EKjourney Backup

Too busy and tired to post much. Our newborn baby girl (Evangeline Virginia Joy Kelly by the way) is as adorable as she can be. I just can’t stop kissing her!! We are all working on adjusting to the big change in our family. Phil and I have gotten very little sleep so we are trying to nap when possible and take turns staying up. The first few days home were rough and I will admit that I end up in tears a couple times a day when I feel overwhelmed. I am having milk supply issues (AGAIN) so it is back to frequent nursings, pumping, and supplementing. This has been quite discouraging and we need to find a better solution than what we are currently doing. I can’t spend half the day and night (literally) on the couch doing the above. The kids seem to like their new sister. We are working on whining right now. It is hard to not have that mom time. It will be nice when the family has settled into a routine. Off to relax a few minutes with Phil before ge...

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our healthy baby girl! She was born Friday, December 21 at 1:03 pm. Weight: 8 lbs, 10 1/2 oz Length: 20 inches long Birth story and more details to come!

Hello, Water broke this morning at 2:15 or so in the morning. Looks like Evie is going to make her appearance today, 13 days overdue and 1 day before the scheduled induction! We will make her birth announcement sometime this weekend.

I was doing pretty well with everything up until today. I seem to have reached the end of my rope! One too many days of being overdue. One too many days of cramping and contractions waking me up at night requiring walking, breathing, warm baths, etc. One too many days of not having the housework done in the time and manner that I usually do it in resulting it that cluttery feeling. One too many days of interrupted routines. I am ready to head up to the hospital and have them hook up the pitocin, get an epidural, and wake me up when it is over!!! I feel done participating in this labor!!! I have been going through enough “practice” over the last week and a half to feel anything but exhausted at the thought of real thing. Doing a natural childbirth like I did with the others seems too much to handle! So this is my state of mind, here on this eleventh day of being overdue! Maybe she will be born tomorrow or at least, hopefully, I will find a few feet more of ...

We are nearing the end of nine days overdue. It actually is a blessing. Out of the blue, Sawyer came down with a high fever last night at 11:00. Our thermometer is a bit off but we figure it was around 103. He was better today but after nap time it was up over 104. We took him to the pediatrician just to be safe and rule out anything that could hurt Evangeline. He most likely just has a virus. We are waiting to see if/when Jubilee will get sick! The blessing part is that I don’t have a newborn baby being breathed on and touched by her siblings. There is a good chance that she would have gotten sick and a high fever with a newborn is not a good situation. So, I am glad that we know and my parents can take the kids in quarantine if Evie arrives before he/they are well. I am actually hoping that labor will hold out until the end of the week. It would be really nice if both kids are healthy enough to come up to the hospital and meet their sister on her birthda...

For those of you following along…..the ultrasound determined that there was plenty of amniotic fluid surrounding Evangeline so there were no concerns there. At the midwife appointment, I sat in a comfy lounge chair while they hooked me up to a machine to monitor Evie’s heartbeat and record any contractions for 20 minutes. As far as the check-up went, nothing has changed since last week!!!! How could I feel like I am on the verge of labor and endured so many BH and not have progression!!! I am scheduled for an induction next Friday if she doesn’t make her appearance before then.

It is Friday morning. Evangeline is now 6 days overdue. It has been a mighty uncomfortable week. Every night feels like some sort of a mini labor. I go through various lengths and intensities of BH usually between 1 and 6 in the morning. Sometimes I need to get out of bed and pace around, other times, I am so tired that I try and lay still and sleep in between. Every night I tell myself, surely, real labor is going to start anytime. I am glad that Phil has been home to take care of things. This has allowed me to rest and work on my quilt to get my mind off of the waiting. I made 48 squares in the past couple of days. We have planned a fun day today. My parents are taking the kids and Phil and I are going to a quilt store downtown, possibly a movie, to an ultrasound appointment, and then to the midwives. It will be nice to get out of the house and spend a day alone with my husband. This is a very rare treat. I think the last time we had a day togeth...

