December 2011

Happy holidays!  Emma has had a very busy month.  She is now two months old and weighed 10 pounds, 5 ounces and measured 24 inches long at her last doctor's appointment.  We are having so much fun watching her grow and change each day!  Emma is now holding her head up a lot more and is smiling and cooing at us.  It never gets old having little "conversations" with her!  She is awake a lot more during the day and is sleeping for longer periods at night (she even slept through the whole night a couple of times which made her mommy and daddy very happy!). 

We were blessed to get to celebrate Christmas with both of Emma's sets of grandparents this year.  We drove out to San Diego on Christmas Eve to celebrate with Grammy and Papa.  Then we celebrated a late Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa who flew out from Juneau.  She got lots of fun new toys to play with and some adorable outfits. 

As we look forward to the new year, we are excited to continue to watch our baby girl grow.  We hope everyone has a very happy New Year! 

November 2011

The holidays are here and we are so thankful for the best gift God could ever bless us with...our beautiful baby girl!  Emma is now almost six weeks old and is growing so quickly.  At her four week pediatrician appointment she weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces and measured 20 3/4 inches long.  We have started doing 'tummy time' each day with Emma and she is getting stronger each day.  She can lift her head and turn it left and right now.  It has also been fun watching her start to discover her hands and trying to suck her thumb. 

Emma is now eating formula, as her mommy suffered a terrible case of mastitis this month and had to give up breast feeding.  Fortunately I am in the process of healing after having a large abscess removed last week.  Never did we imagine that breast feeding would be this challenging! 

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday here at our house with Patti and Larry.  We all enjoyed spending the long weekend with them and Emma loved getting to be held a lot by her Grammy and Papa. :) Next weekend Uncle Matt and Aunt Robyn will be coming out to visit and meet Emma! 

We will be posting more pictures from this month soon, so check back for updates. :) 

Emma's First Couple of Weeks at Home

We are so blessed to be parents to such an amazing little girl.  She is a very content and good-natured baby.  Emma is two weeks old today and the past couple of weeks have flown by!  I never realized how much of your day becomes occupied with feeding, burping, changing, laundry, dishes, etc.  And to think I would have all this free time during my maternity leave!! 

Emma had her two week pediatrician appointment today.  She now weighs 7 pounds, 3 ounces which is right on track. :) 

The first week home from the hospital, Emma spent most of her time between feedings napping.  This week she has had more alert periods during the day, which is fun because we play with her black and white toys and read books!  She also loves relaxing in her new Mama Roo swing.

For Emma's first Halloween, Justin carved her a pumpkin and we put her in a cute little pumpkin hat for some pictures.  I posted a picture of her in her pumpkin hat (she wasn't too happy about us putting it on her!). 

Emma's Journey Into the World

After 40 weeks of eagerly anticipating our baby girl's arrival, we were induced on the night of Ocotber 17, 2011.  About 12 hours into labor, the contractions started coming on stronger and stronger, so I requested an epidural.  It was a bit of a scary experience having a needle inserted into my spine, but well worth it once it kicked in.  I could not even feel my contractions any more! 

Around 10 pm the next day (October 18th), I was still only dialated to 7 cm, and our baby girl's heart rate started dipping down, which caused some concern with the doctor on call (Dr. Eckel) and nurses.  Our RN started to talk to us about the possibility of having a C-Section.  We agreed that we woud do whatever was best for our baby.  The doctor said he would give us one more hour and check to see if I was dialated to where I needed to be and if not we would have to go ahead and deliver via C-Section.  At 11:10 pm, Dr. Eckel came in and checked me and I was dialated the full 10 cm, so we could go ahead and deliver naturally. 

I started pushing around 11:40 and at 12:20 am on October 19th little Emma Grace entered the world.  She was so alert from the moment she was born.  She looked right at us as Dr. Eckel laid her on my stomach so we could bond with her.  I cried tears of joy and we were instantly in love.  Justin cut the umbilical cord and we both looked on as the baby nurse took her measurements and did her APGARs.  She was so unbelievably perfect and right then and there our lives changed forever.