Random thoughts and updates!

These are in no particular order I just want to document a couple things!

- I could bend over and touch my toes the entire pregnancy!  Even the last day before we went into the hospital I was able to do it, crazy!

- I never fell down during the pregnancy OR caught any kind of cold.  BOO YAH

- I went the whole pregnancy without any stretchmarks!  Looks like I'm a complete believer of Palmer's Tummy Butter like Sara told me I would be!

- I gained right at 35 pounds during my pregnancy.  A week after Emery was born I finally got the courage up to weigh myself.  I had lost 20 pounds already-- woah!

- You focus so much on your big belly during the pregnancy that you don't realize everything else that is getting larger as well.  Without the tummy to focus on now it's HELLO THIGHS.  Plus my rib cage went from a 32 to 36, crazy how babies push your ribs out too!

- I never had any swelling during my pregnancy!  I kept waiting for it but it never happened, thank heavens!

- My last day of work was Friday, March 4th.  We went into the hospital that following Monday... how is that for timing off of work?!  Emery didn't even give me one day of vacation!

- I stopped taking pain pills 2 days after I got home and have been feeling great!  I am so thankful I did not get the "baby blues" and am just happy as a clam being a mommy!

- My milk came in the 3rd day after Emery was born.  I ended up pumping after I fed Emery one night and got 4 ounces! (Thanks Rach for teaching me to use my pump!)  I think this really helped me not get completely blocked ducts or just be really uncomfortable.  I've pumped a couple times since then (after I feed Emery) and we already have a good collection started in our freezer!

- Emery had her days and nights mixed up the first 2 days that we brought her home.  She wouldn't cry but was WIDE AWAKE all night long.  At one point Kyle looked at me and said "HAVE WE CREATED A MONSTER?!?" hahahaha

- Without a doubt we were not prepared for the lack of sleep that you get with a newborn.  Parents tell you that all the time but they seriously aren't kidding. 

- We are so thankful for Myelicon!  Emery was not sleeping very hard or long for the first week, but once we started giving her that at every feeding she's like a new baby!  All these feedings are a lot for their little digestive system to handle by itself!

- She LOVES to be swaddled at night and LOVES her paci.  I am so glad!!

- Emery grunts so hard and then immediately has blow it outs in her diaper, it is hilarious.  Flaring nostrils are never a good sign around here, it means something is coming!

- It's crazy how comfortable we are with Emery.  Kyle and I always held other babies like we might break them at any second but with Emery it was different from the start.  It's awesome, we are not nervous with her at all!

- We call Emery "rootie tootie" as she roots so hard shaking her head back and forth when she's hungry.  There is no doubt about it, she loves to eat and latches on no problem!

- She still gets hiccups at least once a day just like she did in my tummy!

- Emery falls asleep pretty quickly when I nurse her in the cradle position.  So I've switched to the football hold and it's worked perfectly!

- We are sticking with the Babywise schedule and so far so good!  She eats every 3 hours during the day and has been going 4 to 4.5 hours at night!  I am all about a schedule and hope this will continue to work for us!

Okay that's all I can think of for now, I might add more later!

Enjoying the weather!

Emery's first week home the weather was beautiful! It was so nice to get outside and walk around for a little bit. We tried out the Baby Bjorn and Emery fell right asleep!

Ky loved holding her and stared down cars that went too fast by us... already getting protective!

Mom and I:

Dad and Ky:

A close up of our cutie:

Emery's First Sponge Bath!

Kyle and I had such a fun time giving Emery her first sponge bath when we got home from the hospital.  We just loved how clean she smelled afterwords!

The only time she would whine is when we cleaned her face!

All clean and warm!

Another first to check off the list!

Pediatrician's appointments -- A+

The Monday after Emery was born we were told to make an appointment with her pediatrician.  We decided to go with a group (KENMAR pediatrics) that a friend had recommended and is also only 5 minutes from our house.

