2 months!

My baby is 2 months old today!  Actually her 2 month birthday was yesterday and we sure did celebrate!  We had a lot of little fun activities planned.  Emmie has been such a little ham lately.  She was so smiley on her 2 month birthday.

This is the first smile I've been able to catch with the camera.  I think she looks so mischievous here.

Yesterday after we had our 2 month photo session in the nursery:

 

Shan's parents, Shan and I took Emmie, Bentley and Bentley's brothers to the park.  We had a mini photo session with Emmie there in a summer dress that she will never be able to wear again.  It has been getting colder so I just wanted to get a few pictures of her in that little dress.  Here are some of my favorites from yesterday.

Emmie at 2 months:

-sure has been smiling a lot more lately
-wearing 0-3 months clothes, but mostly 3 months and they are starting to get snug
-wears size 1 diapers
-"talks" to us, sometimes it sounds like she is fussing at us
-loves to spend about 30 minutes in her play mat talking to her "friends" the bees
-taking 4.5-5 ounces about every 4-5 hours
-by my scales, weighs about 13 pounds!    
-has been sleeping during the night for 4-5 hour stretches at a time
-really loves to be held
-still will NOT take a paci, she spits it back out
-has been doing this really funny squeal whenever we are feeding her and stop to burp her (she wants the bottle back in her mouth ASAP)

Emmie's great grandparents are in town (Shan's grandparents) so we took her over for a visit last night before the Panthers game.  It is always great to see them and I know they love doting on a new grandbaby (great-grandbaby).

Change of plans:  I will be returning to work this Thursday and Friday so there may not be a lot of blogging until we all get settled and into our routine.  I know I've already spoke on here about how unexcited I am about returning to work, so please pray for me that this will be a smooth transition and I will actually be able to survive being a working mom!

HAPPY 2 MONTHS EMMIE!  We love you baby!

Weekend Recap

On Friday Emmie went and hung out at her Nana and Poppi's so Shan and I could get some things done around the house. This was her first trip staying with them alone for any extended amount of time. Here she is getting ready to go. She doesn't look excited, but I think she did pretty good.  I know her grandparents were very happy to babysit for the first time!

Shan loading her in for a grandparent visit

Friday night we ordered pizza and had our friends Matt and Natalie over for dinner. They just had a baby boy, Logan, 3 weeks before Emmie so we figured it would be nice to have a little get together and introduce the two! I could kick myself for not getting any pictures of them together...two babies at once! 

Saturday I went consignment shopping at this place Once Upon A Child at the advice of Natalie and I found so much cute stuff for Emmie to wear this fall/winter!  I love a good sale.  I also did a little fall decorating around the house.

These are my glitter pumpkins from last year and they could really use a touch up.  I can't really see having time for that in the near future so they will have to do.

Here's my "mantle".  We don't have a real mantle so this little shelf kinda acts like one.  I'm not completely satisfied with it yet. It needs something else and I need to fix the ribbon hanging the wreath.  Suggestions?

Little something on the TV Stand.  Excuse the Bud commercial.  Haha.  I've got the fall scented candles going full blast too.  I really do love decorating for fall and the fall candles and warm fall recipes.

 

Today I made chicken casserole for Sunday dinner.   I've had a few people tell me that they are actually trying some of the recipes that I post so I'll keep doing it!  FYI:  I  always use fat free, light, reduced fat, low sodium, etc products in my recipes when I can unless I specify otherwise.  This is a VERY easy and QUICK recipe and it's good.

Chicken Casserole

2 Cups cooked chicken ( I normally cook my chicken overnight in the crockpot..makes this step sooo easy)

1/2 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 Cup chicken broth

2 cans cream of mushroom soup ( You could probably use only 1)

1/2 Cup sour cream

2 1/2 Cups pepperidge farm stuffing mix

2 Tbsp melted butter/margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook chicken and shred.  Lay in bottom of 13x9 cooking dish.  In separate bowl, mix ingredients.  Reserve 1/2 Cup pepperidge farm stuffing mix and melted butter.  Top chicken with mixture.  Sprinkle remaining stuffing mix on top and pour on melted butter.  Cook for 45 minutes or until it "sets".  Pair with some vegetables and you've got yourself a meal!

My baby is 2 months old tomorrow.  Look for her photo session!

How bout them DAWGS?!

I went out to run a few errands on Saturday and left Emmie with her dad and this is what I came home to!  Can you believe he had his very own fashion show complete with extra large hairbow?  He is a Georgia football fan and I guess he just couldn't resist.  I, however am a wolfpack girl and hoping and praying she will be a wolfpack girl too!  I guess it could be worse-Carolina!

