Emery's baby dedication

On February 23, 2013, we dedicated Emery in our community service at our church. We did this along with the Epps and Pierce Family.  The Epps family had Camryn at the beginning of January and the Pierce family Callie in October.  It is so fun to have such great friends with little girls so close to Emery's age.  We met both of these families through the small group we joined a year and a half ago.  We were thankful to share this special day with them as our "family" since our actual family was not able to make it.  Most of our family had been in town 2 weeks before for Lincoln's party and the grandparents will be back next week to keep the kids while Cory and I are away.  We know they all support us and their attendance was not necessary to show us that! 

Two days prior to the dedication Lincoln came down with the stomach bug.  We knew we could not miss the dedication so we took him into church and kept him with us.  We did not want to share this love with any other children.  We thought the bug was over but in hindsight it was a 4-day bug and he was right smack in the middle of it.  So, in fairness to him he was not wanting to smile for the camera but now we understand more why.  As soon as the dedication was over we actually left and went home so he could rest. 

These pictures were snapped by Jessica's friend and a few of the others just "appeared" on my camera.  I left my camera in my seat and someone took a few pictures for me on it. Such a nice gesture!

It was funny because Abel (the pastor) introduced us and then said "If you have not seen Lincoln hit or throw a ball, you've got to.  He is really good." Poor Emery already living in his big brother's shadow of sports.  Ha!  I know a few things about how that is a little sister. :)

I love that we were able to dedicate Emery to the Lord and in raising her to love the Lord and know Him.  She is His and we are given the gift of pointing her to Him.  We pray daily we are successful with that.  

After we got home I tried to get a picture of her outside but it was too bright and she was too interested in crawling.  Here is the best I got:

Emery's Birth Announcement

Once again, Lindsey did an amazing job taking Emery's pictures and designing her birth announcement.  It is exactly what I had in mind!

 Front

Back

Everything Emery {1 month}

Happy one month, my sweet sweet girl!

Wheww... we survived the first month!  Life with two babies is definitely twice as busy but twice as fun as well.  Emery's first month of life has not been "typical."  We have struggled with her feedings and it has been quite the roller coaster.  She has been fussy, mainly in the evenings and has been often been restless.  She has gained weight, lost it, gained it and then lost again.  So, now at the one month mark she is starting a breastmilk/formula bottle feeding diet. :)  She is also now on acid reflux meds.  So now with a new diet to assure weight gain and the meds she is showing much more moments of contentment.  Bless her heart, she was just hungry and in pain.

So, Emery let's see what this "untypical" month has been like:

• You weigh 8 lb 2 ounces which was your birth weight.  Weight gain has been a challenge for us this month.  You have been exclusively breastfed but it appears that although my milk is enough to keep you hydrated it is not enough to put meat on your bones.  So, we are now on a formula and breastmilk diet via bottle!

• You nursed 8 times a day and now that you are mainly bottle fed you still eat 8 times a day.  You eat about 3-4 ounces every 3 hours.
• You are a great sleeper at night.  Just like your brother.  From your very first night of life you slept a four hour stretch and most nights you sleep around a 5 hour stretch. You are finicky about being swaddled.  You prefer to be swaddled at night but during the day you like to sleep with your hands up by your face.  You go to bed around 11:00 and sleep till 4:00 before waking up to eat.  Then you go back to sleep till about 7:00.

• You sleep pretty well during the day but this past month you had lost of fussy evening where you were awake all evening leading up to bed time and then you would crash for the nightime.    
• Your favorite place to sleep is in the bassinet of the pack-n-play.  You still sleep in there at night in mommy and daddy's room.   I think you like it best because it is on an incline and it helps make your acid reflux feel better. 
• You wear newborn clothes and newborn diapers.

• You love to be held!
• You love tummy time because you love to sleep on your stomach.  You do not even try to lift your head up to look around because you are so content on your tummy

• You hated the swing but in the last few days with you seem to enjoy the swing more.  I am hoping you continue to come around to loving it as much as your brother did. 
• You did not enjoy your first bath but now you really enjoy it.

• You are very "mobile."  You are constantly kicking and you can even roll up on your sides at times.  You are constantly kicking and moving your hands up around your face  
• You hated the carseat from the moment we brought you home from the hospital (see Exhibit A), but you are coming around (see Exhibit B).

