Natalie's First Birthday

Marianne's Pooh cake

Today was Natalie's first birthday party. It was Pooh themed and we all had a great time. Emme got all dressed up in a fancy party dress. Marianne made a Pooh cake and I thought it came out great. We should start a cake business together!

Smiling again

Happy Birthday Natalie!

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to my dad Mike. Emme wants to know when we are going to Outback? We got you a cool present. Hers's a hint... Hopefully this one won't self destruct!

This Week's Events

Check out my new shoes!

(Hey Aunt Jeanine, thanks for my new clothes- I pooped on this outfit at the restaurant. Mommy was not pleased!)

Well this week was busy since the princess prefers to be out and in new environments. We had dinner with Aunt Marianne, Uncle Dom, Natalie and Boots on Saturday, visited Aunt Keri and Uncle Bob on Sunday, and Aunt Jeanine Uncle Kevin and Bailey on Monday. We went to the eye doctor on Tuesday with Poppa Mike. I went in because there is a new contact lens out on the market for people like me with bad astigmatism. It is part soft and part hard lens. It has all the benefits of hard lenses (prescription) and the comfort of soft. Not sure whether the lenses will be good since it won't be able to fully correct my right eye but the comfort was amazing. So we will see when they come in. I was going to have surgery done because the lenses I had were making me miserable but when I became pregnant they had to put it off until my corneas adjusted. I have been wearing glasses and I figure I might as well try these contacts in the meantime. As for the rest of the week we visited with Grammy J after the eye doctor and then hung out at home for the rest of the week. Now we are getting ready for Emme's first party- she is going to Natalie's one year birthday party. So excited we are.

Smiling for Daddy

Hanging out with Daddy

Sleep is Good

So content

Well I hope it was just that six week growth spurt that came a little early. Things have been much better the past two nights. Tom is well- thank goodness. Emme is content when awake so I actually vacuumed and emptied the sink! AND best of all we have been sleeping again at night for the 5-8 stretch. As I type this Emme is sitting, babbling and cooing at her toys in her bouncy seat.


I said "No more pictures!"

(Aren't my stockings cute with the built in shoes...)

I love my corduroy overalls!

I am trying to talk

What a Day!

Today was probably the worst day ever. Emme decided she didn't want to go to sleep last night at 11pm so I rocked her in her car seat and we both fell asleep in the living room. I awoke at 3:30 and tried to sneak her into her crib and she woke up and that was that. She was up and we had no nap until 9ish when she fell asleep again in her car seat- I know, I know bad habit but when you are desperate you do what you can. So we slept for an hour and then we were up again ALL day. What made the day so terrible was Tom had horrible diarrhea all day long which needed to be cleaned and Emme wanted no part of being put down. So she screamed, I cried and Tom kept getting sick. I counted the minutes until Paul came home. I didn't even have a minute to eat. I begged Paul to take Emme in "her car seat" to McDonald's in the hopes of her falling asleep (she didn't) and to get me some food FAST! Of course while they were out I was supposed to be relaxing but Tom struck again. Poor dog. So we just finished bathtime and the bottle is being handed over to Paul. She always behaves for him. Hopefully she will go to sleep and STAY asleep. If not you may find us sleeping in the car in the driveway tomorrow! And as for pictures- maybe when we get some sleep I will look for the camera!

Did Someone Say Cookie?

Talk about good attention. Too bad Emme doesn't know what a cookie is yet!

Photo Shoot with ALL the dogs!

Today I visited my mom since she is off from work this week. She got to spend all day with Emme since my sister hogged Emme while we shopped on Tuesday. We had to get a picture of the dogs together with Emme for the PCOTC Trial Catalog which had a deadline of today of course. It was a complete train wreck. The dogs didn't try to hurt the baby or anything but in over 100 photos we barely got what we needed. In every photo there was at least one uncooperative dog- or a screaming infant. It seemed quite odd that there was one dog in particular that did not listen very well. Bet you would never guess who. It is ironic that the dog who would not listen is the dog that modeled for the dog food company- Miss Abbie Einstein! Here is what we ended up with. These photos will appear in the Trial Catalogs for the four PCOTC trials this year.

Shopping and Lunch

Here is Emme with her friend Natalie. She will be one next week. They spent the afternoon together with their mommies who took them to lunch and spent lots of money on them!

