Christmas

Tomorrow is Emery's first Christmas....and she won't remember a thing. In face she'll try and eat the wrapping paper.

There are these little moments with her that i feel...I can't describe it. Just amazing. She laughs and giggles. Then other times she just puts her head on my shoulder like it's just us. Other mom's can tell you 1,000 times how much they love their kids, but it doesn't even come close to this. You can't put this into words. There is this little girl that lives in my house that thinks i'm the coolest person in the world....and all i want to do is be with her. I'm happiest in the mornings when it's just the three of us lying in bed. I love it. I love being with my two favorite people and just hanging out.

I'm really excited about tomorrow. Dave made dinner tonight, he did the seven fishes. It was AMAZING! He even made coconut shrimp just for me! His are so good I don't even bother ordering them out anymore. It used to be the first thing i went to on a menu. Now I don't bother, because they don't even come close to his.

Natalie, Livvy, Carole and Enzo are all in town!! It's so great having everyone here. I feel bad that Dave's family couldn't be with us. I know he misses them.

..........more to come tomorrow.

Sick

So we're back from Orlando, her double ear infection is gone. Yeah. But...we're now sick. I'm sick, she's sick. Dave's sick. It's one big sick happy family. But we'll be fine by Christmas.

She is on the move. She comes into the kitchen now. Before she'd stay in the family room on the carpet. Now she will try to find where you are. Dave was doing dishes the other night and she kept crawling over there and pulling herself up on him. I put her back in the family room and she tried again. It was really cute. She wanted to be with her daddy. She did get stuck a few times under the chairs in the kitchen. She thinks she can fit then half way through realizes she can't and panics. It's sad, but very funny.

She pulls up on everything now. The couch, the back door, the chairs, and the funniest...the bathroom shower door. I have the dogs because mom and dad are in Boston. So yesterday Emery was home with me b/c she was miserable. I needed to shower so I put her in the bathroom with some toys and closed the door, well of course the puppies had to be with her. So the three of them are hanging out while i shower and she crawls over to the shower door and pulls herself up. Well i though this was cute so i crouch down and start waving at her. she now realizes she can see me and can't get to me....panic sets in. But oh wait I can't open the door b/c she's standing there holding herself up with it. So I spend the next 10 minutes saying "sit down Emery, sit down so mommy can open the door".

Dec Update

I don't think I can really put into words how much I love this little girl....so i'm not even going to try. But i think you get the point. (it's a lot)

She is so cool. She laughs and giggles. She pulls herself up on everything and crawls all over the place. She is eating food really well and just started pooping on the potty! It's amazing.

We just came back from Orlando for the Baseball Winter Meetings. BaseBall Bingo had a booth there. It was great! I think that's what I was born to do. I was in my element. Emery did great down there too. She was with Nana most of the time.

... more too come. got a lot to do today.

Bubba

I miss her today. I find myself looking at photos of her throughout the day. She is very happy at daycare now though, and that makes everything better. Knowing that makes me happy. We have our play group today then we're headed to the Publix then making dinner with Prisha. We head down to Orlando on Sunday for the Baseball Winter Meetings. We'll be there for a few days.

Very Thankful

We had an amazing Thanksgiving! Our next door neighbors Cyndi and Eric came over and my parents were here. Then for desert we had Heather and Clay and their girls and my friend McRae. It was so nice to be with such great people all day and what amazing food! Everything was so good. I even made homemade apple pie! (yea i made the crust too)

Emeryworld....she can pull herself up to standing...very quickly. On Saturday we went to Babies R Us to buy a baby gate for the top of the stairs. It's like that. she is moving all over the place. She's teething right now too so she's pretty miserable.

I struggle a lot with keeping her at a daycare. I feel guilty. I feel like if she's upset I should be there. Tiffany said she did really well last week. While that's great, my first thought was "you mean she hasn't been happy up till now??" I get it, the whole transition period, but the thought of my little girl upset just kills me. She is so happy at home. I know i need to work and I can't make calls with her here. I can't even bank on her nap to make calls b/c sometimes it's 2 hours and sometimes it's 30 mins. So I struggle.

It's fun though to watch her pull herself up on the couch and coffee table. Last night we skyped with Nat and Liv and they got to see her do it. She's so fun. I just love being with her. She cuddles now. She'll just lean into you and put her head on your shoulder and chill. I love it!! She's been eating food every night. We start on protein's at 9 months. So far we've done a lot of veggies.

crawling and standing and eating...oh my

So she can definitely crawl. It's not a straight shot of point A to point B, which is what i thought crawling was. It's more of a crawl a little, stop, crawl a little more. with some yoga downward-facing-dog in the middle. She is moving that's for sure. And she loves wires. She tried to get my iphone charger in her mouth the entire time she was on my lap at the computer.

The last two weeks have been tough for Em. New daycare, she's teething, she doesn't sleep well....lots going on. So her eating hasn't been great. She won't take a bottle for Tiffany, she doesn't nurse very long with me BUT what we have discovered is she loves oatmeal! Dave and I eat dinner at the table and we put her in her bebe right on the table with us. a few days ago we noticed that she was doing this thing with her toung/mouth when she watched us eat. I went with it and quickly got her oatmeal ready. low and behold that was it. she was leaning towards the spoon!

Last night when i went into her room she was STANDING up in her crib, holding on for dear life. I think she scared herself. It was the second time I saw her do that. When i mentioned it to the doc yesterday (we thought she had an ear infection, she didn't) he said that's a 9-month skill... great. The doc also said she was teething. That explains the lack of interest in eating, the running nose and the slight fever.

Dave gave her a massage last night and i think it really helped her sleep. She woke up less (a little). I did a hybrid cry-it-out last night. I just stood next to her crib and told her she was ok. That calmed her down and then i left. she'd cry again, but i knew she was ok.

We're still going to playgroup every Thursday. We have the dogs this weekend b/c mom and dad are up in NY with liv. Wrigley was doing GREAT until he woke up Emery this morning. Not happy with him now.

Gaby comes today, she's going to be helping us with KMK. I'm also getting my hair cut today. I'll do a before and after just for fun.

Tiffany

When we were pregnant and I was still with CMCI Dave and I visited with a number of day cares. It was interested. Some were nice, one caused Dave to almost have a panic attack. But I had my two favorites. The Children's nook and an at-home daycare with Miss Tiffany. When we made the call to start KMK and my mom took Em we let all our spots go.

When my mom got the pacemaker put in, we started using a friend's nanny. She is very sweet but very young. So now the pacemaker is no an issue but my mom wants to stay at one to two days a week. We needed to find more permanent care. I thought of Tiffany right off the bat and crossed my fingers she had a spot open. She did!! Yesterday was Emery's first day with her. Dave dropped her off and I picked her up. She was happy and had two nice naps. She's still not thrilled about the bottle, but we'll get there. She ate a lot last night so i'm not worried.

It's so amazingly nice to not worry about her during the day. To not be fighting the clock. When the other nanny I was constantly thinking, "well if i can do that with Em here I won't have to pay for that hour". It was exhausting. Now I can just do what i need to do. Yesterday I started my new "walk plan" for going door to door at different businesses. I hit 14 offices that afternoon.

Today is day 2 of our new schedule....i like it.

Oh my

So Dave went into Emery's room this morning to get her from her crib....she was sitting up. Yes that's right she can now go from stomach to back to crawl position to sitting up. She tries to pull herself up on us too. Great, 6 months and all she wants to do is stand up. .... we are in trouble!

It's been really amazing lately b/c i can leave her by herself. I set up a blanket in the middle of the family room and put her toys on it. She can just sit there and entertain herself for quite some time. Enough time for me to put food away, or make dinner. She is complete content. My mom and I were talking about it. Now i don't know if i'm making this up but I do wonder about the whole "baby-wearing" and co-sleeping. if those things make her feel more secure so she's able to be by herself. There must be a study out there somewhere....

Food & Photos

Game on! Emery is allowed to eat food! We tried avocados last week and she did pretty well. We are going to try carrots this week and possibly pumpkin. She had rice cereal a while back and then oatmeal about 2 weeks ago. It was funny.

