Born: April 14th, 2009 at 9:55pm
8lbs 7oz and 21 in long
Here we all are a couple of minutes after she was born. I know I know, you can't see her face...good job mom:)
Here she is getting her very first bath. So red, but since she came out blue, we're happy with the red!
I'm trying to show off her long skinny feet.
Proud and happy daddy!! I love how Eleanor is staring up at him:)
Mommy holding little Eleanor, it was nice to be up and moving around so fast!
Getting ready for her first car trip!
Samantha meets Eleanor for the first time. Nice big kisses from the big sister. She still gets tons of kisses from Samantha all day long:)
This is my absolute favorite! So excited to be able to hold the baby sister we've been talking about for months!!
So I thought I'd post the pictures first so that way those of you who don't want to read the long synopsis of the labor story could stop reading now! But I want to get it all out now while I still remember everything. So, since Samantha was early I was expecting this one to be early too. Even though I tried to tell myself that there was a strong chance she wouldn't be, it was hard to not anticipate an early delivery like my first. Then when I went to my check up three weeks before my due date and was already dilated to a 2 1/2 I thought for sure she would come. But even though every appointment I was further dilated, little Eleanor decided to be nice to me and wait so we could get moved in to our new apartment and celebrate Easter with Samantha rather than being in the hospital. So her Easter due date came and went and I was officially ready to have her. I for some reason really didn't want to be induced, so I was grateful on Tuesday when she decided to come! But....I was not to thrilled with how. My water broke at 5:50 Tuesday evening, which is something I've always feared would happen. But it was totally different then I expected. I couldn't even tell for sure if my water broke or if I just peed my pants...embarrassing I know. I called Jon, but was debating whether or not to go to the hospital...I really didn't want to go there to have them tell me that I just peed my pants. But after calling the hospital, we decided to go in and it's a good thing we did. We got to the hospital around 7 by the time Jon got home and Nancy(Jon's mom) came over to watch Samantha. I was dilated to a 4 and had just started having some contractions that were semi painful. They tested me and my water had broken (phew!!) so we let Jon's mom know we would be having a baby sometime soon:)
So then we hung out and watched as my contractions got closer together and more painful. It went really quick from there. Once I started having the contractions they basically came every minute. I was trying to see how long I could wait before getting the epidural...I felt wimpy asking for it since I'd only been there for like an hour. NOT a smart idea. I asked for the epidural around 9 but by then the doctor was already with another patient. I was ok with that thinking it couldn't be too long before he came. But then my contractions started coming without any time in between and when the nurse came to check me I was fully dilated. So...by the time the doctor came to give me the epidural I was pushing and I had little Eleanor ten minutes later. This was after lots of begging for the epidural and telling them that I did NOT want to do this naturally. Which they basically told me I had no choice since I would be having the baby before the epidural could even kick in! I still insisted that I wanted the epidural, but when I sat up to get it I realized I needed to push so that ended that. Which I was grateful for in the end cause it would definitely not have been fun to have my epidural kick in right after I had her. Haha, I'm sure the nurses thought I was pretty funny though. Anyway, so I had little Eleanor naturally and it was an awesome experience. I was able to get up and see her so much faster. I was litter ally on my feet in minutes and got to see everything that was going on rather than being stuck in bed. Not to say I'd choose that way again...I'm not sure, but it was a great experience!!
We were able to leave the hospital the next afternoon, which was nice because I really missed my little Samantha and was ready to be back at home in my own bed. Little Eleanor has been a joy. She is such a good little baby. I don't think we really heard her cry until she had to get her heal pricked for her bilirubin test. Samantha absolutely loves her and is adjusting rather well to being a big sister and having to share her parents. She is silly and will ask to be burped or other silly things to be like her little sister, but we're trying to give her the attention she needs so that she doesn't feel left out. It is such a joy to have two sweet little girls. I am so grateful for my growing little family and that I know we can be an eternal family. What a blessing that is!!
