My baby has rolls!! Ellie at 3 1/2 weeks

 Ellie is growing!  Here she is at two weeks.

And now at nearly 4 weeks. See the chub-chub cheeks?  I love them. 

 Yawn!  It is exhausting to look this good!!

A little laugh. 

Today around here

I am not sure why having a new baby makes me want to blog more, but it sure does.  Maybe since I rarely keep another journal, I just want to record all these little moments.  Here is a peek around our house today:

 Laundry waiting to be put away (I wish I could say that this is unique to me recovering from childbirth....ummm...not so much.  My grandma asked me the other day if I was keeping up with my laundry.  I surely am, I am just not putting it away.)

Lunch dishes waiting to be cleaned up.

 Two cute little boys watching Fox and the Hound.  It is so hot here and humid as well.  We are only spending early morning and late evening outside.

 A very responsible ten-year-old practicing the piano.

 Sydney playing with the jungle animal set.  Why is she playing by the stairs?  I moved her away from them asap. But not before snapping a photo.

 Then Sydney wanted to take a picture of me and Ellie.  Ellie is screaming!  I did fix my hair this morning, but it is so hot, I can't stand to have it on my face at all, so it all gets pulled back.

This cute munchkin, poor little face covered in baby acne and hair that sticks straight up!!  She is seriously so sweet!   She went for her two week check up today...only five days late, not bad :)  Poor fifth child.  She is growing like a weed!  She was our biggest baby by far when she was born and so I was interested to see how she is growing, with all her feeding issues the first week.
Stats:  9 lbs. 5 oz
           22 1/2 inches long

That would be 1 lb and 1 oz past her birth weight and an inch and a half increase in length.  Apparently the eating issues have been overcome because she is growing!!  All of our kids have been very average on the growth charts.  They are always about in the 50th percentile for height and weight.  (Except for Sydney who is always in the 10th-25th percentile for weight.)  Ellie came in at the 75th percentile for weight and 95th for height.  What?!?  I am so excited to potentially have a chubby baby.  I love little baby rolls and our babies have always been so skinny that they never really had anything beyond some occasional chubby cheeks.  Ellie has some nice squishy thighs and is really strong.  She is so cute.  Have I said that yet?  Matt suggested that occasionally it is good to put her down and I didn't need to hold her all.day.long.  (she isn't fussy, or crying.) I said, of course I do!!  I love the little newborn stage and it goes by way to fast.  I want to treasure every second...even the chaotic ones :)

Today was my first full day home alone with all the kiddies.  We have been pretty spoiled until now.  Matt took a week off when Ellie was born.  The Monday he went back to work, my parents came to spend the day with us.  The next day, Matt's mom came and stayed the night and the next day.  Then it was the Fourth of July and Matt had a four-day weekend.  

We survived today pretty well.  I don't want to tell you how much tv my kids watched today because it was a lot.  I figure we are still in survival mode for at least another week.  We didn't get any school work done, but we did go on a walk this morning, the boys did their yard work chores as well as a few chores around the house.  They built a castle fort in the basement and played outside before it got too hot.  Zack went swimming at his friend's house.  We made a sno come run.  The kid made cookies mostly on their own.  Not too much fighting or crying or whining.

While they did all this I fed a starving baby every two hours all day.  I did the dishes, two loads of laundry and wrote thank you notes.  I am excellent at folding dish towels one-handed.  I read my scriptures, made a simple dinner and took a nap!  (which every new mom knows is basically the highlight of the day on the rare occasion every child cooperates, the phone does not ring, no neighbor children ring the doorbell and you actually fall asleep.  Heaven!)

What I did not do:  put away laundry, the dinner dishes, shower, answer the phone when I didn't feel
Like it.  All in all it was a good day.  Ellie and I are the only ones awake right now.  Hopefully not for long :). We are wiped out.

Life Lately...Two Weeks

 Zack covered Sydney's eyes during a scary part of Oz.

 Ellie met her cousin Claire who is two weeks older.  Yes, Ellie is bigger than Claire.  (Claire is my brother David's daughter.)

 Derek loved giving Ellie a bottle during a nursing rough patch.

 Matt played ping pong with all the kids.

 Ellie is just so cute.

 Seriously.

 So.Cute.

 First bath.

 So tired.

Just keepin' it real.  Sydney's pjs on the floor.  Folded laundry waiting to be put away.  Curlers in my hair and two very tired little girls asleep on my lap.

We decided to stay home for the 4th of July.  We took some donuts and chocolate milk to the park by our house and played tennis this morning.  Matt and Zack played quite a while and I took the other kids to the playground.  Each kid had a little lesson with Matt and I even hit a few balls back and forth.  It was fun!  It has been a long time since Matt and I played tennis together.  We came home to weed the yard a bit and then after lunch, Matt hooked some sprinkler concoction to the swing set and put the wading pool at the bottom of the slide.  The kids played out there for hours.  We just barely got the sand showered off all the kids and got cleaned up for the day.  (I still have the curlers in my hair).  Since both girls are still sleeping I better take my chance and go take the curlers out.  (When it is so hot, I hate to blow my hair dry.  The curlers help keep my my hair from being too frizzy without me having to do anything to it.  Also, this is first day since Ellie was born that I have even attempted to fix my hair.  Every other day it has been straight out of the shower and into a ponytail.  :)  Happy Fourth of July!!

