who has time to blog?

who has time to blog?  apparently not this new mom.  the return to work made blogging even more unlikely...

emilee went for her 2 month check up on thursday, and my chunky monkey now weighs 13 lbs, 10 oz and is 23.75 inches long.  she's at 97th percentile for weight and at 90-95th percentile for height - craziness!!!  i cannot believe how fast she's growing.

she's come down with her first cold and is a snotty mess.  now i used to be the girl who was gagging over snot, but oddly enough, when it's your daughter, it doesn't make you sick.  i never believe that'd happen, but somehow it did.  i'm hoping her cool new penguin humidifier does the trick and lets stinkerbell start breathing better again.

i returned to work on july 12, and while it was an adjustment (that first day was KILLER - i cried like a baby), i'm happy to report that we're in a good groove now.  emilee seems to like daycare and i've been pleased so far.  my least favorite part is paying them haha...but i knew it was going to be expensive. 

the zantac worked wonders and her reflux is almost non-existent these days.  the doctor said we'd try to wean her off the meds once she's sitting up good.

as for weight loss, daniel and i are doing decent.  the weekends are lacking major motivation.  i'm down 47 lbs since giving birth - nowhere close to my goal weight, but at least all the pregnancy weight is gone, plus about 10 more lbs. 

so this short and sweet, but it's already 7:30 and em is gonna need a bath shortly, and big brother comes on at 8:00...you know, priorities.  hehe.

hope all is well - i hope to get caught up on reading your blogs soon.

1 month, 2 days later

i suck at the updates.  so sorry.  i sometimes don't find time to shower, let alone post a blog.

i've lost all my pregnancy weight, plus about 4 lbs.  i'm down 42 lbs.  i have a long way to go, but was really excited about the jumpstart.  i've started following weight watchers again - but most of the weight fell off without even really trying.  it's only now that i've stalled and know that weight watchers will have to do the rest.

emilee is doing great.  she's up to 11 lbs and 6 oz now, and has grown another inch in length.  i'm really proud of her.  she's doing decent with her sleeping - she goes down around 9 or 9:30 and then is up about 1:30 to eat and again at 5:30...and usually will go back down til 7:30 or 8.  it varies a little.  i'm hoping she will continue to sleep longer periods of time, so it'll ease me back into work.  speaking of work - i return in 11 days.  part of me looks forward to getting out of the house more, but i think it'll be a big adjustment all around.

emilee is a really good baby - but does have about an hour crying spell sometime mid-morning and another one in the evenings before bedtime.  she is just starting to coo and i've had a few random smiles - which i'm not sure they're directed at me, but i like to pretend they are.  haha.  :)

i left emilee with daniel on tuesday night to go out to dinner with manda and we watched the premiere of eclipse.  it felt weird leaving her, but i'm really glad i had a night out and glad that daniel and em had some alone time.

that's about all that's going on.  now does anyone know how to block mr. chinese man that keeps commenting on my blogs????

emilee's birth

emilee's birth story probably starts about 2 weeks before her birth. i go to my weekly appointment to find out my blood pressure had taken a jump. the doctors were a little concerned, so they took me off work, and asked me to return two days later. when i return in 2 days, the blood pressure is still high. the doctors decided to take me off work, and kept talking about inducing labor if the blood pressure continued to climb. they asked me to stay off work, and to monitor my blood pressure at home. they also ordered me into their office every 2 days....each appointment i went in not knowing if i was going to be induced or not. finally, at 38 weeks pregnant, i was told i would be induced the following week, at exactly 39 weeks. however, when i returned that monday, i was told the induction was pushed back to friday.


the week before emilee was born i was having contractions all week. it would start in my back and wrap around to my lower abdomen (the low gut, if you will). it was a really weird experience...as i was never sure if this was "it" or not. obviously, it never was! ;)

i was told to call the hospital at 6:30am on friday, may 28, to find out when they would start my induction. if the hospital wasn't busy, i'd come right in...if they were busy, i'd have to wait until beds were available. talk about the longest day ever...i called the hospital at 6:30, at which point they told me to call back at 8:00 because they were busy. so i called at 8:00, then 10:00, then 1:00, then 4:00, then 7:00...and finally at 9:30 they had me come in. at one point in the day the nurse that answered the phone said "just go ahead and do what you were going to do today instead of sitting and waiting on us". oh really? because i was pretty sure what i was going to do was have a baby!!!!!

when i got there, the nurse got me changed and then my doctor came in. he checked me and i was still at barely 1 cm dilated and my cervix hadn't thinned enough, so he decided to start cervadil. not before telling me scary stories of women who were induced and stayed in labor for 4 days first, though. haha. he was trying to scare me...and it kinda worked. however, it had already been the longest day in history and i just wanted to get this thing rolling. jill, manda, and daniel were all there with me...they gave me ambien to help me sleep. haha. no sleeping for this girl. i kept watching my contractions on the screen and watching my blood pressure and watching emilee's heart rate.

at about 2:30 am, i told the girls "i think my water just broke". when the nurse came in, i told her and she used this little strip to swipe the pad under me and said, "no, i don't think so. you probably just peed". i was like um, no really - my water broke, but she wasn't buying it. about 45 mins later, she came back in to help me get to the bathroom and when i stood, my water HAD broken, and proceeded to spill all over the floor and near her feet. kinda like "i told you so". haha.

