3 Weeks!

This past Wednesday Ellie turned 3 weeks old! I can't believe how fast time is going by. It seems like she was just born last week. UGH! If I knew how to slow time down I would do it without hesitation.

She's still an adorable newborn but she's quickly loosing her newborn look. She's looking more like a beautiful baby girl and less and less like a grumpy old man. When she was first born I instantly thought she looked just like Gary's Grandpa Hall which only goes to show what an old man she was!

I love the shape of her almond eyes. When she's eating I can't stop looking at her and when I do look at the TV or computer for a while I feel so guilty for not staring at her longer. This guilt sets in when I'm not holding her too. If I could eat, shower, get dressed and clean with her attached to me I would. I am madly in love with this baby girl and I can't get enough of her.

There were a few days where Ellie was staying up til 1:00 am. She would then wake up between 3:00 and 4:00 to eat again and then again around 7:00. This was making me really grumpy. I feel bad but I would get so frustrated that I'd have to just hand her over to Gary and he'd take her upstairs to play till 1:00 when she'd finally sleep. The next day I'd feel so bad for being so frustrated though. She really is worth all the sleep deprivation in the world!

The past few days she's gone back to her good old sleeping pattern. She goes to sleep around 10:00 and sleeps til about 3:00 or 4:00, eats for an hour (after I change her diaper) and goes back to sleep til about 7:00 or 8:o0. We get up and I eat breakfast and maybe shower. Then we go back to bed for her skin to skin feeding and nap. When we wake up I get her dressed for the day and she starts her day of eating, sleeping, pooping, eating more, sleeping more and pooping some more! Finally at 6:00 when Daddy comes home we try to keep her awake til 9:00 or 10:00 when we all go to bed together but not before we read scriptures in English and Spanish and say our prayers.

I jinxed myself. I was bragging confidently last night that Ellie sleeps well through the night. I of course have to wake her up to feed her every 3 hours since she's too little to sleep through the night but she lets us sleep and even when she does wake up, she lays there so calmly. She's been perfect. She eats all day long but I have been fine with that since it results in this great nights sleep.

Last night was a whole new deal. It was similar to her first night of life. She fell asleep at 9:00. It was bit earlier than I like to go to bed but I figured the extra sleep wouldn't be a bad idea. As usual, I had to wake her up after 3 hours. She ate and I changed her. She went back to bed as usual. An hour later she woke up to eat. Another hour later, again, she woke up to eat. And again, and again and again every hour til 6:45 when Gary's alarm went off. He was so sweet and took her upstairs as he got ready for work. Knowing I was beyond tired he woke up his parents to keep her while I slept. I got to sleep for 3 full hours and it was wonderful!

Now lets just hope she sleeps better tonight!

Our First Week

Well, I survived my first week with Ellie! Gary went back to work on Monday and I really wasn't sure how I'd survive alone with no one to help hold her feet back while changing her, no one to pick her up out of her bed, no one to burp her. It certainly made me realize that doing this as a single parent would be quite a haste.

I have learned to manage alone during the day. Each afternoon I look so forward to Gary's return home. He is such an amazing dad and he really is the perfect husband. I'm so blessed!

This morning (it's Saturday) I woke up to my baby MIA. I was almost concerned until I realized that her daddy had taken her out of the room to let me sleep in! See, he really is perfect. He even did something he swore he'd never do. He changed a poopy diaper and he did that perfectly too.

Ellie and I have certainly bonded this week and I'm thankful for that. I have started to figure her out and I am learning new things about her every day (like: she loves to suck on my index finger but will scream if you giver her a pacifier). She is the sweetest little baby and I'm madly in love with her.

As a side note, I am extremely thankful that my body is recovering so well! I feel awesome and I have already lost 24 of my 31 pounds. Seven pounds to go and I'll weigh as much as I did before I was pregnant. I don't know how that's possible. I really think it's because I worked all 9 months and chasing 16 toddlers is a lot of exercise.  I'm 90% convinced that my stomach is smaller now than it was before I was pregnant. Seriously.

