Elliot Nelson Bell

Elliot Nelson Bell joined our family Thursday November 3, 2011 at 1:01 pm. He was 3 lbs 12 oz and extremely adorable. Even though he sounds really tiny and he is, he really doesn't look too small. (probably just prespective) He looks a lot like Liberty did when she was born. He definitely has the Bell nose and mouth, but his eyes look like they are more shaped like mine, plus he has a my earlobes (Richards are attached). Most important though, He is doing GREAT! He is totally off oxygen and breathing on his own, and just has an IV in and is being closely monitored in the NICU. We get to go see him a few times a day (whenever we want really). We like to go see him when the nurses feed and change him and we usually get to hold him and help with those things. The doctors and nurses tell me he is a little fighter and keep telling me how well he is doing. His billirubin was up, so in some of the pictures it's bluish, which is just a special light that helps him get better. He sucks on a pacifier really well which surprised me and is really adorable too. It will help when he starts eating without help (he has a little feeding tube that goes up his nose down to his little tummy). It's interesting learning about the differences in preemie babies. Some of the things that feel natural to do with a newborn aren't recommended with preemies since they need to use all their energy to grow. Rocking them and stroking and rubbing aren't recommended and its hard not to do those things. Holding him and touching him without stroking and talking to him are good though, so it's not as if we there isn't any interaction.

I am doing really well NOW. It has certainly been an interesting and hard week in every way. I get to go home tomorrow though. It's amazing how my body seemed to get better just by getting little Elliot out of me. I was diagnosed with severe preclampisa before Elliot was born and then it changed to another severe form of preclampsia called HELLP after I delivered because my liver enzymes went really high and my blood platelets went really low combined with the high blood pressure. They did transfusions on me that came from Salt Lake. It was pretty crazy and horrible and I am soooooooooooo glad that everything is pretty much back to normal now. The doctors are pretty confused at why this happened to me since really there was no warning signs or risk factors. I guess I am just special and now I will be at higher risk for any future pregnancies (which will probably be a long way away after this ordeal, as much as I love this little guy it has been the hardest thing in the world). I also have decided that nurses are the closest thing on earth to angels. I don't know how they do it and how they can seem so happy and calm and helpful all the time when the things they are dealing with would both stress me out and gross me out. I love them and am serious about how angelic they are.

Liberty has been doing well in spite of all the craziness. I can tell she misses me and I miss her so much. A few hours a day in a weird room mostly sitting in a hospital bed is not enough time for me. I know it's been good for my body and stress level to be here recovering but it is also really hard to be away from home and to try to let her know why I am here. My mom and Richard and the Andrus/Higginsons has all been great help.

update-ish and weird dr story

So the only things I can get on to are email and blogger, so it kind of cuts out time wasters like facebook and pinterest, which is a little annoying and I get a litte bored. I did a quick update on Facebook using Julie's phone yesterday and now I'm curious to see the million responses that I'm sure have entrailed. Well, most family know the little bit of updates we've had (which aren't much today). The drs are pretty baffled by my body. My blood tests have gone back to normal levels, I don't have any more pain, I don't fit any of the normal risk factors for pre-clampsia, etc, but then the 24 hr urine tests were off the charts for severe preclampsia. (300-5000 is considered preclampsia, anything above 5000 is severe, I was in the 6000 range). Today, since I had been doing so well otherwise they cut my magnesium dosage down in 1/2 today, which was wonderful. It made me really weak and contributed to the blurred vision, which is much better now. It was really a relaxing day. Libby and my mom came for a few hours this morning which was awesome. Brittany and Evalyn stopped by for a bit and Richard came for awhile (where we were once again unsuccessful at naming this child). I watched some movies and was generally pampered all day by the wonderful nursing staff. Last night I got a blessing and all the drs and nurses have been pretty reassuring and good at explaining things to me so I feel pretty calm about the whole ordeal and I feel like everything is going to be fine. My blood pressure is still a bit higher than normal, but mostly stablizing, and I feel pretty relaxed. The day went by really fast.