Agility Run Thru

This past Sunday my dad convinced me to bring Tom and Jerry to PCOTC for some run thrus. Since I am not cleared to "run" yet he wanted to run them. So off we went, two dogs, baby and me out of the house by 7:45am- I was amazed. I have no idea how I am going to fit all the doggy and baby gear in my truck when trial season starts. I already asked Paul to buy a Thule box and rack for the top of the truck! Tom was realy good for my dad. He ran ok the first run with his eyes locked on me at the start as usual, but once he got moving he was good. His second run was much better and I was proud. My dad then ran Jerry and he was so silly. He wants to make his own course and do whatever obstacle he wants not the correct course. But that is ok, he is still a baby in agility world and he has been off for the past five months "maturing." He starts class again in March and will be working on flatwork and sequencing since the speed and obstacle knowledge is there. Tom is skipping classes this semester and doing a seminar called "Spring Training" to get him ready for the Spring Trial season. Our first trial will be April 5th in S. Gloucester, CT. We are only doing one day that weekend. After that is our club's trial that is local Thus-Sun on Mother's Day weekend at FDR Park.

YEaH! No Shots today!!!

Well Emme grew about a pound and a half- much more than we could have hoped for. We were hoping for 7 oz (she lost a lot and wasn't at birth weight by 2 weeks) but she hit a growth spurt and is now 8lbs 9.6 oz and 21 and 3/4 inches long. Maybe she will soon fit into her 0-3 month clothes. We are still in Newborn clothes but we graduated to Size 1 diapers!

Also at the doctor she didn't even get any shots. She gets 2 next month. I really like this pediatrician since they space out all the vaccinations so she doesn't get hit with a bunch at once. Well we are off to shop with Grammy J and Aunt Jeanine. They want to buy Emme more "stuff." I am going to need another house for all her "stuff!"

One month old!

We can't believe Emme is one month already. It seems like yesterday we were in the hospital waiting for her. She seems to be growing- we go to the pediatrician tomorrow for a checkup and shots....... I wonder if she will have tears. I might! She holds her head up better and really watches us now and what we are doing. She follows us with her eyes and even is starting to hold onto things. We have to work on this though since today she smacked herself in the head with a toy rattle. She is also quite skilled at shooting poop all over her changing table and anything within a few feet. It doesn't even matter if you have a diaper ready, she times it perfectly. Just ask Jeanine. Speaking of Jeanine, she and Kevin came to visit last night and Jeanine helped give Emme a bath. I think Emme enjoyed drinking the soapy water as you can see from the picture above.

Happy Valentine's Day

This was Valentine's Day outfit #2 after I #2ed on the first one!

Hope everyone has a good day. Emme and I spent the better part of the day at the mall while Paul worked. We had to buy a bunch of birthday presents and it was nice to get out. Emme got a bathing suit for Valentine's Day. I have to say I was very impressed with the mall- they really cater to parents with little kids. They have a nice family room that is very large with couches and plenty of changing space. They also have private nursing rooms with rockers and bathrooms that have little toilets. When we got home Paul barbecued yummy steaks that I have been asking for. We had to wait for the temperature to get above freezing to use our grill.

What do you mean Daddy says I can't buy anything at the mall?

First Smile

Emme gave her first smile out on Tuesday- yes a real one not a gas smile. We were at the Dog Club and she decided she really liked the women who were fussing over her so she gave them a big smile. I didn't think at first it was true but today when we visited the labor and delivery floor of the hospital to pick something up she gave one of the fabulous nurses Chris a big smile. So I guess it was true now I only have to capture it on camera. As for that we had another photo session with Tom and Jerry tonight to try to get one good photo of them together so I can finally finish these announcements. I think I have what I need. We shall see.

Here are some silly faces-

Busy Week

This was the picture taken just before we left the hospital. Looks like I wasn't the only one happy to be going home!


Well it has been a busy week. We have been dealing with the very slow weight gain issue. Emme has her one month (ALREADY!) appointment at the doctor on Tuesday so we are trying everything to get her back to birth weight or more. My body doesn't seem to be producing enough milk so we are trying the herbal supplement "More Milk Plus" by Motherlove. The lactation consultant says it is very good so hopefully it will help. She also said the low production can be linked to my hypothyroidism. It was well controlled during pregnancy although I had to increase the dose several times. Sometimes after delivery the thyroid crashes so I went for bloodwork today to check that out and if I need a different dose they can get it to me now instead of waiting until 6 weeks post delivery. How annoying it was to arrive at the blood lab and find that the elevator was out of order. So I had to hike back to the car to put the stroller away, hike back to the building and then up to the third floor while hauling a the baby in the car seat. I certainly got a workout. I could barely breathe when I got to the lab.



