Travelogue: The Past Two Weeks in Review

Hi All--
It looks like it's time for us to update again...it's been two weeks. I have a feeling this will probably be the norm for us.

These past few weeks have been quite busy for all of us. On October 21st, at the tender age of three weeks and one day, Ella began her very first road trip! Dusty had residency interviews in Iowa City and Omaha, so we thought we'd tag along. I was more than a little nervous about the 13-hour drive with a newborn and a dog, but Dusty and I decided we'd give it a whirl, figuring it'd be an adventure at the very least. It went beautifully! We stopped every 3-4 hours to feed Ella and stretch our legs, etc, but the trip went rather quickly. Iowa City is BEAUTIFUL! The rolling hills and corn fields are certainly not the type of scenery we're used to, but they have their own kind of beauty and Dusty and I decided we'd love to live in Iowa. Omaha, however, was quite a bit less appealing, aesthetically speaking. It could be that I really only saw the industrial area and the downtown area, which was surprisingly scary considering it's only Nebraska...

This past Friday Dusty left for an interview in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We were sad that he had to miss Ella's first Halloween, but it was rather uneventful. Dusty really liked Ann Arbor and insists the area is at least as nice as Iowa City. Ella, Abby, and I were not able to go with him this time, so we'll have to take his word for it. : )

Ella has such a little personality already. She really is quite independent and particular. She wants to be held all the time, but only the certain way she's currently favoring. This is always a bit tricky because there doesn't seem to be a pattern to her holding demands. She HATES being swaddled. She also doesn't like any position that limits her ability to flail her little arms and legs around. Hey, I don't blame her. I know I hate it when someone pins my arms and legs to my sides and wraps me like an eggroll...

Lately, she's been skipping her naps. She wants to eat, be held for three hours, eat again, etc. This is making it quite difficult for me to get things done around the house. Thankfully, Dusty has been around quite a bit, so we take turns holding and accomplishing. When we finally are able to rock her to sleep, it's another challenge to put her down without her waking up and screaming for us ingrates to rescue her immediately. She's definitely got a mind of her own, but we wouldn't want it any other way.

Here is a selection of her most recent pictures. We're wondering what color her eyes are going to end up. As you'll see, sometimes they look dark blue, and other's they're brown...What do you think?

We like to call this Blue Steel. She learned it from Derick Zoolander himself.

We're not quite sure how she manages to sleep in this position night after night.

I know this is a bit blurry, but it's one of her best smile pictures. Here are the rest:

And on to Halloween:

This cute onesie was a present from one of Mama's co-workers.

The adorable socks are from Oma and Opa.

This is part of the halloween costume.

And here's the hat. She actually screamed nearly the entire time I was trying to take pictures, so I'm going to try to get her decked-out again. Hopefully, we can get some happy shots of our little bunny.

And these next two aren't really Halloween pictures, per se, but they do have a certain frightening motif.

Here, we see father and daughter snoozing happily...

Or so we thought. Little did we know that our sweet bundle of joy, our precious Ella, has also been secretly preparing for a role in

The Bride of Chucky.

Scary.

Life with Ella

Okay, so I realize that it has been nearly two weeks since we last posted. I'm sorry to all of you blog stalkers who have been desperately waiting for updates (you know who you are).

We are all doing great. It has been so wonderful to have family around. My mom came for the first week, then Lisa came for the second week. Megan then came down for a few days to visit. They were all SO helpful. I can't imagine doing it without them around.

Ella is now almost three weeks old and she truly is a great baby. She is hardly ever fussy, and she loves to sleep...what more could a mom want?

I LOVE being a mother. I look at the path I've taken over the past ten years (college, marriage, pregnancy, etc.) and I can't believe how blessed I've been then whole way through. Heavenly Father has given me such a great life and family. I'm just so grateful.

