West Elm Love

As I mentioned in my previous post, we recently moved to a new house. With the new house comes new rooms to decorate, so I've been picking up a few things here and there in an attempt to slowly furnish the additional rooms we've acquired, and have been loving some West Elm lately. We have an outlet here in Memphis that is connected to the Pottery Barn outlet, so it's like a little piece of decorating heaven! Here are a few of the things I've picked up lately (all at awesome prices, too!):

These silk pillows match our den perfectly. I love the pattern!

Curtains for the den. I got these for only $24.99 per panel.

A new dining table! It has a small scratch on the underside of it, so it was marked to half off. 

And finally...a new living room rug. I wasn't planning on buying it the day I went in there, but it was the only one they had and on clearance for 60% off. 

I'm thinking I am going to paint the walls a soft, muted yellow to add a pop of color to the room. They are currently a light grey, and while I like it, I think the grey walls plus grey rug plus cream couch are a little too monochromatic. What do you think about yellow walls? I'm leaning toward something like 

this:

Source

Emmie - 4 Months

Well, somehow another month has gone by and you are now over four months old. A third of a year already! Here's what's been going on with you in the past month.

We moved to a new house (more on that soon), you spent the whole day away from me (while moving), you attended your first BBQ Festival and we went to the doctor for your four month checkup. We found out you weigh 11 lbs, 11.5 ounces and are 24 inches long. Tall and thin, just like your daddy! Your doctor said he was "very impressed" with your muscular tone and strength!

Loves: Going new places, being tickled, eating, shaking your rattle, sitting in your high chair, "talking" (attempting to repeat syllables and sounds). 

Eating: We've now graduated to nursing every three hours and it's great. It's amazing how much more free time we have now that you only nurse for 20 minutes (and not 45 like a couple of months ago!). You also started eating rice cereal a couple of weeks ago and you LOVE it. You grab the spoon from my hand and try to feed yourself, then cry if you think someone is trying to take it away. You've also begun to hold your own bottle when we give you one!

Sleeping:  You still sleep well, but we've hit a little bit of the "4 month sleep regression". For a few days a couple of weeks ago, you started waking up in the middle of the night. Not hungry, not fussy. Just wanting to be awake. Luckily, it only lasted a few days. Now, you wake up about an hour after we put you down and cry for a little bit, but we've started to let you self soothe and you fall right back asleep after 5 minutes and then sleep the rest of the night. 

Clothes: In some 0-3 month, some 3-6 month clothes. 

Firsts: First time eating rice cereal, first belly laughs, first time holding your own bottle, first time attempting to army crawl, first time riding in your stroller without the carseat adapter. 

Some recent pictures:

Emmie - 3 Months

Emmie-

I can't believe you are three months old already! I've been wanting to document each month, but time has been slipping away from me, so we'll start with month three.

You are the happiest girl lately! Everywhere we go, everyone comments on your content demeanor and how observant you are. You love being around new places and faces (as long as you are being held by a familiar one, that is!). All day, you are full of smiles and coos and I just love it! You've grown and changed so much in this past month, and I can't wait to see what this next one brings.

Loves: Going new places, "flying" (being held high up in the air), laying on your changing mat, sitting in your Bumbo, being sung to.

Eating: Still exclusively breast feeding and it's going great! We still give you one bottle (of pumped breast milk) per day to make sure you'll still take bottles. We recently had to switch to the Tommee Tippee bottles, as you started to reject the Avent ones. You eat every 2 1/2-3 hours and eat about 4 oz (from what I can guess) at each feeding.

Sleeping: You are the best sleeper! We put you down at 7:30 and you wake up the next morning at 7:30. Babywise worked great for us, as you started sleeping through the night at week 5!

Clothes: All 0-3 month/3 month clothes. Some of the 0-3 month clothes are getting a little short in the torso, so I think you might start switching to 3-6 in the next month or so, but we'll see!

Firsts: We went on your first trip (to visit your Papa G and GiGi at the condo in Florida, then Mommy & Daddy took you to New Orleans!), you had your first Easter, you laughed for the first time (on Easter at the dogs!) and you had your first shots (you did NOT like those one bit).