Being a New MomI

I spent the first few day's of Ellie's life trying very hard to soak up every second. I wanted to remember it all. I took and still take pictures all of the time trying to savor it all. I know that this time is going to fly by and that I need to enjoy every moment of being a new mom. I am trying!

I wanted to write a little about what it's like but right now, it feels so boring I'm not all too inspired to write about it. A day looks like this:

6:45 Gary's alarm goes off
7:20 He leaves for work. I either am sleeping or up with the baby. If I'm up I eat with him and follow him around like a lost puppy trying to enjoy each moment with him. Once he leaves we go back to sleep.
Between 8:00 and 9:00 Ellie and I decide to get up for the day. We go up and eat breakfast with Gary's parents.
Once I'm done with breakfast Kent or Jeannette hold's Ellie while I shower.
We go downstairs with 2 filled water bottles and strip down for a skin to skin feeding and nap.
Around noon we go back upstairs and eat lunch.
We come back down stairs, Ellie naps, I do tasks such as making appointments, helping Gary with business chores.
As Ellie wakes, sleeps, eats, poops, sleeps, eats and poops some more I watch TV, blog, take pictures of her, email my mom, facebook... look at Ellie
Finally at around 5:45 Gary comes home and we smother him with love. The poor boy is bombarded because I have missed him all day long.
6:00 We all eat dinner with Gary's parent's.
7:00 Gary, Ellie and I get in bed and spend the evening together. Gary reads Ellie scriptures in Spanish. After feedings he snuggles with her as I read scriptures in English. He then sings her hymns in Spanish.
Around 10:00 Gary goes to bed and Ellie and I start her cluster feedings
Between 11:00 and 12:00 she goes down to bed.
3-5 hours later she wakes up for a changing and feeding and goes back to sleep
6:45ish Gary's alarm goes off and we start all over again


I love my simple days. I love spending all of my time with my adorable baby girl.

Being a New MomI

I spent the first few day's of Ellie's life trying very hard to soak up every second. I wanted to remember it all. I took and still take pictures all of the time trying to savor it all. I know that this time is going to fly by and that I need to enjoy every moment of being a new mom. I am trying!

I wanted to write a little about what it's like but right now, it feels so boring I'm not all too inspired to write about it. A day looks like this:

6:45 Gary's alarm goes off
7:20 He leaves for work. I either am sleeping or up with the baby. If I'm up I eat with him and follow him around like a lost puppy trying to enjoy each moment with him. Once he leaves we go back to sleep.
Between 8:00 and 9:00 Ellie and I decide to get up for the day. We go up and eat breakfast with Gary's parents.
Once I'm done with breakfast Kent or Jeannette hold's Ellie while I shower.
We go downstairs with 2 filled water bottles and strip down for a skin to skin feeding and nap.
Around noon we go back upstairs and eat lunch.
We come back down stairs, Ellie naps, I do tasks such as making appointments, helping Gary with business chores.
As Ellie wakes, sleeps, eats, poops, sleeps, eats and poops some more I watch TV, blog, take pictures of her, email my mom, facebook... look at Ellie
Finally at around 5:45 Gary comes home and we smother him with love. The poor boy is bombarded because I have missed him all day long.
6:00 We all eat dinner with Gary's parent's.
7:00 Gary, Ellie and I get in bed and spend the evening together. Gary reads Ellie scriptures in Spanish. After feedings he snuggles with her as I read scriptures in English. He then sings her hymns in Spanish.
Around 10:00 Gary goes to bed and Ellie and I start her cluster feedings
Between 11:00 and 12:00 she goes down to bed.
3-5 hours later she wakes up for a changing and feeding and goes back to sleep
6:45ish Gary's alarm goes off and we start all over again


I love my simple days. I love spending all of my time with my adorable baby girl.

Ellie Renae Hall

The Birth Story

On Tuesday November 1st I went in for my weekly appointment knowing we were going to be setting up a day to be induced. I was nervous! I was excited! I was scared.

