Our Little Emma

Well first I should tell everyone about James, he is AMAZING. I don't know how much I've written about his graduate applications, but he applied to
University of Arizona- got in
University of Utah- got in and got a scholarship
Boston College- got in and got a scholarship
Vanderbilt- got in and got a scholarship
University of Rochester- got in and got a scholarship
Duke- still waiting to hear back

Isn't that amazing? He was so worried about not getting in, and now it seems like he really has every option at his fingertips. I guess we'll be doing a lot of praying over the next few weeks so we can make a decision.

Anyway, so to reprimand all of you who said that I'd probably be dialated to a 3 for a while. WRONG! I went in the next week for an appointment, and the doctor had me 100 percent effaced and between 3 and a half and 4 centimeters. Granted that is between half and one centimeter in a week, but I hadn't felt anything up until this point. But, the doctor wanted to schedule me for an induction. After James and I talked about it for a while, we agreed that a week from that Wednesday we would go in to be induced so that it would be easier on James so the baby would be here before finals. But, I started to feel contractions that night, which continued on to the next day, but I was still hoping that it would be a little while. But, Thursday night they started getting a lot worse. I was trying to let James sleep, but at about 1:30 Friday morning, I had to wake him up and knew we had to go to the hospital. Needless to say it took James a little while to get himself up and ready, so by the time we actually got to the hospital it was 2:00, and I think I was checked in soon after that. The nurse checked me and said I was 4.5, she said she'd come back and check on me in 20 minutes to see if I had progressed any. When she came back she was surprised that I was at a 5, but able to tolerate the pain. So they admitted me into the hospital. They hooked me up to an IV and were going through asking a bunch of questions after admitting me. The nurse left and came back about twenty minutes later and I had progressed to a 6. At this point I was having a harder time and wanted some pain medication, but didn't want to get an epidural yet in case it slowed me down. Well the pain medication completely made me dizzy, but didn't do much for the pain, except made me relax a little bit, so the contractions were more effective . . . so within about 5 minutes I asked for the epidural. I kind of felt like a wimp trying to suffer through it with other pain medication, and then asking a short time later for the epidural. But, when she checked me for the epidural I had progressed to a 7 in about 10-15 minutes of time! The epidural was SO WONDERFUL! I didn't feel a thing, and it was nice to relax after all of that pain, but in just over an hour I was fully dialated, surprising the nurses, they called the doctor, and told me to start pushing. Well after three contractions of pushing the nurses told me to stop because the baby was right there. So we waited another 10 minutes for the doctor to get there, which he did at just after 6. By the time he was dressed and washed up, he had me push for one contraction and told me not to push anymore, and during the next contraction he just slid her out. At 6:12 a.m. on Friday, April 9th our first child was born. Everyone was so amazed that I was only there for 4 hours, and that I was only pushing for 4 contractions. It was by far a shocking delivery for the doctor, nurses, as well as James and I.

We named her Emma Kathleen Sweeney. We had a list of names, but she didn't look like any of the others, particularly because she came out with dark brown hair. I also wanted to use my name in part, but I really didn't like using "Erin" as a middle name, it just didn't fit with anything, and I thought it sounded funny. So I'm passing on my middle name. But she was born 6 pounds 14 ounces, and was 19 inches long. But, she is absolutely beautiful. We've been taking tons of pictures, but I've only uploaded a few from my camera, but here are the ones that I have.

-I love the picture of her in the carseat, it just shows how small she is. That was on the way to the doctors appointment where we found out little Emma was a bit jaundiced, even though the doctor said she most likely wasn't because she didn't look like it nor show any signs of it. And the pictures of her in the blue are after they delivered the bilibed and the biliblanket. We love just so cute!
just so cute!
her! Isn't she

Last One :(

This will probably be our last blog before we become three, but we're so excited about that. I guess unless the baby does come on time, but the doctor was pretty sure the baby was going to come early. Or unless we get lots of news from graduate schools. But, good news, I have completely finished my capstone paper. I put my nose to the grindstone and wrote it in just over two days! All of my finals are taken care of except for one test which I am going to be scheduling a time to take with my professor, but I finally feel able to have this baby, like life won't be too strained if she came early. I haven't really had any free time since our last appointment because the doctor made me nervous so I've been getting all of my school work done, but after I finished my capstone paper, this is what I did. My friend Alyssa showed me how to do it, and I found some cute ideas . . . so this is what I did with all of those white onesies. Just kidding . . . not all of them, I still feel like I have tons! But it made me feel crafty and like I was able to do something fun for the baby, since I am totally not up to making a quilt or sewing anything. So I learned how to applique!

37 and a half weeks!

