Hospital Stay...

{Ella's first bath.  She really liked getting her hair washed. }

{New grandma and grandpa... and aunts and uncle!}

{Opa and Oma! We were so happy they were able to take a break from the MTC to come and meet Ella!}

{Cim changing Ella's first diaper...} 

{nap time!}

{Ella and Dadda}

{The Circle of Life!}

{Time to go home... we were all a little nervous}

{Wearing the cute sandals Aunt Kendra made!}

{Cim wanted to protect her face from her hands - all we had were his socks.}

{Loaded up and ready to go!}

{First night at home!}

Newborn Photo Shoot

Getting everything together for Ella's newborn photo shoot was more stressful than I thought it would be.  I wanted to have her fed so she would be content during the shooting, and that worked out but there were so many other things out of my control that did happen.  Starting with Ella peeing on the sheet as soon as we started taking pictures.  Then she decided she needed to eat again.  While I was feeding her she pooped on me (I wanted to put her in a diaper but Cimaron insisted she wouldn't go again).  Lastly, she spit up.  It was not as glamorous as I pictured it would be from looking at other baby pictures, but they turned out fantastic!  It was definitely worth the stress and chaos!

Here are a few of my favorite pics!

Photography by Lindsey Fronk: 

http://photographybylinds.com/

Ella's Birth Story

The month of May was filled with anticipation. Ella was due to arrive on May 21. I was hoping she would come a couple days before then and I thought that she just might decide to come early especially since  there were days that I would have a lot of contractions. Unfortunately, those days were followed by several days when I didn't feel like I had any! This made me wonder if what I was experiencing were even contractions.


The last month of work was difficult physically and emotionally.  It was challenging not to think "I'm going to be leaving in a month anyway...so why should I care?" And I was getting lazier and lazier as the days went by because it hurt to move.  My whole body was swollen because I was  retaining so much water and the only shoes I could wear were flip flops.   I was nervous for labor and the pain that would come with it.  Mostly, I was anxious for what my situation would be.  Would my water break? Would I KNOW I'm having contractions or would I not feel them until it was too late? (btw - people said that I would KNOW when I was having contractions... I didn't "KNOW" until I had been having them for 3 hours.)  Would I go to the hospital and get sent home because I wasn't really in labor? Would I get my epidural too early and have it wear off?  Would I not get it soon enough? To add to all of my questions about what was/would happen to me, I worried about Ella.  If I noticed she hadn't moved within the hour I would start to panic and think that something was wrong. The bottom line is that I was getting sick of being pregnant.


Anyway, at one of my appointments my doctor talked to me about being induced.  She said that typically she doesn't induce her patients until 10 days after their due date.  So we originally set my induction (is that what you call it?) to be on May 29 (the day AFTER my in-laws would be flying out for their mission in Germany).  My last day of work was Friday, May 18th and Monday was  my due date. Well... My due date came a went and I sat around our apartment for 4 days. I was going crazy. It could happen at any time, and I was by myself worrying about all the worst case scenarios.  I was planning on asking Cimaron to stay at home from work the day before I was induced so I wouldn't be alone with my thoughts... but when I woke up to a contraction at 6:30 in the morning on May 25. They weren't very strong so I started timing them and they were about 5 minutes apart and lasted for a minute for an hour.  This is when you're told to go into labor and delivery but my contractions were so puny.  I woke up Cimaron and we decided to wait until they got worse to go in.  They got a little worse, but they still weren't bad, so we decided to wait until noon to go in.  We finally went in to labor and delivery and I was admitted! :)

After they hooked me up to the IV and got settled in the nurse suggested that we walk around to make things move along quicker. So we did.  When we came back the nurse said that my doctor wanted me to get my epidural so when she came in they could break my water and give me some petocin. Woah. That's when it hit me that I was really having a baby! I got nervous and told Cim I didn't want to do it anymore.  He kept me distracted while they put it in.


We were set to go! It seemed like it took forever for things to move along from this point.  I was told that I would feel some pressure as the contractions went on but eventually I was starting to feel more than I thought I should.  My epidural ran out and they gave me more.  I was still feeling a lot of pain.    After several hours they checked me and told me I was dilated to a 10 and that I would push in an hour after we did some rest and descend time.  During this time, a lady came in who was pretty far along in her labor who was screaming at the top of her lungs.  It literally sounded like she was dying.  This did NOT ease my fears of pushing but the time finally came for me to start.  Pushing was harder than I thought it would be.  I didn't know if I was doing it right and with the epidural I couldn't really feel what was happening.  I would push and the nurse would tell me I was doing such a great job! The more she said this the more I got frustrated because I felt like nothing was happening and she wasn't moving.  After about 2 1/2 hours of pushing Cimaron said he could see her head! So I thought she would be out soon -- but then she wasn't moving and I was getting more tired with each contraction.  Finally after 3 hours of pushing my Doctor gave me the option of trying the forceps or getting a c-section.  I opted for the forceps.  They did the trick!  Ella was born at 2:14 am on May 26, 2012.  She weighed 7lbs 12 ounces and was 19.5 inches long!

I was so happy to finally have our baby here and I felt like I could finally breath.  I got her here safely and now it was time to enjoy her (after I got put back together again).  We are so glad to have her with us and have enjoyed her sweet spirit in our home!