Ethan, Amy and Baby Emelyn

It’s been a great summer so far hanging out with my favorite little girl (Sidney, Mackinley and Grace all coming in a very close second!). She’s growing so fast so we’re trying to do our best to make the most of each day. Lately she’s been having a lot of trouble falling asleep at night. All the books say at this age the baby really enjoys hanging out with mom and dad and therefore fights the urge to sleep in favor of fellowship. The problem is, little Emy gets too tired and then ends up a crabby mess! We love her nonetheless!

Here are some more pics from August.

We had a fun gathering a few nights ago to say good-bye to Mike, Stephanie and their new son Elliot as they head to Georgia to start their new life. Mike took a job as an assistant pastor at a church in Augusta after graduating from RTS this spring.

As we gathered for dinner it was fun to reflect on how we all came together as single people looking for Christian fellowship. God guided each one of us through a different set of circumstance to move to Orlando and begin attending Orangewood and through the flourishing single’s ministry we all became friends. As time went on people began pairing off in marriage and then we all remained friends as couples. Such is the case for many other people not included in this picture that we would all consider great friends, some married and some single.

The three girls from the left all have new babies, 7 months, 6 weeks, and 2 weeks respectively.

I’d love to put some eloquent words together to adequately describe our time together as singles, couples and now families but as I write this post my 6 week old daughter is screaming. Lovely!! Time to go relieve mom and show her how it’s done!

Have been indulging in some nostalgic musings these past two days…4 years ago this month I moved to Orlando, started attending Orangewood, and met Ethan.  8 years ago tomorrow (August 1) I began practicing law and August 2nd marks 4 years with my current firm.  3 days ago I started resolving that I would make a Target run with the baby and I have yet to do it…and anyone reading this is thinking, is this part of the nostalgia or just pathetic?

Why do I keep postponing this trip to a store 7 minutes from my house when I have spent the past 8 years standing before judges, arbitrators, and other attorneys who sometimes ate me for lunch?  Well, because I’m nervous about it - it’s the unknown (I’ve never ventured out with her alone before).  I just need to do it, that’s all.  But being the avid reader I am, and having devoured multiple books on baby sleep schedules, I am somewhat paranoid I am going to ruin her day by having her sleep in her car seat as opposed to a flat, motionless surface (the books say, your baby should sleep on a FLAT-MOTIONLESS - SURFACE.  I assume this means the crib and not the kitchen floor).  Plus, I am still figuring out how to get a shower and get ready while tending to her.  I think I need to just let her cry more than I want to; I did that yesterday for a bit, and she fell asleep after 7 minutes of crying (I know, I timed it).  I started taking a shower and heard her start crying over the monitor, just as I had managed to soak my entire self.  And so I just proceeded to shower and listen to her cry, which was unpleasant, but she was ok.  I read somewhere that Americans are over-reluctant to allow their children to cry, and that may be true, but that seems normal to me (most likely because I am American).  Who wants someone to cry?  Especially someone adorable and helpless?  That said, I’ll post tomorrow with a confession as to whether I actually made it to Target.

For those of you who tune in for pictures, here’s one I love of Emelyn and her dad.  She is assuming her typical sleep posture - hands near the head.

PS - We did make it to Target!  And for those of you who are So You Think You Can Dance fans (I LOVE THAT SHOW) - I wish Mark had made it to the top 4 instead of Twitch, but otherwise, thought the outcome was fabulous.

Emelyn Grace is thriving!  This is her looking at me and trying to figure out what I am doing….I’m trying to capture her smiling (her smiles are the best, but elusive and unpredictable at this point).  She loves lying on her changing pad, so I put it on the floor and we just played for a while.  She was very excited.

Ah, our sleeping beauty.  Notice her long fingers…good piano hands

Yesterday, I got a small taste of what it must be like to have a child with colic, and my heart goes out to parents whose children go through this in their first few months of life.  Emelyn had a ROUGH day yesterday and consequently, so did her parents.  By 1:30 a.m. this morning, as I was standing over her crib watching her scream for seemingly no discernible reason, I was thinking that I could not get any more tired than I was.  It didn’t help that yesterday evening, our washing machine overflowed, and we had standing water in our utility room that was gushing like a stream into our garage.  Thank goodness for kind neighbors who loaned Ethan their wet vac (our next purchase).  Thankfully, he contained the mess quickly and I don’t think any permanent damage was done, although our garage looks wretched after bearing the brunt of the washing machine river (that clean-up project will just have to wait).  Evidently the cat was feeling out of sorts, too, because I woke up this a.m. and she had heaved a hefty and nasty hair ball onto the dining room floor - thankfully, that cleaned up easily.  I think in the midst of the aforementioned junk, Emelyn went through 5 outfits (spit-up and poop) and I went through just as many t-shirts.  I monitored the washing machine today and watched it go through a cycle and realized it gets hung up in the rinse cycle, therefore over-filling.  So, a call to the repair man is in order.  Thankfully this did not involve some monstrous plumbing issue.

