Emma Sophia

Our little Emma just turned 2 weeks old, so I guess I'd better share her birth story and what's been going on around here since her arrival.  AND post some adorable pictures, of course.  Emma's delivery was not my favorite of all time, only because I had some issues with irregular contractions/false labor, not to mention KIDNEY STONES.  That's right, I had kidney stones when I was 38 weeks pregnant.  Yes, for all of you that have never had them, the pain IS similar to labor, although mine actually brought on contractions that contributed to the pain. After a long sleepless night (Seriously, worst night of my life...which includes the 4th year hike at girls camp where we fell asleep under a tarp to protect us from the rain. The only problem was, I was on the end at the bottom of the hill so after about 20 minutes everyone had slid down to the point that I was no longer under the tarp.  I laid there in the rain ALL NIGHT watching the water make puddles on my sleeping bag.)  Anyway, where was I?  After a long sleepless night, I was really worried because it didn't feel like regular labor.  I thought something might be wrong with the baby, so I called my doctor and he told me to go to labor and delivery.  After sitting there for over 3 hours, they discovered that I had kidney stones, gave me some painkillers, and sent me home. 

I continued to have pain for a few days, and then I felt good for almost a week.  Then, I started having contractions again (without the kidney stone pain thank goodness).  I had them all day and through the night about 7 minutes apart so we headed out to the hospital at about 5 am.  Unfortunately, on the way to the hospital the contractions started slowing down, and by the time we got there they were 10 minutes apart.  I was dilated to a 4, 2 days overdue, with regular contractions, but since the hospital was busy that morning, and I am a VBAC...I was sent home. 

I attempted to take a nap, walked to the school with my Mom to pick up Meleah, and then started having REALLY painful contractions every 7 minutes.  After a couple of hours we headed back to the hospital AGAIN.  I started to get worried because they were still 7 minutes apart, so we went to get a drink at Sonic in hopes of getting closer to 5 minutes.  However, instead of getting closer together, they started getting further apart.  I was NOT going to get rejected from the hospital again, so we dropped some paperwork off at Randall's work, washed the truck, walked around the mall, ate spicy food at PF Chang's...and STILL no regular contractions.  At this point it was probably around 9:00 at night, and I was totally exhausted.  I decided to call the doctor and tell him what was going on.  He said to go ahead and come in, and he would see if the contractions had done anything.  We came in, and when they checked me I was still only a 4!  I couldn't believe it, after a full day of painful contractions!  At that point I thought they would send me home again, but the doctor told me that he would break my water and they could even put me on the lowest dose of pitocin if I needed it, even though I'm a VBAC.  That was the best news EVER!  They started my IV, gave me my epidural, and about an hour later he came and broke my water.  I dozed for about an hour and my contractions never got regular so they thought they would have to do the pitocin.  Fortunately, even without regular contractions, I was dilated to a 7 so we didn't need to.  About a half an hour later I was a ten, and half a push later she was born.  Not the worst delivery in the world, all things considered, but not the best either.  That would be Savanna's delivery.  ;) 

Emma is the sweetest little baby.  She's a bit of a night-owl, so I'm going to have to turn that around, but when she's awake she's usually pretty happy and calm.  The kids LOVE to hold her and everyone fell in love with her instantly.  Even Savanna, although she's not the softest toddler I've ever met, says: "Oh, tute baby!" EVERY TIME she sees Emma (which is pretty frequently, since we live together after all).  She also LOVES to give her high fives and knuckles.  It's been a little bit of a battle because she likes to hold the baby, and sometimes tries to rip her out of other people's arms.  She does NOT like to wait for Mommy to finish nursing the baby before refilling her sippy, taking her potty, getting her snack, etc.  Savanna is also under the assumption that babies should only have blankies when they're going nigh-night.  So, if Emma is awake, she rips off her blanket, and doesn't let anyone put it back on.  She also has had a bit of a hard time with some of Emma's habits.  Every time she sees her sucking on her fingers or nursing she says "No bite!"  I've tried to teach her that it's okay, but she doesn't understand.  At least now instead of yelling at her every time, she goes up and softly whispers "no bite baby," so that she won't have to hear me explain ONCE AGAIN that babies are supposed to do that. 

Savanna has also discovered that Mommy nursing = at least 15 minutes of uninterrupted get-into-everything-you-know-dang-well-you're-not-supposed-to-touch time.  Like markers for example -

Ironically, the shirt I threw on her that day says "Help!  Mom's having a bad day! Call 1-800-GRANDMA"  Sadly, Grandma Brown had already just been here for two weeks.  She has to go home some time!  I actually did call Grandma Stewart to watch my kids while I went to a doctor's appointment the next day... What would we do without Grandmas?

SO happy to finally have her here!

 Grandma Brown brought the kids to the hospital so they could meet their new baby sister.

Cameron was admittedly a little disappointed when he found out that we were having a girl, but he has told me several times since she's been born that he's SO happy that she's a girl because she's "SO cute!" He and Meleah argue daily because Cameron always says "My baby sister..." and Meleah informs him that she's not just HIS sister! 

So excited that she has enough hair to make a "mohawk."  The kids think I'm crazy, but I'm the Mom, and I can do whatever I want!  ;)

All ready to go home -

We were able to check out of the hospital just in time to make it to Lydia's Dolphin project presentation. (Thanks Mom, for helping her finish the project and get to school so she wouldn't miss it!) -

The last couple of weeks have just flown by, and I've been LOVING all my snuggle time with baby Emma.  Thanks to everyone for all your support and love.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends that take care of our kids, bring us meals, send sweet facebook messages, call to check up on us...  We couldn't have done it without all of you!