I'm busy cooking chicken casserole, I'll post the recipe and a run down of the weekend later.

This and That

Not too much going on around here, just enjoying my last few days with my precious daughter before I have to go back to work.  Yesterday Shan, Emmie and I went to dinner with Shan's parents at Ruby Tuesday.  We all got the same thing, the peppercorn sirloin and it was pretty good!  I'll be honest Emmie and I haven't really gotten out too much lately.  It is just really hard sometimes to get her and myself ready and all of her stuff and get out the door, not to mention the fact that I can't really leave for longer than 3-4 hours because I have to pump.  Yes I am still breastfeeding.  Well, exclusively pumping andt it is really hard but I am determined to keep it up at least until Emmie is 6 months old.  I have seriously considered quitting several times, just ask my husband, but everytime I do I somehow get the motivation to keep doing it.  My supply dropped the last time Emmie was in the hospital, probably because I wasn't pumping as much as I do at home and also because I wasn't drinking enough.  Anyway when that happened, it really scared me that I might not be able to do this much longer and give her what she needs.  I think since that happened I've been a lot better about staying on a pumping schedule and have actually been making more than she is eating, which is awesome!  Plus I know with Emmie's surgery the best thing for her right now is my milk!  (I know this is all TMI, but just keeping it REAL here).

So this is my best friend for now and hopefully for the next 5 months!  

These are my two babies!  We tried Emmie's bumbo seat out and she did pretty good with it!  My poor Bentley is so interested in her everytime he sees us so I thought I would prop her down there and let him have a good look at her.  He was trying to sniff her through the glass!  She was pretty interested in him as well.  I can't wait until she gets a little bigger and they can become best of friends.  Bentley is such a sweet boy, I know he will love her as much as I do!

Another shot of her bumbo!  Pretty good head control!

I took some pictures of Emmie yesterday and today in her crib and I'm gonna try to keep doing this.  Our stupid camera flashes a bazillion times and she blinks, but I think these are a few good ones of our little girl.

 

Little Miss Blue Eyes

We've got a busy but fun weekend planned!  Hopefully Emmie will let me get this house cleaned tomorrow morning while Shan is at work.  We are probably gonna go out with another couple tomorrow night who just had a baby 2 weeks before Emmie and we are expecting a few visitors on Saturday.  I might hit up another consignment sale or two.  What can I say, I'm hooked.  I'm off to bake some cookies for my hubby!  Emmie will be 2 months old on Monday and I can't wait to post about all the things she's been up to!

Lasagna night

I made lasagna tonight and as usual it never disappoints.  Lasagna is my husband's favorite meal and I think it is relatively easy to make, so I whipped it up for tonight's dinner.  Now I know that I am a dietitian, but yall, I live in the South and still know what it takes to make some good food, even if that means a little fat and calories here and there!  I will say that I do try to cut down on the fat when I can but there are some meals that you absolutely must use full fat ingredients in.  Lasagna, however, is not one of those.  Here's my recipe:

Lasagna

1 pound lasagna noodles ( I use the no boil kind)
1 pound ground hamburger meat (ground turkey would be a healthier choice)
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese or 2 cups cottage cheese (I use part skim ricotta normally)
2 eggs ( again, you could get by with only 1 egg or even egg beaters)
1 Cup mozzarella cheese (again you can use part skim to make it lighter)
1/2 Cup parmesean cheese and some extra for the top
6 1/2 Cups of your favorite pasta sauce ( I normally use one of those big ragu containers and then doctor it up with some seasonings..it's just faster this way)
1/2 C chopped onion (optional)
1 Tbsp chopped garlic (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Saute onions until they become soft and add garlic.  Add hamburger meat and cook until browned.  Drain.  Add pasta sauce and seasonings and reduce heat.  In separate bowl mix eggs, mozerella, ricotta, and parmesean cheeses together.  In casserole dish put some meat sauce down first, then layer with uncooked noodles, cheese mixture, meat sauce mixture until you run out of layers.  Top with parmesean cheese and cover with foil.  Cook for 55 minutes.  Uncover and cook 5 more minutes until bubbly.  And Volia!  It's delicious!

