We've had one month now with our little Ellie Bellie. In most ways she has been a good baby. She eats well and sleeps well. She actually sleeps about 20 hours a day. This is great news because when she is awake she's not super happy about life. She just wants to be held, walked, rocked, and bounced like this.

It will be nice when she starts smiling and doesn't look quite so miserable. And how can she be miserable when she is surrounded by this much love? (If you look closely, Ellie's in the middle!)

Today Joey said, "We don't want to play with our Christmas toys. We just want to play with our specialist Christmas toy, Ellie."

...when your husband lets you sleep in until 9:00 every morning (thanks, Sweets!);

...and when you don't have to plan or make meals (thanks friends, family, and neighbors!);

...and when you don't have to go to the grocery store, clean your bathrooms, fold and iron clothes, take the older kids outside to play, etc., etc., etc. (thanks, Mom!)

So let's just say I am feeling more than a little spoiled by all the love and support we've gotten over the past few weeks. It's been incredible. We are so blessed!

Oh, and one more reason it's easy having a new baby around...when the two older siblings are so in love with her.

This past weekend, Andy's parents visited to meet Ellie. We thought it would be great timing to have her baptized on Sunday since they were already in town.

I've mentioned this before, but the baptismal gown that my kids have worn was made by my great-great grandmother. The gown has been worn for generations including my mom and her three brothers, me and my three siblings, and now my three kids. Here's Ellie getting into the dress at the church.

As with everything relating to Ellie, Joey and Hannah were so excited to watch her get baptized.
Here is a picture with the people who have worn the gown. When I told Joey that he wore the same dress when he was baptized he asked, "But was mine blue?" I guess the dress does look a little feminine.

Andy thinks it's funny and bizarre that whenever two or more moms are gathered, eventually women start swapping birth stories. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but I love hearing other people's stories, so here's mine.

Around 6:00 pm on Tuesday night (December 27th) I started feeling something. I wasn't sure if it was labor, but it was enough that I let Andy know that "this could be it." I actually had that feeling a couple of times before with this pregnancy, so I was hesitant to think too much of it. At the same time, everyone told me how quickly things can progress with the third baby, and I did NOT want to miss out on the epidural. At my last appointment, my doctor even asked me how far away I lived from the hospital and told me not to mess around when I thought I was in labor.

The feeling didn't go away, but it also didn't get more intense and it certainly wasn't painful so we put the kids to bed as usual and watched TV waiting to see what would happen. Every 10 minutes or so Andy would look over and ask, "So, is this it? Are we going in?" I would just shrug noncommittally.

Finally at 11:00 pm or so I thought the contractions were consistent enough and had lasted long enough that this was probably it. I kept second guessing myself, but again, I did not want to miss out on the epidural. Andy dropped me off at the hospital, took the kids to my parent's house, and then headed back to the hospital.

I got up to Labor and Delivery, and a nurse checked me out. She said I was about 3 1/2 cm dilated. I had been 2 cm dilated for the last two weeks, so it wasn't much progress. They still did everything to check me in and asked me a million questions. I was so glad that I had come in early because I remember trying to answer all those questions when I was in quite a bit of pain with Hannah. This was much more pleasant. Andy arrived after a little while and they took me into the delivery room. They asked me if I wanted the epidural, but since I wasn't in pain I told them I would wait.

Andy and I settled in to wait and watched TV for a little while. Then Andy fell asleep and I tried to get some rest. At about 3:30 they checked me again, and the nurse told me I was 4 cm. Not much progress. I was really surprised that I was progressing so slowly. I went faster with the other two kids. So much for rushing to the hospital! The nurse also told me that the anesthesiologist was hanging around and wanted to know if I wanted the epidural yet. I was more uncomfortable, but still not really in pain so I was hesitant. The anesthesiologist came in and said it's better to do it sooner rather than later because once I was in pain it would be harder for me to sit still for the epidural. He also said he could start me out with a real mild dose that wouldn't interfere with my labor progressing. I decided to go for it. It was weird getting the epidural before I was in pain, but I certainly wasn't complaining!

After the epidural, I was very comfortable. Although I never actually fell asleep, I was able to rest fairly deeply. At 5:30 they checked me again, and still no progress. I was stuck at 3 1/2 or 4 (the nurse thought 4 cm, but the doctor felt like I was more at 3 1/2). They decided to break my water and see if that helped get things going. Sure enough, a couple of hours later I was a 6 or 7, thirty minutes later I was an 8 or 9, and ten minutes later I was ready to push. The doctor came in and I pushed for less than 10 minutes. It would have been even faster, but the doctor wanted me to push slowly at times so that I wouldn't tear.

