Introducing.....

Ella Grace born Friday, January 25th at 5:12pm.  Weight:  7# 8 oz  Length:  21"

Jan and Tina - my two wonderful nurses!  I was so lucky to know both of these women so it made the experience so much better.  In fact, Jan (on the left) delivered Tanner 4 1/2 years ago - how cool is that?!

My OB, Dr. Parshad, who has delivered Tanner, Riley and Ella.  This picture was taken the following day.

Dave holding baby Ella for the first time.

My wonderful mother meeting baby Ella about 2 hours after she was born.

Dave's parents meeting Ella.  Larry looks all smiles here, but he was REALLY hoping for a boy.   Their grandchild tally is now complete and it stands at 6 girls to 2 boys.  Sorry, Larry! :)

The following day, Dave brought the kids to the hospital to meet Ella.  I was so excited for them to meet her - especially Lacey who has been hugging and kissing my belly since the day she found out we were having a baby!

Tanner is excited to be a big brother again!

My Riley Jane is now a big sister.  For the most part, she just ran around the hospital room like a crazy woman!  She looked at Ella a couple times and said "Baby," but that was about it.  She's mostly oblivious to the life altering event that just took place.  But once she saw Lacey and Tanner holding Ella, then she wanted to hold her too.

Our first family photo 

Sunday - ready to go home!

When I got home, this was one of the first things I saw.  Lacey wrote the baby all kinds of notes and stuck them to her cradle and left her "prizes" in and around the cradle.  How cute is that? 

So fun to have a baby when you have a 6 year old girl who can't get enough of her.  It has truly been one of my very favorite parts of having this baby.

The Story:  For documentation sake, here's how it all went down.... on Friday morning, I begrudgingly went in to be induced.  I was 40 weeks 3 days.  And for all the logistical reasons I mentioned in my previous post on top of the fact that I'd been cramping and contracting on and off for weeks by this point, I decided to go ahead with the induction.  I was still tearful, but in a much better emotional state than Wednesday.  I was sad my body still hadn't gone on its own, but glad I had given it another couple of days.  I checked in at 8am.  They hooked me up to the fetal monitors and I was already contracting pretty good on my own, but they wanted me to be in a more consistent pattern and a little closer together.  My hope was that they could just break my water and see if that would do the trick without any pitocin.  Unfortunately, my cervix was too posterior and they weren't able to do that.  So, I had to start the dreaded pitocin at 10am.  I was still hopeful that once the contractions got stronger and established a pattern, I could get it turned off and experience most of my labor "pit free."  However, I saw the pit go from 2 ml/hr to 4 to 6 to 8.  This was due in part to the fact that during this time, they discovered baby had a "thick" bowel movement in utero and so they didn't want to delay labor.  They flushed me out to try and dilute the meconium, but I was told because of the meconium issue, they wouldn't turn off the pit as they didn't want to take any chances of slowing down labor at this point and having the contractions slow down.  Pitocin during labor, especially at higher doses is so insanely painful because you get NO rest between contractions.  As soon as you start to feel one come down, another starts up.  I had the pitocin from 10am - 3:40pm and was literally climbing the walls by that point and honestly felt like I couldn't handle one more minute of it, so I consented to the epidural.  She was born 90 minutes later.  The cord was wrapped around her neck, so this was the first baby where Dave wasn't able to cut the cord (although, they did let him cut it later, but it obviously wasn't cutting it away from me at that point).  Once the doctor cut the cord from around her neck, he lifted the baby out but had one hand holding the head and the other holding the legs together.  I just remember hearing my nurse say, "Let go of the legs - what is it??" and then we all looked together and exclaimed, "It's a GIRL!!"  I honestly had no idea, so I don't think I would have been totally shocked either way, but Dave was about 99% sure it was a boy, so he was SHOCKED.  Not disappointed - he LOVES his girls!  Just very surprised.  And then.... they whisked her away to the corner of the room where the Pediatric team was waiting to assess her, suction her, make sure she didn't aspirate on the meconium, etc.  The first time I didn't get to hold my baby following birth.  In fact, it was probably at least 10 or 15 minutes before I got to hold her.  

