We made a trip out to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Utah. And by Grandma and Grandpa, I mean my Mom and Dad. I guess I have now hit that point where I start referring to them as that so I don't confuse my children. I guess I have a little bit before it becomes necessary but I might as well start practicing now.
We came out here to see family, go to my graduation ceremonies, and just hang out for a bit. So far it has been great. I've put a bunch of the pictures we've taken so far below.
We told Jack and Lily, Bobby's two cousins on the Emmett side, that they should give the baby a kiss. Lily went first and...
...Ended up more like a head butt. Jack was next...
...and he was a little more successful
On Friday I had my convocation for the Marriott School. It was a little melodramatic since I finished my classes in December and have been living in Portland ever since. It was still nice to get back to the campus and relive all of those good memories from college. I ran into some friends and that is always fun. After getting my fake diploma (I already received the real one a few months ago) I walked across the stage and got to go sign the big piece of the Marriott Center floorboard that will go in the Tanner Building (I think). I signed just above the first R in Marriott so I'll have to show it to Bobby if he ends up going to school here.
On Saturday morning we drove up to Logan to have a little baby shower with my relatives up there. I was invited to come along so I have now been to two baby showers. They made me take the notes.
While my Grandpa Emmett got to hold Bobby,
and while Jackie opened all of his presents.
Later that afternoon we all gathered at my parents house for a little birthday celebration. My Grandpa turned 83 (Happy Birthday Grandpa!) this past weekend. He was joined by his Sister and her family as well so we had a good crowd at my parents house.
Going pee every hour means he has his Daddy's bladder
And the way he looks at Jackie must mean he has his Daddy's affection for mommy
He has been an awesome baby so far. He eats, sleeps, and poops very well. He lost more than 10% of his body weight in the first few days but he gained almost all of it back by day 6. The past four nights he has gone a stretch of at least five hours, which is awesome for Mommy and Daddy. He is definitely a sleepy little guy, but he's content most of the day so we can't complain.
He has been pretty good with the binky so far
Hanging out in his little sleeper
I love this little guy
These two pictures are rotated clockwise for some reason, even though I've tried reloading them again. They keep coming out like this. Just flip your head sideways.
He wasn't a huge fan of his first bath
Once we got his little sheep robe on him though he passed out again
I came home from church today and found Jackie asleep with her arm in there
I tried sleeping a little bit this afternoon with him
The smelly, little umbilical cord remains fell off today.
I started this post a week ago but here it is now. It's too long to read so just jump to the pictures at the bottom.
Both Mom and baby are asleep right now and since I slept through the 6:00 a.m. feeding this morning because the nurse was here, I figure I might as well use the time to record at least some of the basics of what has happened the past week. Hopefully Jackie can get on sometime soon when she has the energy and tell you what really happened. I imagine our stories will be very different. I realize it's mostly women who have given childbirth or other recent parents that will find interest so I'll be sure to put in some pictures if you are over reading all of this.
Friday, March 26th - Ummm, aren't you supposed to come out today little guy.
Saturday, March 27th - Played basketball in the morning. The guys didn't give me too hard of a time when I stopped play (had the ball in my hands) and ran over to my phone when it was ringing. Not Jackie.
Monday, March 29th - I got through the past couple of days just knowing that by the time Monday came around, I would get to see my son no matter what. It would either be in real life or in shades of black on an ultrasound screen. Turned out to be the least desirable way of the two but nonetheless I got to see his ears and everything else I could make out in that ultrasound.
We came in that afternoon for a Non-Stress test. They wanted to check the heartbeat of the baby and other vitals of Jackie to make sure everything was good. Everything looked good except for Jackie's blood pressure. 140s over 90s, somewhere in there (that would have meant nothing to me a few weeks ago). Our doctor was on vacation so we had a substitute looking over everything. She wanted us to stay and measure Jackie a little longer, but said most likely we would want to induce labor that evening because of possible preeclampsia.
Jackie's blood pressure kept going down and everything else looked great so it put the doctor in a dilemma. After hanging out and watching Live Free or Die Hard on TV for a few hours, we talked with our doctor and decided we could go home that evening, have a good nights rest, get all of our stuff, and come back in the morning to induce. Awesome.
I decided that night felt like Christmas Eve mixed with that night before you start a new job or have to take a final that you didn't study very well for. We both laid in bed from about 4:00 - 5:30 a.m. Jackie finally said around 5:15 that she wished she didn't change the time to 9:00 from 7:00 a.m. We were ready...kind of.
