Emmy's First Week In Review

Emmy's First Week in Review!

Birthday!


One Day Old:

Two Days Old:

Three Days Old:

Four Days Old:

Five Days Old:

Six Days Old:

One Week Old:

We are learning a lot about this sweet girl. She is a pretty easy baby, but does not like to be messed with. This includes diaper changes, baths, clothing changes, moving positions, etc. She just wants to hang out and not be bothered. She loves a pacifier. She drinks 1.5 -2 ounces per feeding. She poops approximately 56 times per day. She goes 3-4 hours between feedings usually. Like her brother and sister, she loves a good tight swaddle. It calms her immediately. Unlike her brother and sister, she does well in the car! No screaming! She is a snuggler. She loves to be on your chest much more than just in your arms. She can sleep through her brother and sister's craziness. At her one week check up she weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces. We will go for a weight check again next week to make sure she is back to birth weight. I have a feeling she will be. She has a little dimple on her back that caused us a bit of concern, but that checked out well today too. She is a healthy baby girl! We couldn't be happier with our newest love.

She has been on a few outings in her first few days. We made a trip to Babies R Us to get more bottles when she was 4 days old. And we ate at Chili's. Saturday we had to leave the house so someone could look at the house. I was not happy that John agreed to let someone see it, but it worked out fine. We ran to Walgreens and Sonic. It was the first time to have all 3 kids in the car. Noah was so excited to be sitting right by Hope, and Hope was happy to be in the middle to take care of Emmy. Today was the doctor appointment. She has her first photo session on Thursday and I am so excited about it. It is with Kristin Hollensworth. I cannot wait. We have never done the squishy newborn pictures and I have always wanted to.

If everything works out (please pray it does) our belongings will be delivered to our new house in Texas on August 13. This makes my stomach turn everytime I say it. It just seems so soon. I have known it was coming, but really, it's already here? One day at a time, right?

Big Brother

Big Brother Noah is still struggling to figure out what has happened to his world.

The first few days were pretty rough. Lots of sulking and fussing and just not being able to communicate well enough to understand what is going on.

We have all made an effort to put Emmy down and comfort him whenever possible, but clearly, it's not always possible, so we might end up like this...

Yesterday, I was feeding Emmy a bottle. Noah came up and sat beside me in his usual spot. After a minute he said, "Hug me!" So I did.

Several times he has told me to put Emmy in the swing. Or on the floor. Or just looked at me carrying her somewhere and broken down. It breaks my heart. He does not appear to be a big fan of this new little person...

But then, they had a moment.
And it made me very happy.

Baby Doll

Yes, as a matter of fact, my baby sister DOES fit in my baby doll cradle!

Emmy heads home

After getting the all clear from Emmy's doctor, we were ready to head home. Here is her outfit all laid out. My mom made the sweet blanket and, as is tradition, bought the coming home outfit. Hope picked out the sandals, which unfortunately were a little big!


Daddy getting Emmy ready to head home.

Love her.

Ready to go!

Think Daddy is proud? On a side note, we have brought all three kids home in this car.

The whole family is home. Noah is still just not sure about this whole deal.

This is Noah's favorite place to be, right beside me in this chair. It is our little snuggle spot. I was so happy he was ready to sit with me again in his spot. He didn't talk to me much, just sat there. It has taken him some time to warm up to me again. This has not been easy on me since I have always been his #1, but I understand why and I know we are on our way back.

She is just so sweet and peaceful.
Emmy with her Mimi blanket. So special to me. Thanks Mimi.
Doesn't this look like she is admiring her beautiful hands?! She can wink with the best of em.
This is where John likes to be with our little babes. On the floor, staring at them.

Nenny and Clara welcomed us home with Hope and Noah. Thanks Nenny and Mimi for getting the house ready for us to come home! When we left Friday morning, we were not expecting to come home with a baby!

Clara is a pretty proud cousin! She is so good with babies.

Speaking of proud...

Checking out the baby sister...

She is totally in love.

