Ella Mary Nelson joined the family on 10/29 at 5:46 PM. She is a big girl, 9 lbs. 3 oz. at birth, 21 1/4 inches long. She has a lot of dark hair like her big brother did when he was born.

Amy called me at work on Friday afternoon to let me know she was pretty sure she was in early labor. That got me pacing in the office and extremely eager to get home. I made it through my appointments both at the trusty unit and at Lewis and Clark, then got home. Nothing had progressed. I was kind of anticipating getting woken up at 2 AM, but that didn't happen either. We both got to bed fairly early (10 or 10:30) because I think Amy was expecting it as well.

On Saturday, we just kind of went about our normal routine. I noticed Amy going to the bathroom a lot more, so that made me a bit nervous as a friend delivered in the bathroom. Anyway, to keep from pacing and letting my anxiety leak out, I ended up preparing pumpkins for carving. Got the patterns transferred on all the pumpkins we are doing this year before Amy called her doctor to get her headed to the hospital. When Amy called, she told the doctor the contractions were 5-10 minutes apart - they were actually closer to 5. Amy also called her doula and the woman who was going to stay with the kids. By the time the doula got here, the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, lasting 30-40 seconds each. A little before 5, the contractions were 2 minutes apart and lasting about 50 seconds. We headed to the hospital. The kids didn't come along as they'd originally planned, opting to stay at home.

By the time we got Amy to the hospital and checked, she was 9 cm. Wasn't much later that she was feeling the need to push. About 30 minutes after that, Ella was out. Only scary moment was when Ella's shoulders got hung up. I saw the look in the doctor's eyes (worry, not panic) and got a bit worried myself. Amy did great though. She found the strength for a big push and got Ella through.

So far, everyone seems to like her name. She is nursing like a champ. It sucked being stuck in the hospital for 24 hours, (25 with daylight savings ending) but the staff there was okay. No one said a word about my setting up an air mattress on the floor to sleep on or about the kids being in there.

My brother and his family, my dad, and Amy's mom all came yesteray. Amy's mom stayed the night, which was great. I'm taking all of this week, probably parts of next off to get adjusted to our new and improved family.