Emma Rocks Hard Advance Screening

We have made a video of the Hunter family for Hard Rock tomorrow to let everyone know we love them and decided we'd give all our loyal blog watchers a pre-screening of the video.

So here it is for your enjoyment.  A pre-screening of "Emma Rocks Hard" before it releases to a KCC wide audience tomorrow.

Baby Bjorn

We have been out for an adventure today already.

We found an almost new Baby Bjorn baby carrier/front pack thingie on craigslist and yesterday and headed off to pick it up today.  I tried a tiny but to get Kristen and Emma to stay home and let me run an errand but they would have none of it.  As everyone was happy and feeling good we all decided to trek over to Federal Way for the exchange.  

And the sunshine today was glorious.  You forget about things like the sun when you're hanging out in the house in an in between haze of sleep/dark/light/awake/food/repeat that doesn't follow any of the usual cues your used to.

Well we picked up the Bjorn which even now is washing, and which I am super excited about because theoretically it means I can attach her to myself and then continue to live life like almost normal but just have a baby buddy which makes things way cooler.  We'll see how that goes.

And then because everyone was still doing awesome, we decided to poke our heads into Target for some goodies we need in her room that we forgot about.  She is now the proud owner of her very own hamper and a pink trash can with butterflies.

I'm catching onto this dad of a girl thing.  Just buy anything with gentle colors, "cute" insect like ladybugs and butterflies, and fluff and you're good to go.  And you know.  With Kristen helping to put it all together her room really does look like a put together girly but not too girly haven for Emma.  The pink trash can with butterflies somehow even fits without being obnoxious.  

Well the ladies are sleeping so I'm off to do something manly for a little bit while I can.  

I'm thinking video games.

Quiet video games.

Poppa

7 HOURS!!!!!!!!

I am the King of the World!!!!!

Last night was super rough from about 10pm to 2am but we worked through and were still a happy family at the end of four hours of a lot of yelling (from Emma) and crying (from everybody). 

But after 2am we all crashed on the couch and from 2am to 2pm today, I have slept over 7 hours.  

Does it get any better than this?  A beautiful little girl, a gorgeous wife, and enough sleep to feel like a human being.  

She's a sleeper and that's just one more really great thing about this really great girl.

I promise I'm working on photos

Poppa

The Middle Name Unveiled

The name has been decided.

And it's predictable for me to say this, but it's amazing.  Which is fitting.  Amazing kid, amazing name, amazing experience.

Poppa

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Check it out!  

The homecoming and it is good to be here.  We've got a tour done, a first home feeding, and a changing on her very own Pooh Bear pack 'n' play changing table.  

We've left the cave of baby birth and aren't looking back.

And we just ate dinner, which was a lovely, lovely thing.

Poppa Hunter

P.S. To the "us" that raided our house and made everything beautiful while we were hiding in the cave of baby birth, thank you.  Thank you a million times over.  Really, a million.  

And They're Off

This one's just a short little bonus post for ya, but I thought you might like to know that we're packing up the last of our goodies and getting ready to put the computer in the bag and the Kristen in a wheel chair and Emma in a car seat and make our pilgrimage home.

Pretty cool, eh?

Homeward Bound!

We have jumped our hoops and said the right things and made it through the tests and now we are almost ready to get in our car and head to the house.

Emma can hear beautifully, she can breastfeed, she let them prick her heel and bleed on paper circles, she has been immunized, she's been antibiotic-ized, she has had her first portrait pictures taken, she has successfully pooped little (and big) tar poops, she has---------

WE INTERUPT THIS BLOG MESSAGE FOR AN URGENT UPDATE

Kristen Hunter has just put on her socks entirely by herself with no help from anybody

WE NOW RETURN YOU TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOG

wet herself and her bed when Poppa was late on the new diaper, she has made it through her first night, and she has thoroughly endeared her self to her parents and and whole ton of other peoples. 

Emma has been busy.

So she's sleeping right now and we're waiting for discharge and all is well with the world.  At least with our little part of it.  

We're still really hoping to get a bunch of photos up on the web for your enjoyment, but Jeff has been slacking and lately falling asleep anytime he gets a chance to do anything that's not take care of Emma or take care of Kristen.  In fact it's not uncommon that both Jeff and Emma fall asleep when Jeff is supposed to be taking care of Emma.  But, and this is an important but, we both have been taking pictures and the pictures almost do Emma justice.  

I'm going to head back to waiting but stay tuned...

We have a video of Jeff and Emma blogging to get up and we have the unveiling of the middle name coming.

Poppa Hunter

Gorgeous

I am enamored.  

Emma could very well be the most beautiful person I have ever had the privilege to hang out with.  Seriously.

I mean, she even gives Kristen a run for her money.  

And so I have for you the first official well done portrait of Emma.  The other pictures floating around this blog were taken with a camera built into the top of a laptop.  This picture was actually taken with a camera.  A big camera.  So enjoy.  It's kind of big, but that's the way we like it.

We've just put down Emma and she is sleeping like a...baby.  At least for now that holds true for our Emma.  