Some pictures from the past month:

On the beach!

On the boat with Daddy!

At brunch on Easter Sunday.

3 months old!

Emerson's Birth Story, Part Three

You can find parts one and two here and here.


Well, as you might have guessed, the third dose of epidural medicine did not work, and at this point, I was in excruciating pain. I was also terrified that they were going to have to redo my epidural and I hit a low point in the day. It was about 12 o'clock and all of our families had left to go grab lunch. I remember being curled up in the fetal position and crying, both out of fear and pain. The nurse had already called for the anesthesiologist to come back in to figure out our next step, so we were just waiting. Well, we wound up waiting for over an hour, as there was some type of emergency on the floor that required all of the anesthesiologists' attention. That was the longest hour of my life.

Eventually, the original anesthesiologist (who was initially very rude) came back and was much more attentive and caring this time around. He said we had one more option before redoing the whole epidural. He would try to adjust it and reposition it first, which sometimes would fix the problem. He adjusted it by a couple of centimeters and all of the sudden, all of my pain was gone. Hallelujah! I have never felt such relief in my life. I spent the next couple of hours trying to get some rest and updating my friends and family on my progress via text.

At 3 o'clock, the nurse came back in to check me again. At 10:00 that morning, I had been about 3 cm dilated, so the nurse was hoping that I would be to " a 4 or 5" by this point. So, imagine my shock when I was at an 8! The nurse told me she would go ahead and alert my doctor so he would be ready and that we would start pushing around 4:00. Michael and I were super excited since we knew that we were getting so close to "go time," as we called it. He went to the waiting room to tell everyone:

My parents came into the room one last time to give us their well wishes and after that, the nurse started prepping the room. I will say that it is nothing like you see in the movies. There is no sheet covering you from the waist down, and the doctor doesn't even come into the room until the baby is almost out.

At about 4:10, the nurse finished up all of the preparations and started instructing me on how to push. Then, she turned to Michael and asked him if he was ready, too. All along, we had planned on him "not looking" down there during the delivery, but at this point it was pretty clear that it would be unavoidable. The husband takes an active role in the birthing process, as the nurse holds one leg and the husband holds the other one during each contraction. She had me do one set of practice pushes and then we got started.

Both the nurse and the doctor mentioned several times that Emerson was very low in the birth canal already and that they thought it would just take a few pushes to get her out. Well, they were right, because at 4:42 p.m., just 30 minutes after starting pushing, she was born!

Emerson Avery was 6 pounds, 5 ounces and 19 inches long. She came out with the cord around her neck, so it took her a second before she started crying, but she eventually did and the doctor quickly put her on my stomach.

I have never felt such an overwhelming sense of joy and love in my entire life. It used to bother me when people would say that you never truly know love until you have a child, but now I understand. It was immediately the most pure, unconditional, consuming love. I am not one that cries a lot, but I found myself sobbing the minute they laid her on my chest. I remember looking over at Michael and seeing tears roll down his cheek, too (the first time I've seen that in seven years together), and just feeling indescribable joy.

They left her with me and Michael for about fifteen minutes, so I was able to (clumsily) nurse her for the first time, and then they took her over to the scale (which was also in our room) to get her measurements and clean her up. Michael followed them around the room, taking photos and video of everything they were doing while the doctor stitched me up. I wound up having an episiotomy, which I was very upset about at first, but looking back, I do think it made recovery much easier, as my doctor told me that I would have torn and had a worse time had he let that happen.

About an hour after she was born, Michael finally went to the waiting room to announce her arrival and invite everyone in to meet her. She was passed around to my parents, Michael's parents, Michael's sister and my grandparents while everyone took lots of pictures. Our first family photo:

The rest of the evening and night were a blur of visitors, food (finally!), and taking turns loving on and cuddling Emmie. After delivery, I was unbelievably thirsty and hungry, so as soon as I was allowed, I downed two coconut waters and a Larabar, and eventually, my sister-in-law went to my favorite Mexican restaurant to pick us up some dinner.

