Sunny Days!

I love nice Spring weather... I crave it! And we have had a couple of those days. It gives me the itch to be outside, to cookout, to be active. I only pray there are more of these days to come before I have to go back to work! Earlier this week I convinced Heather to bring the girls down to Manchester and go to the park. It was a quick trip, but definitely a fun one!

Today was another fabulous day... Ella and I met Jill and Cade at Subway for a healthy lunch and then we went to the park for a nice walk and some play time. It was gorgeous outside!!! I picked up a bubble wand at Wal-Mart for Cade and we had a blast chasing bubbles. He was king of the playground, fearless! I love it... He is such a big boy now :)

Ella really enjoys the fresh air. I think she is going to be an outdoor girl like her mother... hehehe!

We're doing good....

Last Friday Ella had her two week check up. She weighed in at 6 lbs 6.5oz and her length was 19 5/8in. She is growing so well!!! She gained 10oz. in 11 days. At that visit I asked if we could give her a real bath since she lost her umbilical cord. She did not enjoy it... neither did I! I was stressed and I think she was cold? Who knows, hopefully it will get better. But here are some naked baby pictures of her and her first bath!

Ella Jean is here!

My computer has been out of order for a couple of weeks, so most of you have already heard but Ella Jean is here!!!!

Monday, February 18th, I had a normal day at work. I joined Mary Helen and Melissa along with the kiddos for lunch and then went to Melissa's that evening to discuss her watching Ella when I return to work. I made it home that evening pretty tired with swollen feet! We went to bed around 10pm. Me in the our bed and Jeramy in the guest bed, he was not getting any sleep because I was snoring soooo loud! Around 11:45 I got up to use the bathroom, when I returned to bed I got a cramping sensation in my lower abdomen. I thought "Is this a contraction?" Well no biggie, I will wake up if it persists! At 12:11 MY WATER BROKE! What the.....

After a short panic from Jeramy :) we finally mad it to the hospital around 1:30am on Febrary19th. By 3:30am Heather was already at the hospital! I really contemplated on calling her because I knew she would not go back to bed! :) Around 4am the nurses started the patossin. Mom joined us around 6am with some biscuits and cream filled dough nuts that Heather enjoyed and I really think it sent me into my first big contraction! (Big laughs in the delivery room!!!) As the morning went on my contractions got stronger and stronger... By 10:30ish I got the epidural and dilated from a 4 to an 8! Oh My!!! By 12:34pm Ella Jean was here. 6lbs 4oz 18 3/4 inches! I pushed for 14 minutes and the end result was a beautiful little girl with a head full of dark hair!!! Wow I suddenly don't remember all of the pain I just endured.

Jeramy was amazing during the whole process!!!! He is one proud daddy :) He was so excited and was able to coach me and watch the whole delivery at the same time. Talk about a new kind of love between a husband and a wife!

After we returned home on Thursday, Ella's bilirubin levels elevated and she had to sit on a photo light therapy mat for a couple of days. It was a very stressful couple of days. By the next Monday her levels had dropped back down. She still has some yellow color in her skin and eyes, but she is not having any problem eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom!

We are all doing so great and we are truly blessed to have such a sweet little girl! Thank you to everyone who has shown us sooo much love and support...it really means a lot to us!

Pics from my last Baby Shower

SWEET ELLA!

So in my last post I talked about my amazing family and all of the wonderful baby showers they have given us...

These pictures are from a shower, given by Pam and Melissa, in Manchester. Let me start by saying I love detail! And BOTH of my showers were full of detail. Now saying my family is amazing, well that is an understatement! The thought and the love they have put into giving me the perfect baby shower is just incredible...

This is a picture of my cake. It mimics the shower invitations, how cool is that! It was beautiful and delicious.

Everybody got to take home a package of cookies. They also have Ella's monogram on it.

After my first shower, I realized I never got a picture with my beautiful Mother!



Opening my first gift of the day!

The next two pictures are of a receiving blanket and an afhan that was made for Ella. Mrs. Riddle started these the moment she new we were pregnant and I was so excited to get them! She is so good to us...

This last picture is of two different gifts. On Friday we went over to our good friends, Kent and Jill's to have some pizza. They gave us three embroidered burp clothes and an embroidered bloomer. They are the cutest designs I have ever seen!!!

At my shower my mom gave me this little outfit for Ella. I opened up and got so tickled because it matched the design of the burp cloths! So I had to take a picture of them together. How cute is this:

After nine amazing months and some of the best baby showers I could have ever been given, I have to say that we are ready for our sweet Ella! Thank you to everyone who has been so giving and so generous to me and Jeramy. We are so blessed and thankful for all of our friends and family!

Now bring on that BABY!!!!

Thick and Full!

These were the words used to describe my cervix! Yeah I know this is a gross topic to all the men, but I'm not even sure that there are that many men who read my blog...so I will continue! In the past two weeks I haven't really felt all that great. I'm moving around slower, I'm having lots of pressure and even some really sharp pains "down there." I just knew that when I went to the doctor that I would hear some sort of news. My first exam in 8 months was yesterday and let me tell you it was a much awaited appointment. The last two weeks have felt like two months!!! Anxiety I guess? So I ask Jeramy to go to this appointment with me, it could be exciting or not...

