We can't believe it but Emma is one month old already! Amazing! She is growing like a little weed and we have proof because we just got back from her one month appointment with the Pediatrician. Emma now weighs 8 lbs 2 ounces!! She has gained 3 pounds already since she was weighed one week after coming home. She is 20.5 inches long too, which is 1.5 inches longer then when she was born. She is now in the 25th percentile for weight and between the 25th and 50th percentile for height. The doctor said she was doing great and is growing at an above average rate...I guess she is playing catch up from being so tiny at birth! Poor little Emma did get her first shot since leaving the hospital today, this was her second HBV shot. This shot protects against the hepatitis B virus, which attacks the liver. Emma will get a total of three doses: at birth, between 1 and 2 months, and between 6 and 18 months. Poor baby was NOT happy! But, nothing that a good meal and a nap at home can't cure. As my mom always says..."Sleep is the best medicine!"

Emma now changes by the day and amazes us how she can learn new things from one day to the next! She can now (well, almost) hold her pacifier in her mouth, although she still tends to knock it out sometimes and we can see her clearly trying to figure out how to reach for things. She is awake for most of the day and luckily, seems to know when it's bed time and is usually pretty good about sleeping at night. She tends to make much more noise now too! Ha! But good noises though, like little gurgles and grunts, like she is trying to talk to us but just doesn't know how! We haven't heard any laughs yet, but we are starting to get more and more smiles when she is awake which just melts our hearts. She absolutely just loves laying in your lap and "chatting". She can't seem to find us when we are across the room quiet yet but is very good at eye contact when you are close.

Everyday Emma seems to learn more and more about her body, especially her hands and legs. I'm not sure she knows how to control them quiet yet but she seems to be much better then a few weeks ago! She can now finally wear some of her 0-3 month old clothes and some of her Newborn sized clothes are actually tight!

We haven't had her bath yet today so I'll have to wait until later but I really would like to take a picture of her each month so when she gets older, she has tons of pictures of her when she was a baby. But of course, we have to look cute for our pictures ha! So stay tuned for her official 1 Month old picture!!

Here is a picture of Emma when she was one day old...


...compared to a picture of Emma when she was just three days shy of her one month Birthday.

If you notice in both the pictures above, and almost every single picture in the blog so far, her hands are in almost the exact same position! She LOVES to hold her hands up by her face, especially when eating or sucking on her "Binkie" and she sleeps with her hands up like that all the time!!

Finally Posting Again!

Shew!! The little one sure has kept us busy over the past couple of days, ergo the lack of posting! Everyone is doing really well and Emma is growing like a weed! We are heading back to the doctors for her one month appointment on Monday so we will have an update on her weight but we are guessing she is in the mid 7-s already! She is finally getting chunky!!

Everyday is different then the last with her as she is still trying to get into her routine. Overall though, Emma is awake and much more alert then a few weeks ago. Today for example, she was awake from about 8:00AM to 2:00PM! Wow! She has her fussy days but overall is a really easy baby (which I hear the first one is always the good one). Nights are still a challenge and she again has better nights then others but on average gets up about 2 times a night, with the 3rd time being right about when Daddy is heading to work, so Mommy and Emma get some snuggle time after that.

On Monday, Emma went on her first trip to the Maryland Science Center haha! Although she slept through most of it, she was awake for about an hour when we were going through the Kids Corner which has a ton of different colors and lights for her to look at. She celebrated her first trip there with an incredible poop explosion during lunch so we had a change of outfit in the ladies room. Poor thing was crying her little head off so I can only imagine what the women who came in thought I was doing to our child haha. After getting all cleaned up though, she was a much happier camper!

Wes's parents are visiting us now and Emma is loving all the extra attention and we are certainly loving all the help! I ended up coming down with a pretty high fever last week (which also explains the lack of posting). Because of the fever, my breast milk had really "dried up" or at least I had a really hard time pumping so we ended up having to start Emma on some formula because I couldn't keep up with her. She has definitely hit a growth spurt and now eats about 4 ounces every 3 hours which I just couldn't supply after the fever. She took to both the bottle and the formula really easily which was a pleasant surprise. We are still supplementing with breast milk as much as possible, but I still haven't been able to get back to where I was pre-fever. Although I was disappointed we had to start supplementing so soon, I have to admit that it was quite a relief to be able to share the feeding duties!

Emma had her first "awake" smile yesterday, on July 24th too! She smiles a lot while asleep but for the first time she smiled while I was "playing" with her yesterday. I thought it was a fluke but then she did it again in the evening, so that was really fun to see!! Then, she did it again this morning! I love it! She is changing by the day and is growing faster then I could ever imagine!

