We have a long running joke with the Fennema’s that Emelyn will one day marry their son Elliot (currently unborn but due in four weeks). We thought it would be fun to snap a picture of her future in-laws!
In other news we’d like to thank the visitors we’ve had over the past several days. It’s been so fun to share this experience with you all!
Snapped this one around 7:00 am this morning. Too cute to pass up!
Nothing like some TLC from Grandma Goddard. She’s is known as “Bam!” to the grand kids around here!
A close up of the little darling sleeping! She still likes to be held before she’ll fall asleep and we’re happy to indulge her…at least for now.
Wow. Already it’s night number three and I just realized there are no pictures of me and my baby girl! With Amy being restricted to the bed during recovery and with Grandma and I pulling opposite shifts there’s been no one to snap a few of me! I tried to take this shot of me holding Emelyn. It’s gonna have to do until Amy is well enough to take some additional photos.
What a cheerful photo! Amy is THRILLED to be served her first meal of solids. She made it through several days of jello and was finally allowed to have some grilled salmon, green beans, pineapple, grapes, melon, chocolate pudding and cranberry juice.
After mom finished her solid food dinner she felt well enough to snap a shot of dad holding the girl.
Later tonight Amy is hoping to have her first shower since Sunday AM. Tomorrow they plan to wean her from the pain medication IV and introduce her to oral medicine for pain relief. We’re a bit anxious about that because in the past (her foot surgery in February 2006) she responded terribly to an array of oral pain medications with severe vomiting. Doctor Stern promised to take all that into account when prescribing her this new medication. We may be kept at the hospital until Friday afternoon to be monitored but we’ll keep you posted!
Love, Ethan, Amy and Emelyn!
It’s 5:08 am which means Emelyn is exactly 36 hours old! Night number two has been much better and much worse in so many ways.
There’s been a lot more crying. At first this really caused me to panic and stressed me out. I kept thinking something was really wrong and it made me sad to think my daughter was in any sort of discomfort. I’m finally getting to a place where I’m understanding that crying is natural and very healthy for the baby. If you go through the checklist of diaper, feeding, warmth, etc. and they are still crying there isn’t much you can do besides love on them.
Emelyn has decided that she refuses to sleep unless someone is holding her. This is very sweet until mom and dad realize they must eventually sleep in order to function. The nurses have told us it’s because she can smell our skin and knows we are in the room. They promise us this gets better with time as Emelyn begins to sleep in her own room. I’ve sat in a rocking chair holding this girl for two hours straight tonight and loved every bit of it. Every 45 minutes or so she would wake up and stare at me, almost as if to say “Hi dad, thanks for letting me sleep on you!”
Amy has taken a couple shifts doing the skin on skin thing. Emelyn LOVES this! We take off everything except her little diaper and Amy pulls her gown down to her waist. Emelyn then sleeps on her belly resting her head on Amy’s chest. We then cover the two of them with a light blanket and Emelyn is out solid!
Around 3:00 am Amy and I were beginning to really feel it from lack of sleep. We had tried to lay Emelyn in her bassinet several times only to arrive at near screaming levels. Yet sure enough, 30 seconds after feeling the warmth of mom or dad’s arms…instant silence! Knowing we just couldn’t keep this pace we called one of the floor nurses for advice. Instead of rattling off some statistics or feeding us information from a book the nurse told us that she’d be happy to take a shift and give Emelyn Grace some love. This nurse, Karen, held Emelyn for about 2 hours and Amy and I slept the entire time. After about 2 hours Karen quietly crept out of the room and had successfully placed Emelyn fast asleep in her bassinet. This allowed Amy and I to continue sleeping until about 5:00 am when Emelyn was ready to be changed and eat again. After a quick change from dad she was sent to mom for some food!
Amy and Emelyn have made exceptional progress in the breast feeding department. After some initial frustrations, Amy and Emelyn have seemed to forge a connection that allows Emelyn to properly latch on and Amy to rest comfortably while feeding. She’s said on several occasions that breast feeding releases endorphins and make her feel nice and sleepy. The first day was tough because she had to hold Emelyn at a special angle due to the c-section. Now that day two has arrived she can resume the normal posture for feeding Emelyn and it makes life a lot easier for everyone.
This second night really has been amazing. I have much more confidence now than I did just 24 hours ago. It was so funny because last night, every time someone came to get Emelyn to check her weight or blood pressure or anything else that doctors do to care for babies, I would follow them out of the room and stay by her side, all the while thinking, if someone is going to steal my baby they’re gonna have to get through me first! After a sleepless night (literally awake and following Emelyn around the hospital for 36 hours) and some additional trust in the hospital staff my views have quickly changed. Hospital staff are here to help, not to steal my baby! I am much more comfortable now with the idea of a trained professional wheeling my baby’s bassinet to the nursery for a 30 minute check up. The hospital is very secure and there are 1200 births here each month that have all been without incident. I’m telling you, it just takes a guy some time to get used to the idea of being apart from his baby girl in a new place.
Well I suppose I could type away for hours about this new experience but if I did that then my wife wouldn’t have anyone to rub lotion on her. Duty calls!
Emelyn Grace was born at 5:08 pm on June 30th weighing in at 7 lbs. 14 oz and measuring 20.5 inches. Her head is 14 cm which is why after pushing for 3.5 hours Amy still couldn’t convince her to come out. A c-section had to be performed but Amy is recovering well and in good care of her husband, mother and father.
