Week 15

15w 1d on 2/28/09

Well it appears that my blog posts are getting later and later. I guess it's hard for me to post on Fridays, I can't imagine that I'm busy, but oh well.

Last week I bought a nursing cover on ebay. It's great! I feel a lot more confident going out in public now that I know I have a way to feed Embry other than in a bathroom stall. The girl that I bought it from has like 70 patterns of fabric to choose from and I really like the colors and pattern that I chose. I was a little worried about being able to see through it since it's just a single sheet of cotton, but you can't see through it at all. Plus it's got this little pocket on the bottom right inside corner where I can put my breast pad while I'm nursing so I don't have to set it out. All in all, it makes me very happy! The heavier Embry gets (and according to our scale she's over 13lbs now), the harder it is for me to take her out. I mean, lifting her in the car seat out of the car and into a shopping cart or stroller is really pushing me to the edge of my capacity. I'm not sure what I'll do once she gains more weight. I guess the only real options are either a) don't leave the house or b) just deal with it.

Anyhow, she's getting closer and closer to rolling over. She only goes to her left side though. If I let her grab onto my finger and pull her a little bit, then she rolls over, but she can't get there on her own yet.

She scratched up her left calf a bunch because she's started grabbing her foot and sometimes misses and just scratches her leg instead. We cut her nails again after we saw the scratches, but I wonder if there's something I can put on them to help them heal in the meantime.

I'm thinking of possibly putting a swing set in the backyard. I was always against the idea because I kind of view them as a waste of space and I didn't want a big bulky thing taking up any of my yard. Well, in order to keep the grassy area intact, I'm thinking it will go behind the pool which is now a big open rocky space that is not being used for any purpose. Of course we'd have to put sand back there or something instead of the rocks, but the real issue would be redoing the pool fence. We couldn't have the pool in the same area as the swing set because that would defeat the purpose of the fence, so we'd have to move the fence. Seems like a big project. Bleh. We also need to extent our patio and the patio roof. Hmmm...

Embry was babysat by someone other than family for the first time yesterday. I had rescheduled my teeth cleaning but forgot to tell Tony the time I had rescheduled it to, so he had some things at work to do. Cara from young marrieds said she would watch her while I went to the dentist, which was a great help! Then Embry and I ran some errands and went to the mall. I had been avoiding the mall because of trying to maneuver a stroller through tiny spaces, but I decided to conquer that fear. Yes, I did run into many many clothing racks and a table cloth covering a display table got caught in one of the stroller wheels, but for the most part it was a pretty good experience.

Embry got to meet some more of her family members today when my brother and his family came over. We all sat out on the patio (it was a beautiful day) and talked and played 'pass the baby.' Embry was a perfect angel the whole time, it was great and I got a lot of good pictures. Once she started fussing we laid a blanket down on the grass and let her hang out there for a while.

Week 14

14 Weeks Old on 2/20/09

These weeks are going by really fast. I don't know what's going on, but it seems like I just made a blog post yesterday.

On Valentine's day Embry got to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Nehs for a few hours while Tony and I went over to Deb's house for a V-day dinner. When we got done, I called my mom and she said that they hadn't had enough time with her yet. I guess they played with her for about an hour and then she fell asleep...she's always so good for other people, haha. Earlier that day, she finally got to meet my friend Jessica who has 2 little girls. There's Krystal who's 3 and Sofia who's 1 and my god-daughter. Sofia is about 13 months older than Embry, so we're hoping they can become friends later on. V-day was also the day she turned 3 months old!

Tony worked from home on Monday so I could go to the dentist without the baby. Then he also worked from home on Thursday when I had a rheumatology appointment and Embry slept the whole time I was gone. This seems to happen a lot.

We went to MOPS on Tuesday and I decided that since I had some milk in the fridge that needed to be used that I would put Embry in the nursery instead of taking her in with me. I was a tad nervous because it would be quite bad if she got sick and then I got sick. Anyhow it seemed to go fine because the nusery workers never had to call me to come get her. They did however say that she was constipated and then had diarrhea, but I'm still trying to figure out how you can tell if a baby is constipated or if they have diarrhea. So, it was good overall because I got to enjoy myself in MOPS and Embry seemed to survive without me. Then I ventured to Target afterwards and I have to say that I've been there 3 times in the past week and every single time I forget to buy the cradle cap stuff that Robin suggested. Apparently I need to write it down! Later that day we met up with some YM girls for coffee at Starbucks and Embry was very well behaved, so yahoo for that!

We had YM at our house on Wed and she was pretty good for the most part. Then right before we all went our separate ways, she decided to have a blow out (sorry Deb!) and soil her light cream colored fuzzy outfit. Yes, of course it was the first time she had worn it. Tony and I are becoming masters at getting poo out of clothes. This brings me to another point. She went from pooing constantly to not pooing at all and then having a whole bunch come out at once. It happened again yesterday as I was trying to leave for Sarah's. Well at least she doesn't have diaper rash anymore!

My parents came over yesterday to hang out and watch a movie. Embry was fantastic and slept through the whole movie and then later she showed Grandma and Grandpa how well her lungs work and gave a couple minutes of ear piercing shreiks while I changed her diaper. I read in a magazine the other day that sometimes babies cry just because there's nothing else to do. That's not nice at all.

Week 13

13 Weeks old on 2/13/09

It's Friday already?! Where does the time go?

This week was rather uneventful since I decided to stay home to avoid the frustrations of last week's fussiness. We did however go up to Phoenix last Friday night/Saturday. She had a really rough time on the car ride up there because we were stuck in traffic due to an accident on the freeway and if the car's not moving, Embry is crying. Sat afternoon I fed Embry in the Target bathroom which was really interesting because every time a toilet would flush she would swing her head around towards the sound and her eyes would get really wide. Basically she ended up not getting fed very well. We also left a nice puddle of spit up on the Target bathroom floor. Woops!

She was rather fussy on Wed night at Young Marrieds. Fun fun.

I finally decided to venture out with her on my own yesterday. We were gone from 1-6pm running errands. Once again decided to nurse in the Target bathroom (at least it's clean) and I was about as successful as the time before. Before we left Albertsons I was telling Embry how our next stop was Costco and how much Mama hates that store. Then I put her in the cart at Costco and we walk about 5 feet into the store and she just starts screaming. There was seemingly nothing wrong with her, but she definitely felt the need to exercise her lungs! So I took her out of her carrier and held her while pushing the cart with the other hand. Luckily I only needed a few things, and I think people kinda felt sorry for me, so we were out of there in no time at all. Surprisingly, I'd say it was my best trip to Costco yet!

We started putting Embry in her crib to sleep for the night on Tuesday. It is FANTASTIC! The first night she didn't wake up until 6:30 to eat and then the next night she ate once around 7am and then was still asleep when I went in there to get her at noon. Last night was a little weird because she got up at 4am to eat (and surprisingly it was Tony who woke me up because she was cooing in the monitor, I was having a dream and the cooing was part of my dream) but then she didn't wake up again until around 11:15am. I'm definitely getting a much more sound sleep now that she's not in our room, so I'm happy.

I've been trying to put her down for tummy time a lot more even though she pretty much hates it. She's a master at holding her head up, so I'm not really concerned that she's not getting enough 'tummy time hours' logged. Today in one of our tummy time sessions, she was on her tummy for about 3 minutes and she threw up 3 times. If I were her, I wouldn't like tummy time either!

I put a bonnet on her today and it was thee cutest thing I've ever seen in my life! Oh speaking of her head, she's got cradle cap. Luckily she has lots of hair to cover it up. I'm gonna try putting baby oil on it, brushing it, and using the washcloth to exfoliate it in the bath. I've heard not to use soap on it because it will just dry it out more, but I can't imagine putting oil in her hair and then only washing it out with water...ick.