So one of the drs here is really socially awkward and has horrible bedside manner. One of the times he was asking how I was doing he started asking me about heartburn. During my 1st pregnancy I had horrible heartburn everynight for more than 1/2 the pregnancy. This pregnancy, I've had a little but not every night and not as bad on the nights i've had it. I explained this to the dr when he asked and he wanted to know what I took for it (tums). Then he wanted to prescribe something a little better that would be more effective and was trying to tell me the horrible stabbing pain I had was related to my heartburn and he was going to get me medicine. I was confused and insisted this was not heartburn. Luckily no one ever brought me any heartburn meds b/c I would have probably refused. He also will just stare at me for long periods of time without saying anything, it's super awkward and I witnesses who agree to the uncomfortablness, so it's not just me being awkward. Yesterday I think it was, he came in and stared at me for awhile when I had a bunch of visitors here and finally was like "so you're feeling good now?". The nurse was standing right there and promptly replied "look at her, does she look like she's feeling good? no, she feels like crap!" it made me laugh a little and I'm glad she was there. It's not like I was dying in pain or anything, but obviously I'm not feeling great if I'm in the hospital on bedrest. I don't think he really said anything else the whole time he was here either. It was weird. Anyways, the other dr I see is much more relateable and easy to talk to, so I'm trying to request him to deliver me. I'm sure they are both competent and good doctors, just one may lack a few social skills.

the kids room

I know Libby will be a good sister. She loves her babies and is always making sure they are wrapped up and fed and their hair brushed, etc. I love seeing her snuggle them. So cute.

Somebody really liked graham crackers with frosting on them. Any guesses who?

I'm really liking how the kids room has turned out, so far. I made the curtains, crib sheet and bumper and repainted the bookcase (not pictured) and dresser. We found the rug at Ikea (which I realized is not pictured, but it's royal blue and kind of shag) and Libby's bedding is from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Coplan, which obviously is a big hit with this Elmo fan. It's a fun bright room and I like it.

Trick or Treat?

I clearly remember always choosing treat in this situation, but today has not turned out quite like that. But first we will show some fun treats and Halloween festivities b/c Libby is cute. Monday for FHE we carved a pumpkin. Richard was unfortunately gone for most of Halloween festivities b/c his Geology class had a field trip early Thursday morning till late Saturday night. They went down to Utah and dug for fossils and camped, etc. Anyways, Saturday we Libby and I got to trick or treat around a little shopping center in Rexburg with the Higginsons and Andrus's. Libby was pretty thrilled about the candy and free cookies, apple cider, and pumpkin bread (I was too, delicious). We got to see some cool pumpkins and other kids dressed up. Libby was creeped out a bit by a lady dressed up as a witch, but mostly enjoyed it. Later we had our ward Halloween party which was pretty fun, I got a few pictures of that.

Liberty LOVES pumpkins. She will talk about them all day, I'm serious. We can't go out the door without saying hi to the pumpkin.

She enjoyed playing with the pumpkin guts but was too afraid to stick her hand in the pumpkin

Ward Halloween party in her Monkey costume

All the one year olds loved the pumpkin bowling set up and carried the paper towel bowling pins around the room. Libby actually rolled the pumpkin over to them and would knock them down one at a time.

The bean bag toss was a huge hit for the toddlers as well. This is LIbby with her best friends Jace and Evalyn

Libby is "helping" me make chocolate sugar cookies for our halloween play group party to take place Halloween morning. After she punched a shape in, she immediately tried to grab some dough to eat.

Picture from the Halloween party at our house. (that I sadly had to miss)

Me and Libby yesterday Oct 30, before any tricks happened. I can't access facebook to put up a picture of me in my awesome costume, so maybe i'll add it later.