So I said I would post the amazing photos of Emery's shoot with Kayla:

6 months

This week Emery is 6 months old. We visited the doc today for her well visit, and she had 4 shots. It was horrible. I cried before she did. Dave held her for the whole thing and it was really bad. She almost stopped breathing afterwards. She was in shock the poor thing. Ok i'm getting upset again, no more talking about shots. Dr. Davis said very few, if any, 6 month old kids sit up as well as Em. He thinks she'll be walking by 9 months. OMG! We better lock this house down. She's close to crawling too, she's almost there. Today she pulled herself almost to standing on the laundry basket. I was shocked. This kid is ready to move. Dr. Davis also said that her "attachment" to me is a sign that she's smart. She's figured out who I am and that she needs to be with me. He did say she could start to manipulate me though and to watch out for that. (great)

We are still having a lot of night wakings. It's hard when you don't know what to do next. All the systems and books I read talk to you as if you are with your kid 24/7. Which i'm not. She's with 3 different baby sitters, one being my mom. I know we have to get into a better routine, and now my mom is back to full strength after the pace maker. So it should get easier.

Dave and I have cut back on all spending for a while. I listed a bunch of stuff on Ebay today and I'm trying to find some different ways to make some side money. KMK is doing good, but could be better. I'm having a little bit of a hard time finding new clients, but i think that's just sales.

Last week my friend Kayla took Emery for an hour while I had a meeting. Well she showed up here with some amazing photos she had taken of her! I'll share them when i get them.

all about mommy

It started about a week ago. Emery is all about mommy. Heaven forbid I hand her to someone else while i'm in the room. It usually gets worse as the day goes on. Mornings are always great with her. While evenings she looks around for me. It's kinda cute, i do like being her favorite. But it's also somewhat funny, I sat her down to play with her toys in the family room and walked into the kitchen to do the dishes and she panicked. I mean lost it. It was a little funny. Like come on, i'm right here.

Last night Dave and I hung out just the two of us and made dinner together for his birthday. Emery and I each got him a card, and i got him a little present. It was nice being baby free for the night. Nana and River hung with Em and she was a bit of a pill. She had just woke up from her one and only nap (20 minutes) when I got there. She was watching the Jets game with River. It is so amazing having them so close.

Emery signing her card for Daddy


Sitting up is the norm now, though we put pillows near by for when she falls over. She will be 6 months next week! WHAT? how did that happen. So we'll start with real foods and I think a bunch of other stuff changes at 6 months. We have our apt with the doc so we'll learn more I'm sure.

As for sleeping, yea she's not doing that. She gets up every 2 hours or so to eat at night. From what i can fiugar out, she needs to eat b/c she moves so damn much. All the babies I know that sleep through the night are chill and relaxed. We didn't get one of those. We got a mover..hummm i wonder why :). My mom saw her moving to get out of my arms the other day and was like "yea that reminds me of someone, we were hoping Dave's side would tone her down a little." I guess not. She looks like me AND acts like me. scary. What are we in for? haha. But i love it. I really don't care about the sleep part anymore. I just love being with her. It kills me when i have to leave her at the nanny's. I hate it. BUT i know it's better then giving her up every day 9-5 like some parents have to. I have no idea what schedule she's on. She just eats and sleeps when she wants. It seems to be working, she's a pretty happy kid. She wakes up in the morning and you can hear her talking to herself in her crib. It's really funny.

She's currently on my lap, talking and pooping. So now I have to go change her.

Atlanta

Two years ago Dave and I got married. This past weekend for our anniversary we went to Atlanta. We stayed at the Embassy Suites downtown, went to the Aquarium, a Phillies game, Rio Grande and PJ Changs...talk about all my favorite things! We had a really great time and it was nice to be all together!

Can't Sleep

So it's about 11:40PM on Wednesday night...I have no desire to go to sleep. I can't do the laundry b/c Dave is sleeping and all the clean clothes that need to be folded are in our bedroom. I could continue to set up my coupon book, but i have been messing with that thing all night. I need a break.

The last few weeks Emery has had trouble sleeping. Some nights waking every hour. Which leads to the VERY obvious question "why on earth am i not capitalizing on this time to sleep". i have no idea. I just started reading a sleeping book from the La Leche League group. I think it should help. She might also be teething, which i'm sure isn't fun. She went to bed around 8:30 tonight and has gotten up only once since then to eat.

speaking of eating....I do find myself not wanting to be friends with mom's that don't breastfed. It's almost like i'm ok with it if it's over with. Like my one friend who has a 2 year old and didn't breastfeed her. But it's over. But I just saw a photo on facebook of a girl i know and she's in a hospital gown...just had her baby...and there she is with a bottle! It made me sick to my stomach. I understand there are extreme circumstance that call for mom's not being able to breastfeed. but this was clearly a choice. I just don't understand why you wouldn't do what's best for your kid. Isn't that what we all want, the best for our kids. So why settle for formula when it was created to replicate breast milk! Why not give your kid the real thing??? AND it's better for the mom! It makes me crazy. Even if the mom could just breastfeed for a little while, every day that kid gets breast milk is better then not. I know mom's who work and pump and made it to 6 months! That's not easy, but it's the best for your kid!!! So there's my rant for the evening. Kids can have cow's milk at 1 years old.

ok i'm going to bed.

Birthday - Denver - sitting up

September 21st was my 31st birthday, and Emery's 5 month birthday. Mom, Dad, Liv, Dave, Emery and I all went out for Hibachi. It was SOO good. I had the leftovers the next day for lunch and they were just as good. It was really a great day. Dave treated me to a massage and then Emery and I took a nap. I got a balance board and the Wii Fit Plus! Love it!



This past weekend Emery and I went to Denver for Erin's wedding. We left friday and came back yesterday. It was an amazing trip. Thank God for Jim and Babs, Erin's dad and step mom. I stayed with them and Jim's sister Laurie. It was really amazing how helpful it was to be with them all. Nicole (Erin's little sister) even put on my sling and walked around with Emery so i could get my nails done. The wedding was amazing, and Erin looked the part. I finally got to meet Travis! Emery did really good on the planes. There were 4 total. She screamed for about 20/30 minutes from Atlanta to Denver but i think it was her ears. She also yelled for a bit from Denver to Atlanta but we were sitting on the run way forever. So i think everyone was upset, she was just more vocal.



Sitting up! WHAT? she's sitting up all by herself. If she wasn't such a spas she would probably stay upright for a while, but throws herself to the left and right and knocks herself over. So i have to sit there with her, I can't walk away. but she's doing it. She also grabs stuff now. Mostly my lips and nose. But really everything. Things on the table, the diaper bag, her pants....pretty much everything. She likes to put whatever she can get her hands on into her mouth. We're pretty sure she's teething.

All by myself!

Emery's new tricks....we can (almost) put the paci back in our mouth!! She gets it to her mouth every time, but sometimes it's turned the wrong way. This is very exciting. (to all you mom's out there you know just HOW exciting this really is) Other tricks...we now reach for whatever mommy has. Oh now this trick is fun. I find myself holding her and trying to eat at the same time..mind you my plate is about a foot away from me b/c she keeps going for it.

Poor little thing is sick right now, she has a cold and can't breath through her nose which is horrible b/c she spits out her paci to breath and then wakes herself up.

Clarity

I'm awake, it's 5:50AM...and i feel amazing! Emery is still sleeping....to the point at which about a half hour ago i went in there and thought she wasn't breathing so i put my hand on her back and kinda shook her. Well of course, she wiggled and moved..and i felt like an asshole. Poor kid is trying to sleep.

Last night right before i went to bed I did a quick clean of the house. I have found that it's much eaiser to get work done if I don't feel the need to clean the house. Therefore if it's clean already i'm in good shape. I went to bed close to midnight, but the house looks good and Em is doing great.

Dave and I try to watch Psych at night. Sometimes we make it a whole episode and sometimes 1/2. But last night as we turned it on, got through 3 minutes and decided we were both going to miss stuff b/c Emery was talking up a storm and we were to busy watching her. We decided she's the cutest thing in the entire world. (even better then puppies)

In our effort to conserve money, we took a picnic dinner over to the mount pleasant pier on Sunday night. (Monday was a holiday) It was really nice. I brought my camera:







We went to Ava's 1st birthday last night and it was really nice. I have photos from that too:







And since i had the camera out last night....

...just talking

Sometimes I just this blog as an outlet. Like an open diary. Is that good? probably not. But whatever. moving on...