Tomorrow is her 3 month birthday! Happy birthday baby!

Week 12

12 Weeks old on 2-6-09

Embry has been rather fussy this week. When I went to MOPS on Tuesday, she started crying almost the exact second I walked in the door. So I took her out of her car seat and held her which was ok for a bit. Then she was fussing so I walked to the back where she fell asleep in my arms. I made it back to my seat and sat down, then tried to move her to put her back in the car seat, but no luck. When I started to move her, she woke up and started crying again. Needless to say, it was not a good experience. I thought about just leaving midway through, but decided to stick it out. Then I nursed her for about 20 and we left to go to costco...also, not a good time. I do this certain thing quite often and always end up mad about it afterwards. I stand by the baby clothes taking my time picking out the perfect outfits, dresses, onesies - whatever it is I happen to be looking at - then put them in my cart and walk around some more, then decide it's a waste of money and put them all back. It's ridiculous! Even thinking about it makes me upset. Anyhow, I did this at costco with these adorable Dr. Suess onesies and some cheap summer dresses, bleh.

On Wednesday I took Embry out to my parents house where she was lots of fun and all smiley. She slept on the car ride to young marrieds, but was fussified once we got there. Then she cried the entire car ride home from young marrieds (which was like 20 min cuz it was in Vail). So when I got home I fed her and she was fine, but she started crying mid feeding (really unusual, she loves food) and I look up at Tony and go, "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this is the only child we will ever have." Needless to say, I was really not feelin it. Now, once again, I'm back to thinking we will have more than one. I waiver back and forth on this about 5 times a day. The part I don't want to go through again is the first month or two. I'm not sure how it is for the 'normal' folk, but for me, my body literally does not function on that little sleep. Maybe if I was formula feeding it would have been different because Tony could have stayed up at night (if you could wake him up in the first place, 36 ring a bell anyone?!) to feed her, but I would feel guilty if I was capable of breast feeding and didn't. So basically, I'm confused. End of story.

Moving on- I think we will move her to the nursery to sleep at night since she is sleeping for at least 8 hours everynight. It will make things a little easier for me because she makes noise in her sleep (ocassional screams and then the normal grunts/coos/whatever) and everytime she even moves her leg or turns her head, I wake up. I'm not normally that light of a sleeper, but since becoming a mom any noise she makes will jolt me out of my sleep. We're going up to Phoenix to stay the night at Tony's mom's place today, so once we get back we'll start putting her in her crib and I'll report next week how it goes.

Other interesting tidbits:
1) My daughter loves tv. I think it's like a big toy for her with all the moving colors and fun noises. Everytime I'm feeding her and sit her up to burp, she stares at the tv very intently. Sometimes she'll start to fuss when I burp her, but then just turn her towards the tube and all is well with the world! I'm hoping she doesn't become a couch potato like Tony and me because we watch a LOT of tv.
2) She's developed a bald spot on the back of her head from laying/sitting with her head resting on the swing/bed/bouncer. Not sure what to do about that, but it bothers me.
3) I think she might end up with blue eyes. If not blue, then another light color (green perhaps) because her eyes have gotten sooo light since she was born. Tony's eyes aren't exactly brown, so this is not particularily surprising to me.
4) She screamed at the top of her lungs last night after her bath when I was trying to put lotion on her. I swear, I have never heard anything so loud or deafening in my lifetime. It was ear piercingly shrill...yikes. She was seemingly fine, but apparently she wasn't having it. Hope there is not a repeat.
5) Embry just had a complete blow out. She was asleep in her swing and I picked her up to feed her and she had pooed all up her back, through her white onesie (which is now in the trash), through her pajamas, and onto her swing. She even pooed through the front of the onesie...that's a first for us. Amazing how much poo these little bodies can produce!
6) I am down to my pre-prepregnancy weight which is fantastic, but I think my hips are about 3 feet wider than they were before which can be evidenced by this...
Yep, that's right, on Wed the butt of my jeans ripped as I was bending over. Granted they were a very old pair of jeans, but does this make a woman who just had a baby feel good? No. Embarrassing? Yes. I think they should make a thing called post-maternity pants that have a little extra room in the hip area...I think I've really got something here. So if you YMers are wondering where Tony and I disappeared to on Wed night, we were in the bathroom so Tony could safety pin the butt of my pants back together. Good times!
7) Embry: I want to squish her and kiss her all day long, she is soooo stinkin cute!

This about sums it up

Week 11

11 weeks old on 1-30-09

Embry has started to 'talk' a lot more. She does goo goo ga ga things and squeals now. I'm convinced that she's said 'hi' a couple of times but Tony insists that I'm crazy. Whatever. I think he will agree with me that she has waved a couple of times in response to us waving at her though. Now when I get the camera out and set her on the blanket for pictures she will smile on command. Sometimes I don't even have to say 'smile!' she'll just see the red light and start smiling and cooing. She's gotten very good at sticking her fingers/hands in her mouth and oozing all over them.

Tony and I have kind of worked out this system where Embry will sleep until 6am when Tony's alarm goes off and then I'll feed her. Then Tony will take her downstairs and put her in the bouncer while he does his morning routine because she's not tired enough to lay down and sleep in the play yard and then bring her back before he leaves after she's fallen asleep in the bouncer. It works out very nicely and this morning we slept until Tony came home for lunch at 11.

I love her.

Week 10

10 Weeks old, 1-24-09

Embry went to church for her second time on Sunday and was very well behaved. She stirred a little bit, but basically slept the whole time. The people sitting behind us said that she smiled at them and she was very well behaved. She also smiled at Deb on Wednesday at YM and at Tony's mom last night and today, so she's getting much better at smiling.

On Tuesday Embry and I went to MOPS again. I decided to take the stroller this time because it was so hard to carry the infant carseat last time and it was much easier. She slept through the first 2 hours or so, then sat on my lap for a while, then I fed her. While I was feeding her in the 'cry room' the janitor came in because he wanted to hang up a clock and a picture, so then I finished the feeding in a bathroom stall...which I'm getting pretty good at. We then went out to lunch with Rachael, Cody, Kacy, and Drew and Embry slept through the whole thing. From there it was off to Dr. Morris's office for Embry's 2 month check up.

The verdict is...Embry does not like shots!

She weighed in at a whopping 11lbs 4oz which is almost exactly the 50th percentile and she was 23 inches long. The dr said that her spitting up is normal and should get better with age and since she is gaining weight it's nothing to worry about. I told him about her diaper rash (which is now gone) and he said to stop using the lamisil because it's not a long term solution and that we could keep using the desitin. I told him that the rash would come back, but now I'm not so sure it will because she isn't pooping in spurts anymore so she doesn't need her diaper changed nearly as often. The nurse came in and gave her 2 shots in her right leg and 1 in her left and I got to hold her legs still, but I ducked down behind the exam table so she couldn't see me when she got poked, haha. Of course she screamed bloody murder, it was quite deafening. Then I nursed her for a few minutes and she was fine for like 5 hours at which point I was out grocery shopping. I called Tony to see how many packs of cream cheese he needed and he said that Embry was crying/screaming uncontrollably. I bought some children's tylenol for the outrageous price of $10 and gave her some right when I got home and nursed her. Everytime she would move her legs she would start crying again even if she was in the middle of eating...that must have been pretty painful because eating is serious business to Embry. Finally she fell asleep, but in the meantime I felt sooo bad for her. She slept just fine that night, which was a great relief as well. A few days afterwards a bruise showed up on her right leg, so the nurse must have gotten her pretty good, poor baby.

