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.

Showered and Sprinkled.

We have been abundantly blessed with 3 showers for Emery!  The first one was at my work and it was actually a surprise "Sprinkle" as the group termed it.  We have a regular school psych meeting each week and when I showed up it was a shower instead of a meeting.  It was actually funny b/c I was not feeling well that day and had called my boss to see if our meeting was important b/c I wanted to take half a sick day.  She went on and on about how important it was and I was so confused as to what she was talking about, but I stuck it out and went anyways.  So, when I got there I quickly realized why the meeting was so important!  :)

I can definitely say I was totally surprised!


All the cute decor and a few pics of me opening gifts.  

 

The next shower we had was thrown by our small group.  About a year ago we started attending a different church and through some friends from our old church we started attending this small group.  We have had the best time getting to know this group and learning the scripture with them.  They have been a HUGE blessing to us.  It is so neat how God brought us to this group through one couple friend, but when we went the first time we found out that we knew another couple in the group as well as the leaders of the group!  It has been great confirmation from God that he had this group prepared in advance for us.  Here are a few pictures from that shower.

  

 

And lastly, my school (where my office has been located for the last 5 years) threw me a shower the day before I left on maternity leave.  This building has been so good to me over the years and I love being at their school.  It was where my office was my internship year and I have been privileged to say there every since.  One of the girls took my phone and took 44 pictures of me opening gifts!  Ha.  I will spare you that and only share a few.  

  We have tons of fun girlie things just waiting on Emery to arrive! 

39 week appointment

Well I am 38.5 weeks preggo with Emery Claire.  I had my doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon.  I am dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced.  And the best news is that Emery has finally decided to drop some.  So....now we wait.  Dr. P gave me the option to be induced as early as Tuesday, April 24th but I can wait till Monday to decide if I want to do that.   And if not on Tuesday then I can chose a date later in the week or continue to hold out.  Emery has definitely slowed down in her movements and I am feeling a lot more "heavy."  I think she might end up being closer to Lincoln's birth weight of 8 lb 3 oz. 

Here is my latest picture.  

I was 37.5 weeks when this picture was taken, which is when I took my last picture pregnant with Lincoln.  I am definitely not swelling like I did with Lincoln which I think is evident in this picture. 

And just as a side note, I was at this exact same point (dilated and effaced) when my water broke with Lincoln.  Crazy to think it is going to happen soon!!

Room Swap

Well, for several weeks we had planned that the first weekend of March would be the weekend we would move Lincoln out of the nursery to the extra bedroom and in turn get the nursery ready for Emery.  We decided that this process would go over much more smoothly if Lincoln was not around.  (Sorry, buddy).  He is so curious and right in the middle of everything that it was just not a good idea.  So, we arranged for him to spend the weekend with my parents.  So, on Thursday night I took a picture of him in his nursery for the last night.  No worries though, it was not his last night in his crib.  The crib made the move with him :)

Look at how sweet he looks in the bed! 

So, I met my parents halfway on Friday afternoon and handed him off. It was his first time to spend away from both me and Cory. We have each spent time away from him but not both of us at the same time. It was so strange not having him around.  It really is crazy how soon your forget what life was like with no children.  So, Friday evening when I returned we got started. We moved all of Lincoln's things to the guest bedroom and that was my project while Cory started painted the nursery.

Here is a picture from my phone of what Lincoln's new room and the nursery looked like before we started.

One fun thing that I had seen on pinterest that I wanted to do for Lincoln's room was to make him his own "scoreboard."  We were wanting to go with a sports theme in his new room but somehow it turned into a baseball room (Ahemm....Cory!).  So for the weeks leading up the weekend we had worked on making him the scoreboard.  Here is a picture of it in progress. 

We painted a piece of wood all white then taped it off with tape, letters and number and then painted over all of with Fenway (Red Sox) green!  Then we peeled the paint off to get the final product.

As I worked on organizing Lincoln's new room, Cory was busy painting Emery's nursery gray.  I am so pleased with the gray that we ended up with.  It is a little dark but very warm and perfect.  It is Elephant Skin by Behr.  We also took the tree from Lincoln's nursery and put it back on a white patch of wall and painted over it gray.  I think it turned out so great! 

For the weekend we were able to get Lincoln's room about 85% done.  All we lack is hanging some decorations on the wall.  We got the walls painted in the nursery but still needed to paint the ceiling and put the crib together. Here is a sneak peak of Lincoln's room and the nursery thus far.  I hope to have both room put together in the next 2 weeks and I will post completed pictures.