Once we let it all soak in, we called our parents and told them to come to the hospital to meet their grandchild.  My dad isn't in town, but the other three grandparents came to the hospital and we had them all guess what gender she was.  All three said boy (poor Ella!).  Then we had them take off the diaper and discover we'd had a girl!  It was very fun!  Dave left around 9 or 9:30 that night and we weren't 100% sure what we should name her and didn't want to rush it, so she went to bed nameless that night (for the record, we had it lowered down to Ella, Clara or Sydney).  When Dave came to the hospital around noon the following day, we settled on Ella Grace, so she was about 19 hours old before she had a name.  We decided on Ella because my maternal grandmother's name was Eleanor and because Ella is a Swedish name.  Our last name is Swedish and Dave and I went to (and fell in love with) Sweden shortly after we got married.

So, there you have it!  Little Ella Grace is sleeping peacefully on my lap as I write this.  I am so, so grateful I have this sweet girl.  It is so wonderful having this sweet little baby in our home.  I am absolutely in love with her.  Welcome to the world, Ella Grace.  So glad you are a part of our family.

Having a Baby.... Test Run

Wednesday, January 23rd:  On our way to the hospital to have Baby #4!

Hooked up to the fetal monitor.  The white line shows all my contractions.  The "mountains" are my contractions and the screen is  about 8 minutes or so, so you can see they are about 6-7 minutes apart here.

All situated, hooked up and ready to go!

So, you may notice there is a crucial picture missing..... one of a cute baby!  That's because I am now home and still pregnant!

Here's the deal.... as I explained in my previous post, I have had pitocin for all three of my babies.  My contractions have been HORRIBLE and an epidural inevitable.  I am not opposed to epidurals, but for my last pregnancy, I really, really want to go into labor naturally.  I may still do an epidural, I don't know.  But I want to enter labor on my own and experience contractions not resulting from such a harsh, intense drug.  However.... I am now overdue (by one day).  My mom has been out here for a full week to help me with the baby.  I have taken 3 of my precious 8 PTO days I have saved up from work... without a baby.  Dave's work is starting to get a little frustrated after 2 weeks of not knowing if they can expect him at that meeting, work on such and such project, etc.  So, I finally decided I would agree to get induced today now that I am officially overdue (My doctor is pretty liberal about inductions and is fine with inducing as early as 38+ weeks).  But, I woke up this morning and just felt so unsettled, sad and disappointed because here it was, my last experience and it wasn't at all what I wanted.  I balled my eyes out the whole way to the hospital.  Once there, I just sat in the car and couldn't get myself to get out.  I finally called my doctor and said that I was sitting in the parking lot (when I called him, it was 9:15am.  I was supposed to report to the hospital for my induction at 8:00am).  He finally talked me into going inside and at least getting the baby checked out to make sure baby was still fine and see what my options would be.  This is a "sister hospital" to the one I work at and I knew my nurse.  I started to feel comfortable and at peace having the baby today with an induction.... as long as they could do it without pitocin.  I let them strip my membranes (again - he did that last Friday as well), walked the halls for a solid hour and consented to having my water broken.  At this point, I was told I was 75-80% effaced, between 3-4 cm dilated and having contractions every 7-10 minutes.  However... after a VERY uncomfortable effort, they weren't able to break my water.  So, after being there for 5+ hours, I was told they either needed to start pitocin or I needed to go home.  I still couldn't get myself to agree to the pitocin, so I left.  It was an emotionally exhausting, anticlimactic day.  But I don't regret my decision.  My doctor said he would let me go until Tues/Wed of next week, but then he would induce no matter what.  He said that because I am AMA (Advanced Maternal Age - gotta love it!), he just won't agree to letting me go beyond 41 weeks.  However.... as much as I want to go naturally, I feel like I'm at the point that I need to start considering the aforementioned logistics - mom in town, Dave's work, my work, etc.  So.... I have agreed to a Friday induction (even if it means pitocin) if I don't go on my own before then.  On Friday, I will be 40 weeks 3 days, so I go into it knowing I definitely gave going natural a good shot!

Lacey Bella

January 22, 2013:  My baby girl is 6!  And she turned 6 on my due date, so I wasn't exactly sure how this day was going to go down.  However, I didn't go into labor, so Lacey got to keep her birthday all to herself!  I went to her school and had lunch with her and brought treats (that she picked out) for everyone in her class.  I love that she is at the age where she is absolutely THRILLED to have her mom come to school and have lunch with her.  I also told her she could pick whatever she wanted for dinner.  She wanted to have oatmeal and chocolate milk.  Easy enough!