I also have to spend the next three days pumping after every feed for 10 minutes. That is like hell. This is to increase my supply and also produce milk to put into bottles so we can mix breastmilk and formula to hopefully get Miss Emme to add a little weight on. It is so nice that Paul can feed her but since I have to still pump I have to get up at night. But on a good note Emme has been sleeping very well. Just last night she slept for 6 hours and poor Paul was late for work. He heard the alarm but figured it was still early since the rest of us including the dogs were still sleeping.



We have been out and about too since the weather has been pretty nice. We visited friends, went to the dentist, took my dad to the allergist, visited dog class, the labor & delivery floor where Emme was born, Mrs. Green's and the blood lab. Oh yeah and the Dunkin Donuts drive thru! I must say the car is a happy place for Emme. She might not like getting strapped into the car seat but the car knocks her out. More pictures soon!

Emme and her Furbrothers

Today Emme had her first photo shoot with Tom & Jerry. Of course she slept through most of it and the dogs were very good. No quick movements on anyone's parts and the pics came out pretty good. We needed a shot for the announcement which is so adorable (and costs an arm and a leg at that) but I cannot wait to get them done. Here are a couple of my favorites from today.

Tom kisses Emme

Jerry says Emme better not move another inch

My First Bath

Tonight Aunt Jeanine and Grandma J brought Emme her new bathtub. She had a really nice day considering she got to eat out twice, was spoiled with lots of new presents and was able to have her first bath. She had to have her bellybutton cauterized on Wednesday since she had some granulomas that were leaving blood spots on all of her little onesies. The doctor said it was pretty common and it didn't really hurt her when they did it. It just stung a little. So I wanted to wait a bit to give her bellybutton a few days to finish "crusting" and then giver her a bath.

As for her bath, I filled up her tub, woke her up and put her in. Then she pooped in the tub within seconds of being in the water. Nothing like stringy breast milk poop. Thank goodness the tub is the size of a Cadillac- I was able to pick her up and rinse her a little on the opposite end of the tub. I then took her out and had to start all over again. She did enjoy it the second go around. She is a wiggler though and almost learned how to swim underwater! It was so entertaining she slept from 10pm and I had to wake her at 3:15am for a feed. She was back down by 4 and didn't wake up until almost 8am. Not bad. I think every night will be a bath night!

Supplement with Formula

I took Emme to the doctor yesterday after the Breastfeeding Support Group, a trip to CVS for passport photos and of course a lunch at Panera- couldn't resist. You truly have to take advantage of eateries with "clean" changing tables and the ability to discreetly feed a baby that have good food too. So we finally get to the doctor for a weight check and she weighs in at 7lbs. This of course was after the doctor played around with her car seat on the scale. They do not have a baby scale. They calibrate the regular scale with the car seat on it and then put the baby in and it tells the weight of the baby. Unfortunately my car seat doesn't sit properly on the scale so they have to fidget with it every time. So anyway after all of this the doctor decided Emme needs a one ounce supplement of formula after every other feed to catch up. He felt that she would have gained more weight had I been feeling better than I was last week and were able to sit properly to feed so if she weighs more than birth weight by next week she can stop the formula.

The doctor gave me some premade Enfamil Lipil to take home and use but we had no bottles or liners so I had to go get some of those. She ate most of the one ounce at her 8:30pm feed along with her regular feeding and then at 11 she only nursed. At 2:45 she awoke hungry so she nursed for a good 45 minutes and then I had to wake her for the formula. She refused it for awhile and then finally took most of it. She still was hungry still so I nursed her more. Ten minutes later everything was covered in puke. EVERYTHING. And Emme was wide awake with a very empty stomach. So I nursed her for another 45 minutes and she seemed fine. She awoke again to nurse at 6:45 and all was well- no formula at that feed. But at 10am we had a repeat of last night's puke fest. After the clean up I nursed her again and so far she is fine. I called the doctor and he decided to skip formula for the next two days to catch back up to yesterday's weight and if I want to I can get some soy based formula. He also said I could skip the formula until next week's weigh in and I decided that is what I am going to do. Emme hadn't even spit up anything since birth until the formula so I am hoping that is what this caused her to get sick.

