Learning Time for Elise: 4-6 Months

I had so much fun putting together a post about what activities I did with Elise during her first 3 months, I decided to do another one for her next 3 months. Just these past couple months I've been able to find more ways to incorporate activities for Elise into Carter's weekly learning themes which has been a lot of fun. Some of the things I've done with her were part of a learning theme for Carter. I'm not sure whether I'll do another post like this for 6-9 months or if I'll just incorporate all of her activities into Carter's learning themes. I'm leaning toward just putting her activities in with Carter's learning theme posts. Our library has a really neat Build a Reader program. As part of the program they have pamphlets with information for parents on how to facilitate early reading. Inside it lists books for parents to read for more information. I checked out 50 Fantastic Things to Do With Babies by Sally and Phil Featherstone. It was a neat book and was nice to look through. A lot of the ideas listed in the book were things I was already doing with Elise which was reassuring.

I looked up the baby development stages and found a list of things babies should start doing from 4-6 months.  Here's what the list looked like:

• Roll over from front to back or back to front.
• Babble, making sounds that can sound like real language.
• Laugh.
• Reach out for and grab objects; manipulate toys and other objects with her hands.
• Sit up with support and have great head control

To facilitate reaching for and grabbing toys as well as manipulating toys with her hands I put Elise on her activity gym frequently. We also handed her toys earlier on and then gradually moved on to holding toys out to her so she could reach for them. Right before she was 4 months old I pulled the jumperoo out of the garage for her to play in. She wasn't quite tall enough to reach the ground so I put a box under her feet. She also couldn't quite reach some of the toys because her arms weren't long enough. We have now moved to taking toys we know are interesting to her and putting them just out of reach so she has to roll or scoot to get to them. I also like to show her a toy and then cover it with a blanket or something she can pull off to reveal her toy, beginning to develop object permanence. She loves to play with balls and other toys. We've given her a variety of items to play with. One of her favorites is to play with the rubber chips at one of the playgrounds we go to. It has been a lot of fun to be able to put her down and allow her to explore.

First time in jumperoo

Pulling a burp cloth off her stuffed animal.

 

 

 

 

I spent a lot of time with Elise propped on my legs in an upright, almost seated position while facing me so her head was by my knees. She loved to sit like that. I would sometimes sing Ring Around the Rosey and then lay my legs down when I said all falls down. I would also rock her side to side. This was one of the things in the book that I already did but they had a song to go along with the rocking. I incorporated the song into our rocking and Elise loved it! She would stare at me and smile as I sang. Here's the song or at least the version of it I sing, sometimes I don't remember them exactly word for word:

Rock together, rock together.

Here we go, to and fro.

Rocking very gently, rocking very gently.

To and fro, here we go.

Elise loves to reach for and hold books as well as turn pages.

We also played with sand and bubbles for some sensory fun. It has been so much fun for me to find little ways to involve Elise in Carter's learning themes. During summer week I let her touch and feel sand with her hands and feet. Then during bubbles week we played with her by blowing bubbles toward her. We'd pop the bubbles before they got to her yelling "pop!" Then I'd ask her "more?" When she made eye contact with me or made a sound at me, I'd say, "Okay, again!" Then we'd blow more bubbles toward her.

She started getting more interested in mirrors during her 4th month. I started playing a game with her I made up for Carter when he was a baby. I would lean her toward the mirror and then away from it while singing and then bounce her at the end of the song. She sure stared at herself! The song is to the tune of "Who Is That Doggy In the Window?" It goes like this:

Who is that baby in the mirror?

Who is that baby I see?

Who is that baby in the mirror?

She's cute as cute can be,

Bum, bum, bum (that's where we bounce)

Something that was suggested in the book I listed earlier was to make paper plate faces. I drew a happy face and a sad face on paper plates with black marker. Then I taped them to popsicle sticks and used them as puppets. I would put them close to Elise's face and make them talk to her. She was totally unimpressed and just stared at me instead. It was almost as though she was thinking, "I know that's you talking, what are you doing?"