Eventually, the visitors trickled out, leaving just me, Michael and Emmie, our new family, all exhausted and happy. And that's where her birthday and birth story end. And the rest of our story begins. :)

Emerson's Birth Story, Part Two

If you missed the first part, here it is!

So, I left work that day knowing I wouldn't return for at least twelve weeks and did my best to wrap everything up to make it easier on those covering for me. That night, we had a dinner to attend with our Memphis in May BBQ Fest team, where we excitedly shared the news with everyone that we would be parents by the following Monday. The rest of the weekend, we got all of our last minute errands done: Target, the grocery store, etc., while also trying to take some time to enjoy our last quiet weekend for a while. We took the dogs to the dog park, went out to eat for nearly every meal, and just rested as much as possible.

Sunday night, we went on our last date night for a while (and my last meal for the next 24 hours). We went to a local Italian restaurant, Ciao Bella, where we indulged on bread, salad and some delicious pizza. After dinner, I got some self serve yogurt, as well, since I knew that I would be starving the next day (per doctor's orders, you cannot eat or drink anything after midnight the night before). We both knew we were going to have a hard time sleeping and that we would have to be up early (3:30 a.m.!), so we went to bed pretty early and tried to sleep as much as possible. I was insanely nervous, mostly because I always think that something is going to go wrong when it comes to any medical procedure, so I hardly got any sleep. Regardless, we both woke up the next morning excited and ready to meet our daughter.

We quickly packed the last items into our bags, said goodbye to the pups and snapped a quick picture before leaving the house:

We arrived at the hospital at about 4:20 a.m. and quickly got checked in and taken back to get things moving. The nurse had me change into my hospital gown and get situated on the bed, and then she got my IV started, hooked up all of the monitors, and put in the pitocin drip. It wasn't long before I began to feel mild contractions. The contractions weren't too bad at first, as they just felt like a tightening across my lower abdomen. At this point, it was about 5:30-6:00 a.m. and I was starving and thirsty, so the nurse let me have my first cup of ice chips:

A little while later, my dad and stepmom arrived and joined me and Michael in our room. It was nice to have the company while we played the waiting game! Michael's mom also arrived at some point in there and brought him breakfast from Chick-fil-A, which made me very jealous, since I was starving!

I had been told that my doctor would come in around 9:00 to break my water, so imagine my surprise when my doctor strolled in around 7:00! I was super nervous about having my water broken, but it was actually a breeze and didn't hurt at all. At that point, the show really got on the road and we were well on our way to having a baby. Apparently, breaking your water takes away the "buffer" that eases contractions, so pretty quickly, the contractions began to increase in intensity and by 9:00, I requested my epidural (which I was also terrified of).

After what seemed like an eternity, the anesthesiologist came in and got everything ready for the epidural. Michael and my nurse stood in front of me and held my hands while the anesthesiologist administered the epidural. Due to my nervousness, I tensed up quite a few times, causing him to not so nicely tell me to relax. The worst part of the procedure was the shot they put in first to numb it. Other than that, it wasn't painful, just extremely uncomfortable.

Once the epidural was in, I got a little bit of relief. Before long, though, I began to feel contractions on my left side, so the nurse asked the anesthesiologist to come back in and up my dosage, thinking that I just needed a little bit more. He came back and added more painkiller to my epidural and told me to give it thirty minutes to see if that helped. Unfortunately, thirty minutes later, we were in the exact same place: my left side feeling increasingly unbearable contractions. So, for the second time, the nurse requested that anesthesiology send someone back in to fix the problem. At this point, I was about 3 cm dilated and 90% effaced.

This time, a different anesthesiologist was sent in, which made me happy, since the first one was not so friendly. The new anesthesiologist gave me a dose of what he called "the strong stuff," and told us that if this didn't work, my epidural would have to be adjusted or reinserted. Immediately, I began to panic, as I didn't want to have to go through what thus far had been the most uncomfortable part of my whole day, so we crossed our fingers that it would work . . .

