One Month Old

Yesterday was Emma's one month birthday.  I can't believe it's already been four weeks since I had her.  I guess time flies when you are having fun!

She is doing really good.  We're still working on getting her to sleep in her own bed which is actually an Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper.  She prefers to be right with me.  She's had a few nights where she has lasted the whole night in it, but other nights we end up in the chair in the living room.

She is doing really well with breastfeeding.  We had a few issues with it the first week we were home.  I wanted to give up because she wouldn't latch on a few times.  I finally broke down one night and gave her formula and told Garland I was DONE with trying breastfeed.  About 20 minutes later, she threw up the whole bottle.  I decided she was trying to tell me something!  She has latched on ever since and hasn't had any issues or needed formula since then.

Noah is doing really well with her.  He still is a little bit jealous at times and doesn't want Dad or the grandpas to old her, but for the most part he just does his own thing.

Garland has been off for four weeks on paid paternity leave.  Such an awesome benefit that he gets working for the state.  I'm sad that his time is just about up and he'll be returning to work this Wednesday.  It's going to be really tough on Noah when he goes back to work.  They have been having a big time playing outside in this nice weather, going to the park and zoo, and playing on the computer.  I have a feeling this is going to be a rough transition for him and me both, but we'll find our groove eventually!

I took several pictures of Emma yesterday for her one-month birthday.  There were too many good ones to choose just a few to post!

Emma's Birth Story

On Friday, February 10th, we had to be at the hospital at 7 a.m.  Garland's mom came to our house at 6 a.m. to watch Noah and we headed to the hospital.  It was a pretty quiet drive there filled with lots of nervousness.  As we walked down the ramp to the 2nd floor Obstetrics wing, I turned to Garland and joked "I CHANGED MY MIND!"  I was SO nervous!  

We stopped at the nurse's station and they showed us to our room.  Seeing the baby warmer and all the various monitors suddenly made it seem so much more real.  The nurse had me get changed into a gown and got me settled into bed.  An IV with pitocin was started, and we waited for things to get moving.  

At 9:05, my AWESOME and WONDERFUL doctor arrived and broke my water.  I was about 3-4 CM dilated at the time.  I wasn't in any pain, though the contractions were coming every few minutes.  My parents and my sister were in the room with us.  I was playing Words with Friends on my phone with my brother-in-law even.  Every 15 minutes, my nurse would come in and up the pitocin.  After about 45 minutes, I started to feel the contractions. 

At 11:15, my contractions were every two minutes and getting a lot stronger.  My family asked me if I was ready for an epidural yet.  I said "I don't want it too soon.  I'm okay for now."  They wrote this down in a little notebook because they knew it wouldn't be long before I was begging for the epidural.  They were correct!  At 11:30, I was READY for the epidural.  It took about 30 minutes for the anesthesiologist to get there to put it in and I thought I was going to DIE from the pain!  

When the epidural went in, it did not take completely.  I had a lot of pain still on my right side.  The anesthesiologist upped the dosage and jiggled the line going into my back.  They also moved me from side to side to get it better distributed.  In the midst of all that, my blood pressure dropped to 90/40 which made me feel really woozy.  The pain finally subsided completely and the nurses gave me a shot of epi to get my blood pressure back up.  After that, it was smooth sailing.  My aunt and grandma arrived around this time and we all talked and I slept off and on.  

At 1:45, I was dilated to 5 and at 4:09 I was at a 9.  Around 5:00, my blood pressure dropped again.  They started having me move from side to side again and in the midst of that, I completely dilated.  At 5:15, Dr. Galvan arrived and pushing started.  

Emma was born at 6:00 after 45 minutes of pushing.  It was so surreal when they put her up on my chest.  All gooey and warm.  It felt like an out-of-body experience.  She was 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20 inches long.  The nurses did her apgar scores and then brought her back to me to nurse.  She got the hang of it right away.  Garland and I stared at her in amazement.  

Emma is two weeks old now and we are doing good.  The first week was the worst so far.  She is having trouble sleeping anywhere but on me.  She loves to snuggle on my chest and I can't really complain either! Noah is doing great with her.  He ignores her most of the time, but does come up occasionally and wants to hold her or give her kisses.  

It's still so hard to believe after everything we went through over the past twelve years that we have a daughter and a son.  There were many times that we thought we would not have any kids at all, but through the miracles of adoption and childbirth, we have two!

These are the photos that were taken at the hospital. So glad they do something more than the standard pictures that hospital used to do.