Tuesday March 30th - We got up that morning around 7:00 a.m., Jackie a little earlier because she wanted to get in a good shower and do her make up before we left. We had packed most of our bags the night before so we were pretty much ready to roll, just had to do a few last minute things.
It was such a fun feeling. We were both pretty happy as we drove to the hospital. We took all of our stuff with one load, including our big birthing ball. You have to walk through most of the hospital from the parking lot so everyone that we passed knew what we were up to. They all gave their congratulations. When you give birth, it's got to be one of the few times when everyone at the hospital is glad to see you. It's typically the happy hospital visit.
We got up there to measure her blood pressure and everything was fine. It was perfect. That kind of put the nurses and doctors in a stupor. Jackie didn't want to be induced yet and they really couldn't find something that said we had to do it again. They monitored her for a few hours while we waited for the substitute doctor to come to the hospital to tell us what he thought. We caught up on the Price is Right a few episodes of I Dream of Jeannie. Jackie told me it had to be from the earlier seasons because they were not married on the show yet. In the end, I learned that daytime television is definitely no reason to retire.
After talking with the doctor, we decided to wait and see how things played out. They put Jackie on bed rest so her blood pressure wouldn't go back up and they sent us away. It was kind of sad as we walked back to our car with all of our bags and birthing ball. One of the receptionists that was so happy to see us looked disappointed as she saw us going the wrong way, "false alarm?" she asked.
Bed rest is no fun except when Charlie and Laura bring you over 7 complete seasons from 4 different TV shows. We started on Lost that night and definitely got hooked.
Wednesday March 31st - Last call for a March baby. I had to go into work so Jackie started on the Gilmore Girls that we were borrowing. When I got home it was back to Lost.
Thursday April 1st - We had Robert early this morning, as well as his twin brother!! That was just one of the April Fool's jokes I thought about trying to pull. When the day came, I didn't really bother because my sense of humor with this pregnancy was running thin.
We drove to the hospital to get checked out right before our scheduled pre-natal visit. Blood pressure was a little high but everything else was great. They gave us a bunch of materials because they wanted Jackie to keep all of her pee for 24 hours and then bring it back to the hospital for testing.
We then headed over to our doctor's office to have our checkup with her. We hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks because she had been on vacation. When we got there we didn't visit for very long. With the high blood pressures and being a week overdue, she wanted us to either head back to the hospital that night or wait for the weekend but she didn't think that would be ideal for either of us. We were fine with going back to the hospital so we went home and hung out for a few hours, had our "last supper" before children, and packed it all up again.
Even though it was the same thing as Tuesday morning, this one was a little different. It was going to happen this time. The previous drive had been a little lighter, I guess you could say a little happier. Now I guess the nerves started kicking in, and thoughts and doubts about it all not working out began to creep in.
We got there at 8 and by 9 they were giving Jackie cervidil, a medical insert used to thin and soften the cervix. The nurse urged us to get some rest because we were going to start the pitocin around 6:00 a.m. That word triggered a "breakdown" of sorts for Jackie. We were hoping labor would come natural, giving Jackie a better chance to deal with the labor pains. She wanted to do it naturally not because she wanted to avoid modern medicine, but mostly because she didn't want an IV and didn't want the big epidural needle going in her back. We had a heart to heart with the nurse and Jackie got to get out a lot of the fears she had been having. I think we finally went to sleep around 11.
Friday April 2nd - One thing we did feel good about was his birthdate. We were glad he wasn't going to be an April Fool's baby. I thought April 2nd would be a great birthday.
Nurse said she would wake us up around 5:00 so we could get started. Around 4:45, a beep started going off in the room every 20 or 30 seconds. Is this some sort of subtle yet very cruel wake up alarm? It's not subtle if you wake up with the first beep. Turns out the machine was out of paper. The nurse came in to put more in and told us we could go back to sleep for a little bit.
At 5:30 she came back to wake us up. We couldn't really sleep after that anyway. Jackie washed her face and put some make up on. She wanted to look her best while giving birth. At 6:00 she ordered some breakfast. I went down to the cafeteria at 6:30 and ordered a breakfast sandwich. When I came back up, it was time for the pitocin.
We then went back to sleep from about 7:30 to 8:30, or at least I did. Jackie said she could feel the pitocin going through her arm and into the rest of her body. Our night nurse, Angela, left at 7:30 a.m. and left her lotion for Jackie to borrow.
8:30 a.m. the new nurse came in and said our doctor would arrive in a little bit. We tried watching some 30 Rock on Hulu while we waited. Dr. Ahmad got there about 9:10 and within a few minutes, she broke Jackie's water. We went into relaxation mode after that for about 20 minutes.
