Introducing!!!

Aaron Lee Ellis!

He arrived June 6th, eight days after my due date. He was 7lb 13oz and 21 inches long. He was slow getting here and took an awful lot of work to get out! The short version of the story is that I dilated to 10cm with little pain or regular contractions but then I pushed every 2 minutes for 6 hours. I was in labor for about 24 hours, starting Wednesday morning and he was born at 4:54 Thursday morning. We had a homebirth and I'm really grateful for that...I really feel sure I would have had a c-section had I been in the hospital due to the length of my labor. I was completely exhausted by the time it was over and the midwives put me on oxygen for the last hour or so, to help me get through the last little bit. Turns out, he had his hand up by his head while he was being born, which definitely didn't help anything, and that was after I got past a cervical lip and a certain muscle that he had a hard time getting past. I'm doing pretty good now, and Aaron's great! 

So there's the latest update from the Ellis family! 

Update..

Well, there's not much to update on right now, but I didn't want y'all to be freaking out because you haven't heard from me in a while! I'm 37 weeks along now, so we're just waiting for the baby to come now! It's getting more and more exciting, and we absolutely can't wait to meet our little one!

I'm still doing good...just getting bigger and bigger. I get tired a lot and I don't sleep well at night and I can't even roll out of bed without a lot of hoisting and maneuvering, but I guess I'll manage a few more weeks! My midwives came last week and everything looks great....baby's head down already. They'll come back again next week, since I'm getting closer....

I wasn't really planning on having a baby room, but as I started getting baby stuff, I needed a place to put it, and now I'm excited about our baby room! We had a spare bedroom, but it was pretty full...it was sort of a catch-all room for stuff that didn't have anywhere else to go! Jacob and I bought a new bed a few months after we got married (the best thing we ever did...besides actually getting married, anyway!) so our old bed went into the spare room, where all sorts of things got piled on and around it. I found a place for most of the stuff in the room (meaning I boxed it up and put it in our building outside...lol) and Jacob's brother took the bed so all I had left in there was a bookshelf and a small dresser. I cleaned out some of the dresser (my old, skinnier clothes that I soooo can't wear anymore) and put some baby stuff in there. One of Jacob's cousins brought over a crib and changing table for us to use, my granny got us a car seat and stroller, and I've gotten a few smaller things that have all gone in there now. My sweet husband has been trying to buy me more stuff to decorate the room with (matching crib set, etc) but not knowing whether there's a boy or girl tucked away in here creates a bit of a problem! We just can't find a lot of neutral stuff, so we'll be waiting on some of that. The baby won't notice for a while anyway! ;)

The room right now is baby blue, just what we randomly picked before we got married. I wonder if there's something to that? Anyway, Jacob told me if we have a girl, he'll repaint it for me. I'm telling ya....he's sweet!

I do plan to use cloth diapers and several people have given me diapers and covers and nifty things like that, and my mom is going to see what she has left from my two younger brothers, as far as diapers go. My mother-in-law pulled out enough newborn boy and girl clothes to get us by for a little while, as they'll be giving me a baby shower a couple weeks after baby gets here. We decided that would be preferable to having a shower beforehand...otherwise we'd have LOTS of greens and yellows!

I'll see about getting pictures of our house sometime...it hasn't changed that much since we moved in...just gotten messy at times. Right now there's laundry hanging everywhere because our dryer quit yesterday, in the middle of laundry....so you're not getting pictures today!!! I have a lot of fun keeping my own house, although right now I can't even sweep (we have wood or linoleum floors in our whole house) without getting winded. Good grief!

I guess that's it for now. I need to get home and start some bread, I think. I want to make some cinnamon rolls....mmmm.

I Went Fishing

Jacob and I have done a good bit of fishing in the last couple of weeks...it finally warmed up around here, and he bought me a new fishing pole. I never have much luck, though. Last night, we were fishing in his parents' pond, and all I was catching was tiny little bluegill...like 3 or 4 inches long. Tiny little things. Someone, who shall remain nameless (guess) was really making fun of me for my tiny fish...he was catching bass and crappie and all sorts of bigger fish. Well, finally I caught something a little bigger...

Catfish, 27 inches long. I caught it with a tiny bluegill hook, which was bent really bad by the time I got the fish in. Jacob thought it was going to get off, so he waded in the pond after it once I got it close to the shore.

