Emme's 10 Months Old

22 Days Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Time is certainly flying. It's hard to believe that the little bundle of attitude that we call Emme is already ten months old.

Physically she's somewhat small. In fact, for a few months she was in the very low percentile in height. Weight was ok. That confused us because I'm a veritable giant at a massive 6'2 1/2". And my father's side is even taller. And Heather's side isn't short either. But once we did some digging we did find some data points on both sides of the family that make it seem much more likely. Throughout, the one doc that Heather trusts has told her that there's nothing to worry about. But when it's your kid you just tend to worry. Not to obsess. Just to worry. In the last couple months she's grown a bunch and seems poised to climb back up the height bell curve.

Because she's climbing over everything else. Crawling here and there. Up stairs. Down stairs. Over obstacles. Towards things she wants.

What she lacks in height she more than makes up for in volume. When Emme wants something, well, she wants something. Now. Not in a couple minutes. Now. She's intense.

And she's already learning manipulation (yay.) Last night we were by the fireplace. Emme was reaching for the glass door. It wasn't hot but Heather thought she might get her hand caught in the hinge. Two or three times Emme reached for it only to be pushed away. We expected a barking command. Instead Emme touched the stone fireplace for a couple seconds. As soon as mommy looked down her hand shot up like lightning to the glass door. Success! She's quick.

With three teeth she's eating rice cake patty things. And all sorts of smashed fruits. She's in the process of being weened, something I know little about so I'll stop while I'm ahead. We're a little concerned that she may have a food allergy to gluten so we're trying to reduce her intake. Once she's weened we'll be able to more closely monitor her reaction because Heather's intake will be out of the equation. Doc says not an issue. We're not convinced. Tests are inconclusive at this age. The symptoms include slow growth and some poopy/diaper things that we see, including flat pancake poops. The internet rocks for home physicianing!

Her personality is starting to shine through. She'll point and wave. Play hide and seek. She's starting to talk. It's obvious that she wants in on all the action around her. For months she sat back and absorbed it all. Now she jumps right in there.

Ava likes to hang out with her little sister. And by hang out I mean carry, drop, push, drag and otherwise maim her. Poor little Emme. She often sounds a screaming alarm when Ava gets within a meter of her! Although these days she's so mobile that she can usually escape with a little persistence.

She's pulling up onto everything around her. Climbing steps. It won't be long before she's walking. We're back to having gates all over the house. It's like a maze getting around.

The one thing Emme doesn't have is a lot of blog posts. That's my fault. We spend as much time or more with Emme as we did with Ava. It's just that we're able to spend more time enjoying the moment. It's hard to describe. It's not that we enjoy her less or more. It's just different. Some things, like the sense of surprise, aren't as strong watching Emme. But because we know what to expect, we're able to appreciate its role in the big picture more.

And that's one of the big takeaways of the last ten months with Emme: she's not Ava. She's her own person. Physically and emotionally. Emme is Emme. And Emme is pretty cool!

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Emme the Reindeer

2 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

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Chillin' with the Emmster

5 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Emms just wouldn't go to sleep tonight so I took her and we watched some Apollo 13, did some computing and just walked around the room. She's a cute little bugger.

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Emme's First Food

6 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Terp gave Ems her first solid (albeit watery) food today. She seemed to gum on it a bit and definitely liked playing with the spoon.

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Emme Vocalizing and Grasping

7 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Spent a good hour with Emme this morning. She's make a sound. I'd parrot it back to her and she'd give me a big smile! She's also been grasping for a while now. Reaching out into the world to figure out what's up. Amazing to watch this process develop again!

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Emme's Official: Social Security Card

8 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

It just arrived today.

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Emme, Asleep on the Couch

8 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Everybody headed down to the pool and beach. I hung with the little Yelley Monster. She was good for a couple minutes and then broke out into a yelling fit. I calmed her down and got her to sleep on the couch. Cute little Em Star. Ten minutes later she was back to Yelley Monster.

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Emme Cooing a Lot

8 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Just in the last few days Emme has started to coo a whole bunch. It's cute!

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Emme Smiling

9 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Emme's been smiling for a few weeks now. There's not really a first smile moment. She kind of morphs from her automatic reflexive smile to one that's based on mommy's voice or ceiling lights or something else interesting. Emme's seven weeks old already! And I haven't posted nearly enough photos!