But on to the good news.  It is a new day, and Emelyn is being herself (which means she is napping and generally being a sweetheart), and I am more rested than I was at 1:30 this morning, and therefore, less of a wretch.  Just hung out with Steph, who is very pregnant and very over being pregnant (it will be over soon Stephanie!), and I realized how much you learn in a short amount of time.  I was in her shoes less than 4 weeks ago and I have learned so much since Emelyn was born.  I suspect the next 18 years will continue to be an education. 

Wow. Tonight was an absolutely huge night for Emelyn!!! Mom and Dad took Emelyn out for her very first Chili’s experience. After three amazing weeks of family in town, Emelyn was ready for a night out on the town.

Mom was beside herself because she got to order a margarita from Chili’s…something she’s done without for over 10 months! And don’t worry, Amy fed Emelyn right before we left in addition to pumping two bottles. Emelyn will not be affected by one margarita - information straight from the doctor!

And last but not least, Amy’s sister, Aunt Megan, came to visit this past weekend. Emelyn loved spending some quality time with her and loved the new “football” hold she taught to Mom and Dad. Megan was great at helping around the clock and passing on some of her mothering skills to Amy. She also got Amy hooked on a new book series which means I’ll be seeing less of her during the next few weeks. Her first night in town she made a killer spaghetti dinner which provided plenty of easy to prepare leftovers. Thanks Aunt Megan!!

I haven’t blogged in a few weeks, for obvious reasons, but I have many praises to share, so I am back!

Emelyn is 17 days old and thriving.  She weighed 7 lbs 14 oz at birth, and today at her 2 week check-up, she was at 8 lbs 10 oz, which is excellent.  She also tolerated her first vaccination well, after a very brief red-faced cry.  She was quite the trooper.  She eats well, has really fun alert times, and is very at ease with a variety of people holding her and caring for her.

Ethan and I have been amazingly blessed to have round-the-clock help since her birth.  My parents came into town on her birth day and mom was in the birthing room with me and Ethan.  When the doctor determined I needed an emergency c-section, mom and dad prayed in the waiting room as Ethan accompanied me to the OR.  My parents stayed through the 11th, making meals for us, cleaning, providing back rubs (thanks Dad!) and providing extra hands to burp, change, and love on the baby.  My sister Bethany came for a long weekend the 4th-7th and was especially helpful with breastfeeding tips and encouraging me as a new parent.  She really boosted my confidence.  Some great pics of her and Emelyn are featured under “photos” on the tool bar above.  A hearty thanks goes out to her husband, Brad, for letting her leave for four days, while he cared for their little tykes.

My mother-in-law, Nancy, arrived the evening of the 11th, and my sister-in-law Tori came the 13th-16th.  Mom Pitsch has been a wonderful help as well, cooking, cleaning, and loving on Emelyn.  Tori took me to my first doctor’s appointment since the delivery and he said I was healing well, so that was a huge blessing.  It’s amazing how much better I feel than when we first came home from the hospital.  I never appreciated that c-section is major surgery until experiencing it for myself.  I am certainly grateful for the human body’s capacity to heal. 

Dear friends came to visit us at the hospital (the Gammichias, Dave and Hayley Abney, Mike and Stephanie Fennema, the Harts), and at home (my college roomie Shelby, Jenn Burns and her kids, ‘Chelle and little Julianna, Wes and Olivia).  These visits were so encouraging to us and let us know we were loved. 

Honestly, I don’t think I could have made it these past few weeks without our amazing family and friends who stepped up for us.  I would not have chosen the surgical route for her birth, but God had other plans for us and He watched over us every step of the way.  Even as my labor began to turn south, Emelyn’s heart beat stayed strong and never wavered.  She is the picture of health and any pain or discomfort I’ve experienced has been WELL WORTH the pay-off.  Ethan and I could not have imagined how much we would love her.

One little anecdote before I close:  A few nights ago, around 3:30 a.m., I was changing Emelyn after she ate, and as I removed her diaper, she pooped all over herself (lovely) and spit up almost simultaneously.  She was covered in goo.  She looked up at me like “so what are you going to do about this?”  She has this expression where she furrows her brow and that was the face she presented me with.  It was kind of funny; she wasn’t upset, just helpless lying there on her changing table.  I looked at her and I thought, she is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.  And it struck me, this is how God looks at His children:  we are justified by the faith He grants to us as a gift.  And so, in spite of being mired in the “goo” of our sin, He sees us as beautiful.  I started crying thinking of that reality, and thanked God for my salvation, and for our little girl.  Good stuff.  Diaper changing + grace of God + middle of the night = Amy weeping happy tears.    :)

Grandma doing what she does best! Doesn’t she just look too young to be a grandma? You should see the pictures I have of her when I was Emelyn’s age….she looks like she’s in 7th grade!!! Ahh the joys of getting married at 19 and having your first child by 21.

Today she made fresh cookies for the guys at the office and man where they a hit! She also gave Emelyn her first bottle of breast milk today while Amy and Tori went for Amy’s 2 week check-up. Amy has already lost 25 lbs. and is on track for an amazing recovery!

Emelyn goes to the doctor on Thursday for a few shots…and dad is a bit scared for that! I’ll keep you posted as to how that all goes!

Welcome to Orlando Tori! Emelyn has loved you taking her for walks and holding her. You’re a natural! Now you just need to tell your husband of your new plans to have kids immediately upon your return home!