SO on to the TRICKS. (sorry if it's jumbled, I'm on drugs and it's pretty late) Halloween morning around 1:45 am I woke up, which isn't terribly unusual b/c this happens a million times a night b/c being pregnant is very uncomfortable. At first I thought I was hungry, it had been quite awhile since I'd eaten anything, so I went to eat a bagel. After walking to the kitchen I felt like someone stabbed me in the gut (not the preggo belly, but just above). It hurt so bad. I thought it was a sudden onset of the flu or something b/c I had that a couple months ago and I did feel pretty nauseus. After a couple minutes I decided this was not the flu and woke Richard up. He called the dr and gave me a blessing. The dr wanted me to come in in the morning, but said if it got worse we could go to the ER. I tried to lay down and get comfy and walked around a bunch b/c I felt like my heart was racing. After an hour I told Richard I couldn't handle it any more and we were going to the hospital. Luckily we have great friends who are willing to come sleep on our couch at 3:30 am so we didn't have to wake up sweet Libby. My blood pressure was really really high (which it's never been) when I got in and I was in a ton of pain. (way worse than labor with Libby). They didn't want to give me any meds till they did labs and waited for the dr. I think it was about 2 more hours and I was not myself. Once I got some meds though, I felt like a person again. At first they thought it had to do with my liver and was  form of pre-clampsia called HELLP, which can be really serious and dangerous. I'm not sure exactly why it was ruled out, but now they have decided it is Toxemia which basically means my body is fighting the pregnancy. The drs said this is weird since i have already had a kid, I guess it's more normal for a first pregnancy and basically all the other risk factors do not fit my situation at all, guess I'm just special. The whole time though the baby has been fine, moving around with a nice strong heartbeat. He's a little trooper. So I am probably going to have this baby sometime tomorrow. My blood pressure has been all over the place today and my kidneys are leaking too much protein in the urine. I don't really think I can explain everything b/c most of it has gone over my head. It's been quite the stressful day and definitly not what I had on my agenda for the week. It was kind of weird b/c last week i felt like I really shoudl read up about c-sections just in case. I've talked about them with people who've had them, but really never read exactly what they do when they cut you open. I know they are pretty routine and I wasn't worried about it too much, but I feel better having read what I did, especially b/c that is most likely the route we'll take this week.
The little dude still needs a name, but I'm sure it will come. He'll be 6 1/2 weeks early and probably weigh around 4 lbs and have to be in the NICU for 2-4 weeks so he can finish developing. I got a steroid shot earlier today to help his lungs develop faster and they said that should really speed up his time in the NICU.  I can't wait to see the little guy even if we aren't even close to being ready for him. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll stay inside me for a few more weeks.
I sure miss Libby though. I only saw her for a few minutes today which is sure a change from my day. I am so thankful to have great friends to watch her and also am so happy she's such an easy going kid and was so good for everyone today. Oh and I'm very very happy my mom was able to switch her schedule around and is coming tomorrow to help out. We are pretty lucky around here.

Bowling and black light mini golf

On Friday we got together with some good friends and to Fat Cats. there was a good deal where you could get 1 hr of bowling, a round of mini golf, pizza & soda, so we all pitched in. It was quite fun. I think we were all amazed at Richard's hidden bowling talents. He seriously schooled the rest of us. I'm pretty sure I was the worst as usual. Anyways, fun pics.

Matching bellies!

Libby thinks she's strong enough to hold a bowling ball by herself

Jeffrey, Brittany and Evalyn (Libby and Evalyn play together almost everyday, it's fun)

Michael, Julie and cutie patootie Zachary

Janae and Zach

In the black light golf course

30 weeks

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant. That means in less than 10 weeks I will be a mom of 2! I admit, I am freaking out about that a little bit. That's really soon and I don't think I'm ready for 2 kids. I'm ready to be done being pregnant though. I feel huge and uncomfortable and my fingers and toes are starting to swell up a little. I get to have another ultrasound in 2 weeks to check on baby boys size. (still working on a name for him) I'm excited for that. I'm sure he's fine, but the Dr said I was measuring small at my last appointment so we're just gonna make sure everything is good. At my other ultrasound they told me there might be a little extra monitoring b/c he as a 2 vessel umbilical cord rather than the normal 3 vessel cord. They also said this is rarely a problem though and most babies are just fine; reading about it seemed to say the same thing, not to worry. I think this little guy is just hiding inside me well and that's why my belly measured small. Here's a picture of me at 28 weeks

In other news: It snowed yesterday. It was 80 degrees on Monday....Idaho has stupid weather. What happened to Fall? I was looking forward to at least a few weeks of 60 degree fall weather. Rude.

I started making a list of words libby can say. I'm up to 125 words and that doesn't include the letters of the alphabet she knows or any animal sounds.....Genious child, right? or just very talkative. :)

Big Girl Libby

Liberty is getting so big! We can hardly believe how much she's changed. Things she can do now.