The doctor measured me, listened to the heart beat and checked for dilation. When she said "wow! You are a bit more dilated than you were last week" I expected to hear I was at a 2 maybe 3. No, I was at a 1.5 cm and 75% effaced. I was disappointed that I hadn't really progressed much... She then asked if I wanted to have the baby "tonight or tomorrow night"? With a snow storm on the way, I thought going in that night would be a good idea! She called the hospital and told me to go in at 9:30 pm to be induced. I was so excited!!!! Gary was bummed they wouldn't make time for us earlier in the day. We really wanted to have the baby on 11/1/11.

I called Gary first of course. He was incredibly excited since he was anxiously awaiting Ellie to come. He said "I don't like waiting! It's like waiting for Christmas morning but not knowing when it will come". I love how excited he was to meet the baby!

Second I called my work to let them know that I would be taking the rest of the day off. I wanted time to rest for my all nighter and to do some last minute cleaning and of course, I had to squeeze in one last Target shopping trip. I went out and stocked up on some things and headed home. I cleaned up the room, cleaned the sheets on our bed and did some laundry and vacuumed.

Gary came home early to get a nap in before the big event and we ate an early dinner. Jeanette made beef stroganoff and I made some Wingers sauce to go with it!  Gary and I tried resting though I'm not sure we actually got in any sleep.

At 8:50 I was ready to go and Gary, as usual, thought I was silly for being ready to go too early. I procrastinated a few minutes and at 9:00 we headed to the hospital. It was dark and snow was pouring. It took us a little longer than normal to get to the hospital but we still made it in time.

Gary dropped me off at the door with the suitcase and went to park the car. I waited in the foyer anxiously. On the way to the hospital I started feeling some cramps and assumed they were contractions. While I waited I felt more and they were a bit more intense. I was getting impatient due to the uncomfortable cramping.

Gary walked in and we headed to the second floor to the labor and delivery unit. We had to page the nurse to get in. It made me laugh, the nurse asked how she can help. Gary said "umm we are here to have a baby?" She let us in and took us to our room. I put our bags away, took off my shoes and tried to figure out how to get dressed into the hospital gown. I thought it was on backwards so I turned it around. It made us both laugh as we realized that it was obviously right the first time. I had to ask Gary if I was supposed to take off my underwear. I was that unsure of what I was supposed to be doing. I had to give a urine sample and when I did I noticed blood and what I'm 99% sure was my mucus plug. I think I was going into labor on my own!

The nurse came in and told us a little about what to expect and what she would be doing. She hooked me up to the baby heart monitor and the contraction monitor. Apparently my contractions were already fairly consistent. She checked me for dilation and found that I was still only 1.5 cm. We then waited a couple hours so they could get a base line.

A few hours passed and at 11:00 she gave me half of the pill to induce me. She said it would soften the cervix. She would monitor me for 2 hours and wait 2 hours. Then we'd get another pill and repeat the same process. She said after 4 doses of that pill if there was no progress they would induce through iv.

After giving me the half a pill she told us to get some sleep and we'll hopefully be having a baby in the morning! I was a bit disappointed. I didn't go in that night expecting to be sleeping. I thought I was there to have a baby, not sleep! How was I supposed to sleep anyway? Between the excitement and my uncomfortable cramping... I quickly became frustrated that she even expected me to sleep. Gary was already asleep and snoring which irritated me! Quickly the contractions got stronger, more uncomfortable and I only got more upset. I woke Gary up, mad that he got to sleep while I was uncomfortable. He was sweet and talked me through my discomfort.

The nurse came in after a while to ask how things were going. She asked what my pain level was and as far as I knew, I was in the most pain of my life. On a scale of 1-10, I said I was a 6. Gary and the nurse assured me I was probably a 3. Ok, whatever. I know I don't know what pain is so I agreed that I may be at a 3. The nurse gave me a sleeping pill and took off the monitors and offered to fill up the jacuzzi tub. I couldn't resist! Gary got up and helped me. I must say, offering a sleeping pill and a jacuzzi is a bad idea! I wanted to sleep but couldn't get comfortable in bed and couldn't sleep in the tub because I had to keep my arm which had an IV out of the water.