Schools of thought on child raising is quite interesting. There are so many and they are all 100% sure they are right. The whole "cry it out" thing that our Doc told us to do, well my girls at the La Lac Club completely disagree. They say that the baby's brain develops during the night and that's when they need the nutrition. "if they are crying there is a reason". Which i'm on board with. I don't like hearing the person i love most in the world upset, who does? BUT...the LLC girls don't work. none of them. I do. I can't nap when Emery naps, b/c i'm on the phone trying to get new business. I can't walk around like a zombie when i have stuff i need to do, and need to have some energy to get it done and stay motivated. So there must be a middle ground. That's what i'm looking for. I don't want to get up just to give her her pacifier, but if she's hungry i want to help her out.

Things....we have WAY to many things. I just keep walking around the house thinking, what is all this crap. It's so funny what we've all become. My sister's friend Sally said something a while back that struck me. She was talking about her knock-off ugg boots. She said she was talking to some girl who made a comment that her boots were not real and that she had real uggs and she paid $xx for them. Sally goes, I told her she got ripped off. WOW, wait a minute you mean to tell me there are people out there that don't buy into the whole label craze....i love it.....That a shirt for $10 is a deal, $30 is a good shirt and $100 you just got hosed. i get quality, don't get me wrong. Kmart stuff lasts a few weeks, while gap sweatshirts stick around until your 70. but there has to been a line, a limit to when it's just crazy. I like to look nice and i like nice things but i think i'm way past buying something just b/c of the name. Hell i sold a pair of Jimmy Choo's on ebay for $75. They were not good looking shoes.


back to the baby....she's doing great. She's super frustrated that she can't walk on her own...yes she's 4 months old. every time you let her stand up, she smiles and is soooo happy. She just can't wait to walk. She does really good on a schedule. it works out to be about 3-4 hours. eat...play...sleep...eat again. it's nice b/c i can look at the clock and know ohhh she's tired or ohh she's gona get hungry soon. I like that. She had a tough day yesterday. Dave is positive it was the shrimp from Thursday night...that i ate again on Friday. it seriously messed up my stomach.


cutting back....dave and i are cutting back all expenses. Starting a new business has it's draw backs. So any ideas for free stuff to do to get us out of the house, i'm all ears. we took going out to dinner off the table. which sucks b/c that's my favorite. So now we'll just have to have friends over for dinner and my coupon skills have to get to the next level...and fast.


Denver! I'm super excited about our Denver trip. Emery and I are going to Denver for Erin's wedding. We will be there for 4 days. It's right around the corner.

Crying Sucks

The past few weeks Emery has been getting up 3-5 times a night. At our 4 month visit Dr. Davis he told us she's old enough to make it through the night. So the last few days we've let her cry a bit at night. It's the worst. I cried with her. But she's been so happy during the day and i know it's for the best. She did great last night.

In other news, Erica was here! My good friend from N. VA was here the past few days with us. It was really great to see her. My mom had a pacemaker put in last week and is doing great. But she can't lift Emery for 8 weeks. So that sucks. Emery will go to my friend Sara's nanny 2 days a week until my mom is able to lift her again.

Mommy Must Haves

For weeks I've been wanted to blog about all the things you need as a mom and the billion you don't. Emery is now 4 months old and there are a few things we use every day.

1) the bouncy chair (we have one upstairs and one downstairs) the one upstairs I keep in our bathroom. It's perfect for her to sit in while i shower

2) the bebe chair (bumbo) She loves it and we can put her right on the table while we eat.

3) the around the world play mat. OMG she loves this thing

4) burp clothes - when i saw cloth diapers on my friend's baby registry i thought, what is going to do use pins for that? But they were for burp clothes and they work the best!

5) toys that play music and light up.

6) a mobile that goes over her crib. it really does help with nap time.

7) hats! I keep hats on her the entire time we're in the car to help with the sun. She can't pull them off yet so the theory is by the time she can she'll be used to them and won't.

8) and the this is the one I can't live without...my baby K'Tan. A sling that I can get on and off without anyone else's help. She can nap in it and we bring it everywhere with us.

That's all i got....for now

A no good, very bad, horrible day

Today was Emery's 4 month doctor's visit. It SUCKED. It is so hard to watch them give her shots. It was 9AM this morning and she's still in pain. I gave her Tylenol but she looks up at me and just starts to cry. It's a different cry. A "i'm in pain" cry. The worst cry ever. She's sleeping in my lap right now, she looks peaceful. Besides the shot part, we got all good news. Emery is 13lbs 9ozs. She's in the 75% for head and length. i have it written down but it's in my diaper bag.

Over the weekend we went to visit my best friend Erin in Orlando. She was there visiting her new mother in law to do wedding stuff. Erin's dad and his wife also live there and that's who we stayed with, Jim and Babs. They couldn't have been sweeter. They completely took us in. gave us our own room, and made us breakfast. It was really amazing how nice everything was. I'm going to stay with them when we go out to the wedding in Denver b/c Dave won't be with me. Erin's mother stayed with Travis's mom. I felt really bad for Erin, she wanted help with her guest book, but T's mom wanted to do custom thank you cards...not what Erin' wanted to spend time on. She didn't want to upset T's mom so she went along with it and it ended up taking all of Saturday night which kinda sucked b/c we didn't get to spend as much time together. But she's in a tough spot. She doesn't want to make waves with her family but they have a lot of opinions they keep sharing....when they weren't asked for them. I love her and i just wish i could help take the stress out of all this planning.

Today was a wash work wise. I'd much rather be with Emery, but I stress out when i can't work. It's hard trying to work, take care of the house, and take care of Emery. I know what I'd rather do all day, but that's not an option.

ok done with my rant. :)

eating our feet

This past Wednesday Emery was 16 weeks. I know at some point I have to move to months.... but if I say 3 1/2 months that's not really right, b/c she'll be 4 months next week....so you see my delima. I re-designed my blog last week and promised myself i'd start adding more photos. so here we go...(if you want to see the clear shot, just click on the photo)

emery's 16 weeks photo shoot started with a smile..


got a little more serious..



and ended with her trying to crawl away...




Emery at 15 weeks... (i'll get better at this)



Emery has two new tricks. She can now grab both feet with her hands. This happens automatically as soon as you take her clothes off. She also does it while laying in her crib.

Step 1: get feet



Step 2: notice mom has black flashing thing pressed up against her face


Step 3: try and eat my hand.


Her second trick is she can now roll over from her back to her stomach...wait for it...and back to her back. I have yet to SEE her go from back to her back but i turned to get the camera and she flipped back back over....mind you she still can't sit up my herself and she's not 4 months yet! This is crazy. I have some video of her at http://www.youtube.com/user/melyjask but have yet to catch her doing a full roll over.

And just for fun her new outfit with her thug hat.

flipping over

Every time I put her on her back today, she flips over to her stomach and starts to wiggly herself across the mat she's on. It's pretty impressive. She can't sit up by herself yet, but damn this girl can move.

So that whole sleeping through the night...lasted 2 nights. We're back to eating twice during the night and waking up at least one additional time. So we'll see. we're trying to stay on her schedule but sometimes she's not hungry when i try and feed her. we'll find our rhythm here at some point.

I was sick yesterday with some virus. My whole body hurt. But today I feel a lot better. My mom came over yesterday to take care of us.

Really??

So it's almost 5AM and i'm awake....and the irony is Emery is asleep. After just one day of a VERY strict schedule she's still asleep at 5AM. I, however, woke up at 4 and can't fall back asleep. I laid there for a while hoping i'd go back to bed, then spent a while thinking of all the things I could be doing, the laundry, mop the kitchen, clean off my desk.... This was all sparked by the fact that my left boob is about to explode. I think it was the pain that woke me up in the first place. My laziness is what is currently preventing me from going downstairs to pump.

So here is Emery's schedule (thank you to Brooke!)


7:30 AM feeding
9:00 AM nap

10:30 AM feeding
12:00 PM nap

1:30 PM feeding
3:00 PM nap

4:30 PM feeding
6:00 PM nap

7:30 PM feeding
9:00 PM bedtime

It was so nice to know when to do what. I always feel like i'm flying by the seat of my pants, and i don't always operate great like that.

There are some days where i'm a want-a-be stay at home mom. Since I work from home I feel like every moment i have free I should be working. A lot of things go by the waste side. It's so funny b/c I was told while I was pregnant that I'd be excited to go back to work b/c i'd be bored and lonely.... me?? come on. I make friends at the grocery store, and I could entertain myself all day. There are about 20 groups for mom's in Charleston and of my current friends alone I know at least 4 stay at home mom's. Not to mention all the ones i'd meet if i started going to these groups. Now there are other days (like when we get a new client) that I love working. And i do really love my industry. I've been into the web since 1996 when i created my first website. It consisted of a brown and pink poke-a-dots background and a photo of me and my high school boyfriend. Very advanced as you can picture.

