More Pictures

Here are more pictures of Emma. It's hard to get different poses when all she does is eat and sleep and mess diapers, but here she is, with LOTS of different poses. I worked really hard to get them, so enjoy!


Kenadi always wants to burp Emma like we do... so I have to help her.
I LOVE all of these faces she makes. They just make me laugh, and kiss those little cheeks more!

I'm okay, we're okay!

Big Sister, Little Sister

Yahoo! I am so happy to not be pregnant anymore! Not that I don't like pregnancy, but that I can move around so much better now, I can breathe better, and I feel little with all that baby gone! Major things have happened since I last wrote. Luckily, Randy has been keeping you updated. Yes, I finally had the baby, Oct. 10th, and isn't she a big one for a newborn? On Monday I took her to her 1st check-up and she was already 9lbs 2 oz. She is gaining weight fast, and that's good! She's a great nurser, so I guess that explains it. Emma (you can call her Emmy if you want... I still love that name) is such a good, sweet baby. So cute and mild mannered. She sleeps so well at night, and only wakes up to nurse and go back to sleep. That's nice, except that I don't sleep well. I'm constantly checking on her to make sure she's breathing. I do get nice long naps during the day, so that's good.

My mom got to come and help out for a week. She came on Sat. the 11th, and left on the 18th. I LOVED having my mom here. She was so good with Kenadi, and Emma, and me, and Randy (couldn't leave him out). Kenadi was having some jealousy issues for the first couple of days, but I think having Grandma here to give her extra attention helped her deal better. Anyways, mom cooked for us, and cleaned, and kept me emotionally stable... mostly. =) I was really sad to see her leave. I had a hard time wanting to relax, though, because I wanted to have fun with mom and show her around and stuff. We did a few things, but not nearly as much as we could if Emma was older, and me all recovered. I guess she'll have to come visit again! Anyways, here are some more recent pictures of Emmy's first week home, and things we did. (not in the order I wanted, but I couldn't get the pictures to rearrange, sorry)


There are some statues that we took mom to see, and Kenadi tried to feed her apple to the dog statue. I thought it was cute.

We carved pumpkins...

This is the first whole day that Emma was home. We soak up every minute with her.

Had to see the bombing memorial... I wanted a picture with us girls, but Emma was sleeping, so it's just us three.Proud daddy of 2 little girls!

She is so alert and likes to just look around at everything when she's awake. What a cute girl!

Of course, October is my birthday month. I love birthdays! I got some great gifts!

It seems like we always forget to get a picture with just us two. I'm going to do it more often.

We are excited for more Grandparents to visit us soon!

Emma Reese

This is Emma Reese Hempel. Her and Mommy are both doing great. There are also more pictures from the hospital posted here: Emma

Apparently we don't have a good face shot of her. But these should at least satisfy you a little. We'll be posting more soon.














This picture was taken when she was only about 10 minutes old.











Kenadi loves being a big sister. This is the first time she got to hold Emma.

SHE'S HERE!!!

She was born yesterday, 10/10, at 3:20 pm. She's an adorable little girl. She weighs 8 lbs. 10 oz. and is 21 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing fine. Kenadi was really excited to see her. She instantly asked to hold her. I think she'll be a really big helper. We'll post more later, including pics.

Still waiting

We went to the Dr. today and he said it should be soon.  Tara is dilated to a 4, so really she could come any time.  Just thought I'd give everyone an update.

Just so you know

Well, no baby yet. In case you all were wondering, I didn't get induced today. I decided that I really didn't want it, and so I didn't do it. Thanks for your advice! I think I was so worried about it because I didn't want to feel stupid telling the Dr. and his staff that I changed my mind again (even though I didn't ask for it). The Dr and his nurse that does all the calling for me were so nice and didn't even bat an eyelash. It made me feel okay about sticking up for what I wanted to do.

When will it happen?

An embarrassing thing could have just happened to me! I wrote all this out and then posted it on our ward recipe blog! AHHH! People would have been looking for a recipe and would have heard all about my labor woes! Good thing I was glancing off to the side of the blog after it put up my new post, and I read... cookies, breakfast, dinner, etc. I was like, what?! This isn't my blog!? Caught myself though... here is what I wrote:
Well, I'm on my last week here... hopefully. Saturday is my due date, and I'm feeling anxious for it to all just happen. I want to be done waiting, I want to have this little baby in my arms! I want to be able to bend at the waist, and I want to start running again! I can't wait to show Kenadi her little sister and have her as my little helper. So many things.... Of course, I do like the "uninterrupted" sleep I get now. Well, if uninterrupted doesn't count the 3 times I get up to go to the bathroom at night, and the 1 or 2 I take Kenadi. I also don't mind just getting 1 child in and out of the car when I go places, but that will all end soon!
I have some decisions to make, too. First of all, I want to give birth naturally. No epidural, no drugs, etc. I think I can do it, because I've been preparing mentally, and I mostly did it with Kenadi. Second, I don't want to go overdue.... I hate waiting! Third, my doctor offered to induce me on Friday the 26th, and I chickened out and said, no, and THEN they set me up to be induced this Friday, Oct. 3rd ( both times I think they thought that I wanted it, but I never asked for it either time. I do like my DR, but this is a little added stress) and when I found that out, I said okay, because I was sick of being pregnant, and I thought I wanted it then. Well, I don't really know what I want. I'm afraid of being induced because of the stories I've heard of how petosin amplifies your contractions, and I don't want to do it because I want to go natural. The doctor said that many people get induced and have the baby without pain control... However, is it considered natural if you use a drug to get the labor going? It doesn't sound like it to me. Next option is... a balloon thing that dilates your cervix. It is drug-free, and sounds much better. Is this too much info? Sorry. Anyways, I don't know! I am really leaning toward just saying, no, no, no... just let her come. So, I guess we'll see what happens.