Baby Hannah

Okay so I should probably be put in blog prison, cause I haven't posted anything in forever. But I think I have a solution to redeem myself and get off with only a few months probation. I'm going to tell you all about the newest addition our family, baby Hannah and what's gone down in the past 3 days.
For starters, the last leg of my pregnancy I was just exhausted all the time, my legs and lower back were horribly swollen and it was a real chore to walk around and do things, so I was pretty ready to do this birth thing and just get it over with. Last Tuesday at our Dr's apt I expressed my strong desire to get this over with and after letting the Dr know that a C-section did not scare me, however I know it's not ideal, I pretty much begged him to induce on Monday (I figured that was cool, cause it was 2 days after Hannah's due date) he said that he'd be out of the office that day and asked if Tuesday (2-2) worked, I was of course elated and did a little happy dance after he left the room. We went to the nurses station and got the hospital info and it said we'd have to be at the hospital between 5:30-6:00am!
So, we waited and hoped and prayed that Baby Hannah might decide to pop out over the weekend. Unfortunately, she didn't come over the weekend so we had to settle for the early morning induction on Tuesday. I rested for most of Monday, but I couldn't stay asleep for more than 3 hours, because my bladder was the size of a walnut and I was just incredibly thirsty all the time. Elliott came home from work and we went to Wal-Mart, ate Subway, and picked up snacks, so that we could have good stuff to eat at the hospital and so Ell could have food and drink while I was in labor. After coming home we laid down and went to sleep. I didn't get more than about 2 hours before having to go to the restroom. After that I rested and watched several hours of "How it's Made" on the Science Channel. Then around 2 got up and showered before waking Elliott up. He showered and then we got stuff around, made sure Tiger would have enough food and water for a few days and left around 4 for the hospital.
I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything past midnight, but we stopped at McDonald's on 30th in Hutch so Ell could have some breakfast. Once getting to the hospital I had to put on a darn robe and get stuck by a thousand needles and get an IV and get hooked up to a baby heartbeat/contraction monitor. The Dr came in for a few minutes, started me on Pitocin, broke my water and said "Okay, call me when the show starts, it's a great day to have a baby." so we waited for a little while for something to happen, not even 10 minutes later I started having contractions, they stayed about 2 minutes apart lasting anywhere from 45 to 60 seconds and that lasted for about 30minutes and I was ready for drugs. Because we had to get Dr's orders for any kind of anything I had to wait another hour for Stadol and I had to tough it out for a couple of hours before I got an epidural. I think it was like 9:30-10ish when I finally got my epidural, which was awesome! They locally numbed my back and put a little catheter in the epidural space between my spine and spinal cord, then hooked me up to a pump thing that had a little button on it that I could push when I felt pain, but it would lock me out if I pushed it more than 2 times in a half-hour. Once it started working I felt like running through the halls. It also gave Elliott's hand a chance to regain color and blood supply. I sent him for some fresh air and to move the car around from the ER and to bring in the diaper bag and anything else we'd left in the car. I could still feel pressure during some of the really strong contractions, but other than that I felt pretty darn good and when I did feel a lot of pressure and what not it was a lot easier to breathe. My blood pressure was through the roof the whole time, especially when the cuff went off during a contraction.
Around 11:45 they checked me, and thanks to me naturally relaxing and breathing better I had almost fully dilated and they started getting stuff ready. At this point I was starting to feel some pain again, even though I was pretty much maxed out on my epidural stuff. So, Elliott's hand got another work-out. At pretty much the nurses called Dr. Cullen and he said he was in with a patient over at the Clinic and to wait 10 minutes and then start to push. So that's what we did and after about 30 minutes he showed up and was shocked on the progress I'd made and figured it'd all be over in 30 minutes or less. He was right, 15 minutes later at 12:57pm on Tuesday February 2nd, Baby Hannah came into the world and let us all know she had a set of lungs on her. Elliott cut the cord and followed one of the nurses and the baby over to the warmer to clean her up (there was no way they were setting that kid on me before she was cleaned up). Elliott had called my mom a little after noon and let her know to get to the hospital, cause I was freaking out and she got there soon after I'd finally been all cleaned up.
We had lots of visitors and I hadn't had really any rest in over 16 hours and at 7pm-ish we finally got our "Celebration Dinner" and I was done with guests. For our baby Celebration dinner Elliott and I got 12oz KC Strip steaks, baked potatoes, mixed veggies and I got triple chocolate cake and Elliott got cheesecake. They wheeled it all in on a table with a center piece, table cloth and water goblets. During dinner I guess almost everyone and their dog showed up to see Hannah and Elliott was nice enough to get up from his dinner to take baby Hannah out and show her off. The first night wasn't too fussy, but neither Ell nor I got much rest at all. I was having lots of back pain and my feet had severely swollen and I needed assistance for just about everything.
Wednesday morning one of the lab gals came in and stuck me at 5am and soon after Dr. Davidson (My family doctor and Hannah's doctor) checked her over and said she was one of the healthiest and cutest baby's he'd ever seen and that whenever I was dismissed Hannah could go with us. Not long after that Dr. Cullen came by and checked me to make sure everything was healing normally. He told me that my hemoglobin was down from what they'd really like it and that they'd check it again in a few hours and if it was just a bad screen I could go home. Well unfortunately it only came up .8 so they told me to just "hang out" for the day cause I'd already been pre-approved by our insurance to stay another day, so we did. At around 1pm I was lucky enough to get a 30 minute massage, the birthing center has a massage therapist on staff for mom's who've given birth. Hannah slept most of Wednesday, and gradually started eating better (2oz feedings). We had a few visitors and were able to get a little more rest. That night she slept better and Ell and I were able to get better rest.
The Dr gave me the OK to go home around 5:30am and we were told whenever we were ready that we were good to go. I let Elliott sleep for a few hours before getting him up. We left the hospital at around 11:30ish and drove to Sterling to stop at Mom and Frank's so I could use the restroom and so we could change Hannah. Good thing we did cause she had a really poopy diaper. After a while we finished the rest of our journey home and introduced Tiger and Hannah at about 3pm. I laid down with Hannah and got her to sleep before my mom came by to help us out for a few hours.
Thursday night (last night) was not a good night and I became just as cranky and emotional as the baby, but I'm lucky enough to have the greatest husband in the world and he stepped up and took over primary Hannah care so I could get some sleep because I was still in pain. I slept on and off for a good portion of the day and this evening I was able to get some laundry done. Nancy (Ell's mom) brought pizza over and even helped with a feeding. Later on Pastor Tom came by for a while and they left after a couple of hours. Then Ell and I gave Hannah a washcloth bath and laid her down for the night. She's been up once since then for a feeding and she's been asleep for a few hours now and Elliott is sleeping in the living room with her and I'm fixing to head to bed now. I'll try and be better about writing on here so you can have a better idea of what's going on at our house and so I don't end up violating my blog probation. :P