Emery and I went over to our friends house last night Sara and Shawn. Dave went kayaking for a while before it started to rain. It's so weird that all our friends have kids. When we all met, there were no kids. In fact when i met this whole group no one was even pregnant. It's very strange, but totally awesome.

My mom and dad get back from their northward swing tomorrow. They did NOVA, NY - coldspring, Brooklyn, Cape May, and now they are coming home. In their travels they got to meet Hunt's (olivia's boyfriend) parents. I heard it went really great. Dad LOVED their farm, they have a bunch of animals and he was like a kid telling me about it.

ok off to mess with my blog design....again.

Sleeping and Moving

She rolled over!! I put her on her back on the blanket behind me. I started checking my email and she started making noise (nothing unsual) then when i turned around she was on her stomach!! It was so cool. I yelled for Dave and flipped her back over but she didn't do it again.

She rolls from side to side a lot now when she's on her back. She talks to all the little animals on her baby play mat. full conversations of course.

The last few nights she's been a pill. She goes to bed just fine and then wakes up hourly. It's a blast. So today we started our new schedule. We're going on a 3 hour schedule so hopefully I can start functioning like a normal person. We went to boob club today. I do like the girls there, but they seem to think it's perfectly normal and encouraged to fed through the night. I really need to sleep. So we'll see how it goes. She's in her room now b/c she's doesn't fit in her bassinet anymore.

3 months...wow

Last Wednesday Emery turned 3 months old. In baby time this is huge! She has outgrown all her newborn stuff and is creeping into the 3-6 months clothes. Thank you Tammy for all the hand me downs! She has some super cute dresses. She is talking up a storm these last few days. She is so happy in the mornings, it's so fun. She's chatting and giggling. I love it! Her nighttime routine is going really well. She gets a bath (sometimes it's just water no soap), then we put PJ's on, have our medicine, nurse and read harry potter. Dave reads to us as I feed her. It's nice. We are 1/2 way into the second book. I must say i'm more interested in the outcome then Emery is. But i'm sure we'll read them all again when she's old enough.

As for me, i'm not sleeping that well. She made it to 6AM two nights in a row but i got up at 4. That sucks. I have been feeling overwhelmed lately, which i'm sure with the not-rested aspect makes it seems much worst then it is. I find that there are days I panic and days i don't, yet it's the same stuff that happens on both those days. Funny how that is. I've been watching "dead like me" and i just finished the first season. Every now and then Em has a really rough day. She had one last Wednesday. It's the kind of day where she sleeps most of the day, (i know what you're thinking that sounds pretty sweet) but when she's not sleeping she's screaming (ahhh you get it now). So as soon as she wakes up it's a full on game of moving and swaying, bouncing and rocking. Until she falls asleep in your arms....yes you can't put her down or she'll scream again. On theses days I watch TV. As soon as she falls asleep I sit down with her in my arms and watch TV, last Wednesday I watched the rest of "dead like me" season 1. I usually watch it in 20 minute intervals when i'm feeding miss Em, but not that day. I think i made it through 6 full episodes. pausing every 30 minutes.

Natalie and Trace are in town right now. It's so great having them here. I feel like i'm on vacation too. Emery is loving all the attention. We spent the weekend at the beach.

bye bye daddy

Dave's in Chicago this weekend for Baseball bingo. It's only 2 nights but i think i'm gona miss him. He must have kissed me goodbye like 10 times this morning! i love it. Last thing he said was "send me lots of photos of her". Now THAT i am good at. I'm quick with the iphone.

I've been laying off dairy lately to see about her fussiness in the afternoons. I think it's working but who knows. So last night we went out for Mexican and i did really well until dersert. We hardly ever get dessert when we go out for dinner but it was this guy's birthday at the table next to us and this AMAZING apple crust with ice cream and something flaming went by. I had to have it. So there went my dairy. We have her a bottle last time, I always have a few in the fridge at my mom's house for when she's over there. So we stopped by and grabbed it. She went to bed at 10 and made it to 5:45AM!!! Go Emery! then went back to sleep at 7:30ish and we both slept till 10:30. It was glorious.

12 weeks! WHAT?

How on earth could it be 12 weeks already??? Little Miss Emery is doing great! We had a few bad moments after the 4th but she's amazing. She has discovered her hands now and it looks like she's doing "itsy bitsy spider" all the time. She's alert and wide awake most of the day. Last night she only got up once to eat so that's a good sign. She's out growing her bassinet so i think it's time for the crib. That cross over will most likely be in the next week or so.

Dave is headed to Chi-town this weekend for a Cubs Baseball Bingo game, so it's me vs. the house. Needless to say with Dave's back out and the holiday weekend followed by friends in town, a lot has not gotten done. I need to do some work on our lawn, we need mulch big time and there is laundry up to the ceiling. I'm hoping i can grab a friend to come chill with Em while i do the lawn. We have rocking chairs out front so someone can just park there with her. I really don't want to put her on the ground b/c of snakes. My neighbor saw one a few weeks back.

photos of Emery: http://picasaweb.google.com/melyjask
Videos of Emery: http://www.youtube.com/user/melyjask

11 weeks

Today Emery is 11 weeks old, right this minute she's fast asleep on my lap. We have been reading Harry Potter to her at night...Dave and I are pretty into it. Emery however, could most likely care less. She had a tough day today, which is understandable. The last few nights have been very busy. This past weekend was her first 4th of July. We went to the pool two days in a row and saw fireworks downtown at a friend of Kit's house. What a view! Mel, who's house it was, lives right across from the Riverdogs stadium and we stood in her back yard and watched the fireworks. Miss Merritt (Kit's 3 year old) got to hold Emery for the first time, and she did great.





Yesterday was Baseball Bingo at the Riverdogs and we were out until 11:00. We don't have any late nights on the board for the rest of the week or next week, so hopefully we'll get back on her schedule.

Emery is smiling a lot now and is holding her head up by herself. she LOVES her bebe seat, photos to come. I took them on my phone and have to move them over.

ok she's up. time to eat.

Boob Club

When we decided to do 12 hours by 12 weeks we went sticky to bottles (i was pumping) for a week or so to make sure Emery was getting enough milk. We discovered she was getting plenty of milk so we could start cutting out night time feedings. Well this caused all kinds of breastfeeding issues. She was getting so pissed that the boob wasn't coming as fast and as easy as the bottle. We went back to boob as much as possible, so now the only bottle she gets is with Nana in the afternoons.

So with that back around info...Emery and I went to the La Leche League meeting this morning. Monica calls it the boob club and is the one that told us about the meeting. These girls are amazing. They have a lot of experience and had me feed Emery there so they could help. What happens is she eats and pulls her head back and screams. They gave me some tips and helped me with positions and some possible reasons why she's doing this. I left very relieved it turns out i might be over producing and she's trying to keep up. i thought it might be the opposite.

other than that things are going great. KMK is doing well and i'm working from the house in the afternoons. Emery spends the afternoons with Nana. Dave has a herniated disc in his neck and is having a lot of pain. We spent all of Tuesday at the Spine Center and they gave him a shot for the pain and a neck collar to wear when he sleeps. The doctor thinks it will heal itself and we won't need surgery. I'm trying to keep him from doing to much.

oh I have a ton of videos of Emery on YouTube now! http://www.youtube.com/user/melyjask

Sleeping Beauty

Tuesday night something amazing happened. Miss Emery skipped both her night time feedings. She slept straight from 9PM to 6AM. What's even more amazing...she did it again last night. Dave and I both woke up around 5:30, the norm for her second feeding and were shocked. We checked to make sure she was ok...she was. It's sweet! I didn't even get her out of her bassinet until 8:00 this morning. She was just laying in there chillin. As long as she had her paci everything was good.

Most days she goes to my mom's house from 1-5, or 12:30-4:30. yesterday and today she's at my friend Sarah's house with Sarah's nanny Katrina. It was nerve racking dropping her off, but yesterday went really well. Katrina is great about text messaging me with what she's up to. Makes me feel so much better. But she's 9 weeks now and i need to expose her a little to non-family member care. It is nice having an entire day to make calls. I drop her off around 10 and i'll go get her around 4:30. From 12-1 I try and do my non call stuff (which includes writing this). So i can maximize call time. ahhh cold calls. Tonight i have tennis, and i'm pumped for that. it got canceled last week b/c of the weather. Tomorrow we have lunch with the girls, and then Adam and Lilly's wedding. Very exciting. Emery will be with miss Prisha.

