Welcome Ruby Katherine

Our little Ruby Kate is here! She was born on 12/30 at 9:20 PM. She weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces and was 21 3/4 inches long. We are so happy and love her so much already.

Here is the story of our day---
We woke up and had breakfast at home. I had contractions ~5 min apart from 8:40-9:15. Carissa was getting ready to leave for home in NYC and debated staying but my contractions subsided and we figured she'd better go, not knowing if it really was going to happen that day or even in the next few days.

After she left I went to my parent's house to let their dogs out, then dropped off a big load at Goodwill, and went to Triangle Town Center to play at the playground and walk a little. Jason worked from home. When we got home Ellie and I took a nap. I had contractions off and on all day, sometimes could time them, sometimes not. When we woke up Ellie wanted “I Keem” (ice cream) so the three of us went over to Goodberries and shared a raspberry and oreo concrete. We then let Rosie and Sinatra out one last time.

We got home and I was starting to have pretty strong contractions again around 6. I wanted Macaroni Grill take-out so Jason went and picked it up. Sue and Tom were on the way home from the Champs Bowl in Florida but Zoe had gotten home earlier in the morning with the band. We texted Zoe to let her know that she should be “on call” for us. After eating dinner my contractions were still pretty strong and at 5 or less than 5 minutes apart. I took Ellie up for a bath and figured I'd decide whether I should call or not.

When I was giving Elle a bath I thought things were progressing a little so we called Zoe to come over. Jason got Ellie in her pajamas and I called the doctor at 7:50. Dr. Bass called back at 8:02 and we decided it would probably be best to go in to the hospital and at least be checked out. He told us if we made it by 9 we could go in the normal doors but after 9 we would have to go in Emergency- so we would try to get their before 9. Jason packed up the car, Zoe arrived and we left the house around 8:20. I had pretty strong contractions in the car. We arrived at WakeMed around 8:35, parked and went up to Triage. Jason took a picture of me in the elevator on our way out of the parking deck....my last pregnant picture!


In Triage Dr. Bass came by to check me and was shocked to find that I was 9 cm! He said he thought if he broke my water she would be out in 20 minutes. There was only one labor and delivery room open on the floor and luckily I was the farthest along at 9 cm. Another woman was 8 so she ended up having to deliver in Triage. We got to the delivery room and they put an IV in so that they could give me some medicine quickly if I were to hemorrhage as I did with Ellie. It took a while to get the room set up and as soon as it was done Dr. Bass came in and broke my water. He told me to push one time just to check on how fast he thought she’d come out. Well...with that he said...”Wait! let me get my gloves and gown!” He did and I pushed a few times and she was born.


He told me that I was honestly the calmest woman he has ever seen deliver a baby in 18 years. He told Jason “They don’t make women like this anymore!” All made me feel very good! It was a pretty amazing birth experience and Ruby is perfect in every way! Her apgar scores were 9 and 10.

The postpartum room were all full so we ended up spending the night in the delivery room. We got to love on little Ruby for a while and also had a quick visit from my parents who were just getting home from the bowl game in Orlando just as she was born. The nurse took Ruby back for a bath around 10:30 and she didn’t get back until around 1:00 AM because they were so busy in the nursery. She slept and nursed off and on all night. We didn’t get much sleep between that and the lab, nurses, etc. coming in and out of the room.

Dr. Bass came back by about 7 this morning to check on me. He said everything looked great and we could go home if we wanted to. We opted for tomorrow because we hadn’t even seen the pediatrician yet! The pediatrician came by next and he checked Ruby over and said everything looked great.

More later from our happy family of four! We are soooo excited that Ruby is here!

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Eleanor Claire is 2 years old!!! She is so much fun, so smart, so loving, so silly, and such a 2 year old!

We had a great Birthday with all the things she loves! Aunt Carissa was in town so we got to spend the day with her which made is super-special. She is one of Ellie's favorite people :)

We started out the morning at Dunkin Donuts for Ellie's all-time favorite- 3 glazed munchkins!

After breakfast Jason, Carissa, Ellie and I went to Marbles Museum, a kids museum in downtown Raleigh. Ellie loved it! They have all kinds of hands-on activities for kids.

She worked in the kitchen:

Drove a lot of cars!
Played in the submarine:
and loved splashing in the water!
For lunch we went to IHOP, another Ellie favorite. She ordered her usual mac n cheese and fruit and ate every bite of it!

After a nap Ellie woke up to a big birthday surprise! We set up a computer for her to use. Pretty exciting! She so far is loving mashing on the keyboard and clicking her mouse randomly but I know it will be no time before she is using it all the time!


