This Time Last Year #3...

On this weekend last year, I had finally finished the work at school that I wanted to before I went out on maternity leave. Jason had taken a test that he had at school, so we both were ready for Emery to be born. Although, truly, for the amount of time I could take off and where it fell, I really did want to go past my due date, but something about being through with the work made me mentally done. We started doing all of those recommended things, including eating spicy food and taking long walks. I remember several walks down to Lowry Park or walking along the Hillsborough River near us, and wondering if this would be the day. That anticipation was really cool, and is a good memory.

This Time Last Year #2...

Last year, once I hit 37 weeks on September 1 and knew that Emery technically could be born any day, I started thinking of which dates I would or wouldn't want her to be born on. (Like I had any control.) I actually really liked her due date, September 22, because of LOST. But I would think, I'd be ok with this date because of this, or I really wouldn't like this date, because it's also so-and-so's birthday. Ha! But it was fun to anticipate what day she would actually come. Here is a recent picture...

This Time Last Year...

I recently said that in the month leading up to Emery's birthday, I knew I would start reminiscing about this time last year, so here goes the first memory. Last year when September rolled around, I remember thinking it was so surreal that the month I had been anticipating all year was finally here (Emery's due date was Sept 22). Then later that day I had a slight scare when the doctor's office told me to come in early after I called about a concern I had. I immediately thought I could be having the baby that day, and I was NOT ready! Of course, I didn't have her then, but I certainly got myself prepared!

Now, a year later, it's September again, Emery's "birthday month"! I guess from now on, I'll look forward to September with some anticipation. It's so hard to believe that in just over 3 weeks she'll be 1.



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Emery 2011

Since I last posted on this blog, I've been pregnant and had a baby, who is now almost 11 months old. Needless to say, my layouts have now focused on her, rather than anything I used to do.  I've decided that that's what I think is the most important thing about my scrapbooking--recording these details of her early years that may get forgotten, so she will know what she was like, things she did, and so forth. Now that I think of it, I realize it's been so long since I've even posted on this blog, that I have finished my honeymoon album that I referred to in a previous post, and I've started a book titled, "The Story of Us" that will be about how my husband Jason and I met, up through our wedding. (I think. I may try to continue until we were pregnant with Emery.) I did make a book for my parents and my in-laws about Emery in 2011 (documenting my pregnancy and her first couple of months). Here are some of my favorites from that one.

 Here is a link to the whole book on the Scrap Girls website, which is my favorite digital scrapbooking site. Everything I used was from that site, and the supplies are listed in the EXIF properties on that site.

http://scrapgirls.net/forum/gallery/album/18801/4849-emery-2011/

 Thanks for looking!

Random Thoughts

So far, back to school has been not too bad. I've had to make a list of things to get done at night so I'm not so rushed in the mornings, and that's really helped. I'm also pretty motivated right now, which is good, since last year at this time I knew I was about to give birth, so I wasn't into school yet.

Emery is growing a lot. She's walking now, and she's only 10 months old. She's also starting to try to repeat things, which is too cute. I really enjoyed getting to be home with her all summer. I can't believe she'll be 1 soon. It's gone by so fast.

Here are some recent pics...












- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It's been a while

I've been thinking a lot recently about getting another post out, and I just haven't had a lot of time, obviously. I don't mind so much being a working mom, especially since I get a few weeks off during the summer. But right now, things are so busy that I just do what I can do when I can. But, I found this app that I can post my blogs from my iPad, so I'm trying it out.

I wanted to keep up with Emery's development a lot more on the blog, so now maybe I'll be able to better. I can't believe she's already 7 months old, getting closer to 8. She's developing quite a little personality. She doesn't seem to be a picky eater, which is great. She's pretty active, I think. I've also been told that by her daycare teacher, and even last night at the church nursery. She rolled from her stomach to her back pretty early, at 3 months. She didn't roll from her back to her stomach until about 5 months. She started crawling around 6 months, and now is really getting around well. And just in the last couple of weeks, she's been pulling herself up to a standing position, so I have no doubt she'll be walking by 9 months (just like her Daddy).


I love that most mornings she wakes up singing. I've sorta recorded it, but I want to get a good recording of it, because I know that one day she won't be doing that anymore. My dad said I sang like that when I was a baby, so I think that's cool. I also love that when I go to pick her up from daycare, she laughs and crawls toward me, or starts jumping up and down if she's in the exersaucer. I can't wait for the summer, when I get to hang out with her all day. I also can't wait for Amy, Jordan, and Ava to finally get to meet her in person, not just through Skype. Hopefully they'll be able to fly from Germany in June to visit.

I think the weird thing for me is that even though we get into a routine, it's always going to be changing as she grows older and changes. Jason said that's a good thing for me, since I like my comfort zone.

