Firsts

With a new baby in our family, there have been a lot of "firsts". I wasn't the best at documenting all the events, but thank goodness for iphones and their cameras! Here are some of Eleanor's firsts...

September

Elle's first doctor's appointment at 2 weeks old. She weighed 7lbs 14 ozs and was 21 inches long.

Elle started daily tummy times and had her first attempt at holding her head up by herself.

October
 Elle's first time to church. Her legs look like chicken legs here, now they are so chunky!

Elle's first walk outside. I thoroughly loved having the Provo River Trail right by our house when the weather was warm.

Elle's first plane ride. I flew to Arizona by myself and was so nervous for the airport. She was great through security and getting to the gate and I was able to get her asleep before take-off, then she slept the whole flight! (She has now already had a total of 5 flights and is a pro at the process).

 Elle's first time meeting cousins, and they adored her!

 Elle's first time meeting GG.

 Elle's first time meeting cousin Sawyer (only a few weeks older) and cuddling with Grandpa Nielsen.

 Elle's first smiles! Some of my favorite pictures. It was so fun to see her smile for the first time and have her start interacting a little more.

Elle's first Halloween. She was an owl, or what we liked to call, Owleanor. She also attended her first party, our friends JD and Ashley Mitt and Ann threw a great Halloween bash. Sam and I were in need of last minute costumes, I ended up as Kim Kardashian and Sam decided he was the supporting role of Rob Kardashian (he didn't change his outfit from what he wore to school, but funny thing was, it worked!)

 November
Elle's first trip to Wyoming (mine and Sam's first trip as well!) This is worth documenting because this is where we'll be calling HOME after Sam's graduation.

 Elle's first time celebrating her mama's birthday (and her daddy's a few days before)

Elle's first time in a carrier - she has spent SO much time in this now. It seriously is a life saver.

 Cougar Elle's first time to a BYU football game. It was FREEZING, but I'm glad she made it to one game!

 Elle's first time baking with mama. She loves being in the carrier while I bake, except now she always has to be facing out so she can see everything.

Elle's first Thanksgiving. We spent the day up in Bountiful at Sam's Aunt Kathy's. It was so nice to be with family and enjoy a delicious meal together. Our family has so much to be thankful for.

Elle's first time looking cute. JK. Are you actually still reading these lines? Elle just looks so cute in this photo I had to post. Everywhere we go (not exaggerating - every place we go to) strangers comment on how cute and adorable she is.

 Elle's first time in tights. I love a little baby's legs in tights. So darling.

And that's a quick review of big firsts through November :)

Adjusting

Adjusting to life at home with a newborn can pretty much be summarized by saying that it was adjusting to life without much sleep and with lots of amazement. The first night home was rough. I remember at some odd hour in the night, Eleanor had been crying and I tried feeding her, rocking her, swinging her...I couldn't get her to calm down at all. Then Sam asked if I had checked her diaper and I started bawling. I had forgotten about the diaper (which Sam changed and she calmed right down). I was so out of it which consequently also made me very emotional. Luckily, I can look back now and say A LOT has improved since then.

When we weren't trying to catch up on sleep, Sam and I would just stare in amazement at our little wonder. What a miraculous thing it is to have your own child and welcome her into this world! Sam and I still feel so blessed that we have Eleanor in our lives. In her first week, all we could talk about was her little nose, big eyes, tiny fingers and toes, hairy ears, dark hair... If Elle was taking a nap, I would often find Sam leaning over her, just staring. One of the best things of having our baby was seeing Sam in a "father" role. He is obsessed with our little girl! It literally warms my heart to see the two of them together. Aren't they just perfect?

 These jammies were so baggy on her at first and now she doesn't even fit them anymore!

 I also began taking a million pics on my phone every day, because everything Elle did was picture worthy, even just looking up at me from the portable crib:

I think I mentioned in a post below that the week Elle was born was career fair week for Sam. Poor guy had to dress to impress and be his best at school while meeting with recruiters after minimal sleep (this ended up paying off big time because someone has a JOB...more on that later). He would come home and crash, but not without his favorite little lady by his side...

 Elle was a little jaundice at first so we had to take her to a lab to be tested again when she was just a few days old. That headband is barely staying on her tiny head, her outfit drowned her and she looks like a miniature doll to me in the carset.

 We were spoiled by lots of visitors in Elle's first few days at home. So many sweet ward members, friends, neighbors and family came to meet Eleanor and also often brought us meals or treats. My Uncle Brent, Aunt Teri and cousin Kevin were in town and were some of Eleanor's first visitors...

My Uncle Brad, Aunt Nanette, and cousins Ava, Reese and Raegan also came to meet our angel...

One of my favorite things to watch since Elle was born is the stretches she does after each nap. I just love them. I caught this "superman" stretch. We later sent the photo to our nephew, Oliver, who is OBSESSED with all Avengers. Sam told his mom to ask Oliver which Avenger Eleanor was, his response, "Superman, but he is a super hero not an Avenger." Duh!

