Its been a little over a week and so far we are absolutely loving having Katelyn in our family. She is an amazing baby and its great. Its a night and day difference between Ellie and Kate when it comes to eating. She eats like a champ and has no problems at all! 

On Friday while my mom was still here I had a little melt down. I was extremely engorged to the point where picking up Ellie would put me just about in tears. I was afraid of Monday and being home by myself with two kids when I was having a hard time just functioning. By Sunday all was right in the world again and I was feeling great! 

Monday wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating. We were up and showered, dressed, and had breakfast by 9 am! Go me! The rest of the week has been great to. We've been busy with doctors appointments, play dates, and just getting back to regular life. 

Ellenor loves her sister. She is so great and is so sweet and soft around her. I don't have to worry about leaving the room for a minute with Kately on the floor or on the couch. Ellie loves to sit by her and stroke her hair. She doesn't get too jealous when I nurse but I think part of that is because I make sure she has something to do so shes not bored and constantly asking me for something although that has happened. 

I put Katelyn on her boppy on the couch and left the room for a minute. When I came back Ellie was laying next to her stroking her hair and talking to her.

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I love reading birth stories because everyone is so different. And more than anything I’m writing this post for me to remember. If you don't want to read, just skip to the bottom for pictures.

Katelyn Elizabeth Searle
6 lbs 8 oz
20 1/2 inches long
Born at 12:46
My due date was July 10^th but I elected to set up an induction the day before on Tuesday July 9^th. I didn’t get too much sleep that night, I blame it on a mixture of excitement and being extremely nervous. I was told to call before coming into make sure they had room for me. When I called at 6:30 am the lady put me on hold and I swear she took as long as she possibly could. I started thinking that it was too good to be true and that there was no way I was going in (and to be completely honest I was going to be upset that I had woken up at 5:45 for nothing).

We got the go ahead and dropped Ellie off with Cody’s mom, she didn’t even want to say goodbye to me! We checked in at 7:30 am and did a ton of paperwork. We had an amazing nurse named Jazzy. I joked with her about putting my IV in because I have really sensitive veins and if you don’t get it on the first try you aren’t going to be able to use that vein. When I had Ellenor the nurse left my hand bruised for weeks because she didn’t believe me and ended up putting it on the side of my wrist so I couldn’t move my hand. We also joked with Jazzy that she better not turn off my pictocin (medicine to get contractions going) otherwise my doctor would be mad (again something the nurse did with Ellie). As we were answering questions a nurse came in and Jazzy said she would be helping. It was the nurse that stabbed me multiple times and turned off my drugs! Cody and I were doing everything we could to not laugh!

My doctor came in at 8:30 to check me and break my water. The week before at my appointment I had been dilated to a 4 and when he checked I was already at a 4 ½. He broke my water and basically said have fun and see you later. When the nurse started my pitocin at 9 am she told me that the anesthesiologist would be able to come in in 45 minutes at the soonest. I was a little disappointed thinking that I wanted to wait a little longer to get the epidural and just labor through the pain. The contractions weren’t too awful and were manageable and then the pitocin started to kick in.

The contractions were getting so strong that I couldn’t talk through them and was really needing things to distract me. It was a very long and painful 30 minutes before the anesthesiologist came in. The epidural wasn’t too bad, a little bit more pressure than I remember with Ellie but then again with her I was throwing up. The epidural I received is a newer concoction that allows you to move around a lot more and that you are supposed to be able to feel a little pressure but no pain. It was amazing!

The nurse would ask me to lift my hips or move this way or that and I could!

At 9:45 (15 minutes after I got my epidural) I was dialated to 6 cm! At 10:45 I was at a 6 ½. They checked me at 11:45 I was only at a 7! We were thinking that this was going to take a while and that we weren’t going to have a baby anytime soon. My good friend Kayla works at a doctors office on the other side of the hospital and stopped by on her lunch break. She said that from here on out I would dialate quickly and she would be here in no time. I started getting nauseas and started dry heaving because I had nothing in my stomach. I started laughing because usually you have stomach acid that comes up but not even that was. The nurse came in and gave me some anti nausea medicine and decided to check me. It was 12:10 when she checked and I was already completely dialated!!!

She called the doctor and he came in right away to check. She said she felt a little lip on the baby’s head and the doctor confirmed that her head was turned sideways. The doctor went to change into his scrubs and told the nurse to have me push. I told her that I didn’t think that was a good idea unless she wanted to deliver a baby! My doctor showed back up and said told the nursery nurses that they didn’t have much time. That was music to my ears!

I called my mom to see how close she was and she was almost to the hospital. They had me start pushing but the contractions were so far apart that I couldn’t push too often. She was almost there but we had to wait minutes in between each one. In between contractions the doctor was turning her head so that it was the right direction. I pushed about 6 sets of three pushes before she was out!

Her face was pretty bruised from having to turn it.

She weighed 8 lbs 6 oz! 20 ½ inches long!

I got to do skin to skin for quite a while and then I tried to nurse her. I wanted to cry because she latched right on without any problems! With Ellie she wouldn’t eat and it took weeks before she would nurse right.

We both got cleaned up and switched rooms. Cody’s mom, Gwen, brought Ellie to come meet her new little sister. We gave her a teddy bear to help smooth things over and she still hasn’t put it down! She was a little hesitant with Katelyn at first but had to have a hand on her the entire time!

Cody went home that night with Ellie and it was a good thing. She woke up just screaming and wouldn’t calm down for a while. In the morning they came back and we were hoping to leave by noon. Well that didn’t quite happen.

