Emma at 1 month
You have started to outgrow your perfect sleepy newborn stage and have more hours of alertness, and more hours of fussiness.
You almost instantly settle down when your daddy starts singing to you in German and dancing around.
Your favorite song is Maedchen Lach Doch Mal by the Wise Guys, performed by your daddy.
Your favorite books are The Very Hungry Caterpillar/Die Kleine Raupe Nimmersatt and Animals/Tiere.
The animals have adjusted to you being here. Lucy wants nothing to do with you, Penny wants to protect you, and Tigger wants to rub against you.
You love to eat and have no problems breastfeeding or taking a bottle from your daddy.
You’ve started using a pacifier once and awhile but you don’t want it when you are really upset.
You celebrated your first Christmas.
You were with us when we scored our first ever perfect game at Trivia on your dad’s birthday.
You have met Grandma and Grandpa Glatczak, Oma Verber, and Uncle Aaron.
Being parents – The first 2 weeks
Emma is one day away from being 2 weeks old… That means Jason and I have been parents for almost 2 weeks…
The first three days were spent in the hospital, other than seeing Emma and breastfeeding her I don’t remember the first 24 hours all that well, lots of drugs and pretty much tied into my bed… The nurses came every hour or 2 to check on Emma and me… They kept telling me they would take her if I wanted a break, I didn’t want a break. She is a pretty perfect baby so far. She doesn’t cry a lot, when she does it isn’t that loud… and her cry is almost always settled by a cuddle or some food. I didn’t really need a break from her, so she stayed with me except for a couple hours each morning when the pediatrician looked her over.
On the third day I got to go home, that day my parents and my aunt and uncle arrived in town. My mom and aunt stayed for one week, my dad and uncle continued on to  my parents winter place in Florida… So the entire first week I was very taken care of, my mom and aunt cleaned and organized my house, cooked for us and more… It was great! They left Saturday for Florida.
We have been on our own for about 48 hours now. We are still loving every minute of it! Not that it doesn’t have challenges, not that we aren’t tired… but we just love it so much. We love her, we love each other, we love all being together, it is so perfect that it is hard to describe.
We have known for 10+ years that we wanted to be parents, and that we wanted to be parents together…. but becoming adults, being responsible and waiting for other life events always seemed to take precedent… I am so glad that it finally just happened. I couldn’t imagine our lives any different than they are right now at this moment.
Emma’s Birth Story
November 27th 2012
We woke up nice and early so we could get to the hospital at 5:30am, just like the Doctor ordered.
We arrived on time and headed up to labor and delivery. By 6:30 I was in my fashionable robe, hooked up to a fetal heart rate monitor and an IV with just water.
They put a tab of cytotec up near my cervix to get it to start to soften and maybe bring on some contractions. When the Dr. came in around 8 I had started to have some very small contractions, was only dilated to 1cm still but my cervix had started to thin and soften. Throughout the day contractions continued… Mostly mild. Getting more intense at times and always coming pretty regularly about 5 minutes apart. Around 4pm they decided to start some pitocin to hopefully speed things up. When the Dr. came around 7pm to check on me I had only dilated to 2.5cm. He decided that breaking my water might get things to speed up a little. So he went ahead and broke my water and put an internal heart rate monitor on Emma. After my water broke every time I had a contraction Emma’s heart rate would drop. Jason held my hand as we listened to her heart rate slow down with each contraction. It was strange because her heart rate had always been strong and consistent until then. And with non-stress tests 2x a week for the last 6 weeks the sound of her heart was something Jason and I were so familiar with, it was easy to tell the drops weren’t normal. Dr. explained that sometimes babies take a few contractions to adjust to the water being broke. So we all listened and waited through a few. No change. Dr. said we were going to begin preparing for a c-section just in case. They put in a catheter and added some bags to my IV cart. After another contraction or 2 he said we were going to go ahead and do the c-section. In one way I was nervous and scared… In another way I was excited because I knew I would have her in about an hour… Much less time than the long wait we still had ahead of us the other way… They gave Jason his hot white paper outfit.
