Friday, July 31, 2009

We made it!




Scott went back to work full time this week. We survived, but missed him dearly. The days pretty much flew by with constant feedings, poo-ing, diaper changes, and naps. Maybe next week we'll be more adventurous and get out of the house a little bit more.





In other news:
  • Ellie has been giving us a 4 hour sleep stretch at night. Thank you very much Fisher Price Rainforest Soother!


  • Odie is feeling better. Thanks to Aunt Becky for coming over to play with him in the yard. He's now eating his meals with gusto.


  • I have ankles again. I'm hoping my shoes and rings fit soon.


  • We're looking forward to the arrival of more babies! BZ Kurtz needs to get his baby bum here and play with Ellie. Hopefully just a few more weeks!


  • I did two whole sit-ups yesterday! At least I've been walking pretty much every day. The rest will come later.




Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Ellie's second movie appearance

She's a little more happy in this one!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Dog Daze



Odie is terribly sad. His sister is getting way too much attention and no one brings him any toys or treats. His Mom and Dad take him on walks and pet him as much as possible, but it won't take care of his baby blues. He won't eat or run around outside, but he'll still chew on his rawhides and lay on his Dad, so hopefully this gloomy mood will pass.

The highs and lows of the week:

Highs:

  1. Visiting coworkers at Zondervan. Ellie didn't cry and she fooled everyone with her cuteness!
  2. More food delivery! Thanks Grandma Mars, Grandma/pa Bailey, and Aunt Jane
  3. Going to Target (what an exiting life we lead)

Lows:

  1. Ellie outgrew her newborn sleepers :(
  2. It's looking like she's getting her days and nights even more confused. No night sleep in site!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Happy Tuesday

The days keep flying by. Our schedule is very irregular and we're never quite sure what day it is or when our last shower or tooth brushing took place. For the most part Ellie is very peaceful during the day and then goes crazy and wants to party in the late evening. We have a few rough hours but eventually sleep with a few wake up calls in the middle of the night. If only Scott was equipped to feed, I would be a happy girl! We've had a steady stream of visitors and are enjoying every one's company. It keeps us somewhat grounded. Yesterday we took our first walk with the new stroller. Odie joined us for our walk today and barked at strangers who tried to talk to us. I had to go to the doctor's office yesterday and couldn't believe how much I missed little Ellie in that short amount of time begin gone! Each day I feel myself slowly getting back to normal, but I do miss a few things about being pregnant. I'm back to having horrible headaches, I'm cold all the time, and OJ will last a week in the fridge. Guess it's time to make another one!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Happy 1 week!

It has been 1 week since little Ellie barged into our lives. To celebrate, here are some pictures of her first sponge bath taken a few days ago.
























Sunday, July 19, 2009

Day 6

Wow, its hard to believe that last weekend it was just the two of us, wondering what life was going to be like in the coming days. We were enjoying hot meals, naps, TV, and peace & quiet. That was just last week!

Ellie has been an angel the last few days. She now has enough to eat and is very happy and content. Much better than her first 4 days of screaming. She's had quite a few visitors, and really enjoyed that Grandma and Grandpa Bailey keep bringing over food for her parents!

First this week include her first hiccups, first projectile poo, and first sponge bath. More pictures to come!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

We're home!


We arrived home from the hospital yesterday. Tuesday was a very rough night for Mom and Ellie. Baby screamed the whole night and got kicked out of the nursery. The nurses tried to take her 3 times, but she came back as fast as she left. Neither of us got any sleep. Hopefully that won't last too long! As soon as we got home, it was nap time for me and Ellie got to hang out with Scott and Odie. Odie is adjusting fairly well. He wants to smell her all the time and he whines whenever she cries. I think they'll be fast friends! For the first night at home, Ellie slept in her bassinet for a couple of 2-3 hour stretches. I was pleasantly surprised! Right now she's napping so I'm off to sleep too. Have a wonderful day!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

She's Here!


Elizabeth Bailey Mars was born 7/13/09 at 7:27 AM. She's 20.5" 8lbs 11 oz. Such a cute little chunker. Ellie has her Mom's nose and her Dad's butt chin. She was wide awake after she was born and looked at everyone and everything in site with her big blue baby eyes. We love her so much! Read on if you care for more gory delivery details.
We were scheduled to get induced on Sunday the 13th due to my high blood pressure, though I was somewhat leary about not waiting for nature to take it's course. I started to get excited on the Saturday before the induction because I was having regular and uncomfortable contractions. We were having "last meal" at Logans and were about to see a movie. Dinner was great despite having a very odd waitress who was very obsessed with the fact that I was pregant and kept asking me weird questions like "was this planned?" All through dinner, the contractions continued so we decided to walk around the mall a little while to see if they would go away. They didn't and I had a few very strong and painful ones (YES!) We ended up skipping the movie to go home, relax, and wait to see what the contractions would do while watching the Tigers play. Sadly they spaced apart, but then they came back at 3:30 AM in the middle of the night/morning on Sunday. They were somewhat painful, but I wasn't convinced it was time yet. I was looking forward to the morning to relax, sleep, and wait for the scheduled induction that evening. The next morning they got more regular and slightly more intense, so we called the on-call doctor around noon. I even showered, shaved, made up my face, and straightened my hair. The doctor called back and said to come on into the hospital, but we ended up getting sent home because I hadn't progressed enough (I was still at a measly 1 cm). When the nurse in triage checked me, she did something that was a ton more painful than normal (all you ladies who have been checked in this situation know it isn't comfortable to begin with) and said "there, maybe that will help things along." Ouch. I already felt different on the drive home. As soon as we got home (about 4 pm), the contractions REALLY intesified. 4 to 6 minutes apart and very painful. Nothing I did changed the pattern or offered any relief except for standing in the warm shower, which I did twice during the waiting period. I had to wait it out 4.5 more hours until we could go back to the hospital for my scheduled induction. I wish they would have just kept me there! I couldn't stand it any longer and we left a half hour early. I thought surely it would be epidural time.

