5 Days In

Hi Everyone... We are here and doing well. Dan and I are swimming through some really exhausting days though! Ellyotte is sleeping so much during the day that it is hard to get her awake to eat. But, she's eating well and sleeping tons. Last night, she had some stomach issues though and we literally got next to NO sleep. She's worth it though.

She's so sweet and so perfect - we cannot get over the dark skin, black hair and blue eyes. She takes after Dan's brother, Todd, and my sister, Kelly, with her hair, skin and eyes and she looks so much like Noah in many ways.

My delivery went well. Much better than with Noah - that was traumatizing. I was a bit anxious and for some reason, kept falling asleep the morning of the surgery while in surgery prep. I just shut down while filling out paperwork and Dan had to keep waking me up to get me to answer questions.

The spinal block freaked me out. I didn't have that last time and it immediately climbs all over your body, your arms are stretched out and it feels like you can't breathe. I got super claustrophobic and almost threw up. But they turned the table and regulated my blood pressure and that helped a ton.

The scary part was when my doctor had made all of the incisions and had gotten to my uterus. I was groggy so didn't remember this too clearly till the next day but she leaned over the curtain before taking Ellyotte out and said "Oh my gosh, your uterus is stretched so thin that I can see the baby's head through it. You can NEVER go into labor, EVER." It scared both of us. Apparantly, the last c-section wasn't necessarily botched but they didn't do a good job sewing up my uterus so this time it stretched out to the point that if I had gone into actual labor, it would have ripped and I wouldn't be having any more babies... Scary. My doctor did what she could to sew the healthy tissue but she had a hard time. She told me that if we have anymore kids, she noted in my charts the importance of my doctor never letting me go into labor. I was really upset about this.

The other thing that happened that night (post surgery) was that they had taken the catheter out too early and left the IV in for a full 24 hours. I got the catheter out 6 hours post surgery and was still numb from the spinal block. I had been told to go to the bathroom hourly but couldn't feel the urge till it hit me out of nowhere. My very pregnant friend, Season, and my sister, Kelly, and I were chatting in the room when it hit me and Season had to pull me out of bed (Dan was in the hall on the phone). I made it to the bathroom and my bladder started spasming. I thought I would pass out. I couldn't go and was screaming for the nurse. She came running in, told Kelly and Season to leave immediately and she and Dan had to get me back to the bed - the longest 10 ft walk of my life. The nurse had to re-catheterize me immediately and drain my bladder - I screamed because she did it without numbing it at all. I was told by my doctor that that was the closest thing to labor that I could ever experience. It was INTENSE and certainly painful.

Other than those two things, the surgery and delivery went perfectly. Ellyotte is so healthy and beautiful. She's just a blessing in every way.

Noah is still adjusting - but adjusting well. He wants to hold her constantly and show her how to go potty in the big boy potty, eat big boy food, and he tried to feed her his asparagus earlier... Yikes. He's just in love with her and wants her with him constantly. I am very thankful.

More updates to come. But I have to go wake this very sleepy baby to feed her - I have to ensure that I get some sort of sleep tonight!! Last night was rough.