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Emme at Home About a Month Old

10 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

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Emme on Back in Nursery Pics

10 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

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Emme's First Cold

10 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Ava got sick about three days ago. Tonight Emme's got it. Runny, congested nose. Heather and I are still symptom-free. Seems to be a mild strain as Ava's almost over it. Don't say your sister never gave you anything, Emme!

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Emme's First Bath and Update

10 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

You knew it wouldn't last long. Emme sleeping like a perfect little angel. She's more animated. More dependent on Heather's nursing. Dealing with it is harder this time around because there's a little less magic and surprise involved. There's some more "seriously, this?... I thought we were through this... oh that was Ava." I have the hardest time with it when I don't get my "me time." But Heather has, by far, the largest baby workload. She's with Emme all day and night. No less love for the little bundle... but a lot less "oy yeah, that poop out and crying fest that kept us up was so *real*... I need to blog that to remember the experience."

Ava loves to help out. Whenever Emme cries I hear a "me coming too." And Ava trucks it to wherever Emme is. She rubs Emme's back, pats her on the head. I enjoy giving her tasks because it shows Ava that she's part of Emme's life.

Tonight they gave Emme her first bath. No, we're not bad parents. You're supposed to wait for the cord to drop off and heal before you submerge them. It's a countertop bathing. I got some good video. But only one photo because the battery died. But I think it's a cute one.

Emme can get mad. She has a mad little face at times. She'll go from zero to raging quickly. On balance, Heather has a deeper tool chest (yeah, pun intended) to remedy things.

Emme's also got an incredibly angelic face. She's got these big round eyes with a perfect round face. She didn't get as beat up making her way from stage left into the play of life. Very little conehead for her. She's a cutie.

She eats a lot. And we're more than happy to oblige. After she eats she (generally) sleeps solidly for a couple hours. Except when we're busy and Ava needs a lot of attention. Then Emme's wide awake.

She's doing eye tracking and auditory response. Grasping and all the normal reflexes. She had her two week checkup earlier this week and passed with flying colors.

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J Lo Names Daughter Emme

10 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

All I heard was a "son of a..." from the back room. Heather had just learned that J Lo named her daughter Emme. I'll leave it at that. (And thanks to Dani for the tip.)

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Marc, Leslie and Aidan Over to Visit Emme

11 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

The Crouches came over to meet little Emme. Aidan and Ava haven't had any romping time lately. They ripped it up. Shrieking and yelling galore! I loved watching it. Each of them had a mini-meltdown at some point. Ava's was when I told her to stop chucking large Lego blocks towards Aidan. Sharing is still not a top priority for a 2.5 year old but watching them play is truly enjoyable for a parent. Leslie cooked a huge batch of her famous lasagna which will keep us fed for multiple days. Can't wait to dig in. We ate some pizza tonight and watched some NASCAR between toddler chasing. Thanks for heading across town guys! Emme was glad to meet you and Ava had a blast!

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What's the Same. What's Different.

11 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

I got a good chuckle out of Joel's post about registering for baby stuff. He and Francine are pregnant with their first. Here's an excerpt:

After 20 minutes, we left stressed, uncertain, overwhelmed and scared. Scared that we had no clue what we, future parents, were doing but also scared that since we could barely get though 4 aisles, how could we tackle Baby'sRUs, a whole store of baby stuff? We are young and naive; we stood no chance against the baby mega conglomerate.

Yep, been there. So I thought it'd be a good time to compare and contrast Ava's birth and first few days with Emme's.

1) Don't worry, be happy - There's little or no worrying the second time around. All the mechanical details of baby raising are more or less known.

2) More enjoyment - Because there's less worrying we're more able to focus on the amazing birth that's happening. We spend more time enjoying Emme than worrying about her.

3) We understand more - With Ava we had no idea what she was trying to tell us. Each cry had us urgently scratching our heads wondering what was wrong. Well, once we learned that cries mean something is wrong. With Emme we've got a good idea what she's trying to tell us.

4) We know how to fix stuff - Even though we eventually figured out that Ava was upset about something... say, an uncomfortable burp bubble... we didn't know how to fix it. With Emme we've already got our burping technique down. I knew during her first feeding to burp her a couple times to prevent crying later on.

5) More sleeping - Thus far Emme is sleeping a lot more than Ava did her first few nights. She slept most of yesterday and most of last night. Feed her big and watch her sleep. We expected a wild child but thus far have an even easier baby than Ava. Knock on digital wood.

