First Wave

Emma is now 3 and a half weeks old...it's hard to believe we've had her that long! I haven't written for a while purposely for a few reasons. First, most days I literally didn't have a spare moment to sit down and do anything else other than try to get her to stop crying. Second, because of the first reason, I didn't have much good to say and thats not fun to read so I opted not to write anything. Thankfully, things have gotten a little easier some days. Like right now for example, she's actually sleeping....glorious!

So the first wave of visitors has come and gone. My parents came down for about a week right when she was born, went home for a few days and then came back with Jen! They had actually planned on being here last week because it was their spring break from school. They were a huge help...I didn't cook a meal, pick up a dish, do my own laundry, or clean any part of my house at all because they were doing it all. What a blessing!!! Sadly, I needed to use that time to do my homework instead of sleep but you gotta get it done sometime! Most of the time they just fought over who got to hold her. They're a little bit enthralled with her :-)

Mid-week my grandparents drove up from florida and stayed through Easter. It was so good to see them and I'm really glad they got to spend time with Emma when she was so small. They too wanted to hold her all the time. Well, at first grandpa was scared to hurt her so he just hovered and stared but once he held her he got over it. He was hilarious...anytime she cried he wanted to cry too and couldn't stop thinking of the things that we might need to fix so she wasn't upset. Adorable. So poor Aaron...with all these people fighting for her he never got much time to hold her himself! He's making up for it now :-)

We had a good time all week and there was no shortage of picture taking of course. I'll just choose a few to put on here. We actually had a friend come over that has gotten into the photography business to do a little photo shoot. Emma was a mess!!!! Seriously, screamed bloody murder the ENITRE TIME. I think maybe she didn't like only being in her diaper...maybe she was cold or something. So every picture is of her screaming. Good thing Jen was the back-up photographer all week cause she got some great pictures.

my easter outfit :-)

4 generations!

The next wave of visitors is the Faro side of the family and we're excited for them to come! They come down in waves as well...first Dad, then Mom, and finally Amy. Not sure when the uncles will get to meet her but hopefully it'll be soon! We've tried to use the web cam to have some quality time a bunch but I must admit it can be a little awkward...Emma mostly just sits there and doesn't do anything so you try to make conversation while you just stare at her doing nothing. Better than nothing I guess! While Grandma Faro is here we're actually road tripping down to Florida for a triathlon for Aaron. This may be the stupidest thing I've ever agreed to because I have no idea how traveling 9+ hours is going to go. I'm really glad Grandma will be there to help! Maybe it'll confirm whether I should fly to Chicago or drive up with Aaron...we can look at it as a test run.

So two nights ago we gave Emma her first bath. Her cord stump finally feel off so now we're allowed to put her in water. We were told that babies hate the bath at first so we were expecting a scene. So she's already been screaming for quite a while before we were planning on giving her the bath so we almost didn't do it because we didn't want the screaming to last longer than it had to...but we did it anyway. And as soon as she went in the water she stopped screaming!!! She just sat in there and looked at at us...content as ever. Apparently, Emma likes the water. I guess with two lifeguards/swimmers as parents it was likely. Then she proceeded to sleep for 6 hours after that...what a night! I believe a nightly bath will be part of the normal routine.

So I'll finish this off with my anesthesiologist story for those that asked. Let me just put my disclaimer in here saying that I'm really glad the nasty things I said we at least not directed at my husband. I've heard women say some rough things during labor but my nastiness was directed at someone that really asked for it and deserved it :-) Lets paint the picture...I'm at 24 hours of labor at this point and I've finally decided that I can't take it anymore...I need drugs. You would think that someone that administers epidurals for a living might know what state the patient is in...utter exhaustion and rediculous pain. So she comes in and rambles off her consent paragraph like I'm bothering her by asking for the needle. She's completely monotone and annoyed. Strike One. So I give consent and agree to all the risks or whatever and she gives me the epidural and then I lay back down. Now, it hasn't kicked in yet cause its been about 30 seconds and I have another contraction during which my hands and face go numb and start tingling. And in my stupor state I'm wondering why the epidural is numbing the wrong half of my body. So I'm trying to ask why I'm going numb in the middle of this stupid contraction. To which she sarcastically laughs in my face!!!! Strke Two! Thankfully I knew I wasn't overreacting because Aaron actually turned around and said, "Actually, I don't think its funny". Thats how I knew I wasn't imagining this whole story...he never confronts people like that. Then she sarcastically adds, "maybe if you'd stop hyperventilating..." As if I should be in complete control of myself and my breathing at this point. She basically acted and spoke like I was rediculous for being in so much pain and not knowing what was going on. Strike Three! So, much to my dismay, I get really upset and now add crying to everything thats already going on. And I look at Aaron and say "Get her out of here!" So the nurse tries to get her out and when I think she's gone I say "She's lucky she's not here cause I would have kicked her in the face if I could" Then we find out that she's still there, she's just standing in the doorway. Oops. Aaron said she got a sly little grin when I said that which only makes me want to do it more. Oh well. So thats my story and as much as I don't ever want to be THAT person, I'm writing a letter about her to her practice. Why? Because she's an idiot and they should know.

Welcome Emma Jennifer Faro!

Emma decided to grace us with her presence on March 23rd at 7:39am. Her due date was the 31st so she came a little over a week early. I'm not really sure how much of the labor and delivery details to share because I'm sure some readers don't want that kind of information. So for those that want more details feel free to ask and for those that think I already shared too much...sorry.

On saturday, we had a bunch of our friends over and we watched some basketball. That whole day I thought I was feeling some contractions but wasn't quite sure. Saturday night at about 1am I found out that I was having them for sure. I woke up with some serious back pain and thought I might be in labor. So Aaron and I were up most of Saturday night into Sunday morning. We called the midwife and she told us to call her back when the contractions were closer and more regular...that never actually happened. We timed them all day Sunday and they got closer and more intense but not very regular. Finally at about dinner time we called the midwife again. She told us to come in basically because she thought its what I wanted, not because she thought it was really time.

So we get to the hospital around 7:30pm on Sunday. At this point, we're at over 18 hours of labor. I wondered if they were going to send me home cause I wasn't ready but they said they thought it was real labor and told me we'd stay. They offered, and even pushed, the epidural but I told them I wanted to try and go without it. Stupid. After 6 more hours of labor (24 hours total so far) she told me I was still only 3 or 4 centimeters so I got the epidural. I REALLY should've gotten it earlier. From then on I slept off and on until 7am when they said it was almost time to push. There's a good story about my anesthesiologist but this is already long so that will have to wait...but it involves me telling her I was gonna kick her in the face...so if that interests you feel free to inquire further. :-)

The pushing part was really fast for me. I only pushed five times and she came right out. The midwife almost didn't make it into the room in time to catch her. It was really a surreal moment. They placed Emma right up on me and told me it was a girl. I was actually surprised since the whole time I thought I was gonna have a boy. Aaron got to cut the cord and went with the nurse when she cleaned her up and measured her and all that jazz. It was so sweet to watch Aaron's reaction and see him hold her for the first time. Special moments with our daughter :-)

We had lots of visitors in the hospital those two days and we've been home now about a week. Life sure is different. I do nothing I used to do, and I spend my whole day doing things I don't really know anything about. It's definitely hard. Everyone tells me the first few weeks are hard and it gets easier. Thats good cause I probably can't keep this up forever. As hard as they've been, they've been awesome too. Emma makes the cutest faces and sounds and sleeping with her laying on your chest is the best thing in the world.

I'm sure there will be more updates now that Emma is here. Although, I thought I was too busy to write earlier...now I really AM too busy to do anything so we'll see :-)