This week she's started to laugh (or I consider it laughing, it's kind of a squealing laugh thing) and actually grab/grasp her toys instead of just hitting them with her fist. I got her some toys that were on clearance at Target. One is one of those excersize gym things and she seems to like that quite a bit and then a star toy that goes inside her crib that she hasn't tried out yet. I also got a snugli carrier that was on clearance which we have to try and see if she likes it. I'm guessing it will be nearly impossible for me to carry her in it with my back, but Tony could easily use it. The real question is, will he use it? They always have a picture of the happy guy toting around his baby on the outside of the box, but I think in reality most men don't like to strap a baby onto their chest. We shall see.

Oh wait, big milestone for Embry...she's sleeping through the night! Woohoo! Her normal sleep time (unless she has an off night) is 10pm to 6am. Then she'll wake up and eat every 3 hours until she's fully awake around 10:30-11am. I'm enjoying this much more than waking up every 2-3 hours when she was a newborn. That was extremely hard for me and the reason why I told Tony we were only having one child. That and the crying when there is seemingly nothing wrong, but that's pretty much subsided as well. So, yes, we will probably have more kids. At least one more, but then I think how easy it would be to just have the one...and how much cheaper.

Grandma Dorothea came down from Phoenix last night and babysat Embry while Tony and I went on a date to the Gaslight Theater. We all had lots of fun and when we came home to find little Embry fast asleep in Grandma's arms, so cute.

Here are the most recent pictures of Embry:
Album 10
Album 11

Week 9

9 weeks old 1-16-09

Embry officially turned 2 months old on Wednesday! She's growing up so fast.

She's started smiling a lot more now. She'll smile when we smile at her and ask her to smile which is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. I told my mom on the phone the other day that I think Embry likes me. Maybe it's just that I'm the one with the food, but she smiles at me, and it feels so great to know that she actually is happy to be around me. :)

On Wednesday she went to Young Marrieds and was perfectly well behaved sitting in her carseat the whole time. I was really worried on the way over there because she was having a fit everytime the car stopped moving, but once inside she fell asleep and only woke up at the very end of the meeting. She's such a good girl. Today she slept for most of the time that my parents were over here which allowed me and my mom to get almost all of the Christmas decorations down and put away (finally).

I took 250 pics of Embry in the backyard yesterday. Natural light is fantastic.

She's been sleeping a lot in the daytime which I think is hurting her when she tried to go to bed at night. She'll be extremely fussy and only calm down when she's held. This has happened twice in the last week. So the first time I put her in the bed with us and let her nurse while I slept (I know, bad idea, but at the time I was running out of options). Anyhow, it was only like 10 min later when I woke up and she was just lying there next to me asleep so I put her in her bassinet and all was well. Then last night I fed her and she was still upset, so I asked tony to get up and change her while I went and got her sleep sack. He mumbled something about the #36 over and over and finally I said, 'just get up and change her.' He got up and then I explained that he should change her in the bassinet instead of putting the changing table back onto the play yard because she kept kicking the changing table part. When I got back from her nursery he had put the changing table attachment on the play yard and I said, 'why'd you do that?' he replied 'where else would I put the stuff?' I go, 'what stuff?' He says, 'the stuff.' This goes on for a minute then finally I say, 'just go back to bed' and he gladly complied. I asked him today if he remembered this exchange and of course he didn't, it's maddening. He doesn't understand how I could get mad at him for something that he doesn't even remember but I can't understand how he can walk around and perform tasks while he's still asleep! Maybe he really does have narcolepsy. :)

Week 8

8 weeks old 1-9-09

As I was sitting in the computer room at Tony's grandparent's house I looked at Embry and said, 'Embry, smile!' and she smiled! This happened 3 times in a row and then I told Tony, who was in the shower, he didn't believe me. So when he got out I tried it again with Embry and of course nothing but a bewildered look showed on her face. Then 2 days later we walked into the guest bedroom after being gone for the whole day in DC and Tony went to Embry's crib to say hi and she got the biggest smile on her face, so then he believed me that she started to recognize us. It doesn't happen everytime, but she definitely knows that we're her parents!

We came home from Maryland on the 7th and the plane was packed to the brim, so I had to hold Embry instead of her having her own seat. She didn't cry at all and slept about half the time. I fed her with milk I had pumped since there was some old man sitting in the seat next to Tony which worked but it's never quite as comforting as nursing. She fussed a little bit when we put her back in the carseat and were walking to get our luggage, but on the plane ride she was a perfect angel, woohoo! Everyone keeps commenting on how alert she is and the stewardess on the way off the plane was gushing about how she was sooooo cute. :)

A monumental event occured on the way home from Phoenix...Embry visited Culvers for the first time! She slept for the event, but I used a bib and a cheese curd as props to document the occasion. Seeing as she felt so comfortable that she slept, I would say that she really likes Culvers hehe. I wish they had Culvers onesies cuz I'd sooo buy one.

Last night we took her over to my parent's house and my mom got her a pink monkey that whistles when you squeeze it's tummy. My mom put it up to Embry and squeezed it and Embry's face lit up with a smile. It's amazing watching her discover and enjoy the world.

She really likes her bouncer and swing a lot more now that she is a little older. Before she wouldn't really care to be in them, but now she will play with the toys on the bouncer and squeal and she'll fall asleep in the swing. Much easier for the swing to lull her to sleep than me holding her and simulating the rocking motion with my arms haha. I think I'm going to try out her bebe pod tomorrow because she's gotten quite good at holding her head up.

Before we left Maryland we weighed her again and it appears that she is a whopping 11 lbs now! That means she's gained about 4 lbs since she was born, amazing. I can see that her legs, arms, and face have filled out a lot. My parents were amazed at how much bigger she's gotten in 3 weeks and so am I. She's started to spit up a lot more and surprisingly I haven't gagged yet! I'm not sure why she's spitting up, but I've been trying to feed her on one side for 15 min and then burp her and then feed her on the other side for 15 min and then burp her again to try to minimize the spit up. Sometimes it seems to work great and other times, not so much. She's still sleeping in our room in the bassinet part of the play yard. We'll probably keep her in there until she starts eating rice cereal and stuff around 4 months and then move her into the nursery. She's still sleeping really well at night which is fantastic for me. Last night she went to bed around 10:30 and didn't wake up until 5:15am. All I have to say is, yay.

Week 7

7 weeks old  1/2/09

Embry finally moved into size 1 diapers last week.  I still think they're a little loose around the legs, but so far we haven't had any leaks so I guess they're ok.  Unfortunately the sensitive swaddlers weren't on sale at Target, so we got the regular swaddlers and they don't have the wonderful line between the legs that turns from yellow to blue when they're wet.  The line makes it a lot easier to figure out when to change her, but oh well.  She pretty much fits into 0-3 month clothes now too.  The newborn stuff still fits for the most part, but I can put her in 0-3 month and she doesn't look like she's drowning anymore.  :)  

She's definitely playing with her toy a lot more this week.  She'll lay in her crib and bat it around and talk to it for around an hour at a time.   Then she sort of tries to roll over towards it too.  She can get onto her side but not all the way onto her stomach.  At night she is sleeping a LOT better now.  She'll go for about a 5-6 hour stretch and then another 4-5 hour stretch in between feedings, so I'm feeling a lot more rested thank goodness.  Her diaper rash is almost completely gone, woohoo!  We used the lamisil and then desitin on top of it and it cleared right up!  We also took the nurses advice and used wet paper towels instead of wipes for about a week to make sure she wasn't getting irritated by some detergents or anything and now we're back to using the sensitive wipes.  Hopefully at some point I can switch to the non-sensitive wipes because I've got a couple thousand of them in the closet haha.  

She's taken to doing this weird thing while she's feeding.  She'll be fine for like 10-15 minutes and then start kicking her legs and flailing her arms, then she comes unlatched and starts rubbing her face all over the place and ends up milk from her forehead to her neck.  So I thought, well gee, maybe she's not hungry anymore so I'd sit her up and then she's start crying till I started feeding her again.   Then she'll go on being fine for a while and then do the whole thing over again.  I'm so confused.  Sometimes she'll do a whole half hour feeding and not do it once and then sometimes she'll do it like 4 separate times during one feeding.  She's strange.  

