Emily's First Month

I'm trying to be a good mom to a second baby and do as many things that I did with Kylie with Emily. I am working hard at taking pictures. Thankfully, I have a very handy i-phone that takes pretty good pictures and video. I am also trying to make sure that I get lots of pictures of just Emily and not always take sister pictures. I've heard from other people with multiple kids or friends/family that said they wished they had more pictures of them individually. I'm trying to take that into consideration, but big sister kissing on her little baby sister is just adorable.

 

 

With that being said, I think I'm doing pretty good. I've always been an avid 'picture taker' and I hope that as the girls grow up, I am able to capture their growth as well as all of those special moments like the one above.

First Family Pic at home.. the girls are wearing their matching Big/Little Sister shirts from Uncle Andrew and Aunt Chelsie

Emily's Doc Appt: This was my fave outfit for Kylie!

Emily Grace is now a one month old. And where did that time go? Fly? Yes it did and much more so I think than when Kylie was a baby. Our days just seem to be flying by at an even quicker rate. This having two kiddos really keeps your day busy. From day one, Emily was growing quickly. Like I said before she had already gained 2 and a half ounces in less than a day. When she left the hospital she was 9 lbs, 10 oz. The next morning she was 9 lbs, 12.5 oz. I think we've got a good eater on our hands! By Thursday, so 6 days old, she was already back up to 10 lbs exactly. (Oh and I got a picture of that on the scale at the doctor's! Super Mama!!) When we went in for her 2 week check up, Emily was 10 lbs, 10.5 oz. The goal is to be at your birth weight by 2 weeks and she was well passed! At this appt, she was in the 96th percentile for height and 98th percentile for weight.

Poor thing.. Mama made her wear at least a couple of newborn outfits. Belly shirt!

 

First bath with helper Kylie.

At her one month check up, everything looked great. Her weight was (shocker!) 12 lbs, 5.5 oz. (98%) and she had gained an inch and was 23 inches putting her in the 99th percentile for height. She is just a big girl all around. Her head control is great. She is very steady already when you hold her up, but does get tired and flop it down after a bit. She tolerates tummy time pretty well, but Mommy has to do this strategically with all of her spitting up and reflux. We waited until she was one month to decide if we wanted her on medicine for her reflux. We are trying out Zantac this month to see if it helps. The doctor said that she will still spit up (not a problem with her weight gain, lol), but it should help with the reflux inbetween feedings and help it not burn so much when she does spit up. We are hoping it helps.

Kylie encouraging Emily for tummy time. So sweet!

Emily never fit into newborn size diapers, even though we squeezed her in a few at the beginning. She is actually being squeezed into size 1 diapers at the moment. As soon as we are out of ones, we're bumping her up to size 2. Emily is definitely our sleeper. This was prayed for and we hope it keeps up. She sleeps a good 5 or 6 hour chunk most nights, waking somewhere between 2 or 3 for her first feeding. (We all pretty much go to bed after we put Kylie down at 9... :) ) She also takes 2 really good naps, one in the morning and one late afternoon. I have found that she likes to nap on her tummy, so right now she naps on the couch, so I can see her. I'm a little worried about when it's time to put her in her crib, but for now this works for us.

Sometimes Emily has to hang out in the Boppy on the island while we make lunch.

How is Kylie handling baby sister? Well the first week, Kylie slept great, napped well, and was in awe of her sister, 'Emmy'. The next week, Kylie began to test Mommy and Daddy. Daddy had to go back to work and Mommy was working on getting our schedule figured out. She continued to nap okay for Mommy this week, but started waking up at night. And then one night, Kylie refused to take a bath. We had a good 45 minutes of dealing with time out. Kylie was naked. Fun. And then the next night, she refused to let us brush her teeth. Nice. We were worried it would be something new every night. Kylie was definitely adjusting to baby Emily and also to Casey going back to work. She missed him dearly and all she wanted was to spend time with him when he got home from work. Other than those moments, Kylie has been great. She still loves Emily and gives her a bazillion kisses a day. However, she wants to hold her, but complains almost instantly that she is too heavy and wants her off. Haha. Kylie is starting to get over the fact that Emmy doesn't need her pacifier 24/7 and also that every diaper is not poo poo. Before bedtime and naptime, there has to be a minimum 2 sets of a kiss and hug for Emmy. It is very sweet, but sometimes we JUST WANT HER TO GO TO BED! ;) She loves her sister and I hope that it remains, so they can grow up as best friends.



