Eleanor and Amelia

Eleanor was so anxious for us to get home from the hospital! When we pulled up to our home we could see Eleanor's little face looking out the window. She had the biggest smile on her face and was waving so fast! Before I could even open my door she was right there. Of course she brought Amelia one of her animals and gave it to her.

While we were in the hospital, Mimi and Sara took Eleanor to have her pick out an outfit for Amelia to wear home. Eleanor was so excited to see that Amelia was wearing the little outfit. She was also so happy to hold Amelia. She didn't want to hold her for much more then a few seconds.

While I was in New York I bought Eleanor a newborn Middleton doll, thinking she would love having her own baby when I brought home Amelia. As you can see, she wasn't that thrilled about the doll. It's a good thing I had a new pair of dress up shoes on hand and John had a squishy spider for her.

We have been so pleased with how Eleanor has been with Amelia. She loves "her" baby. She told me today that when Amelia smiles it makes her smile. The first night we brought Amelia home, I heard Eleanor yell in her sleep, "Giver her back! She's my baby!". I'm so glad they get to have each other and can't wait for them to become best friends!

More photos

Eleanor the morning we left for the hospital.
Outside St. Marks
Waiting to see if my water had really broken.
Aunt Sara holding Amelia.
Uncle Dick and Amelia.
Aunt Jay and Amelia.

The three of us. We were so sad Eleanor couldn't come to the hospital.
The sweetest baby!
Grandma Martin


Dr. Sloan
Lori Hacking
Aunt Michele
Ashley

I think Amelia looks like a little doll in this photo. When they brought her to me like this I wanted to stand her up on a little shelf.
John, Amelia and one of the many great nurses.
Getting ready for the car seat check.
This photo helps show how little she is!

Amelia's first few days.

We seriously lucked out with Amelia. She is the dream baby! Yesterday we took her for her new born check up and she weighed 7lbs 8oz, only one ounce below her birth weight. She really does not cry, not even when we change her diaper. Last night she slept in 4 hour stretches! You see, I really do have the perfect baby. It's hard to put her down. I really could hold her all day long!

Poor Amelia has really sensitive skin. I feel so bad for her little face it always has little red spots all over it. We think she might have blue or hazel eyes. They definitely aren't the dark black that Eleanor's were at her age. I never thought I would have a child with blue eyes, but I would LOVE it!

Eleanor is doing great with her. She wants to give her all her treats and toys. This morning Amelia was laying in her bassinet and started fussing a little so Eleanor rushed over to check on her. I over heard her saying, "It's okay, Baby. I'm right here". She is also a little obsessed with me pumping. She told me that she is going to ask Santa Clause for a breast pump! She also told John that she is a big "girl" sister because her head is not shaved. (don't ask me where she came up with that!).

It really has been so much fun having Amelia home with us. She is so easy going and pleasant. Let's just hope she continues this way...

It's a GIRL!

We are so happy to have our new little Amelia here! She is so cute and we are in love with her! It's wild to think she has only been with us for a little over 15 hours and yet we can't imagine not having her with us!

Sunday morning around 7 am I woke up due to a pain in my back from Eleanor laying on me all night and found that my water had broke. I wasn't 100% sure because there wasn't too much water, but just to be safe John and I got up, showered, gathered a few things and headed for the hospital. Due to the swine flu, children under 14 are not allowed into the hospitals. Luckily, we had Mimi, Sara and Dick at our house and we were able to leave Eleanor home with them.

After arriving to the hospital we had a test to see if my water had really broke. The test came back negative but the nurse believed I had a high leak and sent us off walking around the hospital for an hour. After an hour of walking and regular contractions, I was dilated to a 4 and they admitted me. By this time it was already 10:30 am.

Once admitted, we got settled into the labor and delivery room and started calling family to tell them this was it! Around 12:30 I got my epidural and John went out to get some lunch. He got a little nervous when he didn't have cell reception and made sure to hurry back. For some reason the epidural never really numbed my right side so the Dr. upped the medicine which made me really sick. The epidural never really numbed my right side, but it did provide some relief and I was grateful for it.