Dear Baby,

We went to the doctors yesterday and you're starting to make mommy nervous. The doctor measured me to be 3 centimeters dialated and 80 percent effaced already. I was hoping to have another 3 and a half weeks, not less than 2 and a half. We're really excited for you to come, but mommy and daddy aren't done with school yet. I guess that's not an excuse since it is my fault that my capstone paper isn't finished yet. So I will work my hardest to get it finished within the next week- because we're so excited to meet you! But, we do wish you would stay inside mommy a little longer so that you can be as big and healthy as you can be.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Less than 7 weeks to go

But doesn't that feel like an eternity? I mean when you are carrying so much extra weight around? It's gotten harder, when you sit on our couch you sink down and I have to have James give me a little push to help me up. As well as help me put my socks on. I have never been a fan of untying my shoes, so I can slip all of mine on- including sneakers (which I'm basically wearing all of the time right now). So he's lucky there :) I have discovered a lot of things I definitely don't like about pregnancy. The biggest being that everyone stares at your stomach. In the words of Stephanie Tanner, "how rude!" It's just funny, it's like you are an alien and they've never seen anyone pregnant before. And maybe I'm not a touchy-feely enough person, but I don't really enjoy all of the tummy touching. So- sorry friends who read this- no offense, it's just weird having you rub my tummy!

Our last check up was great, the doctor is still shocked that my blood pressure isn't rising. I think he last measured me at 98 over 60. The doctor said our baby is starting to slow down in growth, he said this is normal, but it makes me feel so much better! I pray almost every night that she'll be late. I know this is normal for most first time mothers, and it makes me feel even better knowing that I'll be similar to my mom who was never less than 6 days late with all of her pregnancies. It just makes me worry, I would like a few days free from school to relax before I become a mother. And I would have a hard time having the baby during finals, or at graduation. So we're still praying that the baby will come April 27th!

But I should be blogging about James. He'll never toot his own horn, so I'll do it for him. He hasn't finished applying to graduate programs yet, but already gotten into 2. University of Arizona for a masters in Finance and the University of Rochester for an MBA. And he's already been offered a $20,000 scholarship to Rochester! He has a couple more applications to finish, so we won't know for a while where he's going, but I think he's holding out for Boston College, Duke or Vanderbilt. It's confusing weighing the scholarships with the prestige of the school, but I'm positive he knows what he's doing, while we continue to pray about it, his options seem to get more and more broad. But isn't he so smart?!

He would never let me take a picture of just him, but these are from our engagement pictures, and since he didn't know our photographer he wasn't comfortable saying no. Aren't strangers great! He took a couple of just James and they are some of my favorite ones, but I'll most likely never get anymore of just him. Unless I'm sneaky, but he's so handsome that it's a shame he doesn't like pictures!

9 Weeks and counting

Okay right now, I really should be doing homework. I really don't like the middle of the semester, it's like all of the sudden you become bogged down with homework and tests and life is no longer fun. I don't know why I never counted down the weeks in a semester. I guess since counting weeks goes a lot faster, and I'm doing it now with this pregnancy that it seems things in school are going fast, but then with the pregnancy they are going really slowly!

Here is an updated picture though- 31 weeks. Only 9 left! I can do 9, that actually seems kind of short. Except when I consider that I'm not wearing my normal clothes . . . it was kind of sad the other day I went through my closet separating things, from clothes I definitely didn't want to stretch out and clothes that I could wear. The clothes I can wear pile mostly consists of button up and zip up sweaters.

James and I had a really fun Valentines Week I should say. We found out that my aunt Katie was coming in for the weekend from Maryland, so we celebrated it throughout the week. For instance, on Monday we used a gift card to Cheesecake Factory and went out to eat. Then on Friday we went and saw Dear John- again with a gift card! Isn't it so fun doing things for free?!?! I love it! And we basically spent Saturday and Sunday with my aunt Karen and my aunt Katie. It was really fun to spend time with Katie, because she is that much older than me, and so I've always felt really close to her. Plus she's having a baby, less than 10 weeks after me- and it's going to be a little girl. It'll be fun, but kind of funny to think that her baby will be my cousin. It makes it all fun though!

Also another big thing for me, my cousin Shea is getting married in the beginning of June. I'm really excited because I feel like I've been the odd one out being the only one married, so I won't be alone ;) Just kidding, but really it will be fun. Also I am doing her flowers for her wedding. I'm excited, it's always something I thought was really fun, and with the experience I've had, I am now going to start a portfolio. I love doing it and I think it would be really easy to do while being a mom to earn some money without leaving the home. So I'll definitely post pictures. But, if you know anyone who wants to get their wedding flowers done at a great price- I'd love to be referred! But, I'm excited to do the first whole wedding. I did the boutonnieres and corsages at my own wedding. And made a friend a bouquet for her bridal pictures, but I won't have done a full wedding- until June that is.

