Life As [Clint and I] Know It.

To me, it feels like a lifetime ago that I last posted. Already I feel like I can't remember life before Emma. She has surrounded our little life with so much love and joy; it has given us a completely new meaning to life. It has been such an eventful 17 days that I don't even know where to begin.

Miss Emma has been a little angel. She is such a good baby - we feel so so lucky! She rarely cries, that when she does we don't even mind because it is nice to see that she is normal [whatever that may be]. I am breast feeding her and that has been going wonderfully as well. The beginning was very difficult because I didn't initially have milk to give her (which I had no idea would be the case). I just assume only women read this blog (other than my family members), so I don't see any point in leaving the gruesome details out.  But what completely SAVED us was her determination. She never gave up on me and that is what made me want to stick it out for her. We used an eye dropper with formula to trick her into thinking she was getting milk from me - which also saved us. As SOON as my milk came in she started eating like a champ, and now it seems like I can't feed the little girl enough. She is hilarious when she eats, she literally snorts before latching on when she is really hungry. Now that nursing is going smoothly, I will say that I absolutely love it. It is such an incredible thing to be able to completely nourish your child with just your body. It also creates a greater portion of her day right now dedicated to her and I spending time together. In the first week home, she had lost a little weight (down to 6 lbs from 6 lbs 9 oz) so her doctor - John Simon with Woodbury Health Partners, whom we love- recommended that we supplement an ounce of formula after nursing for a day to see if she would gain any weight. 2 days later she had gained 4 ounces :) Yay! We see the doc again on Wednesday so it will be interesting to see what she is weighing in at! 

We have had A LOT of visitors wanting to meet Emma and spend some time with her. It has been so amazing - but also SO overwhelming. It is almost impossible for me to fit everyone in and hope people that it just isn't working with don't take it personal. I have decided to just start saying no if it is too much for me. I am certainly NOT complaining. We can't thank everyone enough for all of the support and love we have gotten. It has completely gotten us through this stressful,  yet exciting time in our life. But we need to get back into a new routine and regain some sense of normalcy AND just get to know our daughter as well! 

Last week at some point Sheila, my midwife, called me to check in on Emma and I and we had a lengthy conversation. She wanted to let me know that she had sent my placenta and umbilical cord to pathology after the birth. She got the results back and it turned out that I had a partial placental abruption and they also noted the length of the cord to be abnormally short. She couldn't stress enough how lucky we were to have Emma here and also how lucky I am that nothing happened to me as well. I told my Mom after hearing this that although we are both here safe and healthy, it feels like I just got off of a roller coaster and somebody told me that 8 of the primary bolts were missing. You know you are safe, but you are still terrified to know how close you came to something terrible happening. Not that we can possibly love Emma more than we already do, but we have a new level of appreciation for her. We said this at the time of Emma's birth but I can't reiterate it enough. We feel forever grateful for the care we received from our midwife Sheila, and our nurse in labor and delivery, Nora. When things got scary, they handled it with ease and really made us feel as comfortable as possible with the situation. I completely trusted them both with Emma's life and mine. We feel so blessed that we came out on the other end of it with a perfect baby and with me feeling as great as I do.

With a wedding and Emma's baptism, we had quite an eventful few days this past weekend. On Saturday our girl friend from high school Brittany married her high school sweet heart and best friend Tim. When I initially found out we were having Emma, I was totally freaked out and Brittany was a HUGE support for me. Tim and her have a 15 month old beautiful little girl named Nora. We were so happy to be a part of their special day and were so emotional to see what is in store for us, or we can only hope. You could just see the happiness beaming from both of them, and Nora. I spent most of the ceremony and speech part of the reception crying. It was so nice to see such a great couple start off their life as a married couple together. The pastor had mentioned during the ceremony that these days the institution of marriage has been in trouble. With high divorce rates and the redefining of marriage; it just doesn't seem to be the same as it used to be. But when you see a couple like Brittany and Tim, it gives you hope. It really just made Clint and I realize how awesome it is to have each other and how excited we are to be married to each other and have that for Emma.

 Our Family before the wedding :) 

The beautiful bride, her groom, and babe Nora <3 

Today we had Emma's baptism at Trinity Lutheran Church in Amery, WI. It is Clint's Granparent's church and a very special place for them. Today was the 115th anniversary of the church and also the day they dedicated the communion cloths to Clint's Grandpa Bill. It was, as my Grandpa put it, "One of those days you will just never forget". It was the most beautiful fall day and the combination of that and being surrounded with family and love and of course - GOOD FOOD..... you just can't beat it. Plus our little miracle baby looked absolutely adorable in her little gown.

I am hoping I can update this often throughout her first year; as time allows. I only intended on blogging throughout my pregnancy but I have enjoyed it so much more than I first thought I would. I am already finding that if I go back and read a post from early on I have forgotten some of the things I felt and thought at the time. I can't imagine how much of a blur the first year of Emma's life will be, with all of the "firsts" becoming just a tiny part of our long life ahead. I don't want to forget how I feel right now and will feel throughout this first year. I'm sure I'll have some excuse to extend the end to the blog a year from now, but for now a year is our goal. I have been shocked by the feedback I have gotten from writing in this and have loved to share all of this joy with people somehow. 

Xo