Cry...Cry....Cry!!

Well I'm three weeks into the new mommy business and truly enjoying it. I can't imagine not having this sweet baby in our lives! That said, days like today are enough to make me dream about school starting and getting out of this house a couple days a week. The words "cabin fever" come to mind. My precious angel seems to have an aversion to day time naps. She refuses to fall asleep. I've tried it all...letting her scream (doesn't work, she'll keep going for two hours) holding her (she keeps crying) burping her, putting her in the swing, and on and on all to no avail. If she does fall asleep she wakes up about 30 minutes later. I have no clue what her deal is and am open to suggestions.
Thankfully night time goes much smoother as she sleeps at least three to four hours between feedings. I just hope this day time problem doesn't transfer over to nights as well!

Life as a new mommy...

Tomorrow is two weeks since Emma was born. It doesn't seem possible that it has already been that long. What a joy it's been to have her! My mom was here for ten days after we brought Emma home and that was a huge blessing for us. I was pretty sore for a few days so it was nice to have her extra hands. She helped in every way possible, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and assuring and reassuring us in caring for a newborn.
The adjustment to life with a baby has been really great so far. Yes, I get far less sleep, but I love holding that little body up against my own as I feed her-even at 3 am :) And really, she only feeds a couple of times in the middle of the night. Things could definitely be much harder. She's a good eater, we've had no trouble whatsoever breastfeeding. I call her Miss Piggy because she loves to eat!
Mikey also is a big blessing right now. He's very involved with Emma; he loves to hold her, talk to her, and change her diapers.
Life with this precious baby is a lot of work but also a lot of fun and we're both looking forward to all of the fun times ahead.

Labor Day!

I never expected to enjoy giving birth to a child...especially my first. Much to my surprise though, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I spent the first weekend in June trying to make sure everything was ready for the baby. Even though it was two weeks before my due date, I wanted the house clean, laundry done, everything in the nursery washed and ready to go. I was hoping that Emma wouldn't come Monday because my doctor had jury duty and I wanted to be able to go to at least one of the teacher workdays at school. I figured I needed one last social outing before baby time :) Well, she followed directions, and as I put the last of my thank you notes in the mail that night, I thought to myself that everything was all set and Emma could come anytime. I also splurged that night with a Taco Bell dinner and homemade brownies. I'd eaten so healthy the whole pregnancy that I thought I should have at least one fun night.

Around 2:45 that morning I woke up feeling sick to my stomach. I remember thinking that the Taco Bell was coming back to haunt me. I felt that way for probably an hour before I felt a contraction. It wasn't too strong, but I hadn't had any contractions at all(just Braxton Hicks) so I had a feeling the time had come. I called Mikey and let him know what was going on (he was working) but told him that I wanted to wait to see if my contractions got stronger and closer. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't and ended up reading while I charted contractions. I kept having them, but they weren't regulating and were randomly strong and weak. Finally around 5:30 I realized they weren't going away so I called Mikey and told him to come home. I also called my mom and because I was already 3 cm dilated (and had been for 2 weeks) she told me I should probably call the doctor. I waited till Mikey was home around 6 and called. The doctor told me to head to the hospital. Even after that I decided to wait, however, because I wasn't really in much pain-just having discomfort. At seven, as we lay in bed deciding what to do, I had a really strong contraction, looked at Mikey and told him it was time to go. We got to the hospital sometime before 7:30. The nurse examined me and said I was 4-5 centimeters dilated, completely effaced, and that my water was leaking. I was going to be admitted! I was so excited and happy. I got my gown on and was put into a room. My mom and in-laws arrived soon after, along with some close friends. At this point, my contractions were still irregular, so they decided to start pitocin. I had planned all along to have an epidural, so as soon as I heard the word pitocin, I asked for it. I waited an hour for the epidural and spent that time on the phone and talking with family and friends. I still wasn't in much if any pain but since I was 5 centimeters they gave me the pain meds. It was fun watching the contractions on the monitor and not feeling anything. We were all talking and laughing and really having a good time. It only took about an hour before I was dilated to seven centimeters and another couple of hours or so before I was 9. Soon after this, I started to have feeling in the left side of my abdomen. The contractions were really strong and close together so they offered to adjust my epidural. I told them I was fine-I figured I should have some pain since I was having a baby. I changed my mind half an hour later and let them adjust. Then I was back to complete and blessed numbness. At noon I told the nurse that I felt like I had to poop. She called the doctor in and told me that what I felt was the babies head. They had me start pushing which was a little difficult since I couldn't feel a thing, but I pushed as hard as I could so they wouldn't turn off the epidural. My hard work paid off as I only pushed 5-6 times. Emma was born at 12:22 p.m. after a whole 4 1/2 hours of labor (It's ok to hate me :)

Mikey had started crying as soon as I started pushing and by the time they laid the little 6 lb., 8 oz. bundle of joy on my stomach we were both crying. She came out so clean, her skin rosy pink, and I remember stroking her little legs and crying as Mikey cut the cord.

The next couple days passed with visits from friends and family and was truly an experience that I look back on with complete joy and satisfaction. The hospital staff and my doctor were absolutely wonderful and everything came together in a better way than I could have ever dreamed. We are so grateful for the blessing that this little girl is in our lives.