Ellie Rose 7 Months

Our sweet Ellie girl is 7 months old! She is a joy and a bright spot in our family. Whenever I start to get stressed or frustrated with Kayla and Tyson and their toddler ways, I look at Ellie and she gives a smile that seems to bring immediate peace. I think she's a gift from heaven. She has the sweetest temperament but is still very vocal. She comes alive in the evening and is much more talkative. 

She cute her first two teeth right after her 7 month birthday and she didn't seem to be bothered by them at all! I just noticed them one day! She also got to try her first foods after we got home from Dallas. She seemed to be a bit betrayed by it all. Like she's looked forward to eating all along and it didn't live up the hype. :) She didn't like the green beans at all but likes oatmeal mixed with breast milk and sweet peas. That's all she's had so far. 

Ellie is rolling over from front to back and back to front but is generally content just to stay in the position she starts off in. She's definitely less interested in getting around that Kayla and Tyson were, which is fine with me! I wouldn't mind if she was a little less determined and active. :)

 

Ellie loves to smile for the camera! She gets lots of pictures taken of her! She is adored by her brother and sister. Tyson is constantly hugging and kissing her. And Kayla just wants to hold her all the time. 

Ellie started saying 'mama' at six months and then just a couple weeks ago, she started saying 'papa'! I tried to teach her dada, but that wasn't sticking so I said papa once and she said it right back to me! She also likes to wave with her little fingers. I'll hold up her arm up and her fingers move up and down in the cutest little wave. I think she genuinely likes bringing joy to people. She lights up when daddy comes home. When we got back from Dallas and he picked her up, she couldn't stop touching his face. And when anyone else held her on our trip, she'd look for me and say, 'mama'. But when we came home, she was so excited to see daddy and didn't seem to care that I was even there at all. I wouldn't have it any other way! 

 

Ellie was the best traveler on our trip. She did amazing on the plane rides and everyone was gushing over her. They coudn't get over how content and sweet she was the whole time! I couldn't have asked for a better little travel buddy! 

Ellie loves laying on her back and grabbing her toes. She loves playing with any colorful toy she can get her hands on. She goes right to sleep when we lay her down without being rocked to sleep. We did have to purchase something to help us transition from a swaddled sleep. She now sleeps with one arm out but sleeps better all tucked in.

In Ellie's young life, she's attended a funeral, a wedding, flown on a plane, traveled across the country to Texas, stayed in hotels, a cabin, the condo, and had countless adventures outside to beaches, lakes, mountains, pools, etc. I think she's in for a life full of adventure and no doubt she be as happy as can be through it all. 

 

We love our little Ellie belly! We hope she always knows how adored she is by all around her! 

Tyson 3 Years Old!

Our little buddy Tyson is officially a 3 year old! Tyson is a whirlwind of a boy! He is full of personality, charm, and mischief all at once. Tyson has grown up a lot over the last year and he's had some big changes in life as well!

 

In the last year, we moved into a new home which means new neighborhood, ward, and nursery leaders. We also had Ellie. So Tyson's had a lot of changes to adjust to. In some ways, this year was rough with Tyson. He is a big, strong boy and he's had some problems being too rough or even aggressive at times. It breaks my heart seeing him be rough with others and I look forward to this phase of life to completely be done. Its worn on my patience a lot. He finally seems to be getting better with it though and is learning to verbalize his feelings rather than show aggression physically. He still likes to rough house though. I don't know if that will go any time soon.

 

Its also been stressful for me with Ellie and how rough the big kids are with her. When she was 5 weeks old, Tyson picked her up to carry her and when I screamed in fear, he dropped her. Luckily it was a soft fall and he's not too far from the ground but it scared me. Every day, I'm grateful that she's gotten stronger so she can survive the bigger kids. Tyson really adores Ellie but sometimes he gets excited and wants to play with her and she's not quite big enough for that yet. She loves him too though. She gets the biggest grin on her face when Tyson and Kayla play with her.

