It's A... BOY!!!

Here I am finally writing about my third addition to the family. At the time I am writing this, Harry is now 7 months old to the day. But don't judge me. I have a lot going on in my life. I still remember almost all the details. Here is the story of our little Harry.

March 14th.
I worked a 12 hr shift and, my work sweet coworkers threw me a baby shower, and I came home exhausted. I had been talking that day about how we had officially made it to Brookelynn's gestational age, 36 weeks 1 day. Nothing significant was going on other than the occasional run of Braxton hicks contractions that I had grown so used to with this pregnancy. Oh well. No baby today I guess. I crashed in the bed that night.

March 15th.
12 am.
I awoke at midnight with strong contractions. I was certain that this was probably the night. After alerting my parents that I would probably be calling them to keep the kids soon, I started packing up my bags and planning what they would need for the next three days without me. About 5 minutes later, I decided my parents needed to be on their way. I showered, and breathed and tried to hang in there as the contractions went from ouch to OUCH!!! to put it nicely. I still had control but going natural was proving to be as complicated as I had expected.

1:45 am.
As soon as my parents arrived, we were on our way. I texted Dr Heaton to tell her I was on the way if she was going to deliver this baby. I did have the fear in my mind that since it was my third baby, I could be 10 cm and deliver in the car on the way. It hurt like I could at least. But we made it to the hospital and in plenty of time.

2:15am.
My nurse said I was 4 cm when I arrived. I made my proclamation that I would try to do this naturally but as my labor pains intensified rapidly, I chickened out. Give me the EPIDURAL!!! Time slowed down substantially once my pain was extremely intense. We waited a while for Dr. Hudson who was on call, and waited a while for the Dr. Campbell, the on call anesthesiologist. Finally...relief. I did want to go natural just so I could say I did, but epidurals are really, really nice. No shame in them. None at all. I'll try again next time.

4:50am.
A few minutes after epidural relief, I was 7cm! What the what? See if I had known how far along and how fast I was progressing, I might have stuck it out... maybe. But too late for that now. Aunt Jenny arrived just after I was comfortable and was assigned the job as photographer.

5:20 am.
 I rested for about 30 minutes before Dr. Bill Hudson came in to tell me that my strip looked like I was completely dilated. And I was. Look how fast that was. Thank you third baby!!! We were so close to seeing what this little surprise baby would be. Harrison "Harry" Lane or Selah Anne? The nurses quickly set the room up for our little 36 week and 2 day baby and it was time to have a baby.

5:45 am
All set and ready for our baby. Photographer in place. Dr. Hudson hung out in the room. Small talk is being made about how Dr. Heaton will be so disappointed about missing this birth. But, the birth must go on. Everyone is guessing what the baby will be and how big the baby will be. I held Brandon's hand. We were about to be a family of FIVE!

 

6:02 am.
One push, and it's a... BOY!!! Harrison Lane Ellis. Our Baby Harry. He came into the world so easily. 6 hrs of labor and 1 push. And that's just what he's been since his birth; a sweet, easy going baby.

 

 Mommy's happy tears. I cannot describe the amazing feeling happiness when you meet and hold your newborn baby. That feeling of intense love is more than my emotions can handle. I have to cry my happy tears.

 

 Welcome to the family little love. We are so very excited you are here!

Barons Baseball Game

We took the kids to their first Barons Baseball game Friday night. Let me first just say that the new stadium, Regions Field is such a family friendly and fun place! I was so happy to see that. As for our experience, the kids had as much fun as they can have watching a game that is beyond their understanding that started at their bedtime. Aside from the fact that they walked up and down the stadium isle billions of times, making everyone lift their knees to their chest as they moved from person to person, they did pretty well. They marveled at the field and the lights and the scoreboard. They loved the sound effects played over the loud speaker. They recognized the "man with the ball" was the pitcher and the "man with the bat" was the batter. They thoroughly enjoyed the peanuts and even stole some dippin dots icecream from Grandaddy and Grandmama. Although it was on the muggy side, the weather wasn't too bad. But don't talk to Harry about that. He, with his well known disdain for the heat, was less than thrilled about his first game.

