A Week of Firsts

It's been almost 2 weeks since Emmett was born.  It seems like has been so much longer in some respects and was just yesterday at other moments.  One thing that I have always heard parents say, and now completely understand is that it does go SO fast!  In the last two weeks, Emmett has changed so much.  Just when I think we are beginning to figure each other out he changes and there is something new to learn.      Having a newborn means that change is constant!

Since Emmett is brand new, and so are our parenting skills the last week has been filled with a lot of new first experiences for the whole family- our first sleepless night, our first spit up, the first time Emmett had an accident outside of his diaper, we had our first photo shoot and met Finn, our first friend...among other things:

With the help of our Doula, we gave Emmett his first bath.  Both of the new parents were pretty nervous about this experience, but as it turns out he is just like his Mommy and loves water!  He was smiling and happy the whole time!

Daddy gave Emmett his first bottle.  Yay!  Daddy can now help out with late night/early morning feedings :)

Daddy introduced Emmett to the afternoon nap.  They are both big fans and are making a daily ritual of it when Daddy gets home from work.  

Emmett and Vivian are still figuring each other out.  Vivian's not quite sure what the noisy little creature we brought home is for and Emmett's not quite sure about how he feels about being sniffed and licked on a daily basis.

As soon as Mommy was physically able, we got Emmett into his stroller and took him for his first walk.  This is another daily ritual that both Emmett and I are really enjoying!

40 Weeks- Meet Emmett!

He is here!  Last Friday, July 15th at 9:21 pm Emmett Peter DeCook was born.  I am admittedly completely biased, but he is absolutely perfect. When he was born he was 7 lbs 11 oz and measured 20 inches.  I have to say, there truly is no feeling that I have ever experienced that even remotely compares to seeing your child and hearing him cry for the first time.  That experience becomes even more intense when you first hold the amazing little creature that you have spent the last 9+ months growing inside of you.  It's almost surreal to look down and know that this is your baby.  It is absolutely the most overwhelmingly pure love you can imagine...

Our delivery was relatively quick.  We checked into the hospital at 6:30 am on Friday, I was in early labor with light contractions still pretty far apart, dialated to 2-3 inches and effaced so the doctor administered potocin (synthetic oxytocin) to speed up my contractions.  At noon the doctor broke my water, at 1 pm I got my epidural.  I have to say for the record, I am a HUGE fan of the epidural.  I went from having intense contractions every 4-5 minutes to taking a wonderful 2.5 hour nap in the middle of active labor.  I started pushing at 7:45 pm and Emmett was born at 9:21.

We took Emmett home late in the day on Sunday and have been adapting to life with a sweet, beautiful little newborn in our house since then.  While there have been some challenges, it has been a joy. I literally spend most of my days just staring at him and marveling at how perfect he is.  Here are a handful of the hundreds of photos from our first couple of days.  More to come on us learning to be parents... :)

Waiting for Emmett

Not the best photo, but the first time I met our little guy.

Daddy holds Emmett for the first time.

Hello world, I have HUGE hands!

He loves skin to skin cuddling.

Taking our angel home.

Daddy loves the Moby wrap.

39 Weeks- One Last Baby Bump Photo...

Sorry the blog post is a day late this week...I was hoping I could avoid the last baby bump photo and share a photo of Emmett instead, but alas...this is not the case.  This last week has been rough- I am very uncomfortable at this point and have been having contractions on and off the entire time.  I haven't had a lot of energy and haven't really felt like talking to anyone because I honestly don't want to complain and all I can think about is getting this baby out of me.

So, here is our update:  Emmett actually grew quite a bit last week.  When I asked Dr. Ono how much he had grown, he simply responded with "quite a bit" and said, "How big is this baby going to get?"  He also expressed some concern over how big his head is compared to the size of my pelvis.  Not exactly what I was hoping to hear.  What I did like hearing from him was that I am over 90% effaced and 2-3 centimeters dialated.  All of this combined with the contractions I have been having all week means this will be my last baby bump blog post.  Hopefully some of you will find some humor in the fact that once again, I am wearing the same outfit as the previous week.  I assure you I have changed my clothes daily since last Wednesday, but I have a very limited rotation of comfortable clothes.

Here we are in all of our hugeness:

38 Weeks- Are We Done Yet?

We are 38 weeks.  I am done.  It appears that Emmett doesn't realize that he is too, so he's staying put.  I suppose we are at what you would call an impasse and Emmett is clearly winning.  During my exam with Dr. Ono today, we pretty much learned that nothing had changed from last week.  Not exactly what I wanted to hear but it doesn't change that my body is still ready to deliver...we are just waiting for the little guy to want to leave the womb.  Todd has been trying to reason with him and I have been attempting bribery- apparently neither work on the unborn.  Dr. Ono said that he would estimate Emmett is currently 7 lbs 11 oz.  He said this is a good size for me to deliver and that he is hoping he doesn't get much bigger than 8 lbs before he comes.  I definitely agreed with this assessment!

I started off the last week with a surprising burst of energy, which resulted in some last minute nesting and organizing around the house.  Todd and I made a new headboard for our bedroom.  Todd really has gotten very good at talking me through the hormonal outbursts and crying fits associated with the third trimester, as he had the chance to illustrate a few times when I got frustrated by our progress while making the headboard.  Here is the result of our efforts:

Since Saturday, I have been slowing down and been really fatigued and nauseous.  I have spent the last few days just resting and sleeping.  The only other development this last week is that we had our initial assessment/meeting with our post-partum doula.  She is fabulous!  For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept of a doula, it's basically a baby expert who is trained and certified in babycare, is a lactation specialist and will help with household needs while you adjust to having your baby at home with you. We hired her to help us the day that we come home from the hospital, days 3 and 5 and then 2-3 times our second week at home.   Both Todd and I agreed after she did our initial assessment, that we felt a huge sense of relief knowing that we would have someone so knowledgeable and experienced to help us when we bring the little guy home.

Here we are 38 weeks.  I actually don't think that I look much bigger than last week?