Thanks Papa and Gigi for keeping Lincoln while we worked ourselves to death!  

It was a huge help!

33.5 weeks

Well the end is drawing near!  I am definitely feeling "large and in charge!" My morning sickness picked back up around 30 weeks.  I am sick about 3-4 mornings a week and I feel really nauseous after that till about 9:00 a.m.  After that I feel pretty good as long as I do not get too hungry.  As for sleep, it is getting a little bit more difficult.  I wake up at least every 2 hours to go to the bathroom and usually around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. I have about an hour of insomnia where I just lay there wide awake!  Emery Claire still moves often and at times hurts.  Sometimes I will have to stop and say "Ouch" while holding my belly.  Lincoln always stops with concern and says "Baby Owie, Mommy?" 

I had my 34 week appointment this week and everything went great.  The heartbeat was 140 bpm and my Dr. and I both agreed that my stomach has dropped a little bit making it easier for me to breathe.  She is head down which is great! I go back in two weeks that starts my weekly appointments.  I am anxious to see if I have dilated any.  At my 36 week appointment with Lincoln I was dilated to a 2 and 60% effaced.  So my hopes are high this time around; however EVERYTHING with this pregnancy has been different so I told my doctor that I will probably be a -1.  

Lincoln seems to be more understanding of Emery coming now that we have changed out their rooms and she has her own crib set up.  He often goes in there and says "baby's bed."  He has also started randomly kissing my stomach.    I am getting anxious about how he is going to handle it all.  Yikes!  We are about 70% done with the nursery and I hope to get a lot more of it done next week while I am on Spring Break. 

Well here I am in all my bigness at 33.5 weeks. 

Me at 31 weeks with Lincoln compared to 33.5 weeks with Emery. 

And me again at 35 weeks with Lincoln and 33.5 weeks with Emery. 

She will be here before we know it...

Her name

Well after much time and consideration we have decided on a name for our little girl. 

Emery Claire

With Lincoln's name we thought of it a few weeks before we found out what we were having and felt certain it would be the name we would chose if it was a boy.  If Lincoln would have been a girl then he would have either been Amelia or Lucy.  However, since that time we have had a niece named Lucy and a few friend name their daughter Amelia so we opted to start over in our girl name search. 

We had a list of about 5-8 names that we compiled pretty quickly and narrowed it to a few.  We debated for while between Emerson and Emery.  I secretly wanted her name to be Emery but I wanted Cory to come to his own conclusion so I didn't say much.  One night Cory went to Barnes and Noble and stayed there for several hours looking through all the baby name books.  I had not heard from him for an hour or two so I called to check in.  He whispered "I think I have decided, call you back when I leave the store."  Once he called me back he said, "I have looked through every baby name book out there and I think we should name her Emery!"  Wahoo!  I was glad he saw things my way :)

The name Claire was chosen after my Grandma O'Dell whose name was actually Clarice.  Claire is the only name that I thought of several years ago and have never changed my mind about it.  I, however, did not foresee marrying a man whose first and last name would both start with a "C."  So, I had to change my thinking for it to be used one day as a middle name for a little girl. Lincoln's middle name (Miles) is after my Grandpa O'Dell and I shared in THIS post about my relationship with my grandparents.  We lived with my grandparents on two separate occasions growing up while we built new homes.  It was at their house that I accepted the Lord as my Savior.  I firmly believe that living in their home and seeing their dedication and devotion to the Lord on a daily basis is what God used to impress upon my heart that I am a sinner in desperate need of his saving grace.  Grandma O'Dell always use to ask us grandkids when we were going to have her some great-grandbabies!  I know she would be so proud to have one of the named after her!

Meaning:

Emery literally means "Industrious Leader."  The biblical meaning is "Protected Under God's Authority."   "He is my goodness, my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me."  Psalms 144:2

Claire literally means "Brilliant."  The biblical meaning is "Shining Light." Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."  John 8:12


Our wonderful friend and photographer, Lindsey, took these awesome maternity pics for us.  Click here to visit her website. 

Sweet Emery Claire, we can barely wait to meet you and begin to learn about you.  We are honored to be your parents and look forward to the opportunity to raise you to be an impact on His kingdom.  When I told your Uncle David about the meaning of your name {protected under God's authority} he said you would need it with such an active big brother. :)  Lincoln is going to be such a sweet big brother to you.  He loves babies and cannot stand to see them cry so I'm sure he will do whatever it takes to keep you happy!  I have a feeling that it will not take long for you daddy to find himself wrapped around your tiny finger too!  And I look forward to you being here so that I can kiss the morning sickness goodbye and kiss you instead!