 

Another way I got her to grab for objects was by playing a game with my sunglasses when we were out and about and had a moment. I would sing "Where are my glasses?" to the tune of Frere Jacques and then pop them off my eyes. Elise would grab for them and laugh. I also put together sensory bins for her. Her first bin was just some random things she could hold: a whisk, a baby spoon, a plastic lid, her crinkle square, and a rubber duck. I would hand them to her and encourage her to grab them. The first thing she grabbed was a whisk and she immediately slammed it into her face. She was quite surprised. We've done a few sensory bins since then and she can now reach in and pull out what she wants. We've also done some other sensory activities such as rubbing her hands in shaving foam to play in it as well as pudding. One time we even put the pudding on top of bubble wrap for extra sensory fun.

 

 

 

 

The first time Elise laughed was because I was playing Peek-a-boo with her. I had her laying in my lap with her head by my knees. I would put her feet over my face and then pull them to the side and say "hi". She thought it was hilarious!

To get Elise to babble and attempt to converse with us we talked to her all the time. I like to sing to her a lot. One of my favorite things is to greet her when she wakes up in the morning or from a nap by singing. My favorite I dubbed "Good morning, Elise" and it goes like this:

Good morning, Elise.

Hello, hello, hello.

Good morning, Elise.

Hello, hello, hello.

So glad to see you.

I just love you so.

Good morning, Elise. 

Hello, hello, hello.

Some of our favorite books we read:
Read Baby, Every Day by Dr. John Hutton
Global Babies by The Global Fund For Children
Baby's Lullaby by Jill Barber

Black on White by Tana Hoban

Baby Happy Baby Sad by Leslie Patricelli

Love Song for a Baby by Marion Dane Bauer

Hi! by Ethan Long

Sing by Joe Raposo & Tom Lichtenheld
Baby Beluga by Raffi
Hello, Bugs! by Smriti Prasadam
Cuddle by Elizabeth Verdick & Marjorie Lisovskis

Round Trip by Ann Jonas

Baby Bedtime by Mem Fox & Emma Quay

Carry Me Babies Everywhere by Star Bright Books
Baby Sounds by Joy Allen
Wave, Baby, Wave by Anna Nilsen and Jonathan Bentley
Baby Reads by Ken Karp Photography (Little Scholastic)
You Are My Sunshine by Caroline Jane Church
The More We Get Together by Caroline Jane Church
That's Not My Bunny by Fiona Watt
All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Tafuri
Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day 

Learning Time for Elise: 0-3 Months

So I wasn't sure what to title this post and eventually used the word learning, but at this age I don't really think of it as learning.  I'd say it would be more accurate to call it fostering cognitive development.  A baby at such a young age is naturally going to develop certain abilities most of the time.  I just like to spend time practicing those skills with my baby and watching for them to develop.  Obviously it's always worth working on skills to help develop them, but I feel babies will get there when they are ready with or without intervention most of the time.

When Carter was a baby I started researching different things to do with him to stimulate his mind and foster cognitive development.  My background is in early childhood, but much older, so I didn't have ideas on what to do with him other than talk a lot to immerse him in language.  This time with Elise I have things I did with Carter and have been able to add to that which has been a lot of fun.  Carter wasn't as alert as early on and for as long of periods as Elise was and has been so I've noticed she's more likely to get overstimulated and fuss.  Carter tended to just fall asleep when he'd had too much, so I have to really watch her to make sure I'm not doing too much.

I looked up the baby development stages and found a list of things babies should be starting to do by 3 months here.  Here's what the list looked like:

• Smile. Early on, just to herself. But within three months, she’ll be smiling in response to your smiles and trying to get you to smile back at her.
• Raise her head and chest when on her tummy.
• Track objects with her eyes and gradually decrease eye crossing.
• Open and shut her hands and bring hands to her mouth.
• Grip objects in her hands.
• Take swipes at or reach for dangling objects, though she usually won’t be able to get them yet.

