Eleanor Mae Checketts

August 7, 2014

7 pounds 14 ounces

18.5 inches

 What a special and beautiful day.  

I was pretty miserable the last weeks of being pregnant.  I felt so nauseated, tired and uncomfortable.  I had to sit down to brush my teeth because I just didn't have an ounce of energy left in my body.  It felt like the baby was trying to bust out of jail through my stomach.  But I felt like she was going to stay in there forever.  Just in case you think I'm exaggerating, just take a look for yourself.  Does that look comfortable to you?!!

So I was glad when my doctor stripped my membranes at my appointment Wednesday morning (August 6th) and I started having contractions after that.  They were 2-3 minutes apart when I was standing up but would slow down to 10 minutes apart if I laid down.  Then at 10pm after I got in bed, they started coming 5 minutes apart and were getting painful, so we decided to go in.  I was so nervous they were going to send me home but I didn't want to wait too long because my past labors have been so fast.  Early labor is not that painful for me so I was able to talk and walk normal while checking in and my nurse told me later that all the other nurses said, "That girl is so not in labor!"  But when they hooked me up I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes!  Ha, take that doubting nurses! So they admitted me around 12:30 am.

I knew I wanted to try a real epidural delivery this time.  With Amelia I got the epidural and 30 minutes later she was born - so I didn't really get the full effect.  With William, my plan was to go as long as I could to see if I could do it without drugs...and by the time I ended up screaming for the epidural it was too late and I was forced to go natural!  And he was 9 pounds!  So with this one, I decided I had experienced the partial epidural and the natural route, and I wanted the true epidural birth experience this time.  So after they admitted me and I was getting pretty uncomfortable I asked for the anesthesiologist.  He took his sweet time in getting there but finally showed up around 2:30 am.  I was at a 4/5 when I got the epidural

Once I got the epidural I was able to sleep a little and rest for a couple of hours.  It also slowed my progress down so I was still at a 5 when my doctor came in at 8am.  So she broke my water and after that I started to feel the pain through the epidural and I gave Andrew the job of watching for the green light to come on so I could give myself another dose of medication as soon as possible!  It was kind of nice though because I could feel all of labor just in a more toned down pain level.  After that I went from 5-complete and ready to push in the next 1 hour and 10 minutes - that's probably why I could feel the pain through the epidural.

Then at 9:57 am, after 3 pushes, they put a messy, squirming, screaming, beautiful baby girl on my chest and I knew that I was in love forever.

Oh, how I love this little girl!  It is so hard to believe she was the little person causing me so much discomfort for the past 9 months!  It is so fun having a baby and I am relishing every single newborn moment.  I love it.  I love newborns.  I love the snuggling and rocking and cuddling and kissing.  She is such a good baby (since I learned to swaddle) and I love how content she is to just be fed, clean and held close.  She is smiley and sweet and we all just adore her.  It is so weird how 1 month of being pregnant seems to last a year, and 1 month of newborn-ness flies by in the blink of an eye.

Amelia and William would like to hold, kiss and play with her all day long.

 All of my kids in their baby beds:)

 Blessing day

We were so lucky to have mom and dad and Gordon here for the weekend.  Gordon said that during the blessing Ellie had her eyes wide open watching Andrew the whole time.  She was calm and didn't make a peep.  So sweet.

 She wore the dress that a Puerto Rican woman made for me when I was a baby!

One of her early smiley/happy faces

 So glad my beautiful parents came to visit

 3 generation

The kids and I were exploring at the beach the other day and we found a shark pod. But this one felt full and squishy, not dried out like the other ones we found. So we brought it home and cut it open and found a baby shark inside!  

 Amelia checking out his teeth

Andrew took the kids kayaking in the ocean this summer.  We love hanging out on the beach and spend lots of time there, but it felt so different to be away from the shore in the water.  It was so peaceful.

I am not going to attempt any chronological update, but am just posting some of the wonderful memories from this summer.  The first is of our amazing and perfect trip to Kansas.  

We went out at the end of June for "Camp Springhill".  My parents watched all 5 grandkids for 2 days while my siblings and spouses (minus Dan and Alice and Matt) went to Lake of the Ozarks!  It was such a treat to get away and to spend that time together.  Although we did to bring 3 kid with us - the parasites in our bellies!  My sister, sister-in-law and I were all pregnant.  Lisa - 17-ish weeks, Trina 38-ish, Me 34-ish

Driving away in my parents car - without car seats!  Do I look a little too happy?

This is the vacation home we stayed in on the lake

 We did lots of hiking (at a very pregnant-lady pace - which was why it was so nice to all be pregnant together because man am I SLOW when I'm pregnant!) 

And we balanced out any walking we did with eating lots of frozen custard!

And eating out



And cooking and eating in!






It was so beautiful.

Sibling love

On our way home.  Rested and happy

While we were gone, the kids had a blast with my parents.  

They loved the homemade slip-n-slide!

 Making a fire for hot dogs and s'mores

The Zipline!

 Bedtime stories with grandma 

And sleeping with all the cousins in the basement

 Eating yummy foods

 Making necklaces and playing with playdough

Going out on the town

And to the Missouri River

Getting muddy

Picking fresh, yummy foods from the garden

And William thought he was in heaven with all the tractors and machines he got to drive!

 And when he was not on a tractor, sometimes he had to retreat to his man cave to get some time away from all those girls!  My mom found him quietly hanging out in my dad's den singing to himself.   He is so darling!

When we got back to my parents house, Andrew enjoyed beating everyone at ping-pong

He did not enjoy getting beaten at Scrabble though!

 Cousins belly bump!

Eating more frozen custard - homemade by my dad! I think we might have a frozen custard problem in the Asay family....

 More tractor riding

 More story time

 Dan was able to fly out and join us for a day and a half and it was AWESOME to see all my siblings again.  I love them so much and am so grateful that I get to call this amazing group of people my family.

Amelia was hot and tired and refused to look at the camera.  Oh well, this actually shows her personality, so I think it is the perfect picture. :)

The kids all liked having Uncle Dan around too!

My dad took the kids up in his airplane.  William walked in to the hanger and when he saw the airplane he said, "Oh, it's beautiful."  Nothing like having a grandson to finally appreciate the beauty of all of my dad's machines.  William certainly did.  He loved it.

But Amelia was the real dare-devil!  She was whooping and hollering and asking for loop-de-loops!  She liked the thrill of having her stomach do flips....she doesn't get that from her parents!

 I love this picture of the 4 girl cousins after Trina did their hair identically.  Trina's 3 girls are used to this kind of cuteness, but Amelia...not so much and she loved it!

Aren't they darling!

And on our last day there we celebrated William's 3rd birthday with Mater dumping "dirt" all over his birthday cake.  That's as creative as I get folks!

 Such a darling, darling birthday boy!  We love you so much William and I already love the 3 year old you so much.