Not So Deep Thoughts

Tomorrow, Eleanor will be six weeks old. Things are going SO well. Our basement is officially finished, and it looks amazing (pictures in another post, I promise). It changes our lifestyle, for sure. I'm so happy with it! I've definitely gotten into the groove of having two kids right now, and it helps that Eleanor is a great baby. She sleeps really well (through the night for over a week!), nurses fairly well (still a sore subject...), and is totally laid back. She is a bit fussy at night, which makes getting anything done difficult (hence the 6 week blogging hiatus), but I can't really complain. There's limited time before the next feeding, though, so I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Ethan decorated my Boppe pillow with Curious George stickers. At first, one of the hardest things was keeping him at bay while I was nursing Eleanor. He has since gotten used to this very frequent activity.

Either her first or second sponge bath. Not a huge fan of this part.

But she did LOVE having her hair washed. I think she will love the salon later in life.

Sleeping in the papasan...love those hospital hats.

Ethan put on Will's giant (and terribly ugly) coat from L.L. Bean circa 1990. It looks better on Ethan, I think.

Pre-haircut

Haircut

Eleanor's favorite sleeping position. We swaddled Ethan for 6 months. I stopped with Eleanor during the first week or so. She has sleep really well without it.

Ethan finally came around to wanting to hold Eleanor after he watched all of his cousins fawn all over her. Now, he requests a hold at least once a day.

Eating cereal - Will took this for some reason, but I think it's cute.

Grandma and Eleanor

The nice weather we've been having has made things a heck of a lot easier. We get outside quite a bit. Here is one of our driveway picnics.

Trying out tummy time. Ethan is definitely smooshing her, but I think in a nice way.

Another eating picture. This is pasta fagioli. We are so lucky that Ethan is a fantastic eater!

Cute strawberry outfit.

Here is Eleanor dressed and ready for my mom's retirement party.

Surprise!

Table 1 at Macaroni Grill

Table 2

We match, minus the bonnet.

I gave a little speech. My mom worked in childcare at COD for just short of 25 years! Happy Retirement!

Poor Pop Pop Jeff - he says he never gets to hold Eleanor.

But Grandma always holds her!

Eleanor with Laney and Andrew, children of my great friends Annie and Susie, respectively. Andrew was born about 8 hours before Eleanor on the same day. :) And, apparently, he's gang affiliated based on the sign he's flashing.

Eleanor and Andrew do not seem to happy to be propped up here.

Susie with the birthday twins!

And here we are - who would have thought 10 years ago, when we were in college, that this is where we would be now.

Will with a sleepy Eleanor.

Grandma Meuer, all 102 years of her, came to Chicago from South Dakota, for a few days. Here she is meeting Eleanor.

Aunt Lou has her now.

This is Ethan at our playgroup Easter egg hunt. Will showed up at the end. With so many big kids this year, it lasted about a minute, but it was great fun nonetheless.

He loved seeing what was in each egg.

This year, Lisa and I, along with cousins Jeanine and Amy, made our own calzone on Holy Saturday. It's a lot of work, but we felt it was time for the next generation to learn how to make it so as to continue this very special tradition.

Dad stopped in to taste the filling. :)

The finished product. Both mom and grandma were very proud of our results. It was yummy!

Eleanor loves Great Auntie Nancy!

Here we are before church on Easter Sunday. Both kids did very well at Mass.

Mommy and Eleanor. Eleanor is the one with the bow.

Our family picture.