To encourage her to smile I made sure to stay in her line of vision, smile a lot, and talk to her the whole time.  I also liked to make different faces at her and watch her eyes study my face and what I was doing.  Carter saw me do that a few times and then I'd notice him sitting down by her making faces at her.  It was so cute!  I also liked to put a mirror by her so she could see her face.  She wasn't as into her reflection as Carter was at her age.

We did the obvious tummy time to help her with her neck strength, but she also liked to lift her head and look around when in the baby carrier facing my chest.  So I'd pull back part of the carrier so she could do that for a while and then slip it back to help support her head after I felt she'd had enough time to practice.  Much of her tummy time and floor playtime was on her activity gym with toys hanging down.  I'd show her the toys and swing them around.  I also used them to move back and forth in front of her face so she would track them.  We used Carter's finger puppets to do the same thing and he loved helping me with that.

Enjoying some tummy time.

One of my favorite things to do was to put different objects in her hand or rub her hand across them so she could feel them.  I'd let her feel an object and tell her whether it was smooth or rough, soft or hard. Then Carter helped me sort the items she felt into a soft pile and a hard pile which was good practice for him too.  We also ready "That's Not My Bunny" and I rubbed her hand on the different touch parts so she could feel them.  I also liked to take her outside so she could observe nature and I could put different things in her hand to feel.  And let's be honest, because Carter loves to be outside! I'd also pull her hand across Harper's fur so she could pet her.

Napping outside after some outdoor exploration.

Grasping a hard toy.

Carter taking a toy from her to put in either the hard or soft pile.

Holding a toy while looking at our hard and soft piles sorted.

I think the most important thing to do with your infant is talk to him/her.  I was constantly talking to Elise or talking to Carter where she could hear me.  I would do simple stuff like tell her what was going on.  I'd explain what we were doing at each step of a diaper change.  I'd also describe to her what Carter was doing (he loved the play-by-play of his actions).

Since babies only see black and white for the first part of their lives I made sure to pick up board books with mostly just black and white pictures for Elise.  I also already had some I bought for Carter when he was a baby.  Elise loved looking at the pictures while I read the words.  I also pulled back out the high contrast cards I had for Carter and taped them where she spent a decent amount of time: on the side of her swing, on the side of her crib, beside the changing table.  It was amazing to watch her look at and study the pictures.  I found the cards free online here and just printed them.

Checking out a high contrast card while swinging.

Possibly Carter and my favorite activity was using finger puppets to help her track objects.  We would make the finger puppets talk to her while moving them slowly from one side of her head to the other.  Not only would she move her head to see the puppets, she'd also track them with her eyes.

The books we read:
Black and White Ocean by Charles Reasoner
Black on White by Tana Hoban
Checkers and Dot on the Farm by J. Torres and J. Lum
Hello, Animals! by Smriti Prasadam
Hello Baby by Roger Priddy

That's Not My Bunny by Fiona Watt
I Kissed the Baby by Mary Murphy
What Does Baby See? by Begin Smart Books
Look at the Animals! by Peter Linenthal
Black and White Farm by Charles Reasoner
Baby Loves Sports: A High-contrast Action Book by Duopress
Look Look Outside by Peter Linenthal
Checkers and Dot by J. Lorres and J. Lum
Checkers and Dot at the Beach by J. Lorres and J. Lum
Checkers and Dot at the Zoo by J. Lorres and J. Lum 

I'm hoping she loves to read as much as her brother does!

Elise's Birth Story From Ty's Perspective

Work Friday was a little bit restless, getting texts from Liz about the random contractions that she was having, mixed with the emotion that we both would have loved Elise to share her birthday with her Uncle Paul. 

But, getting home from work Friday night, it was obvious that she was not coming on that day. Liz wanted to eat out, so we went to Olive Garden to use a gift card she had. Little did we know that it would be our last meal as a family of three! We had a great time with some good food. Came home, put Carter to bed, watched a little TV, and then went to bed ourselves. 

