Mommy and Emily

I was sitting here wondering how you can love someone you've just met?

How can you love someone with every ounce of your being, after only 5 weeks of life?

I don't know how that works, but I can't imagine life without Emily. She has been an absolute blessing. Even in the wee hours of the morning when she won't go to sleep and Mom is so tired. I look forward to her waking up just so we can snuggle and give kisses. Emily being a part of our life has been the most wonderful thing that has happened in my life.

I love you Em!

End of Month 1

Well if you can believe it, Emily is already 1 month old! She has done a lot just in the last week! She is really starting to follow your voice and your face. It's neat to watch. She also likes to lay in her play gym and try to touch the hanging toys. She has had lots of fun with all the friends and family that have come to visit.

Here she is in her stroller for the first time. Auntie Cori and I took her to the mall...and to the movies!!!


Here she is with her Auntie Cori who came all the way from Texas to visit her:

HI!!!!!


Mommy cut my nails for the first time. Don't they look pretty?


Here I am with Grandma Bonnie. She's doing tummy time with me:


Check out this link to see all the pics from the last month:http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562057411aLYSqy?vhost=good-times

Sleeping Beauty

If you all can believe it, Emily slept through the night last night!!! I was shocked. I fed her at 9:30pm and put her down at 10pm. I woke up around 2am and was like...OMG...is she okay? So I checked in on her and she was sound asleep. So I closed her door and went back to bed. She didn't wake up until 5:30am!!! So she slept for almost 8 hours! Then I put her back down at 6am and she slept until 8am. So I feel fully refreshed!! Yay!!

Aunt Cori is coming to visit today, so we are VERY excited!!

Have a good one!

Go Pack Go!

Okay...so I know most of you are thinking...what has happened to Teresa? Is that Emily in a PACKERS outfit? yes...yes it is! I have lived in WI for 8 years now...today is the big football game to see who goes to the Superbowl. My good friend Sarah's boyfriend plays for the Packers (#65 Mark Tauscher...Go Mark Go!!). She stopped by this weekend with an outfit for Emily and said she HAS to wear it on Sunday...so here she is! She will be wearing it again when they play in the Superbowl.

So...eventhough I am a true Bears fan at heart, it's hard not to root for the Packers today. So here goes!!! GO PACKERS!

New Video of Emily

Check out this video of Emily with the hiccups! It's so cute.
http://good-times.webshots.com/video/3048760260102774306gOwmsW?vhost=good-times

I also posted some more pictures in the Jan 2008 album from our visit to IL. We got to see lots of friends from back home. http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562057411aLYSqy?vhost=good-times

We went to the lactation specialist yesterday and did some nursing work with Em. She did great!! The specialist said things are going well. She got weighed before she ate and she is now at 5lbs 13oz!! yay!! After I fed her, she had drinken 3 ounces!!! What a big girl!

Hope everyone is doing well.

Emily is 2 weeks old

We took Emily to the Dr yesterday for her 2 week check-up. I can't believe it's already been 2 weeks...now if she would just sleep through the night HA HA!
At her 2 week check up, everything looked great. She is back up to her birth weight of 5lbs 7oz. She grew an inch and a half and now measures 19.5 inches.
Her face is really filling out, I can't believe. She has been in preemie clothes and today, for the first time, I put a newborn outfit on her!! It's a little big, but she'll grow into it in no time.
Now...if she would just sleep through the night...oh wait...I already said that :) She is sleeping about 2 - 3 hours at a time. Some nights are better than others. The last two have been barely 2 hours at a time.

Nursing is going better, she is still being darn fiesty when trying to latch. I don't know why she feels a need to make it so difficult. Once she does latch, she will nurse until she's blue in the face! So I give her 20 minutes and then say...that's enough! Mommy is not a human pacifer!!