Several nights ago I was up with Ella for one of her mid-night feedings, feeling pretty exhausted, and I had an interesting thought--I realized that I was just beginning to understand what a complete sacrifice it is to be a parent, particularly a mother. I've been a mother for three weeks now and it is very tiring. And this is just the beginning. It makes me so grateful for the sacrifices of my own mother and Dusty's mom who have done this multiple times and done it extremely well. I don't think I have ever loved my mom more than I do now as I'm beginning to understand the kind of love she has for me...the kind of love that takes years to develop. Years of service and sacrifice. John 15:13 says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Motherhood truly gives women the opportunity to experience the great love of the Savior--true Christlike love. I've always wondered how mothers become so wonderful...now I know.

Apparently Ella's not too pleased with her dream...

But she loves sleeping in the carseat. Here, she's ready to go shopping with her mom and Oma.

And her sleepsack. Let me just say this is a complete lifesaver for parents whose babies HATE being swaddled.

Sleeping with her papa.

I love this picture...her hands are just too cute!

Papa with his baby girl.

And her first (and last) sponge bath. As you can see, it was not a very popular activity.

Dusty and his three girls.

This is one of the adorable things Ella does that her mom LOVES...the two feet together. Yummy!

Ella's First Week cont...

First week

Pictures from Ella's first week in the world...


Day of discharge


Discovering her fingers

Arriving home

With grandma Julie

With dad

Para los que hablan Castellano...

Siento mucho el hecho de que no he podido detallar los párrafos anteriores, pero siendo papá ocupa bastante tiempo. Aquí voy a repitir en Español las cosas más importantes para entender la significancia de las fotos.

Las fotos ultrasonográficas empiezen desde el primer mes del embarazo. El el tercer mes descrubrimos con el ultrasonido que tenia parte del cuello muy agrandecido--algo que indica un posible defecto en las cromosomas (como el síndrome de Down) o un defecto en el corazón. En los meses siguientes tuvimos varios examens por ultrasonido que nos probaron que no tenía ningún defecto ni en el corazón ni tampoco en las cromosomas.

Hay algunas fotos de tres dimensiones que nos enseñaron su cara muchas semanas antes del nacimiento.

Las fotos del nacimiento se explican sin muchas palabras, así que no voy escribir descripciones aquí. Si alguien tiene pregunta alguna, envíeme un email y le enviaré la descripción.

Lauren es una mujer muy increíble. Habiendo sido el médico para más de dos docenas de partos durante mi capacitación de médico, tengo la experiencia para decir que Lauren sin duda soportó el parto mejor que cualquier otra mujer que he visto. Cuando empezó a empujar sólo necesitó 26 minutos para dar a luz--increíble por ser su primer parto.

Cuando era más joven, nunca entendía a las mujeres. Siempre me preguntaba como las mujeres pueden existir sin vivir constantemente con celos a los hombres--los hombres son más fuertes, más masculinos, más divertidos (en mi opinión inmadura). Hoy día me di cuenta de que las mujeres poseen algo muy especial que nunca entendía--algo que es más especial que cualquier atributo que pueda poseer el hombre. Este algo es la conección especial que tienen las madres con sus niños. El hecho de sacrificar el bienestar de su cuerpo y 9 meses de su vida para hacer crecer el niño es algo que los padres nunca podemos comprender completamente. Después del nacimiento las madres pueden alimentar a los niños al darles pecho, que es otra conección especial que no tienen los padres. Para ser muy honesto, tengo un poquito de celos de que no puedo alimentar a mi hija y que no tengo la misma concección con ella como mi esposa. Las madres son seres muy especiales--el sacrificio que ofrecen durante el embarazo y durante el parto es algo que los hombre de verdad no podemos apreciar completamente--algo que quisiera entender sin poder. Desde mi punto de vista, es un poco triste no poder compartir el sacrificio que mi esposa dió porque quiero compartir esa conección especial.

Para todas las madres, especialmente Luzbi y Carmen quienes son madres muy especiales para mi, les agradezco su sacrificio, y siempre tendré celos de lo que han podido hacer como madres y lo que nunca podré hacer como hombre.