Tyson loves playing with cars. He's slightly obsessed with Lightning McQueen and Mater. He also plays really well by himself for long periods of time, which is nice. When he plays with Kayla, they are very imaginative in their play. They are always making up adventures to go on together. They love gathering everything they can find and moving it into a pile in a corner for said adventure, much to my dismay. As soon as they're done and I ask them to clean it up, its "too hard!"



Tyson is a great eater. He eats almost anything I cook for him, although I think he likes to give me grief because Kayla does and he gets attention for it. But he will almost always end up eating dinner. He loves hot dogs, pb&j, pizza, spaghetti, and now prefers hamburgers or chicken nuggets. His favorite restaurants are Pizza Pie Cafe and Freddy's.



He can talk up a storm. He repeats (and imitates) everything Kayla says and does. He can carry on the funniest conversations and is now coming up with dramatic play and giving directions for the games. People often comment on how well he speaks for his age and how vast his vocabulary is. He is very expressive and loud. He has a horribly high pitched squeal that is awful and we're working on that. I'm constantly reminding him to use an inside voice. He also thinks its funny to make a really loud monkey sound any time he sees Ellie has fallen asleep. Lately he's started saying, "That's disgusting!" He proudly told the doctor that his feet were gnarly at his 3 year check up. (he's struggled with athlete's foot). I never know what to expect out of his sweet and often loud little mouth.



Tyson also potty trained this last summer. He did a great job and was really quick to catch on, but every once in a while, he gets too distracted or doesn't want to stop what he's doing. When he got hit sticker chart filled up, he earned a Mack Truck and he LOVES it! He also likes to have one of us come watch him in the bathroom. I know he just likes the attention. We taught him the proper names of anatomy, which has been entertaining to say the least. He ran outside once without underwear on. I quietly guided him back in and Kayla ran outside and yelled, "Sorry everyone! He just wanted to show you his penis!" She said that because another time at my Uncle Tony's 80th birthday party, Tyson was in a little playhouse with several little girls. He had just finished potty training. All of a sudden, all the little girls ran out screaming followed by Tyson waddling out with his pants around his ankles. He was saying, "I just wanted to show you my penis!" ha!



Our little buddy gives the best hugs and loves to have either Brett or I snuggle with him at night before he'll go to sleep. He loves giving kisses and hugs to Ellie. He'll give all of us a closed-lip kiss like normal, and then open his mouth on our cheeks and say 'Ah-Va!'. He calls those kisses his Ah-Va's. Tyson does everything all the way. He loves hard, he plays hard, he screams loud, he runs fast, and he pushes limits. I'm so excited to see where he'll go in his life. I don't doubt he'll do big things. We sure love this buddy buddy!

 

Ellie's Birth

We are now a family of five! Its wonderful and a little hard to believe! I haven't blogged a lot lately but I wanted to get this all recorded. So here is Ellie's birth story.




On June 1 (her due date) we had a doctor's appt scheduled. A week earlier I had been told I was dilated to a 4 and 50% effaced so I was sure I'd go earlier than my due date. I was also having regular Braxton Hicks contractions, but no such luck! So we decided that we'd just head to the doctor and ask if they would send me to the hospital to have my water broken. I was debating about whether we should or not, but then we got the call letting us know that Brett's grandma Renie had passed away early that morning. That sealed the deal for us. We didn't want to be waiting all weekend for the baby to come and not have Brett able to go to the funeral.

 

They checked me out at the midwife's office and they said to just head to the hospital. We text our friend Bonnie who is a L&D nurse at Mountain View Hospital to ask if she was working. She was on call so we lucked out to have her come in to be our nurse! We arrived at the hospital at 11:15 in the morning. They got me all checked in and started me on Pitocin at 1:15 and Susan, my midwife, broke my water at 1:30. At that point, I was still dilated to a 4 and 75% effaced. It didn't take too long for the contractions to get started and they were pretty powerful. It took awhile for the anesthesiologist to arrive at the hospital so I didn't get my epidural until 4:00. At that point, I was dilated to a 5.



