Our Newest Addition!

Ella Raquel Seymore joined our family on

 Monday, August 15, 2011

 at 4:37 in the morning

weighing in at 7 pounds 3 ounces 

and 19.5 inches long.

She is the most beautiful baby girl. Ella was born exactly one week "early". I couldn't have had a more different birth experience with her than I did with my first delivery. The experience in a nut shell was like a car crash! ...Very intense, chaotic, and quick! I was only in labor for about 4 hours, only 2 hours were spent in the hospital, and I only pushed for about 15 minutes!! (I could do that again)

Okay, so here's the story. (grab the popcorn, it's kind of long.)...

     I had been doing EVERYTHING to try and get "baby girl" out. My pregnancy was really getting hard towards the end and I was really just over it, considering I had been pregnant for practically two years in a row! Sunday the 14th was just like any other Sunday. I went to church, chased Lincoln around, visited with family... but I was determined to go into labor! So that night my brother-in-law prayed for me to have a good labor and delivery and I had my friends send me "laboring vibes" and I was focused and ready to go into labor. (I know I sound crazy right now, but the mind is a powerful thing!) I did my "pregnancy belly dance" one last time before I went to bed that night.

     I was just starting to dose off when my water broke at 12:55 am! I just felt a big pop and I jumped. I was so tired at that time that all I was thinking was "Ugh, not now..." I laid their a little longer then finally got up to the bathroom. There was no gush just a little tinkle. (TMI ?) Then I whispered to Chris that my water broke. He just mumbled something and rolled over. So, the procrastinator that I am, I started packing my hospital bag. As I was getting things together, I started having really strong, painful contractions. They were coming so strong and so close together I couldn't even time them. I went to wake Chris up again and he wouldn't even move. Ahhh! I was in so much pain. "Chris! Get up! We have to go now!" Okay, he's up now. (Later he said I just didn't sound urgent enough. What's more urgent than 'my water broke!') My contraction were literally on top of each other. I couldn't even walk to the car.

     We got to the hospital at about 2 am, checked in and was wheeled to my room. I couldn't even get up to the bathroom to change. My nurse, Christine, came in and saved my life! (that's what it felt like) I loved her so much! I don't think I could have done it with out her. She was a hustler! Anyway, she was like "forget the bathroom, just drop your pants and I'll check you right now!" She checked how dilated I was and I was only at 2 cm. I was sure I would be farther than that because of how much pain I was in. There weren't any doctor's available to give me an epidural so she gave my some other drugs to "take the edge off." That was fun, but not powerful enough. She checked me again and I was at a 4. Before she even took her hand out, I progressed to a 6! This was happening faster than we thought and still no epidural! Maybe 30 minutes later I was dilated to an 8 and that's when the anesthesiologist finally came in to give me the epidural. She finished up and now I'm 10 cm dilated and It's time to push!

      I did about 3 "practice" pushes with the nurse (that's just because there wasn't a doctor available) and she was stopping me and trying to get the doctor in asap. About 2 pushes with the doctor and our beautiful baby was born! I couldn't believe it! It happened so fast that I couldn't even register what had just happened, yet I was holding my precious new baby in my arms. She was the most beautiful things I had ever laid my eyes on.



She's here! I had no clue she was out until the plopped her on me.

Hello "baby girl!"



My awesome nurse, Christine with baby Ella.



This perfect little human just came out of me!



Proud papa. Chris is so sweet with her. He always says how beautiful she is.





I just can't stop staring at her



She was not happy about the car ride home



NAME GAME:

     "Baby girl" didn't have a set name until 30 minutes before we left the hospital. She was "baby girl Seymore" for almost two days! Chris and I both really liked the names Cali and Ella, so what better way to come to a decision than to flip a coin?! And that's exactly what we did. Heads, it's Ella. Tails, it's Cali. Chris flipped the quarter, and well, Ella it is! (but I still call her "baby girl" most of the time.) Raquel is my mom's name and we wanted our baby to be named after someone great. My mom is such a wonderful person and I'd love for my little Ella to have some of her qualities.

