First zoo trip of the year

Big Bro & Little Sis

Grady is such a great big brother to Ellery! He loves to sing to her, talk to her, and tell her everything going on especially if she has never been there before. It is so so sweet. 

We had a baby!

I know I am incredibly behind in my blogging and Grady and Brynlee are going to be deprived of documentation of their lives during the months their mother was a slacker…. Sooo, let’s start fresh with our new addition and maybe I will find time at some point during maternity leave to catch back up!

INTRODUCING!

Ellery Sue!

Birthday:  March 3, 2014

Weight:  7 lbs. 13 oz

Time:  7:51 am

Name:  I have always loved the name Ellery and it was one of our top choices with Brynlee so I was very excited when we found out we were having a girl so I could use it!  Sue was my mom’s middle name, so she is named after my mom. 

Delivery:  Scheduled C-section.  She has been our only baby that was planned and arrived on schedule.  I never even had any contractions with her.  We checked into the hospital at 5:30 on Monday morning (March 3rd), got all hooked up to things, IV, blood drawn, prepped for surgery and we were on our way back into the operating room around 7:15.  Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 and I think we started right at 7:40 or so.  She was born 10 minutes later!  She was having problems with fluid in her lungs right away so after trying several different things in the operating room they eventually had to take her to the nursery area to put her in a little oxygen hood thing to get her numbers where they wanted them.  (Pictures to follow….)  Ironically I had told Paul during the surgery that the Dr. had told me that could be a possibility at the birth of c-section babies since they don’t go through the birth canal to get the fluid squeezed out of their lungs.  It didn’t happen with our other 2, so I wasn’t worried about it.  Ironic how it happened with Ellery and I had JUST told Paul that it could happen.  She was back in the room with us pretty much right after I got out of recovery, so it was around 1.5 hours or so that she had to be on oxygen before she was fine.  Paul went with her to the nursery area while I got put back together in surgery and then went to recovery.  He later joined me in recovery to give me an update and we started to call family members.  As with the other 2 c-sections I could not stop shaking/shivering so Paul had to do all of the calling/letting people know she was born.  It was great to have so many visitors and for a lot of family to be able to meet her right away.  Since the other 2 were born in North Platte, we only had a few visitors in the hospital. It was nice to be in Lincoln to have so much family close to come visit, especially since we were there for 4 days!  I just felt bad that for many of the visitors I was not feeling great, but such is the recovery from a c-section I suppose.  I have a hard time finding the right pain medicine, I’m sensitive to many things.  This recovery was especially hard because I got behind on my pain meds on the 2nd day since I was having problems with it (which I kind of blame on my nurse that day, but also myself…) and I was in a LOT of pain.  With the other 2 I have always been up and showered and walking the halls on the 2nd day but with this one there was no way I could do that.  We finally put in a call to my Dr. that night to get him to okay something else and it made a world of difference.  By the morning on the 3rd day I had showered, sat in the chair to eat, and was out of the bed for awhile.  At that point I was very glad we had to stay another couple of days because I definitely needed that recovery time. 

Paul’s mom (Doris) stayed with the kids at our house the whole week while we were in the hospital.  It worked out great for her to be able to take Grady to preschool/pick him up, bring them to the hospital 1 or 2 times a day to visit, and be at home with them.  They loved it and I think she did too!  We are so thankful it worked out that she could do that!  And, I loved having them come to the hospital so much!  They are in LOVE with their baby sister and are such good helpers!  It has made such a big difference having a baby with older kids.  It’s a whole different experience then when Grady had only just turned 2 when Brynlee was born.  They fight over who gets to hold her (literally tantrums when Grady gets to hold her first…) and compete over who can give her their blanket first.  They are always interested in if she is awake or sleeping and where she is at.  It is SO sweet!  Such a gift for all of us!

Okay, enough of my rambling and on to the delivery/hospital pics!  She looks so much like Grady did as a baby and looks like she will even have dimples like him!  She has about the same amount of hair that he did also (Brynlee had more) and it is so dark black like the other 2 kids also.  She also still has a very dark complexion.  Someone even asked us last week if we are sure we got the right baby!  ha!

(I feel like I should also note that she looks kind of chubby/chunky in her pictures from her birthday because of the IV fluids I got before surgery.  She is so petite and tiny now that it is weird to think of her being that big!  These pictures make her look like she has cheeks, and she really doesn’t have any cheeks.  She has Grady’s petite features.  She is also not back to her birth weight yet, so she is probably around 7 1/2 lbs right now…)

Kindergarten Preview

Grady had kindergarten preview today! He got to go to the classrooms and visit for an hour while the parents have meetings. It was so fun to have him there and see how he interacts with his friends. I love how his friend Griffin kind of clings to Grady and uses him as a security blanket. It's weird for us because Grady is usually the shy and nervous one. 

He loved it today and is hopefully super excited for K because he had been really nervous and out of the blue will say that he doesn't want to go and that is not going because he is too scared. But, he is SO ready and needs it. 

5th Birthday Party!

Grady's 5th birthday was on January 27. We had a party for family at our house on the 25th. Kansas City Royals themed, of course! My aunt Shari made this amazing cake, with help from my aunt Lori because Shari ended up getting sick with the flu during the process of making it. Yuck! And so sad for her!

We had peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches, Mac and cheese, and applesauce per Grady's request for the kids. The adults got to have sandwiches, cheeseburger soup, and chicken taco soup. But Grady made it very clear that only the kids got to eat the kid food. He also wanted to be the 'announcer' of the party and tell everyone what to do and when to do it. He kept telling me several days before the party that he did not want me giving people directions or telling him what comes next because he would know to tell them. So, he had to make several 'announcements' during the party... Who is this kid?!?! 

He so requested several different birthday dinners. He WAS lucky and got to do 2. We went to Texas Roadhouse the night before his birthday with Ashley so he could sit on the saddle and be sang to. And he is obsessed with their rolls and honey butter. I'm guessing he had at least 6 of them...

Then the day of his birthday we went to Valentinos, his favorite, with Shari since she wasn't able to come to the party. 

He also got to take snack to preschool on his birthday since it landed on a preschool day! He took green applesauce (pear) and chocolate chip cookies! 

We had such a fun weekend celebrating his birthday! It's so hard to believe he is 5 years old already! He is so ready for kindergarten and being in school all day. He wishes he could go to preschool every day already so I'm sure it will be a long 6 months waiting for school to start!