No More 20-Somethings Here

This month was super busy! Ellie turned 6 months old, I competed in my first karate tournament, and Sam threw me a fabulous 30th birthday party! My friend Tiffany flew out from Portland sans kiddos and we had a great girls night out on Friday, then at my party Saturday my friend Natalie from Colorado showed up thanks to Sam's scheming. It was pretty amazing to think the last time we were all together was at our wedding 4 years ago, yet sitting on the couch talking it was almost as if it hadn't been more than a week. We also took Ellie to Disneyland for the first time. She absolutely loved Small World, she "sang" through the whole ride.

We finally figured out how to get Ellie to eat her food, after she had perfected the spoon block, the head block and keeping her lips locked while laughing, crying, and just about any other situation, I gave up and put the spoon down to have her pick it up and put it in her mouth. Needless to say, meal time is extremely messy as Ellie is still trying to get the spoon in her mouth before closing it.

The month ended with me cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for 14 up at Wayne and Kathy's and loving every second of it!!!

I am thankful for my beautiful family, and all my wonderful friends!

Yes, we are still alive!

So when I started this blog I thought, hey most of my friends with 2 kids blog on a somewhat regular basis, how hard can it be to keep up? I have now found the answer is extremely. Maybe it is because I am a working mom and most of said friends are lucky enough to not (though really I don't think it would make much difference) but I will often compose a new entry in the car on the way to or from work, the grocery store or picking Ellie up and then fail to actually type and post it when I get home. So here is a quick update of what has been going on in the Sager household.

October: Ellie had her first overnight with Nana and Grandpa (Sagers)while Sam and I went to a wedding where we had tons of fun. We spent time with family and enjoyed watching Ellie discover her toes, her voice and the joys of rolling/scooting. We attempted to feed her solids (video to come later). I walked my 3rd 1/2 Marathon. For Halloween she made an adorable little monkey while Sam and I attended a Halloween party as a bunch of grapes and a working box of wine.

My how time does fly

So much for being good about updating on a regular basis. Oh well, here it goes. In the past four months Ellie has had a quiet a few adventures, we've been to the LA Zoo, the Aquarium of the Pacific, the California Science Center, an Angel Game, a UCLA football game, the LA County Fair (twice) She is very much a social butterfly, and is so curious anytime we are somewhere new. Her eyes get wide and she cannot stop looking around at everyone and everything, an she won't go to sleep if there is someone nearby willing to play with her, heaven forbid she should miss something.

In terms of firsts, she is rolling over non-stop and has started doing the inchworm crawl where she scrunches up her legs and then pushes her chest forward, she is constantly smiling and giggling at anyone who will talk to her. She loves toys that crinkle and loves to put everything in her mouth. She is trying really hard to sit up by herself and to talk, she is sooo expressive.

Many times I look at her and just want to scoop her up and kiss her all over despite the fact that she is sleeping. Sam and I frequently look at each other and just gush over how cute she is. Parenthood is completely indescribable and I wouldn't change it for the world!

Ellie's First Vacation

Before Ellie was even born we planned a trip up to Lake Tahoe with the thought that we would need some time away and to see what it would be like traveling with a baby. Our original plan was to stop in Mammoth on the way up and the way down in order to help Ellie adjust to the altitude. Unfortunately, the stop on the way up couldn't happen so at 5:00am on June 6th we packed up the car and headed north. Ellie slept most of the way there so we stopped about 3 times to change and feed her (and ourselves) and made it up in only 9 hours. We stayed at Sam's parent's time share in Incline Village and had a fabulous time. Ellie does fabulously traveling, she is not fond of altitude as it gives her tummy troubles. Ellie is a great traveling companion and had a great first vacation!

Things I've Learned in 2 weeks

So in the last two weeks my daughter has taught me some valuable lessons.
Lesson 1: It doesn't matter how much reading you do or how much you prepare, babies have their own plan.So my plan was to bring Ellie home after a few short days in the hospital, she however wanted to get a tan in the phototherapy box instead. I wanted to breastfeed exclusively but in order to avoid the IV we supplemented with formula and now she is a "lazy sucker" and doesn't like the work it takes to get milk from me without assistance.
Lesson 2: Patience is a virtue I have far from mastered.No matter how patient I try to be while feeding I get frustrated when Ellie won't latch and just screams instead, it is right there!!! This leads to crying on my part if I haven't had a nap or a meal.
Lesson 3: Keep it simple stupid.
Several times already I have assumed that Ellie was hungry, but rather she needed a diaper change or to burp, much easier to fix given the feeding issues we are having.

Going Home

SATURDAY 5/8

Saturday morning the pediatrician came in and asked us why Ellie was still in the phototherapy box, Sam and I looked at each other and told her we didn't know that she could come out. We immediately took her out so we could snuggle with her while the Dr. worked on getting her unplugged from everything. Our nurse started working on the discharge paperwork immediately and Sam and I started packing everything up and getting ready to go home!! As we were walking out I kept expecting them to come running after me telling me they had made a mistake and would have to take her back. Ellie was awake the whole ride home and was looking at everything she could.