Towards the middle of the night, I was aware that Liz seemed to be up a lot and was having some contractions, but didn’t say anything to her not wanting to get her and my hopes up that Elise was coming. Then, she woke me up around 6 telling me that she thought this was it! 

So I got up and called the doc who recommended that we head on in to the hospital. Jeremy was over here quickly, Carter woke up to say good bye, and we were off to the hospital. After a couple contractions in the car during the ride, and 2 more in the PARKING LOT, we made it up to the Labor and Delivery ward of the hospital. 

After what seemed like an overly lengthy checking process for a woman in labor, they took us to the labor triage wing. I wasn’t paying attention so I did not realize that was where we were headed. Once there, the nurse checked Liz and announced she was dilated to 7cm, which didn’t surprise either of us. We packed up and walked over to a labor room to set up for delivery. As we were leaving the triage wing, the nurses over there cheered for Liz who refused to sit in a wheel chair to be taken to the labor room. 

Once in labor and delivery, the nurses tried to get Liz hooked up with monitors and IV’s, but it became apparent that there was not a whole lot of time to do those things so they went ahead and called in the doctor on duty since our doctor was not at the hospital yet. So in the midst of having strong, fast contractions, getting monitors hooked up, and getting IV’s put in, Liz asked to be allowed to get on her hands and knees. Having been through this with Carter, I knew that was the position she found to be most comfortable when having the strong contractions. So reluctantly, they let her get on her hands and knees while they tried to put in the last IV. 

As they were trying to get the IV in, there was a sound that can only be compared to someone throwing a bucket of water on the floor. Except it wasn’t a bucket of water, but rather the amniotic sack rupturing and gushing out over the bed, Liz’s socks, my pants, and the room floor. At that point, the nurses were really urging Liz to lay back on the bed. As they were getting her back into position, the doctor on call had stepped in and announced that the baby was crowning! 

Quickly everyone moved into delivery mode and got Liz on her back with her knees up toward her chest. About that time, another contraction came and Liz announced that she could not keep from pushing, to which the doctor responded, “So push!” 

And with the first push, out came Elise’s head, and then a few seconds later with another push, out came the rest of her! I must note here, that with that final push, it appeared that the remainder of the amniotic fluid came out as well, getting several nurses and the doctor. And a second later, Elise was on momma’s chest, and all was good. About 2 minutes after the birth, Liz’s surprised doctor walked into the room to find the first half of his job already complete! Luckily the doctor on call was able to deliver and all went well. From the little interaction I had with her, I really really liked her. 

After delivering the placenta and some well-placed stitches, the doctors and nurses cleared out and before I knew it, Liz, Elise and I were in the room by ourselves, just soaking in the newness and love of having a child. It was more than an hour before they separated mom and baby, which was a totally different experience than we had with Carter, who only got to spend a few minutes with mom before having to go get checked out. 

With Elise as she got checked over.

After that, Liz’s parents showed up at the hospital, followed shortly by my parents, and then Carter, who got to meet his baby sister for the first time. Holding Carter while he held Elise was something that I will never forget. Just sitting there with the two of them was an amazing feeling. 

Changing Elise's first poopy diaper.

And all in all, the experience was totally different. Having the experience of Carter really helped make me less nervous, more confident, and better prepared, but there was still plenty of unknown. The only thing that really threw me off kilter was how quickly the whole process was completed! I was joking that if we were to decide to have another child, I would have to invest in some birthing and delivery training as it’s looking like we might have trouble getting to the hospital in time based off this experience! 

Read Carter's birth story from Ty's perspective here.

Elise's Birth Story

After discovering I was 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced at my 37 week appointment on Tuesday, March 17th, everyone was on high alert expecting Elise to arrive soon.  Every morning as Ty left for work he would say, "See you tonight... or sooner!"  When I would call one of my parents to chat they would make a mad dash to their phones in anticipation of labor news.  I was even getting antsy and wanting to get the show on the road.  Up until our appointment I had been very calm and prepared to wait another week or more to meet our sweet girl.  Due to Carter's early arrival, read his birth story here, everyone was expecting Elise to be early and I was getting lots of daily texts and phone calls asking about potential progress which made me even more antsy.  My dad said, "This is like Christmas but you don't know when Santa will come."  I told him, "Yeah, and I know Santa's going to kick my ass before he gives me my present!"