There was a moment that this all kind of clicked for Noah. We have been saying forever that this is Emmy's swing. All of the sudden he said, "Emmy! Swing!" And he really really wanted her to go in it. It was good to see a smile from big brother. He is still slowly warming up to her.
First night home. Sweet dreams, baby girl.

Emmy's Story

Our little surprise baby (A great surprise!) continued to keep us on our toes up till her birthday! She does not appear to be a fan of Mommy's plans! We are moving to Texas in mid August, and the week before last, Dr. Wyatt gave us an induction date of August 2. So, I finally had a count down to work with! 6 am August 2nd, we would be ready to celebrate the birth of our third baby. I saw Dr. Wyatt again last Wednesday, and my BP was a little up. I had to lay on my side, it went down, I went home. On Friday, I left the house to go return something to Target. I was looking to kill some time, so I tried walking around the store. I did not feel right at all. So, I went to sit in mom's office for a little bit and cut some things out for the center. Mom and I made hair appointments, and we left for lunch and new do's. While we were out I told mom I thought I should run into Kroger and check my BP. It was way up. I called the dr and the nurse said for me to be there when they returned from lunch at 1:30. So, what did we do? Well, we had time to go get our hair cut of course. I am pretty sure everyone was afraid that I was going to give birth there in the Beehive Salon. And I know Susie has never cut hair so fast in her life :) Thanks Susie! When I got to Dr. Wyatt, we did a non stress test and BP checks. Dr. Wyatt comes in and says he is sending us to Labor and Delivery for some testing. He opens the door wide and the nurse is there with a wheel chair! I might have fussed a bit about this. Maybe. When we got there, we met my nurse who had the same first and last name as me. What are the odds? After more tests, Dr. Hutchinson (who was the on call doc for the weekend for my clinic) admitted me for 24 hours of tests. Awesome. This put the 24 hour test at being over at 7:25 p.m. Saturday night. At about 9 pm, the results were in and the nurse came in and said, "Want to have a baby tomorrow?!" Um, yes, yes I do. John ran home to get everything for the big event, we made some calls and tried very hard to go to sleep. At 7 am Sunday morning, I was taken to a delivery room to be induced!

I had been having contractions for days, so after a bit of pitocin, things were moving fast! I got an epidural (after 3, THREE, tries) and life was good. I think it slowed things down a bit, but so totally worth it. At around 11, we polled everyone in the room to guess the time. John guessed 4:00 and I said he was not my friend anymore for saying it was going to take that long. Dr. H guessed 2:30. I am here to tell you, this baby was born at 4 pm on the dot. Then, my nurse guessed her weight exactly to the ounce! My sister stayed with us in the delivery room this time and I am so glad she did. I was so worried about John passing out (AGAIN!) that I wanted him to be sitting the whole time. The moment Emmy was born I thought, she looks like Noah! When I held her for the first time I could just tell how sweet she is. Can't describe it, just felt it. She checked out just perfectly and we are so so happy to have her here with us. Thank you God for Emmy Love.

Emmy Love

Emmy arrived a little early. She was born Sunday, July 18 at 4:00 p.m. It has been a long few days, but we are all doing great. I was put in the hospital Friday with high blood pressure, and they decided to deliver her on Sunday. Pretty crazy. Baby Emmy is just perfect. She weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces, and was 20 inches long, making her our biggest, but earliest baby! She is a sweet sweet girl, and we are happy to be home. God is Good!

Lake Days

Last week, John was out of town for his last ever traveling trip. Wahoo! Instead of hanging around the house, we headed to the lake with my mom, sister, and "the cousins." We had a great time swimming and hanging out (you know, except for the shopping with Noah parts of the trip.) Hope even caught a fish! She was pretty proud! So is her Grandma Sharon, I understand.