 

We met up with our friends the Dixons and they sat right in front of us!

 

 

After the game, they do a fireworks show on Friday nights. Now I didn't tell the kids about this part because we might not have gotten them in the stadium if they knew they had fireworks to look forward to. They had melt downs just a few weeks ago on July 4th at the sight and sound of the neighborhood fireworks so we spent the night in our living room floor watching "Thunder on the Mountain" live in the quiet of our home. I hoped this experience would be better. Alas, when Haynes figured out that fireworks were about to begin, he sat like this about five whole minutes prior to the first blast. Bless his heart. As soon as they started, Brookelynn ran to me crying, fear in her eyes. But as we all know, fireworks shows end almost as soon as they start. What may have seemed like forever to them, seemed like only a minute to me. After the grand finale of fireworks and Brookelynn's dramatics, do you know what she did? She clapped for the fireworks and said "That was soooo fun!" That pretty much sums up what I think was everyone's feeling about the entire night. It was very fun and we plan on doing it again soon.  

 

 

A Beautiful Mess

She's just a little girl being a little girl. She bounces about the house, voice volume raised about 5 levels too high, laughing, singing, yelling in excitement and her voice sounds like a cheery little mouse. She almost always seems to be on an emotional high. So bubbly it drives me crazy sometimes. But then, it's also wonderfully contagious. I love that smile. And if she comes to me with that big grin on her face, I surely have to reciprocate.

 Of course I think even her mischief is cute right now. It won't be for long I know. I do try not to show that I am thoroughly entertained by her antics but I know she knows we're smiling under our stern looks. Her behavior is just so funny. For example...

Either I have a very large rodent helping itself to my snack pantry - OR - I have a very mischievous child indeed who helps herself to crackers and then hides the evidence. Hmmm....

 

Never trust a quiet 2 year old. Yeah. It's permanent.

 

 

 I smell mischief again. There's an open Goldfish box in my living room this morning and I didn't put it there. And curiously, Brookelynn's breath smells of, wait for it... Goldfish.

I'm sitting in Harry's room rocking and snuggling and in the next room I hear the following conversation.
H: Brookewinn, do you wanna take a bath?
B: Okay. I take my cwoves off. Do you wanna take your cwoves off? (Asking in the same high ...pitched cheery voice you would ask a mouse if he wants tea).
At this point I'm intently listening trying to decide if I shall intervene. A few seconds later, a naked bottomed Brookelynn comes in the room all tangled up in her shirt.
B: Mommy, I take my cwoves off. I take a baff. Hewlp me.
Me: What are you taking a bath in???
H: (answering from the next room) In the tub. (Storage tub)
Ok. Sure. They're happy. Let them pretend to take a bath in the storage tub I tell myself. B re enters H's room. And they play another minute until I hear this...
H: Now, Brookewinn, go potty in the tub...
NOOOooo!!!!!! Intervene quick!

Mommy's mascara and lipstick. Decided this would be fun after playing with a pretend vanity and makeup set at church. 

I picked up Brookelynn's play bag this afternoon and found four of Harry's dirty diapers in it. Why??? Who knows. Maybe she wanted it to be a "diaper bag."

She came in my room and snuggled in my bed. She does this every morning. Then she got thirsty. I learned a while back that the constant morning nagging for "milk pwease" before I was ready to get up was slowly going to drive me insane if I ...didn't figure out a plan. So I taught her how to open the fridge door and get her pre-filled (the night before) sippy cup of milk herself. This routine has worked well for both of us. She gets her milk and snuggles in the bed with me and I get about 30 glorious extra minutes without having to get up. Genius! So today as usual, she came to my bed, got thirsty and headed to the fridge for her milk. When she came back, I could tell she had something in her mouth. Around the face was a bluish substance. Along with her milk, she had taken the liberty to eat a few blueberries. Little stinker. Ha! I stayed in bed and cuddled a while longer then got up to make my coffee and found this. The door had been open for almost an hour. Guess I should have put her sippy cup on the BOTTOM shelf. The blueberries were in plain sight and easily within her reach. No wonder she was tempted to eat them. I later found an empty container of blueberries on the floor in her room, with a few spilled berries on her rug. That girl!!!