Embry has gotten to hang out with her great grandparents quite a bit on our trip.  She was with them when we went to Hershey and York, PA, the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Ellicott City, and when we went to dinner and a play in Columbia with Maria and Paul.  She behaved herself very well for the most part, but one day she was a little crabby.  Her great grandparents got her another SkippyJon Jones board book with flashcards that have english and spanish and 3 Dr Seuss books: The Cat in the Hat, Great Day for Up (one of my favs), and Would You Rather be a Bullfrog.  She also got a little jingle bell Christmas ornament that says 'baby's first Christmas 2008'.  I found some dresses on clearance after Christmas and got her 5 dresses and 2 skirts and I can't wait to dress her up and take more pictures!  Then I also found these shoes at Target that I've been wanting to get her that finally went on clearance, so I bought 3 pairs.  They're baby Converse shoes.  One pair is white hightops with a pink star on the side, then the other 2 are black and silver glittery in a newer style.  Yay!

We got family pictures taken at Sears up here in Maryland with Tony, me, Embry, Uncle Paul, Aunt Maria, and both grandparents.  I got 4 5x7's of the whole family for everyone then one 10x13 of Embry on her stomach leaning over a pillow for us.  Then I went online and looked at the first photo session from Sears when she was 1 week old and oh my gosh, she has grown a TON!  She looks sooooo tiny in the 1 week pictures and when I'm not comparing her to those I still think she's tiny, but my gosh, she's certainly gotten a lot bigger in just 6 short weeks!  She's growing up so fast, I just want to stop time to make sure I get to enjoy every second...well maybe not when she's crying, but the rest of it anyway!  :) 

Week 6

6 Weeks old on 12/26/08

Embry is 6 weeks old today, the day after her first Christmas!  This past week has been quite interesting for Embry.  She is sleeping a lot less than she was originally which caused us to try and figure out what to do with a baby while they are awake.  Before we'd change her, feed her, and put her back in her crib every 3 hours then she'd sleep for another 3 hours or so and we'd do it all over again.  Now at night that's still the routine, but in the daytime she is generally awake after feedings and she'll cry if you put her down in the crib.  This can either bring on insanity when she's crying to no avail, or sheer joy when she's content and will cuddle.  

Her first Christmas was good.  She was happy for the most part while we were opening presents.  Before that I was here with her while the family was at a church service and she cried for about an hour straight.  Nothing would soothe her until finally I decided to feed her and then she calmed down.  Anyhow, she got lots of neat things including a piggy bank, a learning to talk dvd, a kitty outfit, a pack of 4 Skippy Jon Jones board books (amazing!), a big stuffed bear, a stuffed tigger, and a stuffed lion toy.  We got to take some family pictures in front of the Christmas tree and pictures of each person holding Embry too.  She got one outfit change midday because we had 2 'Baby's First Christmas' outfits...she was so cute dressed in her Christmas outfits.  We looked through old pictures from the basement later on in the day and Embry definitely has Tony's forehead.  So all in all she's doing well although she has a really nasty diaper rash that we're working on getting rid of.  From the pictures I looked up online and talking to the on call nurse today it appears that it's a yeast infection.   I feel so bad for her, it's got to hurt a lot!  Hopefully it will go away soon.  

Have I mentioned that diapers are insanely expensive?! 

Week 5

5 Weeks old on 12/19/08

(sorry can't rotate)

This week we flew to Maryland to visit with Tony's family.  Embry was a perfect angel on the 3.5 hour plane ride.  They had a bunch of extra seats on the plane so they let us take her on in her carseat and put it in the window seat while I sat in the middle and Tony on the aisle.  She woke up once to eat and feeding her was a little complicated but we managed.  The one part of the trip that wasn't particularly great was going through security.  It would have been nice if someone could have told me what was supposed to go where and how instead of letting me try and guess, but whatever.  It just took a lot longer than it should have, but we survived.  

She's been pretty well behaved since we've been here.  We took her out to Target and Kohls for a couple of hours and she slept through that whole experience as well.  I was worried about how cold she would be here, especially at night, but at target they had some big snowsuit type things on clearance so I got 2 of them for the nighttime.  They're newborn size, but still big.  She keeps getting her arms and legs stuck in the body part.  This morning when I picked her up she had her hand coming out the neck hole, she's so cute.  

I'm hoping that soon she'll smile at me.  I'd really like to get a pic of her with Santa while we're here.  She seems to take a lot more notice of people now.  She'll look you in the face and I kinda think she recognizes who I am...at least as the person with the milk haha.  She's spitting up a lot more.  Like today she threw up her whole meal two separate times, not sure what that's about, but if it persists I'll call the pediatrician and see what he says.  

Week 4

12-12-08
4 Weeks Old

Only 5 more pounds to go before I reach my pre-prepregnancy weight! So far I’ve lost 26 lbs, woo-hoo! I can actually zip and button all of my old jeans, but if I do that then I have the exact definition of a ‘muffin top.’ So if I want to wear them I just leave the button undone and put on a belt and that seems to work out pretty well. I can definitely tell that my hips have gotten wider though, I wonder if they eventually go back to normal or not.

I had my post partum checkup with the OB yesterday. I wasn’t exactly sure what the protocol was for that appt, but basically she asked how I was feeling and took a look and did a small internal exam. The exam part I was a little afraid of, but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as I thought it would, just a little at opening from the tear. She said it all looked like it was healing well and that I still have a few stitches left (one dissolved last week) and it would be ok if they came out now because the tear is healed. So that means that it’s ok for me to take baths and I asked if I could go swimming and in a hot tub and she said both would be fine. I asked her when we could start trying to have another kid and she said it would be unlikely that I’d get pregnant in the first 6 months with exclusive breastfeeding (although not impossible as we all know), so basically we can start trying right away. I’m not sure if we will, but we’re definitely not going to prevent anything from happening. I didn’t take Embry along because Tony was able to work from home and watch her since I was going to the office location that takes forever. Well my appt was at 9:20 and I was in a room by 9:35…so how come that couldn’t have happened while I was pregnant? So weird. Since I didn’t bring Embry I figured my doctor would have asked why I didn’t bring her or at least if I had a picture I could show her or something, but nope, she didn’t even take notice…that kind of bothered me.

Embry is doing good. She just recently (as in, yesterday) started drooling. I thought that didn’t happen till later. As you may know, I have a strong aversion to spit so we’ll see how this goes haha. She’s sleeping for longer periods at night now. Generally she would get up roughly every 3 hours to be changed and fed, but last night she was fed at 9:30 and then didn’t wake up again until 2:30. I can tell that she is more aware of things around her now too. She seems to be smiling a little bit more, but that’s mainly when she’s farting or pooping. Grandma JoAnn and Grandpa Don got to babysit her for the first time on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday they came up and watched her while Tony and I went to Young Marrieds and then they spent the night at our house and the next day I got to run a bunch of errands while they took care of Embry…it was great! My mom also helped out with some house chores that had been let go which really helped with my stress level.

