Bryce's Embedded Systems Project

So Bryce has had probably his busiest semester of his college career this semester. Add becoming a father to that load and you have one BUSY (and incredibly hard working) man. I wanted to share one of the projects he has been working on... but I didn't want to have to explain it, so I took a video and had him explain it. Hopefully it makes sense. He has pretty much programmed a camera to track a ball to use for sport analytics... But Bryce does a little more explaining. :)



PS. Ellie is doing SOOOO much better! I started giving her gas drops before she eats and she has found SO much relief. I have a night and day different baby than last week. Thanks for all the prayers and support! (Especially my mom - you're the best!)

3 Weeks of Parenting

Alrighty. I'm typing this post with one hand. I'm getting quite good at doing things one-handed. Baby in the left arm, working with the right. Let me fill you in on a little bit of what life has been like the last few weeks of being a mom.

The truth is, the first two weeks were blissful. Honestly it was exactly as I had imagined parenting a newborn would be like. My cute little angel slept most of the time, and when she was awake, she was so relaxed  and just looked around everywhere, taking it all in. Ellie was a happy, mellow little girl. Life was easy. I didn't know what to do with all the extra time on my hands. Except for a 24 hour period of not feeling well, I had felt better than I had for the whole previous 9 months.

Then the 3rd week rolled around and something changed. Ellie is not quite the happy little person we brought home from the hospital.  She now spends a lot of her awake time crying, and I don't know why. She always acts like it takes every ounce of her waking energy to digest her food. I believe she may either have really bad gas issues, or she is possibly becoming colicky - my nightmare come true. I feel so bad for my poor baby. Sometimes when she is crying, she looks up at me with an expression that says, "Mommy, I'm hurting. Please help me." And it breaks my heart because I feel so helpless.

Fortunately, though, she is consolable. She LOVES to bounce on the exercise ball (maybe because mommy diid that pretty consistently for her last couple weeks in the womb...) She likes to swing in her swing and stare at the birds rotate on a mobile above her head as well as the couple other toys I hung from it. She is beginning to like sucking on a pacifier as well. The only problem is that these methods of consoling her are only temporary.

So yah. just a fair warning - our beautiful, sweet Ellie might not be the happiest of babies when everyone comes to meet her at the blessing this weekend...

But we love her so much, even though her crying gives mommy some serious anxiety. We are definitely praying that her little tummy will soon begin cooperating with her - or whatever it might be that is bothering her.

Here is Ellie enjoying her swing. As you can hear by the TV in the background, I have been spending a lot of time watching TV. HGTV to be exact. 

Here is Ellie and Daddy practicing drinking out of a bottle for when Mommy goes back to work. She did a great job! 

Two of Ellie's future best friends - Natalie and Camille - were born a week and a half after her. So exciting! 

Ellie's first time letting me put her in the Baby Bjorn. 

More of E

Ellie.

Ellie Bug.

Ellyse.

Ellie Button.
El.
Els.

E.

Whatever you call her, she is the best part of everything! 

Here are some photos I have taken since the last post... Nothing too exciting. 

Ellie Taylor Call!

This has literally been the best five days of Bryce's and my life so far. Ellyse (Ellie) Taylor Call was born on March 3, 2015 at 10:58 am. She weighed 7 lbs 14 oz, and was 20.5 in long. She is absolutely gorgeous and has beautiful dark hair. We love her so much! 

At her most recent doctor's appointment, she lost a few ounces in weight and when they remeasured her, she was 21 inches. She is in the 55th percentile for weight, 55th percentile for head circumference, and 98th percentile for height. 

Here are a bunch of pictures for your enjoyment! I have the rest of the birth story at the bottom if you are interested. :)

Me right before heading to the hospital

Bryce and I right after getting there.

Ellie's first photo

Ellie sleeping in her bed. 