When we left the hospital, Emery was 7 lb 6 oz, and at our appointment she had already gained 5 oz, making her 7 lb 11 oz.  The doctor was happy with that number, and since she's such a good breast feeder he told us that he wouldn't have to give her "the talk" like he did to all the other newborns he had seen that day.  She measured 20.5 inches, which was an inch longer than at the hospital!  Her skin seems to be sensitive to different kind of wipes so he also told us to just use wash clothes until the pink/redness goes down a little and to use Desitin every time as a protective coating... which that has worked perfectly.

He gave us her first report card...an A+, and it's hanging on our fridge of course :)

We went back a week later for her 2 week check up and she had gained past her birth weight back and more!  She was 8 pounds, 2 ounces and was 21.5 inches long!  She's getting so big!  

Another A+ for our fridge!  

(Funny story: We thought the doctor was actually writing "A+" on the report card, but last appointment we saw him just grab it out of a stack, with the A+ already written on it.  Not that we thought he would actually give someone a "C-", but it was still funny when we realized we weren't as special as we thought! haha)

Family Time!

We were so blessed to have both sets of our parents in town for a couple days after we brought Emery home! On Friday, Kerry flew out and Rachel flew in so it worked out perfectly with Kyle's whole family getting to see Emery!

Toasting to Em!

G side:

Grandma and Grandpa:

All the grandparents!

3 generations:

B side:

G side:

We also celebrated Mr. Guenther's birthday with a delicious breakfast!

Thank y'all for putting your lives on hold and coming to celebrate Emery with us!  It means so much!

Heading Home with Emery!

Our hospital stay went by so quickly and before we knew it it was time to head home!  I was so glad we stayed until Thursday instead of leaving on Wednesday.  The discharge nurse came by, we signed the papers and it was time to call "the volunteers" to wheel me out.

Kyle went and got the car while the 2 lady volunteers took me downstairs to the pick up area.  Honestly it was really disorganized and kind of chaotic.  The lady behind my wheel chair was clearly a member of a power walking club and I felt like I was on a roller coaster ride the entire time.

Kyle and I were so thankful we had gotten our car seat inspected as the volunteers didn't have a clue how to even check if we were putting her in there correctly!  Just plain weird that they wouldn't be able to offer any help in that area.  It was super windy and starting to rain, so we got Emery in quickly and headed home! (Oh and Kyle accidentally packed my coat and shoes in the car earlier that day, so that's the reason why I'm wearing slippers and his sweat shirt!)

Putting Em in the car:

I rode in the back seat, like any other paranoid mom would do :)

Her hat completely slid off her head and those strap protectors were kind of getting in the way, this picture cracks me up:

My parents were ready with the camera when we got home!  Tyson was SO excited to see us!

 

Bringing Emery in:

 Dad made a banner for us!

And mom got into my scrapbooking paper downstairs!

One happy family:

(Oh and I have to document how much her outfit cracks us up.  Kyle and I bought it together a couple weeks before Em was born.  Little did we know the pants were "knickers" not actual pants. Whoops!)

Hospital Stay with Emery

We arrived in our post partum room around 3:30 am on Tuesday morning, March 8th.  The nurse was trying to show us where to find everything in the room, but it was such a struggle to keep our eyes open and listen.  We finally were turned loose to sleep around 4, then were woken up almost every hour to check vitals, take medicine, etc.  Emery slept double swaddled in her bassinet right in between my hospital bed and Kyle's day bed.  This picture makes her look like she has a cone head, but since she was only in the birth canal for a couple minutes she doesn't have one!
By the way, we were SO THANKFUL that we brought a pillow and a heavy quilt for Kyle to sleep under on the daybed... those sheets would not have been warm enough!

Around 9:00 our room was hopping with nurses, pediatricians and visitors.  It was hard to believe that Emery was born just that morning.  The Motrin wasn't helping my pain at all, so I ended up taking percocet my whole hospital stay. Since I didn't have much in my stomach and was taking percocet, I almost fainted after going to the bathroom.  I guess getting up and walking on an empty stomach was too much for my body to handle, but luckily a nurse and Kyle were right there to get me back into bed.  My hearing went out so they were having to yell loudly for me to know what they were saying.  Just plain strange!