James is finishing up his applications. I think he's going to send the rest of them off this week, so we should know in a month or so where we're going. It seems so odd to be hanging in the balance of where we'll be next year, but it's also kind of exciting too! I think those are all of our updates for now!

Some updates

No one tells you or really warns you how hard it will be to gain weight when you're pregnant. Not that I've found it to be that hard to put on weight, but that all of the sudden I seem to not be able to control it. It's very frustrating.

I guess I was always pretty good at managing my weight, I never really fluctuated. I keep telling James how 8 months ago when I wasn't pregnant I would eat the same things and the same amounts, but for some reason now my body is retaining everything. Plus it's really frustrating on top of that to have someone tell you how many more pounds you need to gain. It seems silly, I've been pregnant all of 7 months, and I've only been putting on weight the last four, but they expect me to know how my body will react and how much I need to eat to gain such and such amount of pounds?! Are they crazy? Maybe in later pregnancies I'll know my body better, but for now it seems silly I don't know exactly what that will take. Plus I don't think I was mentally prepared to be watching my weight go up as much as it has. More often than not I approach another number I hoped to never reach. It is definitely something that is new for me, I'm not eating more than I usually do, but for some reason, now I'm gaining the weight that I always seemed to be able to keep off. I hope this is just a pregnancy change (crossing fingers)!

Well sorry about going off on that little tangent, it's just so funny to me how different things are when you are pregnant. So anyways-I felt like I had the right to change the background of this blog-- because this Sweeney family is preparing for a little girl, so it seems only appropriate.

I'm past 30 weeks now. Just over 9 left, and it feels closer and closer everyday. Three quarters of the way through . . . it feels so close. The scale keeps reminding me :)

As far as the doctor updates, I was supposed to start making appointments every two weeks, but the doctor didn't have any concerns so he set up a regular monthly appointment for me. At least that means that there is nothing to worry about! The doctor still says the baby is measuring tall, but he doesn't think that means she'll come early. Which I am so grateful for! Let's just hope he's right. I took the glucose screening and the glucose tolerance test. Thanks to my doctors office who didn't tell me I needed to fast before the first one, so I'm kind of tired of getting my blood drawn. But, I do not have gestational diabetes. I was kind of relieved to hear that because I'm already worried that the baby will come on time or early. I didn't want to add something else to worry about.

Life is already changing so much, we've been making plans for the future and it is so crazy to think that all of these plans will now include a little girl. That packing and traveling considerations will now include one more person. That our future is no longer just about the two of us. It seems crazy, but we're SO EXCITED!

We've been getting more and more ready, since James is planning on going to graduate school out of state we had to buy a carseat (before we were going to be borrowing my aunts). We've set up the baby's room. And I feel like all that is left is the last minute things and WAITING.

We still haven't chosen a name. James and I have a list of names, but I am more hesitant to choose a name. Each of my siblings had a name that my parents kind of had picked out before hand, but when we arrived the names were changed because we didn't look like a Courtney, or what not. So I don't want to commit to a name beforehand and change my mind when she actually comes. But we're still thinking about names, we've got it narrowed down to about 8. And we decided that we want to give our kids a name of their own as well as a family name. So that's about as specific as I can get at this point.

And I think that's all of the updates that we have for now.

27 Weeks

I have been waiting to post a pregnancy profile for a while, but I guess I should . . . So I am almost 27 weeks. But, I'm writing that as the heading anyway. Things haven't really changed, I go in for my glucose screening test this week, and then my next doctors appointments are going to start coming every other week. I feel huge, and can't imagine that I have to wait until April for this baby to come, but 13 weeks doesn't make it sound that long. That's only 13 more weekends! We're really excited, but afraid that we're going to spoil our child. As far as the pregnancy news goes nothing has really changed, the baby still moves a ton! We're still thinking about baby names, I think James and I are set that we don't want to choose a name before we go to the hospital in case we change our minds. At each appointment the doctor tells me that the baby is measuring ahead of schedule. Luckily all of my professors are pretty understanding that I may need to take my finals early, if needed.

Other news, James just took the GMAT and did AMAZING. I'm so proud of him, so now he's finishing his applications and we'll apply in the next few weeks. Other than that, we're both busy with school and work, and getting ready for this baby. Our supply of baby clothes has definitely increased as well as our baby gear. We're getting to the point where we are ready for this addition to our little family. But, she couldn't be coming at a more perfect time, right after the flu season ends. Right at the end of our time at BYU, and a few months before Chris comes home from his mission. We're still trying to see if it's possible for him to be a part of the blessing, since that only means waiting 3 months. . . We'll see what happens!

So that's our update for now!