Going Home

Jeff and I were glad to leave the hospital on Monday so that we could start our new life with Baby Ellen as part of our family. Our mild tempered (so far) little angel didn't make a peep during her first ride in her car seat or when her big brother Tyson sniffed her before giving his seal of approval...

Hospital Visitors

Wendy and Kim were some of Ellen's first visitors : )

Nurses and Midwife

We really liked our nurses and midwives that we had for Ellen's birth. The nurse on the left in the first picture was named Alyssa and had been a labor and delivery nurse for 30 years. She is the one that suggested a new position at the end that helped me deliver Ellen. The nurse on the right was named Kris and had two natural deliveries, so I felt her support from the beginning.

The midwife that was on call was Jessica. I had only met with her a couple of times during my monthly check-ups. As with most of my appointments, they treated me like a baby delivering machine since it was my 2nd pregnancy and didn't spend a lot of time with me. I got the same impression when I arrived at the hospital. As I was walking the halls Jessica would happen to walk out of another room and she would say, "Looking good! Do your thing girl" or something like that. I was like, am I doing it right??? Anyway, looking back, there is nothing more she could have really done because we were just waiting on Ellen to be ready for delivery. When transition started around 9:00, Jessica was totally there to help me. She was especially helpful the last 30 min or so during the pushing stage. I could tell by her voice that she knew what she was doing and let her guide me in the last steps of the delivery.

Here are Ellen and I with the team an hour or so after her birth...

Ellen's First 3 Nights

Night 1: I held Ellen all night because I couldn't put her down. She practiced nursing, but mostly slept. No crying.

Night 2: Exactly like her big brother, Ellen started crying when she was about 20 hours old and cried for several hours. Nursing would soothe her for 15 min or so, but then she would get upset again. We figured, like with Lucas, it was because she was hungry and my milk wasn't in yet. Why did Mother Nature design us this way!?

Night 3: Ellen slept soundly from about 2pm to 11pm, with breaks for nursing, so we thought that she would surely be awake most of the night again. I nursed her at 11pm and then we went to sleep with Ellen beside our bed in a basket. She woke up a couple of hours later to nurse, but went right back to sleep in her basket. She only slept for about half an hour, and I was so tired, so I tried a position I had figured our earlier in the day. I held her in the traditional, across the chest baby hold and then just laid down in bed so that her head was resting in the fold of my arm. I remember looking at the clock around 2am, 3am and 5am, but it was a very restful, peaceful night with Ellen sleeping and nursing as needed there beside me. It goes down as some of the best moments of my life that I hope I never forget... so peaceful, sweet and perfect.

The way I feel about Ellen...

I don't know if I ever actually said this on the blog, for fear of how I'd actually feel and Ellen seeing it later on, but I was afraid I wouldn't love Ellen as much as Lucas or as quickly as Lucas. I KNOW that every mom of one can relate to this. I knew it had to work, but was really afraid that it was impossible to find love for another child.

Because of these feelings, when they put Ellen on my chest I was overwhelmed by the love that I instantly felt for her. It was so amazing. Maybe it was because she looked so familiar (like Lucas) or because I didn't get to experience this with Lucas because he was vacuumed and had to be examined quickly, but it happened... I instantly loved her. Not only loved her, but was in love with her!

She was born around 11pm and it wasn't until 2am that Jeff and I were settled into our room and ready to go to sleep. They gave me a lecture about sleeping with Ellen in the bed with me before they left us alone. I tried to put her in her bassinet, but it was impossible to leave that little baby alone. I scooped her up and just held her all night while she slept and practiced nursing. I was so pumped on my natural high that there was no way I was going to sleep anyway. The thoughts that were going through my mind were, "Wow, this is so amazing. I can't believe what just happened. I can't believe that Jeff and I made this baby. We prepared for her for 9 months and now she's here. This is SO amazing. I can't believe that she is part of our family and she looks a little like all three of us. We're so blessed by this little girl."

Three days later I still feel the same. I can't wait to hold her when I'm not and I could look at her little face all day long. Sweet Ellen : )

Going Home from Hospital

We were so happy to be leaving the hospital and get home to start our life with two kids and a Tyson. Here is baby Ellen in her going home outfit (same one Lucas wore) and her pink blanket that Aunt Jenn sent her...

Big Brother Lucas

Lucas met his baby sister for the first time when she was about 12 hours old. It was one of my proudest moments as his mother. When he walked into the hospital room he had such a proud look on his face. His eyes were twinkling and his smile was so big. I made sure that I wasn't holding Ellen, so he ran and jumped on the bed and gave me a hug, and then he looked at Jeff holding his baby sister and said, "Lucas hold her?"

Lucas was sitting on the hospital bed when Jeff put Ellen in his arms. He held her with two hands like he'd done it a hundred times before. He smiled as he held her and looked at her. His cousin, Max, was also on the bed and asked if he could hold her. Lucas said, "Sure, here ya go" as he started to pick her up and hand her to Max. Of course we quickly jumped in to help, but he was so confident and possessive of her... he knew he was the big brother : )

We had to laugh at the chaos that the three boys brought into the hospital room. This is Ellen's life! She will have those three crazy boys making noise around her for many years to come. They were all three very gentle, but were hanging on her bassinet and rolling cars on it...

