Our Family: November 2008

It's really hard to say as Emma seems to change a little bit each day. So far we think she has Mike's Dad's chin; my nose; my Dad's forehead (especially when she wrinkles it up - she looks just like my Dad!).

She does some great impressions - when she is feeding she alternates between Popeye - she pulls her mouth to one side and the closes one eye...she looks just like Popeye! :o) And then she stretches out her neck (she's really building up her neck muscles now) and I can't believe how far she can stretch it - she looks like ET! :o) I'm afraid I don't have photos of those as she usually only does it while nursing - and I don't want any photos taken then!

Here she is after her first bath - squeaky clean and all cried out.

Sunday is Mike's birthday - and believe it or not the one year anniversary of when we flew out of Denver headed for Ukraine! I cannot believe it's been a year.

Happy Birthday Mikeee!

You're the best friend
that I ever had
I've been with you such a long time
You're my sunshine
And I want you to know
That my feelings are true
I really love you
You're my best friend
--Queen

Emma!

Let me start at the beginning...

On Tuesday, Oct. 28 we took Nicholas to Taekwondo as we do every Tuesday and Thursday. After Taekwondo, Mike and Nicholas dropped me off at the hairdressers. I was trying a new stylist at the recommendation of a friend. I got a new hairdo and during the cut I told her all about the pregnancy and how I was due in one week and how I thought about canceling the hair appointment just in case I went early. She told me that I needed to have the baby that night as my hair was done and it would look good for the photos! :o) Well - apparently I take all advice very seriously - as when I got up to pay I suddenly felt a rush of water down my leg. I literally ran (and I've not run for about 9 months!) to the restroom and quickly realized my water had just broken. I didn't know what to do - so I sat in the bathroom for what seemed like forever as I didn't know how to get to the front of the salon without making a huge mess. Finally I just ran to the front and told the stylist I needed to go to the hospital. She just stared at me in disbelief with a huge smile on her face. I then realized that it was 7:00 and Mike and Nicholas had just arrived to pick me up. Mike knew something was wrong and when I told him - he turned white as a ghost.

We called our neighbor who was to watch Nicholas and headed back to the house to pick up the suitcases and to drop off Nicholas. We called the doctor and gave Nicholas dinner. Then I honestly don't know what happened - but somehow we managed to kill an hour and we'd still not left for the hospital....which is another hour drive away.

We dropped off Nicholas and I'm afraid he really picked up on our fear/adrenaline/high emotions and he was looking very worried when we backed out of Mark and Dawn's driveway.

We got to the hospital an hour later. I was still zero centimeters dilated and only having very mild contractions. So - the walking of the hallways began... I can't tell you how many times we walked up and down and round and round the hospital. Mike was back to his normal self by this time and was trying to keep me laughing. He had me doing the Monty Python silly walks and I'm afraid to say there is even video of this - me very pregnant - in a hospital gown imitating John Clesse...can you imagine... :o)

Well - after 12 hours of walking, squatting, and every position imaginable - the pitocin finally started doing it's thing I was started dilating. But it took another 6 hours before I was finally at the magic 10cm. At 1pm I started pushing and little Emma was born at 3:22pm.

She decided to enter the world "sunny-side-up" - which sounds so cute...but it was not quite that cute when I was pushing. She came out with her face up and I had to push the entire top of her head through (instead of the typical crown of the head first). She did a number on me and I needed 33 stitches to fix everything. I'm afraid I gave her quite a bruise on the top of her head as I apparently kept pushing her into my pelvic bone. I have to wonder if this is the same thing that my Mom experienced as I always remember her saying that my brother did quite a number on her.

The nurses the did the Agpar test and Emma scored a 9 out of 10. She had such a healthy pink color and the nurses were all so impressed. :o)

The next night Mike went home to take Nicholas to Trunk-or-Treat. The houses are too far apart here for kids to go Trick-or-Treating so the school arranges for parents to park at the school in a huge circle. The parents decorate their car trunks with Halloween decorations and the kids go from car to car to collect candy. Nicholas dressed up as Anakin Skywalker (he takes after his Dad and is a huge Star Wars fan) and he and our neighbor's daughter had a blast. They then drove to the hospital and Nicholas got to meet Emma for the first time. That explains his outfit in our first family photo (below) - we don't normally dress Nicholas like that! :o)

We've been working on breast feeding. Emma and I have finally figured out the proper latch technique.

Mike and I are quickly becoming experts at changing diapers!

Mike took Nicholas out to a few neighbor's houses Halloween night. Then last night we carved Nicholas' first jack-o-lantern. He really liked it - but wasn't too sure about scooping out the goop from the pumpkin. We've got some cute photos of that so I'll post those as soon as we get them off the camera.

If you make a comment to the blog or if we talk to you on the phone - I do have a favor to ask. Can you please make a huge deal of Nicholas being a great Big Brother? He's having a few bouts of feeling down in the dumps and I think he needs to hear from others about how great it is to have a little sister. OK Scott - maybe you shouldn't tell him the truth about having me for a little sister... ;o) Several people have already emailed me and they said great things about Nicholas in his big brother role - and I really appreciate that!! I've read every comment to him and it has made him really proud. If you have any advice or tips for helping him get over this hump - we'd really appreciate them. We've been playing up how important his role is as big brother and being a leader and how he can teach Emma things.

Love to all...