I tried some of Embry’s warm 0-3 month clothes on her the other day because on my scale it says she’s 9 lbs now, to see what to bring for the trip to Maryland and holy cow, they’re huge! There was no way I could put her in those clothes because the pants are literally about 2-3 inches too long…it’s ridiculous. So when I ran errands on Thursday I picked up some long sleeved newborn clothes and some newborn pants/leggings which were from Grandma and Grandpa Nehs as her Christmas present. When I was at the store I was looking at them and thinking how they looked too small, then I got them home and tried them on her and they’re still big. Amazing. Anyhow, I don’t think she’ll grow out of them before our trip is over, but I’ll bring some of the warm 0-3 month stuff too. A girl at the Dr’s office had her 6 week old baby along and said she still didn’t fit into the 0-3 month stuff, so I’m thinking Embry will have a similar situation. Also, we had issues with those newborn diapers that I bought from Walgreens. First of all, they were too big around the waist and even if you pulled them really tight they would fall down in the back. Then the first day I put her in them, I pulled them really tight cuz I didn’t want poo coming out the back and then apparently they were much too tight around the legs because after I was feeding her, I looked down and her little legs had turned all blue. Not good! Then we made sure to check the leg openings to make sure they weren’t too tight, but the other problem was that they didn’t have a layer of mesh inside (like most diapers do) so the poo and pee would just sit right on her skin until the diaper was changed. This caused some pretty nasty diaper rash, which made me feel really bad, so we had to go buy more of the newborn pampers sensitive swaddlers. Diapers are darn expensive! I’d highly recommend the sensitive swaddlers though, they’re better than any of the other diapers we’ve tried. We have a box of size 1 which supposedly fits babies 8-14 lbs, but those are way too big on her so far.

Embry did great on her first long car ride up to Phoenix today! She slept the whole way there and back, such a good traveler. She got 3 dr Seuss books and ‘The Hippopotamus Ate the Teacher’ from Grandma Dorothea. Speaking of traveling, I’m nervous about packing her stuff for our trip to Maryland because there’s a lot of stuff she’s going to need and I’ve never packed for a baby before, so it will be a learning experience!

Even More Pics

Album #7
Album #8
Album #9

Week 3

Embry 3 Weeks Old on 12/5/08

Tony went back to work on Monday. The first day was fantastic, I got a ton of stuff done because Embry slept for like 5 hours straight. The other days were fine as well, but I didn't realize my baby pooped or cried as much as she does. I guess it all hits you when you're home alone and that's all you can focus on. We still haven't put her in the nursery at night, she's sleeping in the bassinet part of the play yard in our bedroom. It just seems easier than walking down the hall 3-4 times a night. Plus there's no tv in the nursery, so I'd have a very difficult time staying awake in the middle of the night.

I took Embry to MOPS on Tuesday. All was well until I took her out of her infant car seat to go up to the front and show her off. She was ok for a little while after that with me just holding her and then she became fussified. So I spent about half of mops walking around with her and taking her into the 'cry room' to nurse her...it was not the most fun I've ever had. Then we ran some errands and I gave up about halfway through because it's really hard for me to lift her in her carseat in and out of the car and then carry it around. It's easier when there's a shopping cart readily available, but still difficult to get the carseat out of the car...I'm not sure I'm going to be able to leave the house with her alone if she gets any bigger, which is kind of inevitable.

I took her to the doctor on Wed because she seemed to be congested starting around Thanksgiving. I gave it some time to pass and it didn't so then I called the dr to see if I should bring her in or just let it go and he said to bring her in. In the meantime he scared the heck out of me by saying that if it seemed like she was having trouble breathing then I should take her to the ER. So, went to the appt, turns out she has a cold and there's nothing I can do for her but I'm just thankful it wasn't RSV. Big news is that as of Wed she weighs 8lbs 3oz! We completely missed the 7lb range all together! Apparently she is eating very well, so no worries there.

Speaking of eating, it's impossible to get her to open her mouth very wide which is painful for me and she's taken to what I call 'snacking.' She'll eat good for about 10 minutes and then just stop and move her head away. I'll try to get her to keep eating because I know she'll be hungry in an hour and then I'll be ticked, but she won't have any of that. I've decided that she can eat for as long as she wants, but I won't be feeding her again until about 3 hours has passed. Hopefully she will figure out that maybe she should eat for more than 10 minutes at a time this way. Bleh.

In other news, I'd like to get some sleep. There is soooooo much to do and I can't possibly waste valuable daytime sleeping when Embry is sleeping and then at night I pretty much, well, let's not talk about the nighttime. She's a good sleeper at night, so I can't complain there. Let's just say that I need some sleep, end of story.

Everything is coming up so fast...
12/13: Christmas in Phx with Tony's Family
12/14: Christmas party at our house
12/16: Fly to Maryland

HELP!

Week 2

2 Weeks Old
(her version of the sprinkler)

Embry is doing really well, as in, she's still alive. I don't think we've done anything too terribly bad thus far where parenting is concerned, but she has been rather fussy in her second week of life. She's still sleeping really well at night, but during the daytime she has occasionally cried for what seems like hours on end for no reason that we can figure. During these times we will try everything humanly imaginable to calm her, but nothing works...well besides feeding, but I'm not going to have a baby permanently attached to my chest, sorry. Tonight after hours of comforting and still having a crying baby I finally told Tony to just put her in her crib, turn on the mobile, and shut the door. The crying that followed was probably the worst sound I've ever heard, but it only lasted for maybe 1 minute and then silence. At that point I had Tony go check to make sure she was still alive and she was so we're guessing she was suffering from over stimulation. Now she's been soundly sleeping up there for the past 2 hours...silence is golden.

Embry had her first Thanksgiving on Thursday and now I'm wondering if tryptophan can be passed through breast milk because if so, I'll be devouring all 10lbs of leftover turkey! Just kidding, but it is an interesting thought. Tony's family came down (mom, sister, and both brothers) and my parents came over as well. We got a cute family picture with my film camera (since my digital decided to be disfunctional and suddenly have a non-functioning flash bulb). On Friday we left her with Tony's mom while Tony, Alex, and I went to find some good black friday deals. I saw one lady in Circuit City that brought her approx 1 month old shopping with her...that was brave. I got Embry a few good Disney movies that were on sale at my second home, Target. Tony and I left Embry home again Friday afternoon so we could go see 'Four Christmases' since I'm not big on taking a baby into a movie theater hehe. Grandma Dorothea gave her a bath while we were gone and apparently we left her comb at Sears when we had her picture taken. Friday night we all went to get a family picture taken at the Target portrait studio. The pictures turned out really cute! I got 5 poses and Dorothea got one other pose but there were some that were particularly adorable of Embry laying on a blanket of pink roses...gosh I just want to eat her! We tried to do a pose where all you could see was Tony's hands holding Embry against a black background while she was naked. Well, you can probably imagine how this turned out! We got one picture of that pose where she is screaming, she pooped in Tony's hand twice, peed in his hand once, then I finally took her and she pooped all down my shirt. At that point, I gave up and put her diaper back on and moved on to the next poop-free pose!

So when she first came home we were giving her a pacifier a little bit, then she started to latch on for breast feeding really weird, so we stopped the pacifier. Then after a few days I tried the soothie pacifiers that my sister gave me and they work GREAT! I'd highly recommend them for small babies because it's more of a nipple shape and she hasn't had any trouble latching on while using them. Thanks Jen!

I'm getting really nervous about Tony going back to work on Monday and I'm afraid that nothing will get done all day long. I'm trying to quick get all the Christmas decorating done today and tomorrow so that's one big thing I won't have to worry about while he's at work. He can work from home if things are difficult (and he will be on Wed when I have my dentist appt), but I would feel bad if he was home and getting distracted because Embry was fussy or something. I'm not sure how single moms can do it when their babies are still tiny, I know it would be really hard for me. I'm so blessed to have such a helpful husband and blessed that he has such a flexible job as well!

Some More Pics

here are more pics on facebook :)

Album 5
Album 6
Mom's Pics

Week 1

Embry 1 Week Old
11/21/08

So I've decided that I will make a blog entry every Friday to discuss details of Embry's life on a weekly basis. I'm going to include a pic of her in each post as well so it will be easy to see her change over time. I'm excited!

