The First Weeks

Here are Emily Ruth’s details: Born on August 8th 2007. She weighed 7 lb 14 oz. and was 20 1/2″ tall. She also had lots and lots of hair! And did I mention she was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen?!

A mothers love

We had lots of visitors to see our little girl. Here are some photos:

Emily with proud Grandpa, Tante (aunty) Amanda, Tina & Janet

Now came a time of adjusting to being parents. Diaper change, bathing and swaddling were some of the things I was learning. Diaper change I got the hang of pretty quickly, but swaddling was a bit harder! Renae recovered amazingly quick from the surgery, and was up from her bed already the first night. She was an awesome mommy from the very beginning.

Emily had some trouble getting enough milk from mommy, and we finally had to try different ways of giving her formula. All the while avoiding the “evil” bottle. Poor Emily wasn’t gaining enough weight, so we had to stay a little longer in the hospital. The second night we were in the hospital, Dauphin experienced an amazing, horrible hail storm. Hail were as big as baseballs and made terrible damage to the whole area. I later found out that our vehicle was completely ruined with big dents all over and three smashed windows. Not exactly the thing we were ready to deal with at that moment….

Super sized hail!

After a few days, we were finally ready to take Emily home. We were tired and so very ready to finally be in our own home again.

Finally home!

Mom was a great help to us and helped staying with Renae and Emily in the hospital, and now was a great help with Emily and other things around the house.

Proud Grandma

The biggest problem now was to get Emily to drink enough milk or formula. We tried all kinds of things and it was a bit frustrating. Emily wasn’t gaining enough weight and after a few weeks of trying to breast feed / pump /feeding with a syringe / feeding with a tube, we finally gave in and went all out with a bottle and formula. That turned out to work really well, and Emily finally started gaining weight. And when she got enough to eat, she also started to sleep better at nights. I returned to work, mom returned home, and we all started to learn our routines and got into the “new normal”.

The Birth of Emily Ruth

Renae’s pregnancy was soon coming to its end – she had a planned c-section (because of the way Emily was sitting) the 8th of August. The pregnancy had gone really well. We were both so happy and excited about having our first baby. Emily, you were so wanted and welcomed! Renae was getting a bit nervous, but I have to say she was very brave in the hospital! Now I’ll hand it over to Renae to tell how she experienced the big day:

Renae prepped and ready!

We woke up very early on the morning of August 8, 2007 because mommy had to go to the hospital  to have you, Grandma came from Edmonton to be here for your special day, so she came to the hospital with us.

After I was admitted I changed into a hospital gown and the nurse put a fetal heat monitor on my tummy to see how fast your heart was beating . Daddy and Grandma sat and watched and talked about whether you were a girl or a boy. We were all excited to find out!

We had to wait a while before they were ready to take me down to surgery. So I sat and held daddy’s hand for a while, thinking how strange and exciting it was that it was the last time that it would be just the two of us. We were so ready to welcome you to our family!

I started to get a little nervous when they took me down to the operating room, daddy and Grandma came down too and kissed me goodbye. In the operating room a very nice doctor gave me a needle in my back to get me ready for surgery. His name was Dr. Moray and I began to feel more comfortable right away when I saw that he was so friendly. He kept asking me how I was doing. Dr. Fjeldsted was the doctor that was going to do the operation and he too was friendly and laughing, which made me feel relaxed. They operated for a little while and then I heard Dr. Fjeldsted ask if the baby nurse was ready…that was when I realized you were about to be born!

Thank goodness Dr. Mooray asked them to remember to bring daddy in because the nurses forgot to go get him! I was happy to see Daddy so we could share this special moment together. After a few minutes we finally heard Dr. Fjeldsted say: “It’s a…. It’s a girl!” AT that moment he lifted you up to show daddy and you opened your beautiful eyes and looked right at daddy. Daddy loooked at me and told me rigth away that you were so beautiful and that you had looked straight at him. He loved you so much already! My first thoughts were that I was so excited and thankful that you were a girl, but I was surprised too! We knew right from the beginning that if you were a girl we would name you Emily Ruth after your great grandpa Emil and your farmor Ruth.

Daddy gets to hold Emily while Mommy finishes up her operation

You didn’t cry right away, and I was a little worried. After a coouple minutes you cried a tiny bit – little lazy cries, and then stopped again. The nurse brought you to daddy for him to hold you – and I finally got to see you. You were all wrapped up – so all I saw was your sweet round face with sleeping eyes, a little tiny nose and a rosebud mouth – and you were blowing bubbles! You were the sweetest thing I had ever seen and Iwanted to badly to hold and touch you, but the Dr. had to finish the operation. The nurse tool you back and you, daddy, the nurse and another Dr. (Dr. Wiens) went upstairs to the nursery so they could give you a checkup. I felt a little lonely then – I wanted to be there too! After my operation I remember feeling my tummy and having such mixed emotions. I was so happy that you were born, but a little sad that I didn’t have you bundled safe underneath my heart anymore. I loved you so much – right from the very beginning when I didn’t know what you looked like – and I will always love you – SO MUCH!

Mommy back from surgery and getting to hold Emily for the first time