We grabbed pizza take-out for dinner and then met Glenn and Kathy for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Ellie much prefers ice cream to cake! She was excited to get a tutu that sings when you dance! Too cute!

We will have a small family birthday party for Ellie after Zoe and my parents return from Orlando. I think Ellie was pretty happy with how her special day...with all the things she loves!

39 Weeks!

Wow! I don't think many people, including myself and my doctors would have thought I'd ever be making a 39 week post. Yay!! So we have one week until my due date and I'm feeling great. We are getting really excited about having a new baby- just almost can't believe it is coming so soon for sure!

This morning we braved the weather to get to a doctor's appointment. I haven't had much change since last week and the baby is actually "floating" right now which means she is less engaged than she was. The midwife thinks that she is sunny side up (turned facing the wrong way) which isn't a problem but means more back pain for me, and back labor if she doesn't turn before birth. Hopefully she'll turn on her way out.

Of course there is no telling when she'll come but it doesn't seem like she is in a hurry to get out of there! If I'm still pregnant next week they'll do a non-stress test just to make sure she is doing okay.

I have really started to get the "still pregnant?" comments, and text messages, etc. Funny! I'm really okay with the situation. I'm really very comfortable for being a week away from my due date so we are just waiting to meet our new little one! The only thing I kind of would like is a tax deduction. I know we'll either get it or miss it by one week so naturally I'd love to take it. But it isn't up to me, is it!!

Snow Day!

It started snowing on Christmas night. Quite an event here in Raleigh! So we woke up this morning to more than 6 inches of snow! Ellie was beside herself. I told her to look outside after she woke up and she exclaimed "SNOW Mama!!!"


We eventually got ourselves motivated to get in our snow gear and had a great time. Ellie is loving having her Aunt Carissa here "she says "Car-Suh!" We pulled her around in the sled until we could take no more. She is always up for more! She enjoyed running in the snow and watching it crunch under her feet. Eventually we made a snowman. I must say my skills are not well practiced, despite my Iowa roots. Carissa on the other hand had it down. We made a pretty nice looking snowman and Ellie was very excited about the carrot nose, eyes and the buttons of course!

My parents managed to get out of town by mid-afternoon. They are headed down to the Champs Bowl to see NC State play and watch Zoe twirl. If you remember....this is the same situation that happened two years ago when Ellie was born! We'll see if this baby decides to come while they are gone as well. We have the car uncovered in case we need to leave and I told Jason we'd call an ambulance if I go into labor and we are worried about driving. I think I'll be fine though! I'm pretty excited that Jason, Ellie and I have had these past few days together as our last times as a "family of three" It will be great to have a new little one but this has been a really special time for the three of us to share. Ellie has loved having all the attention and we have loved playing with her.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas. Ellie was totally into it which was fun. I must admit one of the major highlights of her holiday was this balloon. We ran into Kroger to buy some last minute things and the cashier gave her a "Claus balloon!" She carried it around all day chanting "ho ho ho, ho ho ho" Very cute! On Christmas Eve we went to a friend's church for their children's service. It is 100% kid friendly and was a lot of fun. Ellie loved hearing the handbells and the kids singing. Then they let all of the children get involved in telling the Christmas story. Ellie picked the cow ears so she got to be in the stable! She was amazed at seeing Baby Jesus and his mama and dada. We have a couple of nativity sets at home that she has been playing with this holiday season so it all was very familiar and exciting for her. At the end they passed out glow sticks and had a "candle light" rendition of Silent Night. Ellie waved her glow sticks proudly!


When we got home we made sugar cookies together. Ellie helped me flour the board, roll out the dough, cut the cookies, put them on the cookie tray and of course decorate and eat them. She was a little concerned with why we were eating a little gingerbread man after we had just worked so hard to give him a face...I guess that is kind of weird. Jason told me I should have given her a star, it would have been less traumatic- he is probably right!


Ellie wasn't too sure about "Claus" coming to our house. She didn't really think that sounded like a good idea at all! After all, what she knows of him is that he is a giant scary looking guy. So we focused on the Claus bringing presents part of the deal and she thought that sounded pretty good. So Christmas morning she came down to a new slide, a dollhouse, a shopping cart, and a crawling baby! Pretty exciting! Jason's family didn't wrap Santa presents so we took that approach which is great for a toddler because it is just 100% play right away.


