After a couple of really short hours of sleep, Emmlyn's nurse (she has one and I have a separate one) brought her back into our room so I could nurse her. I must say, it sure was a good choice to send her to the nursery so that we could sleep soundly without stressing about how she was doing! Nursing again went smoothly! While I was nursing, Peter headed home so that he would be there before Max woke up.
More skin to skin time - Sweet sleepy baby and a swollen, sleepy momma!
Peter sent me this pic of what I was missing back at home. Peter put Max's basketball hoop together before we headed to the hospital the night before and he LOVES it. He hasn't wanted to stop playing, even this morning before he got dressed.
There we go - all dressed and ready to come to the hospital. (Dad made him take off the headband before he came.)
I can't get over what a pretty baby she is!
Big yawn
I sent the baby back to the nursery because I didn't want her in the room when Max got there. I thought it would go better if he could get used to the room and Momma being in the hospital bed before we introduced him to his baby sister.
I thought it ended up working perfectly. They delivered breakfast right before Peter and Max got there. Max got to eat applesauce and oatmeal while watching TV and that was a great way for him to get comfortable. He didn't seem concerned that I was in the bed.
We then had them bring the baby back in. Peter got her out of the bassinet and brought her over to meet Max:
Video - Max meets Emmalyn for the first time
As you can see in the video, Max wasn't too interested. He didn't want to hold her and was more concerned with getting his milk. :) He DID look at her a little but then kept telling his dad to "put her back in" meaning, put her back in the bassinet where Peter got her. Not quite the reaction we hoped for, but it didn't bother me. I'm not worried that he didn't immediately get excited and want to hold her. He's got plenty of time to fall in love with her. We explained that she was no longer in Momma's belly and he seemed to understand that with no problem.
Look at those pretty little hands with the long fingers, and nicely shaped nails. Gorgeous! It's almost as if she went and got the pedicure I clearly needed.
Max wanted to sit next to me so we let him but gave him the iPad so he'd be entertained (always with those feed crossed).
They waited to do her first bath until that morning. The hospital has changed their policy and won't do the first bath until the baby is at least 4 hours old and had a chance to stabilize their temperature a bit. They will wait as long (within reason I am sure) as you want. We waited until that morning when the sibling introductions had been made, so this poor little girl had those silly ink footprints on her belly until she was nearly 9 hours old. Her umbilical cord was extra long because they were short one clamp in the operating room (how in the world does that happen!?!). So Peter didn't get the cut the cord in the operating room (he said he had no interest in doing it again anyway). The nurse added another clamp closer to her bellybutton and re-cut the cord before giving her a bath.
Footprints still there and her long cord
Max got up on my bed to watch his sister's first bath. I wasn't going to post the video here because it's long (and I sound awful and look awful - seriously puffy!!) but it's really sweet to hear her cries plus to see Max's reaction to what is going on. He is so curious to see what is happening to her and then you can see his concern when she cries. I found it incredibly sweet.
Video - Emmalyn's first bath
Brittany arrived with some balloons (thank you!) and her boys. She was going to take Max back home after they were done visiting. While I didn't want to be away from Max, I knew that he wouldn't enjoy hanging out at the hospital for very long. There are lots of things he can't touch and not many thing to keep his attention other than the TV. Boring...
Emmalyn and her Aunt Brittany. Landen was immediately interested in the baby.
The boys were able to work off a little energy in the other part of the room (thank you again for the suite, hospital Gods!)
Cousins meeting their new baby cousin. Landen got to hold her first.
Then Hayden held her. (Landen wasn't happy about giving her up.)
She look so little next to that newborn diaper (which is TINY!)
So little in dad's arms
Mad baby
She has more hair than I expected
My grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with an open house today in Utah. I wish we could have been there - look at these cute pictures from the day! This is the woman my daughter is named after (more on that to come).
Peter holding a baby - seemed weird seeing this again
That night, Peter went home so that he could do our bedtime routine with Max. While he was at home, I got out of bed and showered for the first time. I was really dreading this because it was so rough last time. I was shocked with how well it went. I was moving really well and felt pretty good on my feet and was able to shower by myself, which I couldn't last time. Shout out to the great nurses who support us new moms and everything that means. I am usually an incredibly modest person and it sort of shocks me that when I get into this baby-making world, that modesty pretty much goes out the window and I experience an uncharacteristic comfort level with things that would have not been okay with me previously. Someone else is going to help me dry off my lower half after my shower because I can't bend to do it myself? Sure, thanks for the help!