From 9:40 - 10:30 I just sat by Jackie and watched the monitor. The contractions were picking up a little once the water had broke but nothing too serious.
11:15 Jonnie shows up with some food, candy, and a few other things. Contractions were about every three minutes but still pretty light.
11:30 people start complaining about not receiving more updates, since it had been over two hours since my last one.
11:45 a.m. Jackie started to watch the Gilmore Girls on Jonnie's laptop. The nurse came in a little after that to check the baby's heart. She said it had dropped on the monitor and wanted to make sure everything was OK.
12:30 p.m. Danelle shows up and Jackie is still in the zone watching Gilmore Girls. Even though people had warned that labor was not actually like it is portrayed in the movies I still didn't fully believe them. We had been going 6 hours and it felt like nothing had really happened. It was a lot slower than I expected.
2:30 p.m. Jackie was a "good 3 cm"
3:30 p.m. Jonnie and Danelle leave for a little bit. Jonnie went to Fred Meyer and Danelle went to go pick up her 6 month old girl, little Bobby's future wife. Yes, we've already arrange their marriage.
5:30 p.m. By this time, they have pretty much increased the pitocin as much as they can. The contractions are definitely stronger but Jackie's body is still taking its time.
6:00 p.m. The nurses stop the pitocin to see what happens for a little while without it.
7:00 p.m. I turn on the Angels and Dodgers spring training game hoping that it might encourage my baby boy to come out. I send out a Tweet saying "@mlb. Going on 14 hrs of labor for my wife. I just turned on free Angels Dodgers game, hopefully that encourages my son to come #openingday" A few random people saw it and then they retweeted it or sent out messages. One lady told me to get "ice chips and rub her back." Anyways, the baseball game didn't help much.
We get a new nurse, Cathy, and she lets Jackie know that she wants Jackie to have this baby tonight during her shift and that it is going to happen.
Around 8:00 p.m. they turn back on the pitocin
9:00 p.m. Jackie's body is getting very tired but the pitocin is working, or at least the contractions are starting to get very painful. We go through all of the relaxation techniques we practiced the past couple of months. About 9:35 we are ready for the epidural. Yes, we are ready. Jackie is definitely ready to ease the pain, especially since she was having back labor, and I'm ready to see her relax a little bit. The nurse said she would be back in at 10:00 p.m. to measure Jackie again and see if there is any difference. Jackie wants to hold out until then. I let her know she'll have to do about 10 more contractions if she waits and that depresses her a little bit.
10:00 p.m. Nurse comes in and tells Jackie she is a "solid 4". If she were to be generous, she would say a 4 to 5.
10:30 - 10:50 p.m. The epidural guy comes in and they get Jackie all set up.
11:00 p.m. Danelle and Jonnie leave the hospital
11:30 p.m. She is now 5 or 6 cm. We turn off the lights to try and get a little sleep before it really picks up
Saturday April 3
1:30 a.m. - I wake up when the nurse is checking Jackie. We're at 8 cm. She says she'll come back in at 4:00 a.m. and check, wants us to go back to sleep.
2:30 a.m. I wake up and find out that we are at 10 cm. Yay! Time to get this baby out. I guess Jackie had felt a lot of pressure down there and called the nurse to come in. Sure enough, Jackie was ready. The nurse said to get some more rest and that we would start pushing in an hour. I called Danelle and Jonnie and told them that we would start pushing in an hour if they wanted to come back.
Neither of us could really fall back asleep at this point. Jonnie showed up about 3:05 a.m. and Nelly was a little bit thereafter.
3:30 The nurse comes in and we try pushing for a little bit. She teaches Jackie how she wants it done. It takes a few contractions to figure out the system. I always thought the pushing part would be as intense as it is in the movies but it was also a lot more mellow than I imagined. I didn't realize we would only push during the contractions so we were only pushing every 3 minutes or so.
4:00 Jackie's got it down so she says that she is going to go call the doctor. Our doctor said she probably wouldn't be able to come back when she left but said another doctor would take her place.
4:30 Our doctor walks in! Surprise! When she left, I guess she told the nurse to call her anyways because she wanted to be there. Maybe she felt bad for being gone a few days before and after our due date.
Dr. Ahmad then teaches Jackie to push the way that she prefers people push. The only thing different was that she wanted Jackie to take a deep breath before she took her "working" breaths. She hangs out for a little bit but then takes off somewhere. Uhhh, where are you going?? Aren't we close!?
Jackie tries a few different pushing positions. We continue pushing every 2 or 3 minutes.
