Emma next to her perfect pet, Bernie. Very low maintenance pup. He's only eaten 3 batteries since we got him.

Mom and baby are coordinating today.

Check out those butterfly feet!

A few photos of the local wildlife...

Mommy deer, Daddy deer and their twin fawns out for a stroll. We've also seen lots of bunnies and fireflies.

And a rare picture of the notorious baby ear eater (also know to nibble tiny fingers and toes).

Daddy

I am in awe. God has blessed me with the most amazing husband. Emma's daddy is a wonder. He has washed and cleaned and kept this place in tip top shape. Emma's schedule requires her to eat every two hours and Robby has been there every step of the way making sure that everything has run smoothly. I hate to think where I would be without this efficiency expert's awesome processes. He's got the assembly line running beautifully. He is the perfect match for me and my more "wholistic" approach to things. God bless this man!

Week Number One

I'm surprised and the relatively few number of photos I've taken so far of this tiny girl who, with those long, lean, legs of hers will most certainly be a super model someday. I guess I'm just so much in awe and can't pull myself from staring at this amazing, less than a week old, human.

Her belly button cord fell off on Tuesday! I thought they weren't supposed to fall off for two weeks, or something like that, not four days. If this is any indication of how quickly the milestones are going to fly by, I had better prepare myself and start taking lots of pictures. So, here are just a few.

So many amazing people have come to visit little Miss Emma. She's quite the social butterfly. Her head pastor and children's pastor came to the hospital for a visit. I hate that I did not get photos. While at home, we've had three couples from the church bring food for us this week. What a blessing! Below is a picture of Emma with our friend Vanessa. She and her husband Charlie brought some good ole Baptist bird (chicken) with all the fixins, including some delicious cherry pie! Yum!

Here we are with Grandma. She's in town visiting for a few days. It's great to have her here to share in these special days. This picture was taken at Gravelly Point, just outside the airport only moments after mom's arrival. Emma had to stop and take a lunch break. I guess you could say this is her first picnic.

She's Here!!!!!

Hallelujah!!!

Praise the Lord for He is GOOD!!!
6 lbs. 14 oz. and stretching the tape at 20.25 inches. Robby says she's a "wall hanger" (apparently, this is some sort of fishing analogy).

Little Emma Grace arrived at 2:58 a.m. Friday the 20th of June. She's beautiful, if I do say so myself! So sweet and wonderful. Sorry, I just can't stop going on about this precious one. :D

Here she is, cleaned and ready to go.

Emma meets her papa. Happy Birthday baby girl!

Yes, that's her Carolina tar heel. She gets that from her Daddy's side of the family.

Daddy and Daughter napping after a hard day of labor.

God has been so good to us. He has blessed us beyond anything we could have ever hoped or imagined. He continues to mercifully treat us so much better than we deserve. He has given us Grace.

Not yet

Well the full moon did not bring out the baby. I thought for sure it would. I started the day at about 3 a.m. with contractions about 10 minutes apart. Surely that meant that at some point during the day she would arrive. Nope! I continued to have contractions throughout the day but they never got any closer than about 10 minutes. So frustrating! Oh well. When the time is right, things will progress. Robby took the day off to spend with me and we took the time to do all kinds of last minute shopping. I went to the Original Pancake House in Falls Church for a great big apple pancake (I only ate a little bit, 'cause of the carbs, but it was oh so good). We spent the afternoon close to the hospital, just in case, but ended up going back home when it became clear that little girl was going to be stubborn (I won't say which side of the family this trait comes from--...it's both).

So, here I am at 3 a.m. Thursday morning. Contractions are still at about 10 minutes apart. I'm trying to distract myself at this point and the computer does a wonderful job at attention stealing I think. I figure when I hit the point that I can no longer point and click... that's the time to get myself to the hospital! ;)

I hope my next post will be soon with great news and lots of photos.

Due Date?

