The Schmidgalls

It is so neat to watch Ellie with her new baby brother!  She looooves babies so I knew she would be excited about having one of her own.  When he was born, I kept telling her it was “her” baby.  When people would come over, she would point and say, “My baby!”

At first, she would call her baby brother “Zekie” but she heard Daddy calling him “E-Z” and it stuck with her.  When ever we ask her baby brother’s name, she says “E-Z!!!”  But then, the funniest thing - she would say, “ah-ah-ah-CHOO!”  Most people didn’t understand but we know our Snow White and dwarf-loving little girl.  She thinks we named her brother…SNEEZY!!!! Oh my goodness, we can’t stop laughing about that!

Another thing that has kept us laughing is her interest when I am nursing the baby.  The first time she asked about it, I told her the baby was drinking mommy’s milk.  Without skipping a beat, she asked, “I have some?” We laughed so hard that now she says it every time I nurse!  My sister in law said to let her try it once and she would be over it.  But I am not letting that mouth full of chompers near me!

Ella is VERY interested in Ezekiel’s fingers!  She is always touching them or grabbing that them.  I must admit it makes me a bit nervous because they are so tiny and seem so fragile!  I am trying to teach her to gently pet them.  She loves to hold her brother and kiss him.

Everyone told me Ella would seem so BIG when I came home with Zeke.  But actually the shock was that she seemed so suddenly VERBAL!  Did she always communicate so well?  That can’t have happened overnight!  The cutest thing is that when the baby cries Ella says, “Shhh-shh, it’s okay, Ellie’s here.  Elllllie’s here!” It warms our heart to hear her comfort him!

Big sister is such a helper!  She helps us change the baby, give him a bath, comfort him, etc.  She is taking very good care of her babies too!

Everyone wants to know about Ella’s behavior since bringing baby home.  We have had family visiting so it is hard to know what is from good ol’ fashion spoiling and what is from changes at home.  We have noticed that biggest adjustment at bedtime.  She has always gone to bed very easily and all of a sudden she fights us on even getting upstairs.  Tears in the bed are not something I am used to and it makes me sad for her!  We are just trying to stay consistent.  We are going to hold off on the big girl bed for a bit.

She doesn’t seem to mind Mommy holding baby a lot…but the first time Joel was playing with her and turned to pick up the baby, she was not about to have it!  “My Daddy, myyyyyyyy Daddy!” Joel was up for the challenge though!

Overall, we are very proud of our little girl and know that she is going to be a great big sister!  We are so excited to watch our two kids grow together!

Here are some pics of little Ezekiel since we have been home.  We are soaking up every moment!

He is so alert!  Each day he has numerous times awake and looking at his new world.

But also snoozes plenty…

Coming home from the hospital with Mama

And plenty of snuggles with Daddy!  Aren’t these the two most gorgeous creatures you have ever seen?

“Hey dad, how ya doing?”

MWAH!

We are so in love with our little boy!  In the hospital, I kept thinking that it is not as weird to me to have TWO children as it is to grasp that I have a SON! Wow!

Having a new baby this time around has been really different.  I feel this constant reminder about how quickly this time will go.  Every spare second seems best to be spent with baby boy or his big sis.

In fact, I am having to really manage these emotions.  When I was a teenager I remember being at church camp and having so much fun…but also getting this sad feeling around Wednesday that camp was almost over - even though I still had half a week left!  My mom has always tried to get me to live in the moment rather than worry about it passing.  I have never wanted time to sloooooooow down more than right NOW!

Having Ezekiel makes all the memories of having Ellie come rushing back.  And I realize how FAST the time goes!  I have never been more grateful that I made the decision to be home with them.  Our kids will only be in our home for the shortest time!  My sister-in-law described my feeling best.  “Don’t you just feel like something is slipping away, like it is falling, and you are trying to grab on to it?!” Yessssss!!

So, that is the word on my post-birth state of mind.  Can you say post-partum?  (Joel, stop saying amen!)

So, here is my own account of little man’s birth.  Ella had been a week late so I was trying to prepare myself for a wait.  But, I realized, no preparation really helps hold off the feeling of wanting your baby in your arms!  I wanted baby to get here!  I just kept trying to stay distracted (fyi, shopping works great…just not good for the pocketbook!).  On Monday, I was having some contractions and they were getting a little more regular as the day wore on…but nothing was really painful and I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.  That night, just before heading to bed, I went to the computer in the basement to pick my March Madness brackets (anything for a little flirty banter with hubby!).

