Abigail's Birth Story

The birth of Daniel was one that left its mark on my memory. That was a time I wish I didn't have to repeat, but children are always worth it. With Daniel I had just planned on having an epidural and figured I would remember what I had learned in the birthing classes I had taken 2 year before. But I found myself with no time for an epidural and not remembering much from the class. This time around, with Abigail, we decided to do more to be prepared. We took a refresher birthing class and we decided to hire a doula and when the time came to high tail it to the hospital it payed off! We had Amy Morrison as our doula! She was so helpful and totally changed our birth experience from one I feared to one that I love and feel so good about! And now I have no fears about doing it again some day.

Both of my other two children were born in their 38 weeks of gestation, 2 weeks early. So I totally thought this little girl would come early too. But I found myself at the end of 39 weeks still pregnant and feeling pretty comfortable.  My doctor had said if I didn't deliver in the next 5 day we would need to schedule an induction. Amy went for a walk with me that next day and encouraged me to keep doing walks to help get baby ready. Jeanne was joking that the full moon was coming, and maybe that would move things along. Saturday would be my due date, plus my doctor would be the one on call for deliveries that day, so I said Saturday would be good! :)

Saturday, the 25th early in the morning I was up helping one of our children use the restroom around 4:30am. When it was time to crawl back in bed I began to wonder if I was having contractions. ( really I just felt like I had to pee really bad, but I had just gone...) So I crawled back in bed and waited a few minutes to see if things settled. After a few minutes I decided to get up and time a few. I found Michael's phone, he had downloaded a handy contraction timer. They lasted just over one minute and were about 3-5 min apart. So I called our doula and we decided to wait 30 min to see if things settled or continued. I would in the mean time pack the remaining things and get ready to leave. I called my aunt and gave her a heads up that we would need her to come watch the kids. About 6 am I called our doula and we decided it was time! We waited for my aunt, who came very quickly! Thank you!! And then we headed out the door to the hospital. When I first called our Doula a little after 5 I was able to talk through contractions and keep mostly about my business, when I called at 6 I was  having to breathe through them and stop talking, and when we left at 6:30ish, I would need to call for Michael to help me by rubbing my back each time I had a contraction. We arrived at the hospital and called my mom to tell her we were there. Then I checked in, (so thankful it was much faster then last time! I think they took me serious this time... maybe because it was the 3rd child... and two fast labors previously noted in my chart.) The triage was super nice to me too. There were two nurses helping me and they normally let only one person back with you but they let both my Doula and Michael back with me. They stopped what they were doing during my contractions and even though they really wanted me to use a wheel chair to get to my room they let me walk. (I just can't stand sitting when I am in labor!) They worried my water would break in the elevator, I didn't care :)  ) They told me they only had 2 rooms left.. and were not sure there were nurses left... they were busy! (Come to find out I bumped a scheduled induction.. out of her room and took her nurse. Hey.. I only took the nurse for 2 hrs! :)  She delivered later that night. ) When I was in triage and not having too strong of contractions the nurse said I was dilated to a 7. I was super surprised because it was not too bad yet and so far along, but that quickly changed to much stronger contractions!

I had previously decided I wanted to try and do this with no medication. Partly because I wanted to rewrite in a sense, what had happen with my previous labor and to get over being scared of it. And because I knew it was better for the baby and me... and I might not have the choice again for any meds.

I got to the room and decided to try laboring on my side to help relax me, and it worked great! Our doula Amy helped so much! She really helped me to stay relaxed, (I tried last time with Daniel, but she really knew what to say and how to help you really do what you needed to do. ) I am a pretty vocal person when it comes to labor... and she helped me to keep my tones low too which helped amazingly!! I was so surprised it almost completely took the pain away. I felt so lucky to have all the help I had. My nurse Laura was so kind and helpful too. Michael rubbed my legs, My doula rubbed my back and my mom rubbed my tummy and held my hand through my contractions and it helped so much to keep me relaxed and to help my body to just do what it needed to do. It helped to take the pain out and made so much of a difference.

The pushing was rather intense but super short! At one point I said "The contractions are so strong..." ( thinking I am not sure how much more I can take!) Amy responded "Yes, your body is strong." It really helped to take me from thinking something is happening to me, that I am not in control of to thinking "my body knows what it is doing and I can work with it."

When Abigail was born I was instantly in love with her! I just remember seeing this tiny little girl and loving her so much!

My recovery has been the best out of all of the births! I think that is partly due to being able to stay relaxed during the contractions so I was not fighting against my body. I feel like this birth experience has been such a blessing! We got my doctor on call, we had all the help we needed with the kids. Everyone is healthy and well. The labor was so different, and such a rewarding experience, and my recovery has been amazing! I could not have asked for it to have gone any better!

Well enough of my stories :) Here is the good stuff... the pictures!

Miss Abigail Lynette Ellerbeck

Born: May 25th at 8:58am

Weight: 6lbs. 10oz.

Length: 19 inches

37 weeks

Keeping with our tradition of taking pictures at 37 weeks (oh wait, I just reviewed the posts from other pregnancies and I guess I remembered wrong... the pictures were from 35 weeks... oops, mommy brain!) , here is the picture of this little girl at 37weeks.

 Amelia was in the picture for Daniel when he was 35 weeks, so I thought I should do this picture too, although neither Amelia or I have great expressions :)

 a few weeks off.... but here is a comparison pic of  Amelia at 35 weeks.