Besides a few little adventures in her first day at home, Elle and I pretty much stayed in my bedroom all day and changed from one pair of pajamas to the next. I was still really sore so we didn't even make it far from the bed. As I mentioned before, my sister, Jen, came to help shortly thereafter and it was such a blessing to have her! I think I'll owe her for a looong time. Elle loved having her with us too...

And the support didn't end there! In the following weeks we had more visitors and help while our little girl continued to amaze us. Sam's mom, Sallee, came out right after Jen left. She was another blessing that brought love, support, help and motherly knowledge. I am so grateful that I have such wonderful in-laws who I am close to. With both Sallee and G around, I don't think five seconds went by without Elle being in some loving arms. We were able to snap a four generation shot one evening...

As you can see, our little girl was spoiled in her first week, as were we! There are still adjustments being made in our home, but we are definitely getting more used to and loving our family of three!

Casting Call

No, I'm not entering Eleanor into any competitions, but with these photos I can't but help to think that she is a model baby.

My amazing sister flew out to Utah to help just a few days after Elle was born. Since my mom couldn't be here, I can't even begin to explain how much it meant to me to have Jen around. She taught, helped, cooked, cleaned, nurtured, loved on Elle.... everything I needed at the time, plus more. She brought her camera and we had a little photo shoot with Elle one morning. I believe we took these on her 1 week birthday. I can stare at these forever...

I love my little sweets to pieces.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the photos, Jen!

Hospital Stay

Here are some photos from our time in the hospital:

Me early in the morning, just checked in and situated, and Sammy looking out at our view once the sun had risen:

  

She's here!

You know how mom's have that cute picture of them all smiley looking amazing right after delivery with their newborn? Well, I didn't get that. I was emotional, exhausted, still getting stitched up and only had one minute, but who cares...I had my baby girl!

 


Sammy's first time holding Eleanor. He honestly is the best daddy:

 

Eyes wide open! The hospital put the little bow in her hair. I still get comments about how much hair she has:

The following morning I was able to walk to the nursery with Sam push her back to our room, where we continued to just adore her:

 

One of my favorite, most precious moments I've ever had. Cuddling close for the first time with my beautiful baby girl:

And a little shout-out to the visitors we had! It was so nice to have friends stop by since we didn't have family around yet. It really meant so much to me that they would take the time to come see us and meet little Eleanor. They all came at times I needed them. Dani came to the hospital right away and met Elle when she was only a few hours old! She was so kind and brought Sam dinner. The week Elle was born was career fair time at school for Sam so he had to ditch out of the hospital for a few hours when Elle and I were still in there. Sara came the next day and was with me while Sam was out and Ash came the following morning while Sam was getting some interviews lined up! Thank you so much friends, it meant the world!

And with that, we headed home on Thursday. I don't have a cute picture of Elle in her carseat and in the car for the first time because she was screaming her head off :) but we did make it safely home as a family of three! Hooray!

Meet Miss Elle Rae

Eleanor Rae Nielsen

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

2:52 pm

7 lbs 4 ozs -- 19.5 inches

The Delivery

I've been putting off blogging because there is so much I need to catch up on. However, putting it off till later only makes the "catch-up" list longer (obviously). So, I've decided to skip a whole bunch of stuff and get down what is most important...Eleanor! And even so, I'll still be leaving a lot out, but I've been feeling really guilty lately that I haven't documented ANYTHING about her and her birth (besides Instagram posts) so here we go.

*If you really want to know details, read right along. I'm writing mostly for my own sake since my blog is my journal!

My official due date was September 12, 2012. Well, that day came and went. At every doctor's appointment I was told that I had made 0 progress. Finally, I was able to schedule my induction date for September 19th. The closer that day came, the more convinced I was that I was going to be induced because I still didn't feel any different and hadn't felt contractions. However, my mom kept reminding me that the baby could still come any day. My mom said she was only induced with one out of five kids, and she always did all of her progression the day of delivery. As we neared my due date, I started walking the hill behind our house every day, I bounced on my exercise ball, I ate spicy Indian food and I even gave "curb-walking" a try....nada. My plan was to work right up until I had the baby, work became pretty stressful around my delivery time so I thought I could even go into a stressed-induced labor! Didn't happen. So, I ended up working from home on Monday, September 17th as my last day before the baby. I thought it'd be nice to have the Tuesday off as a day all to myself one last time and then I'd be having my baby on Wednesday. Well, things don't always go as planned.

Around 2:30 am on the morning of Tuesday, September 18th, I woke up and with my eyes half closed, got up from bed to go to the bathroom (this was a very frequent occurrence seeing I was 40+ weeks pregnant). In the bathroom, I realized something had just happened and I immediately called out to Sam, "Something is happening! Something is happening!". In a split second Sam was standing next to me and I told him that I thought I had just lost my mucus plug (I know - such a gross name). I was excited because this was the first sign that my body knew I was supposed to be going into labor! However, some girls lose this weeks before starting labor so I didn't really think baby girl was coming that day. Well, within 10 minutes I started having contractions. I remember that I had gone to bed with my hair half wet and I knew I needed to straighten it between contractions because I didn't want to go to the hospital with how it was looking! Sam was wide awake with me and started timing my contractions. Slowly they began to come closer and closer together. Around 5:30 am we decided the time had come and off we were to the hospital! I called my parents on the way and got to talk to my mom. We arrived at the hospital and contractions were getting worse so Sam pushed me in one of the wheelchairs. I felt like I was in a movie. For so long Sam and I had talked about how my labor would start and wondered where I would be, if Sam would be with me, how we'd get to the hospital and here it all was...really happening!

