Emma's First Week

One of Emma's first pictures - I love her bright eyes.
Everybody commented on them from the moment she was born
and still does! She has been interested and alert from the start. 

I was going to make this post "Emma's first month", but there were too many pictures I wanted to share...I felt 50 pictures on one post might be too much. So, I am going to split the posts up into weeks. I know, this is a dangerous habit to get into....taking too many pictures and then feeling so behind that I don't do anything. Dallas asked me if our posts from now on were just going to be about Emma. No...not exactly. But she is currently the most exciting and adorable part of our lives. :) I will only do this for Emma's first two months, which we have already almost reached. Which, unfortunately, means I am writing this mega late! There is already so much I have already forgotten. So! Let's get started before I forget anymore! Emma Mae was born January 12, 2015 at 5:11 p.m, weighing a petite 7 pounds and measuring 19 inches. She spent the first two hours of her life cuddling with her mommy and daddy, intermixed with getting cleaned up, measured, weighed, and meeting some of her extended family. She also got her cord cut by her daddy.

My parents arrived just as Emma's head crowned. About an hour after her birth,
Emily and Renae brought some of Emma's cousins to meet her.

Emma didn't get a full bath for a while, just cleaned up with a washcloth. She also didn't 

wear a diaper for the first two hours (to make things easier with newborn check, weighing, etc). 

To keep her warm, my mom wrapped her up in a towel. These are some of Emma's first faces :)

By 7:30 p.m. the midwives had done all they were supposed to do with me and Emma...so, they left! We knew that would happen, we also knew that once they left, we had four hours to stay at the birth center. My mom stayed with us a bit longer to make sure all was well and then she and my dad also left. Now it was just me, Dallas, and our sweet baby. We mostly just held baby and shared our thoughts from the birth. A bit before 11:00 p.m. Dallas packed things up and we drove home. When we got there, we were unsure what to do. We put Emma in her bassinet and she just laid there, wide awake, happily looking around. We weren't sure if we should go to sleep yet...she wasn't asleep. I don't remember much about her first night except for that I was super worried she was okay and breathing. So worried that I kept setting alarms to wake me up every ten minutes so I could check on her. Don't worry, I don't do that anymore. :)

I don't have any pictures of day 2. Dallas didn't have any classes that day, so the two of us just stayed home and spent time with each other and Emma - we'd decided on her name by then. But not yet her middle name. No worries though. We came up with that during our 5 minute drive to the birth center that evening. I wasn't super excited about bundling Emma up and leaving our house in the cold...but we had to go back to make sure all was well and also to take the clip off her belly button cord. The only other specific thing I remember about that day is that Dallas' grandma brought us some yummy food and a beautiful flower for Emma.

Day 3, Wednesday, Jan 14: Emma loves her bouncer, especially with the vibrator!

The third day, Dallas had to leave for school. My mom had offered to help if I needed it. Since that second day had seemed such a breeze, I figured I'd be okay. I didn't realize how much I'd relied on Dallas till he wasn't there though. He'd left at 7:30 a.m. and I probably called my mom around 9:00 a.m. I needed to go to the bathroom and didn't know what to do with Emma. It had not yet occurred to me that I could set her down. My mom couldn't come til the afternoon. Don't worry - I eventually remembered I'd bought her a bouncer and that I could set her down. :)

Day 4, Thursday, Jan 15: Dallas got to be home with us! Not all day, but more than day 3. 

Day 5, Friday, Jan 16: Emma's first visit to the pediatrician. We didn't want her to freeze in our non-heated car.

Day 5, Friday, Jan 16: Games with Stratty and Lynnsi. We play games with these two all the time- super fun!

Day 6, Saturday, Jan 17: When Emma has her mouth open like this, Dallas jokes he's going to give her a "tongue-rub"

Day 6, Saturday, Jan 17: After doing loads of Math, Dallas is taking a break with Emma

Day 7, Sunday, Jan 18: Zentz came to visit! They brought us dinner and enjoyed holding Emma - super fun!

Day 7, Sunday, Jan 18: Dallas is super tired after a busy first week. I caught him by surprise.