Ella- 1 month old

Ella reached 1 month old at the end of February...the time really flew by! Finally she was back up to her birth weight...at her 1 month check up she was 9lbs 3 oz, so just barely over the 9lbs she started at. The doctor was happy with her progress at this point and he told me I didn't have to come back until she was 2 months old! That was great news...we had become a fixture at the clinic, I think. Ella is much more alert at this age, always looking around with her big 'little professor' eyes (Marshall's nickname when he was a baby!). Everyone comments on how much she looks like Caleb as a baby.

In other Dean family news...Marshall had his gall bladder removed on February 25th. It seems like he had to follow in the tradition of having some major medical issue after the birth of a child! When Caleb was 6 weeks old, Marshall broke his ankle playing softball and ended up needing surgery to repair it. This time around, a couple days after Ella's birth, Marshall started having extremely painful episodes. We had no idea what was causing it and after a few days he went to see his doctor. The doctor suspected maybe an ulcer and ordered a scope procedure to check his stomach and also an ultrasound. The scope showed everything to be pretty normal (there is a small growth that is going to be removed on May 10th) but the ultrasound showed a lot of gall stones...the culprit of the pain! So we scheduled the surgery and it all went pretty well...Marshall is back to normal now and pretty much pain free. What a relief it wasn't something more serious...but we better not have any more kids, who knows what else could happen!!