Thursday night, March 19th, I woke up in the middle of the night at 12:30 wide awake and could not for the life of me fall asleep.  I was a bit hopeful that I had woken up because labor would be starting soon.  That was not the case and I eventually fell back to sleep around 3:00 am.  I really had my heart set on Elise arriving Friday, March 20th.  That way she could share a birthday with her Uncle Paul and her Gma was really wanting her to be born on a weekend.  It would be perfect.  Carter and I had a play date at the park with a new friend and, boy, was Carter a wild child that morning.  The park had trails off to the side and Carter took off running on them.  He wasn't listening to me when I yelled for him to stop and I ended up having to chase him downhill in the woods, not an ideal situation at 9 months pregnant.  He was jumping in puddles and taking off away from me any chance he got.  By the time we got home I was exhausted.  As I was making his lunch I got a contraction followed by another about 9 minutes later.  I figured that would be it as the same thing had happened to me the day before, but the contractions kept coming.  They were really mild and coming about every 9-10 minutes.  I was hopeful it was early labor but then they slowed to 15 minutes apart, then 20 minutes apart, and then became very sporadic.  I knew they should be getting longer, stronger, and closer together but they weren't.  By the time Ty got home I was disappointed and exhausted.  We decided to eat dinner at Olive Garden with a gift card I'd received for Christmas to perk me up.  It did the trick and I went home happy and full.  We went to bed planning to hit up garage sales in the morning.

Enjoying some time taking pictures with Carter on Friday afternoon.

About an hour after heading for bed, around 11:30, I woke up due to a contraction and headed to the bathroom.  An hour later the same thing happened.  I was waking up once or twice every hour with a contraction and possibly sleeping through some milder contractions. At 3:30 I realized I had woken up multiple times with contractions since 3:00 and decided to stay awake for a bit and time them to see what was going on.  The contractions were lasting for about a minute and were averaging 8 minutes apart.  I responded to a text my mom had sent earlier and it turned out she was still up so we discussed what was going on.  I wanted to stay in bed as long as possible so I could rest up for what was to come, but they were getting strong enough that laying down during them was becoming difficult.  I woke Ty up to give him a head's up and was worried he'd get so excited he wouldn't be able to fall back to sleep, but heard him snoring moments later.  Around that time I also texted Ty's mom.  To help myself relax during contractions I was picturing that I was laying on the beach and the tide was sweeping over me.  As the water reached my body it would relax each part of my body it touched.  

At 5:00 the contractions had gotten strong enough I was no longer able to manage them as well as I would have liked while laying in bed so I decided to get up and prepare for the hospital.  The contractions were now occurring every 5-6 minutes and I felt like it was about time to head for the hospital because once I got out of bed and started moving around they really picked up in strength.  I had a feeling things would move quickly.  I texted Jeremy to give him a head's up.  Then I woke Ty up and asked him to call the doctor because my contractions were strong enough I could no longer talk through them.  The doctor debated whether we shoud head in yet or not and then eventually said, "I think she's going to go quick so you guys better go ahead and head that way."  Ty hung up and called Jeremy so he could come stay with Carter.

