Baptism

Gemma was baptized on Sunday, and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, which was important as she was baptized at an outdoor service.  Each year, my home church has a Mission Festival.  The services are held in a shady grove not far from the church and a missions preacher comes and gives the message.  Members of the congregation who are musically inclined play instruments in a band for the hymns and our choir sings.  There is a potluck lunch  in between services and a question and answer period so that we can learn more about the countries and experiences of the missionary.

Gemma was baptized at the beginning of the first service.  She didn't fuss at all and even smiled at our pastor right after he baptized her "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  My brother, Jesse, is a godfather and my friends Katie and Eric are godparents.  Katie ended up not making it to the service because she had been up all night the previous night because of false labor.  We missed her, but that mama needed her rest!

Gemma is lucky she was so good during the actual baptism, because right after, Jeff's mom was holding her and she pooped directly onto her baptism blanket, dress, AND shoes.  Man!  :)  At least we will have a funny memory of the day!

Here are a couple of photos of probably the most important day in my little girl's life. A lot of our photos turned out kind of dark because of all of the shade.  I may be able to post more once I get through the hundreds and hundreds Jeff's dad took. :)

The godfathers

My parents, Gemma, Jeff and I

Farewell to You and Farewell to Me

Last week, I met up with a couple of co-workers who are leaving our place of employment for bigger and better things.  They are both going to grad school--one in Texas and the other in California.  (Both great places to visit in the long Minnesota winter, no?)  

Over drinks and appetizers, we reminisced about our work together.  I'm really going to miss these girls.  Kristine is my "go to" girl for fashion.  We both love to clothes shop and score great deals.  Katie was my employee, and I enjoyed getting to mentor her a bit.  Hopefully I taught her something!

So, as I say farewell to these two ladies, I am also saying farewell to working outside of the home.  I gave my notice last week.  I am going to be a stay-at-home mama for as long as it makes sense for our family financially and emotionally.  I'm looking forward to a new path and it's my dream job so far.  Jeff works from home, which may pose some unique challenges to our situation, but we'll make it work!  

Kristine says she doesn't want kids, but she sure looks like a natural to me!

Katie and I

Kristine and Katie---onto their next adventure

Gemma Two Months

Gemma had her two month appointment this past Wednesday (8/3/2011).  I had been dreading this appointment since we set it up a month prior.  It was my first time witnessing her getting shots. :(  She got three in her chubby, little thighs and she took one orally.  To my surprise, she only screamed for about 15 seconds.  And an even greater surprise, I didn't cry at all! (I think I was a little prepared because my 4 year-old niece accidentally stepped on Gemma a few days earlier, so I heard just how hard my little G can cry.)

Gemma is growing up so fast. Here are some of things she's been doing lately:

-smiling a ton!

-holding her head up.

-blowing bubbles.

-loves to watch ceiling fans.

-is a total chatterbox!

-almost turning over.

-sleeping a little bit longer between feedings--4 hours or so.

Gemma is 22.5" long (57%), 10 lbs. 4 oz. (36%), and her noggin is 15" (34%)

We are enjoying being parents so much and just adore our little girl.  I even said to Jeff the other day that we should maybe just have one child because I'm not sure we can make another that will even compare to her! haha.  I know that's not really true.  It's just a testament to how enamored we are with Gemma.

Catching Up

My, oh my! Has it really been a month since I last posted? I can't believe how quickly time is going!  Summer always seems to fly though, while winter drags on, doesn't it?

We've been having a great summer and are loving being parents. Here are a few things we've been up to the last month or so.

-Gemma got her first sunburn. It was horrible on me, but she took it like a champ!  I swear she was covered up and kept in the shade while at Jeff's volleyball tournament, but apparently there were a few minutes she managed to burn. :(

-Gemma turned 1 month old.

Gemma is 21" long and weighs 8 pounds 2 oz.

-We visited our friends, Matt and Katie, who had a little boy, Gavin, a month and a day after Gemma was born.

Katie, Gemma, Gavin, and I

-We had a birthday celebration for my dad and my nephew, Thomas, on the 4th of July. 

Thomas LOVES reptiles.  Here's his latest catch.

