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Archives for June 2018

June 18, 2018

Emerald Catherine | 1 Month

How quickly time goes by when you have a newborn, it’s like living in a tunnel where very little else is happening other than keeping these little ones alive.

Emerald, newborn, baby girl

At one month Emerald is 22 inches long (89%) and 9lbs 9oz (64%)

She is just the sweetest little thing and like most newborns she spends all her time eating and sleepingNewborn, baby girl

Towards the end of the month we started getting more awake time. I am so excited to get to know this little girl more and more.

Emerald, Baby Girl, Newborn

EAT

We are trying to do exclusive breast feeding for as long as we can. I was so hopeful that if I didn’t hemorrhage with this birth that I would have a much easier time with my milk supply. I didn’t hemorrhage this time (YAY!!!!) but I still had the same issues of my milk not coming in for many days and not having quite enough to keep emerald full. She lost a little too much weight in her first few days so we needed to supplement again.

At the doctor checking on her weight

Over the last month we have been able to cut out most supplementation with mostly the same strategies I used last time with Cannon.

Guys…..breastfeeding is hard, especially with a toddler to care for as well, I am just going to keep working at it.

SLEEP

Sleep is going pretty well given that we have a newborn. Emerald started out waking up every couple of hours and we were in a bit of sleep deprivation haze.

sleepy newborn days…

Please note the coffee on the windowsill.

By the end of her first month we have made it to 3-4 stretches of sleep (woot-woot), I feel like that’s pretty good. Fingers crosse she is sleeping through the night by 3-4 months.

Just like Cannon she hates being swaddled and is just so so about a pacifier.

GROW

Other than physically growing (did you see that 89th percentile for length? apparently we make tall kids) there isn’t too much new for little Emmy. Right now she is just getting used to life on the outside.

First walk as a family of four

PLAY

Things are much different than when Cannon was this little and he really was my only concern, now little Emerald has to tag along as we try to keep big brother Cannon entertained. Cory took three full weeks off (then is doing two weeks of half days to transition back to work).

This month has included lots of walks with big brother

Snuggles with everyone

and lots of love!

 

Posted by bethcurtis 3 Comments
Filed Under: Baby Tagged: Baby, Baby Update, Monthly Update

June 10, 2018

Emerald’s Birth Story

On April 19th, 2018 Emerald Catherine was born and firmly took root in all of our hearts.

Emerald’s birth was in some ways very similar to Cannon’s birth but so different in many important ways.

In the weeks leading up to my due date my normally very low blood pressure was creeping higher and higher. We knew from our experience with Cannon that pregnancy induced hypertension or preeclampsia might lead to having to be induced . At my 38 week appointment my blood pressure was high enough that my midwife thought it was time to have a baby. I was very happy to have made it past 38 weeks, but was nervous going into the birth. I wasn’t scared about actually giving birth, since this was my second time I had an idea of what to expect, but I was nervous about possibly hemorrhaging again like I did with Cannon. I was also nervous about what could happen to Emerald, I had some people in my life that didn’t get to take their babies home recently and that pain haunted me. But I knew the only way to get to hold our baby girl was to walk through the process.

Too high…

My midwife wanted me to go directly to labor and delivery but I had not brought my bags with me, honestly they were only half packed. She finally agreed to let me go home if everything looked good for Emerald on a non stress test. Everything looked good so we were allowed to go home, get our things and get Cannon and our dogs dropped off at my parent’s house. We left with instructions to come back to the office at 4 PM to get the party started. I was a little emotional on the drive home, I knew this day was coming up fast but I didn’t feel ready to say goodbye to Cannon.

Time flew by as we scrambled to get all of our last minute packing and arranging before heading back to the hospital. Quickly it was time to pack Cannon up and take him to my parents house. I knew this would be the longest I would be away from him and I didn’t want to say goodbye.

Luckily Cannon adores his grandparents and is very comfortable with them so I knew he wouldn’t mind spending a few nights at their house.

With that it was time to head to the office to get my induction started. This process would include a foley bulb induction and being monitored overnight. Usually this is an out patient procedure and you can go home overnight but my blood pressure needed to be monitored so we would be spending the night in labor and delivery.

The insertion of the foley bulb was very painful for me this time. I don’t recall it being comfortable when I had this procedure done with Cannon but I also don’t remember it being that painful. I felt like such a wimp as tears streamed down my face, thinking how in the world am I going to survive birth and all that follows if I am falling apart already. My Midwife was very sweet and reassuring that I had done fine and it can be very painful.

After recollecting my pride we made our way to L&D and checked in for the night. We met the nurses and got all hooked up for another non stress test to check on Emerald and keep an eye on my blood pressure.

The hospital food is decent but we knew from last time that it can get old fast so Cory ran out to our favorite Indian restaurant that is right down the street from our hospital in Boulder.

