Wild!

6 weeks old today. Look at that hair!

Visitors!

What a great weekend we had! Family from out of town, date night, good food, what else do you need? :)

My mom and dad drove over from Spokane Saturday morning and brought my nephew Colin with them for a quick weekend visit. Saturday afternoon we unpacked a few more boxes and (finally!) got the desks set up in the office. It looks like I’ll actually have a place to put my work table so I can do a little sewing! YAY!! I was really not looking forward to a year and a half of working on the kitchen table. Now I have a spot!

Saturday night mom and dad came to our place for some Chinese take-out (YUM) and then they watched Emily for us and we got to go out on our very first date night! We went to see Iron Man 2. I really liked it! And I only freaked out about leaving the punkin for the first few minutes; after we got to the theater I was fine. But when we got out of the car, I did look in the backseat out of habit thinking we forgot to get the baby! I guess it’s better to be overly cautious on that one though. :)

Sunday morning we met my brother and his family at Marie Calendar’s for a brunch buffet. Holy tons-of-food, Batman. It was wonderful! The best part for Rob was when they brought three heaping plates of steaming hot bacon to our table and put one down right in front of him. He looked like he’d just found the winning lotto ticket. And I guess in his eyes it was probably just as good! They also had waffles, biscuits and gravy, eggs benedict, an omelet station, and pretty much every other breakfast food you could ever want. Needless to say, we all walked out of there pretty stuffed.

My nephew Cubby and I at breakfast

The whole family, minus mom

Rob, Grandpa and Emily

Grandma and Emily

Sweet Baby

First use of the baby carrier. She’s not too fond of it, but we’ll keep trying! 

Grandma and Grandpa will be back for the Fourth of July weekend. We can’t wait!!

One Month Update!

I can hardly believe it, but Emily is already one month old! (It was actually on Friday but we had some internet issues at the new apartment. But now we’re all set!) I hope to do a monthly update for her to keep track of how she’s doing. Here we go!

This is Monkey-Do, he’ll be helping us keep track of her size each month. She didn’t want to stay sitting up this time! So far, she and Monkey-Do aren’t the greatest friends, but I’m sure she’ll love him eventually. :)

At one month, Emily:

• …is starting to be more alert and has more awake time. She sleeps for 2-3 hour stretches during the day and then stays awake for an hour or so, and is usually happy and content to just sit on our lap and look around at her new surroundings. She has even started to give us some good smiles, especially when she hears her daddy’s voice. She loves him!

• …has just transitioned from newborn diapers to size one diapers, after two days of oh-so-fun blowouts and leaks from all sides. She still fits into most of her newborn clothes but some are getting too small. She’s not quite into the next size yet, but it won’t be long! We go to the doctor tomorrow morning for her one month check-up and we’ll get her height and weight then. She’s getting pretty big! ***Edited to add: She weighed 9 lbs 9 oz and was 21.5 inches long! They said she's perfect! But we already knew that. Ha. ***

• …had a few rough weeks, but finally seems to be a little happier. For a while she was very fussy and cried almost all day, but I’ve started cutting all dairy from my diet she seems to be doing a lot better. It also helps that she’s more interested in her pacifier; at first she didn’t want anything to do with it! If all else fails and she seems to just need to cry, we’ve learned that we can take her for a car ride to calm her down, and Rob loves that! It hasn’t failed yet. :)

• …recently decided that her swing is her favorite place to sleep. We sometimes put her in it for naps and she conks out right away, and at night it’s given us at least 4 hours of solid sleep! Hooray for that! She usually wakes up once at night to eat and get a clean diaper, and after that is out again pretty quickly, which makes mommy happy. We’ve all been getting a decent amount of sleep the last week or so, and now that we’re home and not at the hotel, I hope that trend continues. Please, let it continue!

• …went to church for the first time today! She pretty much slept through the whole thing, but the loud music did startle her once or twice. She also went to lunch with us both for the first time, and didn’t make a peep! I think she likes teriyaki!

• …has completely and totally stolen her parents hearts. We are so glad to have her here, and even though we’ve been through a LOT of changes this last month, it’s been one of the best months we’ve ever had! We are starting to settle into a routine and are getting used to all these changes, and life is good.

• We love you punkin and we’re very excited for the months ahead watching you learn and grow. What a blessing you are to us! We couldn’t ask for anything more. One month down, many more to go!

Red Robin… Yum!

Today was a great day! I got a doctor’s appointment set for Emily for her well-baby check up (finally), unpacked a few more boxes, and went out to enjoy the sunshine a little bit, too! I took Emily for our first “official” lunch out- Katrina, Skip and the boys treated us to Red Robin! She was a perfect angel, too! Ok, so she pretty much slept the whole time, but there was no screaming and we avoided the meltdown I was sure would happen the moment I ventured out into public with her by myself for more than ten minutes. Hooray!