We spent the rest of the day visiting family and had a really nice time together. Ellie got so many new toys and loved every bit of it. We made it through the day with no new baby! I was really hoping not to have a Christmas Day baby. I mean I will take her whenever she arrives but I think it would be hard to have a Christmas birthday...so I tried to lay low and take it easy. Turned out to be a really nice time for Jason, Ellie and I. She had all of our attention all day and we had a lot of fun! Check her out in her jingle bell skirt that my mom made for her (my sisters and I had similar skirts when we were little!!)

Ellie's Gift for the Dogs

It is really important to Jason and I that Ellie learns about giving to others. So far we haven't had much opportunity to "teach" her about this but we have discussed it a lot and hope that it is something that we can incorporate into our family so that it is natural to our children.

So...this year. What could we do with an almost 2 year old to teach her about giving??? Well of course let her buy a present for her beloved dogs! We took Ellie to Target and let her pick out a bag of treats for the dogs. When we got home she helped us wrap it, very funny!!! Lots of tape, lots of ripping, not much wrapping! And then decorated the package. She then carried it under the tree proudly.
I later had to move the present up so that the dogs don't open it up early but I'm sure Ellie will be very excited on Christmas to give Missy and Milo her gift!

Oh our little Eleanor....

says the funniest things!

IHOP is Ellie's restaurant of choice. You literally cannot mention it around her or she is ready to go NOW! So we recently ate at IHOP with a friend and Ellie ordered her normal "WAWA" "CHEESE" that is water and mac and cheese for those of you who don't speak toddler. The waitress brought out her water and I said "What do you say?" I don't know why I said that because really I think it is kind of a dumb question but for whatever reason I did and Ellie responded "STRAW!" demanding a straw from the poor lady. Of course we all thought this was pretty hilarious and Ellie did politely thank her upon receipt of the straw!

Ellie has recently picked up "I'm sorry." She isn't exactly sure how to use this phrase but she hears it a lot and so has recently started trying it out. I was sitting in her room a few days ago when she picked up her large barn toy. It was wedged between her bed and her rocking chair and is pretty big to maneuver. In the process of trying to get it out into the middle of the room she bumped it against the furniture to which she responded "I Sorry Farm" So cute!

Now for a weird one...we really have no idea where this came from but when Ellie has a dirty diaper she sometimes exclaims "cat poop!" So we ask her how a cat pooped in her diaper and she giggles and says "nooo" No idea where that came from!

She really is getting the hang of putting sentences together which is fascinating to watch. Often she doesn't have the connecting words but chains all kinds of words together to tell us what happened during the day or let us know what she wants to do. Other common phrases this week: "Down Me" "Up Me" "I Got It" "Love You" (Our favorite!!!)

38 Weeks!

Today marks 38 weeks. 2 more to go! The doctor this morning said "this was a major milestone" :) I guess they like to make you feel good...ha!

He thought I was about 2 centimeters dilated and said the baby was still really low. He joked that maybe he'd see me tomorrow because he is on call, they have 4 inductions schedule, and a full moon! Actually he said "he felt confident" that he'd see me tomorrow! Ha! So we'll see about that...I think he was just ready for a super busy day.

I'm doing fine....still feeling pretty good. Sleeping is uncomfortable but once I'm asleep I'm fine...it is just the process of laying there and turning over, positioning pillows, etc. Other than that I'm really doing great. I think it is hilarious because over the weekend everywhere I went people asked me when I was due...how much longer...all that kind of thing, so I guess I must be looking the 9 months pregnant part! That or the waddle is a for sure give away. I don't mind the extra niceness from people though, it especially works if I have toddler in tote as well!

So we continue to wait and see if this little girl will make her presence before Christmas or after. We'd love to have the tax benefits of her coming in 2010 so we'll still hope for that-- but we'll take her when she decides she is ready :) We're super excited!!!

37 Weeks! Yay!

We made it! 37 weeks today- that means this baby is considered full-term. I had an appointment this morning and the doctor told me "you are on bonus time now!" I really wanted to make it this far since that is the goal all of the doctors have- and we did. I'm feeling pretty good. When he checked me this morning I was 70% effaced and she is at zero station. For those of you who have no idea what that means---she is engaged and things are starting to move in the direction of labor. It doesn't really mean much, she could be born really soon or not for another couple of weeks.

We have been teasing all weekend about how much you can get done when your baby isn't early! We feel pretty ready for this little girl. I keep washing things very unnecessarily, and sorting socks, and doing that kind of thing.

