Emmy Rae Joins the Family

She is here!!!  Emmy Rae Gilmore joined our family on Thursday, October 16th, at 12:03 pm.  She weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and measured 20 inches long.  Her first moments of life she spent snuggled up with Mommy.

Emmy gave us a little bit of a scare and had some trouble transitioning from the womb to the world.  See, there is this thing called breathing, and she wasn't doing it right.  She was getting enough oxygen, but the doctors said she was trying too hard in the process and was going to exhaust herself.  For that reason, she was admitted to the NICU.

Luckily, Emmy was fine after a couple of hours, but we learned that once you get into the NICU, it is hard to get out.  It seemed like every day there was a new test they had to do, and a new milestone they needed her to reach before she could come home.  In hindsight, we realized that we didn't have that traumatic of a time compared to the other NICU families, but in the moment we were so anxious to get our little girl home.

Cory did a great job through the entire delivery,  and was a great patient, too.  Her room was on the 4th floor, and Emmy's was on the 3rd floor, so we made many trips back and forth.  I never heard Cory complain once about it, and it was sweet to see her so anxious to get back to the baby as soon as possible.

Emmy mostly slept, which provided a lot of great photo opportunities, and all the quiet time we could want to just sit and hold her.

When she wasn't sleeping, she was eating.  She is such a good eater, too!  Cory never had much trouble getting her to eat, which I think was a huge stress reliever.  Emmy also got a lot of great quality time with Grandma Buzz.

With the nurses pricking and prodding her all the time, we tried to keep her as comfortable as possible.  Here we are rubbing her down with some lotion.

Welcome to the world, Emmy Rae!  We are so glad you are part of our little family.  Three is our new favorite number!