This night we bribed Kylie with helping for Emily's bath, but she had to take a bath first! ;)

Lastly, I wanted to compare my little ladies. As babies, they look so much alike to us, besides Emily being a couple pounds bigger. Here are a few pictures to compare. See if you can tell who's who without looking at my captions.

In case you didn't figure it out, Kylie is on the left and Emily is on the right. On your phone, Kylie is on top and Emily is on the bottom, every other picture. Mobile views mess up everything... :) What is funny is that Emily looks a lot more like 2 to 3 month old Kylie!

Introducing... Emily Grace!

This is mostly for my documentation, so feel free to read it all or skim. I wanted to keep it pretty detailed, so I didn't forget anything. :)

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Friday, July 20, 2012 (Baby is on her way!)

Once the paperwork was finished, the nurses were all situated, and I finally got monitors/IV's in... the pitocin started running through my veins at 7:15am. The nurse 'checked' me to see where we were starting from. I was 5cm's and 90% effaced already. I was also having good contractions on the monitor before the pitocin actually started. We will never know if she would have come on her own or not. I think she would have. Oh well.

The contractions started picking up, but were not unbearable until Dr. Daum came in to break my water. From what I remember, that was around 9:30 or so. I was dilated to 7 cm's, I think. Instantly, the contractions were awful (I thought I was going to die seriously.) and were running back to back. I tried really hard to push through it and thought that just maybe I could do it with out an epidural. Not so much. The nurse stopped the pitocin because I was progressing super fast and I begged for the medicine man!

I had enough fluids and was ready for him to begin. The contractions were so painful (incredibly more than I experienced with Kylie) and they were back to back, so it took him a really long time to get that needle in me! I was having trouble leaning forward because of the pain, so it was probably mostly my fault that it took so long. Once he was finished, it took a few, maybe 10 minutes, for me to feel some of the effects. Once again, my right leg almost instantly started to go numb/tingly, but my left leg was putting up a fight. It took quite awhile for that side to start feeling better. The epidural lessened the pain, but I could still feel everything. Dr. Suresh (the anesthesiologist) said at first he gives a lesser medication and adds more or a different kind if the patient needs more. At first, I just wished he had given the full on epidural, but in hindsight, I loved the experience that I had.

Once the contractions seemed to settle down from the meds, I immediately wanted to push. I never had that feeling with Kylie because I couldn't feel anything with her. The nurse didn't want me to, so that made it so hard and I felt like I had to go (TMI Alert!) number 2 and I was embarrassed. It felt like I had an alien inside of me, I was seriously body rolling to keep myself from pushing. Such a weird feeling.  I was already complete and we were waiting on Dr. Daum to arrive. As soon as he got there, and the rest of the crew, we started pushing. By crew, I mean tons of people. When he broke my water earlier, there was a little tinge of green/merconium in the water. It's normal for overdue babies, but they had to be precautious. So we had the Nicu lady, Respiratory guy, neonatal nurse, pediatrician, my nurse, my doctor, another helper nurse (who held my numb right leg, thank you!), and Casey. Phew... it was a crowd!

I knew exactly when to push because unlike Kylie's delivery, I could feel everything. It felt so good to push. We started pushing at 10:15. They had me take it slow to help with any tearing. (TMI Alert again..) One of the funniest things about this delivery was once her head was partially out, she was shaking it back and forth as if to say "Excuse me, I am not ready to come out!" This made most people laugh and even me, but I could feel it and it wasn't the greatest feeling. I guess the laughter helped me get through some of that pain. Once the head is completely out, they tell you to stop pushing and basically the doctor works to get a shoulder out and pulls the baby out. Well Dr. Daum had some issues getting the shoulder out. He kept saying 'woah she's a big baby' and it took awhile for the shoulder to come out. I thought he was joking about the big baby part. We were expecting the same size baby as Kylie. You know in the movies when you see the doctor at the foot of the bed, both feet pushing against the bed post, and both arms pulling as hard as he can to get the baby out of the screaming mama. Well that was us, minus the screaming mama part. I offered to push and he accepted. She came out at 10:34am with everyone applauding and in awe of the incredibly large baby that came out of me.