We are enjoying our last few days or weeks of Ellie being a single child. I must say I'm worried about how this is going to all go down for her- I know in the long run it will be great but I hope it is as smooth of a transition as possible. She has been having a rough little period and hasn't been sleeping very well- VERY frustrating! Especially when I know my sleeping nights are very numbered, I just want to get the most out of the few I have left! I really have no idea why she is having such a hard time, I'm sure she can sense the changes that our going on in our house with the influx of baby things, etc. but I'm not convinced she actually understands what that means. We moved out her glider last week because I didn't want that to be gone with the new baby coming and we tried to move her bedtime routine to the futon. That didn't fly at all! I had no idea how attached she was to her glider but needless to say we bought a new one on Craigslist for $60 this weekend. We'll keep that one in our bedroom for the first couple of months so that I can use that for nursing. We have been reading the "I'm a Big Sister" book which she loves. She points to the big sister and says "Ellie!" Very cute!

We'll keep you posted on any excitement from our house!

36 weeks!

Today I'm 36 weeks pregnant! More pregnant than I have ever been :) I had an appointment this afternoon and am happy to report that this baby is being very cooperative! She is still head down and the doctor could see a lot of hair on the ultrasound! You know how I like babies with hair. They didn't try to do any size predictions or anything, the doctor actually was the one who did the ultrasound just to check and see if she was still head down. She was really sweet and printed out some cute pictures for us. It was pretty amazing to see her little face- very clearly this time. The pictures show you some but she was opening and closing her mouth and practicing her breathing.


So we are free for another week when I think they will start checking me at every appointment. For now we'll just sit around and wait! Ha! We have been keeping plenty busy trying to have things ready! This weekend Jesse came down and we had a great time hanging out with her. I have almost all of the baby clothes sorted and washed. I tried to organize all of the many many many bins of clothes we have and label them so we have an easier time when we are pulling things from storage. Jesse and I sorted a kabillion baby socks and shoes and we managed to send back 5 bins of clothes/baby supplies back up the mountain to her house. Ellie can't stop talking about Aunt Jesse and Vera and I know she'll be super excited to see them all at Christmas time.

I'm starting to feel the uncomfortable pregnant....but not terrible. I was up a lot last night, between some contractions, the dogs, and Ellie having a rough night we didn't get much sleep. I hope tonight is better!

Head Down!

I'm super excited because this baby girl is head down! I ended up going into the doctor today because I was having some pretty bad lower back pain. This is the way my first labor started, at 35 weeks...and guess what, I'm 35 weeks today. So...needless to say they wanted to check and make sure nothing major was going on.

They checked me and so far I wasn't dilated at all which was good. While I was there she said she'd just do a quick ultrasound to see if she was head down and wouldn't you know- she was! I'm pretty excited because I was really not looking forward to the whole version or c-section discussion that we were thinking we would need to have next week. They also did a stress test while I was there. I never had this done with Ellie because she was born so early but it was pretty interesting. They have this super comfy room with a recliner, tv, drinks....and they just let you sit there while they monitor the baby's heart rate and contractions for 20 minutes. I told them it was the quietest 20 minutes I've had in a long time! They did a couple of other tests just to see if anything weird was going on and went ahead and did the Group B Strep culture early just in case. I was happy about that after needing the IV antibiotics with Ellie because I hadn't been tested yet so they just give antibiotics as a precaution.

So conclusion of the appointment was....this could be the start of labor, or could be a result of her finally turning head down, we just have to wait and see. Isn't that how it always goes :) We are hoping to keep her cooking for at least another 2 weeks. 37 weeks is full term so we'll aim for that! Jason has given me official orders to "chillax." I'll see if I can make myself do that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm sad to say our Thanksgiving "break" is almost over. It is always hard to get back to work after the holidays. We had a nice Thanksgiving with family. On Wednesday night we ate at Jason's mom's house. Ellie had fun playing and we enjoyed perogies and kielbasa! On Thursday we ate at our house with my family. We had a ton of great food! Ellie didn't brave trying any Thanksgiving food...I guess she wasn't in the eating mood! She did eat as many black olives as she could get her hands on. Crazy girl!

We set up the Christmas tree yesterday. After seeing how Ellie was enthralled with Nana's Christmas tree we decided to do the fake tree. I know people---I'm not a fan! But...I found a great deal at Home Depot (while Black Friday shopping with Carissa!) and it was only $50 and comes with LEDs already on it. It was set up in the store so I could see that it was decent. I figured, we usually buy a local tree which is about $50, so even if we just use this one year we'll still come out even. We set up the tree and Ellie worked diligently helping us to hang up the ornaments. She was great! Before Ellie was born my whole family made felt ball Christmas tree ornaments so that we would have some kid-friendly ornaments for our tree. Great idea!!! Ellie loved having her own balls. The tree was pretty funny looking because it was absolutely loaded at her height! She is so excited about "mine tree" with all the "yights" (lights)!