I noticed that my contractions were starting to come pretty closely and hurt a bit more.  I decided to write them down just to see how close they were.  Well, I wrote my first contraction at 10:48pm and Ezekiel was born at 3:17am!  After just a few contractions I realized they were five minutes apart!  I went and told Joel that tonight was probably the night and we should get packed up.  I don’t think he really believed me for a while!  (”Crazy hormonal wife thinks she is labor.  Yeah, maaaaybe baby will come in the next few days.”)

Within two hours of intensifying contractions, I was anxious to get out the door to the hospital…because it hurt!  For the record, DC roads are not labor friendly!  I made Joel pull over a few times so I could work through contractions without going insane!  Sparing all the hospital details, once I was all hooked up to the monitors, the nurses started to get concerned because the baby’s heart rate kept dropping off.  They were having me change positions - not easy when in pain!  Finally, the doctor decided they needed to break my water so they could put a tiny monitor in the baby’s scalp to monitor heart rates.  I looked up to see about nine people in our room all of a sudden.  That is when I felt a bit scared!  I remember finding Joel’s eyes and asking him to pray!  I just kept praying that baby was okay and that they wouldn’t rush me to a c-section. I think I told the doc, “Do what you have to do to keep from cutting me open!”

They were finally able to stabilize things.  They told me, “Okay, stay in that position.  Don’t move.”  Uh, yeah, okay!  Our doctor decided to just stay in our room to keep an eye on things.  We just chatted it up, pretending I didn’t have all sorts of wires in vulnerable places.  He finally decided to let me try to push…and 10-15 minutes later we had our little one!

As soon as he came out, the doctor announced, “It’s a girl!”  I opened my eyes…to see, um, a little package?  Joel immediately said, “No, it is a BOY!…IT’S A BOY!”  The look on his face cannot be topped.  He had a son!  The doctor quickly corrected himself and confirmed that yes, we had a little boy!  My hubby was in daddy heaven!

It turns out that our little dude had the umbilical cord around his neck!  The doc knew it all along but medical professionals are amazingly trained to hide all scary information.  He didn’t want the baby in the birth canal too long so he used the suction vacuum to suck our baby into the world.   Welcome to our family little conehead!

The record must also reflect that Joel was so amazing during the whole experience.  I fell in love with him all over again as he dug his fist deep into my back again and again, the only tiny relief from mind numbing contractions.  I wanted to marry him all over again when he advocated my case to every nurse that would want to pinch or poke me.  I love how in awe he was to have a little boy and how much he sought the Lord over his name.  He didn’t even giggle at me as I cried about silly post-partum things, like, “Boo-hoo, I just love you guys so much!”.  He didn’t waiver when I asked him if he was nervous to be responsible for three people now.  He is our stable rock with a roller coaster wife.

So, there you have it.  We are a family of FOUR.  Whew.  Thank you Lord.

Ezekiel Edwin was born at 3:17am on 3/17! We’re so excited to have a son!!!

Nina was incredible. They had her all over the place because they kept losing the heart beat. Come to find out, the umbilical cord was around his neck. Praise God everything turned out okay!! Nina did such a great job with everything!

When his head popped out, I knew it was a dude. He had that rugged man face But as he was coming out the doc called him a girl! Then out popped his man-ness, and I said said, “No it’s not, that’s my boy!”

He weighed in at 8 pounds, 8 ounces and was 22 inches long!  One tall little man!

For those wondering about his name, Ezekiel is a prophet in the Old Testament. It means, “Strength of God”. I like him, because he was a prophet of redemption. Being born at 3:17 on 3/17, we looked up Ezekial 3:17 “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, pass it on to the people immediately.” Love it! This was the verse where Ezekiel was appointed and called. We’re hoping and believing for great things from our Ezekiel as well. As for Edwin, it is my middle name, and I wanted to share it with my son

Here’s some early pics…

Ezekiel Edwin Schmidgall

The family: Joel, Nina, Ella, & Ezie

Holy Cow - my wife looks beautiful doesn

Me and my man Zeke!

Ellie & Ezie

Double E

Are you getting your fill of Ella pics?  This weekend, Ella went to the birthday party of her friends Taylor and Bo!  They are brother and sister and have birthdays just days apart (turning three and one).  The theme was ADORABLE and my friend, Laura, made each of the kids costumes! Sooooooooo cute!

The weather was FANTASTIC!  The kids played and played…and I felt happy and relaxed to watch my daughter soak up some sunshine and friends!

Ellie the Fairy

I love her smile for pictures!

