2 months

Today Elise is 2 months old! I discovered a solution to her fussy hours in the evening! Strap her in snug to the "hug a bub", turn on just dance and start moving :) 

February

It has been a little while since my last post for a few reasons. I feel like with the little bit of down time I have, it is spent catching up on house chores or spending a little time with Dave. I also was really sick with mastitis which any nursing mother who has ever experienced that knows it is miserable and you can do very little during that time. I was so grateful for my friend Courtney who took Bailee, came and held Elise so I could sleep, then kept both girls when Dave finally had to take me to emergency care and then another day to my OB. I couldn't have done it without her! 

This was during me being sick and camping out in the living room. Yes I surprisingly fit between them (on my side of course). 

Elise is wonderful most of the time. From about 5 or 6 to 8 pm she has a bout of fussiness. It is odd because it seems a lot like colic but we are able to soothe her as we try every technique we know to calm a baby. She loves the bath and once she is in there all is well. As soon as she is out, she is like a ticking time bomb and we try to get her comfortable in our rocking arms to prevent as much of the discomfort and fussiness possible. To us it seems as if she builds up too much gas in her tummy throughout the day, even with regular burping, that by the evening time it turns to too much pressure causing pain. 

She is such a happy baby otherwise that it makes it more bearable to get through the off and on fussiness at night. 

Bailee constantly requests pictures when babies are involved :)

We finally got out on a warm day! Poor Elise doesn't know what to do about the sun. Poor winter baby. We only had her face it for the brief seconds to take this picture. 

Bailee is giving Elise a check up :)

Our girls :)

Elise's birth

A bit of a lengthy post but I wanted it all recorded and typing was more feesible than my journal with a baby constantly in my arms. Don't worry, I'm not complaining :) 

Just two days ago at 10:34 am, a sweet little girl named Elise came into our lives. She weighed 9 lbs. even, well technically 8 lbs. 15.9oz :) She was 21 in. long. She came on the day I was due because we had an induction scheduled for that morning. She hadn't dropped on her own and since Bailee had a similar situation and was induced, we went ahead and scheduled it to avoid playing the waiting game again that would result in an induction anyway. When I got to the hospital, I was having decent contractions on my own so the induction ended up just speeding up the process. The doctor said I would have been in that day whether it was from the induction or on my own. My water was broken just before 8am and I was started on Pitocin around the same time. By 9 am I had progressed enough to be in serious pain and received my epidural. It ended up only working on one of my legs so even with moving to get the medicine to go to the other leg, I ended up progressing to 8-9 cm and felt every bit of it on one side of my body. It was such an odd sensation to feel such pain only in my right hip. The anesthetist came back and after a couple of adjustments, I was relieved of pain just in time to deliver. I was instructed to start pushing and after one push, the nurse quickly had me stop because the doctor was not there yet and she didn't want to catch the baby. My doctor ran over and came in out of breath because she wasn't expecting me to go so fast. Just 2 more pushes and Elise was out! She didn't have a single mark on her head and her little head was a perfect little ball because there was no time for it to shape to a cone :) She was quiet right away and took a minute before crying so she came very peacefully. With Bailee it was more surreal because I was becoming a mom for the first time. With Elise, it was more emotional and a stronger spiritual experience thinking of being blessed once again with a healthy child of God. Her weight surprised us, but by late evening she had dropped 7 oz putting her at Bailee's birth weight of 8lb 9 oz so I assumed she must have had a lot more fluid in her that came out later in the day.
 Dave and I make it where we are the only ones to be in the delivery room, besides the medical team of course, and we love that first little bit of just being together with our new little baby. After a little while, we had my mom bring Bailee but still just had our, now, family of 4 together. Bailee was excited to see Elise at first and held her for about a minute until Elise began to cry. After that, she was more interested in all of the things in the hospital room and was apprehensive toward Dave or I depending on who was holding Elise. After mom and Jennah visited and it was time for them to go, Bailee came and held me not wanting to let go, and letting out a few whimpers and cries to have to leave. It broke my heart to hear her sad and still unsure about all that was happening. 

The next day in the hospital Bailee was much more in love with Elise and happy to be around her :) It was so sweet to see her love on her so much. 

We went home after one day which we were so grateful for. We personally are not big fans of being in the hospital for very long so luckily I have been blessed with healthy births and babies so we don't have to stay long. 

Bailee is a bit of a smothering lover as a big sister but Elise handles it pretty well :) 

A glimpse of our new normal :)

Just playing around and my phone didn't do too bad :)

It kills Bailee that Elise can't play with her yet or share her snacks so I have to keep a close eye on Elise for fear of Bailee trying to involve her in activities she is not quite ready for :) I finally took a picture after the 2nd round of toys went in just to have the memory but then reminded Bailee again of the danger of putting toys on the baby. 

Cuddling with my girls :)

So  I am never really sure who reads this or if anybody else does but I have made it a goal this year to keep this more updated for family and friends who live far away and want to get an update on our little family. I will be making it a private blog again soon so please let me know your email so I can include you to have access to it :)

Christmas time

Well 2 weeks from today I am due with Elise so we took the time to get out as a family before she comes :) we took Bailee for the first time to see Santa then went to the opryland hotel to see the lights and nativity. 

Bass pro shop Santa :)

She said she wanted a Mickey star and a mermaid. 

A little train in the opryland hotel. 

It was wonderful to end our night at the nativity and listen to the story of Christ over a loudspeaker. It was so peaceful and a beautiful display of the most important reason we celebrate this season. I am so grateful for my Savior and all that he gave for me. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving!

So  I guess I only think to update our blog on holidays since the last post was halloween :) I guess I better do a thanksgiving post before I just jump to Christmas! 

We had a wonderful thanksgiving break! Dave had a week off and Blake, Michelle, and baby Spencer came to visit! It was our first time meeting Spencer and we loved holding him and getting to see his sweet little personality :) his laugh and smile are infectious! 

He was pretty big on Bailee's lap but she was so excited to hold him :) after they left she continued to ask about him often. 

I had so much fun planning and making thanksgiving dinner! It was my first and I look forward to doing it again :) this picture is pumpkin cheesecake that will definitely be a staple tradition each year!

No baby yet.. Let's make cookies!

We heard that Santa likes sugar cookies and I somehow have energy so we went ahead and made some! For some reason I am always intimidated by making sugar cookies.. Not sure why... Finally doing it I have decided they are my favorite cookies to make with a toddler! It was actually a lot of fun! Bailee had a blast as well :) 

Trunk or treat!

Tonight was our ward trunk or treat and it was great! We really liked that it was not a dinner as well so less work all around but still lots of fun to dress up and pass out candy :)

We made a joint effort with our friends the Vests and we were pretty happy with how our trunk turned out :)

I was a magic 8 ball with an answer on my back that you can't see, Dave wore uncle nate's Air Force attire, and obviously Bailee was Minnie Mouse :) we were surprised she was the only minnie there and once again she loved going around and actually saying "trick or treat" this year :) it is so fun to be on the parent side of holidays and my enjoyment is just seeing how excited she is. 

Happy Halloween!