We went into Lockport Memorial Hospital on Thursday morning -April 15th- to be induced to have our baby girl. Ella went to daycare- where she loves to be and we were at the hospital about an hour late for our induction...but it was ok- its not like they could have started without me:)
Labor was about 4 hours and 30 mins- only about the last hour was really really (really) bad- then we got the epidural at about 7-8 cm- it was kinda late- but it did the trick :)
Zoe Claire was born at 1pm on the dot- and with only 2 pushes! I was the first to get to hold her- I even held her before the doctor. She took her first breath and cried her first cry in my arms- It was really special and just went soooo smoothly. Just me, Joe one nurse and the nurse practitioner were there.
She is 21 inches long and weighed 7lbs and 6oz. I already took her to the doctor and she has passed her birth weight. She was a bit jaundice and I guess she is "tongue-tied" - but as long as she is eating- my doctor said there is really nothing to do about it.
So we have been home since Sunday- my mom has been here too- helping out with Ella.
Ella loves the new baby - but I think she thinks Zoe is a dolly. She has given her lots of kisses, smacked her in the head and showed me that "Zoe has eyes!" - its gonna be a fun couple of months...Zoe is going to have to be a tough little girl :)
I was in the hospital a bit extra because my epidural needle scratched by dural sac "spinal cord" and caused a cerebral spinal fluid leak. It sounds bad- but it happens to 5% of people getting epidurals.
I had a crazy debilitating headache that goes away when you lay flat- so I had to lay flat until Tuesday. The treatment is a blood patch into your spinal epidural space. What they do it take about 10cc of your blood and inject it into your spine in order to form a clot. You don't have blood in your spinal cord - so they need to inject blood in order to clot it. So thats what they did on day 3- but my spine didn't clot- so we stayed at the hospital a bit extra- had a bunch of weird neck/spine problems- but it all cleared up Tuesday afternoon.
So now- other then some back pain - I'm totally back to normal. I even worked on Wednesday- only 6 days after having the baby- I'm super proud of myself for pulling that off :) I could have never gone back to work after Ella was born- but this time seems way better.
Zoe has been really good at home- she is still up most of the night- today is her one week b-day! She almost never cries- she is more of a squeaker- Joe says she is very polite :) She is a very sweet little girl and if you haven't you totally need to meet her <3
Ella got a purse with money in it and jewelry. Both girls got matching dresses and a dress for their doll- (so cute- I can't wait to dress them alike). Joe and I got a gift card to dinner and best of all- we got a grill! The grill was a house warming present- but we keep not being able to move so...so its an early house warming gift. We really really love it- already used it twice this week.
Ella wasn't super happy about taking pictures with everyone- and Zoe keeps looking behind her-
Kyle and Kurtis came and helped move and cut trees- they got a lot done- Joe love it.
Ella is warming up to being a big sister. She has tried to play dress up and tea party with Zoe. 
She had to settle for just a nap together- maybe when she gets bigger we can play more games :)
This is where we are at right now- the picture is pretty deceiving because it only shows half the yard- but this is where they got most the work done. There is still the whole trunk of the tree to be cut up and 3 trees that need to be removed. Sounds like another busy weekend for Joe.
Zoe is now 4 weeks old- Time is totally flying. She will be 1 month on the 15th and have her 1 month doctor appointment- So then we will know how big she has gotten. She is such a peanut- a peanut with a huge belly. 
So my mom and I took her out with the kids.
It was really fun- we took her to lunch and to her old house on Filmore ave in Buffalo. It just happened to be the same day that the President was in Buffalo- so we got stuck down town- for 3 and a half hours. It was an adventure on the East side since they closed down the 33 and the 190 while we were trying to leave. Nana thought it was great- she got to hang out for and extra long time and see parts of Western New York that she hasn't seen in years.
At the end of the trip- we got Ella a baby stroller- She saw her cousin Alli had one and had a blast with it and her dolls. Now Ella has one just like Alli's.
All morning Ella has had a great time pushing her dolly around the house- and she earned the extra play time since she put the stroller together.
We had a bunch of wind on Saturday- and it totally took out some of the old trees in our yard.
Its pretty crazy the damage it did. Our whole backyard is just filled with tree.
So clean-up took several hours of our mother's day. We told our land lord and they told us to make sure we are very careful while we clean it all up...thats code for "we are not coming over there to help you clean up our property."
We did make a halfway decent effort to go to church on Sunday. Joe and Ella went to church 40 mins late- and I walked around with Zoe in the halls. I guess 3 weeks old is too young- and then we went over to Kelly and Andrews and Joe and Andrew made a very good brunch for all the moms. That part of the day was really nice and relaxing.
Ella is still adjusting to having a sister. She just wants to play with her- like she is one of her dolls- and then she throws a fit when she can't play with her. This morning all Ella wanted to do was put blankets on Zoe's head, rock her and tickle her...so its been a long morning. 
The house is all ready for us to move in- we are just waiting for the final paperwork- so maybe in the next week or two we will be moving!
As far as the chiropractic thing- I'm still working on it for the summer- the bank has all my paperwork. I handed in my business plan and everything- of course I found 2 errors on it after I sent it in...maybe they won't notice? I'm hoping they also won't notice that I have no money for closing or a down-payment to buy anything. So many things need to fall into place for anything to work out- lots of stuff is up in the air- including having childcare so I can start a real job- who knows what we are going to do about that.
School is almost over at NCCC- I just taught one of my last classes last night- there are about 2 weeks left- one lecture and then I just have to give my final and hand in grades.
My last lecture involves dissecting a cow's eye- its so fun to gross out all the students on the last day of class- kind of a nice finale :) 
Labor was about 4 hours and 30 mins- only about the last hour was really really (really) bad- then we got the epidural at about 7-8 cm- it was kinda late- but it did the trick :)
Zoe Claire was born at 1pm on the dot- and with only 2 pushes! I was the first to get to hold her- I even held her before the doctor. She took her first breath and cried her first cry in my arms- It was really special and just went soooo smoothly. Just me, Joe one nurse and the nurse practitioner were there.
She is 21 inches long and weighed 7lbs and 6oz. I already took her to the doctor and she has passed her birth weight. She was a bit jaundice and I guess she is "tongue-tied" - but as long as she is eating- my doctor said there is really nothing to do about it.
So we have been home since Sunday- my mom has been here too- helping out with Ella.