>>Here is the link to Lincoln's birth story only 11 months ago!

"He's Finally Here!"

Family of 3 Soon to be 4!

 

 

 

Who Does She Look Like?

Once again my friend did the 3D ultrasound for me! Which is so nice considering it cost over $100 to get it done else where. Chris was with me and it was so interesting how clearly we could see [baby girl]. It was so fun getting to see this little baby that really is in my belly.

The tech said that she weighs a little over 4 pounds right now and she's already got chunky cheeks. She also noticed that [baby girl] has got a lot of hair already. (yay for bows in her hair!)

She is such a squirmy little thing! She moves around all the time. Her kicks and punches hurt but at least it's a sign of a strong healthy baby. It was hard getting a still picture of her and one with out the cord in her face, but we managed to get a few good ones.

  

Her foot is right over her eye and nose!



Little pouty face



I think she's going to look like her big brother
...which is just fine with me!

I can't wait to meet her!!

Here is the link to Lincoln's 3D pictures so you can compare :)
http://chrisandemmaseymore.blogspot.com/2010/08/blog-post.html

She's Got at Least 9 More Weeks

...technically she's got 12 weeks left in the oven, but in 9 more weeks she's considered full term.

Hospital update:
One miserable night spent in the hospital, hooked up to 3 different monitors, laying on a hard bed, must stay in the same position, and the meds to slow down the contractions are giving me a killer headache. Doc comes in at 8:30 am to do another ultrasound of my cervix. Not much has changed which is good news. I just have to "take it easy" now (which isn't easy since we're in the middle of moving.) but i really have to listen or else they'll have to give [baby girl] steroids to help develop her lungs. We can do it... She'll  be one healthy full term baby!

[baby girl], Be Patient!

Well, i was having intense stomach pain all day and it had been getting progressively worse throughout the day. I finally decided to go in to labor and delivery at 10:30 pm. (I'm actually in the hospital writing this through my phone right now.) The pain is constant and its becoming unbearable. The doc takes a swab test to see if it comes  back positive for preterm  labor. While we wait for the results, they give me an I.V to hydrate me, nausea medication (i still threw up), and pain killers. The results are back and at 1 am, I get the news that it came back positive. Doc isn't too worried but he's keeping me over night to keep an eye on things. So here i am laying in a hard hospital bed blogging rather than getting sleep. [Baby girl] sounds healthy, I'm just praying that she doesn't come too early and that everything will be okay with her.

She's Almost Here!

OFFICIALLY IN THE 3RD TRIMESTER!

I can not believe I am already in the third trimester! It really has gone by so fast for me. (but I guess that's expected when I already have a baby to keep me busy!) I can't complain much about the first two trimesters. I just had a few bad headaches in the beginning and a couple vomiting experiences, but I definitely noticed once I entered my third trimester. All of a sudden I was extremely tired, and dizzy, and always out of breath. Now that Lincoln is crawling around and getting into EVERYTHING it makes things much harder. It's crazy to think soon I'm going to have two babies around!

Besides some anxiety, I'm mostly really excited to have another. I remember after giving birth to Lincoln I said I never wanted to go through that again and I swore I would never forget how painful it was... Well I guess I did forget. It might sound odd, but I'm actually looking forward to giving birth again. I just remember it being a beautiful experience meeting my baby for the first time, and I know what to expect so I feel more prepared, like I'll get the job done faster! ha ha! I'm also excited to have a newborn again, which I wasn't expecting to look forward to considering I just had a newborn a few months ago! Interesting how things work out that way. I really think that's Heavenly Father's way of preparing me. I'm excited for Lincoln to have a little playmate - I can already imagine them together. And of course, I'm really excited about having a GIRL! 

I'm trying to enjoy ever single second I have with my little Lincoln. They're only babies for such a short amount of time. It's amazing how fast they grow up.

Let's compare belly shots...

almost 7 months with [baby girl]

 6.5 months pregnant with Lincoln

Well one things the same... I still like my floral tops!