She also wanted to have a "special treat" but said she wanted me to pick out the special treat, so I bought stuff to make ice cream sundaes.  Her birthday party was scheduled for this Saturday (26th).  Invitations were sent out to all her friends, etc.  I was so sure this baby was coming before my due date and I would be safe planning the party for that date.  But alas.... I'm still pregnant and just sent out emails to the mothers of all 9 girls she invited letting them know the party has been changed to February 2nd.  Luckily, Lacey has been a very good sport about all of this, so we'll do more celebrating then!

Love you a hundred million, Lacey bug.  It's an interesting situation to reflect on the day I became a mother for the first time with my first baby while I am awaiting giving birth to my last.

Our Newest Addition.....

Oh, I know..... that was so mean!!!  Believe me, I FULLY intended to have our newest baby addition post on here by now!  But alas, I am still pregnant.  More on that later..... Here is Lacey posing with our newest automobile addition.  Once Dave and I discovered we were expecting Baby #4, we realized we were going to have to bite the bullet and trade in our beloved RAV4 for a MiniVan.  We lowered it down to a Honda Odyssey or a Toyota Sienna.  We ended up getting a 2010 Odyssey and, as you can see, Lacey gives it a thumbs up!  The best feature.... a built in DVD system.  Praying this will come in handy on road trips!

Trading in our RAV for a mini van was our last major thing to do on our "to do" list before baby's arrival and we accomplished this on New Years Day.  Here we are saying good bye to our RAV.  I cried.  I absolutely loved this car and I miss it.  I get so sentimentally attached to my cars... especially cars I have since "birth."  We got this car the summer of 2007 after a guy fell asleep at the wheel, crossed over the line into oncoming traffic and hit Dave head on, totally his car and sending him to the ER.  Thankfully, Dave wasn't totaled along with his car!  We bought this car brand new when Lacey was just 5 months old.  We put 65,000 miles on it over the next 5 1/2 years.  We brought both Tanner and Riley home from the hospital in this car.  We have taken so many family vacations and trips in this car.  So many memories.... it was really hard for me to say good-bye. 

My baby shower!  The Friday before New Years (December 28th), my OB did an internal exam and said "you're going to have this baby within the next 2 weeks" which would have been January 11th.  He really never should have said that.  I mean, how can he know?  And then you just get false expectations.  Needless to say, I had no idea if I would even make it to my shower, on January 12th.  And if you're surprised I had a shower for Baby #4, so was I!  My dear friend, Kim (who moved to Korea back in October) was bound and determined to throw me a shower.... from KOREA!  So, she enlisted the help of a couple women in my church to host it, then sent out evites to the women in my church and sent a package to the host full of games and other things for the shower.  I didn't have a shower for Tanner or Riley, so this was really fun to get together with friends and celebrate Baby #4!  

January 13th:  I was certain this would be my last Sunday at church before the baby.  At my appt on the 11th (the end of the 2 week period my doctor had told me I'd have my baby by), he told me I was between 2-3 cm dilated and between 70-80% effaced and said "You're going to have this baby within the next 5 days."  And the night before (12th), Dave and I went out to our traditional "Saturday before baby is born" dinner at Jalapenos with Dave's parents.  So, I decided to get some pics while we were all presentable of (what I thought would be) my last day or two of pregnancy.

Lacey giving baby a hug and a kiss (which she has done on a routine basis ever since she found out there was a baby inside of Mom's tummy!)

Bare belly shot

The 4 kids :)

January 16th.... Hammy arrives!  When Lacey was younger, she had a hard time saying Grandma, so we tried to get her to say "Grammy."  She had a hard time with that too, but could say "Hammy."  The name stuck!  Here they are making one of Hammy's signature treats.... sugared almonds.

Friday, January 18th, I had yet another OB appt.  My doctor said, "Well, you've made a liar out of me."  He said I was still 75% effaced, but now "a good 3 cm dilated" and stripped my membranes.  That was 2 1/2 days ago.  And here I am.  Still pregnant.  Dave and I walked for a solid hour last night.  Nothing.  But once again, I got optimistic that "something" would happen and had my mom grab the camera at one point when all three kids were piled on top of us on the couch thinking, "this will be the last family picture we have together."  Well, it probably will be, but I was also thinking "let's get a picture of our last night before a baby is added."  That didn't happen.  