I started having Braxton Hicks sometime in the early evening and they were on and off until I got up this morning. It was nothing measurable so I knew it wasn’t labor (my other two started with contractions 2-3 minutes apart from the onset). It made for a long night and little sleep. I finally got up around 2:30 in the morning and had a snack, read, and then fell asleep on the couch. Luckily, both kids slept in late so I got a nice early morning “nap”. Phil stayed home and took care of kids and meals all day. I sat around in the morning and relaxed and then quilted all afternoon. Sitting around is not something that I like to do but it felt really great today. When Sawyer got up this morning, he announced that the baby was kicking him and it hurt. It was so funny. I thought, “You have no idea…” Jubilee has gone pee in the potty twice. Ummmhhh, now I have two working on potty training. My friend Jennipher brought over a nice dinner for us. We were ...

I guess the little baby in utero on the side panel doesn’t do days overdo. We are now counting the days that Evangeline is late (2 so far). I don’t have any premonitions. I am uncomfortable but not so much that I feel like any second could be it. I will admit that I have a towel and a pair of pants in the car just in case I am out and about and my water breaks. It would be horrible to drive home all wet! My water broke at the onset of labor with Sawyer but didn’t with Jubilee until I was pushing so who knows how this one will start. Phil and I debated whether or not he should start his paternity leave today but decided not to use up sick leave unless I was really uncomfortable. He took the latter part of the week off prior to Jubilee’s birth but I was quite miserable and surprised that she didn’t come early! Waiting is hard to do! Sawyer was 1 day late and Jubilee was 4. The anxiety of labor; the concern over another difficult nursing experience; and the c...

Phil is at work and the children are both sleeping at the moment so I thought I would write a quick blogger update. This week: Tuesday, a day at home (mostly). Phil came home on his break to pump the tire up and follow me to Les Schwab. We needed all new tires ($$$). The rest of the day, I made stew, chili, tapioca pudding, and muffins. I folded heaps of laundry. We had a midwife appointment in the afternoon. Wednesday, another day at home but with little accomplishments. Thursday, play day for the kids at my parents. I sat in the vet’s office (walk in only) for over an hour for a 5 minute check up on Bookie’s cast. He has some blood in his urine that we are watching closely. I finally made it home for a couple hours of quiet. I rested on the couch and planned preschool curriculum. (Sawyer is a big three year old boy now!!) My parents took the kids to the carousel so we picked them up downtown and decided to get Jubilee’s ears pierced. It...

Our update on Bookie…..Bookie made it through the night so that made us hopeful that he didn’t have internal injuries. When I talked with my parents on Sunday, they offered to help out with vet expenses if we took him in right away. I was able to find a regular vet clinic that was open on Sunday (instead of an expensive emergency care center). He had an initial exam and then x-rays. They kept him overnight for further treatment. He suffered an ankle dislocation, a fracture at the base of his tail, and a pelvic fracture. They recommended surgery for his ankle but we declined due to the outrageous cost and had them put a cast on instead. Hopefully the ankle will stay aligned and heal correctly. He is housebound for the next 8 weeks or so. His main problem will be getting used to the cast! It is very big and bulky and seems to hurt his injured hip when he tries to maneuver. Here he is happily eating his dinner And the rest of the day…..I had a lot of errands ...

What a busy Saturday we had. I wanted to write about it last night but I was too tired and a bit distraught (stay tuned for more details). We had everyone (my parents, my brother, Tina, and Zellee) over for breakfast. My mom tried the Dutch pancake recipe from the Nourishing Traditions book. They were really yummy but didn’t puff up like they were supposed to. It snowed a few flakes during breakfast. What fun! After breakfast, we headed up to a tree farm outside of Silverton. It was freezing so the poor kids didn’t last too long, but we found our trees and everyone headed back home. We had time to set ours up before heading out for our train adventure. Daddy and the kids Grampy and Jubilee Grammy and Sawyer We drove up to Hood River via the back roads and the scenic highway. It was a beautiful drive with trace of snow on the ground and sprinkles falling as we got further into the Columbia Gorge. We boarded the train and were off by 5:00...