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, the past week or so has flown by, and we've been like a thousand different places. Last weekend we had Robert cat-sit for us and we drove down to Springfield and spent sometime with Dad and Chris. Our first night there we spent several hours at Incredible Pizza and we accumulated enough tickets for Ell and I to get our own sweatshirt and get a few toys to take back for Robert. Elliott ate at Lambert's Cafe (The home of the throwed rolls) for the first time and he loved every minute. We also checked out the local Toys R Us/Babies R Us while we were down there and we were surprised by all of the the cute little outfits and things for a baby girl that weren't pink (hallelujah!). We also set up and played Dad and Chris' new Wii and helped them get familiarized with it. We came back on Monday after a trip to Bass Pro Shop and recieving our Christmas gifts.

Tuesday I did some laundry, but we had another Doctor appointment that afternoon. We keep being told that everything is great and that the kid's heartbeat is around 150 bpm which is perfect. After making a trip to Wal-Mat we gave Tiger his Christmas Gifts, 12 neon colored mice and a ball with a motorizedfeatherthingy on it.

Wednesday I finished up our laundry and did some house work before we headed to Sterling to stay at Mom and Frank's so we'd be closer to all of the get together's that would take place over the next few days, and we were also expecting a horrible winter storm.

Thursday (Christmas Eve) there was no horrible storm in our area or around Hutch where we went that evening to do Christmas with the Swain's. Dinner was at 5pm at the Airport Steakhouse and then we atttened Ell's Grandparent's church before heading back to open gifts and chit-chat.

Friday (Christmas Day) we slept in till around 10am before going down stairs and opening gifts with Mom, Frank, Robert and all 3 cats and the 2 dogs. Elliott had fun programing his new LED name tag. After getting around we headed over to Grandma and Papa Klein's and had lunch and opened gifts with a few of my cousins and aunts. Grandma was being a pain in the butt and had a major problem of kissing up to Elliott. We tried to get out of there as soon as we could just so we could put all of the dysfunction behind us. We went back to mom's and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and packed up and loaded up the car. Then we headed over to Nanny and Papa Ricker's house. I helped mom and Aunt Charlotte cook and Elliott and I set the table and poured the water glasses. After dinner and dessert we sat around in the siting room and exchanged gifts (this year we all drew names). Elliott got the hilarious, but informational, Baby Instruction Manual. We then came home and relaxed with Tiger before heading to bed.