Embry is already a week old! I can't believe it, the time went by so fast, and I WANT IT BACK! Everyone keeps telling me that it just gets better and better, but I can't even imagine it being better than it already is. Honestly, so far she's the best baby I could ever hope for. She will sleep for long stretches of time at night (about 4 hours or so), but I always get her up around 3 hours to change and feed her. It's so weird because I will go to bed and think, 'ok I need to feed her at x:00' and then I will automatically get up at that time even though Embry is never crying or even awake, it's like I just know when to get up and that's what I do. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Here's a rundown of the week:

Friday and Saturday: pretty much covered in the last post
Sunday: my mom stopped by to see Embry. Embry was all fussified which stressed me out because when others are around and she cries (which seriously she hardly ever does) then I think they are thinking I'm a bad mom. I fed her and she was fine once again. My mom and I went to Costco to get the film developed and pick up some stuff for Tony's mom to make Spaghetti. Embry much better on Sunday night than she had on Saturday night...very helpful. Also, Tony was extremely attentive that night, he didn't call me 'sir' or 'maam'!
Monday: Tony's mom and sis left around noon and my family (hehe) went to Costco to pick up the film. We met Tony's friend Clint in the Costco parking lot so he could meet Embry. The photo tech didn't mention anything about 'graphic' pictures being on my rolls of film and then I looked at them in the car and none of them show anything bad at all. The issue is that in every picture of Embry right when she came out, my parent's camera was focused on Tony's back instead of the baby, so the baby is blurry in all of them. I had some good pictures on my roll of the 3 of us outside, but I have yet to scan them all into my computer. We also stopped at Michael's where I figured out that the easiest way to put Embry's foot prints onto Tony's pink shirt would be to get some iron-on transfer sheets, scan the ink prints they gave us at the hospital, and then print them onto the transfer sheet and iron them onto the shirt. Apparently there is no ink that is permanent, so it would never work to ink her hands or feet and put them onto a shirt...unless you never washed the shirt again. Deb also stopped by on Monday to see Embry and drop off a delicious beef pot roast (and I even ate and liked the cooked carrots, I'm a big girl). Thanks Deb! Jamie arrived around 7:30 from Phoenix and got to meet Embry and we chatted.
Tuesday: Jamie, Tony, Embry, and I went to MOPS where I showed Embry off to all the ladies for about 15 minutes before we had to leave. We were going to go to Ihop to get breakfast but decided we didn't have time, so we went to Sonic instead which was quite nice because we got to eat outside. Then at 11am Embry had her first dr appt. I was supposed to wait till she was a week old to have the doctor see her again, but I had been a little concerned with jaundice, so we took her in early. The dr said she wasn't jaundiced at all and he wasn't even going to do a billirubin screen. He said she checked out fine in all other areas as well. She weighed 6lbs 10oz, was 20.25 inches long, and her head circumference was 34.5 cm. She was very upset about the rectal temperature and she peed on the scale. I asked my dr about putting hydrocortisone cream on my stitches (which they told me to do at the hospital) and he said that would impede the healing and it's never good to put steroids on an open wound...good to know, a little late though since I had already been putting it on. Embry goes back in 2 months for her next check up and I'm sure she'll be even more upset at that one since she'll be getting shots. Tony's mom and brother Alex arrived at our house while we were gone. Dorothea brought along 3 framed Ansel Adams prints that she had gotten from her boss which are AMAZING! One of them is actually my favorite Ansel Adams print, so that was really sweet of her and I'm hoping to get them hung up this weekend. Tony and I took Embry on a walk around the block and she slept the whole time, but I'm really enjoying this lovely weather. We took Embry and Jamie over to the other young marrieds group for their 1/2 hour of social time between 7-7:30. She was fine for a little bit, but then realized mom didn't feed her when she was supposed to (I thought she'd be comatose from the car ride) and then she started doing 'the freak out.' So we changed her and then came back home where Tony's mom had made some delicious steak curry with rice for dinner.
Wednesday: We got to sleep in a little bit and I got in some much loved morning cuddle time with my baby and husband...ahhh, one of my new favorite things! It's going to be so sad when Tony goes back to work on Dec 1 because I'll be missing one of my cuddle partners :( Anyhow, Tony's mom made us some breakfast and we got dressed up for some family pictures. After those were done, Jamie left and Alex did some yard work to help us out. Then we watched part of 'V for Vendetta' and Dorothea and Alex headed back to Phoenix. Kim stopped by in the afternoon with Haley and we got some cute pics of Haley and Embry on the floor together. It was so cute to see them together because they were so interested in each other. They're going to be best friends! At 6:30 we went to our young marrieds group, ate some delicious enchiladas (thanks Danielle), and people got to meet Embry. She's sleeping and nursing like a champ, I am so blessed that everything is going so incredibly well.
Thursday: I had a rheumatology appt at 2:30 and I had a million errands to run. I was telling Tony and he said, 'why can't I run the errands?' and I said, 'Well I guess you could, but you wouldn't want to' and he still insisted that he do them and I hang out with Embry at home. It was so sweet, I'm lucky to have Tony for a husband. :) I planned on taking some artsy pics before we left, but that didn't happen...always seem to be running out of time lately! We took 2 cars and I went to my appt and Tony took Embry to get a heel stick done to do her second genetic diseases screening. Tony said she cried for a little while and then she was fine. At my appt I got 2 steroid injections in the opposite hip/shoulder as I had done last time. The plan is to get 2 shots every 3 months alternating the hip/shoulder each time, so life should be a smidge easier from here on out in that regard...yay, thanks God! Then I met Tony and took Embry with me. We went to Michaels where I got this huge silver sparkly bow to use at Embry's first photo session at Sears scheduled for Friday. Some ladies behind me in line were asking how old she was and saying how cute she was, so I told them she was 6 days old and they told me how great I looked for just having a baby. It was really sweet and I've gotten that comment quite a bit over the past week, I don't say it to boast or whatever, but it's really nice to hear things like that when you feel like your belly is a bowl full of jelly. BTW, I'm changing my name from Pregnantrice to Flabbytrice hehe, jk, seriously if you call me that, I'll kill you. Moving on...we then stopped at the library, then Target, then headed home. Herb and Katie stopped by to meet Embry at 6:30 and brought over some delicious salad, garlic bread, and garlicy pesto pasta. Thanks Katie! I'm throroughly enjoying this whole people making me food thing, I love food, and I love it even more when I don't have to make it or clean up afterwards! Woohoo! Before going to bed I got a horrible migraine. It was not like my others because it got really bad really fast and just hit me like a truck. I think I scared the crud out of Tony because I gasped at the sudden pain and by the time he walked over to me there were tears streaming down my face...it was not fun. So I took some extra pain meds and after a while it was better and then pretty much gone this morning. Luckily Embry is such a good baby otherwise I'm sure my head would have felt a lot worse.
Friday: Today Embry is one week old. I don't know where the time has gone (well apparently I do cuz I just wrote about it, but you know what I mean). She's the cutest little girl and I'm still amazed that she's all mine and I just get to kiss her all day long and breath in her beatiful baby scent...ahhh, it's the greatest thing I've ever experienced, I can't get over it. We had a photo appt scheduled at Sears for noon and then when we were halfway there, I realized I had forgotten the bow (see Thursday) so we quick stopped at Michael's and I bought another one. We ended up getting there about 3 minutes early anyhow, so that worked out just fine. We got Embry naked and set her on top of her diaper on the big furry blanket she was going to have her pic taken on, then she projectile poos all over the white furry fabric...I expressed to her that it was unacceptable behavior and then apologized like a million times to the workers there. Yikes, embarrassing, but what can be done? Babies poo and that's all there is to it. They were extremely understanding, so I didn't feel too bad about it. She was really good for the most part. Kind of fussy sometimes, but we got a bunch of really great shots! She's sooooo cute! Somewhere in the midst of the picture taking we realized that her umbilical cord stump was hanging there by one gooey thread. The photo girl went and got us some band aids and I just suck it back on there cuz I was worried about pulling it off...now I'm not sure what to do with it. Anyhow, we ordered the package of her naked and wearing the bow with a tag that says 'A Gift From God' and then got an 8x10 of her top half naked with Tony's hand and my hands holding her. There were 2 pics of the 3 of us that I really liked as well, but the sheets were $28 each and that adds up REALLY fast! The pictures will be back on Dec 8th, good thing I made an appt when I did cuz that's almost too late to send out Christmas cards! The pics should be online within 48 hours so if you want to see them then let me know and I'll email the info to you (it has to be done through their site otherwise I'd post a link on here). We are going to go to Target to get a family picture done sometime next week and hopefully that will turn out good enough that I won't feel the need to go back and buy more from Sears. During this whole thing my stitches really started hurting. They'd been kind of stinging for a few days but it got quite a bit worse. So when we got home I called my OB's office and they said I should go to urgent care (yeh not doing that) and I asked them if I should be using the lidocaine spray that they gave me at the hospital to spray on it (to cool it and stop the stinging) and they said not to use that at all...once again conflicting information from what I was told at that hospital. So I've decided to take it easy and see if it improves over the weekend and if not then call them asap on Monday morning to go in and have it looked at. Of course if it gets worse, I will go to urgent care, but I hate that place! Now we've just been hanging out since we got home and it's great!

