More Emma pictures

I put a few more pictures up on Flickr...


http://flickr.com/photos/8132006@N07/sets/72157613516849601/

Thanks, Tina!

I am typing this one handed so I am going to keep it short... but I just wanted to thank Tina for doing the three paintings for Emma's room (they are not in order in the picture). The colors matched perfectly and we are looking forward to getting them up on the wall. :)

Thanks again!

Emma Grace

I got a new camera yesterday so I will be taking more pictures of Emma.

I put a couple pictures up on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8132006@N07/sets/72157613516849601/

No more hospitals :)

I am sorry that I haven't updated this, but we are out of the hospital and everything is going well. We are getting used to our new routine and the responsibility of taking care of a newborn. I just wanted to let everyone know that we are back home, Emma is fine and things are looking good. I will post more soon with some new pictures and video.

Update on Emma Grace...

Well, we thought that we should update everyone on what is going on with Emma. She was born on Tuesday the 13th and we were discharged from the hospital on Thursday, we were told that she had a slight case of Jaundice which is very common and we would have to have her bilirubin count done the next morning. We had an appointment with our pediatrician on Friday morning already, so we went to the hospital beforehand to get the lab work done.

When we got to the pediatrician's office they told us that her bilirubin levels had raised quite a bit since we had left the hospital so we had to admit her to Wake Med again to have phototherapy to try and lower the bilirubin count try to get rid of the jaundice. We also had to have an IV put in her to try to give her some extra fluids. We stayed in the hospital from Friday until Sunday when they told us that she was on a downward trend and we should be OK at home. After getting home on Sunday we had an appointment again to get her bilirubin count done on Monday. We were in for some more bad news... her levels had started to go up so we got an at home "biliblanket" to try to do some of the phototherapy at home. After a day of this her levels were the same so we were admitted to the hospital once again on Tuesday.

It is now Wednesday night and her levels are getting pretty decent compared to what we came in with, but since she rebounded after going home last time, they are going to try to be a little more cautious.

It has been pretty rough. She has to get her heel pricked to draw blood quite a few times a day and she has all of these little scabs on her feet that really break my heart. She has to be under the lights the majority of the day so we can't really hold her which is also really hard. Right now I am typing this one handed so she can hold onto my finger which seems to calm her down a bit.

We are hoping that tomorrow her levels will be at normal levels and not just on a "downward trend" and we will be able to be discharged. This has been really hard on our family and we are looking forward to getting our daughter home... for good.

(The picture shows what she was in for the majority of the first visit. She had to lay on a little light up pad, she was under a big set of blue LED lights and she had a spotlight on her as well. The white bandage on her arm is the IV. This time she is only one the blue pad and the blue overhead light.

SNOW!!

We have about 7 to 8 inches of snow so far... Cody absolutely loves it.

I will be posting some more pictures of Emma probably later on tonight too, but here is a video of Cody in the snow for the time being. :)

We are home!

We got home today around 2pm or so. It is great to be home. It was nice having all of the help at the hospital, but there is something to being in your own home... (ask me again tonight though, feelings might change).

It's incredible. I am amazed at how easy it is to hold and watch her for hours. We feel very fortunate for having a healthy happy baby.

The labor process went well. Alison did an amazing job (she got her out in only 15 minutes of pushing). We went from "Hey, lets check if you dilated anymore" to "It's a girl!" in less than an hour.

She is great. It is amazing how you can feel a bond with your child instantly the first time you lay eyes on her.

Here are a few more pictures...

Anna and Audrey's gifts to their cousin Emma...


Emma all bundled up ready to make the trip to the car (about 20 feet of outside air :) )


All ready to go!


Emma getting a kiss from Mommy... Nana watches in the back


Emma trying on a new hat (it's cute, but a little too big for now)


Cody getting a few quick sniffs in (Emma seems to love her big brother... he helps keep her awake while nursing too)

Few more pictures

Baby Pictures

Here are a few pictures!

IT'S A GIRL!!

