Life with Miss Emmelyn

Emmelyn continues to be a laid back baby. She doesn't fuss very often --only when she is hungry or cold. She does not like taking a bath, which falls along the "doesn't like to be cold" category.

We like to read to her, play with her musical Baby Einstein toy, sing to her (Joe plays the guitar), and hang out. She's been on a few walks and went on her first hike at 3 weeks at Brighton ski resort. She also went to her first party on Labor Day weekend --our friend Dave turned 30 and Emmelyn tagged along for a bit. She was a hit!

Growing baby girl

Emmy weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces when born --but dropped to 6 pounds 2 ounces at her first doctor's appointment with Dr. Morgan, five days after birth. She came in for a weight check and gained three ounces, to 6 pounds 5 ounces. Then at her two week appointment she jumped all the way to 7 pounds 4 ounces! Dr. Morgan was impressed --and suggested we let Emmy eat when she wakes up --and that we can go up to 5 or 6 hours between feedings at night now that she has gained weight and is keeping her temperature up on her own (a couple problems she had early on because she was born at 37 weeks). We are glad to have a healthy, growing girl!

I forgot to mention in the last post that we were so happy with the care we got at St. Mark's Hospital. What a great experience! And while a c-section was not in our original plan, I can't imagine that it could have gone any smoother. Yes, it's painful, and recovery continues, but overall it wasn't too bad.

Welcome, Emmelyn!

Emmelyn Isabella Whetham was born on August 10, 2010 at 3:41 p.m. She weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces. She was delivered via c-section after that was determined to be the best option because of my pre-eclampsia.

We were blessed to have Grandpa and Grandma Rogers come to town for the occasion of Emmy's birth! They helped out a town during the four days I was in the hospital and for a few days after we returned home.

We jumped right into life with Emmy --feedings every two hours, playing and reading and lots of cuddling. We can hardly remember what life was like before she came!

The countdown

Well, it looks like Baby Whetham will officially be here sooner than later. After 10 days of bedrest my preeclampsia improve enough that I was upgraded to "moderate bed rest" last week, and was allowed to return to work part-time.

It worked out great for me to have time to tie up loose ends at work. But it was also publication week for pretty much the biggest project I've ever done in journalism so far (see Julian's story parts one and two at www.sltrib.com), so that brought on a lot of stress to get the final things ready, and by Friday, my doctors ordered me back on strict bedrest through the remainder of the pregnancy. Lucky for me, I work for a great company and they are more than fine with me leaving early. Getting that project done was the last big thing, so I feel I have a huge weight off my shoulders, even with the medical issues I'm still dealing with this week.

Joe and I did end up going into labor and delivery on Saturday for about four to five hours to have some fetal monitoring done, since I am now not feeling so great much of the time (severe headaches, nausea/vomitting, seeing spots, some swelling --all the ol' symptoms of preeclampsia). I was discharged, but told to keep monitoring my symptoms and had another doctor's appointment today.

Today we met Dr. Andrea Smith, who is the new doctor that will likely deliver the baby since my normal OB had a baby herself two weeks ago. I liked Dr. Smith very much. I will see her again on Thursday, when I will undergo more tests and see a perinatal specialist who will check up on the baby. At that point, they will decide when to induce. They are thinking next week is most likely and we are discussing whether to try for a "normal" delivery or schedule a c-section. It will depend somewhat on the next round of tests and how it appears the preeclampsia is progressing. So far, bedrest seems to be slowing its progress, but doctors have told us that there is no way to know how to might progress and I could be back in tomorrow. The only cure is delivery, and we're just glad the baby has made it far enough along with even if born this week, it's unlikely she'd spend much if any time in the NICU. Making it to the 37 week milestone next week means she'd be 3 weeks early, but is still full-term. We think that will end up being what happens, but we'll see. The next blog post could be telling everyone that she is here!

Bedrest

Mopsy has enjoyed the week of bedrest (that makes one of us). She loves having people around to cuddle up to all day!

Utah baby shower!

Here are some photos from the Utah baby shower --complete with a baby food tasting game. I have some great co-workers! This is me at my most swollen, I believe. It's a little depressing to see the damage. Oh well, this is why they invented the jogging stroller, right? My boss threw me the shower at her house --since most of the ladies there are news reporters --and crime reporters like me --she was really excited that the pink "It's a girl!" tape looked like crime scene tape.

Mopsy

Mopsy --Baby Whetham's feline sibling --definitely knows something is up. It started a few months back with the crazy-looking jumperoo that made noise and scared her when we brought it home.

Then came the flood of 2010, but now that repairs are complete, Mopsy continues to realize something is going on. She is very curious about the baby's room. She jumped in the crib once and got promptly kicked out. She loves to sit in the baby's rocking chair, which is less concerning to her mom and dad. She also has recently taken to the changing pad --which is another bad habit we are trying to break. Apparently that changing pad is the perfect size for a cat bed. But she is getting better and is continually kicked out of the baby's room.

Every night, she also comes and lays her head on Melinda's belly, which is kind of cute. She has also figured out that if she lightly paws Melinda's stomach, the stomach will kick back! This is a really weird phenomenon and one I want to try to catch on video before the baby comes. Mopsy doesn't do this every night, but she definitely knows something is different with her owner's stomach! We are reading up on how to help her adjust once the baby comes.