Catching Up!

Hi Everyone!

Well, it's been a busy couple of days with our little mama so I'll try to catch you up on the latest and greatest. We went back to the Pediatrician's (which I absolutely love by the way) on Monday of this week for Emma's weight check up. We we able to tell last weekend that she was putting on weight, which was a big concern of ours before (since she dropped so much weight) but we weren't sure how much. Well, at the doctors office she was weighed and the grand total was a whopping 6 lbs 8 ozs!!! That was a HUGE improvement from her first appointment where she weighed only 5 lbs 1 oz (down from her original 5 lbs 12 oz weight). Our little mama is now our BIG mama!! So the doctor was really pleased to see that so we can finally relax our super feeding schedule which is a big relief to me! We were feeding her every 2 hours during the day and every 3 hours at night. Now, we can finally stretch it to every 3 hours during the day and we have been just letting her wake us up at night when she is hungry. That has pretty much been every 3 to 3.5 or 4 hours so she is pretty close.

She has changed so much already! Emma is awake a lot more often (day and night) and is very alert and inquisitive. She aboslutely loves her little lamb swing but I think is a little spoiled already because she pretty much won't fall asleep on her own, she likes to be held. I am already dreading the day that I have to go back to work and leave her in Day Care...I just know I am going to be a big mess!

The next two weeks are going to be pretty busy I think! Wes's parents are coming to MD for a visit next week and we can't wait for them to see their first granddaughter! Then, we are headed to a quick vacation to Ocean City the following week since Wes will already be off of work.

All in all we are doing really well. We are still trying to get our routine down, but right now it's pretty much whatever Emma ditates for us haha. We hope everyone is doing well! I think it's time for a quick cat nap for mommy since I have been awake since 5:00AM!

Happy Due Date to Emma!

Today is actually Emma's estimated due date and I feel like we need to celebrate it for some reason ha! Almost like a Birthday (Emma is currently celebrating it by sleeping through it haha).

I can't believe that she has been with us for 12 days already (counting the day she was born). It has absolutely flown by despite the recovery and lack of sleep. She actually did really well last night and woke up on her own for each feeding (every 3 hours) and didn't budge in between. I never thought I would be so thankful to get 3 hours of sleep in a row haha. On Monday night it was a different story though. She woke up right on time for her 11:00PM meal, and then for her 2:00AM meal...but then again at 3:00AM...and then again at 4:15AM...yikes. Needless to say yesterday was a long day!

Well, this will have to be a short post as the little tiny peanut is calling! It's bath time too before Daddy gets home!

First Week Update!

Hi Everyone!

Well, we are doing really well at home after our first full week with our daughter! I can't believe that we are parents (poor child haha). We came home from the hospital actually a week ago today, and were surprisingly rested after the first few days at home (we knew it was too good to be true). Our little peanut is quiet the sleeper and could sleep for 5-6 hours straight at night! However, when we went to her first pediatrician's appointment she had lost a little too much weight so we are now on a more strict feeding schedule. Emma is still a good sleeper (sometimes too good) and we actually have a hard time waking her up for feedings!! More so during the day though. Yesterday, after blowing on her face, taking her clothes off, flicking her heels and changing her diaper I actually dipped her feet in cold water and she STILL didn't wake up! She is getting the hang of the night feedings though and we are starting to notice that she is gaining some weight back so it looks like the marathon feedings have been doing the trick! Although its been a little tough on Mommy, it sure has been good for dropping the weight!!

All in all we are doing really well! Today was Daddy's first day back at work so that was pretty hard on him I think but Mommy and Emma spent some special time together this morning and then Mimi came up to help us around the house and gave me a break this afternoon where I could nap (which made a big difference)!

We had a pretty relaxed 4th of July, but were able to finally get out of the house and head to my parents on Sunday for a cookout. We did pretty good! We made it until about 7:00PM before both of us looked pretty exhausted and had to call it a night haha. It felt soooo good though to finally get out of the house!

So things are moving right along! I think we are doing pretty good and settling into our routine and I also think we got really lucky with an amazing baby! She was passed around from family member to family member for a good 6 hours on Sunday and barely even noticed!! She has also (knock on wood) been really good during the late night feedings and usually goes right back to sleep after a quick diaper change and feeding. I am absolutely loving being a Mommy and Wes is an amazing father already.

A Few Pictures to Share...

Guess Who's Finally Here!! Introducing...Emma Kathryn!!

Hi Everyone!!

