Miss Ella has flipped our world upside down!

Ella may not be very old but she knows how to take charge of the household!  While we have moments of frustration, what new parents don't, she has been worth it all!  It still hasn't sunk in for us that she is all ours and no one is coming to take her away.  We are just taking everything one moment at a time and thankful for all the help and support that has been shown to us.  We would also like to thank everyone for the outpouring of love that we have gotten since bringing her home.

Snuggle Buddies

 

2 Week Check Up

Ella is growing and healthy! She is now up to 8lbs. 6oz. (42nd percentile) and 20.75" (60th percentile). She is doing well and has her next appointment at 2 months where she will have to get shots :(  We don't know if the Dr. she saw will be her regular one but we are hoping to see another one next time...one that won't call Ella a "he" even after being corrected multiple times. Ella did very well at the Dr. and we hope she will continue to be a champ at appointments. She didn't cry when she got her shots at birth so fingers crossed at 2 months it won't be too bad!

Happy Anniversary!!

It was our 3 year anniversary on Wednesday (7/24) and it has been a great 3 years with a lot of changes!  We have done a lot in 3 years and while not always easy, it has all been worth it!  We got to celebrate early when Mike and Toni were here and enjoyed a nice dinner at Catch 31 while they watched Ella, thank you again!!  Since it was during the week, we just enjoyed the evening together as a family and reflected on all we have done and anticipated what is yet to come. A great 3 years together and many more to come!!

Julie

Julie got offered a job at the school where she was a permanent substitute!  She will be the Library Media Assistant starting August 23rd and we are all very excited for this opportunity!  School will start September 3rd with the students in attendance. Julie is very excited to be at the same school and have a more steady schedule during the day. :)  We were VERY excited to get the phone call and thankful that Ella was stubborn so Julie could go to her interview 3 days prior to arriving!  Now we just have to see if Miss Ella will be in a good routine/schedule when school starts. In the meantime, Julie and Ella are at home holding down the fort while Curtis is at work :)

Curtis

Curtis got to have his paternity leave starting July 8, Happy Birthday Julie! Haha, and had to return to work on July 18.   Thankfully the first day back was a training day so Curtis could get back in the swing of things and thankfully he didn't forget anything from the month he was in school and his baby leave!  His officer candidate school packet was recently submitted for the intelligence program and now it is a waiting game to see if he will be selected for the program. Curtis also has his appointment set up to see if he will be getting his LASIK eye surgery at the end of August.  If all goes well he won't have to wear his glasses after Labor Day!

Family

We would like to thank family again for their help the first couple weeks, it was great to have everyone out here and wish it could have been for longer. 

We'd like to ask everyone to keep the USS Harry S Truman in their thoughts as they just left for a 8-9 month deployment on Monday. Jim (Curtis' brother) is on the Truman and this will hopefully be his last deployment. We are also waiting to hear if Jim will pick up Chief, fingers crossed!!  We are just very happy and thankful that Ella could meet her Uncle Jim before he left and the next time they see each other she will be doing a LOT more!

A family comparison...Julie, her mom, and Ella.
Julie is 3 months old, her mom 1 year old and Ella 1 day old

Ella is here!!

Photo collage made by The Portrait Studio at Oceana

Ella Grace Spencer arrived on July 4th 2013 at 11:36 PM (EST).  

She was 7 pounds 13 ounces and 19.5 inches.

Our Birth Story

We originally went to the hospital the night of July 3rd because Julie was having contractions 3-5 minutes apart for 2.5 hours.  When we got to the hospital, they hooked her up to a monitor which was only supposed to be for 20 minutes; it ended up being 3 hours!  Julie's contractions were starting to slow down so we were discharged and sent home at 1 AM.  The floor was also packed with other mothers which was another unfortunate reason we were sent home.  We were told to monitor the contractions and if they intensified or got closer together to come back in.

July 4th we all spent the day in bed watching movies to just relax and rest, especially since Julie was still having pretty strong contractions.  This day was like a kitty's dream come true! ;)  As the contractions stayed the same and got a little worse every now and then, we kept trying to relax and wait until they were worse and closer together like instructed.  Around 4pm the charge nurse called and asked if we wanted to come in early since we had been in the night before and we were still on the books for an induction on July 5th; Julie emphatically said YES.  As we started to get ready to the hospital, which is 20 minutes away without traffic, Julie's contractions definitely got worse and she was having troubles getting downstairs to get in the car.  As we got in the car, a flip switched and the contractions were NOT enjoyable.  The first thing Julie said when we got in the car was "don't get pulled over."  After that, her eyes were closed and focusing on breathing through the contractions while we tried to get to the hospital and hope for little traffic and no congestion in the tunnel.  Thankfully, traffic and the tunnel were not bad.  By the time we got to the hospital, Julie knew she wasn't going to be able to walk so we had to get a wheel chair to get her up to the 4th floor.  

