Emelia's First Birthday & Second Easter

I can't believe I'm writing a blog about Emmy's first birthday! This past year seems like a blur, even though so much has happened and changed that the day she was born seems like 20 years ago. We celebrated the past year with Emmy, the most amazing thing to ever happen to us, by throwing her a birthday bash with family and friends, then Easter the following day. Party went well, was happy that so many people came to join us. Em was awesome, she braved through the onslaught of people and was passed around like a sack of potatoes, loving it most of the time. She was a bit more timid with her homeade sculpted ladybug, the theme of the party, smash cake that I made her. It was so cute, I almost didn't want her to destroy it. She played with the kids, rolled around in the grass, batted at balloons and babbled and laughed with everyone. She made it all the way to the end and then threw a fit because she was obviously exhausted. Mark ended up taking her for a ride and which point most people left and I started the cleaning up. Thankfully, some friends stayed behind to load all the party leftovers, supplies and PRESENTS into several cars and shifted all that mayhem to my house. Watching her open presents was so much fun, she really enjoyed it and played with everything. She received so many awesome gifts, she's one lucky little girl. Her birthday was a great day for her, but it was also a wonderful day for Mark and I. Not only were we celebrating Emmys first year, but also how much our lives have changed for the better, the purpose we both feel now, SURVIVING the last twelve months on little sleep and so much more that can't be put into words. We are so lucky to have such an amazing little girl and helpful and generous family. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of this past year with us.

Easter, the following day, was also a good day. Had some delicious brunch and dinner, got to put Emmy in two adorable outfits, gave her an easter basket and spent the whole day with family. Then we all crashed after such a busy weekend.

Some updated on Em's skills, she enjoys brushing her teeth, says all kinds of first words like chick, duck, mooooo, kitty, and of course mom and dad. She has been climbing on everything and anything and really kicks it up a notch at her Little Gym classes which we have been going to the past few weeks. We started her on regular milk, which she guzzles down. Still splashes Mark like a maniac in the bathtub and continuously tries to scale the walls of the shower. We have an appointment coming up for her next week, so I'll post her official stats after that. She weighs a ton now, thats all I know!

Check out her flickr photo page for all the pics! http://www.flickr.com/photos/emeliadelo/sets/72157629790044091/

Multi-Post: Trip, Dr, Misc.

I am just getting a moment to blog about the last few weeks with Emmy. Things are on warp speed, well everything except the cleaning of my house haha! We got back this past weekend from an awesome first trip the Outer Banks, N.C. and Emelia's first vacation. She was perfect on the car rides, we only had to stop for her regular feedings, a couple times during the 9 hr trips) We decided to leave at midnight the night before so that she would sleep through most of the drive, which worked out great. We also missed out on the bumper to bumper, stand still traffic that starts twelve miles away from the bridge to the island. The only downside was arriving 7 hours before our check-in to the house. We spent the better part of the first day of vacation meandering around aimlessly. Some of the highlights were napping in a park, eating at a crappy restaurant, realizing everyone who works in OBX is Russian, and getting a Coke in a real glass bottle.

Driving to our house in the 4x4 area was an adventure to say the least. Marks parents had their 4x4 truck and we had our brandy new AWD Forester. You drive as far north as the normal road goes in Corolla and then it literally cuts off and you hit the soft sand of the beach. You are not supposed to stop or park anywhere near this area because the vehicles need to be able to access the road from the beach pretty much without stopping. Of course, no one listens and people are adjusting their tire pressure, taking pictures, ect in the middle of the road and causing people to get stuff in the soft, loamy sand. If I lived in OBX I would run a tow truck company.

There is about a mile of beach where no one is aloud to park, which was my favorite part because I didn't feel like we were going to run someone's neglected child over or chop a sunbathers legs off. You could drive on the wet packed sand close to the water or the soft stuff close to the dunes at the top of the beach leaving the middle section for beach goers.

Apparently, the beach goers of OBX leave their brains on the pavement because no one watches their children, looks to see if a car is coming (there is actual traffic similar to the main street of a small town), moves their belongings out of the way of cars, and at least 75% of them are out of towners and do not know how to or should drive in sand. It was such a mess where there were a lot of tourists driving, especially if you have cars in front of you that couldn't maintain their speed. After the trip to the house, we parked our car and made Mark's dad do most of the driving in his truck.