Oh yes. In addition to all these things, I can't forget to mention that the child is excessively accident prone. If she falls and hits her head in one spot, she falls and hits it in the same spot ten times. We have injuries that we've nursed for months for this very reason (and because she picks at her injuries and makes them bleed over and over again).



Still smiling after falling into the lake head first and hitting her face on a submerged brick. Why did she fall into the lake? She slipped. Bless her heart. The forehead scrape is a re-injury from a tricycle fall the day before. It just never stops with her.

There are many more stories like these about our sneaky little B and they will always make us smile. So many things that I didn't take a picture of. Vaseline in her hair, Neosporin on her face, clothes and all boo boos. The stories go on and on. If that's not enough, she also a chatter box and comes up with some pretty hilarious word replacements for the ones she can't pronounce (which is still about 80% of her vocabulary). She's a hog of all phone and/or Skype devices. If we FaceTime with her grandmama or one of her aunts, she must be in the center of the camera and she must be the one doing all the talking. You can't get a word in edgewise. Don't even try. 

This age and stage is one I'm enjoying with her. Soon, she'll be pronouncing her words with more clarity instead of the darling jibber jabber, she will be even more defiant and sneaky than she already is, and she'll be pushing those boundaries even harder than she is right now (and it won't be cute). Lord, give us wisdom to guide her! But I hope she never loses that zeal for life and contagious smile she has as a 2 1/2 year old. It is beautiful. One of my friends describes her little girl as a "beautiful mess." If I had to sum up Brookelynn in two words, those would be exactly the words I choose. Brookelynn...my beautiful mess.

Hair a mess, a self added accessory, a very dirty face and into trouble. That's my girl.

Date Night with my Baby Boy

Last night was a special night for me and my boy. We went on a date and then went to see Haynes' FIRST musical. Maybe it wasn't as big of a deal to him, but its was a very nostalgic moment for me. We went out to eat with my sisters first. Haynes always enjoys time with his aunts. He doesn't get that much of that. We shared a nice (but slightly rushed) dinner and Haynes even got a smoothie since he was my special date. He will go on a date with me any time now - just for another smoothie. Then we rushed off to see the play. I was quite excited to see this play because the music, lyrics, and story were written by one of my dear friends, Martin Landry and his lovely wife, Janice. They did a phenomenal job. It was hilariously entertaining, had a wonderful message and was just plain fun to watch. The kids obviously had a great time doing the play as well and the actors and actresses were great. Well done Crossroads Christian! That's how I felt about it all. Of course, I was concerned that taking my 3 year old little BOY to sit through a 2 hr long play that started AT HIS BEDTIME could potentially turn out to be a very bad decision but I was pleased to see that Haynes seemed to be thoroughly entertained as well. He is always so funny about noise. Loud noises (many people singing, kids choir, a really loud room, etc) make him anxious and the first thing he does is cover his ears. He did exactly as I expected and covered his ears whenever they sang or the cast got loud. However, he watched intently as they danced and acted out their roles. He was very intrigued. By the end of the first act, he had become more comfortable with the situation and was much more at ease. At intermission, I rushed him straight back to potty. Remember that smoothie? Yeah. It dawned on me somewhere in the first act that it may have been a terrible idea to give him a big drink that he guzzled right before we had to sit for a long period of time. He did just fine. Man, he is really growing up. By the second act, there was no more ear holding. He was downright laughing right along with the rest of the crowd and seemed to have picked out his favorite characters to watch. He giggled everytime he saw someone do something funny. It was a joy to watch his reaction to their play. I wish I were able to capture a picture of his smiles and giggles but I feel sure I would have been strongly disliked if I started snapping pictures of my own kid out in the crowd as the play went on. He did truly enjoyed his first show.
Who would have thought that the first play I ever took my first baby to would be a play written my my dear friends? It will forever be a special night to me. My first date with Haynes, his first of many musicals - and a very special musical at that. I love that thought.