Up at Labor and Delivery, we were quickly brought back and had about 8 different nurses trying to help us get settled and see what was going on.  When they checked Julie they said she was fully dilated and fully effaced; her water still had not broken.  One nurse even came in and asked Julie if she had wanted a natural birth and some how Julie managed to say "NO!"  At this point, they were rushing her to an actual labor and delivery room because they thought Ella would be there within the hour, uh oh!  We both begged the doctors and nurses to get Julie something for the pain because it was not looking good.  Eventually, an anesthesiologist came in with 3 different options for Julie, 1. nothing 2. spinal block which would last about 1.5 hours but take the pain away or 3. wait 30-45 minutes for lab work to come back to see if we could have an epidural and then wait at least 30 minutes for it to kick in.  Julie selected option number 2 which was the best out of the 3 considering the amount of time we were believed to have.  Now, keep in mind, we had checked in at 5:10pm.  Once Julie got the spinal block, it was night and day for her!  (She was updating people on Facebook and playing games against family on her phone!) What a difference it made!!  We were both VERY happy to have found relief to make it a little easier and now it was a matter of waiting to see what would happen and if Ella would arrive before the block wore off.  The block started to wear off and we asked about getting it again but they said they were just about to do a C section on another patient so they might be able to do an epidural now that we had more time.  Hurray! Julie gets here epidural after all!  One thing we can't remember is whether they broke her water before or after the block and epidural. Either way, epidural was a go around 8:15 and now we waited and labored down to let gravity do its thing. We had the iPad with us and had Pandora playing which made us the hit of labor and delivery. Everyone that came in loved our mix and kept coming in for more. At one point, the nurse and us were all singing along and bopping our heads to the music while we waited. It wasn't until 10 or 10:30 that we were getting ready to push. They asked Julie if she was ready and each time she said "I don't think I have a choice!"

Julie did a great job pushing and with some assistance of forceps, Ella arrived at 11:36 PM!

Ella was taken care of by the team of pediatricians and was given the all clear. Her first bath was done by Curtis with the help of one of the corpsman. He did a GREAT job!! We got to hold Ella for about an hour and then she got her shots and took them like a pro, no crying! 

After a couple hours we were transferred to the Mother Baby Ward were we stayed until Sunday, July 7th. We had a great set of nurses taking care of all of us but Nurse Beth was our favorite!!!!

Here is our chubby cheeked little girl after she was born...

July 4, 2013

 Ready to go home...

July 7, 2013

We have already had Karen & Lynette (Curtis' step mom and sister) and Mike & Toni (Julie's dad and his girlfriend) out to visit and help us out.  Uncle Jim has also been able to stop by for a couple days before going out on deployment to meet Miss Ella.  We are VERY thankful for all that they have done and the time we got to spend with them.  We wish everyone was able to stay longer but unfortunately the rest of the real world calls :-\  We will continue to update the blog the best we can but for now, we hope you enjoy Ella's birth story!!

Hurry Up & Wait!

Is Ella here yet? Click to find out...

LAST Appointment Update
Julie's last appointment was on Monday and now Ella can either arrive on her own terms or she starts getting evicted on July 5th.  At the appointment there was progress!! Ella has dropped and Julie is just a little bit more ready!! We were very excited by the news and thankful for this practitioner over last weeks. Ella is late for her own party so we will see what she decides to do.  We are also wondering if we will miss the 4th of July out here again but at least Ella is a better reason to miss it than the moving truck arriving with all of our belongings!  Next step is waiting and a non stress test on July 4th before the induction on the 5th. Of course Ella COULD change that plan but it is up to her. Apparently she missed the memo of when to arrive but apparently she wants to come out with a bang. Yes, cheesy 4th of July humor!

Julie
Julie is still just taking it easy and relaxing while trying to be productive at the same time.  She finally got a wreath done that she has been meaning to work on for months...

Julie did have an interview Tuesday morning at her school for a Library Media Assistant position so fingers crossed!  Other than that, Julie is just doing some last minute touches to make sure we are ready for Ella and family to come visit.  It is hard to believe that by this weekend, Ella will be here.  Time has flown by!  She keeps thinking there is something that needs to be done but can't seem to find anything. Julie isn't used to this free time during summer, good thing Ella will take care of that!

Curtis
Curtis went back to his command on Monday and will have a shortened week!  Not a bad way to come back to his command and start a work week out. :)  It has been kind of disappointing for Curtis to not come home for lunch during the day but we all took advantage of the extra time during school while we could! Going back to the flight line was pretty easy for Curtis and he didn't forget how to do anything! The command picnic is today, rain or shine, and at the moment it is rain. Here is hoping for the sun to come out so we can enjoy the picnic more.  Maybe Ella will think the picnic is a party for her and will decide it is time?! For now, Curtis is doing his best, along with Julie, to be patient as our stubborn girl decides what she is doing.

The Nursery/Guest Room
We are currently planning on moving at the end of August or beginning of September, when our lease is up, to base housing or a bigger place in the community that will give us a little extra space.  As of right now it is leaning towards base housing but we will see what happens!  Base housing for us won't actually be on base since Curtis is enlisted and here at Oceana only officers live on actual base housing.  Confused?  It is okay, promise!  ANYWAY!  The point of all that is that unfortunately a LOT of Ella's decorations won't be up on the walls since they will just be coming down very shortly anyway.  We decided it would be smarter to keep her decorations in their boxes/containers to make the move easier.  Julie is VERY excited and anxious to put them up on the walls but knows there is no point in patching up a few extra holes for just a couple months.  If we were going to be in the same town home longer, we would GLADLY be putting up nursery pictures that we know some of you have been patiently waiting for.  To kind of make up for it, here is a picture of the crib all set up and decorated with stuffed animals!

Ella will be staying in our room in the bassinet/pack n play to start so all the stuffed animals get to be all cozy in her crib until she makes the transition.  :)