6) Less gear - The first time around we did exactly what Joel and Francine are doing... we collected vast amounts of gear. This time around we didn't even buy diapers ahead of time. We got home and realized that we were missing a few key pieces. But we've got most of what we need stashed away in closets around the house. Finding it is a different story.

7) Two's company - Watching Ava interact with Emme is just incredible. She tries to help Emme by cleaning her hands or adjusting her hat. She talks about "baby Emme" whenever she's near. She'll shush you if Emme's sleeping. It's cute.

8) Life goes on - While it has been a disruption to our lives, it's not like we've put our lives on hold like we did for the first few weeks of Ava's life. Ava keeps us up and moving around. I'm getting work done. Emme just kind of hangs out. The first time around we hovered over Ava a lot.

9) Every breath you take - I check Emme's breathing constantly. SIDS is still terrifying. I had forgotten how little an infant's chest actually moves when they breathe.

10) Musical beds - For the last year or more Ava's slept in bed with Heather and I've slept in the office. With Emme hitting the scene we're trying to figure out how to shuffle things. Heather's worried that Ava will wake up when Emme needs to be fed. But so far she hasn't. The current plan has Ava and Heather going to sleep at 9pm, me watching Emme in the office until 1am-ish and then Heather sleep-feeding Emme in the nursery until morning at which point Ava will wake up and find us. We'll see how it goes.

11) Milk money - Last time we worried a lot about Heather's milk. When would it arrive? Are we doing things correctly? Is Ava being deprived right now? This time we're a lot more relaxed. Heather's milk isn't in yet but we know it took four or five days last time.

12) Latch on baby - Another mechanics thing. Last time it took a lot of fiddling to get Ava to latch on properly. This time Heather can get Emme to solidly latch on quickly.

Overall the experience the second time involves a lot less worrying and a lot more enjoyment. And neither of us really worried much the first time around. We just took things as they came. So we didn't expect this time to be much different. The fact that it is only serves to show us how much we actually learned when Ava was a baby.

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"It's Asleep," Says Terp. But Which 'It'?

11 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Heather pops her head into the office: "It's asleep."

I've heard her say this a million times but just as I'm about to return to my work I realize: "Which It?"

Is Ava asleep? Or is Emme asleep?

"'It' is now the little one," replies Terp.

Tag Emme, you're It!

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Emme, Ava and GooDa on the Couch

11 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Got some great pics of me with Ava and Emme on the couch tonight.

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Emme Comes Home

11 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

10:09:12 AM: Mommy got some solid drug-assisted sleep last night. Well-deserved. Emme came back this morning and I fed her for a while. The procession of people has continued for the last few hours. We've learned that we'll be discharged at 8:30pm tonight. No complications or issues with any of the blood tests, which is great to hear.

10:13:22 AM: Still no middle name. Heather's somewhat abandoning the desire to tie the name to Georgia. I'm still pushing for a tie.

02:09:07 PM: We chose a middle name!

02:15:06 PM: Boogity, boogity, boogity... Emme's first Daytona 500 on TV later this afternoon.

04:45:38 PM: Big hairy tornado warnings for the Atlanta areas. Lightning by the hospital. Ugly.

05:28:08 PM: Slow pics last couple days because I didn't bring the card reader to the hospital. Got a bunch to upload though.

09:51:41 PM: Home with the Emster.

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Voilą... Viola!

11 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Ava Tallulah, meet your little sister Emme Viola.

That's right, Emme finally has a middle name: Viola!

The Viola Pedata is a beautiful purple wildflower indigenous to many areas including Georgia. We Googled city names, county names, state birds, cast members from Gone With the Wind, waterfall names and a bunch of other stuff. I like the uniqueness of the V. Heather likes the "ah" sound at the end. We both like the fact that it's a beautiful looking flower. And it's nice that it's a wildflower, implying freedom and movement. There's also a musical instrument called the viola. Three syllables is also something we were looking for.

So there you have it Emme. A tie to Georgia and a cool middle name!

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Emme's First 24 Hours

11 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

08:13:28 AM: It was a restless night of non-sleep. Heather was up peeing constantly. I slept on what is essentially a book shelf with a pad.

But this morning they carted little Emme in and we had some good quality time. She ate a little bit but spit it all up. Cute little rat!