So the weight thing...when I went to get induced I was 166lbs and when I got home from the hospital I was 155, so I lost 11 lbs with the delivery which is pretty average. Now I'm 150, so that's 16 lbs gone so far, woohoo! 15 more and I'll be at my pre-pre-pregnancy weight. :)

Pictures from Facebook

Here are the links to the photo albums on facebook thus far for those that don't have facebook, now you can see just how cute Embry is! :)


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2332342&l=0cd36&id=10106912
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2332556&l=28c30&id=10106912
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2332560&l=009f8&id=10106912
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2332917&l=119e0&id=10106912
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2333199&l=472ff&id=10106912

Moving to Recovery & Going Home

I'm a bit overwhelmed in making this post because there is so much to say and that's why I've been putting it off for so long, but that would mean there's even more to say...bah, it's a vicious cycle!

So after the last post we hung out in the birthing room for about 3 hours before we were moved to the recovery room. During that time, Maryann took out my epidural catheter which was taped to my back...it would have been fine but apparently my back is covered with a layer of blonde hair and man, was that shocking to have ripped off! I think I told her that it hurt more than the whole labor and delivery :) While we were in the birthing room, Maryann gave Embry her first bath and washed her hair and spiked it up in a little mowhawk...so cute! I also got to try breastfeeding for the first time which went extremely well. Embry latched on really well and ate for about a half hour, so that was a huge blessing. So after sitting for 2 hours and eating a meal in a box (sandwich, applesauce, etc) and drinking about 12 glasses of various beverages (water, milk, juice) [side note: you would not believe how incredibly thirsty you get while pushing out a kid, never thought I'd be that thirsty in my life] it was time to stand up and see if I could go potty. So Maryann came over to help me stand up and walk to the bathroom, which was fine, just felt like my legs were numb. It was ok to stand, but when you take steps you can't really bend your legs because it's hard to put them back straight, it was weird. So get to the toilet, sit down, then feel the overwhelming need to throw up. I thought 'goodness gracious, are you serious, this is ridiculous.' If you know me, you know I hate throwing up more than almost anything. So I was like, 'Maryann, can you hand me the garbage can?' and she was really confused but then it clicked and she gave it me to me and bam, there went my big meal and 12 glasses of liquid. I still think eating and drinking was worth it though, so oh well...maybe next time I will just try to eat and drink in moderation instead of going to town like I did. Then I got in a wheelchair and she took us up to the third floor to our recovery room. We ended up getting up there at about 4:30 am on Friday the 14th. Needless to say, I was a little tired. I got to sleep until about 7am when Dr. Morris (our primary care physician and Embry's pediatrician) stopped by to check her out. I was very glad to see him since I had told him before I was going to TMC and he doesn't go to TMC to check his babies, only to St. Joes, so I was hoping the message would have been relayed that we were at St Joes. Anyhow, he was very nice and asked about me and how everything went etc and also said that Embry was completely adorable...naturally I think so, but it's nice to hear other people say it too! :) She checked out completely fine and Dr. Morris left about 20 minutes later. I think I fed Embry at that point, then went back to sleep until about 8:30 when my breakfast arrived. I was assuming the meals were standand nasty hospital food, but I lifted the lid on my meal and it was like heaven! It was a real meal, like yummy and delicious, sooo nice after giving birth to have a hot meal. Tony and I usually split whatever meal I had and this one happened to be a ham and cheese croissant sandwhich...mmm. So all in all, the first night I got about 3 hours of sleep and Tony got about 6 hours. That day we pretty much just hung out in our recovery room and learned all about our little girl. I kept saying (and still keep saying) to Tony how completely amazing it is that this real live person was actually inside of my body. I mean, it's really the most miraculous thing I can imagine happening and I am so incredibly greatful for this gift. I can't think of anything better in the whole world than becoming a mom...and of course, now I'm crying! I can't say enough to make anyone realize how amazingly wonderful it all is, it's beyond words, the only way to know is to actually experience it yourself. I'd highly recommend it :)

So enough of that mushy stuff! I got to take a shower, which was refreshing yet odd. Not exactly painful, but a bit difficult to stand up that long and not a good experience to sit on the hard shower seat...sooo it was interesting. Apparently while I was in the bathroom my OB (Dr Sherman) stopped by to check on me, I was a little disappointed that I missed her. Not only did I want to see her and ask her some questions, but I really wanted to rub it in once again that I was right and she was wrong, I WIN! Both Tony and I got to take a nap that day which was much needed. At 11am Missy stopped by and brought me a present which was a hello kitty kite (perfect, seriously, I've been wanting a kite so bad), a hello kitty coin bank where when you stick a coin in it makes a magic wand noise, a Cranium game called 'Creative Cat' (it's a running joke between us after a HILARIOUS new years eve game of Cranium about 5 years ago...Kristy you might remember what I'm talking about), and a Hello Kitty magnet frame. I was glad that she got to visit for a little while so we could chat and catch up. Then the rest of the visitors started showing up around 4:30. The first were David and Sarah, then Jason and EvaMarie, then Scott and Janell, and then Mark and Rachael who brought us some delic frozen yogurt (thanks guys!). Then around 11pm Dorothea and Allison arrived in Tucson and luckily the nurse let them come up to our room for a quick visit before they headed to our house for the night. Embry got to meet her grandma and auntie and we got to take some cute pics. I was saddened when it got to 12:19am and Embry's first day of life was officially over. It's killing me that every moment that passes is another one I will never get back because I just want it all to last forever! Anyhow, it was really great to see everyone and it made me feel really special that so many people cared about seeing my little girl :) Another thing that literally makes me tear up is the massive response I got while I was in the hospital and now that we're home in emails and on facebook from people who want to either tell me how cute Embry is or just check to see how we're doing...it really means so much to me, thank you all for being such good friends.

