Ellie sleeping

Last night Ellie slept for 9 hours. This is the third time she has done this and hopefully it will continue. The first time she was only 3 weeks old and she had nursed then drank four ounces of formula. I couldn't believe how much she had drank and not thrown up. I knew that was not going to last. The second time was three nights ago and she had eaten at 7:00 and then again at 8:30 and then slept all night. Last night she ate at 9:45 after crying for the previous 4 hours. She got her shots and I think they were bothering her. It's always scary the first time my baby sleeps that long, I always think something is wrong. Ellie has been such a different baby than Annie. Annie didn't sleep through the night until about 6 months and it was hit and miss for the next three months until I finally let her cry it out for a couple nights and then she was pretty consistent sleeping through the night. Another difference is that Ellie always has a fussy time at night, where Annie never had a fussy time. She cried some, but not the same time every day. The last difference I will mention is the way they reacted to car rides. Annie would scream when she got in the car seat and cry almost the whole time we drove in the car for about 2-3 months. We didn't got places often because of it. Ellie on the other hand falls asleep almost instantly when we start driving. We love both of our girls and their differences. I hope they are best friends when they get older.

Garden

Every year we plant a garden in our backyard and we try to do different things every year. I love fresh tomatoes so we always so those. We planted three plants this year and they are already getting so big. We have a few flowers on the plants and can't wait till those flowers turn into bright red juicy tomatoes.

We planted peas back in March and they are finally coming on. They look so good, I just need to be patient as they plump up and become snap peas.

Right now our peas are pretty small, but the grow noticeably everday.

We are trying straight-neck yellow squash this year, the only problem we have with squash is we leave it on the vine too long and they get hard. I need to really watch them this year.

A couple new things we are trying are: two different kinds of cucumbers, melons, and banana peppers. I only planted one of each of these plants, so we probably won't get too much of one thing, but it will be good to get some new things.

The last new things we are trying is cilantro. I have never done herbs or spices so I didn't know if I would like it. I have already cut off all the cilantro twice and it's ready again. I didn't know how much this plant produced, but I love fresh cilantro so I am so glad that it has done so well.

Dan rigged up a sprinkler to water the garden this year (usually I do it by hand and forget a lot of days), and I am loving it. Now I just need to get out at least once a week to weed.

Do Annie and Ellie look alike

These are pictures of Ellie and Annie at about six weeks. Everone tells me they think Ellie looks like a little Annie. Right at birth I thought they looked nothing alike, but over the last couple weeks I have started to see some resemblance. What do you think?

Almost four weeks

We are adjusting pretty well to having two kids, one of them being a newborn and the other a two year old. I didn't really know what to expect, but after having a c-section the recovery has taken longer than last time with Annie. I am still sore sometimes and have to take it easy when I feel that I have overdone it. During the first week or two home I was really anxious about having two kids, but that anxious feeling has left and I am so happy to be a family of four. Annie loves her little sister and can't wait until she is big enough to play with. Here are a few pictures from the last four weeks.

This is one week postpartum. I am now after four weeks only seven pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight, but that was still 20 pounds heavier than where I want to be, so I have some work to do in the next year.
A family friend gave us this outfit with a very cute, pink tutu.
We had these ballet slippers with Annie, but her feet were too big to ever fit into them.
Too bad it's a little too warm to wear this hat, it's so cute.
Ellie went to sacrament meeting for the first time last week 5/22 and she slept the whole time. She likes to stick her tongue out.
This was Ellie holding her head up really high one time last week. Annie was able to lift up really early also. Ellie loves to stand also, she straightens her legs and bounces a little bit.
Ellie usually sleeps all wrapped up, but once I went to wake her and unwrapped her and she fell back asleep like this. Touchdown!!!!

The Birth

This is the last picture of me before we went to the hospital. I felt so ready to have this baby.

For the last couple weeks of my pregnancy I had a feeling that things were going to be really different with this delivery than last time with Annie. As contractions started becoming steady on Monday May 2 and then getting stronger with time, I had the thought, this is how it started with Annie, maybe it will be the same. After having contractions all day, around 9:00 we headed for the hospital. I was only dilated to a 3, so I was put on pitocin and waited. The contractions got really strong about three hours later and I asked for an epidural. I was only at a 4. We finally got a little sleep, but around 3 the epidural wore off and I experienced really bad pain in my right leg every time I had a contraction. My epidural was redone and I got a little more sleep. Around 6:30 my doctor came and broke my water, within an hour I was ready to push. I pushed for 20 minutes and my doctor told me that Ellie was occipital posterior (meaning face up.) The only way for her to get here was to turn her. I pushed while laying on my side for another hour and a half until finally the doctor gave me the option of a c-section. I was so exhausted and in pain that I said yes right away. He prepped me and Ellie was born at 10:06 am. She was 8 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches. I think her big size made it difficult for her to turn in the birth canal.

I was really out of it during the c-section, but I remember feeling "this isn't how I thought it would be." But after when a nurse told me that if it were the olden days I would have labored until both the baby and I had died, I was so grateful to live in a time of technology and knowledge that we both made it through the experience healthy.
Annie loved to ride Ellie's cart when we would take walks in the halls.

Annie loves Ellie and is happy to have her in the family. This recovery has been so different than last time and I have had to really take it easy. Thank you to everyone who has helped my family over the last week.

Easter

I love Easter because we get to spend so much time with family. On Saturday we had a Easter Egg hunt at my dad's house with all the cousins, then on Sunday we went to Dan's parents and had dinner. Annie was so excited to run around and get candy in her eggs.

Annie can't wait for Ellie to get here.

I decided this time around that I wanted to do a maternity photo shoot and get some good pictures of me pregnant. I didn't take too many pictures with Annie and now I wish that I would have. It was fun to be able to have Annie in the pictures.

The new babies full name will be Eleanor, but we will call her Ellie for a nickname.

Annie struck this pose with her hand on her face right before the photographer took the pictures, I love this one the most.