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?

37 Weeks- Full Term! Where is my baby?!

Ok, so I totally know where my baby is...he is kicking me as I write this.  I was just HOPING that the minute we officially had a full-term baby, he would magically pop out and we would begin the next phase of our lives.  Obviously, this has not happened.  One of the funny things about pregnancy is that they provide you with a due date that is 40 weeks, but the baby is actually considered full term beginning at 37 weeks.  Yes, it is better for him to stay put for another week so that his little brain develops a bit more and he gets a chance to fatten up but developmentally speaking he would be fine if I went into labor right now!

Speaking of going into labor, we did have an interesting doctors appointment today.  Dr. Ono is really pleased with my progress and actually said as we left his office today, "See you next Wednesday if you don't go into labor before then."  During my exam he discovered that I am ready to go, we are just waiting on Emmett to make his move.  I am 85% effaced and dialated to almost 2 centimeters.  Dr. Ono actually touched Emmett's little head during the exam today!  Of course, none of this is a guarantee that I will go into labor before 40 weeks...but please keep your fingers crossed for me.

Other exciting news from the last week, is that we got our full set of maternity photos back from our fabulous photographer, Kristen Honeycutt.  She did an incredible job (as always) but I do have to admit to having a bit of a melt down when I first saw them.  I am just not used to seeing myself look so large! Aside from vanity, pregnancy hormones also were largely to blame for my bursting into tears...It wasn't just seeing my ginormous belly (which I obviously expected when I got pregnant) but the overall bloating, weight gain and widening throughout my entire body, from my face to my feet that upset me.   I always thought that I would be able to keep exercising throughout my pregnancy and conquer these issues.  In the end I realized two things:  one, once he is born none of these trivial thoughts will matter to me and two, when you are 5 ft 2 and you gain 30+ pounds there really isn't a way to gracefully distribute that pregnancy weight. All of that said, there are 15-20 photos that I LOVE and despite me not looking like the me that I recognize, I am definitely glad that we will have these photos to look back on.  If you want to peruse the entire gallery, click on the link below:

http://www.kristenhoneycutt.com/RedCart/index.php?gnum=284&iid=68721

Also, here we are at 37 weeks.  Think I can get any bigger???

36 Weeks- Thank You Portland!

I want to thank my fabulous girlfriends- Erin, Allison, Jennifer and Canyon for a fabulous baby shower this past week! It was so great to have a girls night out and I really appreciate all the effort you guys put into throwing me a wonderful and relaxing shower here in Portland!  You guys are the best!  I couldn't ask for a better group of friends or support system.  It really has been a blessing to be able to share this experience with such wonderful women.

Thanks to my continued insomnia, we have gotten A LOT done in the last week.  The nursery is pretty much ready- we are just waiting on the glider to arrive from Pottery Barn.   Since I don't sleep anymore, all of Emmett's little clothes, bedding, bottles, and pacifiers are cleaned and ready to go.  The diaper basket is stocked with newborn diapers, wipes and various ointments and lotions that we might need.  The pack n play with our bassinet is set up in our bedroom.  We have finished reading the baby books.  Theoretically, we are ready to go!

I continue to be bone tired, but at the same time I am just wired.  As much as my body wants me to stay in bed and rest for labor my mind simply will not stop and let this happen.  Hence, all the progress we have made in the last week.  Poor Todd has woken up more than once to find that I haven't slept the night before and have instead opted to go downstairs to do laundry or clean or organize some closet or cabinet in our house.  (For those of you who don't know, Todd gets up for work at 4 am.)  I think it's safe to say that I am in hardcore nesting mode!

We had our appointment with Dr. Ono today and his examination seemed to match my current state of mind.  Emmett continues to grow and be healthy and is measuring just a little bit bigger than a typical 36 week baby.  My body is starting to progress into delivering him.  As of today, Emmett had dropped and engaged in my pelvis, I am 70% effaced and beginning to dialate.  We asked Dr. Ono what this meant and he explained that it doesn't mean Emmett is going to make an appearance anytime in the next week, but it could.  There is really no way to predict this. We all agreed that we hope he will stay put for another 2 weeks or so.

Here we are at 36 weeks.  If you go to the "Bump Alert" page of the blog, you can compare the last couple of weeks of photos and see how much bigger we have gotten and note how much my belly is starting to move/point downwards.

35 Weeks- Winding Down...

We are 2 weeks from being "full term" and 5 from our due date and I think both Todd and I are feeling very ready to meet our baby.  I am completely and totally just out of energy.  Part of this is because I don't sleep very well- it's really more like I get quick naps between trips to the ladies room. Some of it is just this phase of pregnancy and the rest is because I am carting around an extra 30+ pounds that my body is not used to.  I am not going to whine or complain about it- this is just where I am at.  Per Dr. Ono this is totally normal and to be expected during this last part of pregnancy.  His advise was that it's time for me to just rest and take it easy, try to remain patient and let nature take its course.

We did a lot of little things this last week for the baby, including a 2 hour marathon trip to Babys R Us, which left Todd and I both feeling like neither one of us has any idea what we are doing!  As someone who was in marketing for 10 years, I've always felt that I know how to decipher the code and see through the packaging and advertising but apparently I am losing my touch.  Seriously, why are there 5 different brands of pacifiers and bottles to chose from? And how can every diaper pale option be "#1 selling" or "the choice more mothers prefer to the competition"?  Is it me or do all the baby monitors seem to do exactly the same thing?  Even though we went there feeling like we had done a ton of research and knew what we wanted, we left sort of just hoping that we had made the best selections.   That said, I think we just have a few more items before we have crossed everything off of our baby checklist.

We began our weekly doctor's appointments today.  It was all pretty much good news!  Emmett is starting to move down in my pelvis and even though I didn't gain any weight over the last two weeks, he grew still grew and is measuring just a little bit over 35 weeks. Even though Mommy doesn't have a lot of energy, Emmett showed Dr. Ono just how much he has by wiggling all around and kicking our entire appointment.  Here we are at 35 weeks, looking like it's not possible for us to get any bigger!