But for now I'm trying to just enjoy everything as it comes, because I know it will seem to have gone by so fast. And I'm trying to take lots of pictures!


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The Birth of Emery Elizabeth

On September 1, I was 37 weeks, which technically is considered full-term. I knew that I could essentially go into labor at any time. In fact, that day I had a little issue that I called the doctor's office about. I had an appointment that day anyway, but they told me to come in early, so I immediately was scared that I was having the baby in the next couple of days. I still had school things to finish up before I was out for a few weeks, and I was not mentally prepared yet. After that day, I made sure that I had my bags packed, and I got all of my work done that I needed to.

A couple of weeks later, Jason and I were so ready that we started trying to do all of the "wives' tales" methods to induce labor. Well, I didn't do the castor oil, but most of the other things I tried, but nothing really worked. Of course, none of those methods are "proven," and they say it's all based on when the baby is ready. But, I will always remember that excitement of being ready, hoping it would happen that day, trying to plan when you didn't know when it was going to happen...good memories.

So, I wrote my last post the day before my due date. And I made it to my due date and nothing happened. I had a doctor's appointment the following day, and we scheduled for me to go the hospital on Sept 27 and be induced on the 28th. Jason and I had both decided that we would go ahead and take that whole week off, just to relax before going through the birth. We went to see a movie that day, which we rarely do. After that, we went to Red Lobster to eat, which we also rarely do (we usually get take-out when we "eat out"). By that point, so many people were commenting on facebook about foods that worked to induce labor for them. We were joking that if I went into labor that night, we would say that it had been because of the dish I got at Red Lobster. I took home leftovers, and Jason was saying he didn't know why I was, because I was going to go into labor that night, and then my leftovers would go bad.

So we went home, and just hung out. All night I could feel Emery moving, and it just felt so tight, like she really had no room anymore. It was pretty uncomfortable. I honestly didn't think that I'd be able to last 5 more days at that point. We decided to go to bed around 10:30. I was getting ready for bed and all of a sudden, I felt liquid gush out of me. I knew my water broke. I sort of freaked out about it, just because I didn't really expect it to happen. (Although I had kept saying I'd rather my water break, so I knew for sure, rather than try to figure out if I was having true contractions or not.) Jason was telling me not to freak out, because I knew that it could happen. I called the doctor, and Jason was getting all of our things together, including some old clothes for me to wear to the hospital. It really was so gross, and I was very thankful that it happened at home, and not at work or anywhere else. Here's a picture of me on my due date (I was starting to take a picture of myself every day so I would have one from the day I went into labor, but I forgot to take one that day, go figure.)

I checked in at the hospital sometime before midnight. I was still only 1 cm dilated, so they put me on pitocin. It took a while for me to progress, and Emery still hadn't dropped a lot. I got an epidural when I started feeling the pain a lot more. By 9 the next morning, although I was 4 cm dilated, Emery still had not descended enough, and the doctor mentioned having a C-section. Even though I've had a feeling the whole pregnancy that I would end up having a C-section, I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I started crying. We decided to see how much progress had been made in a couple of hours. At that point, no progress had been made, and we decided to go ahead with the C-section. By that point, I was so exhausted, because we really didn't get a lot of sleep that night, between the excitement (and checking facebook comments) and the nurse coming in every half-hour or so. They also had increased my epidural because I was starting to feel more pain, so now I was feeling nauseated and shaky. But at that point, I was just ready to have the baby. Once the decision was made, everything went by so quickly. They got me and Jason ready to go in the operating room. Our family prayed with us, and we were off.

I was nervous about the procedure, but it really wasn't that bad. Jason was sitting with me the whole time. I kept waiting for the sensation of them pulling Emery out of me. Finally, the anesthesiologist told Jason he could stand up to take pictures. I kept hearing him say, "Oh, wow. Oh, wow." (Later I found out he was saying that due to seeing all of my insides just laying there, not from seeing Emery like I originally thought. Ha!) But he started snapping away. After a few minutes, they held Emery up over the curtain. I immediately started crying, amazed that I was finally seeing this baby that had been inside of me the last 9 months. I couldn't hold her yet, though. They took her aside to clean her up...Jason got to go watch and take pictures. They were sewing me up, and I was fighting to stay awake, because I didn't want to miss anything. Finally, they brought her over to me and laid her on my chest.

Mommy holding her for the first time

Daddy holding her

First family photo

Her official stats were that she was born on September 24, 2011 at 12:40 pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 15 oz and was 20 inches long. I'm posting pictures of Jason and me when we were babies to show how she looks like a combination of the two of us. I think she has Jason's eyes and coloring, and she has my nose and the shape of my head.

Claire

Jason

Of course, now that we're home, we're adjusting to our "new normal." I'm trying to take it all in and enjoy every moment because I know she won't be this little for long.