Why A C-Section?

A number of people have asked what happened- why did I have to have a c-section? Especially since the baby was head down and in position for what felt like forever. Well two days before Emme arrived I believed that my water had broken. Of course I wasn't sure and I didn't even want to think that I was just peeing on myself repeatedly so I called the doctor. She said to meet her at the hospital in the morning and she would check. (I opted to stay home since I was not contracting) I arrived at the hospital and they were not sure if my water had broken either. The test they did turned the litmus paper blue but when they looked under the microscope it was unclear. So they did an ultrasound and it showed there was much less fluid than the minimum required. Since I didn't want pitocin they allowed me to have cervidil which is like a little strip of meds that they put next to the cervix to help it along since I was only dilated to 1cm. After 12 hours I could have another one if labor hadn't started. So this was Sunday morning. Well around 3pm they tell me to go use the bathroom and on my way the cervidil fell out along with some more amniotic fluid. So yes my water had broken the day before and I WAS NOT peeing on myself!

The doctor returned to the hospital examined me and said I had improved a bit and was now 2cm so she gave me another cervidil and joked because usually people don't lose the cervidil. Well I must be one in a million because by 11pm the new cervidil had fallen out with a gush of amniotic fluid. Great. The doctor did not return until the next morning and said it didn't matter anyway because the second cervidil had done nothing. I was still at 2cm and I had to have the pitocin because the baby's head was "molding" which meant it was trying to squeeze through 2cm and creating a cone shape. So on with the pitocin at 7:45am. By 3pm I was examined again since I was not having "good enough" contractions for the doctor. I was only now 3cm so they jacked up the pitocin. I tried walking, bouncing on the birthing ball, sitting in the tub and by 5:30pm I was in agony. I had resisted all pain meds but enough was enough. I asked for the narcotic Stateol and instead of it taking the edge off it slowed the contractions so they had to turn up the pitocin some more. The Stateol became ineffective and the pain was so bad I became very mean to Paul and the nurse. I demanded an epidural but the doctor could not get back until 6:30 when they finally gave it to me. I felt defeated but at least the pain was gone. Or so I thought.

By 8pm I was feeling every contraction again. The pain meds had not done their job. I am one of those people that pain meds don't work effectively for. The doctor examined me again and found that I was now 5cm and she was certain she could get me to 10cm but was very concerned about the molding of the baby's head and since the baby was measuring very large and my body was not cooperating there might be a good reason why my body wasn't naturally going into labor and nothing else was working. She was also concerned that she would not be able to deliver the baby that it might get stuck and that would be very dangerous or even fatal. Once I heard that I said I would go for the C-section. So the pitocin was turned off and I was able to relax somewhat until I delivered Emme at 10:12 pm. So for the record it was the exact opposite of what I hoped for in a birthing experience but at least I now know every other option and the effects. It was said that women who use pain meds especially narcotics in labor have babies who are less alert and somewhat groggy at birth. Now of course I had almost everything under the sun and Emme came out screaming, continued to scream and even was awake enough to nurse an hour later.

Two Weeks Old

Emme turned two weeks old today (tonight really.) She is very alert and stays up for quite awhile before going back to sleep. Sometimes she stays up for two hours and then only naps for an hour or so. She loves to look out the window at the light or the lights on the tv. Paul even caught her watching him eat a cookie. She would watch the cookie go back and forth from the plate to his mouth. I bet she can't wait to get a hand on a cookie. We now have somewhat of a night schedule. She feeds around 7pm and sleeps for an hour or two- so do I. She then feeds again and sleeps till 12-1ish and then she feeds again and sleeps until 5 or 6. She sleeps up to four hours at a time during the night only and we wake her during the day after two hours so we can keep the long sleeps at night. Thanks Moriah for the good advice. It seems to be working. Her cord fell off Saturday so we are looking forward to our first bath tub experience. She seems to like the sponge baths on the counter- hopefully the feeling will be the same soaking in a tub. She certainly doesn't mind the tongue soaking baths from Tom she receives any time he can get near her. Here is a picture from today just after her sponge bath.