First, thank you so much for so many emails and posts about hoping we are doing well! Sorry for the late update, but as you probably guessed, little Emma Kathryn has arrived!! Since this post is coming pretty late, I decided to post Emma's Birth Story below, and then create another post to let you know how our first few days as parents have been!

Emma Kathryn Odom arrived Saturday morning, June 27th 2009 at 10:31AM and was a whopping 5 lbs 12.6 ozs and 19 inches long. She is our tiny little baby!! I ended up working from home on Friday, June 26th simply because I was exhausted and didn't have any meetings that day. After a quick shower in the morning, I realized exactly how exhausted I was (much more so then normal) and ended up just overall not feeling so well. I actually went back to bed and slept for another couple of hours. In the afternoon, I started to get a little worried because I hadn't noticed Emma moving very much that day, so I made a quick phone call to the doctor's about 3:00PM and to my surprise, they told me to go directly to Labor and Delivery! This completely threw me for a loop as I was expecting them to have me come into the office to check the heartbeat. Well, I immediately burst into tears, called Wes, who was at work in Washington and told him to head to the hospital. My next call was to my mom who drove up and met me at the house, grabbed my bags and drove me to the hospital. After my initial freak-out, I ended up calming down and really thinking that it was no big deal and that I would be home in a couple of hours. Boy was I wrong!!

When we got to Labor and Delivery the nurses didn't seem too concerned so mom and I thought that there wasn't anything wrong. Eventually, we got sent back to an exam room and I was hooked up to some monitors to check the heartbeat and to see if I was having any contractions (and just didn't know it). The heartbeat was nice and strong and of course Emma then starting to move all over the place haha. The little stinker. So Emma was checked out and was happy and healthy but my blood pressure was really high, much higher then it had been at any of my previous doctors appointments. The nurse took some blood and urine to test and told us it would be about a 45 minute wait. During the wait, they continued to take my blood pressure which eventually decreased a little, but was still high considering what it had been at my doctors appointments. To top it off, they found some protein in my urine (probably TMI...sorry) but those two things together, weren't good signs. So when my doctor came in the room and checked out all the results, he said it was time to have a baby and that we were going to be induced! Insert next freak out moment!!

The plan was to get checked in and insert Cervidil to help my cervix start to thin out and get prepared for labor. Then we would start Pitocin the next morning, thinking we wouldn't have much to do until then, and that Emma might arrive sometime Saturday evening. The Cervidil was inserted about 6:30PM on Friday night and by 7:00PM I started to feel contractions! So we knew it was working! But by about 9:30PM I was REALLY feeling some pain thinking this was going to be a long night...and it certainly was. Looking back, Friday night was definitely the hardest part of the entire process! About 2:30AM I couldn't take much more and was really disappointed to hear when the doctor checked me that I was still only about 1 cm dilated (which I was a week before). They ended up taking out the Cervidil since I was a little too sensitive to it and I continued to contract until things really started moving at 7:00AM on Saturday morning.

There wasn't much of a wake up...pretty much the doctor came in the room with two nurses, flipped the lights on and started getting things rolling. I was now about 3 cm dilated. Dr. P didn't want to start the Pitocin until I got the epidural (THANK GOODNESS) and since I was finally 3 cm, I could get it ASAP! About 7:45 or so the pain relief came!! AAhhhhh..... Wes and I could finally get some sleep. At that time, they also broke my water. At 9:00AM I was still 3 cm dilated but that wasn't going to last long because that's when the Pitocin was started. About 9:30AM the doctors and nurses started rushing in the room because Emma's heart rate was dropping during contractions. At one point, it even dropped in the 50s! After switching positions a few times with no luck, the doctor decided to check me to see how I was progressing. At this point, I was preparing myself for an emergency C-Section but to our surprise...I was 9 cm!!! Holy Moly!! My parents were supposed to come by that morning so I immediately said to Wes "You better call my mom and dad!!!!" Luckily, they were close by because it would only be another few minutes before I started pushing!

By the time the nurses and the room was prepped...it was about 10:15AM and time to push! After about 15 minutes and 12 pushes...Emma Kathryn was born!! It was absolutely amazing and although somewhat scary at times, a life changing experience. The hardest part was definitely Friday night....Saturday was almost a breeze! It went by so fast and I really didn't have any pain (at least not until the Epidural wore off and then....ouch!) I will never forget first seeing Emma and the look on Wes's face when she was born. Wes was absolutely amazing throughout the entire thing, helping me through each contraction and encouraging me through each push and he continues to be amazing now that we are home and trying to recover.

Emma is doing great, she is completely adorable but then again I am probably a little biased. :)