The pediatrician came in first thing on Tuesday morning and said because of the bruising she would most likely have high jaundice levels and he was right. We started her on the lighted bed as soon as possible hoping that by 4 that afternoon when they retested she would be good to go home. This time around wasn’t nearly as emotional as it was with Ellie and we were really hopeful that we would be able to go home and we were!

Cody and I spent a few hours just trying to figure out a name for this kid. We could not agree on a name that we both liked and that also fit her.

We finally decided on Katelyn Elizabeth Searle. We will call her Kate for short and Elizabeth is my grandmothers name.

There have been a few exciting things happening around here this past week. 

Most importantly my birthday. Just kidding! The most important was welcoming our adorable daughter into our family! 

The last few days have been a whirlwind of emotions but nothing short of amazing. 

I'll post more later about everything, even a birth story (more for my personal memory and for laughs). But for now enjoy a few pictures of our newest addition. 

By the way her name is Katelyn (Kate) Elizabeth!

July 4th

Well my due date is on Wednesday and I am still very much pregnant. We’ve been trying to keep busy as we wait.

The Fourth of July was a great day for us, it was nothing too special but still fun. We headed to the parade first with Cody’s parents. Ellie absolutely loved it! She is just a little obsessed with horses ever since we had a few in the pasture by our house a few weeks ago.  Every time they would get out of eye shot she would try climbing higher to find them and ask where did they go with shoulder shrug and all.

Pregnant and heat make for big joints... in my case ankles! The worst part is that I got a mosquito bite right where my sandal strap goes. I swear they bite in the worst spots possible and then sit back to enjoy the show.

We took nice long afternoon naps and Cody went for a horse ride with his brother. Ellenor was ecstatic when she woke up from her nap to find horses in the drive way!

We grilled up steak for dinner and headed to watch fireworks. Ellie liked them for about the first five minutes before she gave up. She'd point and turn around and start jabbering really fast, making sure we were seeing them. 

Other than the fourth we've been just playing and going on a lot of walks. Yes, we are ready for this kiddo to come already. The weather has been warm and amazing. Only amazing because Cody installed the window AC unit last week. That thing is heavenly!

Summertime and I only get along occasionally. By occasionally I mean when it is 80 or below because much warmer than that and I feel like I'm dying. It's not just a pregnancy thing it's an always thing. We don't have ac in this house so when I hits the 90s lets just say it gets very uncomfortable. 

I've started putting Ellie in different pajamas and I am hating it. I love all her cute fleece footies because they make her look little and there is nothing cuter! We put her in a night gown for the first time the other day and she looked so old! She loved it because it had princesses on it and she had easy access to her belly button. 

After breakfast yesterday she was playing in the living room pretty quietly when she comes running into the kitchen yelling uh oh carrying her diaper!!! At first I thought I left one laying around but bust up laughing when we saw it was the one she had on. Oh this girl! 

We have officially hit 36 weeks of being pregnant and are just playing the waiting game, the worst game ever! Ellie's pregnancy really messed me up. I never had to count and time contractions, my water just broke and I that's how we knew it was time. I am nervous I won't know when I'm really in labor because I've been having Braxton hicks contractions for the past month pretty regularly. Fingers crossed I won't have a hard time and will just know! 

Ellenor had her 18 month check up last week and guess how big she finally is?!?! A whole 20 lbs 6 oz!!! She is such a small girl but that does not stop her at all from exploring. 

On Friday I had a doctors appointment to check if there was any progress already. And there was! At 35 1/2 weeks I was dialated to a 2-3 and 80% effaced. With Ellie at 36 weeks I was a 2 and by 37 weeks I was a 3 and 90%. She was born 4 days later! 

I won't lie, I'm nervous about this one already. I really don't want to go into labor yet and I probably won't but the possibility does scare me. I'm afraid going on walks and doing some regular things might put me into labor and I feel lazy just thinking about sitting a lot to take it easy. 

They just built a new park in the town across the highway and it had a splash pad! We took the kids on Friday and Ellie liked it for a little bit until she saw snacks. She is such a mooch and didn't want anything to do with me or the snack I had brought for her. She made herself comfortable on everyone else's lap but mine! Good thing she gets along with the kids in our little group! 

And speaking of the little group, there are  about 5 moms in the area with kids the same age that get together to take the. Kids to the park or just have a play date with. It's been a blast and so fun to watch Ellie play with other kids her age. It's also nice having mom time with other ladies my age. We've lived in Burley for over two years and I am just now starting to feel comfortable and settled. The thought of moving anytime soon makes me nervous but I know it will be really difficult to get Cody out of this area. 

And a fun comparison picture. 13 weeks versus 35 1/2 weeks. It's amazing at the difference! Definitely starting to feel very large! 

Its almost comical the things that I can stress/worry about for such a long time.

A few months ago my camera battery stopped letting me charge it. I tried it in different outlets, different times of the day, wiping both the battery and the charger off with a rag, anything I could think of to get it to work because the battery was dead.  
I’ve been worried about it because with Ellenor I took quite a few pictures right after she was born while we were at home. With this baby I want more than one picture of us in the hospital and not just phone pictures. I’ve been sad even thinking that all we would have is bad quality phone pictures because we can’t afford a new camera.

My sister asked me to take a couple pictures of her kids while they were here and I was so sad that I wouldn’t be able to do that for her. I knew it wasn’t going to work but I tried to charge it anyways. Some miracle happened and it charged! Four months of not being able to charge it and it finally did!
Moral of the story, there will be pictures of the baby and better quality pictures of Ellie! And maybe don’t give up so easily?