Elise Faith's Debut

On Saturday evening Brad left the hospital just before 9:30 p.m.  He visited me every day I was in the hospital, but spent nearly all day there on Saturdays.  I began reading my book, Discovering Isaac: The Beloved Potter of Neiderbipp.  Suddenly, I started to feel like I was bleeding again...and it was enough that I didn't have to get up to check.  I paged my nurse and called Brad to come back to the hospital.  I told him I didn't know if I was bleeding enough for them to take the baby, but I'd like him to come back and stay with me.

By the time he walked in my room ten minutes later, I was being prepped for surgery.  My doctor was out of town, but I had met the great on call OB, Dr. Wes Davis, several times since I'd been staying there at the hospital.  They had put a compression sleeve around an IV bag so that I'd have the a full one inside me within fifteen minutes.  They had drawn some more blood and had me hooked up to the monitors.  Brad dressed in the blue paper operating room attire and at ten they were wheeling me into the OR.

Getting the spinal block made me really nervous, but everything went really well.  They put up a sheet and Brad held my hand as they started the c-section.  It was very weird to feel what the doctors were doing, but not have it hurt.  I started to feel nauseous several times, but the anesthesiologist gave me a shot of something into my IV and a few seconds later I'd feel better.  Apparently it is something that raises your blood pressure whenever it drops too low.

At 10:19 p.m. our little girl was born and by 10:30 I was recovering in another room.  Luckily our little baby was healthy and able to come with us right away.  We had mostly decided in advance, but agreed to name her Elise Faith. 

I look horrible, like someone who has just had their innards sliced:)  For me at least, a c-section has been much worse than a "normal" birth.  Each day gets a million times better, but that first 24 hours was extraordinarily uncomfortable.  Kudos to you moms who have all their children that way!

Our little sweetheart was born at 36 weeks and 1 day.  She weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz. and was 18 in. long.  Because she was so short, she actually looked pretty chubby.

We got to keep her in with us for almost two hours before they took her to the warming beds and then gave her a bath.  When they brought her back to eat again, she had these cute little bows in her hair.

She has by far the shortest hair of all my kids.  It is very even everywhere on her head, but had three weeks less to grow, ha, ha.

On Sunday we had visitors come up to meet Elise.

(Aunt Angie, Uncle Ben and both sets of grandparents.)

Our kids were thrilled to come meet their new baby sister!

Of course Daddy got to visit her a lot!

Look at that face!

I wasn't planning on being released until later, but when my OB came in on Tuesday morning she asked if I'd like to go home.  They expedited it since I had already been at the hospital for four full weeks!

My sister Julie crocheted these adorable Mary Jane style booties she wore home from the hospital.

I retain water in a serious way after each child.  Look at my puffy feet!

It has been wonderful to be home!  Even with my post-op injuries, our bed is so much more comfortable than the hospital's and so is the toilet paper, ha, ha!  The most wonderful thing about being home, of course, is the people here!  The kids adore Baby Elise!

We're so happy to be a family of six!

Fun with Grandparents and Cousins

The second week I spent in the hospital the kids stayed with my parents.  They had fun playing with their toys and in their backyard.  Parker played several times with neighbor boys about his age running through sprinklers and on the playground. 

One night the kids got to spend ar my Aunt Amber's. Her kids are teenagers, but my kids really enjoyed themselves.  Parker loved having so many new games to try out!

My sister Julie and her family came to town for half the week.  It was crazy, I'm sure, to have seven little children running around, but so much fun!  Liesel was in shoe heaven to have her cousins' shoes to try on.  I love her little toes tightly gripping her nearly eight-year old cousin Heidi's flip-flops, ha, ha!

On Saturday evening they went to a family party at my Grandma Cannon's.  Some of my Uncle Jim's kids organized a play.  They acted out "Goldilocks and the Three Bears",  My brother-in-law Scott made a video on his phone and showed us when he came up to visit.  The kids were darling!

Boys' Adventures at Bear Lake

Every year we have a vacation up at Bear Lake.  Brad's grandparents are super generous and rent out condos and a beach house at Ideal Beach.  We were planning to head up the afternoon I landed in the hospital.  Brad's parents were kind enough to take our boys' with them.  

They played on the beach, swam in the lake, played mini golf, went to the playground and had days of fun with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  I'm grateful that they didn't have to miss out, even though Brad and I were unable to take them.

Minor Hardships

As a college student I used to donate blood all the time.  Your eligible every 56 days and that's about what I did.  I have O negative blood, the universal donor, and it was a simple service to those who needed it.  I never had any trouble and would warch the phlebotomist poke me with interest.

With pregnancy and nursing I haven't donated in a while.  The only pricks I've been getting are the one for my hospital IV when I've delivered my children.  It seems I have very deceptive veins.  With each child they had to try a few times to get a vein that didn't blow.  With Jason, I had a bruise from my wrist to my elbow.  But with only one IV every couple of years, it's not a big deal.

Because I could potentially start hemorrhage bleeding at any time, I always have to have an IV ready. IVs only last three days, so that means a lot of pokes. If it worked out the first time, it wouldn't be bad, but since it often takes three or four tries, getting a new IV line is a somewhat painful endeavor.

Now that I've been here almost three weeks, my forearms look horrible.  The older ones are greenish bruises and the new blown ones look like bee stings.  It's really only a very minor hardship, but I'm always a little bummed when my three days are up.