First night.

First night home was great. Stephany Ellingsworth had prepared buorbon chicken to bring over for us (By the way, let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who has prepared meals for us. They have been a real blessing to us. Special thanks to Jeremy and Jessica Carter for organizing the whole thing. Thank all of you so much for being kind). Ella has been eating and sleeping really good. Mommy is getting lots of rest in between feedings. Daddy's getting lots of sleep. On Sunday, we started getting some visitors. Janelle, Shanna and Caroline came over.

Then on Monday, she got a visit from her friends Mrs. Lora and Mrs. Judy and Ms. Hannah.

She's been a lot of sleeping. She really likes pinky fingers.

She's also had fun with her new best friend Princess. I just don't know if Princess knows quite what to do yet with the new baby!

Day 5 . . . I know, it's sure has taken a while!

So I'm really sorry it's taken so long. I've been trying, I promise! See, we don't have internet yet at our house (coming July 23rd, yeah!!) so I've been at the mercy of the internet around us (i.e. - other people's unsecired wifi. It's not stealing, they're just sharing and don't know it). Anyhoo, enough of the intro. I'll catch you up.

Lots of people came by and saw Ella before she went home; Claude and Sheila, Josh and Amanda, Dusty and Shanna. Dr. Ferguson came by before we left just to make sure everything was ok. Ella and mommy went home on Saturday night. First night info to follow.

Day 2

Hey there everybody. Sorry it's taken so long for the update. I'll catch you up. Last night went well. Ella got some good sleep and she's starting to get the hang of the whole eating thing. She's really cute when she sleeps. She makes lots of cute little faces. Anyhoo, mommy and me got some good sleep too. She's recovering well. Still sore but she still has her sense of humor. (She's watching the video now and kinda making fun of herself)

She's already had a couple of visitors. Doris Thomas stopped by first (by the way, praise report, her father-in-law is getting to go home today from the hospital). Frank Lodeserto has stopped by and so have Josh and Amanda. Enjoy the pics. I'll post more as the day goes on. Love you all.

The Official Presentation

Ella Grace Strickland
Born - 7/12/07 at 10:45 PM
Weight - 6 pounds 11.4 oz
Length - 18 1/2 inches

So these will be the last pics of the night. I'll get back to blogging in the morning. Thanks to everybody for the comments. They've been a lot of fun to read and a real encouragement to Laci and I. Have a great night. Thanks for staying up with us.

p.s.-Just changed the first diaper . . . what is that????

First Bath

She's beautiful!

More to come...

By the way 6 pounds 11.4 oz. Congrats to the winner . . . whoever it is.

Ella's first meal

Alright, she's eating so I can't really get anymore pictures on until she's done with her first meal. Then, we'll post them like crazy. I promise. By the way, don't know who wins, but official birth time 10:45. We'll find out the other stuff once she's done eating. Thanks for all the comments. Keep them coming!

She's here!!

Ella Grace Strickland. She's here!! More to come!

Go time!

Alright, it's pushing time. Gotta go. Pray hard.

Game Time!!!

Alright. Here's how this will work. For those of us still up we're going to have a game going. Time to guess . . . What is it?!?!

Here's how it will work. I'll list the topics below. If you guess right, you win (just bragging rights, no prizes. Sorry, we're having a kid. We'll be spending money on diapers). Here they are. Good luck!

1. Time of birth

2. Weight

3. Length

4. Name (to the few who know, please don't guess this one)

Learning Process

So, I just found out not too long ago how to use the nurse call button. LoL. I really haven't had to spend too much time in hospitals. Don't worry though, nothing major. One of the monitors starting going off so Laci told me the nurses would hear it...but they didn't. So I start treckin' down the hallway looking for somebody. Anyways, same thing with the blog. Got the time stamp thing cleared up (thanks Birdman). No updates. Mommy is up but no major changes. See you next hour.

No news is . . . no news.

So, here's the 8:45 update. Laci is peacefully sleeping, the family (plus Lora Ebeling, she is wonderful) are in the lobby eating pizza, and I'm right here beside her listening to a little heart monitor of our baby go up and down, up and down. Lora says it's normal so I'm cool with it. Turns out Laci has Scoliosis which made it harder for the doc to administer the epidural. If you want something specific to pray for, use that. The doc said because of the Scoliosis he won't be able to give her another epidural and that there is a chance she could have one side that won't be numb. Little scary for her so pray that won't happen and that her nerves will be calm. Nurses say all is good though. Keep posting. We love hearing from you all.

p.s.-everybody except Jason and Jim Bird!! J/k Contrary to their belief, I actually kind of like this whole blogging thing. So, thanks to Jason for showing me how and for letting me use the laptop.

Picture time.

Here's mommy. She's a trooper.

It's go time

So Laci wakes me up at 4:30 this morning with the words I've been waiting to hear . . . .

"Hunny, I don't think you're going to have to work today. I'm in labor!"

14 hours later, it's baby time!! We've spent most of the day monitoring and keeping track of contractions. When she woke me up this morning, contractions were about 10 minutes apart and it stayed that way for most of the day. As the day went on they just got more and more intense. Once 3:00 in the afternoon roled around, things were starting to pick up. The pain was getting stronger and the contractions were coming every 8 minutes. Laci decided we should call the doctor just t check things out. On the way to the doctor, contractions starting picking up even more, every 5 minutes! Doctor Ferguson decided it was time to go. So at 5:10 in the afternoon, Momma has checked in to the hospital. Baby is on the way!! I'm super excited and just trying to soak everything up. Laci has just received her epideral and is about to take a nap. Pray for her and pray for baby. Check back for updates. We love all of you. I'll have a picture up in just a bit of mommy.

The best place for news...

Check back and we'll keep you posted on the progress of baby 1.0