EK's Birth Announcement

 I just received EK's birth announcements on Sunday and spent all night addressing them so I could mail them first thing Monday morning.  Now that I know most everyone has gotten theirs I can post it here.  I absolutely LOVE these and they were so much cheaper than going through a photo design company.  LOVE them!!!

I know I am slacking on blogging but a bunch has been going on and I can't wait to catch you all up to speed but first please say a quick prayer for me as I am having surgery tomorrow!  Apparently this sinus surgery will be worst than both my sections (which were easy peasy!) and honestly I am freaked!  Thanks love!!!

EK - One Month

Good gracious, I can not believe I am writing EK's One Month posts!  This is insane!!!  EK turned one month old on Mother's Day.  This past month has flown by way too fast and I am not looking forward to the next months passing as fast as these.  

Elli Kate, 

I am blown away at how fast this past month has flown by.  You have added so much to our family and brought so much love, joy and laughter!  We love you so much and can not imagine our lives without you! 

Weight, Height: I am guessing 8 pounds.  At your two month check-up you weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and were 20.5 inches long.  

Diaper Size: We just moved to a size 1 but they are huge!  We probably should have stayed in Newborn but I thought they were a little too snug.  I really wish they had a size in the middle of the two.  

Eating Habits: You just started taking 4 ounces at every bottle and you love it.  When we came home you were strictly on breast milk but we had lots of different issues so we had to move you to formula about two weeks ago.  You seem to like it okay but you still root around for the boob even while you are taking your bottle.  It is precious!  

Sleep Habits: You are an incredible sleeper! (Knock on wood!!!) You usually go to bed around 10pm and sleep until 5:30am.  You will take a bottle at 5:30am and then go back to sleep until 8am.  Half of the time you will wake up around 2:30am, take a bottle and then go back to sleep until 6am.  After your first morning bottle you usually stay up until 11am.  You usually take 3 good naps during the day.  

New Funs: You have really started moving your head and gaining more control over it.  You love tummy time - as long as it isn't time for you to eat :)  

New Adventures: Last weekend we went to Montgomery to visit some family.  You had a blast :)  I will post about it soon. 

Things You Love: Your absolute favorite thing is your Big Sissy!  You can be fussy and as soon as your sister gets you or starts to talk you calm down.  Your other favorite thing is to be swaddled!  About 90% of your day you are swaddled.  Even when you are awake you want to be swaddled.  You also love your music lamb.  When you are playing in the floor you think it has to be right by your side.  When you are fussy the main way daddy and I can calm you down is to pat your booty.  You LOVE being spanked :)  (TB really thought we were spanking her at first, it was funny!) You also love staying in the bathroom with me while I am getting ready.  Most days you just sit and watch me without ever making a peep.  

Things You Dislike: You do not like to be cold! Just like me :)  If you are the slightest bit cold you will start to whimper and whine until I swaddle you. You also do not like getting out of the bath.  But then again, who does?  You scream your little lungs out when I take you out and rub your lotion on.  You detest it all!!!  You also do not like me changing your clothes.  

I can't express how thankful we are to have you in our lives!  We spent so many hours, days, weeks and months praying that you would come into our lives and God went above and beyond granting our prayer.  I have loved every second of getting to be your mommy and take care of you.  There is no greater joy in my life than being your (and your Sissy's!!!) mommy and I feel so honored and blessed!

Love you more than you'll ever know,
Mommy

Elli Kate's Newborn Pictures - OVERLOAD

The Hubs is definitely on the top of my FAVORITE list right now :)  You see, our wedding photographer totally screwed us!  I don't even have one picture in my home from our wedding :(  So when I got pregnant I explained that I wanted a professional photographer to take hospital pictures and throughout the first year pictures.  He totally delivered and so did Megan Forehand!  She was so patient, attentive and fun!!!  So here are a few of our favorites!  I say few because we have 215 favorites!!! =)

 Again, a HUGE thanks to Megan Forehand for capturing EK's newness for us!  We will always cherish these pictures of EK and our new family!!!