Around 10:30 the nurse took Emery to get her first bath!  Kyle followed with the camera and watched from the window of the nursery (hospital will not allow any one but nurses in the nursery).  We gave the nurse a receiving blanket and a sleep sack (with pull over mittens) to put Emery in, which I would totally recommend so they don't scratch their face!  They provide you little long sleeved shirts and onesies but they are just white and don't have mittens so I was glad we brought our own. We also gave the nurse a nail file, here Emery is getting her first manicure!

She came back smelling so clean and it was nice to see her straight, smooth hair instead of the curly matted down look :)

The rest of the stay was literally a blur, so I'm just going to bullet the things that I want to remember. 

-Nurse gift bags (that I posted about here)

I wanted to mention that the nurse candy bags were A HIT!!  I made around 20, and we used every single one of them!  The nurses were so appreciative and would sit there for a couple minutes afterwords thanking us for being so nice.  Our favorite reaction was a lady named "Shakun" and she said "I knew you guys were nice but now I really know it's from the heart".  After that SHE HOOKED US UP with diapers and wipes... I mean even packed a separate bag and hid it for us!  I would totally recommend making them if you have the time, it's obvious that these nurses do not get thanked very often.  

-We took naps every second that we could and used the nursery for a couple hours every night.

Anytime when we didn't have visitors we tried to grab 30 minute naps here and there. It's amazing how fast the days fly by in there and how tired you are even though you really aren't leaving the room for anything! (Plus we really missed 2 nights of sleep since I was in labor). Tuesday night and Wednesday night we used the nursery for a 3 hour stretch to get some real sleep.  We would totally recommend doing this!

-Emery's hearing test.

The 2nd day we were there Emery had her hearing screening.  The lady giving the test was so cute and said "I thought your daughter was going to break my machine she scored so high".  We laughed at that for a while, but I'm sure we'll hang that over her head one day when she's pretending like she doesn't hear that we are saying "no" to something!

-We were so thankful for all of our visitors!

So many people surprised us by coming to the hospital and bringing flowers, balloons and/or food!  The hospital food was NOT GOOD so we were so thankful to have normal food from the outside world!

Grandma and Grandpa:

Poppa, Grammy and Aunt Kerry.  Thank you again Kerry for completely surprising us and flying down to meet Emery!!

Lacey aka "Auntie Pam" :)

Jen:

Mimi:

Mr. and Mrs. Arnold:

Tay and Court:

Kathleen:

Jen: (She's a labor and delivery nurse at Kennestone a couple nights a week.  Unfortunately she wasn't working the night I went into labor but we got to see her the next day!)

I missed getting pictures of Tim & Chris but we really appreciate you guys coming too!

By around 10:00 each night our visitors had left so Kyle and I got some quality time with our new family.  Kyle would sit at the foot of my bed, facing me and I just loved that time together talking and staring at Emery.  It's an unexplainable feeling to go through labor with your spouse... I teared up a couple times in the hospital just from plain joy!

LOOK AT EM'S CHEEKS!!  Oh I just love them :)

And lastly, here are some other pictures I wanted to include! 
Our new family of 3:

Our little green turtle :)

Hugging mom's shoulder:

Happy as can be on daddy's chest:

Emery's Birth Story - Part 2

Thank you all so much for your comments on our part 1-- I truly thought I would bore everyone with details, but I'm so glad you are enjoying them!  Get ready, part 2 is a long one!

Kyle and I walked into the hospital around 8:30 pm, and immediately were brought back to the admissions desk.  It was nice that we didn't have to wait 40 minutes like we had earlier that day!  After getting checked in with a new hospital bracelet, they brought us back to a room in triage to check if I had progressed any.  (At this point my contractions were 3 minutes apart and to get through them I would stand up and just sway back and forth.  The pain was mostly in my lower back.)  Turns out our 3.2 mile walk really did help and I had progressed to 90% effaced and 4 cm dilated.  I was so excited that my body was progressing on it's own, and that I wouldn't have to get pitocin to help with the process.  They offered me an epidural right off the bat, but we chose to wait it out since I wasn't in unbearable pain yet and wanted to walk around to help myself progress.  The nurses asked me to walk around the labor floor for an hour and then I would get checked again.