My lunch date:

 

Here are a few more pictures too- I finally found the computer cable for my good camera!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today is Rob’s last real day of training, tomorrow is just a day to wrap things up and pass out awards. So that means tonight is our last night at the hotel! YAAAAAAAY!! It’s a very nice hotel, but BOY AM I READY TO HAVE A HOME AGAIN!! The drive from Bellevue to Federal Way all the time isn’t my favorite either. And once we get settled in, I should be able to update this poor, forgotten blog a lot more often! But don’t hold me to that… ;)

And then she was here!

…The LONG ending to our birth story, continued from the previous post.

7(ish) am. We get to the hospital and they tell us that all the labor rooms are full! We end up having to spend the next 3 hours in a triage room (could it have been any LESS private? I don’t think so.) with a nurse who didn’t bother to even introduce herself to us, much less explain what was going on or try to make us more comfortable. Needless to say, her bedside manner was a bit lacking the entire time we were there…

Oh, and did I mention the hospital is undergoing renovation work? Oh yes, we got to listen to hammers, drills, LOUD power tools of all kinds, all while trying to relax as much as possible. That was fun. And because of all this construction work, the power to the computers kept going out, so our oh-so-kind nurse had to ask me all the admitting questions three times, and that did nothing for her mood! Before too long though our new doula Pamala arrived and kept us busy chatting while we waited for a room.

At some point while we waited in the triage room, a doctor from the practice I’d attended during my pregnancy came and checked me out. Despite the contractions getting stronger, I was still only at 3cm dilated, which was not encouraging at all. But because of the Strep B they decided to keep me and get my IV started with the penicillin, even though I wasn’t very far along. I think at that point it really struck me that we weren’t going to be leaving without our baby girl!

Pamala suggested we take a walk around the hospital to get things moving along a little, so we did. We stopped by to say hi to the grandparents to be who were (somewhat patiently) waiting in the waiting room, and spent a half hour or so chatting and walking around. It seemed to work, too, because I had to keep stopping when the contractions came. Eventually we decided to head back to the triage room so Nurse Friendly wouldn’t come looking for us.

10:30 am. We FINALLY get a real room! The first thing we did was to get the water started in the tub so I could get in and try and relax a bit. That really helped to ease the contractions and made me feel better almost instantly. Although it was getting more painful, I was still handling things pretty well and we were thinking the Bradley techniques we’d learned in our childbirth class were really paying off. The worked at least for a while…

12:30 pm. Our doctor comes in and wants me to get out of the tub so he can check me and so they can put me on the IV penicillin again (not my favorite part!). He does the exam and tells me I’m STILL at 3 cm! I was pretty upset by that, and I started thinking I’d be there forever waiting for this baby. We decided to let him break my water to speed up the contractions, and the very next contraction was twice as strong as the last ones had been. That’s when things really started to get serious; no more chatting and laughing for me. The doctor also wanted to put me on pitocin and insert a monitor into the baby’s scalp to make sure she was doing ok. Of course we didn’t want any of that, so Rob (SUCH a good coach!) told him we wanted to wait a while and see what happened before doing any other interventions. The doctor agreed, and said he’d be back in an hour. I decided to get back into the tub.

1:30 pm. The doctor returns and I’m still in the bathtub. Contractions are much stronger and still about 2 minutes apart, and I don’t want to do anything but relax and breathe through them while in the warm water. Pamala and Rob sat there in the bathroom with me, talking to me and keeping me calm. They told the doctor I wouldn’t be getting out of the tub right then because it was helping so much with the pain, so he said the nurse could check me later on. It was apparently very important for me to be on the monitor ALL THE TIME, even while I was in the water, so the nurse kept coming in the bathroom to check and adjust the two monitors on my tummy. That was by far my least favorite part, and I think I even told her at one point to “get those damn things off me NOW!” Thankfully, she did. For a little while anyway.

2:30 pm. After lots of time in the tub and shower with Rob helping me through each contraction, I finally give in and let the nurse check me again. I was only at 5cm. From then on I stayed in the bed, changing positions to stay comfortable, and I use that term loosely here. Mostly I flopped from side to side trying to ignore what I was feeling. Rob could probably give you the details of this part better than I can, but I do remember telling him to shut up, and also that he needed a breath mint (love you honey!).  At some point I started feeling like I needed to push, so the nurse checked me again and I was only at 7cm, and so they wouldn’t let me push. Anyone who’s been there knows, when you have to push you HAVE TO PUSH. There is no way to describe that feeling, but it made me dry-heave, and that was the worst. I’ll spare you the details here, but know that this part was really not the best time I’ve ever had.

5 pm. I tell the nurse that I can’t help it any longer and I HAVE to push. NOW. So she checks me one more time and sure enough! I’m at 10cm! Time to push! HOORAY!! They let me do a couple of “test” pushes, and it’s quickly apparent that the doctor needs to come. NOW! She calls him and lets him know, and during the call she watched me push one time. After that one push she told him not to wait, at all, and to get there asap!

