Birthmas-take 2

So I don't know where I left off and I am too lazy to go back and read and see. But I pushed the baby girl out, they put her on my chest and I remember crying and being in horrible pain. I looked over at Steve and he was a crying mess. It was funny. He was more emotional about the girls birth's then I was! Judge me and say what you want but I am not one of those Mom's who immediately bonds with their baby and gushes over how gorgeous and in love w/ them they are. I am in a horrible immense amount of pain and I'm not really in a good mood. Maybe if I had an epidural or pain meds and was drugged and didn't feel as much as I did it would be different. Give me an hour and I am freaking over how gorgeous they are and kissing them and telling them how much I love them. But I'm just not emotional and do not react at all how I think I would. I'm just in pain and crabby. lol. It's weird.
Anywho after she came out I looked at Megan and Lydia and told them her name was ELLIE MARIE. I just LOVE her name and it was so hard to keep it secret for so long! OK so I told 2 people, my neighbor/close friend and my bff in Pittsburgh who I like never get to talk to. lol. But I knew neither of them would tell anybody and I was right :) I was excited to see how big she was, we all guessed her weighted while I was holding her up. I said 7 lbs 4 oz, Lydia said 7/11 and I don't remember if nurse Deb, Steve or Megan chimed in but I think they did. I think Steve said 6 something. So nurse Jen (Ellie's baby nurse, who did all her testing she was AMAZING and I soooo wanted her to be our night nurse when Deb left but alas was not) brought in the scale and they put her on it, Steve was holding my hand (as I was in DYING Pain from all the after birth crap torture they do to you) and was blocking my view when they put her on. Everybody gasped and freaked out and Lydia yelled at them to reset the scale because it SURELY wasn't right. I was so confused, and Lydia looked at me wide eyed and said it said she was 8# 5oz, EXCUSE ME? So they reset it and put her on but this time it said 8 POUNDS 6 OUNCES. That is exactly 2 pounds more then her sister! Holy cow! And I felt every pound of her! Ha. I was seriously in shock she was that big!

**Side note, Kate who said at my apt a couple weeks before that she was sure this baby was 8 lbs by looking at me then felt my belly and said she was wrong and she was only about 7 lbs was on call the next day and came in my room to check on me. We ended up talking for over an hour and she told me she totally lied about how big she thought the baby was. She said she thought I was going to have an anxiety attack if I knew the baby was that big. Hilarious! I love her to death she is so sweet and amazing. We laughed for a long time after that, and Lydia discharged me on Tue and I told her the story and we laughed so hard.

So everything after her birth is kind of a blur. I called Jess in Chicago, Steve called his parents in Michigan, and my parents, Nat and Hailey came up to the hospital about 2 hours after Ellie was born. Big sister was seriously overwhelmed and had a hard time. She didn't want anything to do with me but did love Ellie and held her a couple times. It was pretty sweet. I felt so bad though and wished I was "normal" and able to do more with her. Steve took her home soon after and it was just me, Meg and Ellie. Steve called me a little bit later and Hailey was freaking out screaming and crying in the car. I talked to her and calmed her down but I cried pretty hard after we hung up. It was HARD, my first night ever away from her and she was not doing well. She ended up being OK and doing great for Daddy. The 2 of them spent the next 2 days home alone together and did great. She took naps and went to bed like a champ. It was great and made me feel better.
So Ms Ellie went to the nursery to get her bath while I took one, and get all checked out. She wasn't holding her body temp very well so she was under the warmer for a little while and they wanted to watch her. FINALLY at like 10:15pm we got all settled into our post pardom room and I nursed her and chatted w/ Meg. Meg left and I tried to sleep but couldn't. We had an awful nurse Alana who was crass and grumpy and made the night not so fun. Oh well. The next day was great, the only people that visited were Mom, Nat, and Meg. It was stressful though b/c Ellie still wasn't holding her body temp and they were worried she was getting jaundace. It's a long complicated story but Kate told me the reason they were freaking out about her body temp was b/c I had strep B and it could have passed to Ellie. She was holding steady at like 96 degrees and they wanted her above 97. I of course freaked out, especially when Kate told me they would have to put her in the nicu for 7-10 days to start antibiotics if she didn't get it up soon. Oh my! Luckily later that night it shot up to 98 and held there the rest of the time. Little stinker already worrying her Momma! Ha.
Of course she ended up jaundice like her sister and had this Momma freaked out nursing as much as I could! It subsided but not until she was about 3 weeks. Her pedi wasn't too worried though and I just prayed about it lots and wasn't as hyper about it as I was with Hailey :)

Luckily everything else was great! B/c of how jaundice she was she didn't wake up much the first 2 weeks of her little life. I struggled to wake her to eat every 3 hours. It was scary! I tried everything! But the 3rd week she really "WOKE UP" so to speak, I think just life in general! She decided she hated life! She wanted to eat every hour on the hour and this Momma was tired and stressed! I think we settled now, she is super duper impatient if she is hungry and wants to eat NOW. If you make her wait 2 seconds to change her diaper she lets you know about it! :) Reminds me of a couple other people I live with in this house.........lol. She also fights sleep like her sister did but not half as bad. She is a little high maintenance but I can lay her down awake and she will fall asleep. I don't know what to do w/ that! It's glorious! We have had some long days and nights but she is a joy more then anything. God answered my prayers with this baby!

So my girl is now a month old (started this and didn't quite get to finish it. Such is my life now!) and while I LOVE my girls more then anything and they are SUCH blessings they also are a LOT of work! I broke down last night b/c Ellie had a horrible night and cried from 4:30pm-9pm. Plus Hailey finally decided she hated sitting in wet diapers and wanted to change her own diaper 4 times in an hour the other day. Not to say she wants to use the potty, but she is now forced to do so b/c this Momma can NOT afford that many diapers. So yeah we're potty training on top of having a wailing newborn, and a very demanding toddler. Oy vey! But this is life and I love it and wouldn't change it. As hard as the days are (one of my most favorite things to say is; "The days may be long but the years are short." And boy do I know that is true!) I know it's a season and soon I will want another newborn (not happening) and will miss the baby days! But I am excited for Ellie to be like 10 months, crawling, blabbing, getting into things, smiling and interacting w/ all of us. THAT age for sure I will miss and cry over! Some other random things I want to note before I post lots of pics of my gorgeous girls! (I will never ever get tired of saying "my girls!" ;)

*you totally forget how gross, yellow, and staining baby poop is
*you also forget how you change a diaper, only for them to poop in it 3 seconds later! I think one day I went through 4 diapers in a 2 minute time period. Seriously
*you ALSO forget how they shoot poop everywhere. Thank GOD for these handy changing pad things from Huggies. <3 them
*Night feedings SUCK. I can barely keep my eyes open. Soooooo hard for this Momma
*Ms Thang on the other hand thinks night feedings are great and loves to be cute and awake causing Momma to just sit and stare at her and talk to her. I'm trying to take it all in since this is the last baby an all.......
*nobody told me Hailey would be into every.single.baby.thing.in.this.house. She has destroyed Ellie's closet/changing table/carseat like 394820498 times. VERY frustrating for me.
*Hailey thinks it's her job to put all the straps on everything of Ellie's together. So when I go to put E in the swing/bouncy seat/car seat I have to first dangle E while I un-do the straps. I was warned about this but it still makes me mad and we're working on it.........
*why oh why do babies need you the most at 5:30pm when your trying to get dinner ready?? Sooo annoying!

Now on with the pictures...........

My not-so-little Christmas Blessing!!

Sister's meeting for the first time

With amazing Aunt Megan!!