5:20 Dr. Ahmad comes back in to check on the progress. I think at this point I was able to see the head. That was very cool and exciting.
5:30 Cathy tells Jackie that her shift is over at 7:00 and she wants to see the baby.
5:35 Dr. Ahmad says we're going to have a baby and leaves to change out of her warm-ups and put on her game time clothes.
5:40 They bring in a few more people as well as a table full of different birthing tools. This is getting serious.
5:45 I tell Jackie to keep it up, and that if she can continue pushing hard, she'll have a little baby to hold on her chest pretty soon. The nurse gives a little laugh and says, "Little? I don't think so."
5:50 Dr. Ahmad tells Jackie that she thinks she can get it in the next push.
Well, that doesn't happen. We keep getting closer and closer though. Since it didn't come out when she thought it might, Dr. Ahmad then did an episiotomy. At about this point, I lost interest in watching. I looked up at Jackie after she did the cut but she couldn't tell. That made me feel better.
Jackie reaches down and feels the head of her baby. That motivated her to keep going and really push to get it out of there.
At about 5:57, she did another cut. Oh man, this must really be a big baby.
5:59 a.m. Robert Hal Emmett is born
What an experience. Intense? Yes. Scary? Yes. Worth it? Definitely, yes.
Family Visit
I heard them say, "should we do it?" and then a few minutes later I saw them taking pictures like this. They said we could take care of their baby for the next 20 years.
Both Thomas and Jonathan already vying for the coveted favorite Uncle
Maybe you've noticed the baby counter on the left and that it has been at 0 days left for the past week or so.
It's time.
We went to see our Doctor today and she suggested we get the baby out of Jackie's belly. Baby Robert Hal Emmett has received his eviction notice. He needs to be out by April 2nd, and if he somehow manages to stay any longer, he's grounded. We're off to the hospital in a couple of hours but I thought I would write down a few things we've done to keep ourselves occupied while we wait for him. 3 people guessed he would come in April, nice work.
Lost - Charlie and Laura brought over some movies and TV series for us to watch the other day. They are life savers. Jackie was put on bed rest Tuesday so she's been watching Gilmore Girls and Lost. If I'm home, we'll watch Lost. So far it has been awesome. Jackie has actually seen the first two seasons but I've been wanting to watch them, especially after years of people drooling over the show. We stayed up a little late watching them last night and we ended on the episode when the creepy guy kidnaps the pregnant girl. It was too disturbing to sleep after that so we threw on an episode of Gilmore Girls.
The Legend of Zelda and Bubble Bobble - I got two of the old school Nintendo games on my Wii this past weekend. Wow. It was so amazing how many memories started to flow back as soon as I turned on both of the games. Jackie and I beat Bubble Bobble over the weekend and then I finished Zelda the other day. What took us weeks, if not months, to beat when we were kids goes by a lot quicker nowadays, especially with the internet. I just don't have the patience to spend hours bombing every rock or tree just so I can find the secret hiding spots in Zelda.
The Birthing playlist - We've been working on the birthing mix and we finally got it settled. Jackie has the song "Baby Mine" from Dumbo playing about every three or 4 songs. I learned how to play it on the guitar and Jackie has been singing Baby Mine to the baby a lot. The other songs on the mix are all instrumental or relaxation songs.
Alright, no pictures on this post but I promise some soon!
We made a trip out to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Utah. And by Grandma and Grandpa, I mean my Mom and Dad. I guess I have now hit that point where I start referring to them as that so I don't confuse my children. I guess I have a little bit before it becomes necessary but I might as well start practicing now.
...Ended up more like a head butt. Jack was next...
...and he was a little more successful
On Friday I had my convocation for the Marriott School. It was a little melodramatic since I finished my classes in December and have been living in Portland ever since. It was still nice to get back to the campus and relive all of those good memories from college. I ran into some friends and that is always fun. After getting my fake diploma (I already received the real one a few months ago) I walked across the stage and got to go sign the big piece of the Marriott Center floorboard that will go in the Tanner Building (I think). I signed just above the first R in Marriott so I'll have to show it to Bobby if he ends up going to school here.
On Saturday morning we drove up to Logan to have a little baby shower with my relatives up there. I was invited to come along so I have now been to two baby showers. They made me take the notes.
While my Grandpa Emmett got to hold Bobby,
and while Jackie opened all of his presents.
Later that afternoon we all gathered at my parents house for a little birthday celebration. My Grandpa turned 83 (Happy Birthday Grandpa!) this past weekend. He was joined by his Sister and her family as well so we had a good crowd at my parents house.
4 Generations of Emmetts
