Miss Elliot Jane

Our sweet, little Elliot Jane made her appearance at 3:16pm on Tuesday afternoon, March 5th. We are so in love.  In fact, we didn't know that we could hold this much love in our hearts.  She is such a precious, special little lady.  We are blessed beyond measure.

The labor went by pretty fast...15 hours from first sign of labor to finish.  I woke Caleb up at 1:15am, after speaking with the triage nurse a couple of times, and we headed into the hospital.  We were actually pretty calm, in the midst of the excitement of it all.  Caleb was such a great support for me and we were once again teammates.

When we first met Ellie, I kept talking to her and telling her how much I loved her.  Caleb was overcome by emotions.  He was literally speechless for a few minutes.  He cut the cord as Ellie laid on me for over a hour.  Without going into too much detail, they had to get a surgeon in there to sew me back up from the mass, widespread tearing that happened during delivery.  It took over an hour for her to finish that job.  And then, Caleb spent some time holding her against his bare chest.

She weighed 8 lbs 7 oz, and was 19.5 inches long.  Her Apgar score was 8-9.  So Elliot is a healthy and happy baby!  The only thing we had to monitor was her jaundice.  She was at a pretty high level that they almost kept us longer at the hospital.  But instead, they let us take her home on Thursday under the condition we went back the following day to have her reevaluated.  She hadn't progressed.  And by Sunday, when she was checked again, her levels had dropped considerably.

The following are all pictures from the hospital....

Little Ellie is so sweet.  My favorite thing is that she started smiling from the first day of her life. She smiled her first smile when Daddy was holding her.  And since then, she smiles multiple times a day.  Some smiles are half smiles, others closed mouth smiles, and then there are some where she is beaming ear to ear.  It is just so sweet.  She also sticks out her lower lip quite frequently.  It melts my heart, and every time she does, I kiss it! And then she turns it into an expression where she puckers her lips.  All to say, she is very expressive.  Caleb keeps saying that she has my expressions and hopefully she doesn't have his inability to hide his expressions! hahaha!

And now we have been at home for over a week.  Ellie is napping and I should be.  I am so, so tired. Although she is such a good baby, motherhood is proving to be a pretty exhausting feat.  But so worth it.  So, with the sound of laundry going (again), I am finally able to drink some coffee and try to catch up on things like the blog.  I am hoping that I can post more about her first week at home by tomorrow.  These days are so precious and I just want to make sure they are documented.  Ellie literally changes by the day.  And I am constantly told it goes by fast.  So I am just trying to soak up every little moment, expression, snuggle that I can.  Elliot Jane is one loved girl.  I just pray that she knows it and feels it even now at this young age.  Our family is blessed.