Aunt Carissa came to town which was the highlight of Ellie's weekend. I have to record her saying "Car-sa." Pretty darn cute! She loved visiting with her aunt and seeing her in real person rather than on the computer. She has been talking about her since she left this morning. She also enjoyed seeing Carlos- "Car-os" and made him read her at least 20 books when he came over! Ellie does think that when we were showing her Christmas trees we said "Carissa Tree" so she now thinks that Carissa has trees all over the city! That is one pretty special aunt to have! We miss her already and can't wait to see her for Christmas.

Ellie-isms!

Eleanor is a chatter box. She talks all the time about anything and everything! It is pretty cool to finally hear what her mind is thinking. Lately she has been very into possessions (Mama's cup, Dada's phone, Ellie's baby, Milo's bone, etc.) Of course her two most common words are Mine! and No! It is amazing how she gravitates to these words. Lately she has added No Way! to her vocabulary. Pretty hilarious.

Eleanor has rapidly started putting words together to make sentences. At first it was just the two word possessions or No Milo! Mine Milo! Milk Please! More Cereal! Now she is starting to really think things through and often strings three or more words together. One of my very favorite things she says is "hold you mama" She says it with the most love a little person could possibly have and if she is really needing some extra attention she'll go for the "hold you mama pleeeese!" Once in awhile she'll say hold me mama....which is pretty impressive that she has figured out to use me, but makes me a little bit sad that she won't forever beg....hold you mama!

I love that we can have conversations about her day now. We talk about what she did, what she ate, who she saw. She describes memories and talks about her favorite foods. She also will now have almost real telephone discussions whether someone is on the other end or not and is loving to skype with her aunts and cousins that we don't get to see enough. It is amazing to watch her learn how to vocalize all that has been built up for nearly 2 years!

Jason and I were talking today about how fast this whole talking business has progressed...really over the past few days she has gone from saying a lot of words to basically saying anything she hears. She talks non-stop and we love it!

34 Weeks! Turn Baby Turn!

Today was my 34 week appointment. We saw the doctor who delivered Ellie for the first time during this pregnancy. It was nice to see the familiar face!

Everything with the baby and I seemed fine. I've been having some low back pain but that is to be expected at this stage. It is kind of nerve wracking because that is how I felt right before Ellie was born. It was however to a much greater degree. I've been "trying" to take it easy. Jason disagrees but I really have been trying to sit or lay down if my back starts hurting and not do as much. It is just even harder to do that when you are chasing around a busy toddler on top of the nesting :) They would of course like this one to stay in a little longer. Ellie was born at 35 4/7 so that is only a week and a half from now. Unbelievable!

The doctor didn't seem to think Little Miss Hamilton had flipped head down yet. It is hard to tell without ultrasound but he felt around and then mentioned that we'd have the ultrasound at 36 weeks and then could discuss whether we needed to try to turn her or to just go for a c-section. Both things I'd rather not deal with! So....I'm really hoping she just decides to flip on her own. I know as I near 36 weeks the probability of this is getting smaller and smaller so I guess I'll have to start trying all the crazy techniques online. One friend at work suggested I eat turnovers, pineapple upside-down cake....etc. Ha!

Eleanor's First Year

Click here to view this photo book larger

Fall is here!

We tried to capture some of the excitement in our household this fall. I'm 34 weeks pregnant and Ellie is 23 months old. We are busy and having so much fun! Thanks to Jason for the photo shoot...but sorry that he isn't in any of the pictures. We'll have to get someone to help us out one of these weekends to get some family pictures.

Christmas Parade

Ellie and I went to the Christmas Parade on Saturday morning. She had a blast. She has been very into marching because Aunt Zoe taught her how to march with her baton. Ellie is pretty good I think and very cute! So we went to the parade, I expected Ellie to watch for the first hour or so and then be bored. No way! She loved every part of it and greeted every parade participant with a giant smile and waved her little arm off! She especially like the bands, batons, and the big balloons. She wasn't so keen on the motorcycles or the very loud cars but she still waved at them, just with her head buried to me. When we left the parade she cried for half an hour because it was over. I'm wondering if she would like to watch the big Macy's Day Parade, so we may let her check that out.