby's bones are hardening now, but her skull is still quite pliable. It's actually in separate pieces with spaces in between. This flexible structure allows your baby's head to compress so it can fit through your relatively narrow birth canal. The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance. This is totally harmless, normal, and temporary. Her skull plates won't completely fuse until she's about 9 to 18 months old.

Countdown: 8 weeks to go!

By now, your baby probably weighs almost 4 pounds and is almost 17 inches long. Her fingernails have grown in completely. Some babies have a head of hair already, while others have only peach fuzz. Your baby is taking up a lot of space in your uterus, but those tight quarters shouldn't reduce her activity level. You may have heard that it's normal for babies to slow down later in pregnancy, but that's not true. If you notice any reduction in your baby's movements, call your healthcare provider.

Molly's First Mother's Day

Here we are, counting down 9 more weeks!

Week 31... Growth Spurt?!

Your baby measures about 16 inches long. She weighs a little over 3 pounds and is headed for another growth spurt. She can turn her head from side to side. Of course, she doesn't yet understand that this movement means "no," but you'll be surprised how quickly she picks up on that and other gestures after she's born. The fat layer she's been accumulating for the last few weeks has caused her arms and legs to fill out nicely.

Week 30... Only 10 weeks left!

Your baby's a bit more than 15 1/2 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and fills out your uterus. Your baby is now able to distinguish between light and dark, and she can even follow a light source back and forth. Once she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but won't be able to see more than a few inches in front of her face. You'll want to hold her close as much as possible so she can get a good look at you.

The Landek Mobile!

Sadly, Ryan has had to retire his bachelor-mobile in favor of a more car-seat friendly ride. We got a 2006 Honda CR-V. I think we'll need to pimp out our new whip with some rims and a monster sound system. Kidding, I'm kidding. No I'm not.

She's getting so big!

By this week, your baby weighs a little over 2 pounds and measures about 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. Her fat layers are continuing to build up as she gets ready for life outside the womb. The big news this week is that your baby can open and close her eyes — which now sport full lashes. This movement is more of a reflexive blink than a deliberate opening and closing, but it won't be long before she's batting those beauties at you.

Here's her pictures (week 21)

As promised (if not a little late). These are all pretty similar. Just side views of Peanut's head. The video is far better but I haven't even got to putting that on the computer.

It's a Girl!

Pictures to follow.

Peanut's heartbeat

We rented a doppler off the internet to hear Peanut's heartbeat. It took a couple of tries but we finally found it:

peanut.wav

I think I calculated it to be ~140 beats per minute. Crazy.

More Peanut pictures from Week 13

On most of these you can see the ultrasound technician's descriptions.

On the top of the 3-picture strip you can see Peanut's arms. Peanut is looking at us with his/her head on the left.

The middle one is very similar to the picture on the bottom. This is a picture of Peanut's face head-on. You can see the two halves of the brain and the teeth. This one kinda looks like an alien.

The bottom one is Peanut "in profile." The head (looking up), the neck, and part of Peanut's chest are visible. You can see the nose, the teeth and the spine.

I feel like a museum tour guide with all those descriptions. Cool stuff though.

Peanut on 1/9/07

This one is pretty hard to see. Better ones to follow.

Peanut: Week 9