Birth Story Part Two

When we arrived at the hospital Dr H had already told Labor & Delivery I was on my way and he wanted to get the section started by 7:30.  Mind you that was less than an hour from the time we pulled in to the hospital parking lot and we still had to be admitted, get blood work done, start iv, etc...  Luckily, when we got to L&D they said there was no way that was possible and the surgery would probably start around 8am.  This was awesome because my mom was on her way from Montgomery (about a two hour drive!) and T's parents were coming in from Akron which is about 30 mins but they also had to shower and get ready.  So that meant, it was T, TB and myself at the hospital without anyone to watch TB!  My friend Melissa and T's parents got there about 10 mins before they came to get me for surgery and my mom got there about 5 mins after they took me back.  Everything went so fast!  Seriously, I thought my emergency section with TB was fast but this was super fast or I just forgot about the delivering time with TB.

Once in the OR I was freezing!  I swear they had it set to 10 below zero.  My nurse set me up so I could get the spinal and I was praying the Dr wouldn't miss like they did with TB.  (With TB the Dr missed on the first try and had to try again.  When he missed he hit a nerve and my leg shot up and I might have said an ugly word.)  Well apparently I should have kept quiet because not only did he miss... He missed three times!  To be exact the Dr didn't miss three times - there was a student from UAB there and he was doing my spinal while the Dr watched and coached.  After he missed the second time the Dr gave me a numbing shot but unfortunately that only numbs the outer skin and I needed my spinal cord numb!  He tried one more time and then the Dr took over.  The Dr got it on the first try and I was ready to sing his praises!  As soon as the spinal was placed they laid me back and then it started...  The spinal started coming up instead of going down.  I felt like there was an elephant sitting on my chest.  The nurse gave me some meds to fix that and I was good to go!


Dr H came in, said hello and got started!  I was a nervous wreck!!!  As soon as Dr H started they let The Hubs come in and he stood to my left watching every single thing Dr H did to me.  Every few seconds he would look down, brush my face and make sure I was okay.  After about 20 mins Dr H said those magical words we had been waiting to hear...  She's almost here!!!  A second later we heard her cry and it was amazing!!!

I had previously instructed The Hubs that as soon as EK was born he could not leave her side until she was brought to our room.  (Sidenote: TB never made it to my room.  She was sent to Well Baby and then after being there for an hour she had problems breathing and was rushed to the NICU.  Once in there they started all kinds of procedures on her and I was not even made aware of any of it until it was all done.)  The Hubs then took EK to the Nursery and made a pit stop to let TB meet her sissy!  We wanted TB to meet her first because she wanted to be in the OR and couldn't understand why she wasn't "old enough".

I absolutely LOVE this picture!!!

She is so proud! :)

The section took about an hour and then I was sent to the Recovery Room.  Once in Recovery they let my mom and TB come back there.  TB wanted to make sure I was okay and she also wanted to make sure my tummy was little since sissy wasn't in there.  She was a little disappointed that my tummy was still big.  The Hubs stayed with EK and my mom stayed with me.  I was only in Recovery for about 20 mins and then they sent me to my room.

Part Three will finish out the hospital stay and include lots more pictures :)

Ellison Kathryn Payne - Birth Story Part One

I know I should probably do a long drawn out post so I don't forget every detail of the day but let's face it between feeding, pumping, burping, changing, eating, sleeping and trying to also play with TB and The Hubs I simply don't have time :)  But I wouldn't change it for anything in the world!  So here goes for the "short" version... which may include a little too much information so if you don't want to know the good, bad and gross end here!

Around 5:15 Friday morning I woke up to go pee for the forty-eleventh (that's TB terminology for a bazillion times!) time and T got up to go to work at the station.  I went back to bed and within 20 seconds I had "leaked".  (Sidenote: I "leak" a lot lately.  I call discharge leaking.  I know that sounds silly but its easier and cleaner to explain to your four year than exactly what discharge is and why your body does that.)  No big deal that I had leaked because like I just said these days I do that 24/7 other than this time it was a bit more and I did not put a panty liner on because I wasn't thinking I was going to leak while sleeping.  So I very nonchalantly got up to go back to the bathroom.  When I stood up I leaked a little bit more.  With every step I took I leaked a little more.  By the time I made it to the bathroom I had leaked a lot.  This is the first moment I realized my water might have broken.  Once in the bathroom I told The Hubs I think my water had broken.   His response, "You think? Wouldn't you know?".  My smarty pants response... Well I know I am NOT peeing and this is a lot to just be leaking...So Yes, I think.  In case he forgot my water never broke with TB so this experience was new for me too.  I called my mom (who lives 2 hours away and I knew would be sleeping) and explained to her that I thought my water had broken and I wanted her opinion.  My mom is the best!!!  She is also a nurse so she knows more about this stuff than I do.  My mom said my water had indeed broken and that I needed to call my dr and get ready to go to the hospital.  She was getting her stuff together and leaving asap.

