Emma 1 month old

Emma fell into a great schedule. She was only waking up 2 times a night and sleeping very well during the day. She was a great nurser and we just love to snuggle her. I let the kids each take a skip day from school while I was on maternity leave. Each picked a different day and stayed home with Emma and I. They loved just being here and snuggling with us. We went out and ate lunch with most of them also. Everyday before the kids left for school; each had to hold and kiss her good bye and then they would race to see her in the afternoon. It was nice to send Blakely off with the children in the car to school with the exception that I had no car. Emma struggled with kicking jaundice. She was on a bilirubin light for almost the whole first month. She was always undressed down to a diaper and onesie. We made a trip at least twice a week back to the hospital to get poked in the heel. We become very acquainted with the check in staff and the lab. It was nice to see Uncle Greg and Oralia even though that caused Emma pain. She spiked up to 17 but just could not get below a 10; which we needed to be off the light until she was almost a month old. She finally made it to a 9. We were so excited. The kids were very concerned about her and what the nurse said. We started adding in a bottle of formula to help with kicking it. She took the bottle the first two weeks just to supplement, but when Mom started to try to add in bottles to prepare her for the babysitter, she did not want to take a full feeding until the weekend before I went back to work. It was hard for me to let go of my classroom, but after going back for parent teacher conferences 2 weeks after she was born, I decided it was going to be okay and I let it go for awhile. I loved being home with this sweet little girl. During the month, we had wonderful dinners and helpers to help us prepare for Emma. We tried to stay put at home and not go anywhere for the first 6 weeks. Thank you for all your love and gifts, everyone was so kind to help us with Emma.