What day is it?

The following is the beginning of a post I started over a week ago. Time flies when you have no time to blog!

You gotta love the total chaos, confusion, and mind-numbing exhaustion that comes with having a newborn in the house! It's been an interesting few days to say the least. Our perfect little calm baby we had in the hospital showed what we're hoping aren't her true colors on Saturday. Instead of sleeping sweetly and sucking on her bottle like a newborn should- she preferred to scream her little head off and leave us wondering what the heck happened to our little angel! She had some sucking issues the day after she was born, but had it all pretty much figured out by the time we went home.



On Saturday however, she would get so incredibly mad that she'd scream and cry and not be able to settle down and remember how to suck on the nipple correctly. That led to an exhausting day and night filled with bouncing, running the water for white noise, swaddling and reswaddling, hushing, singing, and pretty much anything else we could think of to calm her down. Good times!

Yesterday was much better and today has been really good as well.



I'd like to think we're figuring her out a little more as time goes by. We've realized that if that bottle isn't in her mouth within 3-4 minutes of her waking up- good luck! She'll revert back to her screaming and head shaking as she tries to remember how to suck. She sometimes has trouble falling asleep on her own (something that is COMPLETELY foreign to us since Jack was just about the best sleeper ever) and needs our help to do so.

.... that's how things were in the days after we brought her home from the hospital....

Things are much calmer around here now! Emma is finally settling in and starting to become more predictable. She still has trouble falling asleep on her own at times, but is much easier to calm down when she's mad. We don't have to run quite so fast for the bottle when she wakes up, she's getting much better at remembering how to suck on the nipple even if she's really mad. She likes to sleep as much as Jack did, it just takes her a little longer to settle down. Last night she was asleep by 10. She woke up at 2:45 and was back asleep 45 minutes later. It sure feels good to be getting a lot more sleep around here.

Jack is doing really well. He really and truly loves his baby sister. He loves to come up and kiss her on the head, give us updates on if her eyes are open or closed when we're in the car, and show her all of her toys when she's playing under her activity thingy. He's been acting out a little bit- and needs his Mama to put him to bed and give him a bath. Overall I don't think we could ask much more from him. His little world has been turned around over the past almost 2 weeks and he's really done a good job handling it.

I have a bunch of pictures to put up. Before I do that though I need to hook up our external hard drive and dump all 74 million old pictures onto it before our computer crashes! So hang in there!

*** On a very different note, we got some really upsetting news late last week. My cousin, Liz, and her family are going through a really rough time right now. Her baby boy Elijah has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. You might have checked out the link to her blog while reading mine- hers is called The Petro Family. We are keeping little Elijah and the whole family in our prayers. They are constantly on our minds and we hope you all will say a bunch of prayers for them too.

And then there were 4...

We're home- and there are 4 of us! Well, 5 if you count Finley too!

So far everything is going really well. Jack is adjusting to his new baby sister. He comes over and rubs her head and gives her smooches every so often. We're not pressing him to do anything he doesn't want to. It'll take lots of time for all of us to settle into the routine of being a family of 4.

As for Emma's arrival, it was amazing! As you know from the previous posts, I saw the midwife on Monday at 3:45. After that I started having more cramping/contractions. We went out to dinner with Brandon's parents and by the time we got home, I knew something was up. Since I was induced with Jack, I never experienced any labor symptoms without pitocin so I was really unsure about what I was feeling and what I should do. The contractions were getting a little more regular and painful, so I called the hospital at 10:45. They said to come on in. I told them I'd wait a little bit longer, I still wasn't sure if it was really real yet.

I started timing the contractions after that, and once I realized they were 3 minutes apart, I decided it was time to go! We called Brandon's parents to come and stay with Jack and we headed for the emergency room. Once I got into my room and was checked out, it was about 12:30. I was already 6 cm dilated! Since it seemed to be going fast, I signed up for the epidural right away. After at least 3 attempts to make the epidural work (only my left leg was numb) it finally took effect. I got about 10 minutes of pain relief until they broke my water and I was 8-9 cm dilated. At that point the terrible pressure started and before I knew it the midwife was there and I was pushing! I pushed through maybe 4 contractions and out she came! It was amazing. Since the epidural really wasn't that effective, I could actually feel what was going on and I felt much more in control than I did with Jack. Just as she was about all the way out, the midwife had me reach down and pull her out and onto my stomach! It was incredible. That's exactly how I wanted the delivery to go and I got my wish. I just didn't think it would happen quite so fast! She was born at 4:33 in the morning.