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Nye

Grandpa singing to Ellie

Okay. So now for the details if you are interested. So I went in for my weekly doctor's appointment on Monday, March 2nd. When I gave them my urine sample, I kind of wondered if there was something a little off just by the look on the nurse's face. But she didn't say anything. Then she took my blood pressure and said it was a little high. I didn't think much of it because I was often high when I first got to the doctor's office, and then they generally recheck and I am fine. Then I went to the room and my doctor checked to see how much I was dilated. He told me I was at 1 cm, and that I probably wouldn't be having the baby super soon. I was a little bummed but that was okay. Usually that is the end of the appointment and they say, "Okay, see ya in a week." 

But then they told me I had to stay to have my blood pressure rechecked. So they rechecked it. Still high. Then they rechecked it again. Still high. And again. Still high. Then about 10 minutes later, Dr. Allred comes in and says, "Okay so we need to get you delivered." And I said, "Like... right now??" Then he said, "No, but I have scheduled for you to come in to have you induced tonight. You have mild preeclampsia, and since you are already at 39 weeks, there is no point in putting off an inevitable induction. So yes. We will start you on an IV tonight with an antibiotic and something to ripen your cervix. Then we will most likely break your water in the morning and you will probably have the baby tomorrow afternoon or evening." I was kind of in shock. I then went in for an ultrasound to make sure that everything was good to go. 

Then I went back to work, said goodbye to my 4th grade kiddos, and then went to work finalizing everything at school, including finishing putting some grades in my grade book and printing off 2nd trimester progress reports and stuffing them in envelopes for the kids to give to their parents. 

When I got home, I took a shower, gathered a few things, and had Bryce give me a blessing. Then we were off!

After I checked in, they started me on my IV and told me I should sleep through the night. I tried... but had to get up to go to the bathroom every five minutes... little did I know that the extreme pressure I was feeling to go to the bathroom was actually contractions. I didn't really know that's what I was feeling for quite some time. 

Anyway I was dilated to a 1 for a long time. Then I was dilated to a 2 for a really long time. Then at about 8:30 am, I was dilated to a 4 and then Dr. Allred broke my water. I was having some pretty painful contractions after that. They were going to put me on Pitocin, but turns out I didn't need it because I went in labor on my own. Things escalated quickly at that point. I got an epidural at some point after that... and now that I have had one, I am not quite sure why everyone doesn't get one. Wow! I mean seriously. Every time you see a birth scene that Hollywood has thrown together, there is all kinds of screaming and sweating and craziness. I think that they should film more births where the mom gets an awesome epidural. And when she is dilated to a 10, the mom should calmly say, "Are you ready for me to push or something? Okay just let me know when I'm contracting." Because that was my experience and it was awesome! 

I was really only in labor for about 2.5 hours. I pushed for about 5 contractions with the nurse and about 3 contractions with the doctor. Then the most amazing thing happened. Dr. Allred then put this perfect little child on my chest. The water works started immediately. I was overwhelmed with emotions and the feelings of love from my Father in Heaven. I looked up at Bryce (who was also crying) and looked back down at our precious little angel. I couldn't believe it. She was finally here! Bryce and my little family of 2 had suddenly been upgraded to a family of 3.

We love her sooo much! I kinda prepped myself to think that she wouldn't be a cute baby, just so that I wouldn't get my hopes up and then get let down. And I am sure I am biased because Ellie is my baby... but I think she is pretty dang adorable! We can hardly stop looking at her. She can literally be doing nothing at all and we still seriously cannot stop staring. 

I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for letting Ellie come in to our lives. It is crazy how quickly your life changes... and we wouldn't want it any other way. We have never felt so blessed. We are overjoyed!

Also, Ellie will be blessed on Sunday March, 29th here in Rexburg, and anyone is invited to come to that! Our church is at 9:30 in the north chapel of the stake center on the corner of Trejo and Mariah. 

PS. If you like pics of our little family, our good friend, Blythe, is going to do a little photo shoot of us on Wednesday, so look forward to some actual quality photos coming soon!