Celebratory Drink

My good friend Sue came down for dinner tonight to see my parents and little Emmit (again). We had dinner brought over from the neighbors (homemade sauce by Nick!) so it was an easy dinner: pasta, salad, and bread. My parents brought a 'non-alcoholic' wine to celebrate little Emmit's birth so we decided to have that with some real wine tonight. I poured myself a glass and Gerrit too while the rest had the wine. I took a few sips of it and thought it tasted pretty much like wine and nothing like sparkling juice. Gerrit took a sip and didn't finish his either.

I looked at the bottle and seeing it said 11.5% alcohol...

OOPS! Way to go Opa - serving your 2 yr old grandson alcohol!

Proper Plumbing

My good friend Joy sent this piggy bank for Emmit. I have no idea where she found it but I love it! Gerrit was taking a look at it and trying to figure out what it does...

Opa gave him a few coins and showed him where to put the money. He quickly caught on and put the rest of the coins in the bank. When he finished he asked:

"Now it poop?"

A Tutorial...

From what we have learned from the gentleman who dropped of the billy blanket, it was developed by a father of 7 who had 5 of his children requiring the lights and an extended stay at the hospital. He wanted to come up with something that would allow parents to take their children home and still get the light treatment.

In case you have not been exposed to a Billy Blanket, I thought I'd let you in on what it looks like - nothing like an actual blanket.

This is it:

The box is what generates the blue lights and the white curved thing is the 'blanket'. Its more like a flexible paddle that goes around the torso of the baby and needs to be as close to the arm pit as possible.

This is what it looks like when its worn. Emmit is not happy as I just put it on him after we returned from his Dr. apt on Monday. We ran out of the stickers that are used to keep it in place so we went with the next best thing - athletic tape!

This is what it looks like with the lights off. Gerrit commented on how Emmit had his own Christmas lights! It was nice not to have to use a light in the middle of the night to change his pants etc. - Emmit had his own night light!

Our Little Tan Man

Friday when the Pediatrician checked out Emmit it was determined that he was very jaundice for being so young. So some blood work was ordered and the circumcision was put on hold till Sat morning. Sure enough, the blood work confirmed his high level of billy which meant he needed to eat more to flush it out of his system. So we worked hard on getting him to eat all day and he was retested at night - higher level still. Sat. am came and another test confirmed his level continued to rise (which is typical, just not at this saturated level). Because he was eating and wasn't in the highest risk area, the circumcision went on as planned. The question was whether we'd go home or not. The doc didn't think we needed to stay another night in the hospital with Emmit being put 'under the lights', but she sent us home w/ a "billy blanket" (actually it was delivered to the house in the evening).

Here is Emmit sporting his 'going home' outfit, compliments of Oma. (I made the hat and booties.) Gerrit's coming home booties were almost too small, so I wanted to make sure Emmit's would fit - guess they'll fit him for a while!

The happy (partial) family ready to head home and start our life as 4: (Emmit is sporting his cousin Max's snow suit from 12 yrs ago!)

Adam having a bit of fun with Emmit's large hands - getting him prepped for what is to come with his big brother. With Gerrit's arm and Emmit's hand size, we've got a nice quarter back/receiver combo brewing in our home.

Big brother Gerrit holding Emmit when we finally got home on Sat....notice the difference in facial color. It looks like Emmit just returned from a trip to Hawaii! (I finished his blanket just in time for his birth and there is a cute bunny that coordinates and yarn for a jacket yet to be made.)

After 2 trips back to the Dr. (since we've been home) to get his 'billy' level checked, we think he's reached his peak (thank goodness!). Today was very similar to yesterday's level so the Dr. said he only needs the billy blanket for 1-2 days yet. As much of a pain the 'blanket' is, we are thankful we didn't have to stay longer at the hospital! (I'll take a picture of the 'blanket' as it is quite the device and not at all what we thought it would be like.)

The Night Before Emmit

It all started at 9:30am on Wed. when I thought I had my next Dr. apt. Pam said she'd ride along to keep me company and an eye on me. So we headed out and north only to find out that my apt was actually on Thurs. at 9:30! Oops. Of all the apts I've had, I've never messed up! I was able to get rescheduled for 3pm so Pam and I went shopping! We did a few returns and found a few new items to add to possessions. We had some lunch and then headed back to the Dr. Both of us couldn't believe how fast the time went!

My Dr. was on call for the New Year, so we talked about inducing while he was on this weekend if I didn't go earlier. So we said Sunday would be the day. Adam and I decided not to tell anyone this was the plan so there would be a bit of surprise for the rest of the world.

Following daycare, Gerrit wanted to shovel (surprised?), and seeing we did get some snow, we hung outside for a bit. I took the big shovel and pushed the light fluffy stuff to the side and figured Adam could clean it up when he got home. Seeing I couldn't mow the lawn (which I hear can help start labor - worked for a friend!), I would go with shoveling.

We had a nice dinner and Gerrit helped Adam finish the shoveling. I was planning on taking down the Christmas decorations on Thurs. so I wanted to get a picture of myself in front of the tree so we had a little photo shoot:

Gerrit giving his baby brother a 'kiss'.

