Monday, April 28, 2008

Welcome, Baby Ellis!







He's here!!! We've been blessed with another darling baby! Our sweet baby boy arrived on Monday, April 21st at 12:26 in the afternoon. He weighs in at a healthy 8lbs. 6 oz. and measures 20 inches long. Ellis Frederic Brown is as handsome and sweet as can be, with plenty of dark brown hair. Jason and I are both fans of using family names, since they hold so much significance and are a fun tradition, which is why we chose Ellis Frederic for our baby boy. Frederic is in honor of my sweet dad who passed away unexpectedly last November, and Ellis is my Grandpa's name.

So far he has been a pure joy to the family. I love babies!!! Yes, they are a lot of work, but so, so worth it! He has proven so far (time will tell...) to be a very good baby. Much easier than Norah was at this stage, which is a pleasant surprise. Norah is so sweet with him and it is so great to see her so happy and excited about her brother. Jason was able to stay home with us last week which was wonderful. Unlike some guys, he really enjoys all stages that babies go through, including the little newborn stage. He especially likes snuggling and taking naps with the babe, but who can blame him!? He went back to work today so I'm here with both kiddos....it's now dinner time and I'm happy to report that the day has been quite pleasant. I'm sure it will have it's moments, but so far so good.

OK- many of you will probably stop reading here because this will be boring/too much info for some of you. But for those who want the full story of how little Ellis joined us on Monday, here you go:

I'd been having contractions on and off for about two weeks, so when my due date came and went on Saturday the 19th it was a little sad. I never got to the really really miserable stage that some pregnant ladies do, which I'm grateful for, however people at church on Sunday did mention in that I looked "ready," whatever that means. I'm guessing it meant that I looked tired and huge with child, which were both very true. One of the ladies at church actually told me I should go home and rest because I didn't have much time left. According to her intuition I only had a "couple hours" to go (and she wasn't that far off...). I took her advice to heart and went home and rested. I felt like the baby might be coming very soon, so I wanted to have a special last-day-of-being-the-only-kid night for Norah. We went for a long walk, then she "helped" me make cookies, and finished it off with her first ever viewing of Cinderella. The picture in the slide show is of her watching Cinderella with me and eating her cookie--boy, was she in heaven. I'm glad we had that special night with her since the baby did come the next day....it will be a fun memory.

We went to bed early and then at 2:20am my water broke. The same thing happened with Norah, so we were a little better prepared this time. Jason's reaction was notably different. With Norah he paced back and forth around the apartment frantically talking about what we needed to get together but not actually doing anything while I giggled at him. This time I said, "Jason, guess whose water broke?" He sat up in bed and with a huge smile said, "Really?! Awesome!" Very much improved since last time. Since Ellis came later, and Norah was 2 weeks early, he gave us enough time to get ready and enough anticipation was built up in wanting to meet him that we were ready and excited to get him here.

We got to the hospital at around 4 am and almost immediately they wanted to induce me since my contractions weren't consistent or too strong yet. I opted to hold off for awhile to see if things would progress on their own, but eventually they ended up inducing me at about 10am. Although I never really seem to have consistent contractions, I do go really fast near the end which is nice (I went from a 6 to a 10 in less than an hour). The delivery was really smooth as well. He was born at 12:26pm after 3 contractions of pushing. Apparently my babies more so fall out than they are pushed out. After he was born I asked the nurses, "how long did I push for, 10 minutes?" They looked at me and laughed and said, "You didn't push. That can't be considered pushing." They kept laughing about how I should make one of those labor videos where the women make it look so simple and easy. Fine by me! (Not the video part, just the easiness part.)


Once he was born the nurses said he looked like a pretty big baby. Earlier that morning the doctor had said he'd be a "pretty small" baby--she guessed around 7 lbs. He surprised us all by weighing in at 8lbs. 6oz.! Much bigger than I had expected! Especially compared to Norah's petite 6lbs. 2 oz. he seems nice and beefy. Just the way boys should be! My favorite part, which I'm sure is every mothers' favorite part, is when they lay the baby on your chest. With Norah I remember her just staring up at me with her big pretty eyes. Ellis was adorable because he just kept blinking over and over and over again trying to keep his eyes open to look at me but he just couldn't manage it. Jason and I were laughing at him and couldn't believe how darling he was. I so wish I had a video of the blinking...hopefully it is one of those mothering memories that won't fade.

I ended up in a room with 2 other girls which wasn't too fun, but since we were only there for one night it wasn't too bad. We were just excited to get out of there and go meet the big sister! She has loved having him home as we all have. We couldn't ask for a sweeter more handsome little guy to join the Brown family! We were watching TV the other day and there was a commercial for a Disneyland package for a "family of four." Jason looked over at me and said, "Hey, that's us!" So weird! So fun!


16 comments:

Kaisa Bailey said...

I loved the "details" you gave that only a mom can really appreciate. He's so cute and looks really yummy!

Shauna said...

well i might not have experienced the "details" yet, but boy i loved this post! Chrissie is so handsome and it so so weird to think that you now have this perfect little family of 4. SO exciting!

s + k = z said...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhh, he is so adorable! How fun, I bet Norah loves being a sister. I love all the pictures of you and your belly, so CUTE! We miss you guys.
Scott and I just got a blog if you wanna check it out…

www.scottandkarisa.com

Give your baby & Norah a hug from us :)

Harmony said...

I loved reading this! i'm so glad he's here and all is well. What a miracle it is huh! I found out what we're having today, you'll have to check my blog later! This makes me feel the joy of birth and be excited. I love all the details. I love hearing about Jason. You guys are too cute! Love you!

Sarah Jayne said...

So I know I only met your dad a couple of times but when I saw the second picture on your blog I thought, "He looks like Chrissie's dad!". You must be made for making babies! He's perfect. I can't wait to snuggle him. Congratulations guys. Love you.

Melody said...

Congratulations! We cannot wait to come over and see little Ellis- I love that name! I'm so glad you had a good experience too, that's great. See you soon!

Tara Mogle said...

Ha ha ha ... Mr. Brown. Congrats on Ellis! Everything sounds good and like you got a healthy boy. Can't beat that. We're ready for the fourth member of the Mogle clan in 30 days.

Congrats!

Whitney said...

Finally, the baby post. I wrote down Ellis on my list of baby names, but I will relinquish it for you guys. My babies will probably look more like a Frank or an Alfred anyway...dang it. :)

Can't wait to see you guys when we get out to California!

Pup! said...

I am so excited for you both! Baby Ellis is adorable and a perfect addition to your already wonderful family! You always have a babysitter - ME! Love to you all...all four of you!!!

Pup! said...

I am so excited for you both! Baby Ellis is adorable and a perfect addition to your already wonderful family! You always have a babysitter here in ME! Love to you all...all four of you!!!

Shewi128 said...

Congrats on your next cute child! I hope my future labor experiences go as smoothly as yours

April said...

Chrissie - I found your blog from Sarah's. Congratulations. You have such a cute family and look so great.

jordan and maci said...

thank you for the post gurl...you know i appreciated every detail. he is absolutely precious--i wish i could smell him:)

Unknown said...

Congratulations! He's VERY handsome! (Not that I'm surprised)

Kaisa Bailey said...

ok, so I'm anxiously awaiting updated pictures...you know, with all of your extra time.

Dianna said...

I bet he's so much bigger than the last time we saw him. Hopefully Baby Ellis will make an appearance at church sometime soon. We love you guys!