The next 30 minutes were pretty painful, and most people tell me that I have a high pain tolerance.  The labor floor only has 15 rooms on it, so the hallways are pretty short... we turned around A LOT.  By this point my contractions were around 2.5 minutes apart, but lasting 90 seconds so there wasn't much time to rest.  We would walk until I had a contraction then I would go over to the wall, hold onto the hand rail, and try my best to breathe through them while Kyle rubbed my lower back with all his might.  I was so thankful to have learned breathing techniques in our hospital classes... seriously they work.  During that time our room opened up so we met our labor and delivery nurse, Michelle, and walked around in our room instead of the hallways.  

Here is Michelle, LOVED her:

 

Instead of having a window, our room had an extended section so it ended up being one of the largest rooms on the floor.  Since the pain was increasing, my stomach started acting up... which we knew that was going to happen at some point.  After throwing up our lovely spaghetti dinner, I didn't feel like I could walk much longer and sat down on the daybed in our room.  I also was feeling like my legs weren't getting enough circulation and was trying to rub them the whole time (restless legs), so it felt good to sit down. Kyle said I was falling asleep in between contractions, just from pure exhaustion.  Michelle asked me to get into bed so she could check my progress.  WELL the 30 minutes of walking worked as I was now 100% effaced, 7 cm dilated and feeling the pain! (Pain level was probably an 8 out of 10).

Michelle called the anesthesiologist and before we knew it he was giving me the epidural.  He ended up administering a walking epidural combined with a spinal block, as I guess that's his special combo. *Funny story: While he was working on my back, the anesthesiologist and his PA were talking about their soccer team and who got injured last week.  In the process they recruited Kyle to come to their practice on Wednesday night.  I was supposed to keep my chin tucked against my chest, but cheated for a second and lifted my head and jokingly said "ARE WE REALLY TALKING ABOUT SOCCER RIGHT NOW?!?".  They all cracked up and Kyle declined the invitation to play that Wednesday as we were still going to be in the hospital.  At least it helped get my mind off of the contractions!*  And don't be afraid of the epidural, it doesn't hurt at all.

The next hour was AMAZING.  I was having contractions that were scoring off the chart but could barely even feel them-- WOAH epidurals are nice!  My nose was itching like crazy though, Kyle said I looked like a drug addict.  Kyle's parents had just made it into town so we were able to visit with them a little bit, and then visit with my parents too.  It meant so much to have both sets of our parents there supporting us. 

You can kind of see the room and how we were positioned:

 Kyle and I:

AND THEN the amazing hour ended...

I started to feel pain in my lower back, hips and top of my quads.  Michelle told me that pressure was totally normal, but unfortunately what I was feeling was pain not pressure.  By this point no matter how many times I pushed the button for extra doses of medication, we were too behind to catch up.  Michelle called the PA and he came and gave me another concoction of medicines to try to block some of the pain.  He kept saying "It'll hit in a couple minutes".  As soon as it hit, my body would start shaking as the medicine dilates the blood vessels near my skin and tricks you into thinking you are cold even though you aren't.  Unfortunately that was the only thing that happened when he gave me the medicine, no pain relief at all.  We did that routine 2 more times.  It got to the point where I was so sick of him saying "It'll hit in a couple minutes" because it just wasn't happening.  

This is what we looked like during that time.  Kyle's expression just screams out love and concern.  So sweet.

Again my body doesn't know quite what to do when I'm in that much pain, and nausea came on very quickly.  I told Kyle I was going to be sick and the only pan that the nurses could find was about 4 inches long by 1 inch deep.  Kyle said "alright here we go" (knowing I needed a way bigger pan) and I proceeded to projectile vomit ALL OVER HIM and the right side of my body and bed.  We laugh so hard about this now as when I was done throwing up Kyle grabbed a towel, wiped himself & me off, then sat back down to keep coaching me.  Like no big deal :)

Our nurse Michelle checked me again and I was 9 cm dilated with a "bulging bag" (meaning my water should have broken at any second).  She then came up to the side of my bed and said "Are you sure you want to keep trying medicine concoctions?  Your breathing techniques are phenomenal (that was her word for everything) and you've basically had a natural birth so far.  I know you can totally do this if you want to."  I looked at Kyle and we agreed to try one more medicine concoction and if that didn't work then we would switch our mindset to having a natural child birth.  The PA came in again with one more concoction, the shaking happened, and then in about 5 minutes my toes started tingling.  YEAH it was working!!!

