3 months already!

This is just a real quick post. We had Emmett's 3 month pictures done last Wednesday. Here is the photo gallery. This is the same photographer who did his newborn pictures. I love them all. It is going to be so hard to pick. Enjoy the preview.

The gallery ends on Aug. 4th at 11:59 pm. The password is emmett.

Photo Challenge

A friend turned me on to this website and here I am entering my first photo challenge. Many of you have seen this picture before but since the challenge is "All About Babies", this is what I have.

My son at 1 month old.

For more gorgeous baby pictures, check out iheartfaces .

10 on 10 - Glimpse of our day

So through a friend I heard of this photography challenge where you take a picture every hour, for 10 hours, on the 10th. Here is my rather sad attempt to document my day.

Emmett sleeping in my arms - he just finished eating.

Making dinner, crock pot spicy chicken and egg rolls

(egg rolls were previously frozen)

Emmett was having a very, very, VERY fussy day.

The ongoing battle - Laundry!!

Anna and Emmett "chilling"

I made lactation bars in between fussy periods. I

would add butter

- settle Emmett,

add dry ingredients

- settle Emmett,

add oats - settle Emmett

- sense a theme?

Yes, I am tired here.

We still took time to dance!

A new obsession - Glee!

Finally - out for the night!!

And that is our day! I'm going to try to do this every

month (that I remember! Please remind me!)

One Month Old and May Events

I just can't believe a month has passed already! Emmett is one month old. He now weighs 8 lbs 13 oz and is 20.75 in (at the doctor's office he was measured at 18.25 in - at the birthing center it was 20.5 in). I can tell he is getting bigger every day. Today I boxed up all his newborn prefolds and covers (cloth diapers) and mailed them to friends who are expecting. He still fits in his newborn clothes but it is only a matter of time. *sigh* I work with children; I have a 3 yr old; you would think I would get used to children growing. But I don't. I'm always amazed but the speed of which they grow and mature.

Anna is still doing well. She finished her first year of preschool. Her school had a wonderful program in which Anna clammed up. But that is okay as she sang the entire program for us in the car on the way there. LOL Honestly, you would never guess that she can be shy if you knew her at home. :-)

We spent the day at World's Fair Park last weekend for the Children's Reading Festival. It was hot and fun. Lots of crafts and activities for kids. The best part of the day was the fountains. Anna loved getting wet and running through the water. This year she was actually brave enough to run through those giant streams of water! Here she is being goofy. I love seeing her personality develop.

We have been so busy lately this is where Anna crashed one night. :-)

One last picture of Emmett. He is accompanied by a childhood stuffed gorilla of Jon's.

Emmett's Newborn Pics

I must admit, I am a sucker for pictures of my kids. Really, what parent isn't? But I am beyond happy that I invested and have had professional pictures taken of each of them. This latest group of pictures of Emmett as a 3-day old newborn is simply precious and worth every penny. I am astonished at how fast time flies and how quickly children change (physically and developmentally). It is so important to me that I capture as much of these moments as I can. So I take as many pictures as I am able and defer to professionals to capture what I miss (and for the artistic touch). I do not regret spending money on this because I will always have these images and they bring me such joy every time I look at them. To me, that puts a value that is higher than a year worth of dinners out or other material purchases.

If you were wondering who does our pictures, we go to Megan Parker. Her work is amazing. If you are considering having pictures done, check out her website! (Just click on her name) Below is a slideshow of Emmett's pictures. Enjoy and if want copies of any of the pictures, write down the number and let me know what size.

Emmett's Preferences (so far)

After about two weeks of being around Emmett has developed some "preferences".

Now, if you want to see Emmett like this

or this

here is what you do -

Wrap me and wear me :-)

Swaddle

Sway

Shhhush

Pat me on my back

Hold me (I don't like to be set down!)

Cuddles

Kisses (as long as they are NOT from Clovis)

Feed me

Let me lay on you on my tummy / chest

Now if you prefer this face

Put me in a car seat

Give me a bath

Being awake and not getting to eat

Diaper changes

To answer the question - How is Anna doing as a big sister? I think this helps answer the question. :D

The Missing Videos

Jon and Anna Discuss meeting Emmett

Anna Meets Emmett for the First Time

First Family Pic and Anna meet Emmett

Well, here we are. All four of us! Be sure to check out the YouTube videos on the side of Anna meeting Emmett for the first time and her conversation w/ Dad about getting to meet Emmett. Very cute.

