life's more fun together
Emery’s been growing day by day. She still sleeps a lot but when she is awake she is always looking around checking out the world. She’s looks at us a lot and is learning to smile when we interact with her. She also makes a lot noises just on her own, making baby babble noises. Here’s some photos of Emery:
It’s been an eventful summer here for our family. Lot’s of change has happened here to our little family with the arrival of Emery.
After Emery was born, my Mom came down for a few days to help us take care of her. It was good to have some help. Our first night with Emery before my Mom arrived was an eye opener. Little Emery cried every hour and even though we knew that we would have little sleep, waking up every hour to soothe her, change her and feed her, we kept asking ourselves, how long this would go for. Then combined with people’s “get ready for the next 18 years of your new life” just added to our feeling that we would say goodbye to a good nights rest for good.
My mom arrived in the afternoon and stayed with us through the rest of the week. It was nice to have her around to hold Emery and keep her company when we needed some time off to run errands or just nap. Here’s some photos from Emery’s first week.
The following week, Ashely’s parents came to help out. They were a huge help and stayed with us for 6 weeks. Emery is very lucky to have such dotting grandparents. Grandma Au would carry her non-stop, change her diapers and feed her like her own daughter. They also helped us do a lot of grocery shopping going down to chinatown and making lunch and dinner for us. Here are some photos of them the first few weeks.
After one month, we had a traditional one month celebration for Emery. Our families all joined and had Dim Sum in Chinatown. I got a strawberry Shortcake for Emery from a wonderful Italian Bakery call Vineiros. We all had a great time, except Emery decided to take a very deep nap that day and hardly opened her eyes through the whole thing. Emery loves sleeping in her car seat!
Here’s some photos of Emery Week By Week:
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4:
Week 5:
Our little Emery born May 17, @ 8:20pm EST, 6lbs 12 oz at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital.
Here are the sequence of events that led up to Emery’s birth.
Friday May 14 AM: During our OB visit (now weekly), Dr. Bradley tells us that Ashley is 2cm Dilated and she is doing well. We start to feel like it could be coming soon!
Sunday May 16 Mid Day: I wake up late to find Ashley telling me that she thinks her water broke. I call the doctor and we go into the hospital at 4pm thinking that it’ll most likely be a false alarm and that we will come right home.
Sunday May 16 5pm: The attending doctor look at Ash and confirms that her water broke. Ash still isn’t feeling any contractions so they let us go home and see if we can start labor from home and go back to the hospital later than evening. They encouraged us to walk and do a bunch of things that can induce contractions naturally. We decided to walk home and on the way, there was a street fair. It’s the first one of the year and over 10 blocks on 9th Ave. closed for this all-day event. So our meal before the delivery turns out to be a variety of street food. Awweesssomme!!!!
Sunday May 16 Mid Night: We check into the hospital, still no contractions. The attending nurse helps Ash along with some pitocin at 4am the next morning.
Monday May 17 7am: Ash starts feeling contractions and over the next 12 hours goes into active labor.
Monday May 17 4pm: Ash can’t take the pain anymore and opts for the Epidural. I am relieved!
Monday May 17 8pm: Dr. Bradley declares Ash is 10 cm dilated and she can now push!
Monday May 17 8:20pm: Ash pushes for a little under 20 minutes. Ashley had a cough towards the end of the pregnancy and the cough turned out to be a blessing in disguise… it helped the baby come along considerably! The doctor actually said that Emery was literally coughed out! Little Emery is born!
Tuesday May 18 10:00pm: Ash and I check out of the hospital with our little Emery and we arrive home, our little family has begun!
One day in early September, I came home and Ash mysteriously sat me down and told me she had some news. I had a feeling what it was and when she told me my heart leapt! That’s right, we were going to be parents! Ashley is pregnant! We were surprised but not THAT surprised as we have decided already that we wanted to have a child and that we were ready to start a family. Ashley and I were overjoyed, we waited a few weeks until we told everybody our big news! Our due date is June 2, 2010.
First Trimester
Ashley did not enjoy her first trimester very much. Morning sickness did not do justice to what Ashley went through. She was feeling sick day and night. I think the prenatal vitamins made things worse, though it was good for the baby. In one of our earlier doctors visits, we see the tiny little developing baby in the sonogram.
Our first Sonogram
Emery in November
Emery in December
Ashley was really starting to feel the hormone changes. First trimester was a really tough time for Ash since it coincided with the beginning of her business venture. She is starting a healthy high-fiber muffin business and had to go to different stores to buy testing ingredients and research competitors. I realize doing this while having her morning sickness wasn’t easy at all.
Second Trimester
Ashley’s tummy is getting bigger. At our doctor’s visit we find out that it’s a girl later confirmed by a full sonogram. During that sonogram we also get to see little Emery’s profile.
Third Trimester
Third Trimester like the doctor said was just like the first trimester. More morning sickness! Fun, fun, fun!!!! NOTTT!!!! We tried to make the best of it, though. We had a so-called ‘bucket list’ of things to do before little Emery arrived while we are here in NYC. We spent some time venturing different neighborhoods, going to a Broadway show, “Wicked”, going to Central Park, Top of the Rock, visiting the NBC studio, and did a bunch of other things. One of things we did was go to a pottery-making store called “Make” on the Upper West Side to make Emery our first little gift to her… a little keepsake box.
See all the photos from the pottery making here.
The third trimester went by rather quickly and little Emery’s upcoming arrival soon dawned on us that she will no longer be in Ash’s tummy but that she will be a little human being we will be raising and cherish for the rest of our lives. We talked about what we think or hoped Emery would look like, be like and act like. We wonder about what things and hobbies she will like. We wondered how our two little dogs, Pok’e and Cappy will respond to our little addition to the family. And we wondered what life will be like in general with our precious newborn. We were getting more and more anxious and excited… this was really happening!!!! The past nine months suddenly felt like it passed with a snap of the finger (well, it did for me but maybe Ash may feel differently as she is the one who had to carry the baby in her tummy all these months). We can’t wait ’til Emery arrives!!!!!