Em has attended her first TWO parties already! She was out an about on New Years Eve at Aunt Kacey and Uncle Tony's house. She was just 5 days old, but was the star of the party. Mommy was a little cranky, but Em had a great time being passed around. Em was also at Matt and Brenda's wedding reception hosted by the golf course. It was a nice party where she got to meet lots of friends. She did so good!!! And mommy was in a better mood too :)

Let's see...what else..she had her first big road trip yesterday. Mommy and Em came down to IL to visit Grammy and Grampa. She did great. Slept in the car the entire time. We even went to Grammy's hair salon to show her off to all the girls. They all thought she was so cute. Then we stopped by Aunt Kathy's office to visit with her and cousin Jenny!! Em can't wait to meet the whole family. We are still in IL and plan to come home tomorrow.

Well here is a link to some new photos...enjoy!
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2481631220102774306DFyGsW

The Birth Story

Sorry I haven't written too much...been busy with the new little peanut at home. Trying to get on some sort of routine here...

Anyways, thought I would update everyone on how Emily arrived in this world. My water broke at10:30pm on Christmas night. Of all nights, Kory was actually home, which as most people know had to be a sign because he's never home at night. So we headed to the hospital and got there around 11:45pm. They took me to triage and we had to do some tests to see if my water actually broke. While we were waiting, I was hooked up to the monitor and started having mini-contractions, so we were pretty sure this was the 'real thing'. At about 12:30am they said the test showed amniotic fluid, so sure enough..we were admitted to St. Mary's. We got set in our room shortly after that. They decided to give me 2 hours to see if I could make any changes on my own. I was 3 cm dialated when I arrived in triage and 2 hours later I was still at 3 cm, so they decided to kick start my labor with Pitosin. WOW! That stuff is AWFUL!! Okay...so it does what it's supposed to do but geesh! Those contractions got fast and hard really quick.

To take a step back...my mom really wanted to be there for labor and delivery. My parents came up from IL to Madison on Christmas Eve to celebrate the holidays at my sister's so I didn't have to travel home so close to my due date. So they slept over to Christmas Morning and then headed to their house on the lake up in Hayward, WI. That's about a 5 hour drive. When they got there, mom called me from her cell phone in town to say that their phones weren't working. So if something happened, I was supposed to call the lady down the street and she'd come get my mom...too funny, right? Well OF COURSE my water breaks. I knew I needed to call them, but wanted to be 100% sure that I was going to be admitted before they started the 5 hour drive home. SO....at about 1am I called the neighbor and she had to get out of bed and drive down to my parents and wake them up. They ended up having really bad weather up there and it took them 7 hours to get to the hospital! I felt soooo bad!!!

Okay, so back to my contractions getting worse. This was probably around 5am when they started to get super intense. Kory and I did some walking and I sat on the birthing ball for a long time. That was wonderful! Kory's mom arrived around 5am or so. She and Kory helped me through the next 2 hours of labor which were super intense. At about 7am I was 4cm dialated and decided I wanted an epidural. So my epidural arrived around 7:30am. I was then pretty close to 5cm. The epidural HURT! Nobody told me that!!! But after it worked, I was feeling darn good. Kacey and Casey both arrived at the same time around 7ish. Just after the epidural, so it was nice they didn't have to see me in so much pain. I'd like to have more nieces and nephews! HA HA

After I got my epidural, we were all just hanging out. I think mom and dad got there around 8am or something like that. Then we all just hung out waiting for the baby to come. We had lots of good times, just chatting and laughing. It was one of the most special times of my life. I had a room full of people I love!!!! We were all so anxious to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl!!!

So at about 9am I was a good 7cm, then by 11:30am I was 10cm. So they called my Dr who was in Sun Prairie at the Dean Clinic. I was SOOO ready to push, but they said just hang in there. So I was busy breathing through my pressure to push. Dr. Zenner arrived around 12pm and did an exam...he barely put his fingers in and said...OKAY! Time to push!! Everyone get ready! HA HA I guess the baby was about ready to come out on her own. So everyone got ready. I pushed for 20 minutes and baby Emily arrived in this world!! It was so amazing!!!!

She is already a little angel. She sleeps pretty good and is starting to nurse better and better. It's taking both of us some time to get the hang of it. I had heard nursing was hard, but I didn't realize it was by FAR the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Giving birth was easy compared to this nursing thing. We are hanging in there though and gettting better each day.

Speaking of nursing...she's just waking up, so I'm off to nurse again.

Thanks for all the prayers and special thoughts. We are so blessed.