We never got stuck, but there were a few sticky situations with other drivers and beach people screwing up our travel.

Most days we slept late, cooked breakfast as we did most meals and hung at the beach right in front of our house or our private pool. I preferred the pool during the heat of the day and the beach at dusk for walking or fishing.  We also had a jacuzzi which was nice to relax in. Almost everyday we would see the Jurassic Park SUV's drive right by our house full of ripped off tourists to see the wild horses of Corolla. We didn't have to do much more then look out the window,. I took pictures of the family of horses that frequented the property just about every day. One even got close enough to step right up to, however, due to a previous vacation horse disaster I kept my distance like the law says. I did break the law once and throw peanuts at them, they don't like peanuts.

Emelia adjusted perfectly to the house, she slept in the pack k play, which thankfully we brought because the listing said there was  crib provided and it was no where to be found. I took her down to the beach to get her toesies in the ocean and the sand a couple times but she spent most of her outside time in the pool or her little sun shade tent by the pool with me. Some days were too hot for her so she had quick dips in the pool and hung out inside with the baby monitor.

Like I said, we cooked 90% of our meals. The restaurant scene is limited and we were not impressed. We some good seafood at one place basically. The rest of the time we made awesome fresh seafood meals from a farmer's market. Seared cajun tuna, Old Bay crabs, steaks, chicken, shrimps, basically everything we made had Old Bay on it haha. We also made all of our drinks, Pina Coladas, margaritas and pitchers of Malibu Bay breezes.

The trip was utterly relaxing, minus the beach driving. I am not sure if I would drive back down to OBX only because of the lack of things to do, but it was nice to be forced to do nothing for a week and just enjoy the baby, Mark and the sun!

Now if you asked Pat and Tony how their trip went, they would say the same thing with a tiny variation on the last day. The alternator went on their truck and stranded them hours before they were supposed to pack to leave the next day and minutes after we left ahead of time with the baby. After calling 20 places we managed to find them a shady room for a night by the garage in Kitty Hawk. They somehow managed to see some humor in their mess of a last day and made their way home.

Our drive home was equally easy, Emmy slept and we drove. I did have some awkward moments including a McDonalds full of only obese black people feeding their kids happy meals at 1030 at night but that didnt top the highlight of my trip. Mark got pulled over on the way home going 6 MPH over. The cop came up MY window while I was pumping breast milk. We only got a warning ;) I still have photos and some videos to edit from the trip, hoping to get to that soon!

Onto the next subject, Emelia had a doctor appointment a few days ago. It was specifically scheduled that day so that the insurance would cover her second round of baby shots. After waiting an hour because and old woman was fainting in the waiting room, Emelia had a quick physical and was told that they were mistaken and her shots won't be covered until after the 14th. So that was a good use of my time. I was late for work, Emmy was starving and now I have to go back haha. On the bright side, she is still doing fantastic and weighs 11 pounds she is a pound heavier then half a month ago, she is two inches longer then two month ago at 23" and her head is now 15" which is 2 inches bigger then when she was born. She is also starting to teeth! We call her drooly julie haha.

We are so busy with Emmy and are lucky to have some good grandmas that watch her during the work hours of the week. We are having a blast with her and are looking forward to some big changes coming.

Play All Day, Party All night

Emelia spent the majority if the day playing and being uber alert. Now she is spending most of the night being grumpy and uber tired but not sleeping. On the bright side, she was very cute today! She seemed to notice and interact with her toys full on today, even got some smile action!

Middle of the night

Figured I would post a quick update. Emelia spent a good amount of yesterday wide awake, looking around, doing her weird smile thing, playing with her "zucchini" (a toy from when mark was little, its like a soft rattle) and just being cute. She has found my hair and gets her fingers all twisted up in it. If you hold her under her arms she can support her weight for a while now and will sometimes even push up. I have been practicing sitting up with her now too. Basically, just holding her softly in position so she gets the idea. My work out DVD would say she is hardening her core hahaha. She is getting so cute, looking more and more like a little kid which is scary hhaha. I can't believe how much older she looks to us, even though she is only just over 2 months.

Just about 2 months old....

