Ellie joined us at 7:03 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21. Labor started at 5:20 a.m. T was not deterred; she went to church and sang in the choir while having contractions. After lunch, we called Oma and Opa to tell them "You might want to start packing." They had planned to arrive Monday, Nov. 29. We also called M & J to give them the heads up that C & M might be coming over to play. T spent most of the afternoon upstairs with blinds drawn in her dark Mommy cave, while E and the kids played outside in the sunshine and leaves. We arrived at the hospital around 5 and T was already fully effaced and dilated to 5 cm. She quickly got an epidural. When told by Dr. B that she was racing someone else down the hall, T sped up her contractions and had Ellie ready to go by the time Dr. B returned to check on her. In her downtime, T kept the world updated on Facebook. (Because if it is necessary for people to share daily minutia, sharing each contraction is critical.) 4 or 5 pushes and it was over. Thankfully, it was about as quick and easy as they come (esp. for me!) Then T wanted a cheeseburger! 
The daughter of one of our friends, when told of Ellie's arrival, asked, "Is she Chinese or black or what?" An excellent question! Consistent with her brother and sister, Ellie does not at this point look like either her mother or father. So she fits right in with our motely crew!
Once C's school was done on Monday, Oma and Opa had arrived, and we all went to the hospital to meet baby sister. C got a chance to hold her. M was intrigued but didn't quit know what to make of the situation. When in doubt, cling onto Dad!
On her first dr's visit on Wed, Ellie had dropped some weight. So T got some advice from the dr and a "lactation technician" on how to feed her. These procedures worked fine until Thursday (Thanksgiving) morning when Ellie decided that she would rather sleep than stick to the prescribed schedule of the medical professionals. Of course, violating the orders of medicals professionals is not to be tolerated in this house, so a kind dr at our pediatrician's office agreed to come in to see Little E to spare us a trip to the emergency room. Once at the dr's office, Little E, of course, then decided that she was willing to eat and all was right with the world; we could return home and eat our Thanksgiving meal. Babies prefer sleeping to eating; Babies refuse to be put on a schedule; who knew?
And so opens the next chapter of life in the H household. This ought to be fun...
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