Nana & Papa J's House

Yesterday, Emma and I went to spend the day with my parents because Josh is in the mountains for a couple of days. My mom was also babysitting Cheyenne. Emma and I had so much fun just hanging out with them for the day.

Our Family

Here is a picture of the three of us. The 2nd picture was just too cute not to share with you. She was so tired.

1 Month Old

Emma is 1 month old today. I took her to get her picture taken yesterday. She did ok. She cried most of the time so I have to put a bottle in her mouth and take it out so he could snap a few quick pictures and then put the bottle back in. [daddy will definitely be going with us next time] It was a lot of work going by myself. I can't believe our baby is a month old already. I wish she could stay this little forever but I'm anxious to see the little person she grows up to be. Josh and I have so many things we want to do with her The past month has been amazing. Our world has been completely turned upside down. But we wouldn't want it any other way. Here are a few of her 1 month pics. [we have the most beautiful baby ever]

Emma's Baby Blanket

This blanket was made for Emma by Nana Newnam. She did such a great job. It is by far the most beautiful blanket I've ever seen. Thank you Nana

1 Month Check-Up

I took Emma to the pediatrician this morning for her 1 month checkup. She weighed 7lbs 10 oz!!! Can you believe it? I can't. I was just as shocked as the doctor was. She gained 9 oz in 6 days! She is in the 25th percentile. Not that high...but atleast she's growing. The doctor thinks maybe she just went through a little growth spurt because she is still eating the same as she has been since she was born. She still isn't up to her birth weight but she's not far from it. She is now 21 in. long too. She was 19 1/2 in. when she was born. Dr. Lowe seems to think that she will be tall and skinny. [Wonder where she got that from??] Josh was out of town last night so it was the first night that I had to take care of Emma by myself. It actually went really good. She did great. She just had a couple of times where she wanted to get up and play. But she didn't cry or fuss at all. Josh is coming home today. I'm sure he missed her so much. It's the the first time he has had to be gone since she was born. :[

Visit with Nanny

Last night, we went to my moms house for a little cookout with my nanny.[my mom's mom] It was the first time she had seen Emma since she was born.

3 Weeks

Today, Emma is 3 weeks old. She weighs 7lbs 1 oz. She is about 1 pound under her birth weight still. We have been trying to alter her eating schedule to try and see if she will start gaining weight. But she eats like crazy....she just has a hard time gaining weight. She sleeps great too. She has had a couple of nights where she wants to fuss a little bit but nothing a bottle won't cure. She has just been a great baby so far. We couldn't have asked for anything better. Josh and I are getting plenty of sleep too. We still have to wake her up to feed her and then she falls right back asleep.

Due Date

Today is kind of special for me because it is Emma's due date. I would have been 40 weeks pregnant today. Even though she came 3 weeks early, I waited for this day for months and months. I couldn't have imagined being pregnant until today. But I'm glad that Emma is happy and healthy. Here a just a few cute pics

Emma's 1st Bath

Emma's umbilical cord fell off today and she got her first bath tonight. She did so good. She had a confused look on her face most of the time. She just didn't understand what was going on. She fussed a little bit at the end but once we got her wrapped up and warm again, she was ok.

Playing Around

Yes, I know, I'm a little blog-crazy right now. But she is just too cute. I just have to share all of this with you.

Hungry??

Emma has gotten better at telling us when she is hungry. Josh was holding her tonight while I was putting sheets on the bed and she decided that she wanted to eat right then. She just couldn't figure out why that t-shirt was in her way. Josh had a nice big wet spot on his shirt when she got finished with him. This video is just too funny not to share with you. The pic is of daddy and his little girl. [they are so cute]

2 Weeks Old

Time has flown by so fast. I can't believe our little baby is already two weeks old. I feel like just yesterday I was peeing every 5 minutes and waddling up and down the stairs. But these past two weeks have been the best. Emma is such a great baby. She sleeps like a rock. Most nights we have to wake her up to feed her. Don't get me wrong. She has had a couple of nights where she just wants to get up and play at 4:00 in the morning. I guess she is just so used to my schedule when I was pregnant that we just need to get her where she knows that she sleeps at night now. She has recently started pooping like crazy too, which Josh and I are ecstatic about. We are going to the pediatrician tomorrow for yet, another weight check. But after all this pooping, she's probably lost weight. We'll just have to wait and see. Here are a couple recent pics of her.

Family Pics

Nana
Autumn
Emma & Uncle Sam
Nana & Papa J
Granddad
Victoria & Katie

POOP!!!!