When I called the hospital (because it wasn't "working" hours - around 5:30am) the dr on call told me I needed to come straight in.  I asked if I could take a shower because I was all gross and I knew I would only get even more gross after the section but I was denied :(  I was scheduled to have a section April 23 and since I am a repeat section my doctor has told me that if I were to go into labor or my water break I needed to head to the hospital asap because I had already started dilating and EK was already in the birth canal.  The Hubs showered and packed a couple of his things.  I washed my face, brushed my teeth, brushed and fixed my hair and finished getting my stuff together.  Then I got to wake TB up!!!  (This was one of the BEST moments of my life!  I am not even kidding.  Waking her up is a moment I will never forget!  I could write a whole post just about this, maybe I will do that soon.)  I went to get TB out of her bed and she was sooooo sleepy.  I told her she would get to meet her "sissy" today and she wasn't understanding.  She wanted to know why because I just told her the night before it was going to be a week and a half!  Once she finally grasped the idea of today being EK's birthday she was ecstatic!!!  There was no hiding this sister's excitement!!!

We left our house around 6:20am heading for the hospital.  It was such a fun and exciting time for me, TB and The Hubs to get to experience together.  Another "small" memory that I will cherish!

That's all for Part One, I will try my hardest to get Part Two up later this week!

Slacker, That's Me

Well I will post about my 36 week update soon. I promise. This is from my iPhone and my set questions are on my laptop.

I went to my 37 week appointment yesterday and everything went great. Elli Kate is growing and apparently perfectly continent in my tumm! Dr P did suggest I start maternity leave so today is day 1. I'm not on bedrest but I'm "resting". He decided to suggest that since the beta blockers they put me on lowered Elli Kate's fetal movement and stressed me out. Remember TB, she all of a sudden quit moving so I'm a fetal kick monitor. I asked Dr P about moving up DDay and he very politely reminded me that at the beginning of my pregnancy I asked to go the full 39 weeks. This is true but at the time I never thought I'd make it to 37 weeks. But, as long as she is healthy and doesn't have to spend two weeks in the nicu I'm fine waiting.

Two weeks from yesterday and we will meet our little girl! That's 13 days, 2 hours and 6 mins to be exact :)

35 Weeks

Please excuse the way I look...  This was taken at 9pm (an hour after my bedtime) and after a long, rough day!  But I am huge!!!  I really hope my tummy goes down fast after delivery! Ha... Who am I kidding?! It took 3 years to loose TB's weight and she is 4 now :)  

Size of Baby: At my appointment on Tuesday she weighed 6 pounds even.  That could be off a pound or so either way... Looks like EK is going to be chunky :)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Apparently my computer forgot I deleted this question... Enough.

Maternity Clothes: Yes and even most of my maternity shirts are getting a little too short.  But I am not buying new ones to wear for a couple of weeks.

Gender: GIRL!

Movement: All the time, Thank the Lord!!!

Belly Button: Flattening out and will still poke out some when she rolls across it.  Foe the most part it is an innie still.  

Interesting Facts: EK's kidneys are fully developed and her liver can now process waste.  I'm thinking this means lots of diaper changes in our future.  

Sleep: What's that?  Its really not that bad.  I'm getting between 3-4 hours a night.  Guess God's preparing me ahead of time.  

What I miss: This week nothing.  I have absolutely soaked up being pregnant this week and loved it.  

What I am looking forward to: Meeting Elli Kate of course!  

Cravings/Aversions: Water, Pepsi the same...