Roll over

A few days ago I put Emery on her stomach and walked into the other room to grab something. Came back and she was on her back. First I had to remember if i really did put her on her back. Yes I have the mommy brain. So i flipped her back on her stomach and called for Dave. Of course she didn't do it again. So Monday the same thing happens and Dave is at work, so I grabbed the video camera and just hoped she'd do it again, and she did!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B_4DlfV8h8

2 months old

Today Emery is 2 months old! She's so amazing! She is smiling at us (and the animals on her bouncy chair)daily. She even giggled a little the other day. She is doing really well during the day now, she only gets cranky right before she passes out. I think it's that idea that she might miss something. We're trying to do 12 hours by 12 weeks, but we're having some issues with feedings. I was pumping for a few days exclusively to make sure she was getting enough to eat, now she's not eating as much if i go back to the boob. So we're trying to work that out. I'm bringing her in tomorrow to the breastfeeding club to weigh her. As long as she's gaining weight we're good. She was 10 lbs 3 ozs at the doc last week. She got her first shots there as well. (NOT fun for anyone) poor little thing.

It's a little hard with house stuff sometimes. I feel like i either want to be with her if she's awake. So if i have any time at all without her, I feel like I should be working. And since I can work at any time of the day it's hard to get other things done. Like the laundry, or vacuuming. just a little venting. It's also been tough b/c Dave hurt his back/neck and he's in a lot of pain the last 2 weeks. I know it's frustrating him that he can't do much right now.

Ok, back to work, Emery is with Nana this afternoon.

7 weeks

Yesterday Emery was 7 weeks old. She is holding her head up more and we've caught a few more smiles. She slept last night from 10 to 2:30. We just got our new book "12 hours by 12 weeks" and we're starting the sleep training next week when she hits 8 weeks. A friend of mine did this and she had great success.

Dave and I went to Babies R Us last night. It was nice to have a little family outing. We got Emery a new toy and some bottles. She loves toys that play music. So that's what we got her. It's a cube that has all different instruments on it.

As for me, I'm doing KMK in the afternoons and just joined "Get Fit" on Daniel Island, it runs the entire summer and lets you test all kinds of classes for a very low price. I took my first class Tuesday night, a interval training type class, and I was so tired the next day. I think I'm going to try and take more classes closer to the weekends so i can nap. I have cardio tennis tonight at 6:00. I'm looking forward to it.

I have felt dizzy lately, i'm not sure what it is. I went back on birth control so that's the only thing i have to blame it on right now.

smiling

A few nights ago we caught a somewhat smile...then that same night we put her in her bassinet and both looked down and talked to her. We got a full smile! It was amazing. So we have had a few smiles here and there but not a lot.

She's doing great, she's so aware. It has been great.

Work: Well it's official I'm no longer with CMCI. So now it's KMK full time. My mom is taking her for a few hours each day so i can make calls. We'll see.

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend was Memorial Day Weekend! I have two very best friends and they both came to visit me! It was amazing. Dom came in on Thursday and Erin came Saturday (she was supposed to get her Friday but US Airways had some issues). Dom cooked us dinner, Erin cleaned my house, you want to talk about good friends! Emery was very happy to meet both of them.







Now that it's June, i'm gona be going full steam ahead with KMK Web. My mom is watching Emery in the afternoons from 1-5 so I can have 3 solid hours for phone calls and meetings. (i know you just did the math but it's 20 minutes in the car each way) So hopefully I can grab an hour in the mornings while she naps to set up my day and do anything that doesn't involve a phone. Can't make phone calls with the chance she could wake up and start screaming. Not very professional. So hopefully KMK will go big time and I can stay home with her in the mornings. Keep your eyes out for clients for me please!

Other then that things are good. Olivia and Dad just got back from Detroit for Baseball Bingo. They said it went great! Natalie and Trace come in July!!! That's exciting. We just found out Dave's good friend from NJ is having a baby in Jan. So good news all around.

No more Willy

Well "crazy eye willy" is slowing becoming a thing of the past. Her crazy eyes are going away and she is starting to stare at things longer. Dave and I saw her reach for the bunny over her bouncer on Friday! It was so cool. We both reacted to it when we saw it. This is day 2 of her new medicine for her reflux and i think it's kicking in. She is much happier today. She attended her first baseball game last night and thanks to nana and Aunt Livvy we made it to the 9th inning. She was screaming a bit but we passed her around. She was going through a growth spurt and was just hungry.

In fact i'm going to wake her up now to feed her.

Two v.s. Four

Today Emery is 4 weeks old. There are some MAJOR differences between 2 and 4 weeks. The first 2 weeks Emery was home were pretty consistent. A lot of sleeping, and eating. The crying was a clear sign of hunger or a dirty diaper. But now, ahh things are different. The crying could be many things. hunger, dirty diaper, tired, gas, pacifier fell out, want to be held....well you get the picture.

So we try different things. The rocking chair, the swing, the vibrating chair, even the mummers strut. (for all you non-Philly people this is a dance/walk from the mummers parade in Philly) This was discovered by Dave's dad who turned to it in a panic when Emery wouldn't stop crying. It was successful. The rocking chair works, so I've been spending a lot of time in it, this would explain the fact that I started The Office season one last week and am now almost finished with season 2. Not to much else you can do in a rocking chair. Her crying isn't always because she's upset, a lot of the time she just wants attention. At her 3/4AM feeding she sometimes is wide awake and just wants to hang out. If you put her in her bassinet she gets pissed. It's a very simple, I'm not ready to go back to sleep right now.

Other then learning new ways of calming her, we're doing really great. She's getting big, it's so strange. People keep saying ohhh she's so small but she's more then a pound heavier then when she was born. Her eyes are changing color too. They are a light brownish color now. We're thinking they are going to be hazel. This morning we went on our first walk, we walked for about a 1/2 hour. i really needed it. It's good to exercise a little. My goal is to walk every morning then feed her and take her to my mom's so I can work. Emery is going to Nana's next week for 2 half days. We'll see how it goes. We are starting slow.

Fussy

Yesterday Emery was 3 weeks old! Go Emery! Her eyes are changing and she looks bigger already. I think her eyes are going to be hazel.

The last few days I have had some stomach issues...so needless to say so has Emery. Poor little thing has diarrea and gas like no other. She gets frustrated when she can't get it out and gets very upset. It's really hard to watch b/c there is so little we can do for her. I got two hours of sleep for two nights in a row, so last night I went to bed at 9:00 and had left a bottle in the fridge. Dave stayed with her until 2:00AM so i could sleep. It was glorious! I was out cold.

Today we have part two of our Kayla shoot! We are heading over there soon and I'm wondering if Em is going to cooperate. She's sleeping in her swing right now, but is making all kinds of funny sounds.

The first Tuesday after I had her we went to a lactation support group at the hospital. There is a lactation consultant there and she answers questions and gives tips. Well I thought that since I really wasn't having that much trouble I really didn't need to go. So i skipped the next week. On Monday I talked to my friend Brook who was having some issues with breastfeeding so I told her about the group. I said we'd go together, and we did. I really had a nice time. There were more girls this time and it was nice to be with other new moms with small babies. Emery was no longer the youngest in the class. (in fact she was double the age of one baby) haha. I learned that some of Emery's gas might be b/c i wasn't pumping for a few days and my supply is very good. So she was getting too much milk at once causing her to eat to quick and get gas. So i'm back to pumping every day. Yesterday I got 5oz from one and 4 from the other. Apparently this is rare but very good. So no shortage here.

ok she's getting fussy. gota go

OH, I have been taking dozens of photos of her with the camera and my iphone. I've been uploading them to my site if your interested: http://picasaweb.google.com/melyssaferber/EmeryApril2010May2010#

Vistors

Yesterday Dave's Dad and Kathleen came to visit. We went to the mount pleasant pier and then to Wild Wings. Today Joe and Dave went kayak fishing and Kathleen, Emery and I went to the farmers market downtown and then went to see Liv at the roof top. Tonight we are making shrimp kabobs.