Saturday we slept in and lounged around and watched the NFC Championship game from 1982 on the NFL Network before heading over to Tom and Nancy's for dinner. After dinner and dessert we opened gifts and played Taboo and Trivial pursuit.

Sunday (Yesterday) we woke up around 10 am to several text messages on my phone from dad asking if we'd meet him with Robert. I alerted Bob to get ready and after picking up some snacks at the grocery store in town we drove down and picked Rob-Bob up and headed to Parsons to meet dad. We meet at Sirloin Stockade and dad treated us to an early supper around 4:30pm. After making the switch and getting gas at the north edge of town we headed back home. We arrived home around 10pm and after lounging in front of the TV for a few we went to bed.

There isn't much on our agenda today except Laundry today and tonight we're going on a dinner and movie "Date night," which will probably be the last one we'll get in a long time (props to mom for thinking of the gift cards for this).

Time flew by

I know it's been a few days since I've written in here and if you're a dedicated follower I apologize, we're not dead I've just been a little lazy or preoccupied. In the past few days we've had snow, a Dr appointment, the first of several Christmas get togethers, and a wedding.
Last Wednesday we drove down to Hutch for a Dr apt and after more lab junk, we got a thumbs up. I'm still healthy and the kiddo still has a strong normal heartbeat. After the appointment we stopped by Ell's grandparents' house and with the help of his grandfather Ell put a new battery in his car so we wouldn't have a repeat of Wednesday morning (see previous post). After leaving we headed home. Keeping an ear to Ell's scanner we heard of a horrible accident on K-96 just outside of Nickerson. When we got towards it, we discovered that the highway was closed and that there were 3 people trapped inside the vehicles and that they needed more manpower and that 2 helicopters were on the way. We decided to stick around and watch Lifeteam land, pick-up and take off. Little did we know, but Elliott knew the girl in the car and I knew the older couple in the truck (the woman in the truck passed away later that evening at the Hospital). We drove back to Hutch and ate dinner and did a little bit of shopping at Wal-Mart, before finally heading home.
Thursday and Friday were both very uneventful, Ell went to work and I stayed at home with the cat. He came home around 5, we ate supper, watched TV, we went to bed, yadda, yadda, yadda, married life is really boring.
Saturday we slept in before getting up and getting ready to head out for a busy evening. We drove down to Hutch for a Christmas get together with Nancy's side of the family (Ell's mom). We were only able to hang around for about and hour. Long enough to say "hellos," eat and say goodbye. Then we rushed to Sterling for one of my good friend's wedding (she was one of my bridesmaids at our wedding). We saw Ashy get married off, and enjoyed and caught up with friends at the reception before trekking home. We stopped at Wal-Mart and Elliott bought and put new headlights on his car.
Sunday was pretty boring we watched football all day and went to bed watching White Christmas on AMC. Today was just like every other day. Except this evening while watching football Elliot worked on dusting off and cleaning up some of his Lego collection that he picked up after work. now it's getting late and I'm actually typing this in bed on the laptop and I think it's safe to say Ell and I will be going to bed very soon.