Eleanor Lorraine arrived very late on the night of February 24th. It was 11:59, a mere 19 minutes after arriving in labor and delivery. The short story (at least as short a story as I can tell) is that I came down with a touch of stomach flu around 10 pm. After vomitting, my body started contractions about 2 minutes apart. I decided I better call my midwife, even though I wondered if I was just sick. I was pretty miserable, as the contractions were coming so quickly, were really intense, and I had very little rest between. My midwife said I sounded pretty bad and better come in to the hospital; she would meet me there. I hung up with her and called my mom, who left right away to come here. Then, when I got off the phone with her, I called a neighbor/friend to see if they would come over to stay with Ethan until my mom arrived. I cannot even tell you how miserable I was feeling, and really scared, too, since I did not know why the contractions were so close together. They usually say to go to the hospital when your contractions are 5 minutes apart, but I was less than 2! We got in the car and headed to the hospital, which is not far away, but it took us a little longer since we were in the middle of a snow storm. Between a contraction, I called my mother-in-law to let her know we were coming to the hospital. The plan all along was to call her to come relieve my mom so that my mom could come to the hospital. Well, that wasn't going to happen with the snow. I told her not to worry about coming and even said I wasn't sure if I would be sent home (ha!).

On the way to the hospital, I really started feeling even worse because, besides the constant contractions, I was getting tingley everywhere, especially my hands, arms, and legs. Will pulled up to the ER entrance, and I got out and went in while he parked. They took me up to L & D in a wheel chair, with Will following close behind. All I kept asking for was some water or ice chips because my mouth was so dry. People kept saying they would get me some, but no one did. At the time, I was very annoyed but in too much pain to say much about it. (Later, my midwife told me they didn't want to give me anything because I had been throwing up, and they wanted to be sure I didn't have a fever, too. Also, they think the tingling was due to hyperventilation.) My midwife got up to L & D about a minute after us and we went to a room for her to examine me. I couldn't get control of my tingling/shaking, but I finally managed to get into a gown. When she checked me, at least 10 minutes after arriving, I was dilated to 5. Sitting in the bed, I was miserable because it really is the worst position to be in during contractions. Will was doing his best to be supportive, but, honestly, every time he touched me, I wanted to swat him a way. To my credit, though, I didn't, and let him feel like he was helping.

I asked repeatedly about an epidural because I knew that if I was going to have these extra strong contractions with little rest, I would need one. They said I would have to get hydrated first, which is when I got really scared because I knew this would take time and would delay the epidural. It was around this time that I started feeling like I was bearing down with little control. According to my midwife, I calmly said, "He's coming out. He's coming out." In my mind, I was yelling, "He's coming out!" She said to me, "Michelle, his head is very low. You're probably..." and then she looked and saw the head. I'm pretty sure she said, "Okay, I need some help here!" Then she asked me to push one more time, and all of a sudden there was a naked baby on my chest. She asked Will to announce what it was, which took a few seconds since the umbilical cord was in the way. Finally, he yelled out, "It's a girl!"

It was nuts. Just nuts. The pushing did not hurt at all that I remember and actually was a complete relief to me since it stopped the contractions. I could not believe that I had just gone from 5 to 10 dilated in so few minutes and that I had given birth naturally, as I always wanted to but didn't think I really had in me. (Believe me, I give myself very little credit since I practically sneezed Eleanor out, and many women do it naturally with far more effort.) I also couldn't believe I had a girl. I really was just so surprised. When I called my mom, Eleanor was still on me, screaming, and my mom had literally just gotten to our house to relieve my neighbor of watching Ethan. Later that night I said to Will, "You realize that if we had waited for mom, we would have had Eleanor at home or in an ambulance?" All night long, we kept saying to each other, "I can't believe how fast that was!"

It was the next day that my midwife told us it was only 19 minutes total from the time we arrived in L & D to the time we met our daughter. She also said that my white count was up enough to show that I definitely had some kind of infection. She thinks that vomiting made me produce prostaglandin, a hormone that induces labor. Basically, I threw myself into labor - fast! I don't recommend this method, but it did get me what I wanted: my baby!

And here she is...

This was probably an hour after I gave birth. Will didn't have our camera until then because he left everything in the car in the mad dash to get up there.

Shari, the best midwife in the world! I was so glad she got to deliver Ethan and Eleanor.

Our nice night nurse giving Eleanor her first bath. Will stayed for this whole process. He never lets our babies out of his sight. I, meanwhile, tried to sleep but was unsucessful.