First, I will tell you that my pregnancy was such a joy- not only was I so honored and blessed that I was given the opportunity to carry my sweet baby... but I had an "easy" pregnancy until the two weeks before Miss Emma made her debut! To elaborate... I had made it to the point that I was seeing my dr. weekly, and sweet Jeff had come to EVERY appointment, but on this particular day he had a meeting so my mom filled in. She and I were joking and watching YouTube videos in the lobby (trying to explain that I was feeling totally fine!) needless to say my Blood Pressure (BP) was out the roof!!!! My doctor came in calmly and literally said, "well we will probably have a baby, today." WHHHAAATTTT?!?! They did some tests and I didn't have preeclampsia, yet... but was definitely testing the waters so I was restricted to bed rest. Mind you, this was nearly 5 weeks from Emma's "due date". Any of you that have ever been on bed rest know that IT IS HARD!!! There are moments now that I wonder "how was that HARD?" But 10 days of people having to wait on you hand and foot, drinking about a billion oz of water, and taking my BP multiple times per day was not the most fun experience. I maintained a pretty normal BP for 10 days and never had protein in my urine (so I was never diagnosed with preeclampsia) but since I only have one kidney and my BP was getting a little higher with each day, my Dr. thought it best to induce me 2 1/2 weeks early. We were so excited to finally meet our precious gem! As some of you know, we had decided that her name would be Emma Rain Lindley unless she was born on the day that my MeMe "Grace" went to be with Jesus (Feb 1) - she was due Feb 19th....I was induced the night of January 31st and on February 1st at 8:35pm (yes it was a 13+ hr labor) I delivered 6lb 14oz precious perfect Emma Grace Lindley!!!
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Since then life has been in full swing! The first few weeks were amazing and the HARDEST weeks we've ever experienced. I now understand why sleep deprivation is used as a torture tool in the military. Thankfully Emma has been a great eater and after I was allowed to let her go longer than 3 hours between feedings we have done much better in the sleep department! Since Emma was born in the middle of flu season and since I had the ability to shield her from any sickness... we didn't go in public together (i.e. target) for 8 weeks!!! Let me just say, we learned how to do all that you could do from the car WELL (drive thrus, house looking, dry cleaners, car washing... yep!). The only time she has been sick thus far was at 7 weeks and she got a cold from me (I felt soooo bad!!).
Now to tell you about the most amazing little person in Jeff and my life, Emma. She is the most smiley happy little girl! We have been able to get her to grin from ear to ear since she was about 5 weeks old... pure JOY! She has been a fantastic eater and has started solids fairly recently (has loved everything we've given her!). She loves her chandelier in her room and is quite fond of baby einstein. She started legitimately rolling over at about 3 months from her tummy to her back then quit for a while until she figured out how to roll from her back to her tummy! AND she sleeps on her tummy now that she knows how... face in mattress, it is quite funny! She likes to be held but would rather go to sleep on her own in her crib (no complaints!). Although Emma was born with a head full of dark hair - that fell out into the design of a natural mohawk at about 4.5 months- and since has been growing in full force!! Her favorite toys... well she likes most anything she can fit in her mouth, really. She has two knots on her bottom gum waiting to break through for a while... hoping that happens soon! Most recently we have become somewhat mobile!! Army crawling with the occasional crawl on all fours- watch out world! Yesterday she figured out how to sit herself up! Emma said "MAMA" first (about a month ago) and has been saying "NANA" with an occasional "DADA" today.... although she doesn't know what she is saying yet, we melt every SINGLE time. It's a rare day that you see Emma without a bow! Her Gamma and Poppy (Jeff's Parents) and her YaYa and Pappy (My parents) are her biggest fans and she seems them all quite often!
Okay enough of the mommy bragging stuff (although she is pretty great!) ... This is my Emma in a six month nutshell!
Life is beautiful- To God be the GLORY!