My favorite part by far was when she finally came out, he immediately put her on my belly/chest. They didn't do that with Kylie. She was whisked away for assessments right away. You see that in movies and on tv and it is such a special moment. I am so glad that I/we got to experience that first incredible moment in that way. There was an immediate bond that was formed and we got our first glimpse (and deja vu) that baby #2 looked just like Kylie.

Our wonderful nurse Tonya took our camera and captured some great pics.

So everyone thought she was huge. I thought she looked just like Kylie and was maybe a LITTLE bit bigger, like close to 9 lbs or something, not much more. They put her on the scale and I couldn't believe my eyes. 10 lbs 3.1 oz. Wait, clear the screen and try that again. I just pushed a ten pound baby out of me and I tore less than I did with Kylie?! I just pushed a ten pound baby out of me and I had an amazing delivery experience?! Yep.

Her official stats were 10 lbs, 3.1 oz and 22 inches long.

He stitched me up and I held our newest edition, baby girl Davis. We didn't know her name yet. That part was the same as Kylie. Once I held her, I realized that she was pretty big. My arm got tired. She didn't seem like a newborn, more like a baby or one month old. Her fingers and toes were super long, as were her arms and legs. She was just long all over. She also stuck out her tongue a lot, just like baby Kylie. I swear they were the same baby. She wanted to eat right away. It was amazing that she knew just what to do and luckily I knew too. That part was nice too, being a veteran baby mama.

She looks so little here.

We had 2 first name choices and I knew instantly which one she was not. We wanted to at least have a first name before we let family come in to see her. SO... we introduced Emily to all 3 grandmas! This was my second favorite part of her delivery. My mom (and sister), Casey's mom, and Casey's stepmom were there. I absolutely LOVED when all 3 of them walked in together to see their newest grandbaby. I also loved that my sister was there, but I just loved the unity of all three grandmas being there together. :)

Ok so I said my favorite part was when Emily was put on my chest immediately after birth, well this one is tied with that one. Kylie seeing Emily for the first time. Heidi was watching Kylie at our house that morning and brought her up to the hospital. When Kylie came in, she didn't want to see Mommy or Daddy (I think the hospital bed and all the wires and such scared her at first.). She just wanted to see the baby. We have so many pictures of this first meeting. I love them all. I will cherish that moment forever.

So gentle and immediately in love.

Precious.

Kylie was nervous once she started crying, but quickly was more than ok with it. :)

Favorite part #4: My doctor delivered Emily. I think I enjoyed my experience so much more just because it was my doctor. We felt super comfortable with him. He is funny and has a great relationship with everyone there. I felt safe that if something God willing was to go wrong that he would be there, I trusted him. Just so happy that he was in town (even though we scheduled it when he was there..). Still wish he could have delivered Kylie.

Favorite part #5: Our nurse. Absolutely loved her. She was very sweet. Got us started quickly (once she got there) and was very informative. She checked me often (and I asked her to a lot) and was very helpful during and after delivery. She helped make me feel more comfortable and checked us in postpartum when most nurses just drop you off. You can tell she loves her job and I am so happy that we had her! Thank you Tonya!

Emily was a very healthy big girl. She didn't have any problems with swallowing any of the tinged water and she was a happy eater... until later that night. All she wanted to do was eat and I about died. Haha. The nurses said that normally big babies are lazy and just want to sleep. That was not the case for Emily. Every nurse and pediatrician that saw her said that she had amazing color. I thought she looked like a normal baby but her bilirubin levels were very low and there was not a hint of jaundice in her. She was a super star! She also only lost about 5% of her weight before leaving the hospital and gained 2 and a half ounces by her doctor's appt the next morning. Super star. Oh and her middle name was decided around 4am that first night while I was filling out her birth certificate information. You have no sense of time that first day/night. Grace was Casey's pick, so since I basically picked Emily, I kind of gave in and let him have his Grace. It's beautiful and we love it! Emily Grace Davis.