He arrived just in time for the final few pushes, and at 5:22, less than half an hour after I started pushing, she was here. They put her on my chest and Rob and I just stared. That was our little girl! Our miracle! And I have to admit, my first thought was, “Wow, there really WAS a baby in there!” Rob got to cut the cord after a few minutes, and he stayed right by her side as they weighed and measured her. It was the moment that changed my life, and of course we both cried. And so did she! For the first hour of her little life, Emily made plenty of noise to let us know she was here! We stayed in the hospital overnight and left after dinner the next day. While it wasn’t perfect, I would do it all over again tomorrow for her.  We’re both totally in love. :)

Here is a link to the picture gallery I set up. I’m sorry this took so long! I’ll also add it to the sidebar and keep adding pictures often, so everyone far away can keep up with us!

Because the whole story is far too long for one post.

Here are some things I don’t recommend you do all at the same time: have a baby, get a new job, and move to a new home in a new city. It tends to be pretty taxing and stressful! That’s what we’ve been up to these last few weeks. It’s been busy to say the least! I can’t begin to put all the details together yet, so we’ll start with the biggest news, the baby!

I’m happy to finally be able to announce that she’s here!! We welcomed Emily Marie Shankland into our family on April 14th, 2010 at 5:22 pm weighing 7 lbs 11 oz at 20 inches long. Tall skinny girl! Today marks three weeks old and we’re just starting to turn a corner from completely sleepy baby-blob to somewhat more awake and alert little person. And boy can she voice her opinion when she wants to! I have a feeling we’re in for a ride with this one!

Our birth story is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot. It wasn’t perfect, but if I could go back and do it all over again I don’t think I’d change anything about it. That said though, we won’t be doing it again anytime soon, that’s for sure!! So here’s the story, with a few of the gory details omitted…

Tuesday, April 13, 10 pm. I had been having contractions on and off all week but nothing that lasted more than a couple of hours with any consistency. Until tonight. I’d been having them since late afternoon, but they were fairly mild and about 6-8 minutes apart. Rob left to go get his mom from the airport (good timing Eunice!!) and I decided to go to bed and rest. I thought it was just more warm-up and couldn’t be real, so I didn’t really bother paying them too much attention.

11:30 pm. Rob gets back and comes to bed with me. The contractions are still there and still pretty regular, but we decided to ignore them for now and try and get some sleep. I still think this is just “pretend labor” and don’t bother timing them. Even though I’m doing my best to ignore it, I can’t. I haven’t slept yet.

1 am. Contractions are getting stronger and seem a little closer together, so I start timing them. 3-5 minutes apart. I decide to see if I can sleep a little, without luck. Rob is next to me, snoring away. I’m a little jealous.

Here’s where I should pause… Stephanie, the doula that we’d been working with, left a message for me earlier that day that she had come down with strep throat and for me to please not go into labor for a few more days so she’d have time to recover and be able to make it to the birth. Unfortunately, the baby had other plans. I panicked a bit but we did have the number for Bobette, her back-up, just in case.  Stephanie had also mentioned that the first thing we should do if we thought we were in labor was to get in the bathtub. If contractions got stronger, there was a good chance this was the beginning of labor. If not, it was most likely just false labor. I just liked the excuse to take a warm bath. :)

1:30 am. I wake Rob and tell him what’s happening, and he decides I should get in the tub to see if the contractions get stronger or subside. They quickly get stronger and closer together, and at this point he starts to think it just might be the real thing. I’m still in denial and refuse to call Bobette or Stephanie for fear of waking them up and bothering them for no reason. Every night that week we’d gone through the “nightly contraction show” and I still didn’t think this was any different. I decide to get back in bed and try again to get some sleep. Somewhere in there I did sleep for about an hour, on and off, and Rob seemed to sleep a little, too, which ended up to be pretty fortunate for both of us!

Wednesday, April 14, 5:30 am. I finally decide that we may actually be in labor, maybe, and let Rob call Bobette, Stephanie’s backup. She tells us she’s on the way to our house and will be there within an hour. (At this point I didn’t know it, but Bobette had let Rob know she wouldn’t be able to make it due to her own medical issue and called Stephanie to tell her, too. Stephanie called another doula friend of hers, Pamala, and she ended up meeting us at the hospital later on).

6 am. The contractions are closer and closer together and average about 2 minutes apart, and are stronger every time. We decide not to wait for our doula and get in the car to go to the hospital on our own. I had also tested positive for group B strep earlier in the pregnancy, so the doctor told me I’d have to have an IV and receive penicillin during labor and birth, and to go the hospital soon rather than waiting at home for too long. So, we head down to Deaconess.

TO BE CONTINUED… (once I can get a little sleep!)