Henry Peterson Ellsworth

Henry Peterson Ellsworth was born on September 14th at 7:27 pm weighing 7 lbs 0.4 oz. He was 19 inches long. He came home from the hospital with a different name, but he was only here a few hours before I knew we had to change it. The kicker was when the kids got home from school and Nathanael walked right into my room where I was feeding him and said, "Hi Henry!" So I called Jason and told him we gave the baby the wrong name. Big sigh on the other end of the line. . . then, "Well, call the hospital then." So I did and we had to go back the next day to fix the paperwork. Jason agrees on the name, but I think he wasn't interested in having to go through the hoopla of a name change. It ended up being really easy. Henry has been the very hardest to name, but we're all good now. He is named after his great great grandfather, Henry Moroni Zollinger who was in an accident and essentially died but then came back and recorded his extraordinary experience on the other side. His middle name is for Laurel Peterson Ellsworth, his great grandmother who died just a few weeks before his birth. She was a shining example of endurance and faith. She was pregnant with her last child (10th, I believe) when her husband was killed in a small plane crash. She endured 50 years without him raising a righteous family, refusing to become bitter or lazy and serving until her death. She was 90 when she died and she was serving in her ward as one of the activity day leaders for girls (ages 8-11).

At the hospital while I looked like this. . .

I had a weird reaction to the epidural medicine that made my left eye droopy (among other things). It was pretty wild.

Jason looked like this. . .

Ok, so that's a bit of an exaggeration. I actually really loved having that lap top around!

Henry is a really good baby. But really, if he weren't I don't know how keen I would be on saying he wasn't. I mean, it doesn't feel nice to say, "Yea my baby is terrible, he screams constantly." But we happily don't have that problem. He's adorable and sweet and darling, even if he is small. That makes him all the more endearing. Speaking of being small, Jason has commented to many people that he is the 'runt'. I find this funny seeing as his siblings are all fully grown and as far as the men are concerned, he's clearly the runt.

Our snap shots are nice and all, but I had the marvelous opportunity to get some pictures taken by a friend of a friend (well now I would consider her my friend too- she was great, so nice, SO good with Henry) who is starting (restarting actually) her photography business. She has posted a sneak peak of our little runt here: http://chardyphotography.squarespace.com/ if you want to see a really cute picture of him.

We are trying to keep up with our hectic life and it's quite comical at times (See Eli in this picture?? He's not yet two but he's certainly adept at throwing tantrums. He's keeping life interesting!), but we are doing our best. We enjoyed my mom's help for two weeks. During that time I nursed and slept and changed a lot of diapers. My mom took care of everything and everyone. Now she is gone and I am drowning in laundry and dirty dishes and bills and poop and errands and kids' activities and 5 more buckets of apples (that are rotting as I type this). So instead of doing any of those other things I am going to finally get around to publishing this post about Henry.

If you care to know how the blessed event went down, read on. Otherwise, have a lovely day.

Just a few minutes after his birth

I worried a lot about his size in the months leading up to my due date. Kate was my biggest baby at 8 lbs 13 oz, right on time. Let's just say my pelvis wasn't exactly built for a baby that size and I had a long recovery (over a year). The next two boys were each 8 lbs and they were early. I measured small near the end of this pregnancy, but since I have a long torso and a big back yard the doctor said I could still easily have a good sized baby. So I hoped for an early induction. But of course that's a bad option if my body isn't doing its part to be ready. A week before my due date I had made enough progress that induction was put back on the table. I was lucky to get in on my scheduled induction date (first thing that morning, they didn't have enough nurses to bring me in but called later in the morning and said they were ready for me. YAY!). I got to the hospital around 11 am and they got things moving right away with an IV, pitocin and breaking my water. For several hours we hung out. I read and Jason sort of worked. When the contractions really picked up I had an epidural (love those). We waited some more. By 6 pm I had not progressed at all (dilated to a four for over five hours). That was a downer! A new nurse came on at 6 pm. Between 6:45 and 7:00 I had three contractions, each longer and stronger than the last. The last really hurt and I was pushing my epidural happy button. The nurse checked me at 7 pm and I was complete, ready to push. That was shocking news. Nothing was ready, no baby nurses around, doctor was busy and couldn't come right then. This is when that epidural came in really handy. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me a bolus of fast acting medicine. That made it possible to wait (somewhat comfortably) for the doctor, the baby nurses, etc. One contraction with three pushes and he was out. The cord was wrapped around his neck twice but as soon as his head was out the doctor got the cord unwound and as soon as Jason's shaky hands cut the cord he was put on my chest. Seeing our babies for the first time is always such an amazing, powerful experience. I'm almost sad we won't have that experience again. . . almost.