THE NAME GAME...

I am having such a hard time finding a name for her!! I always had names picked out for my kids when I was younger (like I'm sure most girls do), but now that it's for real I can't come up with anything. In middle school we read and watched a book called The Outsiders and I loved it so much.

 Especially Soda Pop, one of the characters I had a crush on. So... I was going to name my son Soda Pop and my daughter Lolly Pop! And then I thought it would be awesome to have triplet girls and name them Lolly, Lilly, and Laily! HA HA HA! I guess it's a good thing I'm not having triplets!

Another name I liked for a while was Victoria... I always wanted my girls to have a very feminine and strong name... but I'm not feeling it so much any more. Now with having Lincoln, we could easily stick with a presidential theme for the rest of our kids. I just don't want to be limited and I don't want any cheesy themes, plus Lincoln was such a great president that I'd hate to name another child after a so-so one. I'm not really a fan of miss spelled names or something completely made up either. I can't believe I'm having such a hard time finding a name!

ANY IDEAS???

We do however, have ONE name in mind and I doubt it's anything you would guess... but I don't think I'm ready to share it yet, I'm just not ready to hear people's opinion on it. Once I'm in love with it then I'll share it with all of you!

Oh boy!

Here's the proof...

...they better be right this time!

Quadruplets?!

Last night I had a dream that I gave birth to 5 babies! I was so glad this was a dream, even though labor and delivery in a dream is much easier than in real life. Then I remembered that this dream was almost a reality for me!

The first prenatal care appointment we went to was on January 3rd. Chris and Lincoln were both in the room when the Mid-Wife was doing the ultrasound. She wasn't saying much, just looked at the monitor for a while. Every now and then she would let out a "hmmm" or "uhhh". She finally asked, "do twins run in your family?" Chris and I quickly looked at each other and I started laughing, I was so shocked I didn't know what else to do. (Keep in mind I'm still trying to adapt to the idea that we're even going to have another baby this soon). The Mid-Wife left the room to get a doctor. Chris was freaking out more than I was. I was starting to think that it could be a good thing because I would be getting it over with and be done with having kids in one shot. (I guess it would technically be in two shots). SO many thoughts were going through our minds in just these few minutes while we were waiting. The doctor comes in and is staring at the monitor for a while. She finally says "there's four!" Then she asked if I was on any fertility medications because this is very rare to be happening. They kept inspecting the four sacks on the monitor. They said that it looks like these four eggs all got fertilized but they only saw one that was definitely developed into a fetus. I was to come back in about two weeks and in the mean time there were three possibilities that could happen: 

-The other eggs could also be developing so there would be more than one baby.

-The undeveloped sacks would resolve and there would just be the one baby. 

-My body would flush out the extra sacks and I could miscarry altogether.

We left the hospital more confused than ever. I tried not to think about it for those two weeks. It felt like the longest two weeks ever!

This is the clearest picture we got with all four sacks.

We had two more ultrasounds done and everything looks great. There is only one baby and it seems to be growing strong and healthy.

Pregnancy update:
I started feeling movement around week 15 and at 17 weeks it was a lot more noticeable.
We find out the baby's gender on April 6th. I'm really thinking like its a girl... This pregnancy has been so different from the first. I have sweets cravings all day long, I constantly have migraines, I've been getting some blemishes, and I haven't thrown up at all with this one like I did with the first.

We'll see... 12 more days!!

Couldn't Wait to Join Us!