The soak in the tub relaxed me enough to want to go try to sleep. I'm not sure if I slept or not, if so I may have dozed between contractions. Finally around 3:00 I couldn't handle the pain anymore and asked the nurse to give me whatever pain medication was available. She had to check me again to see how dilated I was. I was really excited to hear that I was 4 cm dilated!  Waiting for that pain medication was horrible! I was so tired of feeling those painful contractions. I was very upset at how long it was taking to get the pain meds! She came back in and gave me some pain medication through my IV to ease the pain enough for me to get the epidural. Soon the anesthesiologist came in to get started on the epidural. Gary stood in front of me to help hold me still. He did a great job but locking his knees made him almost pass out. He asked the nurse  to come over and take his place and he had to go sit down. After that they wouldn't let him get out of the rolly chair.

The epidural seemed to kick in quickly. Gary says I was much happier and quickly went to sleep but not before declaring that the next time I have the baby the first thing I do as I walk in the hospital is to demand an epidural.

I was sleeping so nicely when I felt some movement where I didn't think I should be feeling movement. I polity called the nurse who did not respond. On the second page I informed them that I felt movement and they came in to see what was going on. I explained that I could feel movement down there. When she went to check me she noticed the baby had already crowed a couple inches! She quickly told me to hold still and not sneeze, laugh or cough as she quickly set up the room and paged the doctor. Anytime she left the room she would remind me to hold still and not sneeze, laugh or cough. When the second nurse came in our first nurse asked her where the doctor was and she told her the doctor had said she wanted me to push a couple times and she would be down in a minute. The first nurse said "I don't think she understands" and went back to re-page the doctor but not before she again reminded me not to push, sneeze, cough or laugh. As the nurses were panicky seting up the room in an effort to impress upon me the importance of not pushing she took my hand and had me reach down at which point I felt the baby's head.

Finally the doctor came in. She was a little startled. The first thing she said was "don't push". They put my legs up in the leg rests and asked Gary if he wanted to "catch" the baby. He said "no". The nurses assumed it was because he was afraid of fainting but he says he just didn't want to.

Once the doctor was ready, she asked me to push. About half a push in she yelled "stop!stop!stop!". They cleaned out Ellie's mouth and nose and pulled her out and placed her on my chest at 5:49 am. Gary then cut the umbilical cord. He said it was very rubbery.

While they stitched me up they weighed Ellie (7 pounds 2 ounces) and took her foot prints, trimmed her cord, and rubbed off all her gunk. They measured her out to be 19.5 inches long. Then the nurses and Gary went over to wash her up at the sink. They brought the baby back to me and Gary took some pictures. I was conscious but I do not remember any of this. Gary says I looked pretty haggard.

I had to have a few stitches. I asked the doctor how many and she said they don't really count them but I was getting some in two areas. I remember asking her questions and I'm sure she gave me some answers. I do remember being really calm and saying "I'm glad I got an epidural I'm sure getting stitches without pain meds would be pretty painful and the doctor agreed. After getting cleaned up the nurses said after such an easy pregnancy and delivery I was sure to have a hard time with nursing. They then handed Ellie over to be fed and she immediately latched on and started nursing. The doctor then told me to never tell anyone my delivery story or they would want to hurt me. She said "You are made to make babies".

After she ate, the nurses took me into the bathroom to help me figure out how to take care of the stitches. Once I was all set to go I got into the wheelchair, held the baby and was pushed upstairs for recovery. We then spent the day calling everyone we know, posting pictures and naively missing out on  sleeping opportunity. That night we of course realized we should have spent the day sleeping rather than doing whatever it was that we were doing.

The first night Ellie woke up as soon as I dozed off or Gary got snuggled up in his bed. We were extremely exhausted after 2 days with only a few hours of sleep. We both felt miserable each time we had to get up. Each time we set her down she would cry. Finally I did the worst thing I could do. I let her sleep with me. It was so nice though! I got a couple hours of un-interrupted sleep!

We then spent the next couple days being spoiled by nurses, fed great food on demand, and spent every waking moment with our baby. Gary sang her hymns in Spanish and read her scriptures in Spanish too. He's so sweet with her! It keeps making me cry. I just wish we could spend every day together and never have to be apart.