Sorry about the lighting...it was getting dark by the time I got this picture. You know the sad thing..this is the only maternity picture I have so far! I'm 34 weeks here....and yes, I feel as big as I look.

31 weeks!

I'm still here...hard to believe, isn't it? :)

So, I'm 31 weeks along now, and I'm round. Like, very round. I've gained about 25 pounds or so, I think. (I don't have a scale so I only weigh whenever we go down to Mom's, every couple weeks.) Baby Ellis loves to kick (so my granny says it's a girl) and I've pretty much only gained in my stomach area (so my granny says it's a boy.) Fact is, we're having a baby...haha!

About the kicking...wow. In the last couple of weeks, he/she started kicking higher up in my ribs, mostly when I am NOT expecting it, and it's pretty uncomfortable. One day we were having a casual conversation over supper and all of the sudden, in the middle of my sentence, I hollered "Ow!!!" Jacob said "what is it??!" There's a foot in my ribs...that's what! It's really incredible though, you can definitely see and feel baby parts in there...a little bump here, or a big bump there. If I lay on one side for a while, you can feel the baby's head (a big round bump) on one side of my stomach and it's pretty obvious that's what it is. When he/she (I don't like saying "it") kicks, you can feel a little heel sticking out...or maybe that's an elbow sometimes. A few nights ago, we were laying in bed talking and the baby had the hiccups. That was really cute....

I have an appointment with my midwives next week, then they'll come at the end of April, and every two weeks after that. At my last check-up, about a month ago, everything looked great and I was measuring right on target.

Physically, I'm still doing good. And round. I am swelling up a little sometimes (especially in my stomach! lol) but it hasn't been too bad. I've had a harder time sleeping lately, which has been hard on me, just because I NEVER have a hard time sleeping. I do have to get up a few times every night, and I think that wakes the baby up! Every time I lay back down, the baby goes crazy in there, moving all around. When I lay right up next to Jacob, he can feel it moving too.

Other than the whole pregnancy thing, not much is new around here. I'm still cooking, cleaning house, all those things I usually do, and Jacob is still working every day. Tonight we're going down to Mom's for a birthday party for the both of us (mom and me) and tomorrow Jacob is taking me to Bowling Green on an all-day date for my birthday. He gets Good Friday off, and my birthday falls on Good Friday this year. How lucky am I?!

I really, really need to get a picture, don't I? I'll see about working on that. But I think I said that last time...

25 Weeks and Valentine's Day

As of yesterday, I'm 25 weeks along now. After going through all of my first trimester without gaining a pound, and actually losing a few, I've caught up now. I've gained about 15 pounds so far, and that's all been in the last month or so. I feel like a blimp, and I'm told that's only going to get worse! Obviously...

I most definitely look pregnant, but I don't have any pictures to prove it yet, so you'll just have to take my word for it! Maybe I'll get Jacob to take some pictures for me soon. I have taken some pictures on my phone, to text to a few people, but they're the cheesy reflection-in-the-bathroom-mirror-with-the-toilet-in-the-background pictures, and not really great for the blog! We'll see if we can do better. I'm getting all dressed up for a date tomorrow night, so maybe we'll get one then. We need one of both of us then...

I'm still not really craving anything specifically...just everything in general. Food, basically, and lots of it. :)

I've had the hardest time with this Valentine's Day. It's hard living with someone and hiding stuff, and that's just the facts! Thankfully, Jacob works 7-3:30, so I have lots of time alone to work on stuff like this. It's also tough because we're never apart...if we go to town, we almost always go together. I did go off with Dave (my brother) this past Monday, so I swung by Walmart and picked up a card. I was going to get him other stuff too, but darn it...I had to buy toilet paper and only had a certain amount of money with me. I mean, truffles or toilet paper..how do you pick?! You pick toilet paper, obviously. Dave did take me out for coffee that day, and the coffee shop had chocolate covered espresso beans, which Jacob loves, so I got him 1/4 lb of those. Funny thing...he didn't know he loved them until this time last year... :)