Emelia had her just about 2 month checkup last week and did great. She was 8lbs exactly, her head grew an inch and her body grew two inches. Dr. Laura said she is doing great and nurse Roberta went crazy over her cuteness as usual. We need to make an appointment closer to her actual 2 month date for some shots :(

I don't want to get too far ahead of myself but.... I think Emmy might be starting to settle into a schedule. She seems to go down easy between 10-11 and then gets up around 4 and then again between 6-7. I hope it continues and starts spreading out even more. The fuzziness when she eats was becoming an issue but I can already see that its starting to die down a tad, maybe the new Playtex Venti Air bottles are helping. She is still eating really well, which can be seen by the little rolls she is accumulating on her teeny legs.

My favorite things to do with her lately are hang outside and take her for car rides. She LOVES the car, she either looks out the window or falls right asleep. Now that its warm out to she passes right out in the stroller. The other day I had her laying on the picnic table looking up at the sky and you would think she saw heaven. Then we was playing with my hair, which is her new favorite thing, and getting all excited when she stuck her hand right in my mouth and smiled big! I haven't been able to get her to do it again, but I'm convinced she thought it was funny.

Its also awesome to watch how strong she is getting, not particularly when she is pulling my hair but when she is pushing off her legs and pushing up her weight. She will do it several times until she is tired and just falls down like a ball of jelly.

Its great to see how much she is changing and becoming aware of things around her and herself. Not so great that its going by so fast haha.

First Mother's Day

I had a great first mothers day weekend. It kicked off with a bang when my brother-in-law handed me my first gift, the new mortal combat video game for xbox haha. Now to most of you this might sound like the furthest thing from a thoughful gift for a new mom. WRONG. #1 I loved playing mortal combat as a kid, #2 Michael LISTENED and realized how many fun memories I had playing it #3 What better way to relieve new mom stress and anxiety then by smashing the brains out of a super human, 4 armed giant wearing a thong.  Don't worry for all you traditionalists, I got many feminine gifts too. Some really pretty jewelry, dining out moneys, clothes, and my favorite a weeping blue atlas tree to plant. I think I came up with a pretty sweet idea to get something that grows each year so I can look back and remember it every time I look outside. I can't wait to get it planted, but like an idiot, I am over doing it. Instead of just planting it in the spot I planned, I first felt the need to build a second level in the flower bed and find all the rocks for it BY HAND in the stone row by our house. I am only half way done with this endeavor, and we all know how much free time I have now to be playing DIY guru extraordinaire.

Back to Mothers day, Mark went to get me some awesome coffee and a muffin for breakfast. Then i spent the first half hanging out with my family and kicking buttocks at croquet then the second with Mark's enjoying some good dinner. It was a really nice day, too bad my daughter slept through most of it haha.

Currently, Emelia is sleeping in her boppy pillow on our bed. We found out that she really likes to sleep inside the u-shape, so we have been carefully moving her around the house in it haha. She also had her first blow out today and soiled her crib sheet. I attribute this to her monster appetite, can't wait to see how much she has officially grown at her next check up.

One Month

I'm pretty sure Emmy is going for a record today on her one month birthday! She has been awake with the exception of about 20 mins since 9:30 this morning and its 1:15pm now. Obviously, her old age has bestowed some daytime energy on her. I hope this means that she plans on sleeping longer intervals tonight! It seems like she has turned into a hearty baby overnight from the skinny, little month early infant she was.

The other night, I noticed for the first time that she was intentially staring at me. Not just catching a glance, she was concentrating on my face. Eye contact feels so much better when you know its real haha.

She is moving around a lot more and much more vocal. She is very opinionated when it comes letting me know she still doesn't like being bathed, lotioned or having her diaper changed. There is also an extreme amount of grunting, growling and baby talking during the night even while shes dead asleep. Which brings me to my next announcement, SHE IS OFFICIALLY IN HER CRIB! She is such a noisy night-timer that it left me, her over-protective, hawk-eye mother, no choice but to move her loud butt into the nursery. It is working out better for all of us, we aren't waking each other up on our turns for changing and feeding in our room anymore. I think she prefers the crib mattress to all her other sleeping areas, and I don't wake up to every little noise she makes. I use the video monitor, which I recommend Summer Infant Sleek and Secure Handheld Color Video Monitor, its a little pricey but worth it. Its just like having her in the room with me except I can turn her down. There is night vision on the monitor too so I can still see if she spits up or loses a binky easily.

Currently, she is downstairs enjoying a visit from her cousin Livia, they have been working on tummy time together, getting their hands licked by my dogs, and cuddling in a swing. Emmy also congratulates her other cousins Shannon & Justin on their new addition, Damon who was born yesterday. If you want a baby, come drink the water at the DeLos, its contagious! 

I am celebrating my first mothers's day this weekend too! I already got my first gift, but I will leave all those details to the official first mothers day post which will come tomorrow night. 

Emelia Loved Kate's Dress

 

Emelia is now 3 weeks and 6 days old and at the rate she is going she will be graduating kindergarten next week. On Sunday, her due date of 5/8, she is supposed to officially enter the world and I can't believe all the things she is doing in the time that she hasn't even supposed to have been here. Not to mention she is lucky enough to be here for Prince William & Kate Middleton's wedding and the catching of Osama! Granted, I don't think she is intentionally doing these things; rolling over, grabbing her bottle, placing her pacifier in her mouth and scooting around, but its pretty impressive haha. She is turning into an eating machine as well, she drinks anywhere from 50-125 mls at a time which is almost double from what she has been drinking from a week or two ago.

She has been doing better with the baths, since her belly button thingy fell off and she is able to actually get in the water. We also took her for a visit to The Morning Call to see the crew which she told me she enjoyed haha. Other then that, most of her time is still occupied by sleeping. Speaking of sleeping, last night was her first official night sleeping in the crib, she did great!

3 Weeks Have Passed

Video of Emmy getting burped, Mark and I think she looks like she is impersonating Stevie Wonder the way she whips her head back and forth or a shark.

I honestly do not know where the time is going already. Part of me feels like we just came home yesterday with Emelia and the other feels like she has been here with us forever. I can't believe she is over 3 weeks old already. I also can't believe we have survived three weeks so far! hahaha

She gets up between 3-4 times a night, sometimes for as long as an hour to eat. No screaming fits so that is a plus. Still sleeps through most of the day, though she is having longer and long periods of time that she is awake which is nice. Her hair is growing and we still can't pinpoint a color. I think light brownish. Her eyes are still blue, though sometimes they look green. I'm hoping for green so I can say she has my eyes haha.

Right now, Emmy is swinging in her newest swing I just put together. I think she enjoys it because its smaller then the other one and she is more cradled in it. Later today I will be sucking some more boogers out of her tiny little nose and she will probably go to lunch with Mandy, Mark and I.

Emelia is 2 weeks old today!

Emelia 2 weeks

I can't believe its been 14 days already. In one way it feels like she was just born and the other feels like she has been here forever. Another typical day so far at home with Emmy. Changing some diapers, watching her sleep and feeding her. We did get to run out for a few to do some errands which was nice, and I drove for the first time since she was born. That meant leaving her alone with Mark for the first time, if only for a half hour. Of course she slept the whole time.

Earlier today, I got my first attitude from Emelia, even if she didn't know she was doing it haha. Check out the video to see her try to back hand me after I rub her little cheek. I hope this isn't a pre cursor for what's to come!

Squeaker

Emelia 1 Week & 5 days

Listen for some squeaker action, she gets real rowdy towards the midde

We just had Emelia's second doctor appointment. Turns out she gained about a half a pound since last week and the doctors think she is doing great! She has become an eating machine, which explains the easy weight gain. We won't have to go back, fingers crossed, for a month now.

She is already starting to change a bit, her cheeks are fuller and she has lost that fresh out of the oven look. Now she is just plain adorable. I find myself staring at her for long periods of time haha, if it wasn't my child it might be considered stalking. She makes lots of noises while she is doing what she does best, sleeping. I caught some of her more vocal minutes on video.

She has been super gassy and fussy a couple hours each night, but we are making it through. I think its just her manipulating us into letting her cuddle in our bed for a few hours haha. This morning she decided she really likes the Avent Pacifier, figures she has expensive taste already haha.

