Proud Daddy

I had to work this weekend so we went to early service with Ensley Sunday then EJ took her to the nursery for Sunday School and I went to work. He called me that afternoon and told me the following story and you could literally hear him smiling from ear to ear while telling me...

I walked into the children's building to pick her up and Leigh told me she had been so good. When I got to her room she was screaming and the teachers were looking through her bag for a bottle. I said "She's mine." And Ensley turned her head towards me and quit screaming. I took her and she was immediately calmed. The ladies said "Well she wasn't hungry. She just wanted her daddy."

How precious! He is such a good daddy and Ensley really does know her daddy and she loves him BIG! And I love her daddy BIG too!
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Go Daddy!

This year EJ gave up coaching football and is the assistant girls basketball coach (and he is still the baseball coach). The girls had their first game of the season last night. They played really good and won like 50-15 (I can't remember exactly).
Ensley and I went to the game to cheer them on. Ensley did awesome! She sat in her carrier in front of me and smiled and cooed at everybody around us for the first three quarters then drifted off to sleep during the fourth quarter. She is like her mamma...she can sleep anywhere and through almost anything. We were on the second row up right next to the student section. The buzzers, whistles, claps, and cheers didn't seem to bother her.
We arranged my work schedule around his basketball and baseball games. I am off for every basketball game and almost every baseball game so we don't have to get a sitter until late at night when I get off. So hopefully we can enjoy many more games together this year.
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First Day of Vacation

On our way to dinner at the Park Grill.

Ensley is such a good baby! Yesterday morning we went to a restaurant for breakfast and Ensley just chilled in the booth with us. Then we went to the outlet mall for most of the afternoon and she slept in the stroller. Last night we did a little Christmas shopping and then went out to eat. She got a little fussy as we were paying but I think she just wanted a change of scenery because as soon as we stepped outside she quit crying. We got back to the room and had bath time then she ate and went right to sleep and...
SLEPT 8 HOURS!! 10:30pm-6:30am. Woooohoooo!!
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Splish Splash

Ensley likes bath time and her daddy enjoys giving her a bath. He looks forward to bath time with her. Have I mentioned what a good daddy he is? Here are some clips from her bath last night.

Big Day

We took Ensley to church for the first time today. I was hoping she would eat good right before we went and then sleep through the whole service. Well she ate good but was wide awake during all the music then fussy through the sermon so we spent the morning in the "cry room". I hate that she didn't do well but it still felt good to be back in God's house worshipping with other believers.

As soon as we left the sanctuary she stopped crying and was cooing all the way home then content once we got home. We were talking to her and told her she was a stinker and she gave us a big grin as if she knew what we said...it was soo cute!

Then she took her first bottle tonight. We were told to introduce the bottle after 4 weeks so as to not cause nipple confusion. She latched on right away but then just sat there looking at EJ as if she was trying to figure out where his milk came from. Then when she started sucking she didn't stop until it was all gone. No confusion there...she can eat like a champ.

(we had to stage this picture because she drank the bottle so quickly I didn't get a picture of the actual feeding...she didn't fuss with the real thing)

Daddy loved finally being able to feed her. I told him we would try to bottle feed every other day or so just as a reminder to her until it closer to time for me to go back to work then we will increase bottle feeds. He said he would gladly feed anytime. He is such a good daddy! I think I will let him feed her during her 1am feeds on the weekends ;) However I don't think she will be having many more of those...her pediatrician said now that she is one month we don't have to feed her every4 hours anymore. Friday and Saturday nights she went 6 hours so we just need to push her last feeding to 9 or 10pm so I can get 6 hours of sleep every now and then. Right now she feeds between 7-8pm so she is up between 1 and 2am but then goes back to sleep until about 530 or 6am. This truly has been a blessing and we are so thankful!

The Greatest Coach of All Time

Sunday morning about 9 am I started getting a little uncomfortable during church. After a little while I realized that my uncomfortable feeling was about every 8-10 minutes. I wasn't convinced that it was contractions because I wasn't feeling anything in my abdomen, only in my back. We went to Sunday School and the uncomfortable feeling continued about the same rate. We came home from church and ate lunch. Then I told EJ I was going to take a nap because Ensley might be coming today. I laid on my side and felt pains in my stomach and back...these were about every 6 minutes. So I told EJ I wanted to get in the tub for a while. I sat in the tub for quite a while EJ sat beside me recording my contractions, only we weren't sure they were contractions because they were not what I expected to feel. Then we decided to go for a walk to see if I felt anything different or faster. Bad idea! It was like 100 degrees outside so we just went to the end of the street and back. We came back in and I felt the same so I chilled on the couch for a little while and then decided we should at least go to the hospital to see what was going on since these uncomfortable pains were 4-5 minutes apart for the past few hours.

We got to the hospital about 5pm and they took my vitals and hooked me up to the monitors. I was indeed contracting about every 2 minutes but only feeling about every other one and only in my back. She checked me and I was 3-4 cm dilated and almost completely thinned out. I was relieved to know that the uncomfortable feeling in my back was indeed contractions but a little discouraged that I was at the hospital and only 3-4cm. Our original plan was to labor at home for a long time then go to the hospital when I was hopefully about 6-7cm. The nurse asked me to walk the halls for 30 minutes then she would check me again and call my doctor to see if I was going to be admitted...so we did. After walking I was 4-5cm and staying!! We knew we would see our baby girl in a matter of hours.

I stalled at 5cm so they started pitocin to augment labor. This worked and it seemed like no time I was at 7cm. By this time I was in my zone and EJ was helping me stay focused and relaxed. My water broke at 8cm and I remember thinking...Good! It will speed up, but oh my it's gonna start hurting now! Up to that point I was just super uncomfortable because of the practically constant back pain with no relief since the contractions were so close together.

EJ had done a great job all day staying calm and being supportive. He knew when to say the right thing and when to sit quietly. He had been putting counterpressure on my back and he made the whole process better. Once my water broke the contractions were so much stronger and I began to lose focus and my relaxation was for the birds is when EJ really stepped it up...he remained calm and coached me through each contraction breathing me through. I can remember in the middle of the worst contractions wanting so bad to stay focused on him because he was doing so great. Words can't say what a great job he did and I will never be able to describe how my love for him has grown over the past week. From laboring at home to the delivery and seeing his face when they laid Ensley on my tummy for the first time to his late nights with a fussy Ensley, watching him through this whole process has multiplied my love for him 100 times. I knew he was a great coach on the baseball and football fields but didn't know how he would do in the labor field and he far exceeded anything I could have hoped for and he is definitely coach of the century in my book.

Daddy's Big Kick

EJ has felt Ensley kick twice now, but both times he has had to ask, "Was that it?" Well, Thursday morning after breakfast EJ was on the couch and I was sitting across from him in the chair and my shirt moved. He got this huge smile on his face and said, "Oh my gosh, was that her?!" The next 30 minutes he would do a belly check like every 30 seconds to catch another glimpse of her. He is going to be such a great daddy. I am falling deeper and deeper in love with him every day as I watch him fall in love with Ensley.
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