I had an ultrasound on Friday just to check on Emma's size and dimensions. The doctors wanted to take a look to make sure she wasn't too small. Well, the girl is NOT small. As it turns out, she's just planted herself so far down in my pelvis that my belly appears smaller than normal. But she's all there. In fact, they estimated her at 7 lbs. 14 oz. already. Yikes!!! Of course, it's difficult to get an accurate weight from an ultrasound this late in the game. She could be a pound lighter or a pound heavier.
Oh please not a pound heavier!
Plus, they moved up the due date to the 21st. That's the first day of summer and less than a week away! It's also my mother's birthday. And my uncle's birthday too. They are brother and sister and were born on the same day three years apart. So it's a popular day to be born in this family. Maybe that's because it's technically the longest day of the year. The odds are increased by like half a second or something. ;)
But, this Wednesday is a full moon. I hear that has quite an effect on spurring the baby birthing. I'm hoping so. At this point, sooner rather than later, is better. I'm ready to meet Emma and see her sweet little face.
I didn't get a good look at her on the ultrasound precisely because she is so far down. So it will be a surprise when she finally shows herself. The one thing the sonographer could tell about her looks was that she already has a head full of hair. Just like her momma. When I was born I had a ton of hair. The nurses tied little bows in my hair while I was still in the hospital.
I have a feeling she's going to look just like my dad. It seems all of the babies in my family look just like Virgil. Those must be some strong genes. I think it's fitting since yesterday was my first Father's Day without him. I know he would have been so excited to see his latest little granddaughter/clone.
Robby seems to think she'll have a "Wagoner nose". I'm not sure what that is, but, it must be special. I imagine she'll have big chubby cheeks (from both sides of the family). With any luck, she'll get her sense of humor from her daddy and will be completely silly-- dancing around the house to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
It won't be long before I'll be able to see if my predictions are true. I'm sure I will be surprised and completely in love with the unique and wonderful gift that God has given us. This is such an exciting and anxious time in our lives. It's so good to remember, God is always good and I trust in Him to take care of us perfectly like He always has.

Staycation!

With a tank of gas costing more than a car seat, more than 15 white chocolate mochas, more than 300 diapers, more than... well, you get the point, we decided that this year we were going to stay home for the long weekend.

This was a great idea too because I'm not getting around quite as spryly as I used to and we've still got lots to do at the house before Emma arrives.

So, we took the time to finally open up the pool, put together some of Emma's gear, put the car seat in the car and lots of other pre-baby things. Actually, Robby did all of those things. I mostly did laundry and watched all of the hub-bub.

Oh, and I also took a few photos of some of the beautiful sights on our exotic staycation paradise.

There is a peach tree in the front yard that is filled with peaches. This one surprised me because it bloomed at the same time all the cherry blossoms were blooming around here. I didn't look closely at the leaves and just assumed it was a cherry tree too. Nope. Peaches! It's almost like being in Texas! I'm dreaming of homemade peach ice cream already. There are also strawberries and blueberry bushes in the beds nearby.

I think I need to add a blackberry vine to the mix just for old time's sake. I remember many times as a child coming into the house, my fingers and face stained purple from the blackberry juice, smiling a huge purple smile.

Then there was this dogwood. The blossoms on this one started out green, then turned white, and now... they're starting to turn pink! Just for Emma. :D

And there were Tropicana roses just for Grandma. They're her favorite. She'll be coming soon to visit and help out with all of the fun new baby stuff, you know, like sleepless nights and diaper changes. :D

I'm looking forward to having her here and I can't wait for her to meet her newest grandbaby.








Overall, the staycation was a grand success. The weather was great, making for lots of time to go outside and enjoy the birds, and squirrels and other wildlife. The smell of honeysuckle is so amazing. I feel like we've moved to the country. It's wonderful. On Sunday we woke to see two deer outside our window. I didn't get any photos of the pair (unfortunately, I had packed away the camera and fortunately, Robby had packed away his rifles ;) but it was a lovely way to start the day.