09:31:38 AM: Emme's blood type is O positive, like her mom's. Recall that Ava had some issues because her blood type is not the same as mom's and her system somewhat rejected it for a day or two.

09:38:51 AM: Oh, workout Goose Egg yesterday, of course. And likely again today. May get some time in tomorrow but I'm not pushing the issue. My legs were rather toasty at the end of the last few workouts.

10:13:57 AM: The procession of professional people continues to stream in. Doctors, nurses, midwives, etc. All very kind.

Heather just learned that on the second birth you often get more cramping and afterbirth effects the few days following. Heather's been struggling to describe the difference between last time and this time. She's more mobile this time. But feels a lot of pain. She said earlier today that she feels like she was hit by a bus. It was an "aha" moment when she heard from the midwife this morning.

10:14:49 AM: Have chatted with Uncle Robert and my mom so far this morning. Great hearing from you two! Also, hi to Pam in NY!

11:32:55 AM: Oy, the procession continues well into the day. No sleep for the weary! Emme's in the nursery on a swing listening to a lullaby.

11:33:39 AM: Still no middle name. Most nurses, family members and friends vote for Savannah or Augusta. Terp resists.

12:43:05 PM: Rusty's here to see Emme. Leslie called to check in. The nurses are working hard on middle names.

03:47:38 PM: Emme, like Ava, took to the soy formula better while Heather's milk comes in. I spent some time feeding her today and she's just too cute. I had forgotten about a lot of the details like burping, spit up, etc. But my famous technique is coming back to me quickly.

03:59:27 PM: Hi to Auntie Joani who's checking in remotely via email and website today!

11:02:37 PM: Emme's a little over one day and four hours old. She's back in the nursery so that we can get a good night of sleep before checking out tomorrow.

So far Emme's been a great baby. Very calm. Less crying than Ava. Knock on wood.

We're both still pretty tired. Little sleep last night and folks rolling in all day. Later everybody.

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Emme's First Poop!

11 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

Here are some pics of Emme's first poop!

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Emme Born!

11 Months Ago | Posted to: Emme, Our Second Daughter

07:36:22 AM: Maybe there's something to those due date things. Today's the due date. And Heather currently has painful contractions that are about fifteen minutes apart. Beep & Ball are on their way into the city to watch Bitzel. We'll leave for the hospital in an hour and a half to see if they'll let us in. Yay! Emme's coming!

08:00:50 AM: I'm trying to get Heather ahead of the hydration curve this time. She was so dehydrated last time halfway through the process. Ava's still sleeping right now. Heather's main request was to neaten up the downstairs a bit. I suppose we should pack those bags now.

09:17:05 AM: Ava says of her coming sister Emme: "Kick her out there."

10:12:37 AM: At the hospital checking in. She went from contractions every 15 min to every 4 min over the course of the drive. It's on!

10:49:46 AM: Checked in. In the room. Lots of tedious stuff stands between Now and Epidural Time. About an hour. Ouch. Wish I could expedite but the nurses have their processes.

11:32:48 AM: Allrighty, I've got the laptop and wireless set up now. IV is in and epidural is still about 30 minutes away, pending lab results and paperwork. Contractions about the same apart, even a little less frequent... maybe six minutes now.

12:27:21 PM: My Mom's at an executive training event. In her class are a bunch of Army generals, including the current chief of staff of the Army (she rolls big like that). She announces to the group that her daughter in law is in labor. She said that all the generals, after a week of intense discussions of iraq/war/etc have been checking in with her to see how heather's doing. See, Emme, you're big time already!

12:47:03 PM: Epidural is in! Terp'll feel some relief in about ten minutes.

12:54:21 PM: Terp broke skin squeezing my hand while the epidural went in. Harder than last time where the pain of the contractions masked the epidural pain. But it's done and she's getting some relief. I need a bandaid.

01:35:40 PM: They broke her water manually. A lot less dramatic than it sounds. They want to keep things moving forward. They'll likely give some potosin (sp?) to speed things along. Overall mommy and baby are healthy and happy.

01:37:12 PM: Wishing I had liveBlogged Ava's birth because we're getting a lot of questions about timing, what happened first, etc. Nothing critical but still would have been neat to compare notes.

01:39:07 PM: We're watching whatever's on TLC which means a lot of fashion reality shows. Kind of the cruising part of the process. Just waiting for the push action. I'm hungry. May grab some food.