I knew I was big, but whooh - that is big! I totally look like I am due - not sure what others were looking at who told me I didn't look like I was due.

The evening went as usual and around 9 pm I decided I needed a snack. (Yes, a bit earlier than the 10pm snack I was having on a regular basis.) I asked Adam if he wanted something and as I stood up, my water broke! There goes our snack! (I told Adam we were going to stop by DQ on our way out of town or McD's for something seeing I was hungry.)

We packed up what was left to pack - as I wasn't totally prepared and dropped Gerrit off at Dahlen's. (Seeing we had about an hour drive, I figured we should just get to the hospital and skip the snack.) No major contractions or discomfort which made the ride a bit easier. Once at the hospital we played the waiting game. We wanted to see if my body kicked into labor on its own so I was given some sleeping medicine and we went to bed. Around 6am it was decided to give me some drugs to start the process, which meant more pain with each contraction. I make it till 9am and decided to throw in the towel (I was hungry and wanted this babe out, plus I wasn't progressing like I had hoped!). I got the epidural from a cousin of a Pitt. Steeler's player. How cool is that? Once the epidural kicked in, my body relaxed and things moved ahead much faster. (Same thing happened with Gerrit's birth.) We waited for my Dr. to arrive at the hospital before they let me push so I started pushing at 12:20 pm and he was born at 1:24 pm.

This brings us to the pictures that Adam posted in the next posting.

Emmit Sidney Birr

Arrived a few days early! Emmit surprised us on 12/31/09 at 1:24 pm. Here's the measurements:

8 lb 13 oz; 21 inches. I'll have Caryn add details later. I just wanted to get some pics posted and let everyone know that the family is doing very well.

Our 1st Christmas!

Today was a fun day as well! The festivities kept us going once again. We started the morning by sleeping in until 7 (thanks Gerrit!). We opened stockings (bottom right) and then took a break and had breakfast.

I wanted to use my pancake molds which were Christmas shaped and the eggnog flavored pancake mix. Gerrit didn't want to wait so he had a poptart. My attempt at the molds, didn't really work, a broken snowman, 1/2 of a snowflake, and crumbled elf was not quite the Martha Stewart Christmas breakfast I had envisioned. Adam took over and made round pancakes instead. (I'll have to work on perfecting the molds!) We had a yummy breakfast, even if Gerrit didn't each much pancake. He did let us eat and didn't rush us to open gifts.

Following breakfast, we went back to opening the presents that we have for each other and that Santa had left too. Even Grandpa Bob and Grandma Marcy/GG sent a few gifts for Gerrit to open. So of course, Gerrit had a nice ratio of 2:1 to open compared to us but that was fine. He loved opening gifts and wanted to open ours as well. Only having 3 of us to open gifts went by a bit faster than we are use to (it takes all night w/ my large family). It was a nice time for us to relax and see what it is like to open gifts just us (we've never had that before). Only a few gifts need to be returned too which is a nice thing!

Gerrit and Adam headed out to shovel the wet heavy snow/slush that fell over night. We felt like we were in MI today with the rain,sleet,snow mix we had all day. We were a bit disappointed we didn't get the snow like predicted, it was just too warm. If we had, we'd still be shoveling!

Nap time for Gerrit, Adam took a snowshoe walk on the golf course to blaze a trail for skiing, and I hunted down Whipping Cream at the gas station. I had a dessert all planned and then changed my mind after the grocery store closed yesterday. So I checked the gas station and low and behold, they had whipping cream! So Creme' Brulee' it was for dessert tonight! :)

Following nap time we set off to Dahlen's again for a late lunch. A wonderful roast dinner was had by all. We took a break from eating and Adam became brave and joined in on the Rock Band bandwagon. He took his turn at the guitar and drums and even did some solo singing! (I of course, knew better and saved my ego by watching). When we needed a break it was dessert time. I made reg. and Egg Nog Creme' Brulee' and they both turned out well. The boys even liked it and they had never had it before. Gerrit saved me the best part - the crusty sugar!

Here are a few photos from today's festivities:

Starting with the top row: the witching hour, Gerrit letting us know it was time to go home - he wanted the mic but Adam was singing, Gerrit holding the mic thinking he was singing, Gerrit sporting his new football jersey (his MSU one is a bit small), opening his 1st gift - farm equipment from dad.

Bottom row: 'playing' the drums with Paul, Adam relaxing as he sings, Gerrit noticing all the presents that were not there last night when he went to bed, Gerit discovering the stockings left by Santa. He liked the Cars slippers but didn't want to wear them - guess they will be going back to the store!

And there you have it, our 1st Christmas in MN as a family. We have made it a few more days with the little babe still inside which was nice of him. I'm definitely not very comfortable, but knowing we don't have much going on is helpful. I head back to the dr. on Wed and we'll discuss inducing dates if it comes to that (I don't think it will). The dr. doesn't think this babe will be as big as Gerrit - I'm not holding my breath!

Because we have such great friends here, it made being in MN for Christmas that much easier. We love our families, and missed them a lot these last few days, but we are very thankful we have a 'family' that we can spend time with as well. We have a lot to be thankful for and were reminded of it all these past few days.

We hope you had a great Christmas too!

Merry Kissmas!!

(as Gerrit would say)