this part was all very boring, as the cervadil had to be in for 12 hours. after my water broke, my contractions picked up and started to intensify. but 8:30 am they were starting to get really uncomfortable, so the doctor gave me some pain meds to help. at 10:00, they removed the cervadil and and checked me again. at this point, i was 2 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. they decided to start the cervadil. there was a doctor change at 7:00 am and i was kinda glad, as i liked my female OB better than the other guy.

the rest of the day was pretty eventful. i got my epidural around 1:00 pm, and i seriously just hung out. the biggest fiasco was the inlaws losing manda's pass to get back to labor and delivery. seriously, my labor was so uneventful, and i'd be lying if i said it was hard/bad.

i was checked on and off all day - and finally at 6:00 pm, i was 10 cm dilated. did this mean i got to push? nope. sure didn't. i had to "labor down", as emilee hadn't dropped low enough. at 7:15 (after an hour and 15 mins of sitting there just shaking - be it nerves or the transition phase or whatever, it was weird) - my doctor came in and said she had a c-section scheduled at 8:00pm and did i want to just wait until after she completed that to push. i looked at her like she was crazy. no i did not want to wait any longer. she said she was worried i'd hafta push for 2 hours or so (i guess this is common for overweight gals), but if i wanted to go ahead and try, we could.

a nurse came in and coached me. it was a nurse, my husband, and jill in the room. it all went faster than they expected and the doctor came just in time. i actually had to stop pushing to keep from having emilee without the doctor. 28 minutes of pushing and out popped this baby girl with the chubbiest cheeks known to man. :) it was crazy to me. once her head was out, the next push had her body out and i swear it felt like a little fish swimming out of me. (keep in mind i had an epidural haha).

as soon as she delivered the doctor literally tossed her onto my tummy and i went to pull her closer and got a "wait! the cord is short!!!" and then watched as the doctor talked my hubby through cutting the cord. he handled it all like a champ. i was so proud of him. so, so proud. he didn't think he'd be able to watch any of it, but he did. and fed me ice chips in between contractions, and told me when he could see her hair.

after daniel cut the cord, they pushed her down my gown and my girl laid on my bare chest, covered in blood, and fluid, and white pasty stuff. lol. it didn't even matter. i was just so happy to finally see her.

we both had a fever, and they were worried they'd have to send her over to NICU, but it came down quickly and she was just fine. after i got over to my room, we kept our girl with us for about an hour or so and then let the nursery keep her for the night. we had had very little sleep in 48 hours and were needing it.

i can honestly say i think labor was the easiest part, with recovery being the worst. the absolute worst. this could be because i tore really bad (i don't know exactly how bad, i just know that the nurse apologized while i was pushing because "oh, honey, i'm sorry - you're already tearing" and the doctor said "i need more sutures when stitching me up!).

emilee's birth story is not what i expected.  nothing about this was what i expected, but i will say i went in thinking it'd be a LOT worse.  :)

Emilee Claire!!!

just a quick update to let everyone know that i gave birth to miss emilee claire on saturday, may 29 at 7:58 PM.  she was a healthy 8 lb, 13 oz and 21 inches long.  i promise to update with the full birth story soon, but until then, here's a few pics to hold you over:

2 more days

i'm being induced on friday.  i cannot believe the pregnancy will be over in just 2 days.  2.  how did that happen?  how did i go from counting down the weeks to finding out the sex to counting down the hours i have left?  insanity.

my due date is not officially until next wednesday, but my blood pressure has decided to do a few magic tricks the past 2 weeks.  i've seriously been to the doctor every other day for almost 2 weeks now.  lol.  it'll be high, then normal, then low, then high, then low, then normal.  but it's all okay - emilee looks great, i feel okay (minus this headache and some pressure and irregular contractions and other typical "i'm 9 months pregnant" complaints). 

i'm really excited about what friday holds, and can't wait to see what my baby girl looks like.

i'll update with pics soon :)

quick update with pics

i'm horrible.  i try to find the time/motivation to update this thing, but most days i fail miserably.  things were incredibly hectic the last few weeks of march into the 1st week of april, but have thankfully slowed down quite a bit.

my oldest friend had her baby boy on april 2.  we went to wv to be there to welcome mason into the world. 

so happy that he's finally here!

looking like a natural!

31w4d pregnant

i had an ultrasound the day after we returned.  these are the 3d pics at 31w6d.

i think she looks A LOT like her daddy in these.

everything has basically been about preparing for her arrival lately.  we have an insane amount of clothes in her closet, waiting to be worn.  manda has been awesome about making bows/headbands to match every cute thing we have.  lol.

i had a little scare on april 9 - i was spotting a little.  i called the doctor and they had me come in.  luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it) it was "just" a yeast infection and UTI.  fun, let me tell you.  but much better than emilee arriving almost 8 weeks early.

i go tomorrow for my 35 week appointment.  35 weeks - seriously.  so we're at just a little over 5 weeks until my due date. i 'm wondering if she'll go to term or if i'll have to be induced.  on one hand, an induction would be nice for work purposes, as well as my fam and friends in wv making it up for the delivery.  on the other hand, i know that labor can be easier if you're not induced.  hoping to get some answers at my appointment tomorrow. 

here's a pic from last weekend.  i feel like i get more massive by the day.  lol.

33w4d

emilee's room