I watched a bland movie and enjoyed my dinned while trying to distract myself from the discomfort I was in. Having a Foley Bulb inserted causes some labor pains, nothing like full blown labor, but pretty painful. On my midwife’s suggestion I took a Tylenol PM to help me sleep through the contractions and the intermittent monitoring overnight.

In the morning I woke early, the contractions were gone and I was excited to get things moving so I could meet my daughter. I jumped in the shower and got myself ready to see my midwife at 8 am.

Great view from our room

When my midwife arrived she removed the foley bulb and told me I was about 3 cm dilated. I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t further along but I knew that the Pitocin would do it’s job and move things along. They set me up with a IV for fluids and my Pitocin drip started around 9 am. I also had have a monitor on the baby’s heart rate but luckily it could all be hooked up to a battery pack so I could still move around. We spent the next few hours moving around and dealing with increasingly difficult contractions. Cory and I paced the halls me waddling and cringing, him pushing my IV stand along.

After a few hours my midwife came back to check on me, I had progressed to 5 or 6 cm. She wanted to break my water and turn up the amount of Pitocin I was getting. Breaking my water was also very painful and I again felt like I big wimp. After that the contractions were coming quickly and were intense. I decided to request an epidural at that point because I was told that it could that an hour or two to get the anesthesiologist. Lucky for me he was already on the floor and he showed up just 20 minutes later. I was a little afraid (just like last time) to have a large needle go into my spine but it was not bad at all. The worst part was sitting still through many painful contractions. Once my epidural was in the pain eased and I could relax a bit. It is very uncomfortable to not be able to move your legs but much better than intense, Pitocin driven contractions. The anesthesiologist gave me instructions that I had a button to press to increase the epidural drip when needed. With that I was left to labor in the hospital bed, no more walking once you can’t feel your feet.

Fairly soon I started to feel a lot of pressure and started to feel sick. I told my nurse how I was feeling so she checked my progress and announced that I was 10+ cm. I couldn’t believe things had progressed so fast, we had been hopeful to have the baby sometime in the evening but it was closer to 12:30 in the afternoon. My midwife was also surprised by how quickly things had progressed, she had to run from the office and didn’t have time to change into scrubs.

I was feeling a lot of pain and pressure, I said something to the nurse about how I was feeling and she asked how long it had been since I had pressed the button…..uh, never…..was my response. I had completely forgotten that it was my responsibility to keep the medicine flowing. The nurse barked at Cory to push the button for me as it can take a while before it goes to work. Even with an epidural wearing off it was go time, I could feel more than I would have liked to but it couldn’t be helped.

No time to convert the bed into the delivery position, my midwife just perched on the side of the bed and told me it was time to push. With great coaching and Cory there to help “catch” baby Emerald was out in the world in less than 10 minutes of pushing. They immediately put emerald on my chest for skin-to-skin bonding. I got to just relax, kiss her head and tell her how much I loved her.

Very luckily or maybe because I didn’t have to have so much Pitocin this time I did not hemorrhage like I did at with Cannon’s birth. Everything was so different this time. It was relaxed and comfortable. It seemed like a joyous occasion vs last time that felt so clinical. Both births were in the same hospital, I was just such a better fit with my midwife this time.

And with that Emerald was born. We spent over an hour bonding and just marveling at our sweet baby girl with her head full of dark hair.

She looked so similar to Cannon with the exception that he was blond.

Emerald on the left, Cannon on the right

We got to move over to the Mom and Baby wing to settle in with our new addition. I was loving my time with Emerald but also missing Cannon terribly. My parents were able to bring him in to meet his little sister that afternoon and it was so good to see him! He was so sweet wanting to hold her (for about five seconds) and being so gentle.

Grandma and Grandpa also got to meet their first Granddaughter and snuggle her.

The next day I was feeling pretty good so we requested to go home early.  We packed up our newest addition and happily headed home to join our family of six (counting our two dogs 😉

Headed home

 

Posted by bethcurtis Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Baby Tagged: Birth, Birth Story, Emerald

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We are having so much fun learning to ski as a fam We are having so much fun learning to ski as a family! Ski traffic I could do without 🫠
✨2022✨ I can honestly say this was the best ✨2022✨ 

I can honestly say this was the best year of my life. So many adventures. I am loving the ages of these kiddos and cherish our time together. 

Very unsure if we can top this in 2023 but we are sure going to try!
We hope you had a merry little Christmas 🎄 We hope you had a merry little Christmas 🎄
Winter hiking is just so magical. Definitely not h Winter hiking is just so magical. Definitely not hating winter this year! ❄️
We kicked off the holiday season by visiting the N We kicked off the holiday season by visiting the North Pole and seeing Santa! 

The kids had so much fun and it was way cuter than I was expecting. They said it was better than Disneyland 😂 @northpolecolorado
Happy Halloween!!! Cannon really wanted to be To Happy Halloween!!! 