So anyway, all I had was a card and 1/4 lb (which is a tiny amount) of coffee beans, and I felt like I was lacking. So I tried using my imagination. I can be crafty sometimes, but not when it comes to stuff like this. He really loves truffles and I had really wanted to get him some, but do you know how much they cost? Like, a lot. I knew I had stuff to make truffles at home, but I'd never covered them with chocolate before...which is how he really like them. I figured I'd give it a go, and they actually turned out pretty good. I made the truffles and then froze them overnight, so maybe they would stand up to being dipped in melted chocolate. When Jacob got home from work that night (Tuesday) I told him "there's something in the freezer, and I don't want you to know what it is, so I want you to stay out of the freezer!" Wow....that was soooo hard on him! He dearly wanted to open the freezer, and he bugged me about it all the time! "Is it something to eat tonight? Can we eat it later when we get home? It's for Valentine's day isn't it? What is it? Is it chocolate?..." and that just went on and on! He never did find out though, and I covered them with the chocolate Wednesday morning and then wrapped them up and hid them in the fridge. They did okay for a little while, being dipped in the chocolate, but when they started thawing a bit, they started leaving chocolate residue in the melting chocolate and that ended up making it too thick and weird.

So after I covered them with chocolate and they set up, I drizzled them with white chocolate. I wrapped them in foil squares, twisted the ends shut, and tied some red ribbon around it. Then I dipped fresh strawberries in the chocolate (I actually got the order of things wrong...I dipped the strawberries before the chocolate started acting up) and after they set up, I drizzled those with white chocolate as well. I didn't have a gift bag or anything fancy to put all this in, and it sounded cheesy to lay it all out on the table, so I found a box, probably 10 inches square, and cut the bottom four inches off. I covered it (Modge Podge) in lovey-dovey scrapbook paper I had leftover from last year, and glued on some cute stuff that matched. Then I wound up a bit of tulle (leftover form the wedding) and stuff it in the bottom, and added the candies. I had covered a tuna can (short and squatty!) with the lovey-dovey paper, put the coffee beans in a little baggie tied with a ribbon, and then put the beans in the can. In went all of that and the card, and voila....a very thrifty homemade Valentine's Day gift for my husband.

So, last night, Jacob got up at 2am to feed the fire like he always does, and I woke up having to go to the bathroom, like I always do, but I sort of pretended to be asleep until he came back to bed and fell back asleep...sort of. I got up at 2:30am, pulled the door shut behind me (otherwise he could see into the kitchen) and very quietly went to work. See, some of that stuff had to be refrigerated so it would be chocolate goo in his gift basket, so I had to assemble pretty much everything right then. So, I fixed everything all up, left it beside his lunchbox on the kitchen table, and went back to bed...at which point he was very much not asleep, but apparently didn't think anything of me being up and gone for 15 minutes when I'm usually gone for 1.5 minutes. Then I laid there for an hour because I was thoroughly awake and worried to death that the strawberries would sweat or that the inside of the truffle would leak out. Does he even like chocolate covered strawberries? Then I finally fell asleep again.

Jacob got up at 6am to get ready for work, and I seriously spied. I laid there in bed and peeked at him, while he opened his card and ate some candy. He sort of laughed when he bit into the truffles...a good laugh...I'd never tried anything like that before, and they're a lot like the ones from the store. Then he put some in his lunchbox. :) So anyway, I guess it was a success...

Now I'm off to finish up a few things online and get home to work on some other stuff. Jacob was going to take me out for supper so I wouldn't have to cook, but we decided it would be more fun to go out on the weekend when he didn't have to get up for work the next day, so I'm cooking tonight. I think I'll make Shrimp Alfredo, which is one of his favorite meals I make. I was going to make Pots de Creme for dessert, but I think I'll make strawberry shortcake instead...we have lots of chocolate around right now! So, I've got to get busy making shortcake and cleaning up the house a bit and making alfredo sauce and all that fun stuff!

Who am I kidding...I've just got to get off here and go find something to eat because I'm officially starving. It's probably been like an hour since I've had anything to eat. Ok...it's been longer than that....

Florida Pictures

I came back from FL with some good pictures of Jacob and me...hope you enjoy!

I was about 17.5 weeks pregnant in these pictures, so you can't really tell much...can you? Sometimes I looked pregnant but most of the time I just looked very well-fed. ;)

At the beach...

Dave took these for us...

