Baby Blessing

Emma had her baby blessing last week.  We were so lucky to have Gramma and Aunt Chrissy in town.  Tom did a great job.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to everyone for all of your love and support.

Gramma and Aunt Chrissy

This month keeps getting better.  First a fun road trip to St. George, then a visit from Tom's mom and sister.  Emma was spoiled rotten.

Our wonderful week did not not start out without a glitch however.  Unfortunately, a little cat-nap turned into a missed flight.  After sobbing hysterics, the help of a very patient boyfriend, a loving dog, a small fee to Delta Airlines, and 13 hours of flying across the country, Chrissy finally met Emma.

Gramma was not far behind.

We visited the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point and all though there were no tulips, we had a great time walking around.

Of the 250,000 tulips in the 55 acre gardens, these were the only tulips in bloom.

These two crazy kids.  They stayed up every night watching zombie movies.

It was not all rainbows and sunbeams for Emma.  She had to get a bath.  It went much quicker for her though, giving an infant a bath with 6 hands is much easier then my amateur two.

She went from comfy cozy with Gramma...

 to...

I can't seem to figure out how to rotate the above picture.  I rotated in Iphoto just fine, but it wouldn't rotate in Blogger.

Saturday was a relaxing day of pedicures for the girls and yard work (not so relaxing but sunny!).  Tom put Chrissy to work painting the once red chest black.  It is not quite done but it is looking pretty good.  

 

Before

After

The highlight of the week was Emma's baby blessing, I will have a separate post on that but for a little preview...

Having guests in the house means we have enough players for Settlers of Catan.  It was my lucky week!

 

Stinky even joined us.  

Some more random pics during the week.

It was so fun having Ann and Chrissy in town.  We miss them and were so sad to see them leave.  We love you and hope you come back soon.

Tummy Time

She is so strong.

1 Month Old

I can't believe Emma is already 1 month old.

After 1 month, we are finally getting the hang of things around here.  Something new always seems to pop up though.  Emma has grown so much and has done the typical things in the last month. 

She saw the doctor when she was about a week old and got the following report "she's small, but perfect."

She has been forced into multiple random clothes and wraps for pictures.  "Hi mama."

We started giving her a binkie and she is starting to get the hang of it.  The bib is for her vitamin.  She tends to spit it up all over her clothes.  I can understand why she doesn't like it, it smells awful.

Everyone seems to think she looks more like Tom.  I can't tell.  However, when she struggles to poop and makes a double chin, I think she looks like me when I was a baby.  I was a bit of a chunk.  Lucky for her, I have not been able to get a picture of her pooping yet, but her face puffs up like her mama's.

She is now 6 lbs 13 oz and 19.5" as of our last weigh in one week ago.  She is also finally starting to fit in her newborn clothes.  One benefit of having a small baby, her clothes last a little longer (however nothing fit for the first 3 weeks).   

Things I have learned during this last month:

1.  Breastfeeding does seem to get better with time.  Once we hit week 3 things started to click.

2.  Should have purchased stock in Medela (however, I don't think it is a publicly traded company, so this would not be possible)

3.  Once you get the hang of something, some other problem pops up

4. There is no shame in crying when your child struggles to pass gas.  Gas drops and baby massage seem to help a bit.

5.  Lucky I have a great husband who loves me and his baby girl

6.  Don't know what I would do without my mom

7.  LilyPadz are worth trying out (thanks to Tanya and some random nurse for the referral).  They are not perfect, but they are helpful.

8.  There is no reason to have any cute newborn clothes.  They will just grow out, poop, or vomit (my child's preference is the latter 2) all over them.  All you need are some onesies, bottoms, socks, receiving blankets, and maybe a few PJs.

9.  Introduce a bottle early.  She gets a bottle 1 feed a day which allows her some quality time with dad.  She has been taking it just fine and will still breastfeed.

10. Tom and I have one darling girl

Emma Lane

Our little peanut is finally here!  We are so excited to finally meet her.  Tom's wish came true.  He wanted me to go into labor at work so he would not have to worry about driving me to the hospital.  I work at the University of Utah Hospital, right where he has been going to school for the last 3 years.  Even though we did a "dry run" last Saturday, he still managed to get himself lost.  Last Tuesday I went to the hospitals OB Emergency Services to ask a question, they checked me out and told me my water broke.  Somehow I missed this.  I did not think you could.  I thought it would be fairly obvious.  They let me go back to my office, finish up some work and get my stuff.  I was admitted a around 5:30 that evening and she showed up 11:15 pm.  Six hours of labor, not too shabby.  Pitocin helped speed things up.  Unfortunately, it also makes contractions stronger then natural labor and it took over an hour for the anesthesiologist to come around and give me my epidural.  After that, things went great.  My doctor was even able to make it.  He had just flown in from NYC and came straight from the airport.  He made it just in time.  

Based on the guesses of my last post we had a lot of winners.  Congrats to Chrissy, Liv, and Anna-Lisa for getting the date.  She made the February 8th deadline by 45 minutes.  My 2 year old nephew Soren and Sheila were closet for her birth weight.  She came in at a whopping 5 lbs 11 oz and 18.5 cm long.

Proud daddy.

Proud and sleepy mama.

 Uninterested favorite nephew Soren.

 

Lovable favorite niece Claire.  8 months old.

Emma with Oldemor.

She is now 1 week old and I can't believe it.  For the most part she is just perfect.  But I have a bone to pick for all the wonderful women in my life who neglected to tell me how awful nursing is.  I did not expect it to be all rainbows and sunbeams, but it has been pretty ridiculous.  I am sure some mothers get lucky, but if you are an expectant new mom and want to know what reality will be like, give me a call and I will tell you all about it and would be happy to refer you to a great lactation consultant who has helped me quite a bit.  As crazy as it is, it has gotten a little better.

Hear are a few more pictures of her first few days home.  

Life is so hard!

 

Emma's Blue Steel.  Compliments of Aunt Chrissy via Skype Video.   Derek Zoolander has nothing on my Emma.

Thanks for reading.