We haven't really been doing too much lately and I haven't uploaded pics lately so I will post again about Emmie's latest adventures tomorrow.  My last week of maternity leave is next week and it makes me very sad to think about it, but the good news is we have some family friends who are going to keep Emmie for us instead of having to put her in daycare!  Amen for that blessing!  We just wanted to try to keep her out of daycare for a little while at least until flu season is over.  Plus it makes me rest a little easier knowing that somebody is gonna love on her all day long:)
 

Emmie Lane's arrival: birth story

Obviously Emmie has been in our lives for oh, almost 2 months now, but I wanted to make sure to post my birth story of her to have a record of it and remember it.  So, this post is in retrospect, but here it is. 

On Monday, July 27th I went to my 39 week OB appointment.  I was really miserable and secretly hoping she would go ahead and induce me or accidentally break my water (At this point I didn't know that an exam wouldn't "accidentally" break my water and it would actually be one of the most painful parts of the labor/delivery!).  Throughout my pregnancy I had some weird things happen and had been pretty swollen.  At 35 weeks I had a seizure like episode where I lost my speech and had numbness down one side of my body.  It was very scary and I had to go to L&D triage and then see a neurologist.  He wasn't sure what happened, but suspected I had a complicated migraine and wanted me to have an MRI.  At this 39 week appointment I kinda had just accepted the fact that I was going to have to work another week and that the baby would probably come late, yada yada yada.  Pretty much gearing myself up for another maybe 2 weeks of torture.  But, when the nurse checked my blood pressure apparently it was pretty high.  So high, that I had to lay down so she could recheck it again.  and again.  and again.  I also had protein in my urine.  When the OB came in she decided it might be best to go ahead and send me over the hospital to draw labs, monitor my blood pressure and the baby. 

I spent that Monday night in the hospital for observation and by 8:30 AM the next morning, my blood pressure had stabilized (still having a few wacky readings), and my Dr. came in to let Shan and I know I was free to leave as my blood pressure was better and she did not think I was truly pre-eclamptic.  So I was a little disappointed that I had to spend that whole night in the hospital being poked and prodded and wasn't leaving with a baby!  About 15 minutes later, my doctor (whom I LOVED) came back and said, "I think I'm just gonna induce you".  I was a little shocked!  She said, well you're already here and you're still having a few random high blood pressure readings, you're already 39 weeks and 2 days and 3 cm dilated.  Let's just go ahead and induce you.  So Shan and I got on the horn!  We started calling the grandparents to let them know things were going to get started today and that the doctor wanted to start my IV and break my water now.  I was probably more afraid of the IV than pushing.  And I should have been.  It took the nurses three tries to start the IV and each time they tried they were first numbing me with lidocaine (I guess that's what it was) so, 6 sticks total for the IV start.  It sucked.  Shan was trying to distract me and talk to me the whole time but I couldn't really focus on his stories...bless him.  So the IV was started and everybody started to get to the hospital before the Dr. broke my water.  Doctor comes in and is ready to break my water.  My aunt Spring, Shan's mom Andra and Shannon were in the room with me when it all started.  I had no idea that the doctor breaking my water would hurt so bad.  Shan said I didn't act like it hurt that bad, but it really was almost unbearable. 

So, water is broken, I am still at 3 cm and now I feel so weird because I feel like I'm peeing all over myself and can't stop it!  My nurse Lori, was great, she was there with me all day and even stayed over her shift for Emmie to make her arrival!  I guess you could say the labor process got started around 9:30-10 AM.  I started to feel some slight contractions from the pitocin drip, but nothing too unmanagable.  They kept coming a little stronger and I probably asked for the epidural at about noon, I was 4 cm at this point.  I have no idea how women manage labor without any pain meds at all.  I was really trying to hold out on the epidural as long as possible.  My aunt Spring stayed in the room with me during the epidural, only one person was allowed and Shan had already suffered through the IV sticks, so he opted to let her take this one.  When the anethesiologist came in, I told him that I hadn't watched the epidural video and he almost walked out and made me wait!  The nurse had already told me to lie and say I watched it, but I just couldn't lie when he asked me about it!  So he spent the next 10-15 minutes explaining risks, and scaring the living daylights out of me, all the while the contractions are getting stronger and stronger and I start crying because I can't take the pain and this man is scaring me to death about getting the epidural.  Finally he shuts up and I get the epidural and I'm fine. 

Here we are before the epidural and after the IV

 Andra, my aunt Spring and me talking about what outfit to bring her home in.

 Just waiting on the contractions to get bad, before the epidural.