We love you tons, sweet girl!

28 weeks {baby #2}

The last month has been one of my best yet.  I am starting to feel better most of the time and I was only sick 2 times the whole month!  Wahoo!  I have traded off the sickness for the uncomfortableness.  This baby continues to grow up into my lungs and ribs instead of wider like Lincoln did.  It has made taking deep breaths extremely difficult. In fact, three times in the last week I felt as though I was going to pass out.  Thankfully there is a wonderful school nurse at my building who took all my vitals and assured me it was just how the baby was laying in my stomach.  It definitely scared me because I have never passed out nor do I care to start now!  I had my doctor's appointment later that day and my doctor assured me that it too was just the way she was growing and in the coming weeks she should drop and I will feel some relieve.  {I just love my doctor!} 


We listened to the heartbeat this week and it sounded great.  I forgot to ask her the beats per minute but I'm sure it was around 130-140 b/c that is where it has been most of the time.  The baby continues to be a big mover.  I will be interested to see what position she ends up in b/c I feel like she turns somersaults in there several times a day. We got her crib in this week and ordered the fabric to have her bedding made. We have pretty much decided on her name, too.  After we celebrate Lincoln's birthday festivities the next two weekends then we will be switching their rooms around and getting the nursery in order.  I am ready to get moving on the switch.  I am getting a little anxious on the lack of organization around here! :)

I kept with the black shirt/jeans pic this week and put it in black and white b/c that is what I did with Lincoln.

Lincoln on the left and baby girl on the right!  I think I look different but maybe just 2 years older and worn down by a toddler.  Ha!

We are getting so anxious to meet you sweet baby girl!!

24 weeks [baby #2]

The 24 week mark is here.  I feel like my energy has started to return to normal.  I am not having to go to bed at 8:30 every night.  I am making it to a whole 9:30 or 10:00 most nights!  Ha!  I am just starting to find it uncomfortable to sit for long periods of time.  I feel like my stomach is growing differently with this pregnancy.  It feels more long (up and down), but with Lincoln I felt like it grew more wide. I still feel sick most mornings and have thrown up about once every 2 weeks for the past month.  I am definitely growing. Big!

Lincoln on the left and Baby #2 on the right.  I think the different shape to my stomach is really noticeable in this picture.  With Lincoln I grew more wide but with this one I am growing more outwards. 

As for the baby, she is a mover and a shaker!  I feel her move all the time.  Her movements seem softer but more frequent than Lincoln.  At my appointment this week, her heartbeat was 130 bpm.  Lincoln's stayed consistent at 150 bpm so hers is slower.  She also kicked the Doppler as soon as Dr. P put it on my stomach.  She did the same thing at the 20 week ultrasound.  I text Cory about it after my apointment and said "she is a feisty little gal."  His reply was "just like her momma!"  Such a hilarious man! :)  So far she only has a middle name but no first name yet.  We have a couple of names we have talked about but I don't think we are quite ready to commit!  Hopefully soon though. 

I am in the process of picking out baby bedding.  I am leaning towards a yellow/gray/white color scheme with a hint of turquoise.  A modern look. Here is a sneak peak at her dresser that my step father-in-law so graciously painted for us this past weekend.  The color is called turquoise tint by Valspar.  It is really hard to get the exact color of it in a photographbut it is a fun color in person.  

While we had it out in the garage to be painted, Lincoln pulled me in his room and said "Momma, where'd it go??" I was surprised at such a great clear sentence. Overtime though it became, "Momma, go?" with his hands up like he was asking a question. He is becoming quite the talker but we can only understand about every third word.  In one month turns 2 and I am just not sure what to think about that! :)

Gender reveal: Christmas style

When we first found out we were pregnant, I did not want to find out the gender of the baby till birth.  Cory took some time to be convinced but he eventually came around to the idea.  So, not finding out was the plan.  However, as the pregnancy progressed and we moved closer to the 20 week ultrasound Cory's stress level went up.  At this point with me being so sick, he was convinced it was a girl and we needed to find out b/c we would have a lot more work to do!  I was not so easily convinced!  After much discussion I decided that I was willing to find out but only if we did it is a very fun way.  Cory agreed.  So, on December 6th we went to our 20 week ultrasound and all we had decided at that point was to have the tech put the results in an envelope and we would decide later when and how to open it.  

