Welcome Emma Elizabeth Shumway!

Emma Elizabeth Shumway was born February 16th at 3:20 pm. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and is 20 1/4 inches long.

I went into the hospital on Friday for a non stress test on the baby, since my blood pressure has been high. The baby looked great but my blood pressure was higher than it had been on previous visits, so after consulting with the doctor on duty decided it would be best to induce that night. I was already feeling light contractions, so they gave me something to nudge me along. By 2:00 am I was in active labor. By 7:00 am (or around then) I was dilated to 8cm and 5 hours later I had made little progress. I decided I had endured enough and to get things going a little faster I opted for a epidural and pitocin to get this baby on her way! We waited another hour or so for me to fully dilate and then after 50 minutes of pushing (not my strong point!) Emma was here!

Alex and Rebekah were SO excited to see thier baby sister. They passed up Mommy and went straight to her. They are still quite enamored with her and love to hold her. Rebekah really does a great job - Alex gives her about 20 kisses and hugs every time he holds her.

So the following pictures are of the "birth day" and the morning after when Alex and Rebekah brought "birthday presents" for Emma. I have a few more on the camera that I will hopefully download soon. Also some precious video - that takes a bit longer to get ready to put on the blog, so it may be a few days before you see that.

Weight

Length

Hi Daddy!
(too cute! the nurse took this one!)

head circumference

Birthday presents for Emma

Lisa, this blog's for you!

Thanks to my friend Lisa's heckling I have finally been motivated to post! Let's all say thanks Lisa!


Really, things have been quite ho hum here in the Shumway house. Mostly baby preparation has been going on. I am a week away from my due date. My blood pressure has gotten a bit high as of last week and has become a concern for my midwife. So far, according to all tests it is still just chronic hypertension and not pregnancy induced hypertension that is the scary kind. They did put me on modified bed rest (thankfully my mom and dad are here and have helped tremendously with the kids!) I have gone in for two non-stress tests on the baby, both of which were normal. I have an appointment with my midwife tomorrow and we will see if she thinks I can go another week or possibly induce early. So that is the update as far as the baby is concerened!

My other two munchkins are keeping us busy. Bryan was gone for a week last month and I was telling him all of the cute things the kids had been doing. One of which was Alex running out dressed in Rebekah's dress up ballerina outfit saying "Look Mommy! I'm a ballerina!" He twirled in the middle of the floor and exclaimed "I love it!" Bryan came home with the pirate outfit seen below and the day after he got home we went out and got the cowboy outfit. They were both a hit!

Well this is probably it until the baby comes - rest assured there will be plenty of "new baby" posts!

It's things like this that make me love being a mom!

I was getting ready to take down the Christmas tree the other day when I noticed an ornament I hadn't seen before. I remember Rebekah carrying this little cup hooked to a "link a do" last week sometime. I didn't ask her what it was for . This just made me smile - she thought it would make a good ornament. It's thinks like this that make me love being a mom.

Our baby is growing up...

In preparation for the baby we moved Alex into a diffrerent room - with a big boy bed! He has done remarkably well with the change and has slept in his new big boy bed for 2 nights. Here he is the first night before going to sleep and then the next morning. (Mommy WHY are you taking my picture right now!?)

Merry Christmas

Well it was an exciting day at the Shumway house yesterday. Alex and Rebekah had a GREAT time and it was fun to see such excitement on their faces. Here are a few pictures of the day.

Christmas Eve - NEW Jammies!

Santa had no troube finding our house.
A "Shake and Go" racetrack for Alex
and a Barbie Island Princess dress for Rebekah

We had a lot of fun doing the Advent Calendar this year. Every day we read a little devotion and then the kids took turns opening the door to find another peice of the Nativity. As you can see we have quite the scene, with floating camels and sheep that can climb trees.

This was such a hit with the kids, they were both quite upset last night when they found out we were DONE with Advent!

C *L*E*M*S*OOOOOOOO*N!
Ready for next season thanks to Aunt Ree Ree!
Notice Rebekah's "pose" it's her new thing - look back at the PJ picture.

Rebekah the princess - she couldn't love it more. (Thanks Grandma Melissa!) She changed about 10 times yesterday back and forth between this dress and her Barbie dress. She said she was going to the "ball".

All aboard! (He is actually saying that) Yeah! finally some dress up for Alex!

Rebekah loved the new doll Grandma JoAnn made for her. She named her Abigail.

Well that's about it. We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas as well! God Bless!

Sometimes a parent just has to brag!

Just thought I would share pictures of the two cutest kids in the world!

Decorating the Tree

Well it has been a while since my last post. I thought I would just share a few pictures of the kids decorating the tree - actually putting the first two ornaments on the tree. They are both quite excited about Christmas. Whenever Alex sees something relating to Christmas - be it a Nativity, a tree, a snowman or whatever he excitedly yells (and I mean YELLS) "Christmas! Look Mommy Christmas!" It's pretty cute. We have a CD of children singing Christmas songs that they both love. Rebekah's favorites are Jingle Bells, Rudolph, Away in a Manger and Frosty the Snowman. Alex loves to sing along too, although he doesn't get all the words in. His rendition of Jingle Bells goes something like this...

Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells
Waaaay
HEY!

It cracks me up every time.
I'm going to try to get it on video to share soon. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures!

Rebekah hangs the first ornament.

Alex gets instruction and then goes to town!

A couple of Sundays ago the kids wore the holiday outfits Grandma Melissa sent -

SO CUTE! A picture was in order.