Welcome to the World, Ella Rae!

Ella Rae Malcolm made her grand entrance into the world at 11:33pm on July 17....right on her due date!  I am so excited to have another niece to love and spoil!  Ella is absolutely perfect (just like big sister, Ava) and has a head full of hair!  She weighed more than Kai did at birth, but she seems so itty bitty, especially next to Kai!!

I got the call from Wendy at about 5:00 on Friday night that she was having some contractions and was going to wait for Darren to get off work and head for the hospital.  That put Tyson and I on Ava-duty!  They dropped her off around 7:30pm and after a bath and Diego, off to bed she went.  Then it was Kai's turn to go to bed.  I had been texting my mom during all of this, trying to decide if I was going to sneak away to the hospital or not.  Finally my mom sent me at message at 10:49pm saying "COME NOW!"  I quickly changed out of my pjs and put on some make-up and off I went (after waking up Tyson to tell him he was in charge).  My mom was texting me the whole time and I was starting to think that I was going to arrive late.  I finally made it to Labor & Delivery and spotted my dad sitting in the hallway.  As soon as I approached the door I heard, "OH MY GOSH! Is it a boy or a girl?!  IT'S A GIRL!!!"  I made it JUST as baby Ella arrived!  Darren slipped out to share the news soon after, but my dad and I already knew. :)  All we heard for the next few minutes were the loudest screams and cries I have ever heard!  The nurse told us that Ella takes the cake for the loudest baby.

Finally we were able to go in and meet her.  Immediately I thought that she looks like Ava, but not identical.  She definitely has some similar features, but has some of her own too.

Proud Mommy & Daddy (and this is what 5 minutes of pushing looks like btw)

Beautiful baby girl

  
Then my mom told me to take off her hat....

A hair stylist's dream!

I love being an aunt!! It ranks just under being a mommy!


   Tuesday night (or was it Wednesday morning now?!)                                                  Wednesday afternoon

My mom and I brought Ava to meet her little sister on Wednesday morning.  We kept telling her that the baby's name was baby Ella.  She kept getting it confused with her doll, Baby Stella.  Although she's not as interested in Ella as Wendy would like her to be, she still loves her and was talking about "her sister" later in the day after we had left the hospital.

Although I knew that Kai was going to seem so much bigger once Baby Malcolm Ella arrived, I couldn't wait to see the comparison.

Ava spent the night at our house again on Wednesday night, along with Nana.  We waited for Wendy to call on Thursday to tell us they were leaving and then we went to meet them at home.  Ava was excited to be home and I'm sure will warm up to Ella soon.  She's going to be a great big sister!

One more of Ella because it's too cute not to post!

The babes relaxing at Malcolm's!

Now we're wondering how long it will take for Ella to catch up to Kai in weight and length.  Ava was a good eater, so if Ella follows in her footsteps, Kai might get passed up by baby Ella in a couple months. :)