After 9 days, Emma has FINALLY pooped!! Most parents get tired of poop but Josh and I were praying for it. We went back to the doctor today to check her weight and she lost an ounce. But after a poop like that, the doctor was surprised she didn't lose more so she isn't too concerned. However, she wants us to come back on Monday to check her weight again. She is still eating every 2 hours, at least until she gets back to her birth weight. I feel like every time I put her down, it's time for her to eat again. But maybe after she gets to 8 lbs, the doctor will let me feed her every 3-4 hours. We'll just have to wait and see.

Check-Up

My mom and I took Emma to the pediatrician today for another check-up. She weighed 7 lbs 1 1/2 oz. So she still isn't gaining any weight. The doctor changed the way I am pumping so that Emma will get more calories and hopefully begin to put on some weight. Josh and I have been concerned lately because Emma hasn't pooped in a week. But we have been told that it is normal for babies to sometimes go a week without pooping. So the doctor actually stuck her finger [well, I'll let you use your imaginiation] in Emma to kind of get things going. I'm still waiting on her to go. She still looks a little jaundice but as she continues to eat and when she poops, that will help it to go away. We have to have her weight checked again on Friday. Hopefully she'll be back up to her birth weight soon. After her appointment, my mom took me out to breakfast at Tex & Shirleys. Emma does great being out in public. She just sleeps in her carseat. But she's only 11 days old.....I'm sure that will change.

New Pics

Here are a few new pictures of Emma.

No More Lights!!

As of yesterday, Emma is off the bili lights. The came out yesterday morning and drew more blood to test her level. They called us after lunch time and said that it came down to 11.2. So the doctor said that we could go ahead and take her off the lights. I'm so excited. It's so nice to be able to go and pick her up and hold her whenever I want to. I think she is much more comfortable now too. She is still a little jaundice but I'm hoping that it will continue to get better.

Improving

Today, the nurse from Advanced Home Care came again and drew some more blood to test Emma's bili level. She did so good. The nurse stuck her foot and she didn't even cry. We gave her a little milk before the nurse came so I think that kind of kept her happy. She went from 19.2 yesterday to 15.8 today. So it is improving. Once she gets down to 12 then they will let us take her off the bili lights. They are coming back out to re-check her on Sunday. I hope that we can get rid of these lights soon. It makes it so hard because I can't go and pick her up very easily or sit and hold her. Please keep her in your prayers that she will continue to improve. Here are a few pictures from today. I couldn't decide which one was cuter so I just had to share both. :]

Active Little Baby

Even though Emma sleeps a lot, when she is awake, she is very active. She loves to swing her arms and legs.

Glow Worm

More Lights

Advanced Home Care came this morning and drew some more blood to check Emma's bili level. Unfortunately her level increased. So the doctor ordered that she have another bili light. She now has one underneath her and also one on top of her. It doesn't make her uncomfortable or anything, I just hate seeing her like this. Having those lights makes it so much harder to just pick her up whenever I want to and love on her. She doesn't seem to mind it though. The nurse also weighed her today and she is now at 6 lbs 15 oz. So she lost 2 oz. since yesterday. She will have to have blood drawn again tomorrow morning. :[ It absolutely breaks my heart, but I just have to keep telling myself that she is going to be ok and that it could be a lot worse than this. So I'm grateful that we are getting this taken care of and hopefully in a few days she will be fine.

Update

Emma has been doing so much better. Since being on the bili light she has started to eat better and also is more active than she was. She has continued to breast feed really well too. She is doing a great job. I'm so proud of her. She has lost the yellow tint to her skin too. We had thought that they were going to retest her bili level on Saturday but they are actually sending someone to our house today to re-check it. I hate seeing her little foot get stuck but it has to be done so that we can make sure she's getting better. Hopefully if her levels come down, then she won't have to be on that light anymore. It is kind of a pain to have to keep it on her at all times. She looks like a little glow worm though. It's kind of cute. Please keep her in your prayers that she will continue to get better.

1st Pediatrician Appointment

Today was Emma's first visit to the pediatrician. We had to go and get her weighed and also to check her billirubin level. They checked it in the hospital and from Monday morning till Tuesday morning it had doubled, so they wanted to recheck it today. She had started showing symptoms of jaundice too. Well, her level today was over 20, which is very high. So the doctor sent us home and said that she was going to send Advanced Home Care to our house to set up a phototherapy for Emma. It is a special light that she lays on that will lower her bili level. She has to stay on this light as much as possible. We only take her off to change her or to feed her. We have to go back to the doctor on Saturday to get her re-weighed and to check her level again. Since she is so jaundice right now, she is sleeping a lot and she hasn't been breastfeeding as well as she was before, but I am able to pump and give her what she needs. Hopefully by Saturday, she will be better and won't have to have this light under her anymore.