She is an amazing sleeper and we are fast coming to love her for it. We should have 2 hours of sleep now if all goes well.

G'night!

Poppa Hunter

EmmaTV

Well, if all goes according to plan by the end of this post you should see an Emma video.

And you will be able to see that, yes, she is indeed cute.  Very cute. 

And you will be able to see that, yes, she does have hair.  Lots of hair.

So check out the video and know you can check out my brother's mac place in the sky for more goodies at his .mac page

Yeah sleep!  (at this point I think I have managed 5.5 hours of sleep in the last 50 hours of life--Kristen is in the same boat)

PH

I Have Cleaned the First Diaper

And boy howdy was it a doozy.  It stayed contained within the confines of the diaper but she made that diaper work.  

This means of course that we are working on the feeding thing and though it's not perfectly smooth, I think it's going as well as anyone could expect.  15 more minutes of feeding, another look at the diaper and then we're going to make a try for sleeping (not that is would be my first sleep since Emma's birth, she and I dozed in the rocking chair while Kristen was indisposed, I don't think I was supposed to fall asleep like that =)

And Emma has the hiccups!  She used to get them all the time in the womb and Kristen and I would puts hands on her belly and laugh our way through the bumping.  Yeah for baby hiccups.

Family is away getting rested from their massive support night.  Yeah for families.

Alright I'm heading back to see if I'm going to get a chance to improve on my rather dubious diaper changing skills.

Poppa Hunter

Words Are Not Enough

Emma has arrived.  

That is an incredible thing to say.

Emma has arrived.

After an unbelievable journey with an incredible hospital staff, a rocking midwife, and a whole gaggle of family, we have an incredibly beautiful baby girl.  I feel like I'm cheating right now because while Kristen has had to deal with all the post birth falderall, I get to hang out with Emma and deliver her to grandparents and help her bathe and laugh when she gets pissed and cries this hilarious, impassioned cry that sounds like a baby goat on helium.  

She is perfect in all the medical ways and in all the parent ways and, though we definitely had moments we weren't sure we would make it through this delivery in one piece, everything at this point has turned out beautifully.

If you're a person who like stats, she is 8lbs 6oz and 18.5 inches long.  But I'm not sure how that begins to describe the gorgeous baby girl who's hanging out with us right now. 

If you're a person who likes pictures, you're just going to have to wait.  We've got em, bu it'll take us a while to get them up here on the blog.  Though I make a promise (properly calibrated for brand new parenthood of course) that we'll have something in the way of pictures up on the interweb before the day is over.  

Thanks so much again for all your prayers and texts and comments and love.  It definitely has helped to fill us in days where we have been pouring out a lot.

More to come...

Poppa Hunter

PUSH...Almost

So after almost 2 glorious hours of really, really, really hard sleep - at least for Jeff, Kristen spent some lovely time "resting"- Kristen is fully dilated and we did some sample pushing.

And now we are laboring down.  We are hanging in the room, just chatting in the dark while we wait for another 30min or so and the time to really do the business.

Our moms are amazing.  They are camped out in the lobby grabbing some sleep on the couches which is of course not really sleep but still they are cheerful and worried about us.  Yeah moms!

And in my last news for this sample push update, Emma has a good head of hair on her.  My daughter's gots hair!

Poppa Hunter

Sleep

We are in a whole new world.  

With Kristen having had a beautiful epidural procedure and all the nurse changes and the settling down we are just now getting ready to close our eyes for a bit.

I've been feeling that feeling Tolkien described as "butter spread over too much bread" for a good chunk of hours now and the thought that we get to sleep quietly for even just an hour or two is like... I don't have a good simile right now but suffice it to ay it's amazing.

Some time in the amazingly awful just before epidural moments that seemed like hours, I all of a sudden remembered, JESUS!.  And started an internal incoherent run of non-stop praying.  Thanks for loving us and Jesus enough to keep holding us up before Him for these last hours.  It is unbelievably wonderful to know that a bunch of people who share a lot of love with you are raising up prayers with and for you when you don't have the whatever it takes to even remember to be in prayer.  And that the Holy Spirit sorts out the jumbled mess that falls out of my head when I can't even string a coherent prayer together.

I haven't been able to talk Kristen through much of how great it's going to be when Emma arrives because I keep getting that almost about to cry a river of really happy, big things tears whenever I start to talk about it.  It looks like I'm going to take after my poppa in the cry about big things that happen with my kids.  And I can't wait to take after him in the pray with my kids every night way too.

Sleep well everybody.

I know I will... at least for 45min.

Poppa Hunter

Resting Comfortably

Kristen has decided that the anesthesiologist must be everyone's hero! She is relaxed and talking easily.  The midwife tells us a nap of a couple of hours will be the next order of business. We'll get back to you with any new developments.

Grandma H

11:00 pm Update from the Birth Center

Well here we still are.  Kristen, Jeff, and Emma are all doing wonderful! Kristen is now fully effaced, and dilated to 4 cm.  After 20 hours (several of those involving pitosin), she has decided that it's time for an epidural.  We are awaiting the anesthesiologist's arrival, and a bit of relief for Kristen from the constant pain. We'll let you know when the epidural is in place and she is resting a bit more comfortably.