 

And Daniel at 35 weeks... 

  

I think this is the only picture I have of close to 35 weeks. My Grandma and Aunt were so great to take me up to Stanwood where we have some family grave sites. I have been wanting to do this for over a year now... maybe two, so I am so glad we were able to do this! It was special to be able to go and visit them.

 This is our little man! He is such a boy!! and Amelia is such a girly girl. (when we shop, he buys swords and Amelia buys princess tiaras. :)

 My sister welcomed her first baby to her family this last week. He is so cute! And we are so happy for them! I can't wait to meet him. Congrats to Heather and Jon! That boy is lucky to have such great parents!

Tulip Fields 2013

This year we did a tulip field trip with some good friends of mine. They were troopers as the weather was a showers and a slight bit of wind. The good thing is we live here and are prepared with rain coats, boots etc... It was very beautiful. I don't remember seeing so many flower in full bloom and the colors were wonderful! The kids loved to be with friends and did very well. They loved playing in the mud at the fields and lucky for me they had little wash basins to wash your hands in.

Daniel was being so cute peaking out from these tulips!

This display had my favorite colors! So pretty!!

Michael was out on a business trip so it was a great activity to get us out with friends and to keep us busy while he was away.  We also went swimming and to visit family for dinner while he was gone.We enjoyed all the good company!! and are glad Michael is home safe.

Having Children in Faith- Early Happy Mother's Day

I really enjoyed this video and wanted to share it. I am 35 weeks along to welcoming a new child to our family and can't wait! :)  Thank you to my wonderful Mother for her commitment and love to me and my sisters! And Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers... and my Sister who is about to become a new mother any day!! :) So excited for you!

More ultrasound pictures

We had an ultrasound this last week to check on baby's growth and make sure she is still on track. (Mostly because Amelia was extra small at the end of the pregnancy, so they watch these other ones more closely.) But all looks good and we got some cute pictures. One of her profile, and the other one is looking directly at her face so you can see her pouty lips and little nose. :)It is amazing all they can see in the ultrasound, more then I knew. We watched her practice breathing and the tech even pointed out when you could see her retina in her eye... weird! I never knew you could see that in an ultrasound.

This time around...

I realize that I have not really recorded/ blogged about how this pregnancy had been going. I always forget what it was like once the sweet baby comes, so I wanted to take a minute to document.

This time around I started wearing maternity clothes around 8 weeks, or at lest I had to alter what I wore in order to accommodate the changes :)

I don't remember craving much... maybe sweets, but that is nothing new :) But I can't stand cooking with olive oil!! It took a while to figure out. I thought it was cooked onions for a while, but we figured out it was just the smell of cooking the olive oil, crazy. Also the smell of cooking meat gets me pretty good. So we throw on lots of spices and then I seem to be good :)

I have a super nose this time which is something new.

Reflux has been a little stronger this time in the third trimester... but that might be part of taking the extra iron that has been recommended. 

Our baby dances around a lot to music.

Amelia has been super sweet and understanding when it comes to letting me lay down and take rests during Daniel's nap time. She also has enjoyed thinking up names that we should give to the baby.

Daniel is super sweet and like to hug my tummy and pat it. He talks about the baby a lot. He keeps asking me if the baby is coming out yet.

Both Amelia and Daniel have felt the baby kick. Their little eyes light up, it is so much fun to share with them!

Amelia likes to pretend to be Daniel's mother and will get him ready for school or cook him food and things like that. When they play Daniel will call out for "Mom" and is talking to Amelia as her pretend mom. I am often confused who he is talking to and when I respond to the call he says, "No I am talking to this mommy," We have tried to get him to call her Amelia mommy to cut down the confusion, but the other day they come up with their own solution.... they call me 'The big mommy." :)


   Well I will try to add more later... We are having an ultrasound at 32weeks to check the babies growth and fluid just to make sure it is on track. Hopefully there will be some cute ultrasound pictures to share after that! :) We are super excited for this little one to come to our family and can't wait to meet her!!

Valentine's Day

 Amelia had a Valentin's Heart Craft party what was super fun. She had been looking forward to it since Christmas when I told her we could do one.

 We had a Valentine dinner with heart ravioli steak and asparagus. Michael got me some beautiful flowers too! Later that week I had a church activity where we shared what we had learned from Pinterst. I learned how to french braid Amelia's hair! She loves it, and it was super cute!

Amelia (Amelia just learned how to type her name :)

High School Friends!

My High School friends I love so much! What fun times we had! It was so much fun to catch up and to see what everyone is up to these days. We are hoping to get more people together next weekend so hopefully we have more pictures!! So thankful for my mom taking the picture so we could all be in it!

 

 

This is my friend Charissa and she came all the way from South Africa! Not just to see me :) But so thankful she came! It is great how even after not seeing each other for a few years that we can still connects and hangout as if no time had passed. Love you guys!!

A moment in a day :)

I have been meaning to take more pictures, so on this day near the end of January I grabbed the camera and snapped a moment of our day! Fun stamping with the kids, beautiful flowers from Michael and some yummy dinner cooking in the oven. It was a good day!

This is on a different day, but I had to take the picture. It is a Sunday afternoon when Amelia napped in her room, Daniel was being too loud so he had to come out and rest on the couch with his Dad. And this is how we found them when Amelia woke up from her nap. Too funny!! But it couldn't have been too comfortable!