4 Weeks Old

Yeah for Emmett! Yesterday would have been his due date. Poor guy. Because of his mommy he had to leave my lovely womb a month early. He's been doing great though and starting to have more of a schedule. He eats every 2 hours or so and sleeps 2-3 hours a night.

We wanted to celebrate with a little pumpkin cookie that Grandma Trudy made but Emmett had other ideas on how he wanted to spend the day.

Hanging out with the Grandparents

So we moved (temporarily) down to Los Gatos while our ceiling gets patched up. If you haven't heard yet - our ceiling began to leak the day I went into labor. So we have a hole in the ceiling that will be patched up this week. So while the contractors are working on that - Ben and I along with Emmett are staying with Ed and Trudy.

That means we get to celebrate Emmett's first Halloween here. Trudy and I are looking at some costumes for the little guy. Here are some from Target that would be cute.

Little Pumpkin

Little peapod

Let me see you do the Tootsie Roll!

Mr. Houdini

Emmett is quite the wiggle worm. He can wiggle his way out of the tightest swaddle - it's amazing. So Ben and I call him Houdini. He's going to grow up and be a magician. I just know it. Check out his latest trick!

BEFORE: Nice and cozy in his swaddle

Sleeping peacefully dreaming about boobies. He looks a little stressed out here. Maybe the boobies are attacking him in this dream.

After some "wiggling" he can show off his shapely shoulders

He works himself out of his swaddle and pajamas and discovers how uncomfortable he is.

Here he is showing off his manly chest. Look out girls. He's a heart breaker.

This is his COOLEST trick. I took off his sleeper to change his diaper and this is what I found. He wiggled out of his diaper. This is not made up. I did not put his diaper on like that. He sure knows how to make a mama proud. (*tear)

BBFL

Here we see Emmett giving his first 'look'.

Here he is in the middle of a workout. Notice how he's worked himself out of his swaddle, his outfit, AND (though you can't see it) his diaper! What a little trooper.

Here we see his workout and feeding schedule. He's got to have all this stuff down in his system so he can reach for that 'ten'. He's got the eye of the tiger, don't you think?

All that hard work has really paid off. He now weighs in at a whopping 6lbs, 4oz. That's fully 13oz more than he weighed at his first appointment a week ago. He's also added 30lbs to his baby bench press (I guess that's something new their doing), and he's shaved a full .43 seconds off his quarter mile time. He's still a little slow through the slalom, but hey—not bad all-in-all for only being two weeks old.

11 Days Old!

Emmett is now 11 days old. Even though he's a little guy he has a way of making sure his presence is felt. At night he likes to "grunt" and "squeak" which makes it very hard for Ben and I to sleep. Ben being the super dad he is has theorized that these noises may mean he is not getting burped enough. So we will see if this theory holds true tonight. Burping will commence every 5-8 minutes during feedings and one last burp when he's done for good measure.

Now that things are somewhat settled down we welcomed some visitors this week!

Uncle Brian

Uncle Brian being a bad influence....already.

Sarah, Sara and Lisa. We love cupcakes!!

Sarah practicing her baby holding technique.

Once the visitors left, we read a story.

Exhausted from the day!

Survived (Barely)

So I did what I was convinced that I was not able to do. I gave birth. And I definitely chose the hard way. I know some people have bits and pieces of information while others have no clue what happened so I'm going to give you a brief time line of what happened.

9-22: I went to see my Dr. and was told my blood pressure was rising. I had to collect my pee for 24 hours and have some blood tests done.

9-24: Dr. called and told me that I had signs of preeclampsia. This is known as pregnancy induced hypertension. Not good. I was told to take it easy and get an ultrasound to see if the hypertension was stressing the baby. Baby was checked out to be just fine. Whew!

9-27: Went to birthing class and decided that I didn't want to give birth anymore.

9-29 at 11am: Went in for a check up. Baby was still doing good but my blood pressure was rising. They told me to go to the hospital so they could monitor my blood pressure for a few hours and get some more blood work done.

9-29 at 4pm: My blood pressure was consistently high. The Dr. suggested that I have the baby sooner rather than later. Baby was 36 weeks old and doing just fine. A baby at 37 weeks is considered full term (ready for birth). My health was at risk at this point. Ben and I decided that we should have the baby before my health AND the baby's health was at risk. They admitted us to the hospital.

9-29 at 7pm: They checked my cervix and it was closed shut. I was starting from ground zero. I needed to be induced.

9-30 at 7am: I was dilated at 3cm. They started me on potocin a hormone that contracts my uterus. The contractions started out light but increased in intensity over time. I went drug free (no epidural) until I hit 6-7cm. Then I hit my wall. The contractions HURT and I was tired. I hadn't slept in 2 days. I asked for an epidural to get me through the last 3 cm.

10-1 at 7:20am: I was dilated at 10cm. I was ready to push the baby out. As I was pushing the nurse noticed the baby's heart rate was slowing down. So we needed to get the baby out ASAP. I pushed a few more times and baby came out with one fist next to his head and the other hand holding his umbilical cord. I don't know how he found it in the womb but he did and held on for dear life. He was making his own heart rate slow down. Silly baby.

10-1 at 7:50am baby Emmett was born!

Side notes that you may or may not want to know:

-I did not have an episiotomy but I did tear a little inside my vagina walls cause of baby's fist next to his head. So I had some stitches for that.

- I saw my placenta. It was fricken huge and shiny. I think that thing weighed 3-4 lbs. But I never had the urge to eat it or bury it next to a tree.

- The last two nurses helping me were a little clumsy. One dropped the supply tray twice and the other knocked over my placenta and it fell to the floor. Can we say EEEWWWWWW?!

- The epidural and drugs made me REALLY sick. I threw up for the next 8 hours until the epidural and other drugs were flushed out of my system.

I know - you want pictures right?!?! So here you go:

Found his own finger for some self-soothing.

He looks like a little peanut.

Ready to go cruising for chicks in his car seat.

Getting some daddy time.

Emmett is in the haus!

Well, here we are with the latest update: Baby Burling is in the house! He was born on October 1, at 7:50A. 

We went for a little drug induced labor, just to make sure that Karen's PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) did not get worse. The reason we did this was two fold:'

• Karen's health we wanted to protect

• Emmett (baby at the time) was almost at 36 weeks, plenty for this day and age (37 weeks is considered full term).

Well you've waited long enough. More info further down, but here's a pic of Emmett:

Awww…

We had to spend a little extra time in the hospital since we were given a little scare with a 'dusky' spell. He was kept in ICU for observation for 3 days whilst getting a blood culture. He was fine (we knew it!) 

We got back home on Saturday 10/4, and could not believe we were really parents! Who said we could do this? I can't believe it. We're very happy to have him home. 

Thanks to all the many, many, people for the help you gave to get us home, and who continue to support us. 

This is a wonderfully hard thing to do. Zombie Ben signing out.

PS: Here he is test driving the billie bed: