Emerie's Birth Story

We are so happy to have little Miss Emerie Belle Snow in our home! As you can see, we decided on the name but we are still figuring out what spelling we like the best:) She is such a sweet little baby and so far only cries when we change her diaper, or if she is getting hungry. Madison has actually been the emotional one lately and has had a rough adjustment. She has thrown numerous academy award winning tantrums and has yet to learn how to be gentle with her little sister. She has her sweet moments when she is interested in the baby as you can see in the picture however we still have a long ways to go.

Here are the details of Emerie's birth-day. Wednesday morning I woke up with awful contractions that sent pain throughout my back, hips and legs. My legs kept going numb and I could hardly walk. This pain came and went in varying degrees of intensity for about an hour. I was worried I wouldn't be able to walk to the car if we had to go to the hospital however a little bit after 9:00 the pain stopped. I had an ob appointment scheduled at 9:40 that day so we decided to go in and see how I was progressing. We packed our bags in the car just in case we ended up going to the hospital. We dropped Madison off at our friends house before going to the appointment. My doctor said I was in the process of labor and strongly suggested, since my pain was so intense, that we go to the hospital so I could be augmented/induced. I was hesitant since I wanted everything to happen on it's own but I am so glad we ended up going in. Emerie came out with the cord wrapped around her neck so it wouldn't have been good to wait any longer. We are so blessed she wasn't in any distress during labor and that she came out a perfectly healthy little girl.

Before going to the hospital we stopped to see Madison and drop off her overnight bag. It broke my heart to leave her and I cried knowing she would be so confused as to where we were. I knew she was in good hands, I am just a sensitive mom and very emotional when I am pregnant:) Thanks again Glen and Jill for watching Madison for us!

At the hospital they started the pitocin and after a few hours broke my water. I made sure they had the epidural coming right after the water broke. I had heard too many stories of people who didn't get the epidural until almost too late and I wasn't prepared to be in that kind of pain. The contractions were coming on stronger and I was very grateful to see the anesthesiologist walk in the room.

Unfortunately my epidural experience wasn't the greatest. Having had back surgery in the same area where they usually put the epidural makes things harder, evidently. With Madison's birth the epidural went great. This time around they gave me the shot and after they did the test dose of medication I started getting very tired and couldn't stop yawning. Soon after that my lips felt numb, I couldn't keep my eyes open and I was having a hard time breathing. Basically, my blood pressure had dropped and I was passing out. Jake remained very calm throughout the whole thing. They stopped the medicine, gave, me some oxygen and ephedra and soon I was coming to again. It was a very weird feeling. I had two of these passing out episodes so the Doc decided to let the epidural medication wear off completely and then place another one in a different site a few hours later. The epidural had apparently gone too deep, you can ask Jake for the medical details since it's a little over my head. They assured me this only happens to 1% of people who get an epidural. Despite the mishap I didn't want to deliver "natural" so I was at ground zero again in having painful contractions but dead set on waiting for a second epidural.

This time around it worked great and sometime after 10:00 that night I was ready to push. Fortunately Lost was over by then so Jake and I were able to see last weeks whole episode! I only had to push for about 10 minutes and we were able to welcome little Emerie into the world.
We are so blessed that things went well and so excited to have a new little baby in our home.

Tax Time

Jake writing here.

April 15 has always been a special day for me. In my parent's household this beloved of all days was a time to gather the kids together as close to midnight as was possible and drive as fast as possible to the Airport Post Office, the only office that stayed open 24 hours. Dad would then rush inside and make sure his hand-prepared, hand-calculated tax forms were stamped and post-marked before the impending IRS deadline. Afterward we would sometimes go out to get a doughnut or some other treat to celebrate another year of beating the IRS clock.

As I have grown up and formed a family of my own, this tradition is one that I have not chosen to adopt. In fact, Jenny and I are proud to say that we use TurboTax to file our returns in February using newfangled e-file. With the loss of this tradition, April 15 of the last few years has become a hum-drum day just like the 14th or 16th. Not any longer however!

Jenny and I are proud to announce the birth of our new baby girl,
born yesterday April 15 at 10:32 pm! She is 9 lb, 1 oz and 21.5 inches! Jenny did very well with the labor, and the delivery itself was pretty quick. We did get some help from our friend Pitocin to augment things a bit, but Jen was awesome, she really did everything herself. Mom and baby-girl are doing very well right now and Madison and I are hangin' out for the next few days. We have family members coming to stay with us in a week or so.

Not long after Jen delivered, I sat holding our new little angel and contemplating names.

We have talked about naming here Emery, Emrie or Gracie. The ring-ring of our phone interupted my thoughts and as I picked it up I was greeted by my mom. She of course was tickled pink to hear of the successful and healthy delivery and gave us her congratulations. She then asked where I thought she was. I thought it an odd question, so I answered, "I dunno". Her response brought back a flood of nostalgia and inspiration. She and dad were on the way to the airport post-office to drop off their taxes!

With the memory of the April 15ths of yesteryear fresh in my mind I looked down at our little girl and thought of a new name to consider... Iris! What other name could remind me of the tax-time memories of my past each time I consider the joy of my future! I'm not quite sure why Jenny didn't like the idea. How rich.

What do you all think?

We are overjoyed and excited with the growth of our family. Madison and I were with Jen and baby this morning and they are all very cute together. I am home now while Madison takes a good, long nap. Mom is at the hospital with baby recovering, otherwise I would never get away with a post like this! We are very grateful for the blessing of our own little family.

We want to give special thanks/props to the Lau Family who watched Madison all day and overnight. We couldn't have done this without your help!

Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! Saturday afternoon we did go to an Easter egg hunt in town where a helicopter dropped 20,000 eggs for the little ones. Luckily the areas were roped off according to age groups. There were a ton of people there and the parents were crazier than the kids. Probably because there was a 500 dollar gift certificate in one of the eggs. Jake ventured onto the grass with Madison and I stood back and took a few pictures. After she picked up a few eggs we escaped before things got too crowded.
Sunday morning Madison was very excited to wake up and find a cute little barking puppy in her Easter basket. She also loved all of the fun treats from her grandma's and she looked so cute in her Easter dress. Thanks mom for the fun surprises! We weren't sure if we would be to church or the hospital on Easter due to some strong contractions Saturday night. However here I am on a Tuesday afternoon still pregnant as ever! I think this little baby is pretty comfortable right now and she is taking her sweet time. Since Madison was five days early we thought for sure we would have had her by now. My official due date is for Thursday so we'll see what happens in the next few days.

The 577 Foundation

Last week on one of our warmer spring days Jake and I took Madison over to the 577 Foundation. It's a beautiful garden area by the river with lots of fun things for kids to do. Madison loves water and would have jumped in with the fish if we didn't hold on to her. She had fun feeding the fish and touching all the pretty plants. She only uprooted one and I quickly replanted it so hopefully not too much damage was done. There is a children's garden with mazes, tunnels, little bridges, and outdoor musical instruments that kept her very entertained. One of her favorite things unfortunately was sneaking rocks into her mouth. She put a pretty big one in her mouth that I knew she couldn't swallow so I let her try it out. I thought after tasting it she would be deterred from trying it again. However, she seemed to enjoy the taste of dirt and rocks or at least my reaction as she would put them up to her mouth and giggle as I would grab them out of her hand and say yucky! She is a curious and busy little girl!