Estadisticas del nacimiento de Ella Joyce Richardson (pronunciado Ela Yois)

Nació a las 7:36 de la noche el 29 de Setiembre del 2008 en la ciudad de Denver en el estado de Colorado en los Estados Unidos de América en el hospital Presbyterian-San Lucas

3685 gramos de peso

19 pulgadas (appx. 48.25 cm) de largo

Circumferencia de cabeza de 13.5 pulgadas

Y muy bonita--es mi preciosa

Birth Stats:

Born at 7:36 pm on 9/29/08 in Denver, CO at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Hospital

8 lbs 2 oz

Head circumference 13.5 in

19 inches long


Labor:

Lauren was awesome! When admitted for induction we were excited to find out that she was already dilated to 2 cm and was 80% effaced, -2 station (which we attribute to walking, swimming, and acupuncture). Her membranes were stripped upon admission at 8 pm on Sunday 9/28 and regular contractions started. At midnight she was given 1 misoprostol. By 4 am she was dilated to 3.5 cm and still 80% effaced, -2 station. The Pitocin drip was started and she received an epidural catheter for anesthesia after being given 2 liters of lactated Ringer's solution. Lauren's blood pressure had been high during the last trimester of pregnancy (the indication for induction) and in spite of the fluids it fell to 100/50 with the epidural anesthesia. With the Pitocin stimulating contractions the baby's heart tracing became less reactive and she had some late decelerations (a sign that the baby isn't getting enough oxygen through the placenta). The pitocin was stopped at about 5 am and she received another 2 liters of fluid. Her blood pressure increased to about 120/70 and the fetal heart tracing was more reassuring at about 6 am and she was dilated to 4 cm and still 80% effaced with -2 station. Even off the Pitocin she was regularly contracting so it was left off. At 7 am on 9/29 external monitors were changed to internal monitors (water broken at that time) and we were able to see that the contractions were of sufficient strength and number, so Pitocin was left off. At 11 am she was still 4 cm and 90% effaced in spite of adequate labor--the NPs started talking about C-section (which we emphasized we were not enthusiastic about). Contractions had decreased in strength and number and the Pitocin drip was started again, this time with excellent blood pressure on Lauren's part after almost 5 liters of fluid. There were no signs of fetal distress, so the Pitocin drip was titrated upward and by 1 pm she was dilated to 5 cm. She continued to dilate at 0.5 cm/hr until 7 cm. At 5 pm she started dilating faster and the station had changed to -1. Between 5 pm and 7 pm Ella descended to a +2 station and the cervix continued to maximally dilate to 10 cm. At around 6:15 pm the epidural catheter plugged and the anesthesia started to quickly fade. In spite of numerous attempts to fix the catheter, there was little that could be done. By 7 pm Lauren was feeling most everything and had complete motor control. The nursing staff encouraged Lauren to wait to push until the baby had moved farther down into the pelvis. Nevertheless, at 7:10 pm Lauren (who was feeling every movement) had the urge to push. The pushing lasted only 26 minutes before our beautiful little Ella was born. Having helped to deliver 2 dozen babies (and seeing many more delivered by others), I can say that Lauren did the best job of almost anyone I've seen. One consequence of pushing the 8 lb baby through the birth canal so fast was pretty extensive tearing of her perineum. The epidural was gone, so the obstetrician suggested that she be taken to the operating room and given general anesthesia for the repair. The anesthesiologist talked the obstetrician into trying a spinal dose of anesthesia first; the anesthetist's work was effective and the obstetrician took the next 45 minutes in completing the repair.

During all of this, Ella was quick to recover from traversing Lauren's pelvis with APGAR scores of 7 and 9. She was taken to the nursery for her initial assessment, meds, and her vitamin K shot. I was in between the nursery and the labor room supporting both of my girls the best I could.

Julie (Lauren's Mom), came to Denver to aid in the childbirth process. She was in charge of photography during the birth and did an excellent job (we have many more photos, some of which are rated R, but will be valuable to Ella as she gets older). Afterwards, she was a huge support to Lauren while I was running between rooms. She has been very sweet and supportive and we have appreciated having her here with us very much.

We're now doing fine. Lauren stoically has endured the extensive repair without any narcotic analgesia. She and Ella are napping now while I am writing. We'll keep everyone posted on progress in the coming days.

Ella and Grandma Julie















































Mama, Papa, and Ella with Jenny (our OB) nurse