We swam several times each day. It was perfect. Hope is doing so well with her swimming. She could swim across the pool by herself, which made her (and her mommy) very proud. After she finished her Red Cross swim lessons (which was a traumatic event for everyone... the lady threw her into the deep end because she was scared... yes, I'm serious.) we set a goal for her to work on during the summer. The goal was to jump off the Lakewood diving board and swim to the side by herself. She had one private lesson with her favorite lifeguard to try to undo the damage caused by the Red Cross meanie, and within the first five minutes she was jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side! I can tell you it was her life's greatest accomplishment thus far! The grin on her face was priceless, but I don't have a picture, because I have all but quit taking pictures. I have got to pick up my camera again! If it weren't for my iphone, I would have no recent pictures at all.

Anyway, here is Hope with "the cousins." Noah was napping at the time. He likes the pool for a little bit, but then he wants to go "inside." He gets worn out so fast, plus I think he has his daddy's very sensitive eyes.

I need a chill pill

For real. I am so frazzled and snappy right now. I can't even stand myself! I know if I write down what is stressing me out right now, that I will just look at it and feel silly, so here it goes. Don't read it if you don't want to listen to my whining. I am way pregnant. And hot. And my legs itch like crazy at night and I seriously am not getting hardly any sleep. I usually give in to the insomnia around 3 am, get back in the bath, shave my legs (to try to stop the itching!), eat a bowl of cereal, and then go to sleep around 4. What is up with that? Not normal. I am also having lots of random contractions, usually in the morning. I am incredibly tired. So, those are my body complaints. If only it stopped there. My little Noah is 2. I mean, he is TWO. He is in the hardest stage (for me) that either of my kids have been through ever. He is into everything. For example, at my mom's house this evening, he sprayed a pesticide in his face. In his own face. OMG. He also hates to go shopping, or eat out. So we have stopped doing both. We were with my mom and sister at the lake for a few days, and the dude flipped out anytime we entered a store. F-ah-LIPPED out. Hope is in a bit of a funky stage herself. She is super whiny and sassy. I have been blaming it on the Junie B. Jones books she and John have been reading, but as I type this, I am realizing that it is probably all coming from me. Damn. Have I mentioned that we are moving to Texas? Baby is due August 8. Which means we will be moving between 1 and 2 weeks after Emmy is born. To Texas. Where my family is not. With a newborn baby. What in the world. This is definitely the source of most of my stress. I cannot prepare a place for Emmy in this house, because really, it makes no sense to do so. We have packed up the coat closet and hung all her little clothes in there, but um, that's it. John is going to get her bassinet down this weekend. But, her cute bedding remains in the package, no nesting will be taking place for her here. Did I mention that the house we are renting here has been put on the market and people randomly want to see it. Keeping a house ready for anyone to see it at any moment, while way pregnant, and two young children running around, well, it sucks. I do not like the realtor. She is not nice to me. Actually, she is just down right rude and hateful to me. I am not lying when I say I can feel my blood pressure rise as soon as her number pops up on my phone. This week she informed me that I had to tell her each time I go out of town. Umm, no, actually I do not. But thanks. Aaaaaaaaaauuuggghhh. Okay, I do feel better after venting. I cannot stand when all I hear from people's facebook or twitter is stupid complaints about things that don't matter ... and I just did it. Sorry, it won't happen again.

So, looking at my list, I do realize how ridiculous this all sounds. I am pregnant, and I know what a blessing that is. I actually do love being pregnant. I will miss this. And Noah, while difficult right now, is seriously the best thing ever. I just love him like crazy. And it helps that he loves me too. Hope is still her bubbly sunshine self that I can't get enough of, just with some added sass. I need to enjoy this before she is 13 and has some real sass. And Texas, while the biggest stress to me right now, is really the biggest blessing. John will not be traveling anymore. My kids will have their daddy at home every night. It has been fun to see them reconnect with him this last month. Noah especially. Honestly, Noah was always happy to see John on the weekends, but he didn't ask about him much during the week. He has never known what it is like to have him around all the time. Now, if I pick him up, I get a big, "Hi Mommy." And then and immediate, "Where's Daddy?" I think he is learning that he is around for good now. That makes me happy. It will all be good, I know it will be! Deep breaths!