I was able to sleep for about an hour and then was checked again at 5:30 when I was at a 7. Bonnie was off at 6:00, so she checked me again to see if she'd miss the birth and I was at an 8. I also was feeling contractions just a bit, so they gave me a bolus of my epidural. Bonnie introduced me to the nurse taking over and immediately, I felt a lot of pressure in my bum. They decided to have the midwife check me at 6:38 and I kind of felt like they were humoring me, but sure enough, I was at a 10 and baby was all the way down. The midwife had a student who was going to deliver me. Bonnie walked in to say goodbye and saw we were ready to go, so she stayed to help! She held one leg while Brett held the other leg. They told me to do a practice push during my next contraction. I started pushing and learned it wasn't going to be practice! I pushed twice more and she was out at 6:46, all on the same contraction! It was so fast and easy, I couldn't believe it! I feel like I was in shock a little bit! The cord was loosely wrapped around her neck twice, so they were getting that untangled while my midwife went on and on about how beautiful my umbilical cord was.



 
They immediately placed her up on my belly and I was so surprised that I'd just a baby that we didn't even think to check the gender until Brett exclaimed, "wait, what is it!?" I picked her up to see that she was in fact a girl! I was a little surprised because we'd kind of figured it was a boy based on my pregnancy symptoms being more similar to Tyson, but were so happy to have a healthy baby girl!! She was really bruised up from coming so fast and was really blue. It was a little alarming actually. Ellie weighed in at 8lbs 3.8 oz and 19.5 inches long. They got her all cleaned up and I was able to nurse her for the first time at 7:23. She latched on great right away and ate really well.

 




Grandma Betsy and Aunt Haley arrived with the kids shortly thereafter. Seeing your children meet your newborn child is one of the greatest moments life has to offer. They were both so cute and tender with Ellie. Kayla was sure through the whole pregnancy that it was a girl, and I was so happy to see her dream come true! They both kept saying she was 'So cute' 'so precous' and 'so little!' Tyson was very concerned about me and kept asking everyone, "What happened to my mommy!?"



Both Kayla and Tyson were both very gentle and soft with Ellie, thankfully. We hadn't decided on her name yet and were going back and forth between Ellie and Summer. Kayla kept asking what her name might be and I'd answer 'Ellie and Summer' and each time, she'd knowingly say, "Oh yeah, Ellie!" She wasn't having this whole possibility of Summer as a name.















Grandma took the kids home and we got moved to a post partum room. They had me take a bath immediately, which was very different from my first two deliveries, but really nice. I feel like the care at this hospital was wonderful and much better than I had in Texas. I was informed of everything going on and everyone was super helpful. They even let me eat during labor! I wasn't very hungry, but it was nice to have a little something in my stomach before I had to push.

 



That first night, Ellie cried quite a bit. They also had a sick baby in the nursery, so they couldn't take her, even if I'd wanted them to. She basically wanted to nurse all night long. I was nervous to fall asleep with her on me so I didn't sleep much. She did better the next day and passed all newborn screenings with flying colors, except that her bilirubin level was on the high end of normal. Grandpa Kelly came up from Pocatello to meet her and spend time with us. Grandma and Haley brought the kids back for a couple hours as well.  At the 24 hour mark, we asked them to let us go home, so we left the hospital around 8:00 PM on Friday. That night, Ellie again was pretty fussy and would latch on to nurse and then pull back and cry like she couldn't get anything. My milk hadn't quite come in yet so we had a long night. By the next day, my milk was starting to come in and she did much better. We rechecked her bilirubin level at the doctor and it was great.
 

Since then, she's been amazing! She nurses every couple hours during the day and sleeps 6-7 hours between feedings at night and then goes right back to sleep for a few more hours! I can't believe how lucky and blessed we've been with this baby girl! She only cries during the day if she's hungry or has a poopy diaper, which she does have a lot of.  She's a sweet baby and we all adore her!