Cannon really wanted to be Toad from Super Mario this year so we tagged along. 

Scroll to see 2021-> 2020 -> 2019 -> 2018 -> 2017 -> 2016 🎃
We finished up our tour of France with a couple da We finished up our tour of France with a couple days in Disneyland Paris. I love Disney Parks and visiting Disneyland Paris was a dream come true. We had such an amazing time on our entire trip. 

We are trying to plan our next trip. Where is the best place you have ever been? Do you have a favorite trip? I would love to hear about it. My parents say that Ireland was their favorite so UK tops the list currently but Italy or Costa Rica are on the list too.
In our last couple of days in Paris we took a bus In our last couple of days in Paris we took a bus tour to see the major sights. Our favorites included walking the entire Champs-Élysées and climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We missed out on seeing the Catacombs because we didn’t get tickets early enough. c’est la vie, I guess we will have to go back 😉
A cousin reminded me that I never finished sharing A cousin reminded me that I never finished sharing our trip to France 🫠 better late than never! 

We spent our first day back in Paris with a trip to Versailles. We loved the gardens so much and particularly enjoyed Marie Antoinette’s little farm. The history here is incredible and the opulence overwhelming. We walked over 10 miles on our visit!
Before our long drive back to Paris we did the thr Before our long drive back to Paris we did the three castle hike in Ribeauvillé, France. We climbed up the side of a hill to three castle ruins from the 14th century. It was really fun to explore and a great way to burn some energy before a long drive.
While we were in the Alsace region of France we vi While we were in the Alsace region of France we visited the sweet little village of Riquewihr. Rumor says this was the inspiration for Belle’s village in Disney’s Beaty and the Beast. Can you see it? We could and kept singing Bonjour while walking through town.
After leaving Switzerland we made our way to Colma After leaving Switzerland we made our way to Colmar. This sweet little town in the Alsace region of France near the German border. We loved all the half timber buildings and winding streets. We had some great local food and wine. Colmar was a lovely place to get lost for an afternoon.
It was so exciting to see the Matterhorn in person It was so exciting to see the Matterhorn in person. The peak was never fully clear of clouds while we were there which was a little disappointing but it was still majestic . We took a cog train and gondola up then hiked about five miles down on the five lakes trail. It was a beautiful day and we got to enjoy lunch mid hike. We loved the little (car free) town of Zermatt. We enjoyed some fun Swiss playgrounds in town before dinner. I love Switzerland and it’s mountains!
With the last of our time in Chamonix we took a go With the last of our time in Chamonix we took a gondola and cable car up Le Brévent. We enjoyed hot chocolates and crepes at the top with views of Mont Blanc. 

Next it was time to drive on to Switzerland 🇨🇭
We took a cute cogwheel train up the valley in Cha We took a cute cogwheel train up the valley in Chamonix to Montenvers to visit the Mer de Glace  glacier. At the top you can take a gondola a little way down then MANY stairs to the glacier. It was sad to see the markers of where the glacier was in years past and how much it has shrunk. We did love exploring an ice cave that they dig out each year. We had to try twice to get into the ice caves as the first time it closed right as we arrived due to a storm. It was worth taking the train twice.
After riding to the top of Aiguille du Midi we sto After riding to the top of Aiguille du Midi we stopped half way down for a couple mile hike and a stop at a mountain hut for lunch. This might have been my favorite lunch ever. The views were amazing and the weather was nice. The mountains here are STUNNING!!! #aiguilledumidi #chamonix
We decided to spend a few day in Chamonix to explo We decided to spend a few day in Chamonix to explore the French Alps. The experience we were most excited about was taking the gondola up the 
Aiguille du Midi (highest cable car in France). You switch cable cars half way up so you can enjoy the views. The top outpost is incredible perching on top of the mountain. I’ve never seen anything like it! 

The day wasn’t completely clear but the views were still incredible. #aiguilledumidi #chamonix
After a long drive across the French countryside w After a long drive across the French countryside we landed in Annecy at the foot of the Alps. 

Annecy was such a pretty little town on the bank of a gorgeous turquoise lake.  We got to enjoy lunch at a canal side cafe, wander the streets, enjoy ice cream and playground hop our way through town. 

Very excited about our next few days in mountains of France + Switzerland.
We drove into the heart of France to visit the Go We drove into the heart of France to visit the  Gouffre de Padirac. A large cave system including an underground river. I don’t have many good pictures given the lighting and lack of patience. We loved climbing down into the cave and riding a boat along the river. Probably my favorite cave that I have visited. Kids loved all of it too and are so good about us dragging them along with us across France.
After leaving Mont Saint-Michele we drove to Loire After leaving Mont Saint-Michele we drove to Loire to visit Château de Chenonceau. It was stunning and the gardens were fun to explore. The history here is so rich!
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