After the epidural, I pretty much just labored all day and didn't feel a thing.  Thank heavens for epidurals!  Around 5:30pm, my doctor came to check me and said that I was fully dilated and ready to push!  I started to push at about 6 pm.  Shannon was at my head, My aunt was holding my right leg and Andra holding the left leg.  Let me say it is really hard to push when you can not feel a thing.  I'm telling you I had NO feeling at all and pushing was very hard to do because you just can't feel anything.  I pushed for about an hour and a half total. 

 

This is right before I started pushing and started to feel nauseous.

Right before Emmie was born, the doctor said that it just wasn't going to happen without some help, so she decided to do the episiotomy.  I was very scared of this, but at this point, the epidural had been cut down some, I think and I was starting the feel the pain and pressure, and had even began to cry again from the pain so I just wanted her out.  Everybody kept cheering me on and telling me to push and kept saying "she's right there, just one more push" and at one point I said, "you keep saying that!" or "you said that last time" and I was getting pretty frustrated but I just had to get this baby out!  Right after the episiotomy, Emmie came out on the next push!  I was in labor for about 10 hours.  I cannot put into words how I felt at that moment.  It was relief and the most joyful moment of my entire life.  I remember Shan saying "that's our baby" and he was crying and so was I and everybody else in the room.  It was the best moment of my life.  She was so beautiful and I already loved her so much! 

 

This is right after she came out.  My favorite picture of all of us because you can see how emotional it was

My firstborn daughter

Emerson Lane Rushing was born on July 28th, 2009 at 7:32 pm.  She weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.  She has my nose, but I thought she looked just like her daddy!  We are so blessed to have this little girl in our lives, she is the best thing that ever happened to us! 

 

I love this picture of Emmie and her dad.  He was so smitten with her right away, but he didn't leave my side for a long time after she was born.  I think he knew the grandmas had it covered!

 

 

There were several family members waiting to meet Emmie Lane, the OB was actually impressed at the number of people waiting to come meet her. 

This was the best day of my life.  The following days were the worst.  Maybe I will post about Emmie's transfer to the NICU and to another hospital for surgery later. 

Updates

It has been a while since I last posted!  Whew!  We have been some busy bees around here!  The last week was crazy, just trying to recooperate from the last hospital visit.  We spent the entire last weekend soaking up time with our sweet baby at home again and watching football.  Well football was on TV and I was forced to participate all weekend.  (I don't really like football, can you tell?)

Last Monday Emmie and I spent the day going to Doctor's visits.  She had her follow up with her surgeon that morning and I had my 6 week check up with my OB in the afternoon.  I had to take her to her appointment by myself (still scary) and I managed to put my big girl pants on and get through it.  I almost got lost trying to get there and then had to park in the parking deck and walk a little ways, which meant that I got to use the stroller..joy.  The dr. said Emmie's incision looks great and should continue to heal and hopefully fade.  He also said that we don't need to follow up with him again unless something comes up, like severe vomitting.  Praise God for that!  My appointment went great as well! 

On Tuesday night Emmie and I went to watch Shan play church softball.  Here she is before we went.

And another one with momma:

I Love this little DIVA, can you tell?

Last night Shan, Emmie and I went to the East Gaston High School football game.  Again, I am not a football fan, but it was fun to take Emmie to her first game and there was a lot of Shan's family there to love on her. 

Here we are at the game.  I really hate this picture of myself, but this blog is about documenting our lives and the things we do with the little one so I will post it here.  BUT, I am a firm believe that when someone takes a picture of you standing below you, it will always give you a double chin and make you look fatter.  Ha!  That's my excuse here.  I really have lost 33 pounds now! 

Emmie has been trying to smile a lot more lately and I tried and tried to catch her doing it last night at the game, but everytime she was smiling, the camera flash interrupted her.  Here are a few tries:

 

She was really smiling at her Nana (Shan's mom) and I can tell that Emmie Lane is just going to love her grandma!  I'm so happy for that.

Andra (mother-in-law, AKA Nana) and I just got back from the children's consignment sale at the Presbyterian church and we are planning on spending the rest of this Saturday running errands and with family!  I will try to be better about posting more often!

Home Sweet Home

WOOHOO!  We made it home from the hospital a day early!  Emmie's IV started to go bad early this morning so the pediatrician decided to give her a different antibiotic (2 shots in her legs) that would cover her for the next 24 hours and we bounced outta there!  She's doing great, happy in her swing.  I've been wanting to post a 1 month post about Emmie, even though she is 6 weeks old now!  All of these pictures of her were actually taken this week in the hospital, age 6 weeks, but hey, better late than never, right?

 

  

What is Emmie up to at 1 month old?

