Somebunny is 1 month old!

Emilie is a whole month old!  In one short month she is so different from when we brought her home.  First off, she's now 11 pounds, 12 ounces!  That's three pounds in 4 weeks, which is awesome.  She's also so alert!  She's making all sorts of eye contact and if she hears mom or dads voice she'll turn that way.  And speaking of voices E has been talking a lot more herself!  Turns out she has a lot to say about the Republican nomination.  Girl is pissed :)  When she's not ranting about how she doesn't even know what her uterus is yet and Republicans already want to regulate it, she's mostly making little coos.

Emilie is also sleeping 5-7 hous at a time which has been quite the gift.  If we have other children that dont sleep as well I don't know what we'll do.  And finally, E is still only smiling when she farts or is sleeping (babies usually start smiling around 2 months), we think she's close to giving us a social smile.  When we give her lots of kisses you can tell she likes it and wants to smile, so hopefully soon!



She looks like she's doing a jig here.



Good morning



This picture cracks me up!



Chunky Monkey

Dress by the talented Valerie Ford

Love


Tonight Emilie will try her very first bottle!  We'll be introducing one bottle a day to get ready for daycare and well, to give mom's boobs a break once a day :) 

And right about now Grandma and Grandpa Swartz should be landing for a weekend visit!  Lookout for the next post!

3 weeks!

Three weeks?  It both feels like three minutes and three years all at once! 

At three weeks lil' Emilie is spending more time awake during the day and a little more time asleep at night (sometimes).  Last night both E and I enjoyed SEVEN blissful hours of sleep.  It was glorious. 

Due to this decrease in daytime sleep I'll keep this brief so I can post some pics for you all and still check my celebrity gossip blogs online to maintain my sanity.  So enjoy!



Chipmunk Cheeks!

 

Tummy Time





"With God, this Butterfly and Mom's breast as my witness--I'll never go hungry again!"

The First Weeks

Well it's been almost 2 weeks since Emilie has arrived and we're slowly getting into the groove of how to live with a newborn.  It may all change tomorrow, but for now we're living with one hungry, hungry hippo who likes to sleep for the better part of the day :)  At night she's been sleeping from 10-2 am and then in 2 hour increments, which is great as far as I'm concerned.  And I say "I" because since we're (okay, I am) breastfeeding it's up to mom to get up and keep night watch.  So far so good, but I can't say I haven't looked over at Steve dreaming away and wanted to give him shaken baby syndrome :D

I kid, I kid.  Steve has been quite the dad and partner (which is no surprise) and has been running his butt off over these past two weeks.  Emilie needs a diaper change?  Dads on it.  We need more milk?  Apple juice?  Ice cream?  Dads on it.  It's been great and both Emilie and I will be sad to see him go back to work next week.

In the meantime, Steve and I have been officially initiated into parenthood!  Emilie has assisted us via projectile vomit, surprise urination and diaper blowouts.  I'm pretty sure she's actually gotten more bodily fluids on us than herself.

Grandma Ford came for a visit this week which gave us a break from said surprise pees and poops and allowed for extra cuddles all around.

After about a week and a half of being in the house, this mom started to get a bit stir crazy, so we went on our first outing to Schenley Park.



Lovin' from daddy





It's never too early to practice sun safety!



Tonight Emilie gets to meet more family and tomorrow we say goodbye (for now) to Grandma Ford.  Dad goes back to work and then it's me and Em to fend for ourselves throughout the day! :^O

She's here!

Welcome to the world Emilie Grace Swartz! 

My apologies for the delay in updating this blog over the past few weeks.  Turns out that going over your due date can make you a little crazy.  I liken it to walking down a busy street knowing that at some point someone will be punching you in the face, but then handing you a large sum of money.  Exciting, but a bit nerve wracking as well :)
The day before Emilie's arrival Steve and I were referred to have an NST (non-stress test) to make sure all was well and good with her heart rate, my contractions and her movements.  Considering we had just had a similar test 2 days before, we didn't think much of it and had a day full of errands and a yummy lunch planned.  But as the wise Andre 3000 says, you can plan a pretty picnic but you can't predict the weather :)

During our test Emilie passed "99%" of the tests, but at one point her heart rate dropped from the 140s to the 120s.  They figured it was most likely her bumping into her cord, but in an effort to be safe than sorry they decided to admit me for induction on Saturday, July 28th.  I was going to be scheduled for induction 4 days later if she didn't come on her own, so it wasn't much difference in the end.  Two hours later I was hooked up to an IV and receiving regular doses of pitocin (a synthetic form of Oxytocin to help induce labor). 

Now, if you're unfamiliar with Pitocin, the drug is no joke.  I made it until about 11pm and by that point the contractions were coming on top of one another with no breaks, I was barfing and was just an all around mess.  So I asked for the epidural.  As you may remember we had some concerns about the epidural and the risks of a spinal headache afterwards due to my having rods in my back.  I expressed these concerns to the anesthesiologist who responded with the same concern as if I had just told him that the sky is blue.  He went in, shot me up and from there I had the most glorious experience with modern medicine.  Holy shit.

Steve and I got some sleep and being able to relax allowed me to dilate further so that by early morning I could start pushing.  In the end I apparently pushed for 4 hours, but to me it felt more like 2.  The epidural was still working its magic, allowing me to still have feeling to push, but not feel it so much that I could tell of what exactly was going on down there.  I appreciate that.  A lot.

Then at 1:13 pm on Sunday, July 29th Emilie Grace Swartz arrived and was placed on my chest for her first of many cuddles! :)  We lost our minds with excitement and never felt so grateful.  They took her to be weighed and when they did I heard about five or six nurses and assistants gasp and yell "Whoah!"  Turns out I had just birthed out a 9 pound, 4 ounce baby!  My vagina was later ushered out of the room under a wool blanket by consoling hospital staff. 

The days that followed were a bit difficult as Emilie had tongue tie which caused some problems with feeding. I'm not gonna lie, Steve and I both had a few moments of "Oh my god, what did we do?" :)  Not being able to feed a screaming newborn well can cause a particular kind of crazy.  But luckily we're hooked up with great pediatricians who were able to easily fix it and immediately things turned around.  Five days later she surpassed her birth weight and is above the 95th percentile in weight, length and head circumference.  Again, modern medicine I salute you.

We're slowly figuring out this whole living with a newborn thing and turns out it's pretty easy when this new roommate is so cute! :D

But what do you care about any of this?  You came here for the pictures!  So here you go!

Daddy and Emilie time.

Hey yinz

This little monkey is 1 week old!

 Want more?  Check out more from the hospital photo shoot courtesy of Anna Lee Fields!  Password is "cheeks."