Meet Ellis Renee
Meet my beautiful baby girl, Ellis Renee.
I think Jasper is the proudest big brother ever!
It's an understatement to say that life has changed. I was just looking back on my blog to see what I wrote when Jasper was born, and I almost laughed out loud when I saw that I wrote his birth story only 14 days after he was born! Ha! Ellis is almost 3 months old, and I am just getting around to post some pictures of her. Things are surely different; bringing another human into your home and taking care of their every need is hard. But slowly, as this is becoming our new normal, life with baby Ellis and big brother Jasper is becoming so much fun!
I will make Ellis' birth story quick, because honestly, I can only remember so much at this point. I always remember asking my mom what each of our births were like, wanting every detail, and she would always say, "I don't really remember". I was appalled by this. I could not understand how you could not remember this monumental day! Now I know. I think as moms we forget so that it is possible for us to someday think about having another child.With Ellis, I had a doctor's appointment on a Wednesday and I was 38 weeks pregnant. Jasper was such a big baby for me that my doctor was concerned about Ellis being large too. We decided to schedule my induction for Monday, January 20th (I was due on the 25th). I was so hoping that I would go into labor the weekend before, but no such luck. Knowing that I was going to go in on Monday 5 days before was a struggle. I was so much more emotional about it, and it really made me much more nervous having so much time to think about it.Monday morning finally arrived, and I think I only got 2 hours of sleep the night before. I was so anxious! We arrived at the hospital at 5:45 AM. After 4 attempts of getting my IV started, the fifth was the charm. This was one of the worst parts. Things went much slower with Ellis than they did with Jasper. My first nurse guessed that I would deliver by noon! Not quite! I was pretty comfortable all day, with nothing much happening. Each minute that passed seemed like an eternity. We actually got bored! I sat on the birthing ball and even watched a couple episodes of Friday Night Lights while Trevor took a nap. (I love that show!)Finally at 4:00 PM, I started to hurt. I got an epidural, and then I rested for about 30 minutes. In that amount of time, I sent Trevor to get supper. He was only gone for 15 minutes (luckily, he only grabbed a sandwich) and as he was walking in our nurse was sprinting out of the room to call the doctor as she was yelling at me not to push. My doctor was there 5 minutes later, and Ellis arrived 5 minutes and two pushes later. She was born at 6:40 PM. As long as the day was, she didn't waste any time arriving once she was ready. I will be forever thankful to her for that.
She is the sweetest little girl. And there is no doubt that she is a girl. Everything she does is completely different than Jasper when he was a baby. She cries and screams more girly, she is high maintenance, and every little inch of her is feminine (even though she is HUGE now!).
This is her at 6 weeks old. At her 2 month appointment she was 13 pounds, 4 ounces, and she is already growing out of her 6 month pajamas! I honestly cannot keep up! She will wear an outfit one time, and the next time I go to put it on her it won't fit.
Jasper is so proud of her. He talks to her, sings to her, loves to take pictures of her. It has definitely been an adjustment for him, but he has done so well. It melts my heart to already see the love that they have for each other. Ellis will just look up at him and smile. It is the sweetest thing I have ever seen.
Being a mom is the hardest, yet best role I have ever filled. One of the most heartwarming parts this time around has been seeing that Ellis looks exactly like me. At least so far. We have been pulling out so many baby pictures of me and comparing, and we just laugh at how she is an exact look alike right now. It makes me so happy! I cannot wait to see the little girl and woman that she becomes. It is so precious to me to now be a mother to a daughter. I am so thankful to have that relationship in my life again - only being on the other side of it. I hope that I am half the mom to Ellis that my mom was to me.