Looks like baby #2 was so eager to join our family! Once again around Christmas time (December 18th to be exact) we found out we were expecting another bundle of joy. Chris and I were definitely surprised/shocked to see my positive pregnancy test. I was pretty over whelmed. So many things were going through my mind; I wasn't ready to have another baby because I still wanted to only enjoy Lincoln as my baby, and I didn't think it would be fair for Lincoln, and when am I ever going to get any sleep! Once I saw it's little heart beat all my worries went away and I fell in love all over again. I really didn't "feel" pregnant at all but after talking to many of my friends about "after baby body" stuff, I started having second thoughts. And well, here we are once again. It just seems way too soon for me to be going through this pregnant thing again! ha ha. We're really excited about this new baby and I think it's going to be great for Lincoln to have a sibling so close in age, they'll be great friends. This baby is due on August 22, 2011 meaning my BABIES will be 11 months apart! I'm definitely nervous but excited at the same time. Now I'm anxious to find out what we're having!
Here is baby #2 at 11 weeks

I've been so tired with this pregnancy, and dizzy, and nauseous, but no vomiting! With Lincoln I threw up every day, so I wonder if that means it'll be a girl. I'm kind of wanting another boy... they'll just be so close in age that they'd be great buds plus they could share a room! I'd be happy either way though. I can't wait to find out what we're having.

Baby's 1st Christmas!

 Having Lincoln for Christmas made it so much more fun for us (even though he had no idea what was going on). It was really fun watching him enjoy the wrapping paper more than his actual gift. Christmas Eve we spent with my family at my grandma's house. I always have fun seeing all (well, most) of my cousins and aunts and uncles. I love my family so much, I couldn't ask for a better bunch! Christmas day we went over to Chris' parents and enjoyed the day over there. We had another successful year and I look forward to the next.
We were blessed once again with another Christmas miracle.

Notice Lincoln's little stocking! ha ha ha



My happy boys!

He just stared at his gift like, "what is that!?" ha ha
I think he enjoyed eating the wrapping paper more than anything!

I'm glad santa got him a jumper because he loves it!

Thanksgiving in Utah

My first time in Utah!

Chris' grandparents were kind enough to fly all 3 of us up to Utah this Thanksgiving. It was absolutely gorgeous up there (and freezing)! I think it got as cold as 8 degrees. We had so much fun our there. They rented out a beautiful cabin out in Eden. It was 3 stories and each family got to have there own room which was really nice. There was even a hot tub out side in the snow! Chris and I went for a romantic stroll through the woods and made snow angels. I felt like a little kid playing in the snow, but I've never had the chance to do that. We had a pretty intense snow ball fight too, and of course I dominated him. Hahaha! Our snowman was the coolest!

The whole Fam!

 my cuddly bear

our super cool "ICE MAN"

 ahhhhh, the life.

 my boys relaxin'

family Christmas tree!

As much as we enjoyed our stay there with family, I must say, the airport was a pain! It took us 2 1/2 days to finally get home! Our flight was originally scheduled to leave 8:30 Sunday morning. So we get there, go through security (anyone who has flown with a baby knows how much work it is), sit for an hour and a half, only to find out it was CANCELLED because there was no one there to fly the plane! (at this point all of our luggage has already been shipped to California). We get RESCHEDULED to fly at 11:30. So we wander the airport for hours and as they finally scan our ticket to board, we find out we weren't scheduled until 11:30 the next day! So we talk to 3 different people and they work something out so that we can fly that night at 9:30. Chris' grandpa drives back to the airport to pick us up, we hang out at there house for a while, then he drives up back to the airport at around 7. We check in, go through security AGAIN, wait to board our plane, and we're finally in! We're seated, buckled in, and all ready to head home. An hour of waiting passes, and they announce that this flight has also been CANCELLED because one of the engines wasn't working! Chris is going nuts at this point and I'm just trying to stay calm and Lincoln was great through all of this. Our flight has now been RESCHEDULED for 3:30 pm the next day! Grandpa drives back to the airport to pick us up and we stay another night in Utah (without our luggage). This time we have a shuttle pick us up and take us to the airport (give poor grandpa a rest), check in, go through security yet again, wait to board, seated and buckled, and we're still crossing our fingers. YESSSS! We finally made home to good ol' California! It feels so good to be home.... the next day we were both sick in bed with the stomach flu!

hahahahahaha! It's funny now, but it sure wasn't at the time! What an adventure!

 It's snowing! this was our first attempt, so we're still happy

Lincoln slept the whole time.