New friends!

We have had several visitors the past couple of days, including two of my best friends from college. Words cannot describe how thankful I am for their support and advice during this new season of life.

Benton is 11 weeks and is such an easy-going guy. He was totally the chill the whole time they were visiting, and is such a happy smiley guy. Jen has given me so much helpful, practical advice through pregnancy and now with an infant. I don't know if I could have done it without her. I look forward to future play dates with the kids.

Quinn just turned a year old and she is such a happy little girl and a go-getter. The whole time they were visiting she was pulling out Elliott's toys, etc and bringing them to us. Kinsey has been so excited for us and has been such a faithful prayer warrior. I was so thankful her and Quinn were in town when Elliott was born and I look forward to her visit in another month!

And another super cute picture of our sweet little baby! We love her tons!!

It isn't called LABOR for nothing...

So I thought I would take these few minutes before I have to feed Baby Elliott to tell you how it all happened.

As I said in my previous post, I started having painful contractions on Wednesday, but they weren't very consistent. By that evening, they had basically stopped so I was able to go to bed and sleep...until 1am when I woke up with even MORE painful contractions, coming about every 6-10 minutes or so. So I'm thinking, wow, this is it. I think today's the day. I got up, swept and cleaned my kitchen, played on the internet, took a shower, etc. Kev woke up at 5:30 then we went for a walk around 6. During the walk, my contractions were consistently 6 minutes apart. Kev was the official contraction timer and basically followed me around all day timing them with his iPhone app. Gotta love technology.

Throughout the day, the contractions never seemed to get any closer than 6 minutes, and when I would try to lay down to sleep, they would lengthen to 10-15 minutes, but the I would wake up with a killer contraction. I could only handle about 4 of those before I decided sleeping was for the birds. During the day, we went to lunch at Chipotles, walked around the mall, tried to do anything to make my labor progress. By late afternoon, I was getting discouraged because it didn't seem like we were making any progress, but I was uncomfortable enough that I couldn't sleep, and by this time, I was feeling my 1 am awakening. My mom had gotten here by this point, so her, me and Kev decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood, even though it was over 90 degrees outside.

During the walk, my contractions started coming every 4-6 minutes, and seemed to be progressively more painful. We decided that if this continued, we would try to make it to 8 or 9 to go to the hospital. I began my "labor project" of baking cookies around 7, and by 9, the contractions were consistently very painful and coming about every 4 minutes.

We packed up and made it to the hospital around 9. I was totally afraid they were going to tell me I was only dilated to a 2 after such a long day, but I was actually between 5 and 6! I was elated! Of course once I got to the hospital my contractions seemed to basically stop, but they got me up to a room to do all of my admitting stuff, and shortly after the doctor (obviously not my regular doctor), came to break my water. She checked me before she broke my water and told me I was a 7! They checked me about an 1 hour later and said I was a 9! Up to this point, the contractions were manageable, I was standing, focusing on my breathing and it wasn't unbearable. That however changed very quickly. Getting from a 9 to complete was unbelievably painful and the contractions kept coming right on top of each other.

Finally it was time to push! For some odd reason, I thought the pushing wouldn't be as bad, but boy was I wrong. I think epidural or not, pushing would be painful. I only pushed for around 25 or 30 minutes, but I actually contemplated in my head what they would do if I could not push her out. But it was all worth it...the pain, sweat and tears...when they laid Baby Elliott on my chest! She was covered in vernix and blood but she was absolutely beautiful! The crazy thing is she actually gets more and more beautiful and I love her more and more every time I see her! It is the most amazing thing ever and I feel so very blessed.

Sorry for the long post but I couldn't say it any more concise. Now I have to go feed my sweet baby!

She's here!!

Welcome Elliott Ava!! She was born at 12:09 am August 6th weighing 7 pounds 5 ounces and measuring 19 inches. She is absolutely beautiful and we are so in love with this sweet bundle of joy! It is completely surreal that she is here! More details to come soon.

Our happy family!

Contractions

Two words...contractions hurt. I just thought they were uncomfortable when they started but I didn't even know the meaning of discomfort. I'm sure I have a long way to go which makes me nervous...but also really excited.

Come soon sweet baby girl! We long to see your precious little face!

Progress

So, not so sure I'm going to make it to next week to take off before baby girl comes. I woke up off and on all night last night with actual painful contractions but then couldn't go back to sleep after 4am. We got out of bed at 5 and decided it was officially time to pack our bag (in our defense we had a master list, but we use the items frequently we wanted to pack). It seemed like the contractions got less, so I decided to go to work. I would have preferred to stay home, but there was a surgery scheduled that I felt like I shouldn't miss. The surgery was unbelievably long (4.5 hours) and complete misery. To add to the misery, I was having contractions and low back pain.

I was able to come home afterwards and just rest, which was really nice. I still have had painful contractions but not anything real regular so I guess we'll just wait and see. I am so excited that we seem to be making progress in the right direction, but these contractions have been a little scary...and I know they are just going to get worse!

Update

Thanks for all your sweet encouragement friends! I will definitely let Kev know you guys gave him a thumbs up on the pics. Do remember I chose the ones I like the most...there were a lot of bad ones.

I thought I would give you an update on the visit today. Good news was it was definitely more positive and I felt better after I left. My blood pressure was actually better today, no protein in the urine, good heart rate, and I measured a little bigger...yay! Mediocre news...cervix is still really posterior which means she probably won't be coming in the next couple of days, which I guess is a good thing since my doctor left for Mexico today.

He said that I can start doing squats, straddling a ball, and doing a duck walk to possibly help "open my pelvis." We were having a difficult time imagining exactly what a duck walk is, and then the thought of me doing that right now makes me laugh. I'm pretty sure my pelvis will open when it's ready...not so sure those things will really help, but don't kid yourself I might get desperate and try.

Kev got some advice from a coworker today that I thought was interesting. She recommended taking a little time off work before the baby got here to just relax and enjoy life before baby. I had always planned on just working up until when I delivered, but I thought maybe there was some truth in this. What are your thoughts? I had previously been thinking I didn't want to just be bored waiting at home, but now I'm giving the idea a little thought.

12 days and counting...

Picture time

So, we recently purchased a "good" camera. I must admit, even though I always think it would be really cool to be a good photographer, it was really Kev that wanted it. We figured it was a good investment, and that we will get lots of use out of it once Baby Girl comes.

A couple of weeks ago (36 weeks), Kev decided we should try to shoot some maternity pictures of me, so we trekked up to campus (in the blazing heat I might add), and he took some pictures of me. It was a little awkward because tours would pass while I was posing for pictures, but we got some good pictures. The only bad thing about Kev taking the pictures was he didn't get to be in them with me. I thought I would post a couple...notice I was trying to be semi-serious because it's really hard for me to take a picture without a full-out smile. I secretly envy people who are able to take serious pictures and look cool...I usually just look weird.

The following week we actually had a photographer take pictures of both of us, so I'll post those pics when I get them.

13 days and counting. Hard to believe. I have had kind of a rough week as far as feeling fearful. I went to my doctors appointment Wednesday, and of course, am still measuring small, my blood pressure was higher than it normally has been, my cervix is still very posterior, and he asked if she was moving all the time, like "10 times an hour." It made me over-analyze everything and feel completely paranoid by her movement (or lack of movement). I kind of felt like I was going crazy. I feel much more at peace now, but it is definitely a moment to moment, day to day struggle to trust God and His sovereignty.

I actually have another appointment tomorrow (since my doctor is leaving town), so we'll see how it goes.