Emily Being Held

While going through all of our Emily pics, I noticed that she was pretty much a held baby while at the hospital. Other than the ones of me and Amy, here are the pictures that I found of Emily being held.

Nana Prickett:

PawPaw Prickett:















Papa Whitt:















Granna Whitt:

Uncle Seth:

Aunt Steffany:

Aunt Stephanie (a.k.a. Aunt Gozzy)

Aunt Kelly:

Uncle Cody:

Cousin Amanda:

Aunt Janna:

Emily is Home

Here we are enjoying our last few minutes at St. Vincent's. The car ride home was great. Emily was asleep after a few minutes in the car. Even the crater-filled interstates didn't wake her.

Emily in her cradle swing:

Emily swaddled and sleeping in her Pack 'n' Play. Notice the AU toboggan.

Emily's 2nd bath at home. This one was much more pleasant. There was no possibility for pictures of the first bath. Amy and I needed all 4 hands to corral her flailing limbs. This time we could actually put her in the warm water because the remainder of her umbilical cord detached yesterday. She really seemed to enjoy this bath.

Emily and mommy in the nursery:

Tonight will be Emily's 6th night at home. So far she has adjusted well to her surroundings. She is sleeping well and is feeding regularly. She awakes to eat about every 3 hours and eats for about 30-45 minutes. We try to keep her awake after daytime feedings for a few minutes of play time before she goes down for a nap. Of course play time right now basically consists of me and Amy talking, singing, or reading to her and letting her swing in her cradle swing. Amy and I have also adjusted pretty well to the whole modified sleep schedule. We are up a couple of times during the night, but we make up for it by sleeping late in the mornings. Amy has made a full recovery from her C-section and can now handle things all by herself. She even let daddy sleep through a feeding last night. I owe her big time!

EMILY IS HERE!!!!

Emily is here and what a joy she is! Amy and I are so blessed to have her in our family. We are so in love with her. She was born on Thursday, January 11th at 1:30 p.m, weighing in at 8 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 inches long. We had a regularly scheduled appointment on Wednesday and Amy's blood pressure was just a touch high. They sent her to the labor and delivery floor to have some blood work done. While there, they monitored her blood pressure while they ran the tests on her blood. Her blood pressure during that time was in the 120/80 range, which was great. The tests also came back good, but since Amy was practically at her due date and she did have one blood pressure test that was high, they decided to keep her. By the way, she was still dilated to 1 cm and was about 70% effaced, which was about the same as she was in late December. Anyway, they gave her some medication that was to help the labor inducing process that was scheduled for about 7 a.m. on Thursday. On Thursday morning the doctor came in and gave the official go-ahead to induce labor and he broke her water. By 12:30 Amy was only dilated to 3 cm. The doctor said that she wasn't progressing fast enough and that it would be best to do a C-section. He sheduled it for 1:15. I had to call grandparents, etc. that had left the room during what was thought to be just a routine check to tell them that Amy was having a C-section in 45 minutes! Sure enough at 1:15 Amy was in surgery and at 1:30 the doctor and nurses finally pulled out our big bundle of joy. I heard one of the nurses ask Amy where she was hiding Emily b/c they were guessing by the way Amy looked that Emily would be in the 7 lb. range. I was able to witness the blessed event in my own surgical attire.

Amy and Emily are doing so well and are very healthy. We are very excited about getting to take Emily home with us tomorrow. I will get to be with Amy and Emily for about 2 weeks before I return to work. I am looking forward to the experience and I'm certain that I will never forget it. Amy has been an inspiration to me during this whole pregnancy and especially over the past few days. I'm incredibly blessed to be her husband. Now I have two wonderful ladies in my life and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with them. GOD IS GOOD!!!!

God Knows

God knows when Emily is coming. That's good enough for us. I am writing this roughly 2 hours after our appointment where we found out that there was practically no change for the 3rd straight visit. Amy is now at 39 weeks, 1 day and was dilated to 1 cm and approximately 70% thinned out. Her weight was roughly the same. Although the physician's assistant at the last appointment told us that our doctor would induce Amy if she were at 39 weeks, our doctor told us today that she would not consider inducing until 1 week past the due date. Now we're just hoping that Emily comes on her own. Emily is healthy with a good heart rate and is measuring normal. Her due date is Thursday, the 11th. Amy was born 10 days after her due date, but our Dr. assured us that we would induce labor around the 18th if Emily tarries. Our next regular appointment is scheduled for Wednesday the 10th. Part of us likes the idea of inducing labor b/c you are prepared and your family and friends are prepared; however, there's just something about letting it happen on its own that feels right, like God intended it. Ya know?

Anyway, I hope everyone had a Happy New Year/Jeremy's birthday. I did. Auburn's defense won another game for them, and later that night I saw what may have been the greatest college football game of all time. I stayed up late to watch Boise St. beat Oklahoma 43-42 in OT in the Fiesta Bowl. If we ever have a playoff in Division I-A football, this game will most likely be remembered as the game that helped bring it to pass. But I digress.

Who wants to start the baby pool? Emily will be born sometime between now and the 18th. Pick a day.