So, here's my predicament..... I've technically been induced with all three of my babies (with Lacey, my water broke at 38 weeks 3 days.  24 hours later, she still wasn't born, so they pumped in the pitocin and she was born at 38 weeks 4 days.  Tanner:  My 40 week due date was June 28th.  I had a 10 week ultrasound which changed my due date to June 18th.  My doctor kept saying that the baby was really big and was concerned I may have to have a c-section, so he induced on June 17th (my birthday) one day before the ultrasound due date, but technically at 38 weeks 3 days.  Riley's 40-week due date was Nov. 13th.  But again, an early ultrasound moved the due date up by 11 days to Nov. 2nd.  I really, really wanted to go on my own after two inductions.  On Nov. 7th, 5 days after her (ultrasound) due date, but technically at 39 weeks 1 day, I honestly thought I was in labor and went to the hospital.  Once I got there, the contractions had stopped and the water I thought had broken, they informed me, had not.  So, my doctor said to me, "I know you didn't want to be induced, so you can go back home and come back once you are in labor, or.... since you're here and already 5 days late, we can have this baby today."  I was so mentally prepared to have the baby, that I went ahead and gave him the okay and was induced.)   and have been bound and determined NOT to be induced with this one.  And here I am, strongly considering it.  Why?  Because Lacey's birthday is on Tuesday (the actual due date).  I have now carried this baby 39 weeks 5 days -- more than a week longer than my first two babies and 4 days longer than Riley.  I've been partially dilated and effaced the last 2-3 weeks.  I've been feeling cramps/pressure/contractions, etc on and off for weeks.  I had contractions 8 days ago for several hours - not consistent, but on and off for 3 hours until they went away.  So, I just never thought I would have to make this decision.  Do I throw in the towel and get induced tomorrow to ensure that Lacey and baby each have their own birthday?  Do I take take my chances and just pray the baby doesn't come on Tuesday?  And then kick myself that I didn't get induced on Monday if it does?  If the baby doesn't come by Wednesday, do I get induced on that day so that I'll be home on Friday, in time for Lacey's birthday party on Saturday?  Why did I plan her party for Saturday, you ask?  Well, because Lacey has been looking forward to her birthday party for MONTHS.  And she's old enough to know when her birthday is and so I felt I needed to plan it relatively close to her birthday.  Feeling confident the baby would come several days BEFORE the due date/Lacey's birthday, I felt okay planning the party for several days AFTER Lacey's birthday/due date.  AHHHH - I just don't know what to do!!!!

Ringing in the New Year..... with A LOT of kids :)

December 31, 2012:  Last year, we decided to host a "kid friendly" NYE Party.  We had so much fun that we decided to do it again this year and now I suppose we've started a tradition (for as long as our kids actually want to hang out with us on NYE anyway!)  We invited several families from the neighborhood, church, etc.  who had young children and set all the clocks back 4 hours (so that midnight became 8:00pm).  All the families arrived between 10-10:30pm (6-6:30pm) and we all feasted on pizza, hors devours, etc while the adults visited and the kids played.  I know this probably sounds like a complete nightmare to anyone without young kids, but we had 14 adults and 18 kids ages 6 and below here!  A few minutes before "midnight", we handed out all of the party favors.  Here are the kids picking out their hats, silly string, glow sticks, noise makers, etc.....

Then we all headed outside on our deck where we did the official countdown and watched the ball drop (on you tube from last year on the iPad).  And then we all went crazy!  We had a great time and can't wait to do it again next year :)

Christmas and the Flu..... Again!