Once the baby was out (at 8:47 am), I was waiting for Andy to call out the gender. The doctor was holding Ellie upside down, but she finally flipped her over and Andy called out, "It's a girl!" I thought all along that this was a girl, but it was still surprising to hear Andy say it. It's such a climactic part of the delivery, and it gets me emotional every time!

We had called my parents around 7:30 am when I was about 8 or 9 cm to tell them that I would be pushing soon. They got to the hospital about 2 minutes before Ellie was born. Once she was out, Andy went out to tell them they could come in. We weren't going to tell them if the baby was a boy or a girl until they saw for themselves. When Andy went out to get them was going to say, "We had a baby," but he stopped short after the B. My sister and mom thought he stopped himself from saying boy, so they were so surprised when they came in and found little Ellie.

Joey and Hannah came into the room with my sister and mom and were thrilled to finally meet this baby that they had waited so long for. A little bit later my dad, two brothers and brother-in-law came in as well. It was such a special time having everyone be there so soon after Ellie was born.

I remember when we first brought Joey home from the hospital I was pretty overwhelmed as a new mom (and hormonal and sleep deprived), and I thought I would never be able to leave the house again. Then with Hannah, I couldn't wait to leave the house and have things get back to normal. This time around I don't really want to leave the house. For maybe the first time in my life, I'm really enjoying being a bit of a recluse. That could wear off anytime, but for now I'm just savoring staying at home and taking it easy. It helps that I have had family in town helping take care of Joey and Hannah, going to the grocery store for me, cleaning my house, folding laundry, etc. I also have friends bringing over meals throughout January. How blessed we are! We've been able to do a lot of this...
and this...
And Ellie's been doing lots of this...

As I've mentioned before, Joey and Hannah are so thrilled with everything about Ellie. They even love her poopy diapers. Usually, they both crowd around to see when I change her. I'm working on changing them from spectators to participants.

If Ellie doesn't cry when I change her diaper Hannah gets so excited and exclaims, "She's being so brave!!!!" It cracks me up.
As usual, Andy has been so amazingly sweet and helpful. I hesitate to even write this because I know I'm so spoiled, but I've been sleeping in every morning until around 9:00! When I wake up and go downstairs, the kids are fed and the kitchen is cleaned up. I just have to figure out how to make that last!

Wow! I really meant to be back to blogging before now. I guess I'm enjoying taking it easy and snuggling with my new little sweetheart.

Here are some more pictures that I wanted to share from the hospital.

The kids came to visit us in the hospital three times and they LOVED it! They had been anxiously awaiting Ellie's arrival for months and were just thrilled that she finally came.
When Hannah and Joey were staying with my parents for the first couple of days after Ellie was born, they were having the time of their lives hanging out with their grandparents and uncles and aunt. One night, though, Joey told my sister that he couldn't wait to go home and be with Ellie because he just missed her so much.

Thanks to the baby being born at Christmas, my whole family was in town! What a blessing to be able to be to share this blessed event with my favorite people in the world. I found out I was pregnant when I was in Charlotte visiting my sister in April, and we found out the baby was going to be due when everyone was home for Christmas! It was so neat that everyone got to come visit us in the hospital and see Ellie as a newborn.Here we are leaving the hospital with my sweet nurse, Sophia, pushing me out. I had another wonderful experience at the hospital thanks to all the great nurses there, but Sophia was my favorite! As you can see, Hannah was really intent on helping push my wheelchair. Then there was an unfortunate incident with the elevator door almost closing on her.
That set her off. Uncle Michael tried to console her, but she screamed all the way from the elevator to the car. As we were going through the lobby with Hannah wailing behind us one of the volunteers at the front desk, saw Ellie and said, "That is a good healthy cry for a new baby!" Nope, that is just a 2 1/2 year old pitching a fit!
Here's Joey as the proud big brother! My sister told me another cute story about him. Rachel and Michael said something to him about taking care of two little sisters and he said, "I don't know what I'm going to do when Ellie is crying, Mommy is doing laundry, and then Hannah gets hurt." After much thinking he said, "I guess I can pick up Ellie and then go over to where Hannah is hurt and then help her." What a sweetie!