2 weeks old today

Happy 2 week birthday to Emily!  We think she's just the cutest thing so here are some pictures from her first couple of weeks and what we've been up to. As you can see she mostly sleeps but has been increasingly alert as she's grown.  She's even starting to smile a little and not just when she's milk drunk (which is my favorite face).  Yesterday we had her 2 week doctor's appointment to check her weight and progress so far. I must be feeding her chocolate milk when she nurses b/c she weighed 6lbs 8oz the Monday after she was born (typical to lose 10% of her birth weight) and yesterday she had not only gained back to her birth weight but even added some. She weighs a whopping 7lbs 10oz now! I was thrilled b/c I had been worried about the whole nursing thing.  She got a good bill of health-praise God!  She's a good baby and just gets a little fussy in the evenings.  Some nights she'll sleep well, other not so much. We're still working on figuring out a schedule but we're doing well :) 

Emily with her Great Grandaddy (my grandaddy)

Emily and GiGi (my mom)

Emily and Grandpa Riney (Blaine's dad)

Sleep has been precious around here so we snooze when we can :) Blaine is so good at swaddling and soothing her!  He sings songs that he's made up and helps keep her calm.

This sticker says "just born" but you can't see it. Hopefully we'll remember to take a picture each month showing how much she's grown. Don't you just love the lady like pose and hair bow!

This is what she spends most of her time doing...sleeping!

This just melts my heart, such a good daddy; my cup runneth over!

Big yawn in her cute purple pj's

she's a little more alert here in this super cute outfit

We take strolls around the neighborhood in the BOB-she does really good and likes to rest her hand on the safety strap.  Its getting really hot though so we have to walk early in the morning or in the evenings. So far we haven't made it in the mornings b/c we've been napping!

so sweet

Emily does really good in the car too, usually sleeping but here she's just taking in the scenery. We still haven't ventured out with just the two of us-maybe today (YIKES!)

She's even pretty entertained by her play mat/gym thingy.  We haven't really done tummy time though, she doesn't like it :)

Here she is in her swing that her Papa G (my dad) put together!

She doesn't really like this outfit i think but i thought it was pretty cute. Not sure if yellow is her color though :)

This is just before we went to the doctor yesterday.

Such a big girl playing on her mat!



Welcome to the real world baby!

On Friday, April 20th at 7:02am we welcomed our sweet baby girl, Emily Jane into the world.  She weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and was 20 inches long.  She's absolutely perfect and we are totally in love!

And this is how it happened...Sometime around lunch on Thursday my water broke but I wasn't sure that it was my water or if I had just wet my pants.  So I decided to call the doctor and they wanted to see me right away so that they could test the fluid.  I was having some cramps (contractions) but they were only about 30 minutes apart so I was skeptical to say the least.  After a quick exam Dr. Byron instructed us to go to Labor and Delivery now!  What?!? I said "define now"...I still had things to take care of and wasn't really ready for this.  The funny thing is that at our weekly check-up on Monday, Dr. Kantorowski had said we could come in on Friday morning since she was on call and she'd break my water and see how things went. We elected not to go the induction route, I wasn't even due until Sunday 4/22, and let it happen naturally. So after running home, back to the office and issuing a life insurance policy we finally made the 5 minute ride to the hospital. 

Blaine was hoping it'd be a little more dramatic where he could speed and run over curbs but it was a fairly normal trip (we literally could have walked there).  We checked in around 7pm just as the shifts were changing and scored the best nurses (Cheryl & Tammy).  Around 8:45pm Dr. Z came in and said that we should start the pitocin to get things moving since my water had broken so much earlier in the day but I probably wouldn't deliver until 10am or 12pm the next morning. Ha! Around midnight I couldn't stand the contractions and got an epidural which was like heaven-why do people NOT get these!  We didn't get much rest though b/c my blood pressure would drop and they'd come in and give me oxygen or the baby's heart rate would drop and and they would take me off the pitocin. The best part was that I didn't feel ANYTHING...until about 6am when the "pressure" was ridiculous and she was coming NOW!  I progressed really quickly then and started pushing around 6:30AM.  It was the hardest thing I've EVER done but so totally worth it!  Blaine was a great coach (I wouldn't have been able to do it without him) and was poised with scissors ready to go but the cord was wrapped around her neck so he didn't get to cut it right away.  She also wasn't crying right away but it was such a relief to have her out.  She was active and alert and after what seemed like 5 minutes she began that sweet crying.

I still can't believe that we have a baby or that I was even pregnant. So surreal and overwhelming.  Her first two weeks have not been terrible, we seem to be getting the hang of things--she lets us know when she's hungry and when she has a dirty diaper (otherwise we have no idea why she cries!). Thank you to everyone that visited, called, texted, and prayed for us--we are so appreciative of the love you have shared.  I promise to update you with more cute pictures!

here she is on her way home!

Welcome to the real world baby...welcome to the world!

it's a song Blaine made up to help settle her down :)