 December 23rd:  We went to church and the girls wore matching Christmas dresses.  A brief moment of happiness and healthiness.  Now let me rewind to the Sunday before (17th).  That evening as we were going to bed, Tanner came running in to our room screaming and saying his stomach hurt.  We were so confused and couldn't figure out what was going on.  He had the flu shot AND he had just had 4 days of horrible stomach cramps/nausea/vomiting/diarrhea 2 1/2 weeks earlier, so it couldn't possibly be the flu!  But then the vomiting started.  WHAT??  How is that possible?  Dave went to sleep in T's room since he had to work the next day and I stayed with Tanner in our bed.  That poor kid was horribly nauseas and was vomiting ALL NIGHT long every 5-20 minutes or so.  It was HORRIBLE.  By 2am, I was so exhausted (keeping in mind my 36 week pregnant status), I went and got Dave to take over.  He took over from 2-6am until the vomiting finally started to slow down.  Not stop.  But slow down.  I dragged myself out of bed after only a couple hours sleep and got Lacey ready for school.  As soon as I walked back in the door (now Monday, Dec. 18th), Dave tells me has bad news..... Riley had started throwing up.  Then he left for work.  I spent the day with vomiting Tanner who sometimes made it to the toilet and vomiting Riley who never made it to the toilet which means I spent the ENTIRE day cleaning up vomit from floors, walls, sides and lids of toilets, etc, etc.  And I did lots and lots and lots of laundry and bathing!  Tuesday, Dec 19th:  No vomiting, but no rest for the weary.  I had to work all day.  Wed, Dec 20th:  I lay my weary body down desperate for a decent night sleep when the sounds of a crying child races toward our room.  This time it was Lacey.  Both Dave and I needed to work the following day, but we decided I would stay home, so he went to sleep in Lacey's room and I was up ALL night long with a vomiting Lacey.  She didn't go more than 30 minutes the entire night without having to throw up.  She was sick all day Thursday and was spiking a fever by that night.  Brutal.  For all of us.  Just when I thought I was going to keel over and die of exhaustion, the vomiting stopped and I was able to sleep on Friday night.  And then we had a nice weekend. 

Just a picture I wanted to post.  I love this ornament.  Dave gave me this on our 2nd Christmas together, when we were expecting Lacey.  It was so fun to hang it on our tree this year since this baby is due on the same day Lacey was born 6 years later.

Monday, December 24th.  I was determined to make this a fun day since it is my favorite day of the year and we'd had such a rough week.  Dave had to work in the morning, but I took the kids to Donut Shack for breakfast and then to an indoor bounce place we had never been to.  They loved it and had a great time and Dave was able to meet us there for the tail end of it.  After that, we came home and I got Riley down for her nap while Dave took L and T to a Christmas movie while I wrapped, wrapped, wrapped!  After they got home, we all went out to dinner (a Mitchell Family tradition) to Adams Rib and then drove all over town looking at Christmas lights (another Mitchell Family tradition).  However, clearly I did a horrible job of documenting the day on my camera since this is the only picture I have of the day!  This picture totally cracks me up because when we got home from the lights, Lacey and I were hard at work setting our cookies and milk for Santa.  Then Tanner walked up with this.  He filled this Christmas Tree container with his cars and said he wanted to give them to Santa.  How cute and sweet is that??

Okay..... now back to the flu.  While we were nearing the end of our "tour of the Christmas lights," Dave announces that he didn't feel well.  I seriously almost started yelling at him, "NOOOO!  You can't be sick!!!!  You can't leave me to do Christmas by myself!"  Thankfully, his iron stomach pulled through and he never actually threw up.  However, he felt nauseas and horrible all night, poor guy.

Merry Christmas!!!  This year, due to the kids ages, was by far the most fun in terms of the kids excitement level.

Tanner thrilled with his Spiderman glove!

And his remote control helicopter!

Lacey with her Princess Aurora doll

And this "color it yourself" purse she has been wanting for months!

Oh, and if you're wondering why I have no pictures of Riley opening gifts.... it's because she didn't.  She absolutely refused to open any presents.  And when we tried to "make" her or "help" her, she seriously screamed and threw it down.  How endearing.  So, she spent the morning watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while we had Christmas without her!

We were done with gifts ~9:30 and Dave was in bed the rest of the day.  Around 4pm, he got up and said, he still wasn't feeling great, but felt he was up to going to his parents house to do the Family gift exchange and have dinner.  We had a nice time there, but left by 7:30 to get home and get the kids to bed.  And thank goodness we did!  Because within 20 minutes or so of walking in the door, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I spent Christmas night throwing up.  And after getting no sleep, Dave had to work the next day and I had to take care of the kids, while still throwing up.  I swear that is the very hardest part of being a parent - being miserably sick and still having to parent!  To 3 very young kids on top of being nearly 9 months pregnant.  Brutal.

However.... it did snow a little the day after Christmas much to my kids delight!  So in between vomiting sessions, I picked up my camera and snapped a shot of them having some fun in the snow!

So there you have it.... a detailed rundown of Christmas and the week leading up to it!  I will hopefully do another post in the next day or two as I have lots more to update regarding pregnancy (37 weeks today!), NYE and really big purchase we just made today...