The Hospital

Soon after Ellie was born a nurse told us that we had grandparents in the waiting room for whenever we were ready for company. They cleaned her off, cleaned me up, and handed her over to try to nurse. By this time I actually had spoken to Mom on the phone (she called almost immediately after Ellie was born - the doctor was still doing his work while we spoke...) and Jon had sent around pictures to family. By the time we were all cleaned up and Ellie had nursed, it was close to 8:30. Grandma and Grandpa, Peter and Brittany, and Kelsey Frisco and Cat Baskin were all ready to come see the little peanut. It was a lot of fun to share about my day and the shock of it all. I could not believe that I had a daughter and that she had come so early.

Grandma and Grandpa left after thirty minutes or so and soon after Doug and Donna showed up. They brought Chik Fil A for dinner for Jon and I since we had missed food court and room service hours. They also stopped and picked up some adorable outfits for little Ellie! After Peter and Brittany and the Baskin sisters left, Doug and Donna hung around until Kelly made it around 9:45. Kelly had been up in Connecticut this weekend and came straight to the hospital! When Kelly arrived Doug and Donna had a champagne toast in celebration of little Eleanor's arrival. Before heading out for the night, Doug prayed for our peanut.

In spite of traveling over four hours to come to the hospital, Kelly stayed until Mom and Dad arrived around 12:15. Driving from Covenant this morning, they initially had planned a leisurely route home including stopping for the night somewhere along the way. Since Ellie arrived when they were somewhere in Virginia (I believe), they continued driving to see her as soon as possible. They made the trip in record time, about 10 hours. It was so great to finally see them!

Mom, Dad, and Kelly stayed and just talked about everything that happened that day until close to 2AM. Then I fed Ellie and Jon, Ellie, and I all went to sleep. Ellie spent some time in the baby bed with the heat lamp with the nurses checking up on her periodically. St. Joe's doesn't have a nursery, but it didn't matter because with the nurses monitoring her heart and heat level, I only had to feed her when they brought her to me.

Sunday morning was a quiet and relaxed time where Jon and I could soak it all in. Katelyn called and caught up with what was missing between the texts and phone calls she received the day before. Mom came around lunch time and I took a shower. Jon left shortly after to go home and get some quality sleep and pick up a car seat for Ellie. We were getting a brand new state of the art car seat from Iron Mountains but Ellie just came earlier than we expected and we hadn't received it yet! So he just borrowed one from their stash in the basement. While Jon was away his parents and Grandma came to see Ellie. I wish I had some pictures - I'll try to post them later when I get some off mom's camera.

The Mountzes left and Aunt Kelly came to visit! Jon came back and asked how church went, since he had been in charge of a commissioning service which he had to hand off at the last minute. Before they left Mom told me that they wouldn't be coming in the next day since we were being discharged, but to keep them informed as to when we'd be arriving home. Sometime during the day we spoke with Corinne in Uganda who was getting her hair done. It was so wonderful to be able to talk to her and introduce her to Ellie.

Monday was uneventful. I showered and we went through all the paperwork that needed to be completed before discharge. Our experience at St. Joe's was wonderful - all the nurses were so caring and I felt as though Eleanor was in good hands. Although I had a terrible experience on the phone with the doctor who delivered, he did a good job working with me in person at the hospital.

I'll post more pictures when I get them from Mom or off of Jon's camera.