Our beautiful little Ellie was born on Friday morning.  Matt had been at Scout camp for four days.  I had asked my mom to come down on Thursday to spend the day and night with us.  I had been dialated to a 3 and 80% effaced for two weeks.  I had a few contractions off and on early in the week, but nothing on Weds.  I felt really good on Wednesday and not a contraction in sight.  Matt and I had kept in pretty constant contact via text.  He wanted to be sure to make it to the hospital if I went into labor while he was gone.
Thursday morning I woke up after a horrible night's sleep.  From the time I woke up, I was having inconsistent, non painful contractions.  My mom came down in the early afternoon.  We did some things around the house and then took the kids to get snow cones.  I was still contracting, but I hadn't timed the contractions or noticed an increase in intensity at all.  More than anything, I was paying more attention to my sciatic nerve which made it so I could barely walk.
By late afternoon the contractions had started to get a little more intense, but still not painful.  My mom went to the store to get some things for dinner and as we cooked dinner, she kept trying to get me to time the contractions, but I didn't think they were very consistent so I didn't.  Matt knew I was having contractions, so he was already planning on coming home to spend the night, just in case.
After dinner, my mom convinced me to call the hospital and talk to a nurse.  We decided to go in to get checked, because a) it is my fifth baby, b)although not more than uncomfortable, the contractions were 2 minutes apart and c)I had tested positive for Group B Strep and the doctor wanted to make sure I had enough time to get some antibiotics before delivery.
Matt called right about then, he was driving home and I told him to meet me at the hospital instead.  I was convinced I would get sent home, but willing to go so as to put everyone's mind at ease.  A girl in my neighborhood came to stay with the kids.  My kids were surprised I was going to the hospital because I hadn't told them I was contracting.
We got to the hospital about the same time as Matt.  It was around 8pm.  We came in and I got checked.  They started to monitor contractions.  I was only dialated to 4.  After an hour, with my contractions feeling like they had dropped off considerable, I was expecting to go home.  I was surprised when they decided to keep me.  The doctor came in and said he wanted to go ahead and start the antibiotics and that he would come back to break my water around midnight.
So we settled in for the night.  My mom went home to my kids.  I really felt like nothing was happening.  My contractions were still not consistent.  At midnight, they suggested I have the epidural before my water was broken, because usually after my water breaks, the baby is born really fast.  I had the epidural and the nurse came to check me before the doctor broke my water.  She checked and I was only at a 4 1/2, super disappointing.  However, as she finished, my water broke on its own.  Hurray!  Something was happening after all...I really didn't want to get any pitocin and I knew that as long as I was progressing so slowly, the nurses would start trying to get me on it.
We turned out the lights and tried to get some sleep.  Matt definitely got a little, me, not so much.  I hated the epidural.  I have had some good ones and some bad ones.  The good ones are where I can still feel my legs, I can tell when I need to push and when I am contracting.  Bad ones are where you feel nothing from the waist down and your legs are useless stumps that you have no control over.  It was a looong night.  Because the epidural was so strong, I couldn't even tell when I was contracting.  So I was definitely not in pain, but did not feel like I was making any progress at all.
Around 5:15 am, the nurses came back in.  I had not been checked since my water broke.  The doctor came in with them and told me that I was dialated to 9, nearly 10.  He said he would come back in 30 minutes.  Hurray!  It had been so hard to tell if anything was happening through the night.  It was a weird labor.
The nurses brought everything in and by 5:45 we were ready!  With only three pushes, Miss Ellie was born!!
The kids were so excited when they woke up.  She is perfect.

She is here!

Ellie Jane Sorensen
Born Friday June 21 at 5:58am
8lbs 4 oz. 21 inches long
She is perfect!!

And yes, Matt made it home in time from Scout Camp :)

Just Waiting

Here I am at 38 weeks!  Just trying to keep baby in two more full weeks.  My doctor thinks I am crazy not schedule an induction or at the very least have him do a membrane sweep in an attempt to have the baby before Matt leaves for Scout Camp.  I told him if she comes on her own, she comes, but I am not doing anything to encourage her yet.  I have never gotten this far without having an induction scheduled so it feels a little weird to have no idea when she will come after always having it planned before.  Matt and I both prefer to wait.  We are not worried about him making it for the birth, the hospital is only 40 minutes away from the Scout Camp, but we would both like to relax and spend time together with our new baby without the chaos of Scout Camp orchestration to coordinate.  We have plenty to keep us busy, I took the YW to Welfare Square today on a tour, tomorrow is my baby brother's HS graduation, my cousin's wedding is on Saturday, Matt will be building a shed in our backyard all weekend plus all the regular baseball and soccer games the boys have.  Not to mention my little brother David and his wife are due with a little girl any time now.  I feel really good except for the hard time sleeping.  I can tell things are progressing, but I have learned from past pregnancies that I can be at a 4 for several weeks before anything happens :)  The kids are pretty excited to meet their sister, and so am I!  We drove by the hospital the other day when I had an errand in Orem.  I pointed it out to Sydney and Austin and Austin said, "Mom!  You are going to have your the baby in a Scout place?"  "What!?" I asked.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  "They have a Scout flag mom!  It is a Scout place."  I look up to see a huge American flag in the hospital parking lot.  I had to explain that it was not a Scout flag, but the American flag and how the Scouts use it.  :0  Obviously we talk about scouts a lot over here.  Matt is the Scoutmaster, I am in cub scouts, Zack is a Webelo scout and Scouts frequently come over to get things passed off by Matt.  I loved that he associated the flag with Scouting.  :)  Here is to two more weeks!!  We can make it!