Right before Jeremy arrived shit got real. My contractions were down to 2-3 minutes apart and were really strong.  When the contraction hit its peak I would count down from 10 in my head and when I got to 0 it was usually starting to fade.  It helped to have something to focus on during the most painful part of contractions.  I was getting emotional because Carter was still asleep and I was hoping we could stay at home long enough to see him before heading to the hospital.  We put the last few items in our hospital bag, fed the animals, and got sheets out for Jeremy to sleep on the futon.  We were getting ready to leave and I wanted to have one last contraction before getting in the car.  I was either getting on my knees with my chest on our birthing ball and rolling or getting down on my hands and knees during contractions.  For this one I was using the ball and at the end of the contraction I realized I was going to throw up.  I looked at Ty and said, "I better be at least 7 cm when we get to the hospital."  Then I rushed to the bathroom and threw up in the sink, but didn't quite make it in time throwing up on the countertop as well.  I grabbed a towel and headed back in to clean it up as another contraction hit so I handed the towel to Ty telling him, "I didn't quite make it."  As I worked through the contraction I heard Carter wake up which was music to my ears.  We gave him kisses and told him we were going to the hospital so Sissy Elise could be born and Uncie J would be staying to play with him.  Carter looked at his uncie, smiled, and said "Bye, mommy daddy," very excitedly.

I was so thankful I got to say "good bye" to Carter.

We got in the car around 6:30 and arrived at the hospital about 15 minutes later.  Contractions in the car super sucked and I was thankful I only had 2 during the drive.  As I got out of the car another one hit and I asked Ty to pass me the birthing ball.  I got down on my hands and knees in the parking lot to work through the contraction and had to do the same right in front of the entryway doors.  Ty was getting down by me, putting pressure on my hips with his hands, and pressing and pulling them downward which felt great.  On our way up in the elevator we realized between me throwing up and Carter waking up I forgot to grab my purse.  We made it to admittance and it seemed to take forever.  The woman was having me sign paperwork and answer questions between contractions and I started thinking, "I hope this baby isn't born in the waiting room!"  At this point I gave up on counting down from 10 because the really strong part of the contractions were lasting much longer and it wasn't helping to count any more.  When we were finally checked in it was a little after 7:00.  A nurse walked us back to triage to check my cervix and said I was 7 cm and fully effaced.  She said one look at my face in the waiting room and she knew I should have gone straight to labor and delivery, bypassing triage.  She called the doctor and he immediately left for the hospital.  Then she said she'd get me a wheel chair and we'd head to my room.  No way in hell was I sitting down during contractions so I told her I would walk.  She said, "Okay, but we need to hurry.  In all my years as a nurse I've never delivered a baby in the hall and I don't want that to happen tonight."  We had to stop for contractions numerous times on our walk and I'm sure I was quite the scene rolling on my ball while on the floor on my knees all with a gown that wasn't fully covering me in the back.  During these contractions Ty went to push on my hips like he had been, but it no longer felt good.  I knew we were getting close!

When we made it to the labor and delivery room I had another contraction and this time had the urge to push.  I was concerned because I had been just 7 cm a few minutes before.  I told the nurses who at this point were trying to put in an IV port and draw blood.  That was the huge disadvantage of arriving at the hospital in such active labor, they needed me to sit still during contractions to do some of that admittance stuff and I needed to be moving around.  While the nurses were poking and prodding me I was breathing really fast and squeezing the life out of Ty's hand to keep from pushing.  I felt like the harder I held Ty's hand, the more control I had over my body.  Every part of me was pleading with them to allow me to move.  They brought in a different doctor and things started getting serious.  I was on all fours on the bed breathing as fast as I could and pushing my legs together to hold Elise in.  My contractions were so close together that I didn't have much time in between them to go back to regular breathing.  All the fast breathing to keep from pushing was making me light headed.  Then I pushed up to a squatting position and my water burst, spraying everywhere and soaking Ty's pants all the way through to his underwear.  I told anyone who would listen, "I can't not push anymore!"  The doctor looked down and told me Elise was crowning. I took that as an okay to push and went for it, feeling her head begin to emerge.  At that point the doctor and nurses started freaking out because I was squatting on the bed. They told me I had to lay back.  I grudgingly did but would have so much preferred to deliver her in a squatting position.  They then asked me to scoot down and I looked at Ty and said he needed to help me so he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into position all with Elise's head partially out.  Then I pushed again and the head was all the way out. I immediately pushed again, probably too hard and fast as the rest of her body came out.  They pulled her up and lifted her onto my chest.  The first thing I noticed was how much shorter her umbilical cord was than Carter's was.  Her cord felt pulled tight with her on my chest.  The doctor told me we were ready to deliver the placenta and it came out immediately following Elise.  I asked the doctor if I had torn and she said "A little." 

