Welcome Baby Ella

Ella Renee Stewart was born on Friday August 14th, 2009. Weighing in at 9 pounds 3 ounces. 20.5 inches long.

The Birth Story
I was one week late so we went to the hospital Friday morning at 8 am for me to be induced. I wasn't feeling any of the contractions at that point and I was dialated 4 cm (out of 10). They broke my water at 9 am and started me on a small dose of pitocin, after which I began to feel some of the contractions, but the pain was not too bad. At 11 am I was dialated 5 cm and they estimated I would continue to dialate 1 cm per hour. They gave me the epidural *life saver* and after that I was completely numb and could hardly feel a thing. At 1 pm the contractions were getting closer together and a little more painful so I asked if I could push the button for more juice from the epidural. They checked to see how far along I was and I was surprisingly dialated to 9.5! Time to get pushing! ...However, my doctor had yet to arrive! We started pushing anyway and the doctor came running in around 2 pm. Ella showed up at 2:55 and Brandon and I were so elated! It was so amazing to see her face.

We were going to have to share a room with another patient and Brandon was not able to stay the night according to the hospital policy, however, they ran out of the shared rooms so we got a private room that they normally charge $300 for, for free! The room was great and I was SO glad Brandon could stay the night with me. The first night was pretty rough as Ella did not sleep at all from 8:30pm to 6:30am. It was great to have him there as we were both feeling pretty overwhelmed by morning!

It was really helpful to have my mom and Brandon there to help me push and get through it all. Brandon was such a great "coach" and was so sweet to me the whole time. He is the best daddy and loves his girls so much!

Ella is wonderful and having a great time eating, sleeping, working out her lungs, and making us guess what she wants :)
Thanks so much to everyone for the visits, meals, and support. I know that things would not have gone so smoothly if not for all the prayers that were said for us. We are so blessed to have such great family and friends and a wonderful new piece of heaven to add to our lives.

Angel Game

Wally and Donna Waite were kind enough to share their awesome seats at Angel Stadium with us last night. Of course the Angels won because I rubbed my belly for good luck! We were a little hesitant to go as I am a few days past my due date, but I am feeling ok as long as I take it easy. Maybe part of us was secretly wishing she would be born at the stadium and it would be this amazing story that would make headlines and all the players would come over and take pictures with us, and Mike Scioscia would give us free tickets for life. Oh well, maybe next time!

A foul ball bounced around and landed right in front of Donna. She picked it up and handed it to Brandon, but aparently the ball had hit a little girl a few seats away from us before it made it's way to us. So everyone starting chanting for Brandon to "Give her the ball!" So with all the peer pressure, Brandon was nice enough to give it to the little girl (who we think was just startled more than actually injured). So everyone cheered that Brandon was such a nice guy. Then an usher heard that Brandon gave away the ball so he brought Brandon another ball that the team had used that day! Lesson learned: kindness is rewarded!

Some crazy Dodger fan kept standing up and yelling about how great the Dodgers are (like anyone cares at an ANGEL game). So people started getting annoyed with him and security eventually escorted him out. As you can see in this video Brandon captured, some fan took his hat and threw it. It actually made it all the way onto the field. It was pretty entertaining.

We go to see Vlad get two home runs, the second of which was his 400th career home run. Way to go Vlad, maybe you do have a little bit of juice left in you! We are starting a fund to buy him a Hover-round scooter for getting around the outfield. Let us know if you'd like to contribute.

Thanks to Wally and Donna for the fun game! Donna gave me a cute Angels diaper bag with some goodies for the baby! We have an appointment Friday at 8 am for me to be induced if baby doesn't come before then. Just a few more days and she should be here!

Catching Up!

We have had a super fun summer so far. I am almost ready to pop with our baby girl, and yes, we are still undecided on a name. I think we are hoping she will tell us what she wants to be called when she gets here. I am off work now waiting for the baby to come, and am really enjoying my time off. Just trying to stay cool and get as much rest as I can. Here is some of what we've been up to this summer.

We had a new neice born in May, Eva Cecilia. James and Natllely are such great parents to her, and we are so excited for our little girl to have a cousin so close in age!

We had an awesome Stewart Family reunion over Fourth of July weekend. It was really great to see everyone. All the kids had such a fun time in Grams' pool.

Story Time!

Brandon has been practicing his parenting skills with our neices and nephews. I know he is going to be the funnest daddy ever.

I had a really fun baby shower on July 18th. It was so great to see family and friends. Our little girl got some really cute things. Like this beautiful quilt my Grandma made. She also got a swing, a car seat and tons of adorable clothes and toys.

We celebrated Grandma Long's 70th birthday last weekend with some BBQ and swimming. The kids loved the bounce house, or as Riley called it, the "boinga boinga".

Too much bouncing, time for a nap.
Face plant!!
James & Natllely enjoying the pool.
Robert's back flip!

We are having such a great summer and can't wait for our baby to get here so we can start making some memories with her!!