Sunbathing Beauty

Both Natalie and Baily had jaundice, so when Emily had it, I wasn't very surprised.  Luckily she didn't have to have light therapy, but a couple time a day we would put her in the sun to help her liver out.  She loved these "naps" in the sun.

Easter Morning

Emily's First Couple Days

This is a sign that Emily and I came home to.  I love how excited my kids are to have Emily in our family.  You would think it would be "another sibling", but each one they get excited about and can't get enough of.

I always forget how little they start.  She looks so tiny in her carseat!

Cousin Alyssa and Emily

This is our neighbor Brian with all the kids.  

Our neighbor Brian and Errin

Emily's second mother.  Such a good helper (look at all that hair on Emily's head!)

Jen (neighbor) and Emily

Talise (neighbor) and Emily

Easton (neighbor) and Emily

Delaney (neighbor) and Emily

Bailey, Emily, Hunter and Mom

Grandpa Bruce and Emily

Uncle Michael and Emily

Hunter and Emily

So peaceful!

In the Hospital

We only spent one day in the hospital, so it was a quick trip.  Brett left shortly after we were moved to the "recovery" room, around 6:15am, to go help get the kids ready for school.  Emily was born on a Wednesday, which just happened to be one of the our family's busiest days of the week.  I gave him a very detailed list of where everyone had to be and when.  I think it gave him a greater appreciation for what I do day in and day out.  Below are the pictures from Emily's first 24 hours.

Meeting Grandma and Grandpa Higham

The infamous nose kiss (grandpa Higham does this the first time he meets his grandchildren)

Grandpa Bruce meeting Emily.  He was so cute with her and even shed a tear!

Flower from Grandma and Grandpa Bruschke

Call me crazy, but I took a picture of my food.  The food was actually REALLY good.

First picture of all the kids together (and Aunt Liz).  Pure craziness right there, I tell ya!

Mom and her big boy Hunter

Checking out Emily's toes

Spencer giving kisses

Hunter stealing mom's water (and then spilling it all over the floor following this picture)

Natalie and Emily

Bailey and Emily

Tanner and Emily

Hunter and Emily

All dressed and ready to come home

Daddy and his little princess (she already has him wrapped around her little fingers!)

And one last picture before we left the hospital.

Emily's Birth

Emily's birth story is a pretty normal one.  I had an appointment the morning of the 3rd.  The two nights previous I had many, many contractions, but nothing too consistent, even though they were strong.  At my appointment I was 4 centimeters dilated and 90 effaced.  They said if I were five centimeters they would have sent me over to the hospital, but instead they sent me home with the warning to come in as soon as things got consistent.  Around 9:30pm I started having contractions about 10-15 minutes apart, but they were very strong.  I was so hesitant to go in, but I really didn't want a repeat of no epidural, so with some persuasion from Brett, we left the house about an hour after my first contraction.  We were blessed to have Brett's dad in town, so we just left the kids sleeping in their beds.

It was really hard to look the nurses in the eyes to tell them I was having contractions every 10-15 minutes and they had only been going on for an hour and a half.  They really looked at me like I was crazy!  After Brett informed them that this was my sixth pregnancy, they took us a little more seriously.

When they checked me I was already a 6 dilated and still 90 percent effaced, so they told me I would be staying with them.  I was monitored for about an hour, only had 4 contractions or so, before they finally took me to a delivery room.  They kept asking me if there was anything I needed and I would continually tell them "just an epidural".  I was honestly so afraid that I was going to miss having one again.  I got my epidural around 1:30am and almost instantly fell to sleep (remember I had been up the past two nights with contractions).  I slept for about an hour, as did Brett.  Around 3:25 I felt like it was time to push.  I hate pushing the "call" button for the nurses, so I tried to wake Brett up.  It took about 5 minutes for me to wake him up.  At 3:30, Brett went and got the midwife (who, ironically, was the midwife we had received and really liked with Hunter but in the end was replaced by the male doctor who actually delivered Hunter).  And 7 minutes later at 3:37am, Brett helped deliver Emily into this world!  It was literally one and a half pushes later.

As I was getting the epidural the nurses were asking us what we thought Emily was going to weigh.  Brett guessed 6 lb. 7 oz.  I guessed 6 lb. 9 oz.  They even wrote it on the board in the room.  Guess who was right!?

This mama knows! ;)

After spending about an hour with Emily, nursing her and just being with her, I was seriously wiped out!  I was shaking like crazy and could not keep my eyes open if my life depended on it.  I was glad Brett was there with me to be with Emily because I was out.

*As a side note: This is the first baby that we have had where we knew the baby's name before delivery.  About a week and a half before we had our ultrasound to find out what we were going to have, Brett had a dream that we were having a little girl and her name was Emily.  That was good enough for me.  I love the name Emily!