Thanksgiving Blessings

As always we started our thanksgiving festivities with Chris' parents for lunch & then we head to my Mom's house for the rest of the day. We are extremely thankful this year to have 2 beautiful baby girls in our lives & we look forward to many more family gatherings to come to share with these little ones.

Here are a few of our favorite shots for the day.

Gram with little Emma at Mama's house.

Baby Morgan, who is now 11 weeks old.

My neice Caroline & Alex (1.5 years old), my cousin Trisha's little boy who became huge buddies. He followed her around all day wanting her to play with him & hold him.



This is the first picture we have of Emma & Morgan together where they are actually both awake & not crying. These are 2 pretty little girls.

Our precious puppy Spencer, taking a snoze at my Mom's house. Yes we do take him to family outings. Its probably a little crazy I know but he is just part of the family.

Home Alone

Yesterday Chris went back to work so that left Emma & I to fend for ourselves for the first time. I must say I do love staying home with her, but man am I tired. I will be happy when my belly is healed & I gain my strength back, maybe then I won't be so tired. I know motherhood does come with some adjustments to your lifestyle but I am still in the learning stages. Hang in there with me Emma, we will learn how to do this together.

Life with baby Byrd

Life is definitely much different since Emma has joined ours. It has been very hard but also very rewarding at the same time. Every time I sit & hold her it just brings tears to my eyes that she is finally here & we get to keep her. She is so precious.

I must admit that I decided to abandon breastfeeding, but I am very glad I did. I know some women really enjoy it & think it is very rewarding, but I didn't feel that way at all. I was only trying it because I knew I should & because I wanted to. Life is our house if much better since I made decision & Chris is totally fine with it too. He wants me to be happy & as stress free as possible.

This past week was full of doctor appointments for Emma & myself. We called the Pediatrician on Monday morning because Emma had yellowish/green discharge coming from one of her eyes that looked like snot. They said they wanted us to bring her in. It turns out she has an obstructed tear duct, which is very common in newborns. Since their tear ducts are so little & they don't really have tears yet it is very easy for them to get blocked. The doctor sent us home with some eye ointment which she will use until tomorrow. Then on Tuesday I had a blood pressure check at my OB office & it was good but they still want to keep me on my meds until my 6 weeks post partum appointment. Then on Thursday Emma saw a Pediatric Orthopedist & he has referred us to hand surgeon who specializes in children hand surgery. We will see the surgeon in 6 months & she may have surgery as early has next November around her first birthday to correct her 3 jointed thumb.

I am still recovering from my C-section & feeling a little better everyday. Yesterday was the first time I went out without having to go to a doctor appointment. I went to lunch with my sister's & baby neice Morgan. Of course my sister's had to help me since I am not suppose to lift anything heavier than 10 lbs for 4 more weeks, so they had to carry Emma in & out of the restaurant in her carseat. We had a great time, but I was very sore & wiped out when we got home. Emma & I both took naps.

Here are some pictures we have taken since we have been home.

Emma's first sponge bath.

Cousin Kaylee with Emma.

Cousin Caroline with Emma.

Sweet baby Emma.

Emma Comes Home

Here are some pictures from Tuesday, when we left the hospital.

This was the first outfit we bought her & I really wanted her to wear it home.

Emma in her carseat ready to go.


Emma in her hat supplied by the hospital.

Emma with the blanket Mrs. Betty made as we wait on Transport Services to escort us to the car.

Emma Grace's Arrival

As most of you may know Emma's arrival started with an induction on Nov 6 & we arrived at the hospital a little before 6pm. My doctor came in my room & started the process before 6:30pm. Then Friday morning 6-7am they started the Potosin. I got my epidural about mid morning once the contractions picked up & by 1pm it was time to push. One of my favorite doctors was on call Friday & I was thrilled to know she would be delivering Emma. Dr. Schneider & her (Dr. Clarke) both agreed that they would need to watch Emma's heartrate closely & if it started to drop they wouldn't hesitate to do a C-section. Well that is exactly what happened when I started pushing, so I only pushed for about an hour when the decision was made for me to have a C-section.

They prepped me & we were off to the OR & Emma was here by 2:50pm. As they were accessing Emma, I started to feel a little weird & it seems that my blood pressure had dropped. They ended up keeping me in recovery for 2.5 hours to watch me instead of the normal 1 hour, so we headed to a room by 6pm.

Once in our room the Pediatrician & Pediatric Cardiologist came to visit it. It seems that Emma does definitely have a minor heart defect (a whole in her heart) but it is a very common defect & will be watched very cafefully. The Pediatrician told us that during her accessment of Emma she discovered that her thumb on her left had has 3 joints instead of 2. We are planning a followup with a Peds Ortho team within the next weeks to discuss what can or needs to be done about her thumb, which right now isn't a big deal either. Emma is using both her hands as normal.

Everything is going well with the new addition to the family. We adore her & can't get enough of her.

This is my mother (Nana) on the left feeding Morgan (8 weeks old) & my grandmother (Gram) or Emma's great grandmother. Emma is Gram's 15th great grand child.

Nana & Emma.

Chris' mom (Grammy) & Emma.

Me & Emma. I really didn't want to be in the picture but thankfully you can't see very much of me.

This is one of our favorites from the hospital. Isn't she beautiful!!!

Break Down

For some reason last night I had an emotional break down/almost panic attack about being induced tomorrow. I suddenly started to think about it & just got very scared. Its not that I think I will not be able to handle labor, I am just really not looking forward to the pain. Needless to say I have been pretty emotional this week, so it didn't really shock me that I had a break down but the fact that it was unprovoked was a bit odd. Now we had been to dinner & grocery shopping which made me feel terrible, so that probably didn't help either. Thankfully this will all be over by Friday at the latest & we will have our baby girl.

Happy Halloween

We actually did very little on Halloween, mainly because I am 40 weeks pregnant & just don't have it in me (I am sure some of you can relate). Chris passed out most of our candy, I think I answered the door 2 or 3 times & I finished working on the church bulletin. Our 2nd trick-or-treat visitor was my beautiful little niece, Morgan. She was a pumpkin, isn't she precious. She didn't really want to open her eyes for the occassion but that is quite alright. She is still the sweetest pumpkin I have ever seen.