'Tis the Season

Santa put Emma on the "nice" list this year. This Santa Claus was great. He had a real beard and had on his Texas boots :) We waited 2 hours for this shot--it was worth it, but next year we will not wait until the 23rd to get Em's picture with Santa. We have learned our lesson.

Emma showing off her Christmas PJs.

Trav and Em on Christmas Eve at Travis' Aunt and Uncle's house. We spent Christmas Eve with Travis' family in South Austin. It was great not to have to travel too far. We had a wonderful time visiting and enjoying delicious food. Everyone had agreed that Emma has grown quite a bit since they saw her at Thanksgiving.

Christmas Card Photo for 2008--Emma sure is in the Chistmas Spirit!!!

Christmas Day 2008-- Our first Christmas as a family of three. We spent Christmas day at my parents' house in Georgetown. Again...we were very thankful for the short trip and enjoyed day two of eating wonderful foods and visiting with family.

My cousin brought her son, Luca, over to my parents' house on Christmas day. He was born a couple weeks after Emma and was much smaller than her when they first met. He is catching up!!!

Ahhh...Mia enjoying a sugar high and has the sweets left around her mouth to prove it :) It was soooo much fun to watch Mia open her gifts this year. She was way more enthusiastic then Emma! Em slept through the opening of all her presents!

Mia's "Bear Bottom"

Mia and Emma--She had no problem letting you know when it was her turn to hold baby Emma. She has a lot of practice with her dolls and uses what she has learned with them to cuddle with Em.

Sittin' Cozy--Cam, Mia, and Emma

My, My, My...How Time Flies!

Rolling Stones Groupie?

You should hear the wail that goes with this face!

Entertained by her butterfly mobile.


Playtime--notice her hands and feet are blurry. She was moving them like crazy.


Calm Baby


Happy Baby



Precious Girl!

Emma is a month old today. I feel like we just brought her home. She went to the doctor for her 1 month checkup and got a clean bill of health. She is weighing 9 lbs. 13 oz. and is 22 1/4 inches long. She has started to fill out and is showing off her multiple chins :) I am loving the chunks of sleep that she is letting me have--her latest sleep pattern is eat at 11pm, wake at 3:45am and then again at 6:45am.

I decided to use this post to share what I have learned during this first month of motherhood.

1. I can accomplish more now from 6:45am-9:00am than I did in a whole day pre-Emma.

2. I am shocked that I can stare at a single person for hours on end and never get bored.

3. Getting up a couple of times a night to cuddle with Emma is not so bad.

4. Getting peed on and pooped on does not phase me like I thought it would--still waiting for my reaction to vomit :)

5. 3:45am feedings are the PERFECT time to catch up on DVR'd shows, read a couple of chapters in my book, or check email (one handed).

6. Running errands takes a million times longer with a baby.

7. I have to plan EVERYTHING around her schedule.

8. I hate seeing my baby being passed around like a football in a crowded room.

9. If Travis gives Emma a bottle at 11pm, I can go to sleep at 9:45pm and get a good 6 hours of sleep before her middle of the night feeding. Thank goodness for the pump!!!

10. I never thought I could love anybody as much as I love Emma and that I could possibly love my husband any more than I already did!

Ok...This is going to be a random mix of pictures and updates. I have not done very well about posting over the last couple of weeks. I hope to get better.

Our friend Karin posted Emma's newborn pics on her website. I am hoping to go over to her house this week and see if we can crop some of the pictures and make a couple of them black and white. You can see the unedited pics at http://www.karinmccannon.com/. Click on CLIENTS at the bottom of the page. We have 2 different galleries--passwords are Anjie1 and Anjie2. My favorites are with the black background.

This is a doll that I had when I was little. His name is Nicholas Benjamin. I thought it would be funny to see how Emma compared in size. Travis does not like this picture at all and hated the close up even more. I think that Nicholas Benjamin freaks him out.