I'm much less sore this time than I was with Jack. Maybe it's because I didn't push for as long or something.

Emma is a total doll. Her face was pretty bruised from being born so fast, but that has pretty much gone away now. She has lots of dark hair and beautiful big blue eyes. We are loving her to pieces!

And now for some pictures... they are a tad out of order

Yikes! Looking really good while in labor!!! :)

11:45 and headed to the hospital

Uncle Timmy and Emma

First hair wash

8 cm

6 cm

4 cm

Mama, Jack, and Emma

Brother and Sister

Thanks for the shirt Auntie Sizzy! Beautiful girl





Going home outfit
Jack wanted Emma to lay down with him after his nap
2 kids passed out in the car

Headed Home

She's finally here!

Emma Kate
Born Tuesday, June 10th at 4:33am
8lbs. 4oz.
20 inches

How dedicated am i??

posting during a contraction!!!

i called and the nurse said i should come in- what?????? i don't think i'm ready for that!!!!!

pretty consistent contractions now not too painful, but getting more intense... we'll see how i feel in the next hour. then we'll go in. maybe.

Hmmmm...

Still a good 4 cm dilated- forgot to ask how effaced.

She stripped my membranes AGAIN! Since then- more contractions/cramping and it's getting a little painful.

She said that since I'm already 4 and have been having contractions- if I just happened to go to the hospital tomorrow and she just happened to come and see me, she'd probably break my water. I said I'd be taking her up on that offer!

We'll see how tonight goes, and make a decision tomorrow. For now I'm not feeling so great. Maybe this could be it.

Miserable

Ok, I admit it. I'm feeling miserable!!! I can't sleep well anymore, feel nauseaus a lot, and everything pretty much hurts.

Time to make your grand entrance baby girl! We're ready for you!!!

I have another appointment today at 3:45. It's the last one we had scheduled. It's going to be very annoying to make the next one before we leave!

We've had a ton of rain around here- 7 inches this weekend in our neck of the woods. Thank goodness we didn't get any water in our basement. My parents spent the weekend bailing out 6 inches of water from their basement in Madison. We ventured out to Target last night and had to run to the car when we were done- the sky was all dark and scary and it was pouring!

Jack is enjoying our summer vacation. He keeps saying "no school mama, no school jack!" He's been very busy playing with sidewalk chalk, his new diego big wheel thing, and of course his one true love- the cozy coupe car.

Pictures as soon as I take some good ones! And I suppose we should do a 39 week belly shot too!

Trapped

Trapped in the house by bad thunderstorms all afternoon. More braxton-hicks contractions. Pancakes for dinner!

Blasted Internet!!!

Our internet has been down for the past 2 days. Somebody is coming tomorrow to take a look.

STILL pregnant!!!

I'm having a thousand of those Braxton-Hicks contractions, but nothing more. We go to the doctor again on Monday. Maybe this weekend something will happen???

Summer Vacation!!!

My summer officially started today! I thought I'd have to go in tomorrow and Friday, but since my report cards are done and my classroom is all organized and cleaned up, I don't have to!!

Appt.

4 cm dilated
50% effaced

She stripped my membranes again (holy ouch!). She was shocked to see me- thought for sure I'd have the baby over the weekend. We'll just keep on waiting!

I was able to go to school today and get a ton of stuff done though. The kids were a huge help as we cleaned and organized the whole classroom. Tomorrow they go to the zoo all day while I hang back and teach 1st grade for fun. Somehow an entire day of walking around the zoo just didn't sound appealing! Wednesday is the last day for the kids- it's a half day. Then we have meetings on Thursday and Friday.

We saw a neighbor we haven't seen for awhile while we were out for a walk tonight. She was surprised to hear I only have 2 weeks left- she said I looked amazing. Nothing like a compliment like that to make your night! :)

On the other hand, while getting a MUCH NEEDED pedicure at the mall tonight- the guy doing my toes asked if I was having twins. Ouch!

Helping out Daddy-O

With Uncle Timmy at the Memorial Day Parade

Ready for the parade to begin

Safety First!



Proud member of the Brewers Kids Club

Great Weekend

It was a great weekend despite the fact that baby girl decided not to make her grand entrance. It was nice and warm all weekend and we enjoyed a ton of time outside.

I'll be posting pictures later or tomorrow....