Emma's First Bath

Emma is five days old and doing well. My breast milk never fully came in, so we are formula feeding her. The same thing happened with Samuel, so this was not an unexpected surprise. We had a hard time today getting her to eat because she did a lot of sleeping. So we decided to give her a sponge bath (her umbilical cord, or "the Slug" as David likes to call it, hasn't fallen off yet). She was not very happy with us while it was happening, but the end results were worth it. She was smelling and looking good afterwards! It was amazing to be bathing her, but remembering so much of Samuel's first bath. I know that the two of them will be very different, but its neat to see the traits that make them family. Here are some pictures of her first bath!

Emma is home!

Many of you are probably wondering how Samuel is doing with his new little sister. He is adjusting to having her here. At first he did not want to have much to do with her and said "uh oh" when he saw her in HIS house! He has become very interested in her feedings and diaper changes. And when she cries, he wants to know what is wrong. Samuel is and is going to be a great big brother! Now he likes to give her kisses and push her in her swing. He even has figured out how to feed her. He either wants to help give her the bottle, or run off with it and tries to use it himself! Fortunately for us, he does not like the taste of formula and can be easily bribed with a "big boy" cup of juice or milk. We are continuing to adjust to being a family of 4 instead of 3, and having a baby in the house is very different...but we are loving every minute of it! Here are a few more pictures of Samuel and Emma.

Here she is!! Emma Grace Blackwood

So, after an hour of trying to get an epidural in and hitting my nerves 3 different times, the anesthesiologist decided to do a spinal block. With much prayer and confidence in my obgyn, I delivered a beautiful girl at 8:50am. Emma weighed 8lbs 6oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. As you can see in the pictures, she has a head full of black hair. We stayed in the hospital the full 3 days to give ourselves some time to rest and heal. Due to not having an epidural I was pretty sore from the beginning, but I am doing better now. The key is to keep moving around! Emma is doing well also. She is healthy, and we are so thankful for that. God is good!

Anxiously Awaiting Our Little Girl

Well we got to the hospital around 6:00am on July 25. Here are some pictures of us as we await the arrival of our daughter (and sister). We are all so excited and can hardly wait to see what she looks like!

Sleeping Cute

I always check on Samuel before I go to bed at night. I got so tickled at seeing him lay like this. He has two blankets and two stuffed animals that he always sleeps with. For some reason he has become very attached to these items and if he carries one around, then he has all four! Anyways this is just a cute picture that mama was able to get with her camera.

Having Fun at the Car Wash!

So I am two weeks from having Emma and we are staying in Irwinton due to a few preterm labor scares! All is well and I am so thankful to have family who is so helpful. Mama (or Grandma to Samuel)decided to wash the car before daddy returns from Kenya. She and Samuel went to washing and here are some pictures of Samuel helping. As you can see below, nothing is safe from the cleaning sponge of an almost two year old!

A few updates!

I know that I haven't been keeping the blog up very well lately. We seem to be so busy, and by the end of the day I am too tired to blog! The pregnancy is going well, and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little girl! I was having some contractions this past Monday, so we made an unscheduled visit to the doctor just to make sure that everything was okay. He said that I was having contractions, but that I had not begun dilating or thinning. We were relieved to hear that the baby was not quite ready to come yet, since we are just now 35 weeks. However, if I did go into labor, the doctor would not stop it. We did get some unexpected but exciting news while we were there! Dr. Barnes believes that I will not deliver before 37 weeks, but he is not sure that I will make it to July 25, which is our c-section date. Apparently when your mate is 6'5", you don't stand a chance of having small babies! We are excited at the possibility of having her here earlier, but we do want everything to be okay with her most importantly. Our prayer is that she will at least wait until July 16 because David has a week long class in Wilmore, KY right after the fourth of July and daddy will be in Kenya until the 15th!
Samuel is doing great! He is growing so quickly and we are really seeing the toddler boy in him! He is saying a lot more words than before and is learning to communicate his wants and/or needs. I think that he is going to be a great big brother, and that it won't take him long to get used to having a girl around the house. Although, pink seems to be the color that is going to overrun the house! Please continue to pray for our family as we get ready to make many new adjustments!

Happy Birthday Jessica!

I just wanted to let everyone know that today is Jessica is 25 years old today. I know that I am biased because I am her husband but I think that she is really great. She has done so much in 25 years. She has graduated college, married, become the wonderful mother of Samuel, and is now expecting her first daughter in July. The Lord uses her so much to minister to me as I serve as a pastor. She has really been a partner with me in all that I am doing at the church. She encourages her family, friends, and basically everyone who she meets. So Happy Birthday Jessica and thank you for all you do!

Chuckee Cheese Please!

Samuel got to the spend a weekend in Irwinton a few weeks ago because David and I were working a retreat in Dooly County. Samuel always has fun at his grandparents house, and it seems to take him a few days to recover after being there. His grandma spoils him rotten! But we love it! Well this particular weekend he was spoiled by all of his family. Uncle Matt and Lala came to visit on Thursday, Grandpa came home from Africa on Friday, Uncle Daniel and JenJen took him to Chuckee Cheese on Saturday, and Uncle Josh's girlfriend was gone for the weekend so that gave them a lot more time together. David and I are blessed to have family that is involved in Samuel's life. We don't have pictures of all the visits, but here are some from Daniel when Samuel was with him.


Uncle Daniel and Samuel both climbed through the tubes and went down the big slide.

Playing a video game.

Talking on the phone, which Samuel is getting very good at!


Samuel's Aunt Jennifer took him to see Chuckee.

Samuel loves pizza, and so does Daniel!

Dancing on the dance floor.

Samuel riding on a horse.




This video is too cute! Samuel loves to dance!

Graduation

We have been so busy lately that I have not gotten around to posting any new blogs. David finished up his spring semester in seminary and is now spending this week in Orlando for a summer class. It seems that we have hit the ground running for the summer and we won't have any breaks until September! David finished his classes on Friday, and by that afternoon we both headed to the houses of our different families for our brothers' Saturday graduations. David will have to post a blog later for his brother's graduation in Acworth, but here are some pictures from my brother's big day in Irwinton. Unfortunately David and Shalah couldn't be there, but we had a good day anyways.