Emmalyn and Ily tree's

Aunt Julie burping Emmalyn, how cute are they?!


















This is the Emmalyn tree gifted by Aunt Julie and Aunt Heather for Emmalyn so that when Emmalyn is older she will have a wonderful shade tree to chill under. Thanks Aunt Julie and Aunt Heather!!
















This is the Ily tree also gifted by Aunt Julie and Aunt Heather, although this one was bought because she realized that the other one rung up at half price. Thank you Lowe's for the sale!

What's happening at the Morningstars?

James is doing great, he is getting a decent amount of sleep with only a few interruptions. He has the "magic touch" with Emmalyn, most of the time she quiets down or falls asleep if Daddy is the one doing it, not so much with mommy. He, Aunt Julie and Uncle Dan have been doing an awesome job working in the yard to make everything beautiful for Emmalyn, as well as feeding me meals (James even fed me lasagna while I fed Emmalyn, minutes before we had to be at the doctor), making sure I get sleep, and keeping the house in working condition, thank you family!!

Emmalyn is cluster feeding and after our first doctors appointment yesterday, we finally have a better idea of how to work with that so last night mommy actually got 3 whole hours of sleep in a row!! She is doing fabulous, she has already gained back most of her weight that she lost at the hospital, she is weighing in at 8 lbs. 5 oz and is 19 in. tall (she didn't shrink, she just lost her cone head and had a more accurate measurement done). Other than that, she is just the most precious baby in the whole wide world!!

Aunt Julie has been a godsend for our little family this week, if she weren't here I think that I would have had break down after break down! She has donated a ton of trees to the yards cause and much much more, and she has taken Emmalyn on more than a few occasions so that I can get some sleep!! Thank you so much Julie, you are the best and we are deeply appreciative!!

As for the pictures, there will be more very soon, it is just a matter of taking more time than I actually have right now. Thanks everyone for all the comments as well, they are a welcomed treat when I have a few moments to look at them, thanks!!

Picture update

Uncle Dan with baby Emmalyn

















This is a fantastic shot of Emmalyn's double chin!! I love it!! She just loves to sit with her mouth draped open like that while we are burping in the middle of a feed. She is just too cute!!















Oh our baby girl is just the cutest with those big cheeks and poofy lips!

















Daddy has the magic touch with Emmalyn, she just melts in his arms!

we decided on a middle name... i think iris won the poll, but after much deliberation and the necessity to complete her birth certificate we chose ily (pronounced eye-lee). sure her name is different across the board, but that should play in to her personality :).

the idea for the name came from our nurse from our long labor night, heather. her daughter's name is ily, same pronunciation. it stands for 'i love you'. if you've got a problem with it, then no soup for you!

home again...

we are back home. emmalyn and mommy are sleeping. if you plan on stopping by, give one of us a call on our cell phones so we can schedule around feedings and catching up on sleep.

Visitors

grandma and pauline got to meet emmalyn today. sorry for the bad cropping on you pauline, but we know it is you!

VOTE NOW!!!

help us decide emmalyn's middle name. we are undecided but have narrowed it down. your vote could determine the fate of humanity!

use the poll to the right to cast your vote.

more pictures - UPDATED

added a couple where her eyes were actually open...

updates on the family

James is doing good but is obviously very tired since he has had 2 hours of sleep since yesterday morning, but he is still in high spirits and munching on some breakfast.

Emmalyn is in the nursery getting warmed back up after her bath and will be back shortly so that I can breast feed her again. She is an awesome eater so far, she latched on quickly and easily, ate for about an hour and then had a bit of spit up. SHE ROCKS!!

I am doing good, I finally got to eat something and as soon as I get done breast feeding, I am taking a nap, thank the Lord!! Hopefully Emmalyn continues being the best behaved baby ever so that I can actually stick to this plan!!

More updates in a bit...

PICTURES

Emmalyn is HERE

grumpy face!















now that's much cuter...

