It's hard to believe that it is the end of July already! This summer is flying by, and two weeks from today Emma Rae will be turning one year old!!!! It has been one of the hardest, longest, most stressful, yet most rewarding years of my life :) Let's have a quick recap:
August 2010:
We were preparing for Emma's arrival and just imaging how our lives were about to change. Little did we know that there was now way for us to guess just how drastic a change it would be! On August 5th I went into labor abou 1 p.m. when the Directv employees were at our house setting us up with our new service. I didn't know that contractions had begun and only knew that somethng was happening (had begun to lean amniotic fluid). Around 3 Nick and I headed to the hospital where they checked me out and determined that I was in labor! At 12:05 a.m. on August 6th, Emma Rae Spotanksi was born! Mom stayed with us for 2 1/2 weeks, which was a Godsend as neither of us knew what they heck we were doing with this 6 pound screaming demon :)
September 2010:
Emma was going through a really hard time, as were Nick and I being so severely sleep deprived. We were switching formulas like crazy trying to find one that would set well with Emma as she was clearly having some stomach problems. We settled of Pregestimil (for a while) because that's what Nick had to be on when he was little. My 26th birthday was a disaster as we went for supper at Chili's and we hadn't been there 10 minutes and Emma began to bawl, and so we pretty much got to-go boxes as soon as our food arrived :P
October 2010:
I went to the dr. for post partum depression around the middle of the month. The "baby blues" hadn't subsided and I was needing to get the horomones back in check. The meds began to work quickly and I was soon back to my old self. Nick turned 30, and his parents came up to celebrate. We dressed Emma up as a pumpkin for Halloween :)
November 2010:
By now we had found that Emma had a problem with milk and soy proteins, and she was on one of the most expensive formulas, Neocate, which is $40 per can! For Thanksgiving we went to Nick's grandma Rosie's.
December 2010:
We were preparing for our first Christmas as a little family. The weekend before Christmas we went back to Grand Island to celebrate with Nick's family. Then we went back to Missouri to celebrate Christmas Eve and Day with my family. Emma wasn't sure about opening gifts and Mommy and Daddy ended up helping her :) Santa Claus was good to her!
January 2011:
Our new year started off uneventfully and was beginning to feel better horomone-wise, however, I was noticing (ok I had been noticing it for a while) that my weight was climbing. I talked to my OB/GYN and she changed me over to Prozac saying that the chance of weight gain was less on it than Zoloft.
February 2011:
Feeling better, I decided to stop taking the Prozac, and had no ill side-effects when coming off of it like I did when I tried to wean myself off of Zoloft. However, my weight finally stopped at 150...just five pounds shy of where I was when I was nine months pregnant :( This really bothered (and still bothers) me. Emma was beginning to do this army-crawl thing (Dad says she's doing the Marine Low Crawl :) ) where she would drag herself with her arms and use only her left leg to kind of push herself along!
March, April, and May 2011:
A few pretty uneventful months. Emma had a few ear infections (so NOT FUN), we went back to Missouri to celebrate Ethan and Mom's birthdays, and Mike and Mollie came back for a visit. Emma began to actually "crawl", and "cruise"! We bought a pop-up camper and took it camping on Memorial Day weekend at Wallace State Park in Cameron, Mo.
June 2011:
Emma really started crawling a lot more and Mollie came by after a conference one evening and stayed the weekend! We all went garage saling and I ended up getting her a Fisher Price Laugh and Learn House toy for her upcoming birthday, which is now sitting in her room, covered up by a big blanket so she doesn't know it is there, and so that she will see it as a new toy on her birthday!
July 2011:
We spent the 4th of July weekend in Grand Island. Emma stayed the weekend with Grandma Mollie and Papa Mike, and was glued to Mike's hip :) While she was there, Nick and I went camping with Ryan, Sandra, Jordyn, and Adam at Sherman's Reservoir around Loup City, Ne. We then celebrated the 4th on the 3rd at Ryan and Sandra's (Picture 1 below) and Emma enjoyed some fireworks before getting too tired and going to bed at 8 p.m. :) Towards to the middle of July Emma and I went on vacation to Branson and Eureka Springs (pictures 2-5 below) and had a great time. Ethan and I did a Zipline and Suspension Bridge thing which was awesome! We also spent a day at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, sightseeing and going to the Passion Play, as well as spending a day at Stockton Lake, which Emma loved! The day we returned to Omaha, Emma took her first step. I interviewed at Oriental Trading Company and was offered a job. Present Day: We are in the process of trying to find a good daycare for Emma before I start working on August 29th. We are also in the process of preparing for Emma's first birthday. I am preparig to start the HCG diet and want reallllllllllllyyyyyyyyy badly to lose some weight before my 26th birthday.
So, that's about all that's been going on this past year :)
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