• You started cooing around 2 weeks but they are few and far between.
• Your hair was dark brown at birth and you had quite a bit, however, it is slowly falling out and becoming more of a light brown. It sticks up most of the time.  Your eyebrows are blonde.  

• Your brother (and daddy) LOVE you to pieces too.  Lincoln kisses you and hugs you about 50 times a day.  He calls you "Emmy" or "Em-eny" and asks to hold you all the time. 

And here is a comparison picture of you and Lincoln at one month of age!

 Emery, we are so blessed to have you in our home to raise and love!  You love to be held (especially by mommy) and talked to when you are upset.  When you are awake you are always moving your head and looking around.  You seem so alert to be so little.  We are so excited to watch you grow and develop and see what another month will bring.  

 We love you, EC!

First Bath

Emery's umbilical cord fell off on day 15 so that evening we gave her her first bath.  She cried for most of it but she had a few calm moments. 

Every bath since the first one there is less crying, more eyes open and looking around.  I think in no time she will realize that bath time is not too bad after all. 

Emery's Birth Story.

At my last appointment on Wednesday my doctor had offered to induce me on the following Tuesday. I was unsure if I wanted to so she told me to take the weekend to think about it and I could call her on Monday with my decision. After much deliberation, thoughts and prayers we decided to go for it. With Lincoln my water broke and although I dilated on my own I still ended up with pitocin to get him to drop. Emery was showing the same pattern so I figured it would be best to have the pitocin from the beginning instead of backtracking like we had to last time. Plus, I really wanted to have my doctor there for the delivery.

So Tuesday morning, we set our alarms early in order to be at the hospital by 5:00 a.m. I hardly got any sleep that night.





We arrived at the hospital a little after 5:00 but had to wait about 45 minutes for a room. Once in the room we had to complete paperwork and other preliminary info. The pitocin was officially started at 7:30 a.m. which is when , in my mind, labor officially started.

At 8:30 Dr P came in to break my water and at 9:00 I got my epidural. Up until that point my contractions had been 2 minutes apart and I had not felt one.

As the morning wore on and the epidural picked up I became nauseous. With Lincoln I threw up several times and I was really praying that would not happen this time. So, I told the nurse and she put some Zofran in my IV. I was better soon after that and never got sick.

The epidural was in full affect on my right side but it was working about 40% on my left side. The nurse suggested I roll to that side to see if it that would help.

By 10:30, I was dilated to a 5 And by 12:15 I was dilated to a 7. At this point I became discouraged it was not moving faster. The nurse had come in several times to rotate me to different "sides" to help move the baby down.

I decided to take a nap in hopes to help pass the time. I woke up about 1:45 to this intense low constant pain on my left side where my thigh meets my leg. My nurse told me she would back at 2:00 to check on me so instead of calling I just waited on her. When she came back I told her about it and she said "that is not a contraction, that is the baby!" I was dilated to a 10 and almost ready to push. The only problem was that my doctor was in surgery doing a hysterectomy! My nurse called into surgery and Dr P told her to ask me to wait 25 minutes b/c she really wanted to deliver me. I really wanted her to deliver as well so I was willing to wait. The nurse turned off the pitocin and turned up the epidural in the mean time. Then she told me not to move or I might have a baby. Ha!

I pushed one time with the nurse and two times with Dr P and as simple as that Emery made her entrance!  I was in shock that it happen so quickly! I pushed for 2 hours with Lincoln and pushed three times with Emery. I even said out loud "I can't believe it was just that easy!" As soon as Cory saw her he commented how much she looked like Lincoln when he was born.

Here are the series of texts that I was sending some family and friends.

The whole labor and delivery was such a better experience than I had with Lincoln. Lincoln took 16 hours and Emery took 7.5 hours!

There were a few similarities. Between the two. They both were 20 inches long, she weighed one ounce less than Lincoln did, we had the same nurse from the nursery and they both peed on her within seconds of being cleaned up and we were moved to the same room that we went to after Lincoln was born. 

And here is one of the first pics we took of her on my phone.

Such a very special day.

Happy Birthday, Emery Claire!

Happy Birthday, Emery Claire! 

Our sweet bundle of baby girl entered the world on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 at 3:01 p.m. weighing 8 pounds, 2 ounces and 20 inches long.  She looked strikingly similar to Lincoln at birth.  The labor and delivery was a much better experience than the first time around.  More details to come later. 

Here are some snapshots from the day.