First Bath

Ellie got a sponge bath for her first few weeks of life. She hated them and screamed everytime we tried to clean her up. I was afraid if she hated those so bad a real bath would be a nightmare. I was wrong. She slept through the whole thing with her binki in her mouth. I guess it was better than screaming right?

"Why is She Crying?"

It has almost been 3 weeks since little Ellie was born. Yes it is a little strange knowing that she still "shouldn't" be here yet. BUT we are super happy she is here. If you remember a while back Macie has had a love for Ellie even before she was born. She would lay on my tummy and listen all the time. When we brought Ellie home from the hospital I was prepared to take Macie out of the room when she started to bark and growl at this new person at our house. But she didn't. It was like she knew exactly who she was and was so happy to finally meet her. Of course Molly had no problem with her either since she LOVES kids.


As the days went on after we all came home, I kept telling Roy that Macie looked different. I was trying to convince myself that Macie wasn't my baby anymore and she was growing up. Well I soon realized why she looked so different. She is so worried about this baby that she watches her all the time. She sleeps on the edge of the bed so she can keep an eye on Ellie while she is in her bassinet. I rarely catch Macie with her eyes closed. I decided she looked different because she was so tired from always watching her. Probably more tired than me.


Ellie has been quite a content baby so far, but she is starting to discover that she can really scream when she cries. When she does this it really concerns Macie and she doesn't know what to think. She is a dog, she doesn't understand what that sound coming out of her is for. When Ellie cries Macie will do what ever she has to do to get right up in her face to make sure she is okay. In fact, the other day we had her car seat on the table and we were buckling her in. Of course she was crying and Macie jumped up on the chair and then the table to check on her. It is kind of sweet that she loves her so much.
Don't get me wrong, Molly loves her a lot too, but she is more jealous of her than worried about what she is doing. She also looks for any opportunity to kiss her face when we are not looking.


Over all I am very happy the dogs enjoy having her around. I was so worried I would have to lock the dogs up all the time.

Welcome Ellie Lynn Smith

Ellie Lynn decided to come a little early. I guess she really wanted her mom to be a mother on Mother's Day. She came 3 weeks early and is absolutely perfect.

Saturday morning I was up doing chores around the house while Roy was at work. I had been doing laundry, getting chap stick stains out of Roy's new golf shirts, and picking up all of the shower gifts I had received the night before. I had so much on my list of things to get done that day.
Around 9:45 I was just hanging up with my friend on the phone. I bent over to pick something up and pop. My water broke. I was a little startled because it was 3 weeks and 1 day before her due date. I called my mother in law who was a nurse to confirm I was not an old lady who just peed her pants... I then called Roy and text him. He has been checking his phone at work every 10 minutes just in case this moment happened. He called me back with in 3 minutes and left work without even telling his boss. He got home, walked the dogs and we left.
We got to the hospital in about 15 minutes. We walked into the labor and delivery portion of the hospital. There was no one there at the desk since it was a Saturday. There was a phone with a phone number for us to call. We called and told them our situation. Roy said they sounded like they didn't believe us. Once they finally came out to get us (10 minutes later) and I explained what happened and how much fluid had come out they took us right to a delivery room.
It was about 11:00 by the time I was all changed and hooked up to the monitors. I filled out lots of paperwork and then we just sat there. I apparently was having contractions because the monitor said I was. I couldn't really feel them. About 3 hours after laying there just chatting with Roy I started feeling the contractions, but they didn't hurt too bad. They checked me and I was only a 3. We decided Roy would go home and take care of the dogs, walk, feed, and water them. He also wanted to shower and change out of his work uniform since he had been at work since 4:30am.
While he was gone they started me on pitocin. This kicked in fast and I really started to feel my contractions. Unfortunately it didn't move me along very fast. Finally around 5:30 I was at a 4 and able to get my epidural. That went well. It took a little while for it to kick in on my right side, but after a little time I was loving life!!! Thank goodness for epidurals. I remember telling Roy I wanted to kiss whoever invented them.
Well for the next 6 hours I laid there in labor. I didn't get to a 10 until midnight. Then we started to push. After one set of pushes I thought I was not going to be able to do this. It made me so tired. I had been awake for almost 20 hours and was already exhausted. Luckily I discovered how much better it felt to push through the contractions rather than lay there. It was still an hour and a half of pushing before they gave me the "if you don't get her out soon we are going to have to do a c-section." talk. She had been in the birth canal for so long and her head was starting to swell. Lets just say that scared me enough that within 10 minutes they were calling the doctor and 5 minutes after the doctor came in she was out. I wish they would have scared me a little sooner.... hahaha
Well little Ellie was here. Roy said the first words out of my mouth were "wow, I just pushed a baby out of me!" She was perfect. She had 10 fingers and 10 toes. She was a little white but turned pink real fast. She had the cutest little cry. It sounded like a little hiccup at the end. It was so fun to see her dad hold her for the first time and just look at her. Then they handed her to me and I just stared at her, and she stared at me.
I feel very lucky that I had such an easy pregnancy and nothing horrible go wrong at birth. She is a very content baby. She doesn't cry much. She does sleep A LOT. This makes it hard for me to feed her because she won't focus long enough. Hopefully she grows out of that quick.
We have had family down from Utah and it was fun to see them and watch them meet their newest granddaughter. They have all left and now we are now spending some one on one time with each other.