I had no idea that I had so much to say about all of this, so I'm going to break it up into three parts. I'll be back tomorrow with the big finale. If you've made it this far, I commend you! :) 

Emerson's Birth Story, Part One

Well, my life has changed drastically since my last post, in one way for the worse and in one way for the better. On November 7, 2011, my mother passed away unexpectedly, thus explaining my absence from blogging. I have not been able to bring myself to write about it, and I don't know when I will be able to.

On the other hand, another big change has happened since my last post. Emerson arrived! Before I forget too many of the details, I wanted to write her birth story down so that one day she can go back and read about it.

My due date was always January 17, but all along I felt like she would arrive early. Everyone who saw me also seemed to think that I "wouldn't make it" til my due date, as I had been carrying low throughout the whole pregnancy. But each week, as I went for my checkups and we neared January 17, I began to lose hope that she would arrive by her due date. I had made some initial progress early on (effacing to 50% at week 36), but from there, it just stayed the same until week 39. At my 39 week appointment, Michael went with me, as we knew we would be making some decisions regarding induction, as my doctor had mentioned it several times before.

When he went to check me, I was excited to hear that I had dilated 1-2 centimeters, which was enough for my doctor to do a "membrane sweep" (ouch!) and also enough for him to prompt us to schedule an induction. Now, I know many people are not fans of inductions, as they feel that they should let nature run its course and the baby come on its own, but as my doctor explained it, the longer the baby stays in there, the bigger it gets, thus the tougher the delivery may get. So, he had said all along that as long as I was progressed enough for him to break my water, an induction would be a good choice.

After we talked to the doctor, we got the induction scheduled for the following Thursday, January 19, which was the earliest date they had available at the time. The woman who scheduled it let me know that they often had earlier openings come available, so she would call if that were to happen. Once it was scheduled, we called our families to let them know that we would be meeting Miss Emmie by the next Thursday!

Fast forward to the next day -- Friday, January 13. I was sitting at my desk, knowing it would be my last day at work for a while, as I was going to take the whole week off before her birth to relax and get some things done, when my phone rang and I saw that it was my doctor's office calling. I answered and it was the lady who had scheduled my induction, letting me know that my appointment had been bumped to Monday, January 16 and to be at the hospital at 4:30 a.m. I immediately called Michael, who almost dropped the phone from shock and excitement. All of the sudden, we went from having nearly a week left just the two of us to having one weekend left!

This is getting long, so I am going to break it up into parts. Stay tuned! 

Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday! For some reason, today felt like it should have been Thursday all day. Since it is Wednesday, I wanted to play along and share some things I'm loving today!

1) I got the phone call today saying that our nursery furniture is in! We ordered it over 8 weeks ago, so I've been anxiously awaiting its arrival. Hopefully, we can swing by and pick it up after work on Friday. Once we get everything in place, I can't wait to share photos!

2) Our first shower is this weekend, which I am definitely loving! Some dear friends of ours are throwing us a couples shower and I can't wait to see everyone and celebrate Emerson's impending arrival!

3) Aveda hair products.

I broke down and bought some the other day after getting tired of my hair color fading too quickly after hair appointments. It smells so, so good and left my hair super manageable. I got the color conserve shampoo and conditioner as well as the smooth infusion glossing straightener and have loved the results so far! Definitely recommend.

4) My new camera! I had been wanting to get a new point and shoot before the baby came and did some research online to figure out which one would be the best bet for me. After discovering that Best Buy had this one on sale for a great price, I bit the bullet and picked it up yesterday and love it so far. We have a DSLR for high quality photos, so I just wanted something small and easy to use for day to day pics. The cute color is a plus, too! (I promise I did not pick it for the color alone . . . it really was the only one they had left at the store.)

5) My husband:

Obviously, I love him all the time, but he has been super sweet and thoughtful lately, which is extra fabulous. He has been working long hours lately, trying to get everything in place so he will be able to take some extra time off when Emerson arrives. On Monday, he even surprised me with a "happy". . . one of the items from my fall wishlist. 

What are you loving today? Link up and let everyone know!