GiGi holding Emma--Em is her 3rd great granddaughter.

Mia holding Emma--She loves being a big cousin!!!

Cutie Pie!

Funny thing has happened with my hair. I knew that hormones and breast feeding could change hair texture, but I did not think it would happen to me--I never do :) My hair is still curly, but it has funky, frizzy curls--some sections just stick out funny. I can try to use large amounts of hair serum to get it to look more polished and nothing happens! So...for now I am going to go straight--I just do not have the energy to fight the curls (or frizz) anymore!

My cousin, Ana, had a baby a couple of weeks after Emma was born. We went over to their house last night to meet Luca Noe. He made Emma look like a giant! I need to get the picture we took of our bellies right before Emma was born so I can have a before and after pic of Emma and Luca.

Pictures from Grandma Motal's Camera

We got some pictures from Trav's mom from the day Emma was born--so they are a bit out of order, but fun to look at :) I have been meaning to post them for a while, but finding a free moment has become quite a challenge. Enjoy.

Emma at 1 day old

Mia loving on Baby Emma

Uncle Brad

Grandpa Motal

Grandma Motal

Miss Photogenic

Our friend Karin came by and took some newborn pics of Emma today. Emma was the perfect model and had a great attitude for the entire 2 hours that Karin was taking pictures of her. Emma stayed awake for 95% of the shoot, but Karin was able to get some sleepy, cuddly shots of her at the end of the session. Karin said she should have Em's pics up on her website soon. I will post the link when they are up.

Emma getting some beauty rest after a long day of modeling :)

Another milestone in Em's life...

Last night at a 2:3oam diaper change, I noticed that Emma's belly button looked a bit different. She finally lost what was left of her umbilical cord--Thank Goodness! It had started to look soooo shriveled and yucky and was like a loose tooth, just hanging on by a thread. I wonder if Emma will end up having an innie or an outie :)

Lil' Raider

Emma got dressed up to support the Red Raiders last night as they played OU. We had high hopes that the Raiders would continue to do a great job and remain in the number 2 spot and have a super chance of playing in the Big 12 championship game. Unfortunately, they did awful. It was a painful game to watch and Emma had had enough and decided to turn in early :) Lela and Papa came by to watch the game with us--I think my mom was more interested in Emma than in the game. Hopefully-- the Raiders will win their final game against Baylor next weekend.

Baby Raider

Lela and Papa with Emma

2 Weeks Old

Today Emma is 2 weeks old. These last 14 days have flown by. Her face has started changing and she is having more awake time. I am anxious to see what she is doing at a month old. My 32nd birthday is also today. Trav was so sweet and made dinner reservations and talked with my mom about coming over to watch Em. I got bottles ready for my mom, got myself ready for dinner, and was fine with leaving Emma up until I handed her off. I tried hard to fight back the tears--- I was only going to be about 10 minutes away and I was leaving her with my mother--- but the tears came. I was fine by the time we got to the restaurant and we had a fantastic time. It was nice to be able to spend an hour of uninterrupted time with my husband. The food was delicious and I got to have a glass of wine :) I have been waiting 10 months for that glass of wine.

Doctor's Visit

Dr. Millar and Emma

Emma had her first doctor's appointment today. Dr. Millar said that she looked great and was healthy. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 13.5 oz. Clearly the girl is eating well (when she left the hospital, she had dropped from 7 lbs 12 oz. to 7 lbs 6 oz). The doctor said that he does not expect the babies to pass their birthweight until week 2. She is in the 5oth percentile for her weight and 95th percentile for her height.

Sunbathing Beauty

Emma got a sun bath today to combat any jaundice she may be getting. She was looking a bit yellow but nothing serious. My mom lovingly reminds me that I looked like a pumpkin when I was a week old. Emma is nowhere close to pumpkin color--hopefully the Dr. will give her a good report when she goes in for her check up on Thursday morning.

