More Pictures...

Kalea guarding the nursery

Trying to wake Emma up for some playtime

"It's a Girl" balloons on the mailbox to welcome us home!

My little strawberry shortcake!

She looks like her daddy

Allen was able to get some more pictures downloaded to the computer, so I figured while I had the energy to do so I would put some more up of what we've been up to the last few days. Unlike what you can probably see from the pictures, I have managed to return upon the living somewhat and actually do something with my hair and put on some make-up. Unfortunately, that is not really reflected in the pictures, but we did get some cute ones of Emma today.

Our Little Bundle of Joy Has Arrived!

Emma Grace is finally here! I know that others have posted updates in the last week since things have obviously been so busy and I haven't been able to post anything until now. All I can say is that it has been a long week, but one that I will always remember! The induction early last Monday went well and for most of that day we didn't know if she was going to have a 19th or 20th of January birthday. My labor took a lot longer than expected - I was hoping to get through it without the epidural, but after 9 hours of intense pitocin injection and labor contractions, I received an epidural around 6:30pm and was able to successfully dilate and deliver her by 1am the next morning on January 20th. Both Allen and my mom were in the delivery room and I would not have been able to get through it without them or the support of the nurses and my doctor - I was very lucky and blessed to have people there to help me and experience our miracle. Our stay in the hospital lasted until Wednesday afternoon and we have spent the rest of the week adjusting to our new arrival here at home. Kalea took very well to Emma from the start and hopefully will continue to do well with her - we are extremely mindful to give her enough love and attention. My mom will be here until about mid-February to help with things, Allen has a business trip for a week early next month so it will be nice to have the extra hands while he is gone. We are still debating on how and when we are going to get the rest of the family to see her whether it be them coming down here to visit or us going home while I am still on maternity leave. I start back up the first week in March.

The pictures below are starting from the hospital and the first few days at home, some of these you may have already seen from Allen's Facebook page.
Anyways, all is well here and hopefully I'll be able to keep posting pictures as much as possible over these next few weeks!

Emma Update

Today is Emma's due date and just as I had expected, she's not here yet! We had a doctor's appointment this morning and turns out that she is not quite ready to make her grand entrance into the world. I am still only 1 centimeter dilated and my effacement percentage has not changed (70%) so not much progress again in the last week, the only thing that the midwife did say was that she has definitely dropped more since last week. It's possible that I could still go into labor this weekend, but we went ahead and scheduled an induction for Monday, 1/19, so either way she'll be here soon - we're getting excited!

Last Day of Work!

Tomorrow I will be 39 weeks! It's crazy to think that Emma's due date is one week away and pretty much all week I've been wondering if she's going to come early, be right on time, or be stubborn and arrive late. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, but at the most recent appointment I had last week I was 1 centimeter dilated and about 70% effaced - we'll be interested to see how much I have progressed in the last week!

Thankfully today was my last day at work so I am now officially on maternity leave and it has certainly been a long work week - it's funny how things can suddenly pile up from your coworkers when they realize that you only have a few days left in the office and you're going to be gone for a while. I did however leave today really feeling like I was able to get everything accomplished off of my what seemed like a never ending "to do" list that I've had going for about two weeks! My feet and ankles have certainly paid for it because once I've been able to finally put my feet up at night they are so majorly swollen that you can't even tell that I have ankles, my legs just look like tree trunks! One nice reprieve that I had this week was that my office did have a little baby shower for me yesterday after work. They were so cute and decorated one of the conference rooms with a banner hanging that said "Welcome Baby Emma!" It was a nice hour's worth of good conversation, really good ice cream cake, punch, and very thoughtful gifts. They had actually made it a "book shower" where each person gave me a favorite book that they either had from their childhood or read to their children - such a great idea and it even provided me with a trip down memory lane getting some of the books that I had growing up that I will now get to read and share with my daughter. Just to name a few, some of the books I received were I'll Love you Forever, Goodnight Moon, The Little Engine That Could, Curious George, and many more! Tomorrow, on my first day off, I have another shower to go to - the ladies that Allen works with and the spouses of the guys he works with are throwing me a shower at his office tomorrow afternoon. I know that I am due to get some pictures up so I'll make sure I do that this weekend; they'll probably be some of the last pictures of me before I burst!

While I am super excited to finally meet our little girl I am hoping that she'll give me a few days before she makes her grand entrance to get some extra sleep and do a little relaxing now that I don't have to do my daily commute and work a long day. My mom is in town, she and my dad and brother came down for New Year's. Dad and Thomas left on Monday and mom's going to be staying until we're pretty much ready to kick her out! She has been super helpful this week already and I'm just so blessed that she'll be here to help us out once Emma gets here.

Special Deliveries!

I am always excited to see the UPS driver leave the neighborhood on the way home especially when I am expecting packages. Yesterday I received two things that I've been waiting for all week. The rocking chair was sent as a baby gift from my Aunt Jan (my mom's sister). A colleague of hers from work painted and made this beautiful and unique piece of furniture for Emma. The colors go perfectly with the room and I love how her name is painted on the back panel.

The other package is a black and cream toile bassinet that my mom had discovered online last week. Our bedroom is similar to this pattern and we both couldn't get over how well it would coordinate. We definitely did need something to keep in the bedroom for a few months while Emma is still very little. I love it and goes perfectly in the room - it has a shelf underneath for storage and is also sitting on wheels so that I can easily manuever it around the room. Can't wait!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

This will be the first year that Allen and I will be spending the Christmas Holiday in our own home! We will be hosting both our families over the course of the next two weeks. His family will be coming down to spend Christmas with us and then my family will be down to visit for New Year's. We had a good time decorating this year. I took a few pictures of the outside. We ended up adding some icicle lights on the roof line just this weekend - I don't think I have ever seen my husband get so irritated over putting up lights, but it wasn't too bad. The other pictures (sorry if they are a little blurry) that you see are the inside down in our finished basement. We decided to put the tree down there this year because there will be more room with all the family we will have visiting. It's a great family space. We use it as our den essentially, also known as "Allen's Room." This is easy to tell by the constant sight of a Clemson paw everywhere, a small fridgerator in the armoire and the 62" flat screen tv, which I have to admit is pretty amazing to watch football.

More updates to come soon especially as we get closer to Emma's due date!

Emma's Nursery - Final Touches

Her room is finally in it's final stages! Once we got back from VA, Allen and I did a thorough cleaning of the crib and other furniture before putting the new bedding on. I have also spent a lot of time getting things washed and ready for her. The outfit above is what I think we'll be bringing her home in; something warm and cozy for your typical day in January. There are two more things that will need to be added to her room. The first is a ladder that Allen is building and will paint white. It will be used to lean up against the wall and display blankets and quilts that have been made and given to us. The second is the baby quilt that my mom is making with fabrics that will coordinate with the bedding and the curtain she made - it will hang on the wall above her changing table.

The baby shower over Thanksgiving was fantastic - thank you so much for all the lovely gifts; I have had so much fun giving them a place in her room and look forward to using them when she arrives. It was great to see everyone and I am very blessed to have such good friends travel on a very busy holiday weekend to come and see me.

I will be 36 weeks on Friday. I'm thinking that I'm ready to have this baby!