We had her... everyone is fine. 8lb 15 oz. at 3:45. I will post more details later, but I just wanted to let you all know... we are parents!

Moving along well...

She is 6 to 7 cm dilated and they just put her epidural in. Her legs got warm and tingly and that was a good thing :)

Alison's progressing well...

She is at 5cm and they just broke her water. The Doctor said that she is doing well and everything is looking good. :)

IV has started...

Well, after a completely restful night on the super comfortable hospital chair/bed thing the nurse came in around 5am to get Alison ready for the pitocin drip. They are also giving her a lot of fluids in the main IV drip. This should start contractions in probably about an hour and then we will have her water broken around 9am or so.

It's going to be a long day, but I am really excited for what we get in the end :)

Well, we are in the hospital...

Well, we are in the hospital... Alison has an IV in her arm (nothing going in yet) and she had some monitors on her earlier to measure contractions and Emma's heart rate. Pretty much, we are just waiting for the rest of the night. Tomorrow morning we will have an IV drip of Pitocin to start to induce labor and cause the contractions. They have estimated that we will have her around 3 or 4pm tomorrow.

Alison is doing well (just pretty uncomfortable and hungry :( ), she will be getting a sleep aid tonight, so she will be able to rest for the big day tomorrow.

I will post some pictures tomorrow night after we have her.

The release of the Frisbee, the crowning of Queen Elizabeth I, William Hung's birth, the first Mickey Mouse comic and Michael Jordan's retirement...

all happened on the same date that I will most likely become a father... January 13th.

Tomorrow Alison and I are going to the hospital to start the process of having her induced on Tuesday morning (January 13th, 2009). That will be Emma Grace's birthday. I haven't fully come to grasp the fact that it is already here. Right now I am a little scared because I know tomorrow I will essentially be a spectator (with a highly vested interest) in the whole thing. Other than offering my support, doing my best to comfort and a sacrificing a finger or two for Alison to break, I don't have much to do it seems... other than be excited, scared, happy and about 40 other emotions, some that probably don't even have names.

I am going to be a father. It's a little scary that someone is going to be depending on me and looking to me for guidance, direction, support and of course love...(probably an allowance later on too ;)). I do feel very fortunate and blessed to be able to experience this with such a loving, beautiful, wonderful person and the best friend I have ever had... my wife, Alison. We have had our ups and downs during this pregnancy, but I know that there is no one better to go through this with. Alison... I love you. I also want to thank all of our friends and family for being there for us through out all of this, I am sure what we would have done with out you... and just a forewarning, I doubt that we are done needing your help yet. :)

Wow, 39 out of 40 weeks is 98%... OMG we are 98% of the way there!?!

Wow, we are 98% of the way there. How did that happen?! I haven't been very good at posting on here if you haven't noticed. The past month has really flown by at an alarming rate. It wasn't that long ago that I knew that Christmas was a few weeks away and that meant that the baby was going to only be a few weeks after that, but that was 2 'fews'... 2 'fews' is a long time. Well, Christmas came and it was great. We didn't have any house guests this year so we had a pretty quiet Christmas Eve going to Church, eating Pizza, watching "A Christmas Story" and spending time with each other. Christmas day we went over to my brother and sister-in-law's new house and spent some time with them and the girls. The only problem with Christmas is that it got rid of one of the 'fews' so we only had a few weeks left.

New Year's Eve was fun, we were out partying (by "out partying" I mean staying home) late into the night (by "late into the night" I mean 12:30) getting drunk off Champagne and Whiskey (by "Champagne and Whiskey" I really mean Sparkling Apple Cider).

After New Year's we no longer had a few weeks, we were down to a couple. Throw in some work, Dr's appointments, getting some stuff for the house ready and that brings us to today. One week from her due date.

It has been a pretty incredible journey. The really amazing part is that this was just getting to the point of having her, the journey starts all over and gets infinitely more complex after she's born.

