We are officially out of the woods with Emily and her weight. She has gained up to and over her birth number so we have a two month respite from the doctors office.

The visits have gone really well in spite of the the co-pays but such is parenthood. We have found a good pediatrician in all of this and I think he has really taken to Emily. It helps that he has a seventeen year old Emily of his own I think.

We talked today about vaccinations, specifically our concerns over the issue of Autism and the MMR. We have been down the Autism spectrum road with our oldest and actually had a good dialogue about the pros and cons of this issue. Bottom line is, our doctor is willing to work with us on the timing of the imunizations (at 18 months) and didn’t treat us like we were some sort of homeschool freaks.

That is a rare thing to find these days.

Another rare thing is our little girl – priceless in fact. She has been such a treasure and the late nights have been not nearly as horrible as I thought they could be. After the fussing getting changed out of wet diapers, impatient whimpering waiting for bottles, when bottoms are dry and bellies are full, we get to stare into the face of this little angel who came down into our lives.

What a wonderful time this is for our family.

Thank you Heavenly Father for reminding us that what you make is good.

What you make is very good.

Was born on August 12th, 2008 at 8:10 a.m.  She weighed 7 pounds and 1 ounce and was 19.5 inches long.  She is now 2 weeks old and has gained weight.

This is Emily before her bath last week.

This is pretty much all you are going to get for a post, people.  I’m pretty exhausted, but I’m doing well.  Maybe I will try for a picture a day.  Daddy loves to take pictures, and if you haven’t seen this one, there are plenty more to see.

Welcome to our family, Emily Joy!

Michael Phelps made Olympic history this year, the very same year month and almost to the day of our little girl making her entrance onto the world stage.

I have read many commentators try and explain the reason for his greatness, but most agree it comes down to one thing:

Big Feet.

We noticed this about Emily on day one – the girl has some huge feet.

I guess we are big feet family. Dad has size 12, mom 9, big brother 12, and big sister size 10 however, Emily has broken the mold.

She either has a promising future in Olympic swimming, or as a shoe model.

Here she is, dreaming of glory and gold, and counting up all those endorsement deals from Nike and Speedo.

Practicing to be the best in the world will require discipline and endurance, with many early mornings and late nights. She will have to learn the value of hard work and maintain a strict eating regimen.

She already has the eating regimen down pat.

Emily weighed in yesterday at 7 pounds!

We took her in because she was a little “backed up” the last few days and they wanted to relieve us of our co-pay to inform us to keep feeding her a little prune juice each day.

Man them babies sure can hold a bunch of poo. It was downright embarrassing at times as the cork popped out of the bottle. I think she filled her diapers for 4 straight hours and I felt like we had invented a self powered Play Doh pumper.

The good news is she is finally back to her birth weight and if last night was any indication, determined to try and double it or poop it out by Sunday.

The things you forget.

Sleep deprivation – bottles at 12:30 AM – bottles at 2:30 AM – bottles at 5:30 AM – Diapers and burps and heart palpitations.

Just kidding about the heart palpitations.

It is more like stomach somersaults with a chaser of acid reflux.

All I can say is it is a darn good thing I don’t drive heavy machinery. I think I started hallucinating tonight on the way to get caffeine. Earlier, I caught myself intently watching the “redeemed team” on the Olympics website. I don’t even like watching basketball but the colors, oh the colors.

Speaking of color, I pulled out the old Speedlite 420EX flash tonight and played around for a bit with the camera and my favorite subject piggy girl after she finished downing a 20 ounce steak, 4 cups of coffee, mashed potatoes, and whole sweet potato pie.

Look at that face!

She loves the camera, and the camera loves her.

Look at that face!

She hates the camera, but the camera still loves her.

Sleep Millie, sleep.

Somebody in this house should get the privilege of doing that.

:)

I got lucky with this shot of baby Emily last night.

She has been smiling already – especially in her sleep – and this one looks like she is saying hi.

I think she was actually saying – “Put the camera down fool and feed me!”

At least Mom got the message.