Ellie's Stay in the Phototherapy box

FRIDAY 5/7
So after being admitted to pediatrics at 11pm on Thursday Sam and I were exhausted and set our alarms so we could wake up every 2 hours to feed Ellie in order to flush the Bilirunin out of her system as quickly as possible and without the aid of an IV. That day Ellie had blood taken every 8 hours to monitor her levels and when we found out at about 7:00am that we would be there another day we called Kathy (Sam's mom) to have her come sit with Ellie while we went home, showered and got clean clothes . We had to rush since the Occupational Therapist was due to visit Ellie and check out her sucking skills to ensure she was able to eat properly. Even though it was quick it was one of the best showers I ever took! We got back to the hospital moments after the Occupational Therapist came into to check on Ellie, she informed us that Ellie was feeding like a premie but other than that was fine, that was a relief.
My parents and grandma came that evening so that Sam and I could go to dinner it was nice but we really wanted to get back to our little girl by the time we were done eating. When we got back to the hospital the nurse told us that Ellie's levels were down and we should be able to go home on Saturday, we were so excited!!!

Ellie's first days

WEDNESDAY 5-5
So we were in postpartum, thinking that we may go home in the evening or possibly Thursday morning. We were so ready to bring Ellie home and get settled into a routine. We had lots of visitors throughout the day and caught cat-naps when we could. Since they hadn't done Ellie's test for jaundice we knew we would be there until Thursday.

THURSDAY 5-6
In the morning when the nurse practitioner came to check on Ellie she told us that her Bilirubin levels were too high and she would have to be taken to the NICU as soon as a bed became available. They were also concerned with her eating so they checked her blood sugar levels on about every 4 hours. Finally at about 8:00pm they let us know that there was no room in the NICU so I would be discharged and you would be admitted to pediatrics so Ellie could spend some time in the phototherapy box. I was a little relieved since Sam and I would be able to go with Ellie to her room in pediatrics rather than having to take turns visiting her in NICU. I was officially discharged at around 11pm and all the nurses in pediatrics made such a fuss over Ellie and how cute she was. I was able to convince the doctors to wait on giving Ellie an IV for fluids by telling them my plan to pump, feed and then supplement with formula to keep her system moving and expelling the excess bilirubin.

Elisabeth Marie Sager Has Arrived!

So the Sager's are now officially a blogging family, mainly to keep everyone informed on the happenings of our newest family member. Here is the first part of her story (sorry it is rather detailed for some of my friends please don't get offended if it is TMI for you)...
May 4th, after timing my contractions for an hour (3-5 minutes apart) I called Kaiser, they told me to come in and I called Sam to come home. I loaded up the car and as soon as he was home we were off, after check (@12:00) in I saw the midwife she checked and was just about to say that I was only at 4cm and send me home. My body had other plans and my water broke, leading me to be admitted.
I was put in a Labor, Delivery, recovery room(@1:30). Wayne (Sam's dad, who works at Kaiser Fontana) had essentially taken off for the day so he hung out, next joined by Kathy (Sam's mom) and my parents. Everything was progressing nicely, I was 100% effaced when admitted and was dialating about 1cm an hour. After about 2 hours I was given an IV for pain, which only made me drowsy and feel drugged...I felt the contractions still too, so I opted for the epidural (@4:45).
It was a great distraction for me to have the family there as I was kept amused by there antics.
Once I was 9cm, the family left (@7:30) and I started pushing (@8:00). After 2 hours of pushing baby had decided she did not want to come out and had still not crowned and I was given 2 options, keep pushing or using the vacuum. I opted for the vacuum as I knew pushing would no longer be productive. The Dr. warned me that if the vacuum did not work I would have to go straight to the OR for a C-section. Luckily baby came out to be introduced without the need of the OR.
As the Dr. said "it's a girl" I was completely amazed, I had been so sure that it was going to be a boy, I wanted to ask if she was sure. Sam cut the cord and went with the nurse to make sure that everything was OK while I was stitched up (5 stitches-3rd degree tear for those moms out there). Once Ellie was checked out Sam and I got some uninterrupted time with her before the grandparents were able to come in. When we were ready for the grandparents to come meet her, Ellie got her shots and eye goop so she was set to be moved to our postpartum room.
Before Sam went out to tell the parents he sent a text that said "we have a baby" they were all dying to know if this was Elisabeth or Atticus. Once he went out to the waiting room he was almost attacked by all four grandparents, (Sam will add the rest of the story later).
There were many tears in the room as each grandparent was introduced to Ellie and held her for a while before they helped us move to our new room (@11:45)