Around this time my doctor, Dr. Shin, came in and couldn't believe how close I was to having Emery.  She barely had time to put on her gloves and smock before she broke my water.  So really the only thing that didn't happen completely naturally was my water breaking, and if it had broken earlier I would not have been in labor nearly that long.  As soon as she broke my water, Kyle could see Emery's head... she was that low!  We immediately began pushing.  *FUNNY STORY: In my birth plan I had checked that I was interested in having a mirror as I knew it would be so motivating for me to see Emery's progress during labor.  Halfway through pushing Michelle remembered that and called another nurse to bring one in.  Emery was so low that I only pushed for 9 minutes... about 4 contractions!  So needless to say the mirror arrived AFTER Emery was born!*

The pushing process was without a doubt our favorite part.  By this point I could still feel a ton of pressure so I was aware of what muscles I needed to use, but the main "pain" feeling was gone.  I held my breath for 10 seconds while pushing, exhaled quickly, inhaled quickly then repeated that sequence 3 times all during one contraction.  We did this exercise for 4 contractions (about 9 minutes) and before we knew it Emery was here!  My doctor and nurse could not believe how fast Emery came once I started pushing and Dr. Shin even bobbled Emery a little bit when she came out because she wasn't expecting her that quickly!

I will never forget how motivating Kyle was during this process.  As soon as Dr. Shin showed him Emery's head he got the biggest smile on his face and started yelling "LEAH I CAN SEE HER!!!  COME ON YOU CAN DO THIS".  Michelle no longer had to coach me, as Kyle completely took over and counted to 10 for me while giving me updates of where Emery was.  It was SO COOL to see how excited he was, I will never forget it.  I was still falling asleep for a couple seconds in between contractions... I guess that's what 27 hours of labor will do to you (and 26 of those hours being without any medication)!  Crazy crazy experience for sure, but I love that this was my view:

When Dr. Shin broke my water she did notice that it had some meconium (baby stool) in it, so as soon as Emery was born they had to rush her over to suction out her mouth in case she had swallowed any during the labor process.  Kyle was going to cut her umbilical cord, but since we were fighting against time Dr. Shin did it very quickly, which was totally fine on our end. Kyle grabbed the camera and followed the nurses to the "cleaning" station to take Emery's first pictures while I rested.

Here they are suctioning out her mouth:

A close up of her little smooshed face:

Whole body shot:

Getting weighed, 7 lbs 15 oz... almost my weight of 7 lb 13 oz!

Emery then was brought over for some skin to skin time with me.  It is so surreal to go from carrying her around for 9 months in my belly, to then feeling her cuddling on my chest.  Michelle then said it was time for me to try to breast feed if I wanted to.  I self-expressed a drip of the colostrum, then held Emery's mouth up and in an instant she was latched on and feeding like a pro.  I was so grateful!!

After feeding on both sides for a little while, Kyle went down to go get the grandparents!  I love this picture of him with his parents... look at how big that smile is!

"Poppa", "Daddy" and "Grandpa"

Here is Dr. Shin with Emery:

One tired momma with Dr. Shin and Emery:

One proud Daddy:

Love this one:

One happy momma:

 

We all visited for a while, then it was time to be moved to our post partum room, where we would stay until Thursday. What a surreal, exciting, painful, miracle of a process labor is.  We are so thankful to have such a healthy baby girl that is the perfect mixture of Kyle and I.

I love our new family more then I could ever say, and I would go through the entire labor process all over again in a heart beat just to have Emery here with us!

Love you Ky, thank you for being my amazing support system.

Emery Katherine

Born March 8th, 2011

1:48 AM

7 pounds, 15 ounces