Symptoms: The same heart flutters, shortness of breath, indigestion, fatigue...  The normal 35 week symptoms :)

Best Moment This Week: Seeing EK and knowing that she is still chugging along healthy in my tumtum. 

Labor Pains & Dr Update

Sorry this will be long and a bunch of rambling!

Wednesday afternoon I was working my busy little bootay off at work and realized I had a few more Braxton Hicks contractions than I normally do. I didn't really think much of it at first because I was slightly stressed out and chalked it up to that. But luckily my BFF at work decided since I was stubborn and not timing them she would and instructed me to call the drs office. Sidenote here: I LOVE my doctor and all but one of the other doctors!!! I love most of his staff!!!! But whoever answers the nurses line needs to find a new job not working with pregnant people!!! So, back to calling dr office. I told the girl I was 30 weeks and I had 5-6 contractions in an hour and a half. My dr wants me to come in if I had 3 or more in one hour sine in high risk but homegirl didn't want to hear that part :) She instructed me to go home, lay down and start really timing the contractions and she would call me in 45 mins to check... Did she? No!!! I got home and within less than an hour I had 5 more. So off to Labor & Delivery I took my hiney! My awesome boss met me there and was planning on staying until my mother-in-law got there but I wasn't even there long enough! Apparently, once being hooked up to the monitor all contractions will most likely stop! I felt silly :) The nurse checked me and I was a fingertip to one centimeter dilated. Maybe I'm not as crazy as I thought, my body is doing something. I was sent home on bed rest and as long as contractions held off I could resume normal activity the following day.

The next day, Thursday, I had my lovely 4D redo and drs appt! I just love getting to see my dr!!! He is pure awesomeness!!!! The Hubs says there is a secret love affair between the two and secretly I'm holding out for that :) Okay, I'm kidding!!!! Well apparently EK is JUST like her daddy STUBBORN!!!!! This redo was worst than the last and we saw nothing! It could be for the fact that she's already face down and ready to go but I'm blaming it on being part daddy :) Then I saw Dr P! He measured my tummy, mashed around a bit and told me "chill out"! Sidenote: I'm a planner, an OCD planner at that. TB was six weeks early and that was okay but I'm really stressing out here with EK! He said for me to come back in a week and a half, he wanted to see me March 5th to be exact, and then we will start the non-stress tests and biophysical profiles from there on out weekly! Eeek!!!! Weekly appointments are here friends :) I never made it to the weekly appointments with TB so now I'm in the unknown. I'm so excited that Dr P is monitoring me so much more closely this go round though because it really does help to calm my nerves.

Elli Kate weighed 3lbs and 8ozs and was right on track! I would personally like for her to hold on at least 4 more weeks but she is welcome to continue her lease with my uterus for 8 more weeks and this momma will be just fine!!!

29 Weeks

You lucked out this week and you don't have to endure a horrible picture of me :)

Size of Baby: At my appointment last Thursday EK weighed albs 11oz...  Although Baby Center says 2.5 lbs and 15 inches long.  Like a Butternut Squash...

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Yea... We aren't going there!

Maternity Clothes: All the time!

Gender: Sweet baby GIRL!

Movement: Yes, all the time and I LOVE it!!!  She has also had the hiccups a few times.  LOVE my sweet baby!!!

Belly Button: Is starting to flatten out a bit at the top.  My sweet little Hubs said I had a hood covering my button.  Isn't he sweet?

Interesting Facts: EK's head is getting bigger and bigger to accommodate her growing brain.  

Sleep: If I take a benadryl or Tylenol pm I'm all good... If not then it varies.  

What I miss: Nothing.  Well, okay maybe some things.  Like being comfortable but no matter how uncomfortable I am I wouldn't trade it for a thing!!!

What I am looking forward to: Redoing our 4D ultrasound next week and seeing Dr P!  

Cravings/Aversions: Water, Milk & Pepsi.  Oh and White Chocolate Oreos!!!

Symptoms: Indigestion, Braxton Hicks, there are a few more but I can't remember.  

Best Moment This Week: My sweet hubs making me take a bubble bath all alone!!!

Weekly Wisdom: Im fresh out this week...  I'm tired!