I am feeling awesome too, which I'm surprised about. I think I'm healing up pretty well. I can also get the post preggo belly wrap on comfortably now with the incision and I feel awesome because when I tried right after the c-section I was still too swallon and preggo looking, it hardly closed, now I even have some slack. Can't wait until I'm cleared by the doctor to get back in shape. 

Emelia's first week

Emelia 1 Week & 2 days

The past week and a few days have been crazy. Most of my day is taken up changing diapers, feeding, pumping, burping and keeping a log of the times when I do all these things. I love it. Each night Emmy gets better and better with sleeping and eating. She went from getting up almost every hour, (so did mom just to peek at her), to 3-4 times a night and its getting easier. I have been less crazy with the flashlight as well. Her first couple nights home you could find me peering into the pack n play with a flashlight on her face to make sure she was still breathing.

I can't believe they let us go home with her. So far she likes being swaddled, having her hair brushed, laying on Mommy & Daddy and eating. She dislikes baths, being naked and over eating. Speaking of over eating, this morning she projectile vomited her lunch off the changing table. This was immediately following a bath, so it pretty much canceled out her fresh clean look.

Mark and I are getting better with our lack of sleep. I think I am dealing with it better then Daddy. I found Mark trying to throw his laundry away instead of putting in the laundry room. He also had a middle of the night moment where he was looking for Emelia under the covers of our bed and then started rocking an imaginary air baby. Its definitely been a week to remember! 

Currently, Emmy is sitting in her vibrating bouncy chair doing what she does best, sleeping.

 

Emelia's Flickr Photo Page

Post of All Posts: We are Parents

By the way, we started a flickr dedicated to just Emmy photos, because if I upload them all on facebook, I'll end up having no friends haha.

EmeliaDeLo's photostream on Flickr.

Wednesday the 6^th was a pretty normal day for me. Nothing out of the ordinary, not even any Braxton hicks contractions that I can remember. Fast-forward several hours to Thursday morning at 3:45 am.

“Holy Shit my water just broke!”

Pretty much the strangest feeling mentally I ever had. It was a combination of “I’m in trouble”, excitement, fear, “What do I do now?” and pure adrenaline. Mark jumped up and turned on the light, which confirmed my outburst. I was relieved it wasn’t blood because until I saw it I wasn’t sure. It was a terrifying few seconds.

            I immediately called the doctors office, which was an answering service during closed hours.

            “We will page the doctor, if you don’t hear back in 15 to 20 minutes give us another call”

            They were lacking in every sense of urgency that accompanies the opening ceremonies of childbirth. So we thought we had a little time to spare, after all don’t most babies take hours upon hours to arrive? Mark hopped in the shower for a quick rinse and refresher to get awake for a 35-minute drive to Lehigh Valley Cedar Crest Hospital. Meanwhile, I gathered the last few items for our hospital bags and tried to remain calm ha-ha. I felt completely normal minus the leaking ha-ha.

            Contractions started about 15 minutes into the drive and were comparable to mild cramping I have felt every month except for the previous nine. The drive was uneventful, no obstacles to get around, excessive speeding, or police escorts like you see on the cinemas.

            Once we arrived, we pulled up in typical VIP DeLo style in the valet lane. Who am I kidding, Valet was closed for the night and Mark doesn’t pay anyone to do anything he can do himself. Instead we just left the car parked right in front of the entrance and I waddled in with Mark in tow.

            After what seemed like 8 years sitting in a maternity ward triage room a doctor finally came in to check me. Again, no sense of urgency that I was a month early and the nurse even seemed to doubt my conviction that I had indeed experienced my water breaking.

            “Three centimeters and thinning, let’s get an ultrasound machine in here.”

            By this time contractions were definitely evident, I actually had to breathe through some pain. As soon as the probe was placed on my belly the doctor turned to me and said, “Uh Oh.” Not exactly the kind of words you want to hear when you are already two hours into the biggest moment and surprise of your life.

            “This baby is breech, you know what that means right? C-section.”

Add major surgery to the list of things I didn’t think I would be doing on April 7^th. I was scared and disappointed. This was not going at all like my “birth plan” had said it would go. Luckily, Mark and I had been watching nothing but birthing documentary style tv shows for months before. We were pretty stocked on all the info we would need for every possible situation when it came to childbirth. Whether we liked it or not was not part of the game.