Sweet, Sweet Baby Ellen

Meeting Ellen for the First Time

Ellen with her Dada

Mama and Dada amazed by Ellen already!

Proud Mama

Introducing Ellen

I'm sure Shanna will post the details of the labor in the near future, so I'll leave that to her. I would like to say that Shanna was amazing and I was blown away by her performance. Both she and Ellen are doing great.

Ellen Claire Schroeder

Born Oct. 18th at 10:52 PM

Weight: 7 lbs. 5 oz.

On our way...

It's 5pm and LB is still asleep (late nap). We're about to wake him up and go over to Mike and Jill's house. We'll hang out there until we think it's time to go the hospital.

The contractions are still about 8 min apart, but they are almost exactly one minute in duration and always start at 40 seconds past the hour, so there is SOME consistency. The pain level has increased. I now have to stop what I'm doing and lean on something as I breathe in and out deeply.

Next post will probably be of the baby! I want Lucas to meet her before we post a picture, so please be patient with us...

First Stage of Labor

The book that we got in our birth class with Lucas is coming in handy. It has a chart that describes each stage of labor, how you should feel, how you are probably acting, etc. I think that I am in or transitioning into the First Stage of Labor, but maybe am still in the Early First Stage. The next stage is Late First Stage of Labor and is when it becomes active and more intense. So this is going slow, but I think that's good. The contractions are becoming more intense, but nothing that serious. I mean, I can still blog : ) I feel great about it so far.

We've been doing a good job of keeping busy. We dropped off some stuff at Goodwill, boxes at the recycling place, books at the library and then went to the park so that Jeff could play with Lucas on the monkey bars. After that we came home for lunch... Sandy made Lucas and me whole wheat pasta and apples (Lucas also had turkey). Then I put Lucas down for his nap, went for a walk around the block with Sandy, and called the midwife. She said what I thought she would say... that I shouldn't come in until the contractions are about 5 min apart and very intense. I think after Lucas wakes up we will get ready and maybe drive to Mike and Jill's house. They live close to the hospital and the plan is for Lucas to stay with them so that Sandy can come to the hospital with us and be there when the baby is born (not in the room, but in the hospital like my mom was for Lucas).

What a great day to have a baby... it's about 60 degrees, overcast, and there are colorful leaves all over the streets and yards... very fall!

Early First Stage of Labor!

The steak tacos worked! I'm trying not to get too excited, but I had contractions start at 5:24 this morning and they have consistently been between 6-10 minutes apart until now (10:30). My Bradley book says that adrenalin can cause labor to stop, so we're just trying to go about our day and just keep an eye on how far apart they are. This is so much nicer than what happened with Lucas. First of all, I don't think I have back labor. With Lucas it was constant pain from about 6am to 2am, even when there were no contractions (because he was sitting on my back somehow). With this labor, so far, the contractions last about 30-45 seconds and then I can't even tell there is anything going on. Jeff, Lucas and I took Tyson on a long walk... it is a nice, cool fall day here, so it was perfect. I've just now had to start concentrating on my breathing (breathing into my toes like we learned in class), but until now I've been able to keep talking and walking through the contractions. I had some toast with PB for breakfast and just had some broth from the lentil soup that Sandy made. Lucas is getting restless, so I think we're about to go to the park. I really don't expect to go to the hospital, or even call them, for a few more hours. So far this labor is very textbook and I feel great! Will keep you posted...

Oh yeah, I wanted to describe the feeling so that I can remember it. The contraction starts with a very slight pain in my lower back and kind of reaches around my belly while my belly contracts (gets harder). They seem to peak at about 20 seconds and gradually fade away. They are not painful yet, but just starting to get a little uncomfortable.

40 Wks and 1 Day Fun with Lucas and Sasa

This morning Lucas, Sasa, and me went to Pullen Park to ride the pig, ostrich, horsey and train... "it was fun mama!", as Lucas said when we were leaving. The weather was nice and cool making it a great day to hang out outside.

Lucas is having such a great time with Sasa. He giggles and giggles all day around her. He sat next to her on the train (take my word for it because Sasa doesn't like pictures taken of her)...

And then he road the rocket ship with mama...

Then we played on the wooden playset...

And Lucas monkeyed around on the monkey bars...

And then went for a swing on the big boy swings...

But the most fun was had at Target checking out the Halloween gadgets (for 30 min!)...

Later at home we made silly faces into the camera...

We ended the day with dinner at a mexican restaurant whose steak tacos are rumored to push expecting women into labor... it's worth a try! Lucas and Charles were such good boys... they acted silly, had 2 year old conversations, played with their trucks, played with markers, ate steak and chicken and then had a big bowl of ice cream for dessert...

Here are the two turkeys with their dadas...