Video - Max sang "happy birthday" to Emmalyn before he went to bed.
When Peter got back to the hospital after putting Max to bed, I showed him my awesome mobility skills and we went on a walk down the hallway. I was able to stand so much straighter and move much "faster" than last time. I credit this to two things - #1 I only was in labor for roughly 7 hours this time before surgery compared to 15 hours last time so I think my body wasn't as fatigued and could respond better #2 I knew what was coming and understood everything I was going through. Last time, my previous medical history of injuries/surgeries/etc was blank. I had never been through anything like this and didn't know what to expect. So I think I was timid and scared and cautious and hesitant (you get the point).
Yeah for being out of being and bringing your own robe to cover the hospital gown!
Ready to race out of the room
Me and my girl
In looking at her compared to pictures of Max as a newborn, there isn't really any resemblance other than their noses.
She's got...
straight dark hair (from Peter?)
a dark pink complexion (don't know where that comes from)
almond shaped eyes (that comes from the my Nelson side)
Peter's nose
a double chin
Peter's ears
Peter's lips
Long, dainty fingers
Kallie's fingernails
Maxwell, Brittany, and her boys were the only visitors on Sunday which was nice because it let us sort of have a schedule and focus on nursing her as frequently as was needed. We did however spend a lot of time on the phone with phone calls and emails. We are blessed to have that many family and friends share in our excitement about her arrival.
Initially when we sent out word that she had made her appearance a little bit earlier than expected, we just sent out her stats and called her "Baby Girl Millar" because we hadn't officially arrived on her name. We knew we were probably going to go with Emmalyn but just couldn't agree on how to spell it. We finally came to an agreement - EMMALYN and agreed her middle name would be Ann. A few hours after we let the world know that she was here, we then let them know her name.
Where does her name come from? Well, we knew we liked the name Emma. My Grandma (see picture in this post of my mom's mom) is named Emma and so we thought it would be nice to use that name. This is sort of funny to me because I remember being little and thinking that my Grandma's name was SO old and odd. Whose name is Emma? My Grandma is strong, generous, giving, dedicated, and fiercely committed to her beliefs which are all good characteristics I would like my daughter to have.
Anyway, we both liked it but Emma is the #2 most popular name for girls in the US right now. I didn't want my daughter having the same name as a bunch of other girls her age in school. We talked about Emma in December when we were driving to Austin and throwing names around. During the drive, I was thinking of variations we could do on Emma so that we could still use the name but it would be a little different. I thought of Emmalyn and then when I googled it later, I learned that it IS a real name (not only something I made up) but was not common and frequently used. All good things! I like my own uncommon name and while there were a few times that I really wished that I'd find my name on a pre-made souvenir key ring or mug just once, there were more times that I loved that my name was unique.
We chose Ann because is the middle name of many important women in our lives. It is my mom's middle name, Peter's mom's middle name, my Grandma Nelson's (dad's mom), my sister Kimberly's, and my Grandma Carlson is JoAN, and Britt's middle name is JoANNE. Plus many more!
Our first full day in the hospital went so well. Other than being dead tired, I felt great. The hospital is just awesome, the nurses are great and the food is great. Peter got steak that first night - it looked so amazing. I tried to talk my nurse into letting me have solid food but I didn't hadn't passed gas so it was no solids for me yet. That night we again let the baby go to the nursery so we could get some sleep when I wasn't nursing. Just like last time when I had Max, I struggled to stay awake when I was nursing. It was just the oddest thing, but put a baby on my boob and my head would nearly immediately drop and my eyes would close. Peter kept laughing at me and calling my name to wake me up. I have never experienced anything like it outside of right after having a baby. Apparently it's normal (it weirded me out!) because you are so tired, medicated, and when the baby nurses your body releases oxytocin which is known as the feel-good hormone and causes you to relax (and given everything else going on can help you relax enough to fall asleep). I could fall asleep literally within 2 seconds of Peter waking me back up. I remember holding my phone up to take a picture and I couldn't stay awake long enough to focus and snap the picture, my hand kept dropping.
She is so cute, and I love Max singing Happy Birthday to her. He really wanted dad to record it..CUTE
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