6 weeks old

 I hear it very often....she looks like a Waibel:).  I have yet for someone to tell me she is a Gutwein:)...even my side of the family says they see Waibel!!

 One thing is for sure...she loves to be outside!!  Ellie has pretty much smiled everyday since day two of her life, but she is getting to the point where she smiles more often and not just at random times.  If you can cooo and ahhh at her she is pretty much bound to give you some sort of grin.

Generation

This weekend my parents, Ellie and I traveled to Illinois for a graduation open house of my cousin Amanda.  This was a great way to see my Grandparents from Minnesota and to get a picture of 4 generations!!  Not alot of people can get a four generation picture so I am thankful I could get one!

One Month!!

Its hard to believe that Ellie is ONE month old today!!  I tried to do a photo shoot with her, but mind you, taking pictures is NOT my strong point.  I also found it kind of funny that I wanted to do a photo shoot....Ive never done one before with my boys, but I guess this is what happens when you have a girl:).  I got her all dressed up, put in a bow and snapped some pictures.  Then I undressed her, and removed the bow and put on a good ol onsie......

Scrub a dub dub....

 Ellie had her first bath at 6 days old!  She loved the warm water and seemed to enjoy it.........

 UNTIL we lathered her up with soap!!  Then she began her loudest little scream she has made since arriving home! 

Of course once the warm towel was nicely wrapped around her (yes its blue because we don't own pink towels) she was a sweet little content girl!!  :)

That very next morning(monday morning 30th) I found her fallen off umbilical cord in her pj's.  That fell off fast!!!  Yeah!

Birth Story

A Birth Story with Pictures

(somewhat detailed....be warned)

Also: 9 voted girl and 5 voted boy on my poll!

So Monday morning we arrived at the hospital at 6:30am for Dr. Schafer to break my water and get the ball rolling. The doctor came in around 8am and I was dialated to almost 5 cm.  The doctor didn't arrive again until around 10:30am so for the first several hours I was just laying around with no pain but a few contractions here and there(kind of like I had been having for the past 2 weeks).  At 10:36 (yes it took 6 minutes for the doctor to finally break my very tough sack as he called it). The doctor said "we will watch you for the next 2 hours and if things don't get moving along we will start pitocin. (in my mind I though yeah right...2 hours and pitocin haahaa). At around 11:15 I was starting to think that this birth was going to be longer than my longest which was 1 hour and 15 minutes.  I even told nick, looks like I could be here awhile because the contractions are NOT picking up in intensity.  To which nick replied "sandra, you usally all of a sudden just have to push so it could happen with this one too".  Not more than 5 minutes later I had my first stronger contraction.  I actually was a bit in pain.  On the third contraction the nurses thankfully came in and asked how I was doing and I quickly responded with "I am ready to push I think".  They checked me and I was dialated to 6cm.  So they quickly called Dr. Schafer (who had returned to his office), and when he arrived he was out of breath from running the flight of stairs(its in my records that I have babies fast and he likes to be the one to deliver the babies so I guess he booked it).  The nurses commented on how fast he got to the hospital and even gave him an A++ for his quick feet. I had 2 more contractions and on each contraction I moved in cm.  At the next contraction I was dialated to 8cm.  And the next contraction I was at 9 cm and that is when the doctor told me to turn to my back(I was on my side the entire time before) and on the next contraction I was allowed to push.  The next contraction came and so did the head.  Thats when he quickly said to stop pushing and nick told me to look down and watch.  All I saw was the doctor holding the baby very close to his body and moving rapidly.  Finding out after birth, that Ellie had the umbilical cord wrapped 2 times around her neck and so that is why I had to stop pushing.  However Dr. Schafer worked fast and on the next contraction the baby was born. (picture below)  Sadly though, I did (like all other births) have to have an episiotomy which really stinks, but I'll do whatever I have to to have a healthy baby born!!  So I had a total of 5 strong contractions and all that happened in 30 minutes or so.  Total amount of time after water broke was 1 hr and 13 minutes(to which only 30 minutes was painful).  Guess she wanted to beat 2 of her brothers out:)

Now mind you, I was watching and I saw the little baby come out and yes I saw the girl parts, but it did not even dawn on me!!  It did NOT register whatsoever!!!  UNTIL nick said "Its a girl!!".  I then looked back down and was in total shock.  Nick said "NO WAY", and I just started crying saying "I can't believe it" over and over again.  Oh how we were in disbelief for basically the next 24 hours.  In fact, to this day I am correcting myself often because I say "he" alot!!  I was totally and perfectly content with having another boy and thought maybe it was the best thing for us, but now that I have my little girl....I wouldn't change it for the world.  I love the pink, purple, butterflies, hearts, ruffles, I love all the cute clothes(which she has a nice new wardrobe thanks to the many gifts).

A very very proud daddy who absolutely adores his daughter already!!!  There are times I have to tell him to put her down so she will wake up to feed. 

The big brothers were excited for a girl.  I have to document this for myself(so I don't forget this ever) but Caden never ever missed a night of praying for a healthy baby sister.  Even after we had an ultrasound and we thought we saw boy parts on the baby(technician didn't tell us it was a boy or a girl) and we told the boys we thought this was going to be a brother and that they should not get their hopes up to high for a sister.  Now Elijah was praying for a sister at that time too, but after we had told them we thought we saw boy parts Elijah's prayer changed to praying for a brother but Caden never waivered.  I think it shows how Faith Like A Child is how we should all be.  Elijah is older and he was pursuaded by his parents to pray differently and his faith waivered, where as Caden who is a child and has a strong faith knowing that God can do anything, how his prayer never changed!!  Really made it neat to see and it sure made me think how I need to pray and have faith like a child and not on what is seen but to TRUST that God can do anything!! 
So we told my mom to not tell them what the baby's sex was so that when they walked into the room we could see their shocked expression.  Much to our surprise (however it shouldn't have been a surprise) that the kids weren't shocked!!  Especially Caden.  He walked in, and said"its a girl, I knew it"...followed by a happy little "yes"(with a pump of his fist).

Had to get a family photo of course:)

I was holding sweet Ellie and my camera phone when all of a sudden I captured her very first smile!!!  Its blurry sadly because of my quality of the phone, but at least I got it.

It is time to go home.....

INTRODUCING......

You can click on the picture to make it bigger if you want:).  We are doing well, and trying to get use to the idea of a GIRL in our house.  All the PINK things laying around are fun.  More to come with pictures and a birth story after I have more energy!!

Easter 2012

The boys started Easter weekend out with filling plastic eggs with three different kinds of candy. Each boy got to put in a different candy in the eggs. Of course candy was left over so they enjoyed several pieces each as well.

Then we moved onto hard boiled eggs....and the boys got to sponge on some easter egg dye to a dozen eggs. Of course this was fun, but definitely alot more mess involved. We all had a beautiful array of colored fingers when finished.

Then because it was so beautiful out we went outdoors for the easter egg hunt. Nick and I hid ONLY the candy filled eggs. The boys enjoyed looking for them around the front of the house, but man....I think we either need to not hide them so well, or our boys need to actually look for them and not expect them to pop out at them!!

This picture is actually NOT at our house, its a Grandma Waibel's house for her easter egg hunt, but I LOVE that nick caught his little expression of PURE JOY as he found an easter egg!! Priceless!!

Of course Easter isn't about the eggs and the hunts we have, its about Jesus our Savior who rose from the dead three days after he died! How he was hung on a cross to shed his blood (that ultimate sacrifice of sins for us) so that we can have a hope of heaven someday!! May we always remember the real reason we celebrate Easter!!