No Baby News Yet

My sister begs me to remember how much time an infant consumes and to enjoy the extra time to relax and hang out with Lucas : )

40 Week Appointment

My first ultrasound showed that I was due on 10/17, but then at some point the doctors changed it to 10/16, so today is my official due date according to my OB. I had an appointment this morning at 9am that didn't go so well, but looking back it was due to a number of different factors. Basically, the day started off with Lucas waking up from 4:30-6:30am for no apparent reason... just wanted to be awake. He hasn't woken up during the night for a few weeks, so it was strange. I never went back to sleep, so that was strike one. Strike two was that my OB practice has 3 midwives, but one is out due to a broken arm and a second will be out in about 10 days due to a vacation she's had scheduled for a year. Looking back, it's totally clear that the doctor that I saw was stressed out due to scheduling issues, but I didn't figure that out until later. So when she came in and told me that if I wanted a midwife for SURE that I might want to consider an induction next week. I told her that I'd pass on that and then she suggested that they strip my membranes to help labor progress so that an induction wouldn't be necessary in a couple of weeks. I was overwhelmed by the choices since I didn't think it was a big deal that the baby hadn't arrived by 9am on my due date. Anyway, they ended up checking my cervix, but not stripping any membranes (I don't even know what that really means!). I am 2cm dilated, but I could have been for the past month, so it doesn't really mean anything. That info will be useful when they check again and can see if there has been progression.

The good part of the visit was that I ran into Kristen and baby Elizabeth in the lobby and got to talk to Kristen about the appointment (a fellow Bradley mom) and then got to hold her baby while she had her appointment. It got me in baby mode : )

Sandy is coming in this afternoon and we're all excited. She's going to go with me to get Lucas from school this afternoon. The temp is supposed to drop tomorrow, so that could help start labor from what I hear...

Scratch that post from a couple of days ago...

No more signs of labor! Good thing because I've been dealing with Tyson all morning... poor baby has an ear infection and maybe an eye infection. On antibiotics and drops daily... can you believe the timing?

Jenn's Baby Update

Mary Lauren Tingle was born on 10/13/2008 at 8:49am. She weighed 7lbs and 13.4oz and was 19 in long. She has dark brown hair. Jenn sounds like she's doing great and Mary Lauren is too : )

Something is going on...

I'm pretty sure that labor is starting. Not hard labor, of course, but I'm having a ton of Braxton Hicks contractions and feel like she is sitting lower this morning. Yesterday around 3:30 I went to the grocery store and noticed that my belly was really hard almost constantly. When I got home I started writing down when these painless contractions started and saw a trend of about every 10 min. They didn't last that long and were irregular, but it was interesting. They stopped happening that frequently around dinner time, but I had to get up to use bathroom every 2 hours last night and my belly was hard each time I got up. This morning like she's a little heavier and lower, so it seems like those contractions pushed her down a little... ? I think this kind of stuff could go on for several days, so nothing to get too excited about. I am excited, however, that this may be a more textbook labor, although that could change at any moment. With Lucas I had absolutely no signs of labor until my water broke. At that point I knew that he would be born in about 24 hours. These practice contractions are kind of confusing because I feel like the baby could be born today, but she also may hang on until next week... but if it happens slowly then maybe it will be an easier labor than with Lucas.

Oh yeah, there is a full moon tonight! My friend across the street that will stay with Lucas if we leave in the middle of the night was so nice to call last night and ask if anything was going on because she knew there was a full moon this week : )

Smoothies!

Jenn's New Baby!

My sister had her baby this morning! I don't want to spoil her announcement with any of the details, but just wanted to say that the baby is healthy and Jenn is recovering nicely... she sounded great on the phone just now... how exciting!

Six Years Ago Today...

Happy Anniversary JB... I love you!

Family Fun Day

I really wanted to go to a pumpkin farm or something fallish like that today, but the weather was still a little warm and muggy, so we opted for the children's museum instead. We hadn't been in a while... Lucas and Jeff loved it... not sure which one liked it more. Lucas made his first stop at the fish tank...

Then he made Dada breakfast...

Then he made a stop at a 2nd fish tank to see the SHARK!

Next we did some water play...

And then built an igloo!

It was way more fun, however, to "knock it down!"

So we moved to the Lego room to build a house and then "knock it down again!"

We ended the outing across the street where they had had a race earlier in the morning and still had booths and kid activities setup. Lucas had his eye on this giant jumping, sliding thing. We KNEW he wouldn't want to go in it, so were surprised when he walked right in. We sent dada in with him though since there were a lot of big kids pushing their way through it. As he and dada were standing in line I overheard him tell Jeff, "Go with dada. Mama too big." (what the heck?!)

Here is the little turkey coming down the slide...

Lucas E. and Lucas B.

Lucas hadn't seen his friend Lucas Edward in a while, but when we saw them on Friday at Fallon Park they picked up right where they left off. It was fun to see them have so much fun together. After spending a couple of hours playing in the creek, throwing BIG rocks, running on the trails, jumping on the picnic tables, and playing in the water fountains, it was time to go home. They were walking in front of Susie, John, Jeff and me having their own little conversation when Lucas E. asked Lucas B. if he wanted to hold hands... how cute!

And then somehow Lucas E. negotiated a little push on his tricycle...

Lucas B. was so tired when we got home... here he is watching "street" about to fall asleep.