-Identify the colors correctly: red, orange, pink, yellow, green, blue, black, purple (pretty much adorable)
-Starting 2 word sentences ex: "cool daddy", "baby walk"(meaning there's a baby on a walk in a stroller), "blue block", "pink yogurt"
-Probably says close to 100 words (at her 18 mo check up they asked if she could say 7-20 words....that day while I was cooking I thought of 65+ off the top of my head and she's learned a bunch more since then....so I think we're good there)
-Identifies about 5+ letters of the alphabet
-Repeats everything (now we really have to watch what we say, right)
-Doesn't cry when I take a shower (she seriously cried everyday for months when I'd shower, even if Richard was home....it was ridiculous and I am SOOOOO happy she's over that)
-Almost always feeds herself, sometimes with utensils, but often with her fingers. She is mastering the fork and spoon though, when she wants to. She also drinks out of a cup-hardly ever spilling
-Can sit through a decent amount of a disney movie. Probably not a great thing, but if I can get dinner made without her climbing my legs, I can't help but turn one on sometimes.
-Understands most things we ask her to do
-Helps pick up her toys or food she's thrown....most of the time
-Goes to nursery happily and plays well with the other kid (yes, there's only 1 other kid in our nursery, sad but true)
-Makes funny faces on command
-Favorite thing to do is throw rocks in the canal and bring rocks home. She also LOVES going on walks in the stroller and asks to go on them all the time.
-Plays hide and seek with Daddy.....kind of. She thinks it's funny even if it's not really how you play.
-She loves bathtime. She will "swim" in the bathtub and thinks it's hilarious to lay on her back with just her face above water. It makes washing her hair much easier and it's funny to watch her.
-She loves the toilet.....sometimes in a good way, meaning she will go potty on it and sometimes in a bad way meaning she throws everything in it and dips her hands in it, which is disgusting. We have a toilet lock on there now, which is helping when I remember to lock it.
-She loves the halloween decorations and is currently in love with pumpkins. She is also very excited to wear her costume. I'll probably let her wear it sometime this week, since it's cooled down finally. I made (with some help from my mom) a monkey costume for her. Since deciding to make it she has discovered a love for Curious George, which is perfect. She is going to be George (which is probably my favorite word she says) and Richard is going to be "the man in the yellow hat". Still need to find some yellow rainpants or something for Richard (maybe dye some ugly pants from DI). They will be pretty cool together. Sadly there aren't really any other characters for me to be, but I'll think of something. I have a few easy ideas.

Liberty also now sleeps in her toddler bed! During the day she loved climbing on it, especially after getting the elmo bedding from Grandma. At night though if I tried to lay her in there instead of the crib, she would cry and climb off and I would give in and put her in the crib. It's not like we even have a baby to put in the crib anyway, so I wasn't too rushed about it. We are planning on getting a new crib though since everytime I try to move it, it kind of comes apart.....not really the safest thing in the world. Richard decided it was time to really try though and tonight is night 3 in the bed, plus 2 naps. The first night we didn't think she'd sleep in there. Richard had to hold the door closed while she cried and tried to get out. Then we could tell she was still crying, but figured she was laying on the floor by the door. She quieted down within 5-10 minutes and an hour or 2 later we decided to risk peeking in on her (her door is very squeaky and she's a light sleeper, so I don't allow this very often). Upon peeking, we were surprised to see her in her bed with her head on her pillow!!! She stayed there all night and in the morning she didn't get out until I went in to get her. I let her chat away in her bed for 15 minutes or so like always and one of the first things I heard her say over the moniter was "ice cream, treat". I had told her that if she slept in her bed all night she could have ice cream.....I intended on giving her some, but I did not expect her to remember in the morning. She's a smart girl though, so I shouldn't have been surprised. Now when we put her in there, she jabbers for awhile, like usual, then goes to sleep and stays in the bed till we get her after she wakes up. It's amazing! We are proud of her, but it is a little sad to think our baby is growing up.

Sorry for bragging a lot, but we are really proud of our little Liberty. She is so cute and smart and hilarious. She makes us laugh all the time. So it's not always pure joy in our house. She sure knows how to test my patience, especially when I'm exhausted from being pregnant, but it's all worth it to see her grow and learn new things.  To fully make her a big girl before the baby comes, we need to potty train her.....something I'm not really looking forward to. We have sort of tried already and she likes it, but it's kind of exhausting. she seriously peed through 3 pair of underwear in an hour and went a few times on the toilet during that time, how much can that little bladder hold? Anyways,  I'm on a different computer than normal so no pics. Soon though. I want to show pics of Libby and "baby boy"'s room transformation. It's coming along nicely, mostly just need to paint over the pink bookshelf and dresser.