CHARGE!

So we are continuing to advance.  Labor is starting to get more intense and frequent.  Lots of groaning and breathing which i believe is exactly what they want.  They are going to be checking her dilation again here soon to get an idea of how she is progressing.  Spirits are high and alot more midwife action is going on in and around the room.

Moving Right Along

So i think kinda sums up how things are going right now.  

Jeff: "Hows it feel hun?" 

Kristen: "Pain." 

Jeff: "That was a stupid question." 

They gave Kristen Protosin (a drug that makes contractions more effective and frequent) and its working!  So she has been walking around a bit and is sitting up in a chair for the time being.  Things seem to be going fabulously and the staff here are rocking.

Update by Jonathan (The Youngest of the Hunter Three)

The Chronicles of Babydom! Movies of Joy.

So this is the brother Jonathan that has now stolen the computer momentarily.   We have a quick movie showing the monitor that has the EKG of Emma's heart beat as well as the heart beat sound in the background.   And here is a quick word picture to try to give you the feel and intensity of the moment.

     The lights are slightly dimmed.  The steady thump of the Chillens heart beat rages on the in the background.  Both Grannies are pacing the operation room floor in a controlled panic.  We have about 17 computers scatted about the room in disarray.  Kristen is laying on her left side with a devoted husband Jeffery lovingly and caringly massaging the tender back of the Prego.   We had a angel of mercy, in the form of a Brain Botts, deliver a number of Jamba Juices to slake the thirst of the Kristen.

Enjoy this slight glimpse into the exciting hospital experience.

Inconclusive

So we've talked with the midwife and waited to see how things are progressing...

and we're still waiting to see how things are developing.  

The next "deadline" is 6pm.  The midwife's words about Emma coming tomorrow seem to be playing towards true.  Oh poop.  Though I think Kristen feels stronger about Emma's tardiness than we do.

The little brother arrived and has brought lots of laughing and inappropriate humor.  Which is good for Jeff.  Kristen just left for a walk though, so...

It's funny how times seems to fly and move really slowly all at the same time.  I can't believe we've already been here for over 12hours.  Craziness.  

Emma is working like a champ.  Her heart is beating along and everything is gorgeous.  Just slow.  We'll tell you more when there is more to tell.  

J

Grandma Hunter

Here we are at the hospital waiting on little Emma's arrival.  Kristen and baby are doing well.  During the last midwife visit, we learned that Emma will probably weigh in at about 7 1/2 lbs., and may not arrive until tomorrow...  Momentary disappointment, but glad that the midwife is comfortable letting Emma call the shots for now.

So please keep praying, and we'll keep you posted on what's happening here.

Waiting on the Midwife

Well the parents are here and we're waiting for the midwife to come over and tell us what the next steps are going to be.  If we're progressing well they'll let us keep doing what we're doing, and, if we not moving much, we'll get some goodies to help move labor along.

I'm finding myself obsessively checking for comments so feel free to leave nifty encouraging comments.  We like em.

Breakfast and All Is Well

We're officially settled and even got a pretty solid chunk of sleeping in this morning.  

We're up now and having some breakfast and getting ready to play a rolicking round of the waiting game.  We're just hanging out until 2 or 3 when we'll do an assessment of how things are progressing and decide on what the plan is for next.

Trust me, she looks way better and less drugged in real life...Even beautiful I would say.

With having issues getting the other website to work and moving over to here for updates, I'm a little nervous that a lot of people planning to follow aling and stay updated on the blog will not be able to find us.  So if you've found us here, feel free to pass on the address to anyone who you think might be interested so they don't miss out on the fun 

We're off for a walk!!!

Be back later.

Emma Has Decided She Is Done with Her Bag of Waters

Well, Kristen decided to wake me up from a sound sleep in the middle of the night for only the second time in our waiting for Emma to come, and this time she needed a bit more attention than the first time.

Her water broke at roughly 3am this very morning.  Which has started a lengthy and rather leisurely process which has lead us to right now. where we are camped out in our room here at the hospital trying to ignore the discomfort, nerves and excitement and get some more sleep (I being the genius that I am stayed up playing video games last night instead of cleaning the kitchen leaving me tired and the kitchen dirty). 

The news is that all is well with emma and kristen and now we are in a waiting game for the contractions to catch up with the little girl and her readiness to get going.  They tell us they won’t let us go home until Emma makes her appearance (which is awesome) and that looking at the way things are now we’re going to be here for a long time (which is less than awesome).

Unless your name is mom, we probably won’t talk to you on our phones, but stay tuned here and we’ll update the blog every few hours with goodies and progress reports.  And feel free to text if you like.  We’d love any encouragement by text you have to offer but we probably won’t respond.  Not because we don’t love you but because we’re distracted.

Woohoo!  The adventure marathon begins.  Now if only we liked marathons...