We get to the doctor's office only to find out that my doctor was in delivery. "Do you want to see Nan, the nurse practitioner?" I ask "Can she give me the same news that Dr. Jones can?" Marge says "Yep, and she is going to test you for Strep B!" My thoughts... "Great!"

They call us back and go through the usual routine: pee in a cup, weight check and blood pressure. Yeah I won't hit on too many details here except for when I saw my weight gain, I blushed! "I am going to get in T-R-O-U-B-L-E!!!!" I mean what the hay! 6 pounds? Is this possible, in two weeks! YIKES... Yeah it was the end of the day and I had on winter clothes and I've had 4 baby showers, two of which were mine! Point being...I love cake! So maybe I should of been a little more careful. Oh I am going to blame a little of it on water retention! Monday I woke up and felt swollen... My hands felt warm and thick and my boots were pretty tight. Jeramy said my legs were thicker then normal.

Okay, back to the appointment... I can't stop laughing at how much my weight gain was, you know like that embarrassed, but shocked laugh that doesn't stop. That was me! She checks my fundal measurements and listens to the heartbeat, everything good there! Then she goes in for the kill. "Feet in the sturrups, butt to the edge!" She swabs the area, this was the Strep B test, "not so bad!" Then time to hear "you are moving along nicely, your cervix is about 25% effaced, but there is no dialation!" But this is not the case today... It was so fast, how can she even tell if there are any changes! "Well your cervix is Thick and Full!" Okay, so she's locked in tight. My mind keeps refering to Groundhog's Day... Six more weeks of winter! Technically I only have 4 weeks, but you catch my drift! Not that I want her to come today, but when you feel so much pressure and your body is feeling rough, it would be nice to hear some kind of progression!

This week, though, I have felt great! I'm sure these stages will come and go for the next couple of weeks. My little Ella Bean will make her appearence when she is ready! I am going to the doctor every week now, so I will keep you posted! I also have some pictures to post from my last baby shower given by Pam and Melissa! It was such a beautiful shower...man I have some great sisters!!! But I will tell you all about it soon....

Baby Showers

This was a busy weekend! I had baby shower #2 at my sister's house. This shower was with all of my long time friends and neighborhood family! It was given by Mary Helen and Heather, but of course, all of my SIL were there to help! (Next weekend Pam and Melissa are having a shower for all of my Manchester family and friends.) Ella and I received some wonderful things!!! I spent all day Sunday going through everything and organizing her room. WOW, babies sure do have a lot of stuff :)


Here is Pam, Mary Helen, Me, Heather and Melissa in front of the gift table!

Before it became the gift table it was the food table! That is one of the MANY benefits of our showers...THE FOOD IS WONDERFUL!!!

I love Petit Fours!!!

Look how gorgeous it all is...

These are prayer cards. They were passed out among my friends and family and each person read a prayer for Ella. There were even prayers for Mommy and Daddy. This is such an emotional prayer and I am truly blessed to have the people that mean the most to me pray this for my new family!

Beautiful flowers were everywhere!

The next couple are some of the great gifts we received!

And this is the gift table after I had opened all of the presents! Look at all of that wonderful stuff... And it will all be used :)

After my showerI had to quickly return to Manchester to go and enjoy another baby shower. This was a couples shower for our good friends Pete And Cheryl! They are having a little girl named Kayla Brooke. Cheryl and I are only a couple days a part in our deliveries... I have a feeling these two little girls are going to be good friends :)

This was a fun shower! The boys put together an awesome shrimp boil.

This was a little game the boys played. They all had baby bottles with some beer in it. The object was who could suck the beer out fastest, well Jeramy gave it such a go, his nipple collapsed! (The funny thing was, everybody's nipple was cut, except for Pete's! So he was having the hardest time finishing the beer. All of the ladies knew, so we were just giggling the whole time.)

Here stands the proud winner, Jason!

What a great, but exhausting, weekend!

Jeramy's 31st Birthday and Our 1st Baby Shower

Jeramy and I have had a great weekend! Friday was Jeramy's 31st Birthday and we kicked it off Thursday night with a cake I made for him. We just couldn't wait to cut into it, so I added some candles and of course I had to sing him "Happy Birthday!" Friday, January 25th, was the special day, but we had to work so we just proceeded as normal with our schedules. That evening we celebrated over some good ole' German food at Gausthaus. We stuffed our faces and came home and watched a movie...in which we both fell asleep! Aren't we exciting folks :) But we spent some great time together and that is what is important.

This is a little cake my mom got for Jeramy.

Saturday evening we had our 1st Baby Shower. It was a couples shower given by our great friends Brad & Katy. This was a really fun shower! The group was small and it made it that much more fun. We played the "dirty diaper game" and enjoyed each others company.

This is us opening our first gift from Brian and Angel!

We received lots of great things for Ella! A changing pad and cover, a Boone Frog toy scoop for the bathtub, which I think Jeramy will love more then Ella, some photo albums, lots of little goodies, an adorable little bath robe, and a beautiful sun dress! There was so much more and we are so thankful for it all!

Today, Sunday, the first thing I did was go into Ella's room and go through all of the fun stuff :) Her room is officially a tornado at this point, guess I need to start organizing and washing clothes this week. We picked up the house, went to get a bite to eat and enjoyed the beautiful day outdoors. We met some friends at the farm and watched to dogs play fetch and soaked up the afternoon sun! It was wonderful....