-My niece, Kaitlin, came and stayed with us for about a week. We were on the go pretty much the entire time she was here. Shopping, a college tour (!), coffee, volleyball, and a couple of walks were the things that kept us busy. Oh, and of course we made pot stickers! Our favorite. We even managed to save a few so that she could bring some home.

I can't believe how pretty she is! And growing up way too fast!

It's hard to see here, but she's visiting my alma mater, Bethany Lutheran College! Thanks to Sarah for the tour!

-I started back on my organ rotation.  Church starts a half hour earlier in the summer.  Man, is it hard to get going that early in the morning and get a baby ready to go, too.  Gemma loves it,though!

-Grandma Lorraine and Grandma Linna both babysat for a few hours. (On different occasions.)

-Harper learned a new trick.  She stands up and won't sit back down until you tell her she can.  It's pretty amazing how long she can hold her pose!

Ugh. She looks pretty mangy.  She got a nice summer buzz shortly after this photo was taken.

I'm making it a goal of mine to get a little bit better at blogging.  Jeff is moving all of our pictures to a shared drive in the house, so I don't have to wait until he is off of his computer to access all of our photos.  Here's to good intentions! :)

Fabulous family

I don't know if I've mentioned this on my blog or not, but I have some pretty fantastic in-laws.  Jeff has an older sister and a younger brother and we all get on just great.  His parents are pretty wonderful, too.  None of us live in the same city, but we try to get together as much as our schedules will allow.  (With the exception of Jeff's sister, as she lives in AZ.)

Gemma is going to grow up with two cousins very close in age to her.  Jeff's brother's son is about 6 months older and Jeff's sister's daughter is about 6 weeks older than Gemma.  (I need to ask them if its okay to use their names on the blog yet. :) )  

A couple of weeks ago, we all got together at our house to take some family photos.  It's hard to get three babies and a dog to cooperate for a photo.  (Not to mention we had three cameras on tripods aimed at us.  We were told which direction to smile in first, next, last; however, the cameras had ideas of their own!)

Not quite read.

Oh. I thought we were done!

This is about as good as it's going to get.  Not all looking at the same camera, but thankfully, Jeff's dad got some better shots on his camera.

2 weeks

Gemma turned 2 weeks old last Sunday and we had her 2 week well baby check-up appointment on Monday. It went well, but I certainly have some things to learn about taking a baby places!  I had fed her a "snack" before we left hoping that would get us through the appointment.  Not so.  The doctor was running late as usual and they gave me a bunch of paperwork to fill out while I waited. Gemma must've been pretty hungry because she wailed and I've never heard her do that before!  So, I covered up with a receiving blanket and started to feed her. Then, she promptly (and loudly!) filled her pants.  About a minute later the nurse called her name.  Oi!  The nurse graciously gave us a couple of minutes to finish up. I'm not sure how I can exactly avoid this in the future, but I'm prepared for it to happen again.

Gemma gained almost a pound  and grew an inch since we brought her home!

Her stats are:

Weight: 6 lbs 15 oz. (31%)
Length: 20.5 inches (85%)
Head: 13 3/4 inches (55%)

And here are a few new photos of her.  She wasn't quite 2 weeks old in these, but probably about a week and a half.

Daddy trying to get Gemma to nerd it up with him!

Wide awake!

31

Longest post ever.  This is your warning. :)

The number of hours I was in labor.  Yes, 31.  What the heck?  I think my body was trying to break all sorts of records with this pregnancy.  First, I got to be in the 1% of women who get the PUPPPs rash, and then I have 31 hours of labor.  I read somewhere that the average first labor is 17 hours.

On Saturday morning I was determined to get things going.  Jeff and I took Harper on a brisk 3 mile walk.  We ran into my doctor who lives about 5 blocks from us.  She was packing up her car to go to Des Moines for the weekend.  She told me she'd be back by noon on Sunday, so if I went into to labor make sure the nurses called her.