Gosh darn, let's see if I can write one paragraph without getting all mushified! The second night in the hospital went just fine. I tried to feed every 3-5 hours which worked out, but I mainly would just let Embry tell me when she was hungry again instead of waking her up on a schedule. The nurses didn't mind at all as long as she got fed before the 5 hour mark and she was producing enough wet and poopy diapers (which believe me, she was). So that night I got about 5 hours of sleep and at one point around 1:30 am Embry was fussing and didn't want to eat when a nurse from the nursery came in and said they were going to run some standard tests on her.
She saw that Embry was not happy and said, 'after we're done with the tests would you like us to just keep her over there for a little bit to make sure you get some sleep?' so I responded, 'umm, sure! Sounds great!' They returned her at about 3:30 and she was ready to eat. I was awoken at about 8:30 when a nurse wanted to check me and planned on going back to sleep, but when I got out of the bathroom Tony was awake and my breakfast had arrived, so the day had begun. A lactation consultant stopped by just to make sure everything was going ok. I did have a small amount of bruising and it turns out Embry wasn't opening her mouth quite as wide as she should have been, so the LC gave me tips on how to fix that and also showed me how to magically get colostrum to come out (which I'd tried a million times before, but she must have magic fingers or something cuz she definitely didn't have trouble finding any). Also a photographer for the online nursery pics came by and took some pics of Embry. This experience was quite horrible in my opinion. Basically Embry was not in the mood for pics (I think she wanted to eat right then) and so it was her either crying or having a pacifier in her mouth...neither of which are good for pics. It drove me NUTS that the photographer kept calling Embry 'mama' too. I seriously don't get that expression, like hello, she's not a mama. I kept wanting to yell 'I'm the mama, not her, she's the baby, I'm the mama!' but I refrained. If anyone can explain why you call a baby 'mama' please do, I would really like to understand. Then at the end of all the fuss, the pics pretty much were not any good anyhow and you can judge for yourself by going to this site and searching for me. Tony's mom and sister arrived around 11am (I think) and we waited around to be discharged. A sub for the pediatrician came to check Embry and thought she was a tinge yellow so ran a billirubin screen which came back at 7.5 and it's spos to be under 18, so that was good. Also a sub for Dr. Sherman stopped by (gotta say I'm glad he didn't deliver my baby, totally lacking in people skills) to check me out. He didn't actually do any checking, just asked how I was feeling and gave me the 2 scripts that Dr. Sherman had written out for me. I even asked him some questions to which he gave really lacking responses, so I'll be calling Dr Sherman tomorrow to get some answers. I think next time i have a baby I might stay for the whole 48 hours because I really wasn't having a good time walking around and esp going up the stairs at home, so I think the extra time to recover would have been nice. When we left the hospital, I was wheeled past the Physical therapy office and I wondered aloud if Diane (my PT) was there and then we look in the window and she's right there on the phone, so I start waving frantically and she does the same. Tony held up Embry for her to see, but we just kept walking out to the car. Then we get outside and she comes running out to see us. She asked how I was feeling etc and got to see little Embry up close, it was really nice to see her before we left. All the stuff was put into the car and I sat in back with Embry while Tony drove us home. She was such a good traveler and she slept the whole way. Hopefully this keeps up because it would be fantastic if she will travel in the same fashion on our trip to Maryland. Let's all pray about that one!

When we got home I set up the tripod outside to take pics of the 3 of us in front of the house since Tony's mom and sis had taken my prescriptions to Walgreens to get them filled. Then we went inside and we had balloons, flowers, a card, and a stuffed doggy waiting for us from Tony's mom and sis. It was so cute! I was pretty much exhausted, but we took some pics and I video taped Tony as he went around the entire house and explained everything to Embry, it was so cute, especially since she was completely asleep for the whole thing...he's a good daddy. Tony and I caught up on some TV while I held Embry and Tony massaged my legs/feet. On a side note, I wasn't aware that this happened, but I still have parts of my body that are numb from the epidural. It's not anything at all, but it's just a weird side effect and it's slowly getting better. Although I don't have good circulation anyway, so maybe it's just me. Moving along, Tony's mom went to the store to get supplies and she made us a wonderful steak dinner, it was delicious! Right before that, Tony and I got a little nap time in, also great. I fiddled around online for a while and then went to bed. Last night was a whole new experience for me. We put the playyard in our room for embry to sleep in and I was up with her from the time I went in there until about 3:30 am because she was just fussing up a storm! She didn't need changing, she didn't need feeding, she wasn't cold, nothing...just cranky. From talking with others it seems this first night at home thing goes bad more often than not because they aren't used to the different surroundings and feel the need to cry about it. So at about 3:30 I was like, well I really need to go to the bathroom, so I'm gonna and then Tony can get up and take care of Embry when she's crying. So I'm in there doing my thing and she is screaming and not stopping. Finally when I'm done I go out there and she's still in the playyard just wailing away and Tony is still in the bed sound asleep. Needless to say, I was a little upset. So I go over to Tony and shake him rather violently and he sits up and with really wide eyes goes, "Sir?! Sir?! Maam?!" and I go, "can't you hear that?!" and he responds with "sorry" and lays down and goes back to sleep. I was sooooooo mad, you have nooooo idea (but it is really quite funny looking back). I go check on Embry and she has a poopy diaper. Then I go to the other side of Tony and shake him, he looks at me, I say "who am I?" and he says, "you're Leatrice" and I say, "good. Go change Embry's diaper." He actually gets up this time (making progress is always a good thing) and then goes to Embry and stands there and looks at her. I say, 'you're changing her diaper' he responds 'right' and then proceeds to change the diaper. Then I nursed her and after that all was well again. It scares me to think that a) he sleeps so soundly that he can't hear his daughter screaming at the foot of the bed and b) that he can look right at me, talk to me, and have no idea what is going on because he's still asleep. Anyhow, we're gonna have to do something about this cuz if that happens again I might just fly off the handle...time to go see the doctor.

I woke up around 9 am, as did Tony, and I cuddled in bed with Embry for about a half hour which was incredibly fantastic. Tony and his mom then went to get some extra food for breakfast, came back, and Tony's mom made us eggs, bacon, and biscuits. Then we watched the video from my video camera of our hospital stay and everything afterwards. I'm really glad that I documented things while they were going on because looking back I can barely remember half of what happened, it's weird. Then I took a shower, did my hair and my makeup, and then my mom arrived. We took some pictures outside with Embry and then I showed her all the pics on my computer and then she and I went to Costco to drop off our 2 rolls of film. I'm a little worried about what is on those rolls because I'm thinking whoever develops them is going to get quite an eyefull when the pictures of the delivery come around. I believe I specifically said not to get my 'area' in the pics (or you know, do your best) but considering the placement of the baby and the cord etc, I'm pretty sure my stuff will be clearly visible...woops! Oh well, I'm sure the photo techs have seen worse than that before, it's not like it was done on purpose. Speaking of that, I have some pics (from my digi cam) that I want to post of cutting the cord and putting Embry on my chest etc but I need to do some serious photoshop editing before those are seen by the outside world! If you knew what they looked like, you would definitely thank me. Anyhow, it was nice to get out of the house with my mom and have time to chat with her. I'll be going back tomorrow to pick up the pictures and I seriously am afraid that they're going to say they had to confiscate some of the pics cuz of nudity or at least mention how inappropriate it was, but really that would be incredibly unlikely right? I also want to go to michael's to see if I can find a permanent ink pad that won't wash off of clothing to do prints of Embry's feet onto a pink shirt we bought Tony for him to wear back his first day of work. They would have stamped it at the hospital but their ink is washable so it would have just washed off. I also really need a pair of infant nail clippers cuz Embry's nails are super long and I'm extremely paranoid about her scratching her face...not good for pictures. So Tony's mom made us Spaghetti tonight for dinner and it was really yummy. Embry decided it would be a good time to go poo poo so I didn't exactly get to eat with everyone, but that was ok, she's cute so I forgive her.

Other interesting facts...the recovery is going really well. If I don't take the percocet then I have massive joint and muscle pain, but with the meds it's good, so no complaints there. Today my milk came in which makes me very happy because now I know Embry is actually getting food in her little tummy. I had my first post baby poo and it went surprisingly well, so yay for that fear not coming true! :) I could go on for hours about how amazing it is being a mother, but there are no words that would make anyone understand this overwhelming joy. Just know that it is the single greatest feeling I've ever had and I wouldn't trade it for the world.