We checked in and the nurse introduced herself and said her shift ended at 6:00 am so she wouldn't be with us very long, but she got us all set-up and situated. The nurse examined me and said I was only dilated to 1 cm so they would probably be sending me home. She said she was almost sure I'd need to go back home, but that they would monitor me for an hour and then call my doctor and he would make the decision. She kind of made me feel dumb that I thought my labor was coming so quickly that we had to get to the hospital at that time. Well, the shift ended, I got a new nurse (and her "trainee") and at the hour mark they called my doctor, who told them to keep me there! Thank goodness. I don't remember at what point in time, but the new nurse said to me, "Good thing we kept you here. If we had sent you home you would have made it to the parking lot then would of had to come right back up here!" I got an IV and they gave me something to dull the pain a little. Getting my IV was one of the worst parts of the whole delivery. I am awful with needles and the nurse-in-training couldn't get it in my vain right. Not fun. Both Sam and I later said we regret not asking them to just have the other nurse do it. Oh well, I survived!

The time frame is all a blur for me, but here are a few things I want to remember:

• The room we were in had a great view of Provo
• Each time my doctor walked in the room, I had the most peaceful feeling. I was so grateful for him and completely trusted him.
• The first time my doctor showed up he asked why I hadn't had my epidural yet. I responded "I don't know." He said, "Well, get it!" And then I did. Thank goodness!
• The epidural wasn't bad at all. It was done quickly. I did ask Sam to come by the bed and hold my hand and talk to me to distract me. I was surprised when they said they were done. The IV was ten times worse!
• Sam and I watched two episodes of Modern Family on the ipad and the nurses loved it
• I was feeling pretty calm the whole morning until my doctor said, "Ok, we'll be back in about 20 minutes to start pushing". I got so nervous/anxious and started crying. I asked Sam to say a prayer with me and he did. 
• Pushing was hard. Labor is called labor for a reason. I guess I pushed for about 2 hours. I had no concept of time during it besides it was taking forever. At one point I really wanted to just stop and say "I give up!", but I told myself that's not what I came here for and that wouldn't help anything. Seriously, there was a mental battle in my head for awhile because I was getting so exhausted.
• Sam was great. He was on my left side the whole time encouraging me. At one point I told him to stop saying whatever he was saying because it was bugging me. I remember the nurse on my right side laughing at that.
• Doctors and nurses kept telling me they could see dark hair! 
• I had no clue what was taking so long, I knew they were using the vacuum thing and I could tell it wasn't working. I knew something was wrong when my doctor said "We need to get a heartbeat" but I didn't really have time to worry because everything went so quickly right then. Before I knew it my baby girl was out and they took her over to the ICU team that was in the room (they had told me before hand that the ICU team would be in there because when they broke my water they could see a little bit of meconium, but it was minimal and they weren't that worried about it). 
• Sam gave me a kiss, told me I did a great job and that our daughter was beautiful
• After they had weighed her and cleaned her a little, a nurse brought Elle over to me and told me that I was only going to get to hold her for a minute and then she needed to go to ICU. I got to hold my daughter for the first time and it was an overwhelming feeling. Sam was standing next to us. I kissed her forehead again and again and just couldn't believe she was in my arms. The minute flew by and off she went. It was sometime after that when someone told me she was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck twice. I almost laughed and said, "That's how I was born!" I don't think that was the reaction they were expecting. 
• Even though I only got to hold Elle for a minute and knew she was going to ICU, I never felt that worried. I think it was just a blessing that I knew everything was going to be alright. Sam went with to ICU and he sent me pictures of her. I called my mom while they were cleaning up the room and told her that little Eleanor Rae was born.
• I was transferred to my recovery room and Sam was there not long after. I don't remember how long it was until Elle was in our room, but Sam had told me that she was doing great. It turned out that Eleanor wasn't even in ICU for 30 minutes. They originally took her there because her breathing was off, but she corrected it on her own. Something with her blood was off because of the extra blood she loss from having the umbilical cord cut before she was even out of me, but by the evening that was fine as well.

It was an amazing feeling to know that I had given birth and that our daughter was now physically with us. We couldn't stop looking at her. Her nose, ears, lips...were all the most precious things I had ever seen. As Sam told me more about what happened in delivery with the umbilical cord, I was even more grateful for my doctor and knew that it was a blessing that we had picked him. He safely delivered our precious baby girl to us.

Sam and I took turns holding Elle the rest of the evening. My friend Dani came and brought Sam dinner. Both Sam and I were exhausted and I know I was out of it. We were so happy to have a healthy, beautiful baby girl. We were now a little family of three, and loved it!