1 month

It's hard to believe that 1 month has already passed. Emily Kathryn now weighs 9lbs 12 ounces and is 21 1/2 inches long. We are basically on a 3 hour schedule at night and sleeping pretty well. She really enjoys her stroller so we try to walk when the weather is warm:) This week we started putting EmK on her tummy during the day some to strengthen her neck and she is not a big fan...maybe that will change given a little more time. She has also started smiling a lot when she's sleeping.

This past weekend we went to see my family in Robertsdale. It was her first official road trip...the first of many:) She did really well...sleeping the entire 4 hours (well except for the last 15 minutes or so). Several of our friends came by to visit and we had plenty of family time. My sister's kids love EmK and want to hold and kiss her all the time. Ethan (who is 5) told me that Emily Kathryn is beautiful and I happen to agree. I've included some pictures from our weekend at my parent's house.

Weeks 2 and 3

Here are some pictures from our first weeks at home. We are enjoying every minute with Emily Kathryn...even the minutes in the middle of the night:)

Welcome Emily Kathryn Barrow

Where do I even begin. This week has been such a whirlwind but in the best way ever. I know everyone wants to see pictures, but I at least want to tell the story first. On January 5th (Monday) I was officially 38 weeks. I began to get concerned in the afternoon because I had not felt EmK move -- or couldn't remember feeling her move. So Jordan and I headed to Brookwood to have a stress test. Everything looked great and other than a few contractions showing up we were good to go home. Jordan cooked a nice dinner and we settled in to a night of tv. Around 9:00 I started having contractions and started timing them. In the meantime, I made sure to wash my hair just in case what I was feeling was true labor -- I've had this obsession about having clean hair when I go to the hospital. I called the doctor around 10:45pm when the contractions were coming and was told that I needed to wait until they were 5 minutes apart for at least an hour -- that seemed like forever to me. However, we continued to wait until around 12:30am when they were officially 5 minutes apart for an hour and were told to head to the hospital.

Once we got to the hospital the contractions were steady, about 4 minutes apart. We settled into our room and saw the doctor at around 7:45am. It was a LONG night!!! I wasn't prepared for how bad the contractions were going to be. I guess nobody can really prepare you for that, but still. At 8:00am I got an epidural (AMAZING) and the rest was a piece of cake. At 11:45am I was told we would start pushing and by 11:54am our sweet girl was here!!!

It is absolutely amazing and indescribable the LOVE I feel for this precious little girl after only 4 days. Jordan and I just stare at her. We feel so blessed and honored that God would bring us each other and allow us to be parents.

I'm sure I could go on and on, but I'll get to the best part....THE PICTURES:)

Emily Kathryn Barrow - 7 pounds 5 ounces - 20 inches in length

Happy 2009 - 38 weeks (almost)

I wanted to post a picture from New Year's Eve, but time got away from me and then EmK came a little early:) It's my last pregnant picture -- didn't know at the time. We went to dinner at Botega's and it was delicious!!