            Contractions at this point were getting worse; it was about 7 a.m. when they started wheeling me back to surgery. At this point the pain was intense, and had it been a regular birth I would have been considering an epidural. Things seemed to be progressing much faster then I thought they should. I think because of her positioning it made my contractions come on like crazy once most of the fluid had come out.

            Getting ready for surgery was like being on a TV show. My doctor was quite dreamy looking, everything was bright white, and Katy Perry was playing in the background. Seeing Mark in scrubs was also pretty theatrical. All of it was surreal. I was pinned down like I was about to be put on the cross, arms out stuck full of needles and tubes. I was shaking like crazy not so much from nerves or the sheer coldness of the room but from the drugs.

            Once I was all settled, as if being settled is an option when someone is going to slice through five layers of your belly and pull a person out, Mark came in and sat next to me. He held my hand and was saying soothing things to me, which I can’t remember. I just remember seeing him, shaking and praying that I wouldn’t feel any of the cutting.

            I was also listening intently on what the doctor was saying, trying to detect any fear in his voice or unease. I didn’t, he was calm and collective and even giving pointers to someone who was learning or observing the procedure. I can remember feeling lots of pulling and wiggling, no pain or pressure really. Just like if the bottom half of my body was turned into Jell-O and someone put their hands in it. It felt like the cut was right under my ribs from all the shuffling of my organs, but it is a tiny incision a couple inches long right at the bikini line which was comforting to know once I found out.

            Not too long after they documented the first incision time, I hear the doctor talk to mark.

            “Hey come over here.”

            Mark got up off the stool to see behind the big blue curtain and his face went from nervous to shocked and scared to seeing the most amazing thing someone can ever see. Their child being born, I will be eternally jealous of him for this.

            They twisted and squirmed Emelia out of me butt first, folded in half. Mark said that she was covered in vernex and was limp until they got her to the table to stimulate her and get her to cry. They first time I heard her cry was so relieving, it seemed like hours had gone by from the time Mark said they pulled her out and he went to her side until I heard her little squeal. Instant tear factory.

Mark followed Emelia wherever she went, which was the cleaning up area, then over to see me for like a millisecond, then out to the waiting room to show family and friends and then up to NICU to make sure everything was going as it should be for a month early bambino.

Meanwhile, I am still shaking uncontrollably on the operating table getting sewn back up. The nurses and doctors were all super nice and talked to me to calm me down while Mark was looking after Emelia. I was then transported to recovery where family and friends came in threes to congratulate us and see how I was doing. I wish I could have seen me, because in pictures I looked like a hot “just out of surgery” mess.

After 6 hours in the NICU, Emelia was able to join us in our room, which was amazing. I did get to spend a couple minutes with her on my trip from recovery to my room, but nothing compares to the moment they hand her over and say “She’s yours”.

We opted to keep her in our room rather then have her go to the nursery during the night. It was difficult but we managed and Mark did a fantastic job since I wasn’t the most mobile yet.

They got me out of bed a few hours earlier then they said they would initially because I was doing well with the beginning of the recovery so that was nice. I was able to get up and change some diapers and shower, kind of feel human again.

The next couple days were full of visitors, lack of sleep and hospital food, which wasn’t so bad after all.  Lot of people brought flowers and gifts, which we can’t say thank you enough for.

Rolling out the hospital door and putting our daughter in the car for the first time and heading home was so surreal too. I was so emotional, but I held it together because crying amongst laughing, sneezing, coughing and any general responsive action hurt like hell haha.

Her first days and nights at home have been wonderful. BUSY but wonderful. The delirious nights have been hard but each one gets a little better. I also manage to get some laughs out of Mark in the middle of the night.

Last night, I asked him to get Emelia and rock her and he started diving through the covers looking for her. Apparently, he must have found her because he then started rocking an air baby until I finally got him out of his funk and woke him up a bit more.

Emelia spends most of the day sleeping, eating and pooping, especially today with the pooping. She loves her furry sisters Snaps and Dora and they in turn try to lick her face and sniff her whenever they can.

Mark and I are extremely thankful and feel so blessed to have such a perfect little baby and are so excited for her to show us what life is all about. I won’t go on and on because there are no words that can describe all the feelings that come along with becoming a parent. We love her more then anything and are looking forward to watching her grow, but not too fast.