As for meeting Emmett - she was a bit nervous. She didn't want to sit to close to him. I think she might have been a bit afraid of hurting him. By bedtime I was able to convince her to give him a kiss and a brief hug. It was so adorable!! She did ask if she could "pet" him at bedtime. LOL. Things sure are going to get interesting around here!!

Emmett's Birth Story

I was having contractions on and off since Wednesday. Friday morning started out with them about an hour apart, so I went in to school. Once I got there, they picked up in frequency (15 min apart), but were still mild. Since they became more regular, I decided to go home at about 10:00. Once I got home, they became very irregular again and at one point I went nearly an hour and a half without any contractions. Since they seemed to be irregular, we picked Anna up her babysitter and brought her home. We had dinner and did some housework.

The contractions started to pick up again at about 10:00pm and by 1:00am they were about 7-8 mins apart and were getting quite a bit more intense. Then we called Anna’s babysitter so we could drop her off and shortly after Jon got off the phone I had a very intense contraction, following which my water broke. This is when things really started to pick up! The contractions soon became very frequent, at about 2-3 minute intervals. It was at this point that we went to the birthing center.

We arrived at the birthing center at 2:00 am (we were the only ones there except for the midwife and our doula). The midwife checked and found that I was 3-4 cm dilated and 70% effaced. So we walked around and sat on the ball and contractions started getting much stronger. Within an hour I had dilated to 4 cm. At this point I decided to go into the shower for some relief, which helped a bit. From that point on it was mostly a blur. The contractions were coming pretty much continuously. I got out of the shower and leaned against the ball on the bed, and spent much of the rest of the labor in this position. I found that vocalizing really helped me here.

On a side note, after things had got very intense Jon’s cell phone rang and it was one of his friends. He didn’t answer, but couldn’t figure out why he was calling at 5:30 in the morning. After looking at the phone, he found out that he accidentally “pocket dialed” the friend that they had been connected for about 2 minutes during very intense contractions and vocalizations! He talked to his friend later and found out that the guy had now idea what was going, but thought they were either at a hospital or watching a strange movie.

Going back to the labor, after sometime the midwife had me move onto my side so that she could check and found out that I was fully dilated and effaced. She told me whenever I felt the urge to push to go ahead and do so. I ended up actively pushing for about ½ hour and then Emmett entered the world (at 6:25 am). He took to nursing right away and was very healthy (had APGAR score of 10).

He weighed in at 7 lbs 4oz; measuring 20.5 in. If you recall, Anna was 7 lbs 4oz; measuring 20 in. :)

I did tear a bit and needed about 10 stitches. We were able to leave 6 hours after Emmett was born and have been at home resting since then.

Picture Perfect Park Outing

We found the this wonderfully, beautiful park recently. Here are some pictures we took today.

My little tree hugger on Earth Day.

She had so much fun. "I don't WANT to go HOME!" - Anna

Still at 39 weeks here.

Dads and their daughters

Love from your dad - there is nothing in the world like it.

March Madness

I feel like this past month has simply flown by!! We have been busy getting ready for Emmett and just having fun. Jon signed up for a beer judging contest (yes, that means he got to spend the day sipping beer) in Atlanta so I used our credit card points and we got a free hotel stay in downtown Atlanta. While Jon was busy with beer, Anna and I walked around downtown (UP and down a rather large hill) and went to the children's museum.

Anna had a blast there! It was a little expensive but I figured it was really a treat and worth it. The lighting was not the best for taking pictures of children running around but here is what I managed.

I also was FINALLY able to check out Ikea. OMG!! It's a good thing I live 3.5 hours away because that place rocks! There was even a play area for Anna (actually there were several unsupervised play areas through out the store) where Anna could play while we shopped but she DID NOT go for that idea. We did grab a bite to eat at the restaurant. Here is Anna eating Swedish meatballs (LOL).

This week is spring break so Anna and I have been spending quality time together, cleaning the house, doing yard work, and hanging out together.

Painting letters for Emmett's room.

A glimpse of what the lovely warm weather has brought out in March.

Those are stickers she found and then decorated her legs.

And yes, even in good weather someone gets time-outs.

And if you made it this far - a treat. Here I am at 35 weeks.