Snow is pretty, but a pain in the butt

Where should I begin, yesterday we received the first real snow of the season. Well it actually started Monday night, but whatever. Ell and I got up and around at 6-ish thanks to the kitty alarm (Tiger was whining). Elliott checked his messages and discovered that Barton Community College, the Great Bend campus, was closed for the day. We spent sometime giving tiger some attention and Ell kept a close eye on school closings on ksn.com. A high majority of the schools in the area were closing, however I noticed 2 were missing, Sterling and Ellinwood. My mom is a teacher at Ellinwood Grade School, and lives in Sterling. There's a running joke that it takes a biblical type flood or hell to freeze over for Ellinwood to close school and Sterling isn't far from that. I gave mom a call about the time Elliott informed me Ellinwood was closing for the day and she gave me the 411 (information) on the weather in Sterling. At this point we had about 4 inches outside the 4 front door and Sterling had maybe 2 inches like Hutch.
Elliott and I then took to napping, we were still a little tired and since Ell had a off day he settled into "His" recliner and I got back in bed for a few hours. The snow continued to fall outside all day. Around noon we lazily got up and made Tacos for lunch, YUM! the rest of the day was spent between periodically checking the snow outside, relaxing, and surfing the Internet (Elliott kept a sharp eye on weather stuff and road situations). I got bored around 3 and took a hot shower.
At 3:30 we lost our Internet connection and Elliott called Embarq and they let him know there were outages all over the state and that at the very latest they'd have our connection up by 11pm. We moved the little TV that was in the corner on the Kitchen counter around and out so Elliott could see it perfectly from his chair in the living room. We then watched Up and Alvin & the Chipmunks before dinner. I'd put stuff for chicken & dumplings in the crock pot at is was finally ready around 7-ish. I put in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation to watch while we ate and called mom to see how things were in Sterling and what they'd done during the day. she let me know that Sterling had right around 4 inches and that they'd gone to Chase and cleaned off the side walks and driveway for my grandparents. After eating I ventured outside and checked our snow level at is was around 7 inches. At this point the snow had stopped falling, but we had a nasty North, Northwest wind that was blowing the snow and making some deep drifts.
I came inside and Elliott let me know that the Internet was back up and after checking e-mail and Facebook we watched a few of the Rankin & Bass Christmas shows. I fell asleep for part of Rudolph's Shiny New Year and after it was over I made the call to go to bed, but not long after taking the DVD out and putting it away, the power went out.
I then went around the house lighting a few candles and Elliott turned his ear to his radio to see if the city guys were solving the problem. Luckily after about 20 minutes the power was back on and Ell was hearing reports of troopers stuck in snowdrifts on K-4. At this point both of us were awake and alert and getting to sleep was still a few hours away. After watching the weather channel and Family Guy I went to bed and talked Elliott out of his recliner and to come to bed with me. We both fell asleep not long after laying down and woke up around 6:30. I went back to sleep while Ell got around for work. At around 8 I got up and found Elliott to still be home. His car wouldn't start and there was a ton of snow in the driveway to boot. I got around and bundled up and helped Ell get his car out into the street so we could dig Rhonda (my car) out of a few feet of snow and get her turned in way to jump start Ell's car. After about 30 minutes of shoveling and pushing we were able to get Ell's car down the driveway and sort of in the street. then we dug Rhonda out and she started right up and I backed her up into the yard near Ell's car and we got Ell's car jump started. I put Rhonda back in the driveway and came inside. Ell put his car back in the driveway and let it warm up/run to charge the battery for few before finally heading of to work a little bit ago.
Ell's getting off at 11:30 and going to go to Wal-Mart and get a new battery and then coming home, eat lunch with me and then we've got to be in Hutch for a Dr's apt at 3. Fingers crossed that his car will start again and that I won't have to come bail him out and that we get to Hutch and back okay this afternoon.

Living room has a new look

Well, things are finally changing in our house to welcome our little dude. We've got a crib now thanks to the use of "Uncle Bobby's" truck. Ell and I've been scoping them out and we found one of those really cool convertible ones (that you can turn into a toddler bed) for a very reasonable price and I checked and double checked the customer reviews and manufacturer whatnot to make sure we were getting something safe and worth keeping. We already have one of those portable playpens/bassinets thanks to Pastor Tom and Nancy and a crib bedding set thanks to Dad and Chris; so logically next thing to get was a crib.

Robert came up today and we went to Taco Ball, Walmart and the Walnut bowl. Just so you know Wii bowling is way easier than actual bowling. Normally Ell, Bob and I can get around 200, like we did playing after we got back to the house. However at the bowling alley Elliott was the only one to break 100, and it wasn't by much. After coming home we began the total redoing of the living room. Thanks to bob being here the boys moved the love seat in the living room and the 2 bookshelves to the garage and moved the blue Lazy-boy into the living room. After the big change-up the 3 of us put together the crib in around 20 minutes. The "Destructions" (directions) were a little vague, but we figured it out.

After putting the mattress and crib bedding in it, we took Robert down to The Rack on the south end of Great Bend. Afterwards we drove through the Zoo and saw all of the really cool Christmas lights they have up. They added dinosaurs and volcano this year! Then we came back to the house and played on the Wii. And a little while ago Robert decided it was getting late and he's going to spend the night and head home in the morning, if the roads aren't bad (there's a good chance for freezing drizzle and ice in the morning). We hope that anyone who drives around tomorrow is careful.

*Note: In the picture you can see the top of Elliott's head as he was lounging on the floor when I took it.