Ella is 1 Week Old

Ella is one week old today!! She is doing great and continues to be an easy baby. She sleeps and eats well and spends her awake time enjoying looking around (especially at lights).

Monday she had her first sponge bath at home. She enjoyed seeing herself in the mirror and the bright lights above.

The older kids have all been out of town this week, so it's been a peaceful adjustment to her being home. Everytime I talk to Catherine she asks how Baby Ella is doing. I think the kids will be excited to come home to her on Saturday- let's just hope she's as excited about the chaos to come :)

Enjoy the new pics.
The mom.

Ella at Home

Here are a few new pics of Ella since she's come home. Adjustment has been tough, but we are getting there. Mostly I had hoped to just spring back into action once I got home and my body just isn't letting me yet. Fortunately Ella is great. She eats well, sleeps well and even is the first newborn I've met that enjoys her "play time". She will literally spend 2-3 hours just kicking on the floor and looking around. Hers days and nights aren't mixed up at all and although she does wake up to eat at night, she immediately falls right back to sleep.

The kids are currently spending time with grandparents (Harbin in Florida and the girls in Chattanooga), so that's helping to relax and spend time adjusting.

On a different note, Scott has recently started back to work. About a week ago he received Active Duty orders from the army and is now working full time in Marietta training the rest of his National Guard unit in preparation for deployment next summer. It's been quite a shock to us and we are sad that he won't be teaching again this year. We were super happy with his commute and loved being able to surround ourselves with the high school community. The nice thing is that he kind of sets his own schedule and he will have Fridays off, so that will be a change that will be fun. We hope to keep up going to the football games and other sporting events since we are so close and hopefully maintain our ties with the high school as much as possible. This week is a week of tough adjustments, so just be praying for us as we get used to it all. We've never had a baby and not had some major adjustment at the same time, so I guess we should have seen it coming!

Anyways, enjoy the new pics and stay tuned for more this week as I have a little time before the kids return home!

The mom.
(PS- thanks to the new EOD unit for the delicious Edible Arrangement. As you can see in the pic, the older kids loved it!)

The kids welcome, their not-so-little sister...

Ella Rozelle
Born July 22, 2010 2:20am
9 pounds 14 ounces
22.5 inches

Well 4 impatient days after her due date, Ella arrived late Wednesday night/Thursday morning. She was a HEALTHY almost 10 pounds and very long.

I spent the afternoon having some minor, but very regular contractions and finally about 5:00 we decided to page the doctor. Two hours later, after loading hospital bags, unsuccessfully looking for kids shoes, dropping the older kids off at mom's and sitting in traffic, we checked in at the hospital. I was about 4-5cm dilated when we checked in and they decided that was enough to keep me.

I was debating the epidural (yes, you'd think by #4, I would know if I wanted one or not!), but after about an hour or so my contractions started spacing apart and they prescribed some pitocin. As soon as I heard that, I asked for the epidural and started progressing from there. By midnight, I was 7cm dilated and most of the Tinney family started to arrive. Mom stayed at home with our kids until we called to let her know I was starting to push.

Once it was time to push, everything went quickly. As with the other kids, I was able to push only 2 times before she was out!! The nurses kept saying I'd had a 10 pounder, but considering all my other kids were barely over 7, I didn't believe them. I was wrong! She was nearly 10 pounds and an inch longer than Harbin was when he was born- probably why they could see her head coming out and I could still feel her kicking me in the ribs!!! She is over the 97th percentile for both height and weight and the 88th for head circumference. To give you an idea, if she stays the same height until she's 2 months old, she'd still be in the 35th percentile!

The kids were able to come in not long after she was born. They were sleepy and a little overwhelmed, so we mostly let them meet their sister, see me in the bed and then head back to our house for a good night's sleep.

They came back the next morning and seemed to be much more excited about the arrival of Ella. Lydia is cutting some 2 year molars and was in a bit of pain, so she was ony interested in kissing Ella, but the other two were excited to get to hold her. Although we kept sayng how big she was, Harbin still thought she looked little. She tolerated all the attention very well and slept most of the day despite doctors, nurses and visitors.

We were able to come home the next morning about lunchtime. The kids met us at the house- Lydia cried when Lolli and Pop brought them to the house because she didn't understand that we had brought Ella home already- she wanted to go to the "ospital".

Anyways, they are loving their little sister and are big helpers with trying to help keep the paci in. Ella is adjusting well and is a good eater and sleeper. Hopefully I will be able to post again soon, but for now enjoy the pics. I have posted a link on the right of the blog with all the hosptial pictures!

Mom-to-4