He likes me.

He splashed me...

I like him too.

Funny...maybe I don't look pregnant because I was wearing men's shorts. They apparently don't make those in maternity. Who knew?

Life Update

Soooo...what's new. Well, I'm still pregnant, for starters. I've gotten concerned emails from folks wanting to make sure I was still in a motherly way, since I haven't said anything else about it lately. So yes, I'm still pregnant! I'm now almost 22 weeks along, and I'm definitely starting to show, if I wear maternity clothes. If I wear regular clothes, I just look like I ate way too much. For a long time. But I have a few maternity skirts and that makes all the difference in the world. I actually look pregnant. Used to, I'd try on some clothes someone gave me and say to my mom "ugh....this makes me look pregnant!" Now, I try on clothes and say "look, Jacob!!! This makes me look pregnant!!!" Funny how that works. I’ve had a hard time finding maternity skirts so I finally bought a few pair of maternity jeans (Goodwill) and turned them into skirts. They’re nice, but my closet consists of denim, denim, and more denim right now. Jacob likes denim best, so I guess that’s a good thing!

I've also started to feel the baby move, which is exciting, I think. For the first few days I really couldn't figure out what it was, but then when it kept feeling the same way, I figured it out. I first started feeling it a little at 18 weeks, and then a lot more regularly around 20 weeks. Jacob can also feel it now, for the past week or so, which is cooler than cool, if you ask me. The first time I held his hand there and he actually could feel something, I cried a little. It was so sweet. According to "What to Expect When You're Expecting," Baby Ellis is now over 8 inches long and weighs nearly 1 pound!

I met with my midwives several weeks ago and really liked them. There will be two of them working with me and we'll start regular check-ups and visits around 6 months. I love the hands-off approach, as far as that goes...I don't have a disease that needs to be treated...I have a baby! The midwives did one check-up the day they came out (they come and check me at home) and everything looks good and normal....including the baby's heartbeat. :) It was 156, which puts it in the girl range, but my boy cousins all had girly heartbeats, so you can't go by that, I guess. We're not having an ultrasound (unless there's a need for one...) so what we’re having will be a surprise. For those of you who didn't know, we are planning for a home birth. Maybe that's a little off-the-wall, but hey...what else did you expect??!! "Normality???"

Okiedoke...what else...oh, I'm not sick anymore, thank God. I was really getting tired of throwing up every single day. I've never been sick much (at least as far as stomach stuff goes) so all that getting sick was aggravating! I was really sick for a few weeks (I want to say weeks 9-14 or so) but I've been good for a while now. Now all I do is eat. And eat. And then eat some more. But really, I only eat whenever I'm hungry, which puts it at, oh...every 17 minutes. I love salt. Salt is so good. I started craving chocolate covered pretzels (chocolate AND SALT....life is good!) a few weeks ago, so somebody (who shall remain nameless but has a lot to do with my present condition...) went out and bought me a bag of chocolate covered pretzels. When those ran out, he made some more for me. Then we went to Florida (more on that in a sec) and he bought me a BIG one at a chocolate shop. Nice guy, I think. I also LOVE salt and vinegar potato chips. Oh, yes, they're on my diet. Everyone has to have the right amount of salt, vinegar, and potatoes in their diet....didn't you know that? Anyway, kettle cooked is the best, but any kind will do in a pinch. I'm in trouble since the family store started carrying (since someone lodged a complaint with the owners...) kettle cooked salt and vinegar...I've already had two bags. Individual size, of course. They're just so good! Not that this has anything to do with the chips, but I have finally gained a few pounds....just 4, I think, last time I weighed. But that’s been a couple weeks ago now, so…yikes!

About that Florida thing....Jacob and I were able to make a trip to GA and FL to see all of my family there around Christmas. I got to take him to family get-togethers where he met all kinds of distant cousins and other relatives and he really loved that. Haha. Not. We did some sight-seeing stuff in FL and walked on the beach and all that sort of fun stuff and that part was really fun. By the time it was all said and done, we were gone for about ten days and were sure glad to get home. Vacation is nice, but home is home. My family ended up staying a full two weeks or something...we met up with them some once we got down to FL, but we didn't travel or stay together.

I think that'll be all for now...I'll talk to y'all later.

Maybe. No promises...