One Month

Our little guy is one month old today!! I can't believe it. Time really does fly. It's been such a crazy month, and I can't believe it's already been a month, but it's hard to imagine what life was like without him now. I'm not exactly sure how to display this last month in pictures...because we kind of have a lot. (sorry to our future children...there probably won't be as many of you...perks of being the first born :))

Hunter is a really good baby. I am not quite sure how we got so lucky. He sleeps well, eats well, and is seriously the most chill baby ever. (we do have exceptions every once in a while, but we really can't complain.) We just love him!! 

Prepare for picture overload :)

We get the most compliments (aside from how cute he is) on his hair and his skin tone. He has a beautiful olive skin tone - thanks, TJ! Definitely not from me.

This is a picture they took at the hospital the day after he was born.

The day he came home from the hospital! Chillin' on our comfy couch.

Meeting Grandma for the first time - just hours after being home! My mom was so great and came down for a week and a half to help us out. I don't think we/I would have survived without my mom. She did SO much for us. Thank you, thank you! We love you!!

We had to take him to get his bilirubin count checked the day after we came home from the hospital, and it was still a little bit high so he had to have this little bili light. But he was a champ and only had to have it for one day! Little alien baby :)

We celebrated his one week birthday with brownies.

Daddy and Hunter taking a nap

 Wrapped up in the same blanket that TJ had when he was a baby!

 This was when he was one week old!

So little!

 And so handsome :)

Having fun with Grandma

Trying to catch a little smile - also, my favorite little baby socks!

 While my mom was here we celebrated our 4th anniversary!! Hunter was only a week and a half old, but since he is such a good baby we were able to leave him with my mom and go out. We picked up some Rumbi (my fave) and parked by the greenbelt with a beautiful view of the temple and just talked. It was a perfect little outing. Sure love this guy :)

Then we came home and my mom gave Hunter his first bath! Note the shark mitt. That's all TJ. He loves that thing! Also, his bathtub is a whale. Pretty stinkin' awesome.

Hunter wasn't quite sure what to think...he would cry, then relax and think he liked it, then cry some more...haha. He has since grown to like his baths.

Eskimo kisses

This was 2 weeks old!

Closest we've come to catching his cute little sleep smiles

I love this. He fell asleep mid-trying to eat his blanket/freak-out. Hilarious.

 Family nap time :)

 If you chance to meet a frown...hehe.

Most of our pictures have at least some part of Hunter as a blur. This kid is a squirmer!

He prefers sleeping on his side :) He just fell asleep like this one day when he was laying on the floor.

Hunter got to meet his great aunt Lu, great uncle Jeff, and cousin Kira in his second week of life!

Last few minutes with Grama. We were so sad to see her go!

We were so lucky to have TJ's mom and Kaeli come out the day my mom left! Worked out so nicely :) Hunter loved cuddling with Mima. And we loved having Mima and Kaeli here - so helpful! Thank you!! 

With Auntie Kaeli

 He gives some pretty good 'looks'

Lovin' this faux-hawk.

One of my fave pics of him. Yes, those are socks on his hands. They stayed on way better than those little mitts. 

Such big yawns!

When TJ's mom and Kaeli were here we went to Bear World! It was pretty awesome. We'll spare you all our pictures of the bears/wildlife in the park.

 They had a petting zoo area where you could pet and feed the animals. Kaeli thought it was pretty awesome!

 Family picture :)

Saying goodbye to Mima. Thanks so much for coming! It was so great to have you guys!!

 Making faces with Daddy. This one cracks me up! Love my boys.

 Just chillin.

 One night he completely kicked out of his blankets, so we picked him up because he was waking up, then he fell asleep like this for about an hour! Ha!

 A couple nights ago we went on our first family walk in the park together. Look, no hands!

 Doing crunchies.

 Pullin' faces. These pictures were all from this morning.

One month old!!

 We just love our little buddy so much!!

Hunter Jay

Our sweet little guy joined our family on July 9th. Here's a little bit of the birth story. Skip the reading if you like :)

I was induced at 39 weeks. I had a 2 vessel cord, which basically meant that I got monitored a lot during my pregnancy. Baby was always healthy and fine. At one point it looked like he might have something a little funky with his heart, but it was determined that he just has a little variation, but everything flows normally and works great :) He's just a rockin', healthy little guy.

I had low fluid levels the last couple weeks of my pregnancy, which meant I was put on bedrest. No fun. But it was the best thing for our little guy, so that's what I did. Because I consistently had low fluid levels for 2 weeks and I had a 2 vessel cord they decided the best thing to do would be to induce me at 39 weeks while we knew that everything was completely healthy with me and the babes. Totally fine with me!

So, Sunday night, July 8th, we checked in to the hospital after we ate dinner at home. My cervix was doing absolutely nothing on its own, so I had to be given cervidil to help ripen my cervix. Lovely experience. (not!!) So Sunday night was spent in the hospital, uncomfortable and a little crampy for me, but I was still able to get a little bit of sleep. 

Monday morning, July 9, 2012 

9:00 am - start pitocin.

9:30 am - my doctor broke my water

Contractions were definitely happening, but I was able to breathe through them pretty well.

11 am - holy cow, it was like someone flipped a switch in the contraction department! Yikes! Contractions started coming every 1-2 minutes and were lasting 30-60 seconds at least. I felt like I never got a break. Thought I might die. Woof.

12:30 pm - got an epidural. Saved. My. Life. I don't know why anyone would ever not want this!!

Happiness and comfort :) I was able to take a much needed nap, then TJ and I were able to play some cards, and we were laughing and smiling. So great.

5:30 pm - started pushing. I thought this part of labor would feel like eternity - surprisingly it felt very short!

6:28 pm - Hunter Jay Emrich was born! He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and was 19.5 in long. The absolute most perfect and cutest little baby :) (for anyone who doesn't know, my maiden name is Hunter, and TJ's middle name is Jay)

Because of the potential problem with his heart they wanted to do a bunch of tests on him right after he was born, just to check and make sure everything was fine. I'm really grateful we had good doctors who were always concerned with what was best for baby and me. My doctor put Hunter on my chest for a quick minute just after he was born while TJ cut the cord, and then it was right to the NICU. I delivered in the high risk room so they could pass him right through the window to the NICU. TJ got to go and be with Hunter in the NICU. 

It felt like forever until I was able to go and see our little guy. After I could feel my legs again and I had eaten some dinner I was able to be wheeled down to the NICU and chill with my little boy for a minute.

 We still had to wait for him to have some more testing done at that point, so I wasn't allowed to feed him yet. It was about 4 hours after he was born that I was finally able to hold him and feed him.

I love this look on his face. It's like he's saying, "you're my mom?! Oh man." Haha.

 Proud daddy

That first night we had to go down to the NICU every time he needed to be fed. I really wanted him to be with us in our room, but we had to wait for that. The nurses in the NICU were so sweet, and they said they were treating Hunter like a well-baby because he hadn't shown any signs of being anything else. He's kind of a champ. 

The next morning they had the results from all the tests and Hunter was allowed to come and be in our room!! Loved holding and snuggling this little guy. He is just so sweet.

 I think the thing I was most excited for was to see TJ with Hunter. I was not disappointed. Pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen. I love my boys :)

 This kid pulls some pretty good faces. This was the day after he was born.

 Wednesday, July 11th we got to bring Hunter home!! Here's his cute little outfit :) Oh we just love him so much!!

More posts of our little guy to come. Many more :)