Eleanor

As hinted at in the last post, we have a new addition to our family!  On September 1, Eleanor Ruth Gilliam was born. 

We found out we were having her almost exactly a year ago.  I had another really easy pregnancy and was able to exercise those whole time, right up to the day I went to the hospital to have her.  Unlike Caleb, she was measuring big on ultrasound, so we decided to induce at 39 weeks in order to help prevent a C-section. 

Just like her brother, she wasn't really hopping to exit her warm and snug home, so I had to come in the night before to have a balloon place.  Thankfully, I respond well to this.  My parents and David's mom were here, so they brought Kate and Caleb to see us that night.

 Then after they left, David and I had Mellow Mushroom pizza and went to sleep.  I only got one dose of pain meds and slept through the night.  The next morning, Dr. Brantley (THE BEST!)

 came in and broke my water.  I immediately started having more painful contractions.  About 30 minutes later, I asked for the epidural.  It took about 30-40 minutes for them to come place it.  It worked well on the right side; unfortunately, it didn't work at ALL on the left.  I felt like I didn't have an epidural.  Finally, about an hour after getting the epidural and second med bolus, it worked.  It was pretty good timing, because about two contractions after it started working, I was ready to push.  So...essentially I labored without an epidural (at least on one side!).  By the time Dr. Brantley came, I pushed 3-4 times and my beautiful strawberry blonde, blue eyed baby girl was here! 

She was pink and got GREAT APGAR scores.  We got to do skin to skin (unlike with Caleb who needed a little stimulation to pink up) and she ate great right away. 

She weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce and was born in the same room and at the same time as her brother!  So neat. 

Kate was over the moon to meet Eleanor and just couldn't believe that she had strawberry blonde hair.

 Caleb was curious but hesitant.  He quickly warmed up to her and by the time she came home, he was in love! 

She was a very noisy and spit-uppy baby those first couple of days.  I wanted to keep her in the room the whole time but I quickly realized that I would get NO sleep if I kept her, so we sent her to the nursery and they brought her back to eat.  We stayed a couple of days and went home two days later.  Caleb greeted us with a trumpet serenade! 

The last four months have been SO much fun.  I got to stay home with Eleanor for 12 weeks and then she has been home another month due to not having a spot at daycare. 

We are so thankful for her and the responsibility of raising her in God's Truth.