My nerves started kicking in and I began thinking about Eleanor's birth and got a little anxious. With Eleanor my epidural had fallen out and I ended up pushing for 3 hours with no epidural. It was not fun! Anyway, I was so afraid this same thing would happen this time around and I started freaking out a little. Poor John kept trying to calm me down and help me get my mind off of it. It helped and I finally got a little rest.

Sara and Dick arrived around 2:30 and by this time I was at a 6 and surprised how fast I was progressing. I had forgotten to bring John and Eleanor's hospital photos and a few other things.

Around 3pm we they had shift change and we got our new nurse, Nicole. The second time she came in to check on things she started working fast and shifting me to a few different positions. The baby's heart rate was dropping pretty low and she was trying to get it to come back up. She told me she was going to have a few nurses come in and help out. Within seconds a crew of nurses came in and started moving! They put a monitor on the baby's head, hooked me up with some replacement amniotic fluid and put me in the most uncomfortable position. It was a little stressful for about 20 minutes, but finally they got me in a position that stabilized the baby's heart rate. I had to I was lay on my right side with my left leg up and bent. If I moved just the slightest, the babies heart rate would drop.

At this point I was up to a 7 and they said they would watch the baby's heart rate for a half hour and if it maintained at a healthily rate, they would start me on potassium to get things going a little faster.

At 4:15 Nicole came to check on things and told us I was at a good 9 and that the baby's head was right there. She called Dr. Yamashiro to see if he could make it. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to make it but his partner Dr. Sloan would be delivering me. She had already come in a few times to introduce herself and check on me and we really liked her. So Dr. Sloan was called in and by 4:30 they had me start pushing. Four contractions later and at 4:49 we got to see our sweet new baby! I was so excited to know if it was a little boy or a girl. I asked the Dr. right away what we had and instead of telling me, she just lifted the baby up so I could see for myself. I was SO excited when I saw that we had a new little GIRL!! The cord was around her neck and they didn't want her to cry because they were afraid she had swallowed a little meconium, but other then that she was perfect! She didn't last long before she made her first cry. They had a team from the NICU and they worked on her for a few minutes and made sure her lungs were cleaned out and she was breathing fine on her own. I remember looking over at her and thinking her skin was so pink and her little hair was so dark! I was so anxious to hold her!! I was so in love with her right when I saw her.

After they got her lungs cleared out they weighed and measured her. She weighed 7lbs 8oz and was 20 inches long. I had guessed she'd be between 7 and a half to 8 pounds and John had guessed she would be born at 5pm. So we both came really close to our guesses!

Finally, after everything was done I got to hold my sweet baby! Her checks were so warm and soft and she smelled so good. She was wide awake and was so calm. I could not get over her chubby little cheeks and pink skin!

Thanks to Sara we got a lot of great photos of her first few hours.

Surprise Visit

Sunday night at around 9pm John and I were working down in the basement when the doorbell rang. I rushed up to answer the door and was pleasantly surprised when I saw little baby Olive all bundled up in her car seat on my doorstep!!! It was such a great surprise!! Mimi, Jeff, Elyse, Olive, Sara and Lydia drove up from Arizona! Most times when I go down to Arizona I like to surprise at least one person, so this was such a treat!

Eleanor and Lydia had such a great time during their visit. Their is nothing like cousins! It's sad we don't live closer to all her cousins, but I'm so happy Eleanor gets to see them often and that they love each other. To be honest I was a little worried how the two of them would do together. Its fun seeing these two playing together and getting along. For a while, Eleanor was just too young for Lydia and I think she bugged Lydia. But now they get along great! It was so much fun having Lydia at our house for a week. These two played and played. The day after Lydia left Eleanor kept asking me if we could go to Lydia's house and kept asking why everyone had to live in Arizona.

It was also a lot of fun having Jeff, Elyse and little Olive here. I don't even remember the last time Jeff was here and I know it's been quite a few years since Elyse has visited. It was great just hanging out, going to Ruth's Diner and having Jeff make us some delicious pisole and chicken dumplings. Again, too bad we don't live closer so we could get together more often! Olive and our little soon to arrive baby are going to be only 3 months apart. Hopefully they will be best of cousins!!