She loves stretching out. It is tough to keep her swaddled, because she uses her strong legs to push her way out. We have started calling her Houdini.

My little buddha--Calm and relaxed.

Fantastic Faces

It is hard to believe that tomorrow will mark a week of parenthood. We have been so entertained with Emma's ever changing facial expressions. I have yet to capture her smile on camera-hopefully we will get the dimples on film soon!

BIG Yawn!!!

Look at those jolly, squishy cheeks.


Eh...

Looking a bit suspicious.

Home Sweet Home

We have been home for a little over 24 hrs. All is going well. Emma is a really great baby and has Trav and I a bit spoiled. She is sleeping and eating well and has us entertained with all her funny faces and noises. She is a doll. Daddy and Emma taking a nap.

We were pooped and ready to go to bed.

Lela loves little Emma and enjoys rocking her to sleep.

Big Scare

Emma was weighed, cleaned off, had some mommy and daddy bonding time and then whisked off to the nursery to get her first bath. Trav followed Emma to the nursery and my mom came in to our room to keep me company. I had started feeling like I was going to pass out. My mom got very concerned b/c I was getting very pale and she went out to get the nurse. When the nurse came in she took my blood pressure and it was 54/32---not real good. Long story short...turns out that I had a postpartum hemorrhage and had to be taken into the operating room for a D and C to scrape/clean out my uterus so that the bleeding would stop. It had all happened sooo fast and was so surreal b/c the labor and delivery had gone by without a hitch and now everything had taken a turn for the worse. After the procedure I felt much better and my color had returned and blood pressure had improved. I was given medicine to make sure the bleeding was under control and to make my uterus contract and firm up to prevent any more bleeding. I was moved to a postpartum room at 1o:45pm and was watched closely through the night. I got to hold Emma for only the 2nd time at 2am for her first feeding from me. I was weak and sore, but that moment was precious and I was thankful that things had turned out ok. The nursing staff was great, took care of us and made sure that I was getting better. We were discharged a little after 12pm on Friday---Emma's original due date. Going home was a much needed break from the drama and the interruptions that occurred over the last couple of days and nights.

Ready to go home.

I was keeping the room temp at about 60 degrees (hormones?). Travis thought it was too cold. What you do not see is the gloves and blue jeans.

Proud papa!

I was very happy to see my little girl after I got back to the room.

After surgery: I had the shakes and was not able to hold Emma. Lela was happy to step in and cuddle her for me :)

Introducing Emma Grace Motal

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little girl.

Emma Grace Motal was born at 3:54pm on 11/5/08.

She is 21 1/2 inches long and weighs 7 lbs 12 oz.

Events leading to her arrival:

We had started the induction process the night before Emma was born, but at 5 am on the 5th I was not any farther along. So...the doctor came in at 7am and broke my water to try to get things started. Emma had decided that she was ready to take a poop earlier than we would have liked and when my water broke there was a lot meconium in the amniotic fluid. This changed things a bit and we had to watch out sweet bundle a bit more closely as the labor progressed. I got some Pitocin to speed things up and started having stonger contractions and by 11am I had decided that I had hit a 5 on the pain scale and did not want to discover what a 6 felt like. I asked for an epidural and was able to relax for a couple of hours. It was amusing hearing my mom and Travis discuss the heights/intensity of my contractions. I would hear, "Oh, that was a big one...it was off the charts." I was very thankful that I was not feeling them based on their observations. At about 2:45pm I started feeling a lot of pressure and felt like it was time to push. Dr. Irvin came in at about 3:20pm and we started pushing soon after. After 21 minutes of pushing Emma Grace was here. She was checked out by the neonatal drs and nurses and checked her lungs for meconium. She got a clean bill of health and Travis and I were able to say hello to our little girl. It was quite an amazing moment.

We had been induced b/c at week 37 we were told that baby motal was measuring 7 lbs 13 oz. Thank goodness they were off. I cannot imagine her being any bigger than she was!!!