Well, my walk must've worked because I started having contractions later on that day. I was taking a nap with my first baby, Harper, when I woke up to contractions at about 2:30.  I wasn't getting too excited since I'd had a couple of contractions the week before and it turned out to be nothing.  Lo and behold, these contractions stuck.  They were about 10 minutes apart.  My goal was to stay at home as long as possible.  So, I did a few loads of laundry and cleaned up the house.  Jeff and I went out to dinner.  (We actually ended up running into my cousin and I think I did a pretty good job of hiding my pain mid-conversation when I'd have a contraction.)  We took Harper on a walk over to my friend, Katie's house.  Katie was sure I'd have the baby that night as my contractions were about 5 minutes apart at the time. (HA!)

Finally, at about 11:30 pm, we decided to head to the hospital. My contractions were 3-4 minutes apart.  We called our doula and headed to the emergency room.  We got checked in and I got checked out. I was shocked when the nurse told me I was only 2 cm dialated.  I got the slushies, walked the halls, and sat on the exercise ball.  The contractions were still going strong and probably about 2-3 minutes apart.  Finally, at 8:30 am Sunday morning, the nurse asked me if I wanted my water broken.  I hesitated, but she highly recommended it.  Dr. Benson was called and he came and broke my water at about 9 am.  (The nurse said it doesn't hurt to have your water broken, but she was mistaken.  Dr. Benson gave me 6 good pokes and it DOES hurt!)

After my water was broken, my contractions were extremely intense.  They were coming about a minute and a half apart and each contraction lasted 50 seconds.  They were so strong, I started dry heaving through them.  This went on for about 3 hours until I asked to be checked again.  Surely, I was going through transition labor and would be at least a 6 or a 7.  Not so.  I was only 4 cm, MAYBE a 5 said the nurse.  I immediately started crying.  I could not make it through another 21 hours of labor.  I requested an epidural and then cried some more.  I was so disappointed that I was giving up and not going to have an all-natural labor.  My doula said she agreed with my decision and thought that I requested the epidural at the right time.

The epidural was scary, but at the same time I was so relieved to not have to be in pain anymore. I think I even slept for 10 minutes here and there.  Eventually the nurses told me that my contractions were not strong enough, so they were going to give me some pitocin to get things moving more quickly.  (What?! Are you kidding me?  Those contractions could not have gotten any stronger in my opinion.)  At that point, I really didn't care.  I wasn't going to feel anything.  Give me whatever you want.

At 5 p.m. I was 9 cm dialated and when they checked me, they found that my dear little baby had decided to turn sunny side up.  Could I get on my hands and knees on the bed and use the exercise ball to try to rotate the baby?  Sure.  Why not?  Gah!!  Just when I thought I was almost done.  When you can't feel anything below your waist and you've already labored naturally for 21 hours, the simplest thing like moving your hips in a circular motion seems like a big deal.  I did as I was asked and was checked an hour later.  I had moved the baby!  But not far enough...I should try to move the baby again.  I said fine, but that I needed a break because I was tired.  They checked me again at 7 pm and the baby had moved on its own.  I was dialated to a 9-10!

The nurses called my doctor and got me prepped to start pushing.  Holy crap. I could feel when I was going to have a contraction, so the pushing went pretty well.  I pushed a few times and was doing really well.  I looked at Jeff and asked him what we were going to name our little boy.  We still had not decided on a boy name and were sure it was a boy.  Jeff had said that after watching me go through everything, that I could just name him.  To which I replied, wouldn't you just be shocked if it were a girl?  After only 45 minutes of pushing, we had our little baby girl!  I think we laughed in disbelief when the doctor said "it's a girl!"  Gemma Lorraine was born on 5/29 at 8:14 pm.

Gemma was quiet when she was born.  The nurses had to make her cry, but she was completely fine. (She's still not a big crier.)  She was extremely alert and just stared at me the whole time during our kangaroo care, and she even latched on right away to nurse and gulped like a champ.  I'm glad she knew what to do because I sure didn't!

Gemma is the sweetest little baby ever and we can't imagine our lives without her now.  Jeff says she looks like an Asian version of me.  I think she does have my nose, but I'm not sure about the rest.  Only time will tell I suppose!  She was definitely worth the 31 hours of labor and the 21 hours of pain.  She still might be an only child, though. :)  Ask me in a year.