(If you look closly at the picture you will be able to see what we are naming her ;). Thanks to Anna and Audrey for the artwork. :) )

Crazy last few weeks

Around the holidays it gets to be a little hectic. Having a baby lurking around the corner doesn't help at all either. We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner at my brother and sister-in-laws house. I flew Alison's sister, Lauren, up for Thanksgiving as a 'suprise' and it was really nice to have some company for a little while.

This weekend I have Daddy Boot Camp, so that will be interesting. I think it's a 'hands-on' experience so I will be sure to wear some new clothes.

We just ordered a camcorder (Canon HF100) and I am really excited about it. There will be no HD filming of the birth, but shortly after we will have some video that we can show to her future boyfriends on first dates. I think computers make that a lot easier. I won't have to dig through boxes to find old home movies, just open the folder and its good to go.

Christmas is coming up very soon. It will be the first and last (for at least a long while) Christmas with just the two of us. We have made plans to go see "Marley and Me" in the theater on Christmas day. I started to read the book, which was very good, but I stopped once Marley got old, I didn't want to have to think about that since Marley reminds me of our Cody (the good parts of Marley, and some of the bad) :).

Baby in 3D!!!

We had our 3D ultra sound the other day and it is amazing the amount of detail you can see with the images. We have determined that she will have Alison's lips and my nose lol. She wasn't being very cooperative during the procedure, but we were able to get a few pictures that came out pretty good. She seems to like to have her hands in front of her face a lot. Most of the pictures we have she has at least one hand up (sometimes a foot too).

We went on the tour of Wake Med Cary to see the rooms etc. It's a very nice hospital and we hear great things about it from anyone that has given birth there. We actually saw one of our doctors there in scrubs. I was a little surprised to see him there, but I probably shouldn't have been.

We are really looking forward to everything that is coming, even though it is coming very, very, VERY fast. This morning we were talking about it almost being December. Now when we tell people that the baby is due in January they say, "Oh, you have some time." If you say that the baby is due next month it sounds like we should be waiting around the hospital lol.

Baby update

Well, I haven't been very good about posting recently so I will try to have a little summary recap.

I was surprised at work with a baby shower. It was terribly embarrassing having to open and hold up all this little baby stuff, but it was fun none the less and I am very thankful for it. Alison is going to be having her baby shower at work in December.

We graduated our Birth and Labor class, so we are now officially ready to have a baby... whatever that means. It was a pretty good class and we met some nice people and got some good information and mental scars for life from some things that should not been seen on a huge projected screen.

The baby's room is on its way to being done. We have the furniture and we ordered a few things online to finish it out like a glider, curtain rod and curtains, the sheets, bed skirt and blanket, changing pad cover and a french memo board to put some of the pictures that Anna and Audrey (our two nieces) have made for her. Her closet is starting to look like a girl's closet filled with clothes and pink things.

Our appointments have been going well. Both Alison and the baby are doing very well with everything.

I guess that is about it. We are really excited to meet our little girl and I will keep you posted on anything new.

The only thing I need to know about birth, I learned from Dwight Schrute.

At our class on Monday we were talking about Birth Plans. I never really thought about this too much before, but it makes a lot of sense. We didn't realize how many different options there are for giving birth. It's almost like Sonic's 168,000 drink combinations. I think the first thing I am going to put on my own personal Birth Plan is an idea I got from Dwight.

When the baby emerges, mark it secretly in a kind of a mark that only you could recognize and no baby snatcher could ever copy.

The other thing we discussed at class on Monday was packing the bag to go to the hospital. I am still relieved to know that once the water breaks its not a mad dash to get to the hospital before the baby falls out on her own. I think Hollywood puts unnecessary stress on expectant fathers. Every movie you see with a woman going into labor is preceded with someone having to drive down the highway at 120mph in order to get there in time. They should say that you are actually supposed to wait until you have been having contractions 5 minutes apart for an hour before you go to the hospital, and when you get there you will be do that for a while before the baby comes. I guess that wouldn't make a very exciting movie though.