8 lbs 7oz, 20 inches!

fortunately, she looks like mommy.

pushing time

sorry for the delay, but we needed some sleep...

julie was feeling some pressure so we called the nurse... 10cm, 100% effaced, and she had her push a few times. she wants julie to labor down a bit longer and just ride the contractions before we try pushing again...

closer still

they just broke her water... 4cm dilated, 80% effaced, -1 station. contractions are at 2 minutes, we shall see how emmalyn acts now, since she has not cooperated at all to this point.

those who make it happen

this is heather, our nurse for tonight...



and this would be dr. harvey, our anesthesiologist, who is in the process of replacing her epidural as i type this due to the first attempt finding a vein...

we couldn't have asked for a better set of doctors, light hearted at 12:30am!

getting closer

so, the contractions are getting the better of julie... we ordered her epidural and emmalyn keeps shifting around throwing off her heart monitor which keeps the nurse busy coming back to readjust...



she had to lay back down because emmalyn was not reacting well to an upright julie... unfortunately laying down is what made the contractions worse. :(

Boo-urns x2

Welps, with the help of the drugs my contractions are getting harder and more frequent but the bad news is that I am not progressing (boo-urns). They turned up the drugs even more so hopefully I will be in active labor soon and then having our little baby girl!!

Emmalyn is getting into trouble for two reasons, one because she is not helping me progress, two because she is moving around too much and making it hard for the nurse to monitor her heart rate.

potty time again... that is all.

the photos pt. 2

this girl is way too excited about ice chunks...
















i don't need to tell you because your years of medical training will surely come in to play whilst analyzing the above graph, but just in case a lay person happens upon this blog, the bottom portion indicates that julie's contractions are about 2 minutes apart thanks to 10ml of pitocin

the photos pt. 1

ahh...
















she comes prewired for surround sound...

julie has to pee.

it's about damn time

we are in a labor/delivery room at round rock medical center. 80% effaced, 3 cm dilated, and they are about to start a pitocin drip to speed things up a bit. more to come...

Boo-urns!!

Welps, the due date has now come and gone and no Emmalyn. James and I were so very far off in our estimation that she would be coming two weeks early. But in our defense, my body has given us every pre-labor signal there is for three weeks now, and that is a bit longer than usual, at least for first timers.

As for ideas on how to induce labor, I've given up. I have gotten lots of advice in this particular area, and most do induce contractions but they go away after a couple of hours and in one case they lasted most of the night but were gone when James woke up to go to work. Anyway, I've tried mowing, walking, jumping jacks (this one was particularly funny to watch I hear), painting, spicy food, having everything in place and finished, and then jinxing it by putting things out of place. And of course, the really good ones that are just between James and I. Nothing worked, which in a way makes me happy because Emmalyn's personality is shining through and saying that she will be coming out when she wants to come out, yeah!!

The good news is that she won't be able to control it much longer because the doc said that she will schedule an induction Thursday, for either that day or Friday. I think she is getting a bit worried about Emmalyn's size since at our last appointment she checked her weight to make sure she wasn't too big. He he, takes after her mommy she does! So, I guess we will let you know, here's for hoping that Emmalyn decides to release that magic drug before Thursday and goes down the tunnel toward the light!!

Holy Tummy!!

I really had no idea just how big my stomach was until I took a look at these pictures, and mom actually says that it looks smaller in the picture, no wonder people are convinced that I'm having twins!! Ah well, Emmalyn is a big baby girl at an estimated 8.5 pounds as of yesterday, so at least she will have those adorable chubbo arms, legs, and best of all, cheeks!!

Our first family picture!!

Finally we have our preggers pictures!!
This is one of the last things on our list of "to dos" that need to be done before Emmalyn is born, so hopefully she will not use it as an excuse anymore and come out already!!

are you smarter than a 5th grader?

julie is officially as smart as a high school drop out... she received her ged in the mail today...