August 30, 2008

Last Friday night around 9:00 or so I started having a stomach pain. It was in the lower part of my tummy right under my belly button. I waited for it to just go away but ofcourse, it didn't. So I called the nurse and she said that I should lay on my side for an hour and drink a quart of water and call back if it didn't go away. So after an hour, I was in more pain than before. I called the nurse back and she sent me to the hospital to get checked out. So once again, Josh and I headed to Maternity Admissions. We got there around 11:00pm. We were taken back to a room and I was hooked up to the fetal heart monitor. Emmas heartbeat sounded good. I was having some contractions but they weren't labor contractions. So they put in an IV and started trying to hydrate me. After hours of laying there, the pain still didn't go away. It just so happened that my primary doctor was on-call Friday night and he had to come to the hospital anyway to do an emergency c-section so the nurse said he would stop by and see me. He finally got around to my room around 4:30 Saturday morning. He ordered some lab work to be drawn and also an ultrasound. He was thinking that there might be a tear in the placenta. The ultrasound didn't show anything out of the ordinary. At my appointment last Monday, the ultrasound technologist said that she weighed 7 lbs 3 oz. The technologist at the hospital said that she weighed 8 lbs 15 oz. That kind of scared me because she would be huge for her age. So after the ultrasound we got back to the room and waited for the lab work to come back. Finally, the moment came that changed our lives forever. The nurse walked in and said, we can't explain where the pain is coming from so the doctor wants to go ahead and get her out. We were already at 37 weeks which is full term and she definitely weighed enough so they wanted to c-section her. By this time, it was about 6:00am and we were thinking that they would just do it sometime Saturday. But the nurse said, "no, we are going right now". Josh and I paniced because we didn't pack anything and we didn't even have a camera. We didn't plan on having a baby when we headed to the hospital. Well, Josh convinced them to wait 30 min. while he ran home and got the camera. It also gave my parents a chance to get to the hospital to see me before going to the OR. So at about 7:15 we headed into the OR. They gave me a spinal and it numbed me from the chest down. Josh sat up by my head and at 7:39, our beautiful little Emma was born. They held her up over the sheet and showed her to us and then took her over to the heat warmer to be cleaned up. Josh then walked over and he was able to bring her back to me. All I could do was look at her. It was the most amazing moment in my entire life. To see my husband holding our little baby and then see tears in his eyes, made me the happiest I've ever been. Emma was so beautiful. Josh then carried her over to the central nursery while they stitched me back up and took me to the recovery room. Once I was in recovery I didn't get to see her until she was about 2 1/2 hours old. She had to stay in the nursery for a little while because she wasn't breathing very well on her own and they needed to monitor her. Josh was able to bring her to me for just a few minutes and I got to hold her. I stayed in recovery until about noon before they got a room available for me. Once I was in my room, they brought Emma to me and I was able to hold her all I wanted to. She was absolutely perfect. We spent 3 nights in the hospital and we came home Tuesday morning. I have to say, she has been one of the best babies I have ever seen. [not just because she is mine] She is just a really happy baby. She rarely cries at anything. She sleeps very well too. We usually have to wake her up if we want to feed her. We have been able to get atleast 5 or 6 hours of sleep every night since she's been born. We couldn't ask for anything better. She has been feeding really well too. We are trying the breastfeeding, and she picked it up really quickly. She has been just so great. Even though last weekend didn't go as planned, I am so happy that she is finally here and just so greatful that she is healthy. The first few days at home have been good too. Josh and I are just getting used to having a baby in the house. It's the best feeling ever. I just want to let you all know how amazing Josh has been. He has taken such good care of me and Emma. Since I had a c-section, I have had a lot of trouble moving around and doing things for myself and Emma, but he doesn't mind doing anything I ask of him. Emma already has him wrapped around her little finger. He is such a proud daddy. Thank you to everyone who came and visited us at the hospital and for all the thoughts and prayers that were sent our way throughout the pregnancy and the birth. We are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives. Here are a few more pictures from the big day. [isn't she so beautiful?]

Our Beautiful Little Girl

Emma Elizabeth Newnam
Born August 30, 2008 @ 7:39 a.m.
8 lbs 19 1/2 in.
After a quick turn of events, Emma was born 3 weeks early, this past Saturday morning by c-section. She is healthy and doing very well. We all came home from the hospital today and are just enjoying being with our beautiful little girl. Josh and I have had a long few days so we are trying to catch up on some much needed rest. I will write "Emmas birth story" within the next few days or so.