Put a hair cap on me and began to get things moving. The anesthesiologist arrived and explained that they would be doing a spinal and had me sign some paperwork. Then the real drama began… As they are wheeling me to OR, Jason following behind, they begin discussing what room we are going to. We were going to OR 1. At this point Dr., anesthesiologist and nurses all begin complaining about OR 1 and how they can’t work in OR 1 and how much they hate it. The last thing Jason hears before they take him to a different room to wait for the spinal to be done is the anesthesiologist saying that if we have to work there she needs her emergency kit. All very comforting things to us first timers. So I get into the dreaded OR 1 room and onto the table. I am physically shaking with chill as they all complain about being hot… I sit on the edge of the table and lean into the chest of a nurse while the anesthesiologist begins to prep the spinal. About a minute after she says there won’t be pain, just pressure. The pressure turns to pain. She eventually gives up and restarts the spinal completely. With the same result… But this time her dialog includes how she refuses to put me to sleep in this room. How she absolutely can’t put me to sleep in this room and she is wondering where the back up anesthesiologist that is supposed to be there is. The nurse whose chest I’m leaning into asked if I was ok. I said I was a little scared. Then they explain they are going to try an epidural which will work just like the spinal but take a little longer. At this time they also realize they should update my husband. The anesthesiologist starts with the epidural and struggles with it at first but eventually gets it in by going at it from a different angle. At this point they let Jason in and he comes and sits by my head. It was great to have him there. Very comforting. I was still freezing to death. A little worried that my shivering would be a problem but no one else seemed to think it was a problem. I could feel the Dr. doing everything but I felt no pain. It was very strange. After only a few minutes they said she was coming. Then the Dr. held her above the screen for us to see. She was a bundle of flying limbs and a head of hair. She was still covered in vernix, so very gray/white. But it was beautiful and wonderful to see her. The Dr. said the cord was wrapped around her neck twice so the decision to do a c-section was definitely a good one. The nurses took her and started wiping her off.
Jason got to trim the umbilical cord, then they brought her over to me. She was and is just so absolutely perfect. I know I am biased… But just ask Jason, I don’t give out compliments that aren’t deserved, even to family. She is just truly a beautiful and amazing baby. So much so that I sometimes doubt she is mine. 🙂
They held her by me for a little while then she, the nurses and Jason went off to the nursery for weight, length, cleaning etc…
While I got closed up. I don’t remember if they were already in my room when I got there or not but it really didn’t feel like very long before Emma was ours and I was breastfeeding her for the first time. As I finish writing this, exactly one week later, I still can’t believe how lucky and blessed I am. Jason is more than willing to help, my mom and aunt are in town helping, and then of course there is Emma. She is so wonderful. So amazing. She really completes our family. I already can’t imagine life being any different than it is at this moment.
24 Days – UPDATE
We are now just 24 days away from Emma’s due date… Only 3 days away from her being considered full term. Although there have been lots of articles recently about how 37 weeks while often called full term is still not as good as making it to 39/40 weeks… Â Jason is predicting she will be born on Thanksgiving day. We will see.
I just set up a little poll here. Go ahead and take a guess.
Jason found a site he thought was prettier, if you already entered in information we reentered it for you… the new site is here. http://babybookie.com/pools/319-emma-v/
31 days…
We are now 31 days from Emma’s official due date… just one and a half weeks away from her being considered full term. It is crazy to think that she could decide to join us any day now. Â We have finished all of our prenatal classes at the hospital. This Tuesday I have my breastfeeding class… Then we are technically ready! Things have been going really well, but busy. My twice a week appointments at the OB take a lot of time some days but it’s great to get to hear her so often.
We’ve been busy around the house trying to get things ready as well. The car seat is installed, we need to have it inspected by the sheriff at some point but otherwise it is ready for her to come home in. My coworkers are throwing me a baby shower this Wednesday, it is book themed so we will probably get some great books to add to her library…
It’s the home stretch and we can’t wait to meet her!!