The ultrasound went great!  The baby moved a TON.  The tech commented several times that she was surprised at how active the baby was!  (I guess drinking that orange juice prior to the appointment paid off.)  Lincoln was the exact opposite at the ultrasound.  He would hardly move and she ended having to practically beat the ultrasound wand on my stomach to get him to open his legs so she could see the gender.  However, this baby was all over the place moving their arms and legs and whole body!  Prior to the ultrasound, I was convinced the baby was a boy.  But, the more we watched the baby move and saw it's little body and profile I felt like maybe it was a girl.  So, we looked away as the ultrasound technician quickly found the gender parts and the ultrasound was over.  We walked back out in the waiting room and I said to Cory "Let's open the envelope right now b/c it is a girl!"  Ha!  He was like no we are sticking to the plan.  Glad he had self control in that moment b/c I did not.

Here are the pictures of the baby!

So, the envelope sat in our kitchen from December 6th still December 24th and we never opened it! On December 24th we had Christmas Eve lunch with my parents and Cory's dad.  We decided this would be a great time to open it.  (Now, we had been telling our parents for months that we were not going to find out the gender till birth.)  So we gathered them all in my parents living room and announced that we were about to open the envelope WITH them and that we did not even know the results inside.  Their reaction was PRICELESS!   Cory's dad got very excited and said "You are about to tell us what that baby is right now?"  My dad said "You are gonna tell us now??"  And my mom says, "Are you sure you want to do this?  Do you need to take sometime to think about it a little longer?"  So we made everyone go around the room and say their prediction of the sex of the baby.  Cory's dad, me and mom voted BOY and Cory and my dad voted GIRL.  

And then we opened it....

With this picture...

And I was shocked!  Although after the ultrasound my heart said it was a girl in the 18 days of waiting I had gone back to thinking it was a boy.  I really thought we would have all boys so I was just floored.  Cory was and still is very excited!  

Lincoln with the sign, the ultrasound DVD and pictures of his baby sister.

And here we are, a family of 4.  I have know over a week and I can still hardly wrap my brain around it.  So fun!

On Sunday we went to Cory's mom's house and shared the news with them and Cory's brother.  It was so fun sharing the news in person.  I have no regrets in finding out! We made great memories that I will always cherish. So, it's official and in the books.  We are having a baby girl and wish we could meet her right now!

22 months and 20 weeks.

Two more months till our sweet little guy turns 2. 

It is so very hard to believe.  The main thing changing with him is his language.  He is saying more words and more 2-word phrases.  His favorite words are:

•  ball
• choo-choo
• mama
• dada
• more
• pease (please)
• airpane (airplane)
• bock (block)
• book
• choos (shoes)
• socks
• Elmo
• Ernie
• Burt
• Biber (Big Bird)
• bana (banana)
• sack (snack)
• bakets (blankets)
• wow

 He loves to make animal sounds.  He can say about about 10 or more.  And he can point to and name several body parts. 

 His main two word word phrases are: 

• Hello/Bye-Bye Mama/Dada
• Night Night ____ (usually Elmo b/c he sleeps with Elmo)
• That's mine
• Hey baby (to my stomach)
• It boke (broke)
• More sack (snack)
• Wow tee (wow tree to the Christmas tree)

His favorite things are

• Balls -- he insist him and Cory play with the ball between the moment Cory walks in the door till Lincoln goes to bed.
• Music -- he continues to have a huge love for music.  Whenever music comes on he dances, runs to the ottoman to "play" the piano on it and then strums his thumb across his chest like he is playing the guitar.
• Shoes and Socks -- Very random but he is loving himself some shoes and socks.  He wants me to put his shoes on him, he wants to make sure me and Cory are wearing  shoes and when Cory leaves for work he says "Bye Bye Dada"  "Bye Bye Dada's choos"
• Helping -- he love to take things to the trash, help unload the dishwasher and put away clean laundry.   His most favorite though is sitting on the dryer to help load clothes in the washing machine and then pouring in the soap.   

He is a mess or as I often call him a turkey or a turkey leg which he things is just hilarious!  We love him to pieces for sure. 

_______________________________________________________________
And onto the pregnancy topic.  I am officially 20 weeks.  I am just now starting to feel like I am showing.  I am starting to feel better too but not as great as I felt with Lincoln.  I went three weeks without being sick in the mornings but this past Friday I got sick again.  However, once every three weeks is doable.  I just hope it is not more. 

 And here is me on the left with Lincoln and on the right with Baby #2. 

I feel like this baby moves more often than Lincoln did. I am not sure if it's just the baby or it's me b/c this is my 2nd time around.  We have been cleaning out closets and digging back out the baby gear.  It is hard to believe we are halfway there to being parents of two babies!!