When we arrived at the hospital at 8:00, I still wasn't very far along (only 2 cm). I couldn't believe all that pain with not much going on. The nurse gave me some Ambian and said I had to wait until "a good 4" for an epidural. Not the answer I was looking for! The Ambian did nothing to help me relax or sleep and I started throwing up during the contractions. I was given Stadol. This shut me up and knocked me out very fast, but I still woke up for every contraction so I was just in and out of this awful drunken state. I got checked some time later and was about 3 cm. Still too early for the epidural. The nurse gave me another round of the Stadol. By this time we were approaching 1 am. 24 hours since I first starting having these contractions and 10 hours since they were regular and painfully intense. This was not the experience I imagined. The nurse told me she would check on me in another hour. Time passed slowly and the F-bombs were picking up. I made Scott get her 45 minutes later and I was ready to offer her ANYTHING to give me my epidural. She checked me and I was a "good 5" so she called the anestesiologist. It took the mean guy over 45 minutes to arrive and set everything up. I vaguely remember some new faces being in the room and trying to help me hold it together. This by far was the worst period where I felt no relief inbetween contractions. They were coming so fast and furious and my body didn't have time to recover in-between. By the time he was finished setting up for the epi, I was already at "a good 8 cm." Finally, relief! It was close to 3:30 am and I got to take a little nap. The nurse checked me an hour later and I was already good to go (10 cm) but they were going to try to have me "hold her in" so that my doctor could deliver instead of the oncall doc. I thought this was a little strange, but my pain was gone so I didn't care. My water broke around 6 (I briefly thought the baby shot out but I was wrong) and my doctor arrived a little after 7:00. Only 4 rounds of pushing and she was born at 7:27. It was great, but no rush to repeat the process anytime soon!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Better late than never

Our nursery is finally organized and finished! Good timing, with our induction scheduled for tomorrow. When we first discussed decor, we were going to go green and neutral. Then I fell in love with a pink/brown/cream bedding set and the rest was history. Hello pink room!








Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Memories!

As we near the end, I wanted to share some of my favorite pregnancy moments. Enjoy!
  • Announcing our pregnancy to my parents with pink/blue cupcakes. They didn’t have a clue even after I said “Do you want a boy or girl cupcake?”
  • Mike and Becky collaborating on my at work birth plan. I think Becky will be disappointed if I don’t go into labor at work!
  • Throwing up multiple times while babysitting our nephew and smelling his poopy diapers – kudos to Scott for taking care of those.
  • Trying not to throw up at work and sweating (literally) over everything in the process.
  • Getting fat fast so it wasn’t too much of a surprise when announcing the news at 13 weeks.
  • A female coworker who shall remain nameless complementing me on my amazing cleavage. I think it was pretty amazing before pregnancy.
  • A male coworker who shall remain nameless touching my stomach and asking me if I work out.
  • Waking up on Christmas around the end of my first trimester with an appetite for the first time in weeks.
  • Finding out it is a girl (hopefully). First girl on Scott’s side in a very long time! So much excitement!
  • Feeling baby move for the first time and beyond. She is pretty good about not kicking me too hard or keeping me up during the night. Such an amazing feeling!
  • Sharing this experience with friends, particularity Alison, Beth, Missy, Christine, Amy, and Jessica. It was so nice to have a support group and share similar experiences. It was also fun to go out for lunch at Moe’s in “packs” and get stared at.
  • Hips en fuego!!!
  • Being smiled at all the time.
  • Taking 5 minutes to get out of bed.
  • My boss saying “what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas” many times. He thinks he’s funny.
  • Getting an awesome hotel upgrade in Chicago because the check-in lady must really like pregnant people.
  • My cute beagle resting his head on my bump. He looks at me with the sweetest puzzled look when she kicks his chiny chin chin.
  • Eating whatever I want. Personal favorites: grapefruit, OJ, ice cream, cheeze-itz, English muffins toasted with peanut butter and roasted marshmallows, Hebrew National hotdogs (holy these are amazing!)
  • Not fitting through narrow spaces
  • Waking up in the middle of the night with stomach acid shooting out of my mouth
  • Crazy dreams: Odie rescuing me from Scott as he tries to stab me, the baby falling out and trying to put her back in… I wish I could remember more of them!
  • 24 hour urine collections. Awesome!
  • Not having to lift boxes.
  • Bending down is always a fun challenge.
  • Drinking Labatt non-alcoholic beer. Yum!
  • Getting asked by the receptionist at the doctors’ office if I was having twins.
  • Getting weepy all the time, most country songs were off limits so I had to switch to booty shaking music.
  • Visiting the bathroom 7 times per night is considered a good night.
  • During the last month, sitting on super absorbent puppy pads so my water won’t ruin furniture, the car, Beth’s couch, etc.
  • Writing this list :) Ah the memories!





Sunday, July 5, 2009

First Blog - Original Title!

Welcome! We thought creating this blog would be a great way to keep family and friends up to date on the newest changes happening in our lives. Only 5 more days until the expected arrival of our daughter. We are soooo excited. Please stay tuned and we'll (ok, more than likely Rachel will) do our (my) best to keep everyone updated.