I on the other hand had a few complications. I had a second degree tear, less than with Kylie, but I still needed stitches. I was so glad that it wasn't a third degree tear again or worse. I was definitely worried about that. With Emily being so big and that she came so fast, I had some issues with hemorrhaging and blood clots. I had to take special meds to help with the bleeding. It was so annoying having to be changed constantly because I was bleeding so much and every time a nurse came in I had to be checked. The medicine started working and the bleeding got much better the next day, however I was having some large clotting still. Dr. Daum came in and with risk of grossing you out, I'll just say did the most painful thing I have ever experienced to clean out my uterus. With out warning too. He was checking me and then all of a sudden started doing it and I wanted to die. I was in quite a lot of pain for the rest of the day just from that. Oh and my family was waiting outside the door. I'm glad I had them go outside for his checkup.

Here are some pics from the second day in the hospital...


My brother surprised us! We didn't think he would be able to make it. I cried. Favorite part #6. :)

Loves her Aunt Sarah!

Absolutely LOVE this picture. And her curls.

Holding 'Emmy' all by herself.

Opening her little present for being such a good BIG sister.

First Full Family Picture!

We stayed 2 nights and headed back home Sunday afternoon. I love this picture of Emily in the car seat on the way home. It really shows off her long limbs. :)

Family pic before heading home

Haha, she was already too big for her insert. We took it out the next day!

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And now we are a family of four. Time to update my blog title and picture!

 

.....Before Baby Girl #2 Came!

Thursday (Day before induction)

We decided to take Kylie on one last hurrah before I was scheduled to be induced Friday morning. It was also a secret mission to walk that baby right out of me! Casey had been off of work all week (expecting baby girl to get here!), so we wanted to get out of the house while we could.

We went to Bass Pro Shop. Seems like an unlikely place for me to want to go, but Kylie LOVES fish and animals. So it seemed perfect to take her to see all the dead stuffed animals, well the fish were alive I guess. :) She was happy.

PS Whenever Casey is off of work, he decides to not 'do' his hair and grow out his goatee. ;)

Next stop, Grapevine Mills Mall. This is where the walking happened. Or waddle. It was pretty bad. We walked around the entire mall, stopped at the carousel and some trains for Kylie.

She wouldn't go on a horse, but the little tea cup was a hit!

We're cheap and didn't even put quarters in. She loved it just the same!

My beautiful swollen foot after the mall. So ready to sit in the car!

We went to lunch and headed home. Kylie took a tiny nap in the car, which meant no long nap at home and little miss cranky pants the rest of the evening. Oh well, it was fun to get out of the house. We enjoyed some family time that evening and tried to make Kylie as happy as could be because we knew her little sister would be here the next day!

FRIDAY!! has arrived!
We went to bed late, packing for the hospital and cleaning/getting the house ready for visitors, and then woke up super early that morning. Heidi came over, poor thing, at 5:30am to wait for Kylie to wake up and we headed to the hospital.

Pregnant Mama in the parking lot at the hospital!

Riding up the elevator!

Once we got there (we seriously had to look at signs for where to go, lol. Kind of forgot..), we were sent to room 9 in the labor and delivery area. This was such a different experience from the get go. I was given a gown to change into and then we waited. And waited. And waited. We weren't quite sure why we had to get there at 6, if they didn't get us started at 6. We filled out paperwork, but because the nurses shift change was at 7, we didn't get anything started until 7:15. However, we loved our nurse, so I don't quite mind the shift change now!

In my lovely gown, waiting for everything to get started!



I wasn't allowed to eat breakfast. Horror for me! But I did scarf down a rainbow popsicle and plenty of ice chips! If I had time, I would have had another popsicle. As many as I wanted, they said.

Up next Baby Girl #2's delivery....