I looked over to see our doctor come walking into the room with a shocked look on his face as he saw me holding Elise. He arrived less than 20 minutes after he received the nurse's phone call that I was 7 cm and missed the birth!  He gave the nurse a hard time joking that she had misjudged and I had really been more than 7 cm dilated.  He then got busy stitching me up.  It turned out I didn't tear where I had torn with Carter at all.  My left labia tore.  My doctor said it was because she came so quickly.  I told him I had planned to slow things down with pushing in hopes I wouldn't tear this time and he laughed.  He said that's just how it goes when you don't have an epidural.  I ended up with 11 stitches which was disappointing, but what can you expect when you push a baby out in 2 contractions.  I just have such a hard time not pushing when it comes down to time.  

I had told Ty the only thing I would change about our delivery with Carter was that they took him away so soon after birth and he didn't come back for so long.  We talked about what I wanted to have happen this time and he was fully prepared to fight off the nursery nurses once they arrived. We were both shocked that I had Elise for almost 2 hours and fed her twice before anyone from the nursery showed up.  I guess it makes a difference when your baby is full term! Right after Ty left with Elise to be checked over by the pediatrician my parents arrived.  It was so much fun talking with them.  My mom said they got in the car and my dad took off speeding. She told him, "You can slow down, we're not going to make it there before she's born."  Then a few minutes later they got Ty's text that Elise had arrived.  Ty's parents left at the same time as my parents but had twice the drive.  Leina said they stopped to get breakfast on their way out of town and when she got back in the car she saw she had a picture text from Ty.  She opened it and was shocked to see a picture of her granddaughter.

Really enjoying our time alone!

If I were to describe Elise's labor and delivery in one word, it would be whirlwind.  I knew with it being my 2nd birth it would most likely go faster, but I wasn't expecting things to progress so quickly.  The nurses were joking that if we have a 3rd baby we better leave for the hospital sooner.  In my recovery room the nurse brought me pain Meds and asked to see my ID bracelet which she needed to scan in order to give me the pills.  I told her I didn't have one and she couldn't believe they forgot to put one on me.  She said we must've arrived in very active labor and we told her Elise was born less than 30 minutes after we got in our labor and delivery room. She said, oh my, then yes you did!  Although I wish I had been able to slow down my pushing, I felt like everything went really well.  Elise scored an 8/10 and a 9/10 on her Apgars because of her coloring.  She came out pretty blue which oddly enough, I didn't really notice.  We are all so in love and my favorite moment was Carter coming up to meet his sister.  More on that to come!

This picture gives you an idea of her coloring when she was born.

Elise's Nursery

Before we found out Carter was a boy I was hard at work planning out his nursery.  I fell in love with a picture on pinterest of a nursery with light gray walls while the ceiling and top portion of the room were painted blue.  I knew I wanted gray walls with a pink ceiling for a girl or a blue ceiling for a boy.  Ty painted the room gray and then we waited to find out boy or girl to finish the painting.  Years ago I had found 3 really cute Curious George wall hangings at an antique store.  I bought them to decorate my classroom with the thought in the back of my mind that they would be perfect for a boy's nursery.  I didn't have anything specific for a girl other than that I knew I wanted to do an elephant theme.  When we found out Carter was a boy we went with a monkey theme using blue and yellow, centered around the Curious George paintings.  I had less direction with a girl nursery so I was excited to first turn the nursery into a boy room.  See pictures of Carter's nursery here.