-can almost hold her head up by herself

-has been taking 4-5 ounce bottles of breastmilk every 3-4 hours

-still not sleeping through the night, but will occasionally sleep for 5 hours at a time

-just transitioned to size 1 diapers at 6 weeks

-still wearing some of her newborn clothes, but moving into 0-3 months size

-last weight check was 10 pounds 10 ounces at the hospital this week

-has recently started smiling!  (Her favorite person to smile at is her Poppi)

-is such a grunty baby!  I call her Miss Grunty Grunt

-giggles in her sleep

 

  

Little Girl is waking up, that's all for now!

Just a quickie

Quick post from the hospital before I attempt a few hours of sleep.  Emmie is still doing great, a little cranky from time to time, but I really don't think she's in pain, just aggravated with the IV.  The plan is still to finish the antibiotics and leave on Saturday.  A lot of people from work stopped by today to visit with me and Emmie, which was nice.  I haven't seen them since I went out on maternity leave. 

I had my court date today for the speeding ticket I got back in July (9 months pregnant, mind you).  And let me tell you, the other criminals there were thugs.  I have never in my life seen so many thugs.  Shan's cousin's wife, Melissa, came to sit with Emmie at the hospital while I was gone.  THANK YOU MELISSA!  The nurses here are great, but I still hate to leave her unattended.  We are in a room at the end of the hall and I just worry about the nurses hearing her all the way at the end of the hall.  Thank goodness my time at the courthouse was short, I was in and out in 2 hours and there were 400 people there.  God is good.  I was so worried about being there all day and not being able to get back to Emmie but he made a way.  It's the little things!

Oh yeah and the DA reduced my ticket from 53 in a 45 to 40, so after I paid my $131 fine I was on my merry way. 

In the Hospital

No posts lately because we have been admitted to the hospital until Saturday for Emmie's Group B Strep infection.  It is something that I tested negative for, but the pediatrician thinks it's late onset, picked up for exiting the birth canal.  We are fortunate that we caught it now, it could have turned into meningitis.  We are glad to be at Gaston Memorial Hospital because I work here and have the hook up with food. Ha!  Emmie is doing great and really doesn't even act like anything is bothering her, except her IV.  Her appetite has been down a little today, but I have no doubt she will pick back up soon.  We were admitted early Saturday morning (3AM), only after being in the ER for 6 hrs, and after Emmie had a spinal tap.  I cannot tell you how awful it feels to know that your baby is being stuck and hurt and you can't do anything about it. The only reason we even brought her in was because on Friday she was being fussy, which is unusual for her, and she had a temperature.  I'm so glad now that I listened to mommy intu ition! 

I have  felt a little sad and defeated today.  It is so hard to forget to count your blessings and to feel pity for yourself and your little girl when all you want to do is take her home and care for her yourself.  I know that she needs to be here to get the medicine that she needs, but it doesn't make it any easier.  We are so tired of the hospital life.  I took some time earlier and found a few bible verses that did make me feel better, and I'm trying my best to have faith in God and know that he will give me the grace I need to get through all of this. 

Emmie is doing great now, asleep on her daddy's chest.  The Dr. hopes that we will be able to leave by Saturday.  No pics for now, but I have a late 1 month birthday post in mind and took some pics of Emmie today with her new hairbows:)

Girls Day Out

Today was my first day out by myself with Emmie and let me tell you I was scared.  Ha!  I don't know why I was so scared..she did great!  If you have children you will know what I mean when I say that you almost need to be an engineer to operate all of their gear...the carseat with the base and unclicking it to get them out, then the stroller and clicking the seat into the stroller..AHHH!  Almost sent me into a panic attack.  Really though, Emmie was great, slept the whole time and let her momma shop around Old Navy for about an hour.  

 

 

I thought this little outfit was so cute, it says "daddy's girl" and has strawberries all over it.  She has so many cute little summer clothes that I'm afraid she is never going to get to wear.  The girl is growing like a weed!  According to my scales, she's weighing in at 11 pounds!  She's come a long way from her NICU days recovering from surgery.  

We also went and visited with Aunt Spring and Uncle Tony, my cousin Toni and her daughter Isabella.  Bella is 1 1/2 and we are certain after her and Emmie's meeting today that they are going to grow up best of friends.  We also went to visit Nanna and Poppy tonight, all things that I have no pictures of:(.  However I have some really cute pics of my little girl over the last few days, so I hope they will suffice!

 

 Emmie and her Dad before our Sunday walk.

 

 Check out these cheeks! and bright blue eyes!  I think Shan scared her..ha!