Around 4:00 today Dave and I went to the pool and left Emery with her grandparents. It wasn't easy, but we were super close and only went for an hour. I had only left her one other time with my parents for about an hour, but that was easier I guess b/c it was MY parents and she wasn't fussy. I think b/c of the Thrust and her tummy she's been upset the last few days. I learned my lesson on onions. No more of those. Man did she not like them. We both had stomach issues. (i will spare you the details of that one)

Joe and Kath are totally in love with her and have taken dozens of photos of her to show off to their friends. It's so cool she has so much love in her life already. She's one lucky kid! (and so damn beautiful!)

Pregnancy Tips

When you're pregnant people feel the need to say random things to you and give you tips. So instead of doing the same thing I thought I'd write down what I learned. I'm sure I'll continue to add to this list but here's the start.

Pregnancy Tips in no particular order

- get a belly band (this allowed me to wear some of the larger maternity pants before I got huge, but it was to the point i couldn't wear my normal clothes. I think i wore it every day)
- After you deliver your baby you bleed...alot. so know this. (i did not and told Dave to get the nurse b/c it looked like a crime scene in the bathroom)
- Wait until your +2/+3 to push if you can (this made pushing a lot quicker)
- buy maternity clothes on ebay and craigslist. I found a few local girls selling their stuff for super cheap. (brand new stuff is WAY expensive)
- There is nothing wrong with pitocin IF you are full term (i was scared of it, but it got my contractions rolling and allowed me to delivery vaginally; my water had already broke)
- ignore all the nah-sayers (people tell you how tired you'll be, how your life is over, how everything changes...blah blah blah. what they don't tel you is how much you're going to love this little person and that even when you don't get a lot of sleep it doesn't matter. so when people go there, just smile and nod and feel sorry for them)
- toughen up your nipples. pull on them, pinch them, do whatever to make they a bit more durable. (this will help greatly when it comes to a little person sucking at full speed on them)

Ice cream

On Wednesday for her one week birthday, Dave, Nana, River, and I went out for ice cream! Happy one week to Emery!

This is amazing. Being with her. It's so funny to me that people keep saying "oh just wait" and "everything changes". I really hate that. So many people have so many opinions it's crazy. I don't know about either statement, but i do know I am completely in love. I thought this that a crying baby in the middle of the night would piss me off. It doesn't. I look at her and I think, what can i do for you? I'll do anything you want. She has the cutest face I have ever seen and she makes the funniest faces.

Dave is amazing too. He takes her after her 4/5AM feeding and hangs out with her until she gets hungry again around 7/8. Then the poor guy goes to work for a full day and comes home and cleans the house and makes up dinner. How amazing is that! I offered a few times for him to sleep in the guest room and get a full night's sleep. He said he might take me up on it at some point. She was crying the other day and he picked her up and said "don't worry we're right here, we'll always be right here...I'm gona follow you to college" hahaha I loved it.

Last night Kayla came over to do our infant shoot. OMG the photos are amazing. Here are a few she posted on her blog: http://kaylajonesphotography.blogspot.com/






I was blown away by the comments on facebook after Emery's arrival. Everyone was so nice and happy for us. It really meant a lot. It's sad though that some of the strange/non-happy comments stick with me some times. People feel the need to tell Dave and I "oh just wait" when they hear how happy we are. It's very strange. Dave and I have promised ourselves that we will NEVER be those people that but down parenting. We are beyond happy with our little Emery and the whole world just washes away when you're with her. It's the most amazing feeling.

6 days old

On Sunday Emery had her first outing. My parents had a block party in their hood. So we put her in the carrier (so people won't touch her) and strapped her to my chest and went. They had name tags for everyone so my mom made Emery one and it said "i am 4 days old" on it. Too cute. Everyone was shocked we were out with her. She did great slept the whole time.




Monday we went to the doctor for both of us. I saw m doc in the morning about a bug bite that has taken over my arm. We went out to lunch with nat, liv, and mom. Then Dave and I went straight to Dr. Davis for Em's one week visit. She weighs 6lbs 15oz and the doc said that just doesn't happen and how great she's doing. So we asked a bunch of questions and headed home. Dave went to publix and Em and I went home to take a nap.

she is doing so good!

Baby Emery

So Monday night I went to bed worried that our baby would be born on the next day, April 20th...420. destine to be a pot head. So Tuesday around 9:00PM we knew we were in the clear and as we sat down to watch TV before bed, Dave and I both talked to my stomach and told her it was time to come out. (something we haven't done before)

I had a really good day Tuesday and felt pretty good. We went to bed around 11:00, at 1:50AM I woke up and sprinted to the bathroom. I didn't make it. I soaked my shorts and left a trail. I thought ok, this isn't right something is up. I woke up Dave and told him I thought my water just broke and then I jumped in the shower to rinse off. I called my midwife and she called right back. I told her what happened and she said to take our time, but to go to the hospital. Dave showered and we double checked out bags and headed to the NEW hospital. It was now 3:00AM as we walked in through the ER. About 10 feet before the front door I soaked myself again. I walked in and they just pointed me to the restroom. There was a very nice nurse that brought me a robe and a bag for my clothes. Dave filled out our paperwork and we were sent upstairs. I managed to soak my robe on the way up. When we go to the 3rd floor they had our room ready, room 311. They joked with me that there was no question, yes my water broke. They checked me and i was one and half cm dilated. We had a long way to go, but I wasn't having contractions and was feeling pretty good. I text messaged mom, dad, nat and liv on our ride over. The morning went pretty quick and the next thing we knew it was 7AM. Dave called work to give them a heads up and we got word that Natalie was on her way to the airport.


Almost 9AM


At 8/9AM Nurse Stone (my midwife) came over to check me. I was 2 cm dilated. Not to much change. They said they were going to let my body do it's thing and see what it was like after lunch. I was having contractions at this point but nothing big. They told me I should walk around a little so i started doing laps around the nurses station. The first time it was just me and Dave, then my parents came to visit and walked with us.



Around lunch time Stone came back and said it was time to get this party started. They told me they were going to start pitocin. (which i have come to realize is a fantastic drug) They wanted to start the pit then get me my epidural. So around 2ish we started the pit. About 30 minutes later the contractions started to get going. (meanwhile my parents have been hanging with us and got Dave some food, Liv came at 11 and Natalie was in the air, arriving Charleston around 3:30)


me and Stone

We ran into one snag, the anesthesiologist got pulled into surgery and my epidural got delayed. There was about 2-3 hours that I was NOT a happy camper. There is a photo of me flicking off the camera but i'll keep that one out of the blog. Dad said in all the years he has been taking photos of me he can never remember me not smiling for the camera. The fam left to go pick up Natalie from the aripot. A good thing b/c i was miserable.


My epidural was in by about 4:30 and I started feeling great! Natalie was here and we all just hung out. about this time nurse stone came by to check me. I was 4cm! They said at that point it was about a cm an hour. So we all just chilled.

much happier! me and Dave

At 7:00ish I was checked again and i was 10cm!! The baby was still a little far up at -1 and Stone wanted to give her a chance to move down on her own, so we waited. at 7:30 she had moved to +2/3 and it was time to start pushing. The family went to the waiting room and it was just me, Dave, Stone and our nurse Kathy. at 7:50 Baby Emery joined our family!



Dave said I did an amazing job. (i just did what they told me to do) As soon as the baby came out they put her on my chest and did the suction and whipped her down while she was on my chest. Dave and I just stared at her. We both were pretty emotional at this point. I fed her for a bit and we just hung out the 3 of us before my family came back in. Emery was in the room with us the whole time, they gave her a little sponge bath a few hours later right in the room. She is beautiful!


dad is totally in love


meeting Nana

About 11:00PM after my family left they moved us to our new room on the other side of the floor. The beds are very comfortable. I fed her and they took her to the nursery for a few hours. After they brought her back she stayed with us the rest of the night. All three of us were pretty tired and slept great.

All day Thursday we just hung out here at the hospital. I was soooo hungry Thursday morning, they didn't let me eat all day Wednesday just in case we landed in the OR. I called Prisha and she went to IHOP for us! It was sooooooo good. My family came and hung out and brought us lunch. they were here most of the day.



Emery did great all day and fed like a champ! (go Emery!) My leg started to hurt a lot that night and prevented me from sleeping. I took a little walk to see if i could walk it off and then took some pain meds and finally got to sleep.

Dr. Davis, Emery's doctor came by this morning and said she looks great and she's free to go home today. However, Stone is keeping me here b/c of my leg pain. They are sending someone up to look at in and see what's going on. So Dave and I are just chilling with Emery in the room today.