Here is the birthday girl, Taylor, blowing out her candles!

Birthday boy, Bo, loves his cupcake!

Look at these gorgeous “Tink-a-waa” (as Ella calls Tinkerbell) cupcakes!

Now that is pirate booty!  Mmmm!

Any surprise that Violet is the one girl that decided she would rather be a pirate?

Thank you Lord that my little girl has such sweet little friends.

As Ella has been saying, “Hap-py Birth-day to yooou, Tay-leeerrrrrr!”

Ellie and I played at the park today.  We are soaking up every moment of each other’s one-on-one attention.  I am so in love with this little girl!

“Mimmy, hurry up and come to DC to see-saw with me!”

Hilarious.  She doesn’t even know this child.  She just decided to help encourage him on the slide!  She will be such a great big sister!

Just hanging out waiting for our baby to come!

We got snoooooooooooooooow! I was afraid we had missed our chance at a good dump of snow for this winter but Sunday night snow fell and fell.  Joel had Monday off so we went over to the Arboretum to find a good spot for sledding!

It was a winter wonderland!

Isn’t it beautiful?

Even more gorgeous - my FAMILY in the snow!

“I love playing with you Daddy!”  MWAH!

Daddy taught Ellie the fine art of snowball fights!  She would pick up a tiny little handful of powder and send it misting at one of us.  She loved it!

Gotcha!

“Take that Daddy!”

We finally found a hill and the two adventurers hiked through the powder to the top.

Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

Look at that grin!

On her own!

Things were going just great until Daddy convinced Mommy to take Ellie down once.  (Yes, I am two weeks from having a baby!  He was convinced it was safe.)  Well, daddy might be from Chicago…but mama is from California!  We have to drive to snow and we go down it on skiis, not our bums.  We went faster than I expected and, in my haste to stop, I went off the path at the end and dumped snow all in my toddler’s face.  (Joel’s story is that I hid behind her as we plowed through the snow but I would NEVER!)

Where is your smile baby?

Do you forgive me? (This smooch was through tears.)

Basically, things were over at that point.  Joel convinced her to go one or two more times “nice and slow” (which she now repeats to me every day except she says, “Slide with Daddy…fast and slow”).  From this point on, she kept saying “Go home - Dumbo, hot choc-a-lit.”

We did just that - a cozy cup of hot cocoa, a video, and a looong nap for Ellie.  What a perfect family day!

I am truly blessed to have such wonderful women in my life.  I often pray that Ella will have committed and supportive girlfriends as well.  I have somehow been lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing ladies that encourage me, challenge me, pray for me…and just plain bring joy to my life! 

These ladies know that one of my favorite things in the world is GIRL TIME!!  They planned an awesome shower to celebrate my second baby…and give me a night with the girls! 

Here we are (with me in all my wide-ness) - Lora, Amanda, the big mama, Grace, Laura, and Summer.  Or, as Ellie calls them:  Auntie Lo-la, Aun-Mana, Mommy, G-acie (Gracie), La-La, and Summy!  Thank you for showering me ladies!

These gals actually pulled off an entire dinner!  Mmmmmmmmm!

Everything was beautiful!

My friend Lauren snapped pics for me so I could just relax.

Speaking of Lauren, she is having twins!  She is due three weeks after me but we are racing each other to the finish line!  Whenever I feel like a complainer, I think of this poor mama with TWO humans inside of her!

As I mentioned, I love being with my girlfriends!  And these two crazies were my best buds when I worked for Congress.  We endured (and most likely created) plenty of drama together!  I rarely laugh harder than with these gals - Krissy and Jessie!

See, I told you!

The party was clearly designed by women that know me well.  Every little touch was something specifically special to me.  They made me this prayer book with prayers specifically chosen for our baby.  They were about things that they know are really important to Joel and me.  It was overwhelming to have a room full of amazing women praying over our unborn child!

Baby’s aunties read the prayers.

There were so many other special things.  I am probably one of the only grown women that LOVES party games!  So these ladies endulged me with some fun games and laughter.  They also served my favorite foods - like one of my favorite cookies, ginger snaps! 

The party favor was so meaningful too!  They gave each lady a little card that explained that a donation had been made to the women of The Well ministries in Thailand!  I was so touched!  When we traveled there last year, I was really moved by these courageous women that had left the sex trade to pursue Jesus!  Only these ladies would know how much that would mean to me!

Even my little sister came into town and spent the whole weekend spoiling me! 

Basically, it was an awesome night with so many of my girlfriends!  Love all of you ladies!