This time around when we found out we were having a girl we took a different approach.  We knew we wanted pink and a teal accent color so we started at Lowe's.  I picked out paint strips that I liked and we worked from there.  The teal accent color is more of a mint color and I love it.  Teal is my favorite color and the color we ended up with is a lighter, more pastel version of it.  When my mom was visiting we went out in search of fabric and found the perfect teal and pink fabric for valences.  Then Ty chose a light pink fabric with white polka dots for the curtain and it was a perfect match.  I had a few ideas for decorating the room and shared them with Ty.  One weekend he disappeared in the garage for a while and returned with 2 wooden elephants he had created.  They are perfect for decorating the dresser.

Ty took a cool panoramic photo of the nursery for me.

Here's a close-up of the wooden elephant Ty made and then painted.

I played with different ideas for creating 3 elephant wall hangings to replace the Curious George ones that had been above the crib.  At first I planned to trace an elephant on teal scrapbook paper and glue it onto pink scrapbook paper.  Then I thought about using the wooden elephants hung on fabric.  But eventually I came up with an idea that I absolutely loved.  I had Carter finger paint 3 different pieces of paper pink.  Then I traced an elephant outline and cut them out, glued them to teal scrapbook paper, and framed them.  Not only did I already have all of the materials for the project so it was cheap, but now Elise's room is decorated with Carter's artwork!

Elephants finger painted by Carter, crib skirt and pillow along with crocheted elephants made by Oma, and of course our beautiful crib made by Papa. 

Here's a close-up of Carter's marvelous artwork!

Quite a while ago I saw this adorable elephant handprint craft online.  I saved it knowing I wanted to make it some day with Carter.  When we were coming up with ideas for the nursery I knew I wanted to make it with all of our handprints.  Ty, Carter, and I would all put our handprints on the paper and turn them into elephants for a wall hanging in Elise's room.  I was so happy with how it turned out and I love the way it matches the room.

The elephant hand print painting is on the left.  You can also see the wooden elephants Ty made on the dresser along with a crocheted elephant Oma made on the cubby holder.

A close-up of our elephant hand print picture with Ty's hand on the left, mine on the right, and Carter's in the middle.

We re-used all the furniture with no need for any changes other than painting the drawers of the dresser from blue to pink which my mom did for us.  I moved Carter's lamp over to his big boy room and we were debating whether we wanted to get a new lamp for the nursery or just go without when my mom found the perfect teal/mint lamp at Wal-Mart for $10!  We weren't sure what we would do for a lamp shade and then one grocery shopping trip we found an adorable pink lamp shade with fabric flowers.  We bought it and the whole drive home I was regretting the decision.  I thought it would be too much and I would hate it, but once Ty stuck it on the lamp, I was in love!  It worked perfectly!

Loving the lamp and the afghan my mom made for the glider.

When we were first putting the room together I felt like there was just too much pink.  I like pink, but it's not my favorite.  I wanted to use it in the room, but I didn't want it to the too much of a focus.  Teal is my favorite color and I was wanting to bring more of it into the room.  The tricky part was that we could find baskets, changing pad covers, and sheets in pink.  We couldn't find them in our teal/mint color.  So we ended up with all pink baskets and changing pad covers.  That paired with the ceiling made me feel like the room was drowning in pink.  Once we added in the lamp, I pulled in some frames from my dresser that matched the color, and I got the elephant wall hangings in our teal/mint color, I felt much better about the amount of pink in the room.  To help cancel out some of the pink of the curtains I asked my mom to make the valences longer than typical valences so we would have more teal in the room.  All of that combined to make the room the perfect combination of our 2 colors and I love it!  I still wish we could have found baskets in a lighter teal/mint color, but the pink is growing on me!

Update:
I wrote this post too early!  At my sprinkle I received a few decorations for the nursery which we hung up when we got home.  Carter really loves the Elise banner and points at it saying, "Lelers!" while I change his diaper.

The cubbies with our wall hanging on top.

Close-up of the sweet wall hanging along with a new frame from my mom.

Cute chalkboard print from the hostess.

Close-up of the chalkboard print.

Burlap Elise hanging the hostess made for me.

Close-up of the burlap hanging.