01:39:59 PM: Heather appreciates everybody's comments and texts!

02:09:21 PM: It's spelled pitocin.

02:10:24 PM: Pitocin rolling on the scene now. Should make things happen. A Baby Story on TLC now.

03:00:13 PM: Just realized we don't have a middle name for Emme. I vote Vidalia. Heather's talking Matilda.

03:59:37 PM: Still just chilling. The calm before the storm.

04:04:41 PM: "Take Home Chef" is on TLC right now. "I'll take him home," exclaims Terp.

04:25:09 PM: Changing of the guard. The first shift of nurses and midwives is rolling off. Every few minutes somebody new pops in to say hi, fidget with the charts and tell us their name.

05:20:45 PM: Contractions at two minutes and dilation at 8! Almost fully dillated! Emme's coming sooner than expected.

05:26:11 PM: Heather was feeling pressure down there for a while, assuming she just had to pee. They checked her and viola, further along than expected. Still nothing to do but wait. But the pushing phase should be starting soon. She wants to wait until then to call the family in.

05:28:11 PM: Ava's middle name, Tallulah, ties her to Georgia. One of the nurses recommended Augusta or Marietta. Both roll pretty well with Emme.

06:35:22 PM: Emme was born at 6:21PM. She's beautiful!

07:35:43 PM: Here's a little more detail on those exciting delivery moments. At about 5:45 Heather started to feel some intense pain. She was curled up in the fetal position and it was clear to me that something had changed in her demeanor. I went out in search of a nurse but our team wasn't immediately available. But I was able to convince a nurse to come in. She gave Heather a check-up which wasn't what Heather needed. She needed to push!

But she was rolled onto her back which reduced the pain for a few minutes. As in two or three. But very quickly she was doubled over in pain again. I went back outside in search of the nurses or a midwife. This time I added a little more urgency, careful to avoid an inflection which might communicate "first time amateur" status. They responded with in-kind urgency and rushed off. Which was good. But once I made it back to Heather we still had to wait for a few more minutes.

At about 5:55 nurse Catheryn made it in. Heather described what was happening and they decided to try pushing to see how it went. Kate, the midwife, was tied up in another room. The plan was to try pushing and, if things went well, take a break to find Kate for the full delivery.

Pushing began at 6:00. The nurse and I held Heather's legs up and watched the machine graph for a contraction to begin. Remember, Heather can't feel the contractions as well as she could have because of the epidural. So we told her when to push. She breathed in and bore down while the nurse counted to ten. A quick break for a breath and then ten more seconds of pushing. Generally there were three push sessions per cycle. Within two cycles I could see Emme's head.

Then our first little uh oh moment. Emme's heart rate went from 130bpm to 95bpm. Catheryn said that "baby isn't liking the pushes." So she put an oxygen mask onto Heather. I verified her approach was to increase Heather's O2 saturation to compensate for Emme's low heart rate. In doing so enough O2 would get to Emme's brain. It was a small uh oh. Not an alarms flying sort of affair. Almost a footnote that could have been missed if we weren't paying close attention to what was happening.

Still, it makes you think. And appreciate.

About that time Kate, the midwife, arrived and it was decided that Emme would be born! Heather geared up for a few final pushes. Emme's head popped out, they took a short break to clean out her nose and then they asked Heather for one more set of pushes. They yanked on Emme's head, twisting her to the left. She was kind of stuck until I moved Heather's leg into a higher position. And then little Emme just popped right out!

The whole pushing process only took 21 minutes!

They plopped Emme onto Terp's stomach while they cleaned her off. I got to cut the cord. Then I took some pics as they cleaned her up.

Snug as a bug in a rug!

08:41:00 PM: Whew! What a whirlwind! Grandparents hae come and gone. Ava met her sister Emme. Heather's been cleaned up. I got to spend some QT with Emme. We're awaiting our move to the overnight room. Emme's in the nursery getting some more tests done. I'm beat! But excited about our new family member!

09:03:52 PM: Ava said "Hi baby," and then "baby has diaper on."

10:05:34 PM: Ok, we're up in the overrnight room. Winding down from an exciting day. Thanks to everybody who stopped by to check in and wish Heather good luck. She truly appreciates it!

11:11:56 PM: First poop! Terp and I had Emme in for some quality time. We heard a long, low sound and knew... it was time for a diap change. Emme's first poop! And it was a doozy!