Friday, April 24, 2009

Friday, April 17, 2009

All Better!

We took Emma to the doctor yesterday for what had become her daily blood test, and luckily, her bilirubin levels had dropped enough to take her off the light therapy.  We're so happy to have a healthy baby again!  Today was a warm sunny day, so we took her outside for a little while to enjoy the sunshine.  

It's hard to believe that she's eight days old already!  It has been the best eight days of our lives!


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Easter and Jaundice

The Easter Bunny brought us the best Easter present.  Emma came 10 days early, so she was able to be here to celebrate Easter with us.  Everyone came over for a BBQ and Emma looked adorable in the Easter dress her Auntie Tonia bought her.  



Emma had her first bath this week.  She really enjoyed it and hardly cried, even when she got a manicure.  She did better than I did.  I was a nervous wreck!  But I got through it without incident. Here she is after her bath, looking pretty. 

As for the bad news, Emma was diagnosed with jaundice and we have had to take her to the doctor's office each day for blood tests.  After three days of evaluation, her levels have increased and she hasn't gained weight, so they have recommended that she lie under a bililight, which will lower the bilirubin.  She has to lie in the "incubator" 24 hours a day, only taken out when she's changed or fed.  Obviously, this has been really difficult.  We just met our new daughter and now we can't hold her whenever we want.  It's been a pretty emotional time for me and Andy is doing a great job of keeping me sane.  Emma seems to love her bililight, since she is nice and warm.  She also gets to sleep all day, which she loves.  She has to wear eye protectors, which make her look like she is tanning.  

It's been a hectic, but exciting 5 days.  Getting to know Emma has been wonderful for both of us.  Learning the little things about her personality has been awesome.  I can't wait to learn a little more each day.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

She's Finally Here!

I can't believe that I'm a mom. My water broke on Wednesday night while we were putting Emma's swing together. I was admitted that night and they induced labor at 9:00 the next morning. The laboring wasn't too horrible (thank goodness for epidurals!), but the waiting was. They were concerned that she was going to be too big for me to deliver, but after 20 hours, I was NOT going to have a caesarean. All the hard work paid off in the end; after 2 1/2 hours of pushing, my sweet baby girl was born at 9:56 p.m. on April 9th. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and measured 19 1/2 inches long. And, of course, she is the most beautiful baby in the world. She has lots of dark hair already, and I'm hoping that it will not be curly, like mine. She has Andy's long eyelashes and right now, her eyes are a dark, grayish blue.

We are finally home and while we're still getting the hang of this parenting thing, she is the best thing to ever happen to us. We are truly blessed and loving every minute of it.


Sunday, April 5, 2009

Hello Again!

I know that it's been a long time since my last post and I'm sorry. I have been furiously trying to get things ready at work so that I can make a clean getaway. The past few months have been really hectic, and when they're not, I'm sleeping, not posting. So here's what's been going on:

First of all, I had four awesome showers. I wish I had pictures, but my mom and sister took them, and I keep forgetting to ask for them. My first was a surprise shower thrown for me on Valentine's Day. This was a really special one because it was thrown by my class. They are so excited about the baby and I was speechless when I found out what they had done. I had several room moms come in to prepare for the Valentine's Party, and as always, they kicked me out (which they didn't have to ask me to do more than once). When I came back, the room was decorated for the shower and all of my kids had presents for me to open. I cried, of course. They are such sweet and thoughtful kids. My second shower was a small one thrown for me by a group of girlfriends. We got together for dinner at a friend's house and it was really nice. My third was my "personal" shower, thrown by Kimi and Tonia, with family and friends. The big surprise there was that Aunt Margie and Aunt Amelia surprised me by flying out for it. I was busily inspecting the food when they jumped out and nearly sent me into labor. Again, I cried, of course. The shower was beautiful and I had a great time. My final shower was thrown by my colleagues at work. It was also a lot of fun, and my mom came along to meet all of the people I work with. She got a small taste of what I get everyday, by hearing the same sentiments over and over..."You are going to love being a grandmother!""Being a grandma is so much fun!" etc., etc.

Because we have awesome family and friends, we either received or were able to purchase most of the necessities on our registry. Andy's mom bought us the bedding to help us complete the nursery, and it looks so pretty:

Other than the showers, I have been busy with physical therapy. About two months ago, I started having really sharp pains in my pelvic area. My doctor recommended me to a physical therapist and they found that Emma had stretched my abdominal muscles so much, they split. Splitting about 2-3 fingers width is normal, but mine split 5-6 fingers width. This has caused all of her weight to rest on my pelvic bone, which had now been knocked 2 inches out of alignment. Hence the major pain when walking. Over the past couple months, I have been doing abdominal strengthening exercises to help "gel" my muscles back together, participating in EXTREMELY painful pelvic exercises to realign my bones, and I now have to wear a support band to help hold Emma up. It's been helping, but let's just say that I'm ready for it to be over.

Last week, we found out why Emma was tearing me up. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. at 37 weeks. At 5'2", there aren't many places for her to go, so all of that weight + being on my feet all day + being short = lots and lots of pain. I have another ultrasound on Thursday so they can check her weight again. If she's continuing to gain weight, they will schedule me for a c-section. I guess I'm just too small for this baby business and they're afraid that she could get stuck and injured. Here is a great picture of my little "moose" and her already chubby cheeks.



Emma and I are still hanging in there at 38 weeks today. I only have four days left of work, which will be a big help. Being at home in my P.J.'s is a lot easier on my body than running after third graders all day. We are anxiously waiting for Emma's arrival, which honestly, can be any day. I'm thinking that she's going to come early, on the 10th, since there is a full moon that night. I know she'll come when she's ready, but I can't wait to meet her!