Dad is at home now to try and get some much needed rest while grandma takes a shift at the hospital. Dad will be back on duty tonight excited to swaddle, change diapers and arrange feedings while Amy recovers and tries to sleep as much as possible. Visitors may be welcome by Wednesday but Amy really needs Tuesday to rest.
Dad hasn’t cried this much in his entire life. This little girl has officially taken over his world and melts him just thinking about her.
More pictures will follow in the days to come but that’s all dad has energy to post right now!!
Love, Ethan, Amy and Emelyn!
I have decided Emelyn is an ambitious child; she wants to get her mom into the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest early labor in history. We are going on 6 days of intermittent contractions, intense pressure, other signs of labor, and yet nothing. It has been a long six days. :) They probably don’t keep track of these things in the Guinness Book anyway.
Talking to my sis today, realized that she, my other sis, and my mom all required pitocin to progress to actual delivery. So it seems to be a family feature that we need help in this department.
Ethan and I have been quiet, resting, wrapping up minor details - he’s been working from home and making sure all of our technology (video camera, web camera, etc.) is in place for Emelyn’s arrival and homecoming. Thanks to the Burns for helping us install her car seat yesterday (we were trying to make it more difficult than it was) and for having us over last night for homemade pizza and the lovely distraction of great fellowship. Also, they have lots of great parenting advice (which we solicit - they don’t shove it at you, which is refreshing) and we are inclined to take their advice since their children are lovely. Jenn makes her own vanilla extract, uses cloth diapers in an era of Pampers, and other stuff like that, which intrigues me, because I buy everything. If you compared carbon footprints, she would trounce me for sure! But one plus for me: I ate lunch at Wholefoods today. Somehow, this should be a checkmark in the green category, which everyone seems to be worried about these days - being green. Ethan pointed out that we can’t necessarily verify that all of Wholefood’s produce, meat, etc., is organic, but hey, I feel good when I eat food from that place, because I believe it is organic.
It’s thundering again - we’ve had rain every evening this week and the yard looks great - lush and green. I might walk outside if it weren’t so humid and if I thought it would get me closer to having this child. She is already difficult. But I already love her. Lots 
It is 12:30 a.m. and I can’t sleep - too uncomfortable. I have no idea what is going on in my abdominal area, but it’s making sleep an impossibility. It has been 5 days since the doc told me I was dilated and nothing…this is not like the movies people, where you see the lead female double over in pain and five seconds later, her husband is rushing her to the hospital. All signs would indicate I have been in the “stage 1″ phase of early labor for seriously, about 5 days now. In light of this fact, I got really grumpy last night (no excuse - my attitude is my responsibility) and was rather ungracious towards my seriously sweet husband - yuck. I apologized before dragging myself off to bed, and he was forgiving. I awoke this morning to a montage of music he made for me that he thought would lift my spirits, and we had lunch and dinner together. Not only is he really good-looking, he is the nicest person.
If she is born between now and Monday morning, my doctor won’t deliver her because he is in another state. Instead, it will be a woman he is affiliated with professionally (she is his wife’s doctor, which is somewhat comforting). Not the same though. But God knows all this.
“His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.” I’ve always loved that hymn. I appreciate it a lot right now.
I am off to see if I can capture some sleep.
So, Ethan did not get my permission before posting this as a possibility….I can envision (if I am happily dulled with an epidural) a few moments here and there, but be assured, there will be no constant live feed and nothing anatomically embarassing - promise! I am too private, and so is he (but he likes to mess with me), and even if we were inclined to put everything on display, which we aren’t, the hospital wouldn’t let us for malpractice reasons. Ah, modern medicine. The purpose of the web cam is to share live moments with the baby once she is here, with family who will not get to see her regularly (grandparents, aunts and uncles).
Still no baby - thought I was starting labor Tuesday afternoon when I had several hour long bouts of contractions, but it stalled out yesterday morning (Wednesday) and nothing has happened since. I walked for over two hours in the neighborhood yesterday, in the rain, under a large golf umbrella, wearing Ethan’s T-shirt and basketball shorts because nothing else is comfortable. Not a pretty sight - so sorry for anyone driving by (like Jamie) who had to witness me in this state. I had been told walking might help jump start the process, but mostly I succeeded in wearing myself out to the point where I slept like a rock last night (which is welcome). Ethan is working from home this a.m. and playing with the web cam and we’ve been having fun just hanging out together before our “lives change forever.”
That’s right folks. Check back and check back often. I have just finalized the setup to broadcast live from the hospital. I’ve been playing with some amazing new things over the past few days in preparation to share much of this experience with friends and family. I might setup the live broadcast to be password protected or I might just do it right here from this blog.
Obviously there will be some sensitive times where I simply have to turn the camera off, but for the most part, my plan is to broadcast the process of labor live from the web in real time. No delays, you will be able to watch LIVE footage as it happens.
Now that I’ve got everything in place I need to run this idea by Amy and get permission. Wish me luck!
Had a great doctor visit this morning. Heard a strong healthy heartbeat and received a clean bill of health for Amy. Our biggest news was that Amy is 2 cm dilated! What does this mean you ask? Well, it means Amy is showing some signs of early labor. What does that mean you ask? Well, it means that Emelyn could be born tonight. The doc says he’s had women at 2 cm holding a baby 8 hours later while he’s also had women at 2 cm holding a baby 3 weeks later! Looks like we’ll continue each day in great anticipation for little baby Emelyn to arrive.