Thank you Martin and Janice for your creative and entertaining work! You guys did an awesome job and we enjoyed it very, very much.

My Little One

I had my 32 week visit and all is well. I admit that this pregnancy has had me more on edge with worries than I usually have. As an L&D nurse, I see a lot of women in situations that would either scare me to death or emotionally break me down. I know too well what could happen at any point in pregnancy and sometimes, when you're pregnant, you just can't get those "what if that happens to me" thoughts out of your head - especially when you see them happen every day that you are at work. I hate those thoughts. I hate those feelings. I don't want to be consumed with worry when I know beyond any doubt that I have a sovereign God who has EVERYTHING in his hands. He is in control and knows the time this baby will be born. Early or not, healthy or not, really small or just big, this baby is in the Lord's hands and completely loved by him. Why should I fear? No matter what happens, God is good. I believe that. I just have to remind myself about 20 times a week.
So back to my appointment...
First, after having contractions since around 18 weeks, and history of preterm delivery (late preterm - but still preterm), and having been on progesterone injections and procardia (a blood pressure med) both used to slow down or stop contractions, it's no wonder that fear of a preterm delivery has been in the forefront of my mind. I have been checked at almost every prenatal visit just to make sure nothing is going on. And, praise the Lord, it still looks good. Not dilated! It sounds funny to be happy about that but we're still too early for me to be excited about any progression
.
Second, Little One's fetal heart rate was 150 bpm today. It is always such a beautiful sound.

Third and best of all, I got a look at a sweet little profile and a precious face today. I really needed that. It is amazing what we can see with modern ultrasounds today! These pictures don't really do justice to the actual ultrasound photos. I just took pictures of my pictures with my phone but you can see well enough how beautiful this baby is! I'm absolutely in love. I can't wait 'til the day I get to hold this baby in my arms.

Don't these pictures melt your heart? Yes, I know they do because they are precious. *wink, wink* Now notice that we still have NO photos of the private area. I'm curious to know what everyone thinks.
Is this a Harrison "Harry" Lane Ellis or a Selah Anne Ellis? What do you think?

First Dentist Appointment!

Well today was a big day in my book. We had our first dentist appointment for Haynes and Brookelynn. I was so nervous that it would be a traumatic experience that I delayed making an appointment for Haynes by an entire year. After getting multiple opinions about dentists in the area and having multiple great reviews about Dr Massey, I finally got up the confidence to call for their first visit.
First thing this morning, I had them watching an educational you tube video on my computer about going to the dentist for the first time as they ate their Cheerios and banana. I don't know that it helped but at least they had some idea of what all those strange instruments were coming at their face. Then off we went to to see the dentist. They were called back and escorted to two little dentist chairs right next to each other. They both had sweet little hygienists who made them feel comfortable with the whole experience. They showed them each every little tool they were going to use and even coaxed both of them into letting them floss their teeth!!!! I have never been brave enough to attempt that. I sat and watched in amazement as my children willingly and without complaint had their first exam and cleaning. I was a proud mama at that moment and VERY relieved! It was over in no time and then they were rewarded with their goody bag and special toothbrushes. Dr Massey came and looked at their teeth and said they were beautiful (of course). And then they were done. We were out in about 30 minutes. On our way out the door, the kids were given a coin to get a prize. Haynes chose a bouncy ball and Brookelynn chose a bracelet. They thought the whole thing was just great. Thank goodness! Maybe they won't have the terrible anxieties that I have about going I the dentist for a cleaning. i have always hated the dentist. If anyone's interested, we went to Trussville Pediatric Dentistry. I would highly recommend.

www.trussvillepediatricdentistry.com