Feeling GREAT!

So right now I feel great. Showers are KEY! For some reason I always feel better after my showers. This morning Kit and I had a meeting for KMK and it went really well. We were both really pumped about it. I'm putting together the quote tonight. I'm trying to get as much in tonight as possible. Every night we go to bed thinking, is this the night? I would LOVE for her to come tomorrow b/c it's the 21st. (my birthday is 9/21, nat is 2/21 and liv is 3/21) so that would be too cool. But Dave is positive i'm going into labor on Friday afternoon. I think he has the time picked out and everything. As for the Family pool, I think my dad is the only one left in the running. Everyone had me going early.

We have our final official appointment tomorrow. Dave has revoked my driving privileges starting tomorrow, so he'll be taking me to the doc. We'll learn a lot more about induction tomorrow and what the next steps will be. I think we do an ultrasound too! I love ultrasounds!! I haven't seen her since 20 weeks. They said they do one if I'm late but i don't know how late. So we might go back in the office on Friday and do it then. We'll see.

Dave can't focus at work, he's so cute. He's sure every time I call it's go time. I try not to call too much these days b/c i know his heart races when he sees it's me.

We went to this new place for dinner the other night. It's like a Quadoba, food was good but they charge extra for sour cream!! Come on. Guac is already an extra now sour cream! Totally not going there again. It's near Wild Wings, so if I'm that close to Wings I'm going there.

speaking of wings...We had our last baby class last night. We watched 3 women give birth and learned how to push. We took another tour of the hospital and went over the baby vacuum. After class got out Dave and I went to Wild Wings, I have been obsessed with the place for a few weeks now. I get the ginger wings...OMG they are so good. Poor Dave is so limited when we pick a restaurant now, I get hooked on one place and force him to go there. Thank God he's a good sport about it. I laid off the sushi place but ummmm sushi. now i want sushi. maybe we can go tonight...

39 weeks

One week from today is my due date. Now I'm not saying I'll go on my due date, but OMG I'm due in a week!!! This is truly the home stretch. I'm feeling pretty good today. I had a hard time sleeping last night due to some pains in my ligaments and some contractions. Overall I feel good today. I think I'm going up to babies r us today at some point to exchange two things. I also might go over to habitat for humanity to see if they have a night stand for Baby's room. Right now that's the only thing that doesn't fit. I have everything else for that room though! it's perfect.

I put up more of the photos from my shoot with Kayla: http://picasaweb.google.com/melyssaferber/ShootWithKayla#.

I made my baby text list today for the hospital. I don't think i'm going to bring my computer but we'll see.

WHAT?

My friend just asked me, so how long do you have now? my answer was oh a week from tomorrow....wait what?? I can't believe she'll be here that soon. If i don't go into labor by April 23, they will be inducing me the following week, most likely that Wednesday April 28th. They don't let GD girls go past 41 weeks at this practice. I really didn't want to get induced but so be it. I'm ready to meet her!

I woke up last night around 1:30 and was up until about 4:00. Little baby decided she was going to have a small dance party and I was having some contractions. (yes, all at the same time) I went back to sleep and slept until 11:00AM....nice. I didn't feel good at all when i got up, baby was in a weird position and I was in a lot of pain. Thank God for showers. They always make me feel better. She moved back to a normal position and I felt much better after.

The plummer is coming today to fix the toilet in our bathroom and our kitchen sink, so i had to tidy up a little. I started to feel much better after moving around a little bit, even got some laundry done. Dave's boss gave us tickets for tonight's family circle cup so that should be fun. Dave might come, but most likely it will be me and mom.

Special Delivery Class

Tonight was our second class for "Special Delivery". They go over what to expect at the hospital and breathing techniques. We have one more class next Tuesday and that's it. I'm feeling really good today! I had an appointment for KMK this morning and it went really well. A good sales calls makes for a GREAT day! I'm still getting contractions daily, well hourly. They usually only hurt if i'm sitting to long. Walking is the best. My tail bone hurts a lot if i sit to long. It was killing me in class. It was really killing me at the Riverdogs game over the weekend. I was in a lot of pain.

I'm gona lay low for the next week or so and just get some sleep as much as possible. Dave is on my case to take it easy. He's got a good point, as always. I went to the doc today and I'm 1 cm and that's it. But she did poke around a bunch and i have been feeling stronger contractions tonight then before so maybe she got things moving. In our class tonight we watching a C-section. OMG it looks horrible. Scares me to death!

off to bed...

Done!

I met Liv and mom for lunch last week and I was having a somewhat uncomfortable day. I got out of the car and liv looked at me I just said "done". She laughed and said well you didn't complain for the first 38 weeks. I'm not miserable, I'm actually still very happy and content but I am ready. I'm having contractions all throughout the day now (in fact I'm having one right now) but they aren't bad. Last week there was two nights they drove me to tears but they passed. Dave was sure it was go time one of the nights. We have our bags packed and the car-seat in the car. The camera is charged up and now we're just waiting. Her room is the best! Both Dave and I are so proud of it. All we need is a night table and it's 100% complete.

Almost

Last night around midnight i woke up in pain. The tightness had started up again and I was not a happy camper. (mind you Dave is sick right now and the poor guy can't breath) So here I am wondering if i'm in labor or not, not wanting to wake up Dave if it's not really real. He did wake up and was super cute about it, just rubbed my back for a while until the pain/contractions went away. It took about an hour or so but they went away and now i'm just dealing with the tightness again.

I think I might have mentioned before that I am a member of this baby site called babycenter.com. I have been avoiding it lately b/c there are a lot of very bitchy people on the site. But i do like reading the birth announcements so I logged on this morning. First post I see is this girl writing a "letter" to her friends and family all about how she i past her due date and everyone is on her case. I realized how good i have it. There is no one up my butt about when the baby will be here and no one tells my I'm fat. This girl must have had a hard few months b/c she was pissed and anger. It was interesting to say the least.

Last week I had my maternity shoot with Kayla! http://www.kaylajonesphotography.com/ It was a blast! I put a few of the photos up in my baby album. Kayla knew exactly how she wanted me to stand and where the best backdrops would be! I can't wait to have her do our newborn photos.

I'm in the home stretch at this point, 17 days to go! They will induce me before the end of the month if I miss my due date. With a normal pregnancy they don't let you go past 42 weeks, with me it will be 41. (due to the GD I think)

life

If you asked me 10 years ago where i saw myself today i would have said no clue. But i'm standing in the kitchen today looking out the window and I thought to myself, how did i get here? What is my life going to be like? I looked around room, the baby swing in front of the fire place, the biggest most comfortable couches in the world. Here i am at 30 married to the love of my life, standing in a 2,000 sq ft home with more then amble furniture on a beautiful day. Yea i wouldn't have said that if you asked me where i'd be today. Some days I stress about money, some days i'm tired, but wow what a life i lead. Surrounded by great people, waking up to someone who loves me more then life itself. Life is good, very good.

One Month left

Yesterday was March 23, one month exactly until my due date. Very scary. Dave said to me this morning, "we're gona have a baby" i was like yea really soon. it's so crazy. I haven't posted a lot lately b/c not much has gone on. Dave had a fishing tournament last weekend and won a brand new fishing kayak! It's worth like $2500. He was so pumped, as was I! I'm so excited for him. Now we have two kayaks so he can take people out with him.

I got to go out over the weekend for Liv's birthday. She turned 25 on Sunday and we all went out to dinner. I also got to go out to dinner last night. We went to wild Wings with Mike and Melissa. I think that did me in though b/c my ligaments hurt today. So I'm taking it easy until the doc at 3:30. Mom is coming to get me around 2:00 and we were going to stop at Micheal's to get ribbon for the little mirrors that are going in baby's room.

Baby's room is looking really good, just need to move the little book shelf in there and hang some pictures. My aunt just ordered my mattress pad! Very exciting. That is the last think i need for in there. Very exciting.

Sunshine!

It's beautiful outside right now. I'm sitting on the couch with all the blinds open. People keep asking me if I'm bored? I'm not. I think it might take a good week to get there, if then. I have my computer...that's entertainment for a while. I have made myself a list of projects I can do sitting right here. I feel good today. The tightness and her pushing is coming in and out and is usually worse in the afternoons. So the mornings are good. I slept in until 10:30 today. The longer i stay in bed the better. It's the most comfortable at this point. Mom came yesterday and brought Dave and I dinner. She even did the dishes while she was here. I was thinking about mom's yesterday. It's funny, we all have one, but the relationships we have with them are so different. You really start to reflect on this stuff when you're about to be a mom. My mom is amazing. She NEVER gave up on us. She was always there, always supportive, always just did what needed to be done. Here I am at 30 and she's still taking care of me. I am very lucky to have her as a role model. She's going to be an amazing grandmother too. She just takes care of things, of us. She was pretty worried about me and baby J last week. so much so i think she got sick b/c of it. She is coming over today to sit with me while the cleaners come. She and dad treated us to a house cleaning before the baby comes! This is very exciting b/c now dave and I don't have to worry about that piece. Dave put up the blinds in baby's room last night and I'm just waiting on the window valance from Target in the mail. Once that comes and we move the dresser over the room will be done. Oh and we have to hang some stuff on the walls. But that's not a rush. The major stuff is done! I'll put photos up when the valance comes.

Sunday Blog

I think this might be the first time I blogged on a Sunday...why is that you ask...oh yea that's right b/c i'm ban to the couch. haha. I feel good today, my energy is back. It's hard to not be able to just go do laundry or run to babies r us, but hey could be a lot worse then sitting here on my laptop. Friday went well with all that went down. Dave's teeth went great, they ran into no problems. Liv took him and picked him up, he was pretty out of it when he got home but felt fine Saturday morning (to our surprise). Friday night he did ice on for 20 off for 20 and i think it really helped. He didn't have to take his pain meds after Friday. Mom/Dad/Olivia were all here Friday to help us and they were here yesterday too. Liv/mom did our laundry which was pretty sweet.

Today Dave went to help Mike/Melissa with some shelves. Mom/Dad are coming around 3:00 to grab some stuff to take up to babies r us for me. My friend Sara is bringing us dinner tonight! So sweet. I think she's coming around 3 as well.

Prisha came over yesterday and brought the cutest outfit ever! (and she brought me a coloring book and a candle!) Later that night Monica/Mark/Reid came by. He is too cute, baby Reid. I love visitors!

pressure

There is so much pressure going on in my stomach right now it's crazy. I think it's just her and not contractions. But everything in there is so sore it's hard to tell. I talked to my midwife today and she said to try and take a bath to try and get everything to settle down. So I did, i think it helped. I ate breakfast and lunch and I'm waiting on my 2 hour mark so i can test my sugar and then grab a snack. I'm hungry and that's good. Dave is making us fish tonight so i'm excited about that.

My mom is taking me to the doc in the morning and dad is taking dave to get his wisdom teeth out around lunch. They are both going to stay with us for a bit tomorrow to see if we need anything. I think Liv is coming over too, I'm sure it will end up being a movie night with not a whole lot of anything else.

Mom is going to babies r us this weekend to return some stuff for me and pick up a few last minute items. As far as baby goes, we have almost everything we need and will have everything after mom hits babies r us.

Hospital

So the misery makes a lot more sense now.I was havering contractions. About 12:30 Monday I decided to call the doc to see if there was something I could take for the pain I was having. I also mentioned I was nausea. They told me to come in and hooked me up to the same machine as last time. Two monitors, one for baby’s heart beat one for contractions. They put me in a little room with a recliner. Midwife Jean came in and her eyes go wide when she saw the readings from the machine. She said holy shit what’ going on with you. She checked my cervix (it was closed) and admitted me to the hospital. Dave was on his way to the doctor’s office when she pulled me into the exam room to check my cervix. I had two big contractions on the way to the doc and was in tears a this point. (there is no question about an epidural now) They admitted me to east cooper, they made me get in a wheel chair...booo.. and took me over this walk way to the back entrance of the maternity ward. They got me set up and gave me procardia pills to stop the contractions, which is the main goal...keep the baby in. Every hour for 3 hours we did the pill. About 6:30 Midwife jean came over and said they were not working so we had to start magnesium sulfate.

They had given me an IV and pain meds at this point, so they started the mag and gave me fair warning it wasn’t going to be pretty...little did they know. It was about 3 seconds after they put the mag into my IV and I looked at the nurse and said I don’t feel good, I can taste it. She said oh there’s no way you could react that fast. I looked at dave and said, I’m gona throw up. He grabbed a bin and I threw up. The nurse said she has never seen someone react so quickly to it. Well now you have.

They gave me a catheter b/c I’m not allowed to get up. And a shot in my butt for the nausea. So I have tubes come out all over the place. They had two monitors on my belly like at the doctor's office, and at the time they started the mag, my contractions were a minute apart and lasting for 40 seconds. Not good. I was pretty out of it for the rest of the night.

Mom/dad/liv stopped by the house and got Dave and I some stuff. Mostly clothes and for Dave and a blanket and pillow for both of us, and a laptop. They stayed for a bit then took off. They gave me an ambien to help me sleep and apparently it worked b/c Dave said I was out cold. He said the nurses kept coming in and asking me questions and I didn't even respond. It’s hard to sleep in the beds, and of course you have nurses coming in every hour to take your temp and check your tubes, so it's really good i had the pill.

Tuesday (written Tuesday):

This morning I was been feeling better. Still seeing double and out of it though. The contractions this morning were 10 minutes apart and have been getting less and less all day. They are afraid if they take me off the mag they will return so they are going to do that tomorrow morning and see how I respond. Side note: I can hear baby’s heatbeat and she has the hiccups. I got to eat breakfast this morning and lunch is here waiting for me. The mag makes you retain fluids so I’m not allowed too much water but all these drugs make your mouth dry so it’s not the best combo. I have diet ginger ale now which is nice b/c it has some taste but I have to make it last.

Dave has been amazing. I’m very lucky. I think he did get some sleep last night, the couch in our room pulls out. The room is nice, very large. We did hear some crying babies last night and this morning, which is always nice to hear. We both look at each other and just smile.


Wednesday

Yesterday I was in and out of it most of the day. But last night they backed off the mag a little and I started to feel better. I didn’t get any meds to sleep and slept pretty good. Everything seems to be going well this morning. It’s about 8:00AM and the docs are coming soon to pull the mag all together. I have had very few contractions and I feel sooo much better then yesterday. The double vision is almost completely gone and I’m finally hungry. Dad brought me to pb&j’s last night and I had one when he got here and one this morning. I have eggs and cheese coming at some point for my breakfast.

Dave slept pretty good too last night so that’s really good. It’s hard to sleep here with all the nurses coming in and out but our nurse last night was really good and she tried to stay quite when she came in.

They still have me on an IV with fluid and antibiotics. Oh and last night they gave me the second steroid shot. Holy S*& did it hurt. I was dead asleep about 2 seconds before so it wasn’t the best way to get up. It burned something fierce. This morning Nancy from labs came to take blood and she got it on the first try (unlike the nurse the first day here that stabbed me like I took her purse). So it was nice to have a pro. Anna is my nurse again today and I like her. She stopped by a few times this morning already and she’ll be with me hopefully all day. Nurse Stone should be here soon to pull the mag.

Overall feeling much better then yesterday. Baby J’s heartbeat is great and contractions aren’t coming too much. Good report.

Afternoon update:
Nurse Stone and Dr. Wilson came and pulled me off the mag this morning around 9AM. It was wonderful. They took out all the IV's and the catheter! I was a free women. But getting up and walking for the first time in 2 days is pretty interesting. I almost ran into the wall. no balance. Dave and I watched "Dirty SExy Money" and played cards. I felt like myself today. Dr. Wilson came back around 1:00 and told me I could go home. I couldn't wait to take a shower, which is the first thing i did as soon as we got home. They took me in a wheel chair, which i had no problem with this time. I'm just so glad she's still inside me. Still cooking. Dr. Wilson said I have to make it to 35 weeks which is a week and 3 days. I can do it. 37 weeks is better so that's what i'm shooting for. I'm officially on bed rest. I can be standing/walking for 15 minutes max then i have to sit/lay back down. Dave is going to publix tonight to get tons of food. A lot of people said they are up for helping, i think the biggest thing i need is help getting dinner made. Dave doesn't usually get home till late and I get hungry around 6. I can't stand up long enough to chop veggies and grill chicken, even on the George Forman which is now my new best friend. So pathetic.

But i'm home now. Watching some TV and playing on the net. My back hurts i think due to the being in that hospital bed and the water retention. I am just drinking a lot of water and staying chill.