Happy 4th Birthday Emma!

Dear Emma,

Today marks 4 remarkable years of loving you.  As I am writing this letter to you, it is 9pm.  At exactly 9pm 4 years ago, your daddy wheeled me into a level III neonatal intensive care unit to one of the many incubators that lined the walls.  To the one on the far right, the one that held my little girl.  Five hours prior you were born and whisked away from me so fast that I didn't have time to memorize your little face.  I felt like I was staring through the plastic at a little stranger.  You were so fragile, and I was afraid of you.  As the weeks past and we learned together how to care for you, we formed a bond that I have no words to describe.  I have loved every second I have had being your mom and watching you grow.

Today you wake up each day with such joy and enthusiasm, often asking what the day will hold.  You are a bold, energetic, smart, funny, stubborn, and loving little girl.  Just 6 short days ago we welcomed your little sister into our family.  I missed you so much while I was away!  When you came for a visit at the hospital you already looked so much older to me.  I worried about how this change would affect you.  I worried about losing time for our special rituals, like at bed time when you tell me your secrets and tiny confessions.  I worried you would be insecure and sad.  Despite the changes in our home, you have not seemed to miss a beat.  You have welcomed your little sister with nothing but an eager love, even though your own birthday celebrations had to be changed.  You are a very special girl, an answered prayer.  We love you so very much.  Happy birthday to the little girl who is getting big, but will always be my baby girl.

In my daughter's eyes, 
I am a hero,
I am strong and wise, 
And I know no fear,
But the truth is plain to see,
She was sent to rescue me,
I see who I want to be,
In my daughter's eyes

-In my daughter's eyes, Martina McBride

Day 5

Mila Blue, 5 days

sleeps all afternoon, up all night...

The love fest continues...

Emma:  Baby sister smells good!

Me:  What does she smell like?

Emma:  She smells like hot dogs, cotton candy, and yellow paint

:)

Sisterly Love

You might recall that on August 4th, Emma confidently announced that her baby sister would be born in "5 days."  You may have also noticed that she was right! (currently trying to get the winning lottery numbers now...)  Since we brought Mila home yesterday Emma lives and breathes nothing but her sister.  She wants to hold her, feed her, "wipe her cute little butt," put her in every swing and bouncer seat we own, dress her in all of her clothes (in one day), make her laugh, and pet her head (not so gently).  We are all wondering when the novelty will wear off. Daisy was over the baby in 1 second.  In fact, she looked a little mad at us when we brought her home :)

The coolest, calmest baby ever.  Thank You Universe.

Emma meet Mila for the first time.  She was little scared of her

 Holding her sister for the first time and not getting scared

 Super Proud Big Sister

 There might be a shiny new baby in this picture, but all I can think of when I look at this is how beautiful 

my first baby is and how much I missed her when I was in the hospital.  That was the longest we have ever

been apart.  

 Welcome Mila!

 "This crazy place is exactly why I didn't want to come out!"

 "My big sister says you are tool (cool)"

 My two silly girls

 "They say I have crazy hair..They are just jealous"

 Home coming!  Complete with sign, dinner, desert, flowers

and a well looked after Emma.  Thanks Nanny!!

Just like her big sister, Mila has a touch of jaundice

"glow worm"

Hospital Pictures

To view Mila's hospital pictures go to www.bellababyphotography.com Click on view my photos, and use password kbla0809riggs.  They will only be available until the 26th.  So here are so screen shot of some of the pictures that I love. 

love

 Mila as "cat woman"

 Mila the "angel"

 one of my favorites

 another favorite :)

Kung Fu Mila

Mila Blue Riggs-Birth Story Prt 2

So Cesarean section it was!  Once this was decided, they wasted no time getting us in there.  I was prepped and Dan dressed in some ultra hip sterile garb.  They couldn't get part of my belly completely numbed so they knocked me out.  I remember being told to wake up and what I saw and heard was a screaming baby with lots of black hair.  I remember thinking to myself that there must be another mom delivering at the same time!  Here are some pictures from the big moment:

Born 8-9-12 at 6:11 am

 6lb, 13 oz

 Daddy meets Mila while mommy is in dream land

 in recovery..

 This, my friends, is one tired momma!  

Mila Blue Riggs-Birth story prt 1

As you may already know, Dan and I welcomed our second daughter, Mila Blue Riggs, into our family on Thursday August 9th at 6:11am.  I'm currently still in the hospital recovering so I'm breaking her story up into parts.

Two nights before Mila made her big arrival I started to feel tired.  Dead to the bone tired and flu like.  I took a good long nap after work (it was awesome).  I woke up the next morning at 3:30 am to find that my water had broken.  Dan and I took quick showers, finished packing our bags, and left this note for Emma:

We left our house around 5am, stopped to get gas, and headed to the hospital.  The nice thing about my labors is that they usually start with my water breaking long before any contractions.  We checked into the hospital at 5:30 and got comfortable in a labor room that I was sure we wouldn't be in after 4pm.

After a couple of hours it was determined that my contractions weren't strong enough, so they started me on pitocin.  The clock was also ticking as my water was broke and baby was no longer in a sterile environment. When I was checked I was still only dilated to 1cm.  The best part of having your water break before your labor starts is that you have to stay in bed for fear of compression of the cord (we are talking bed pans here) Over the course of 25 hours, changing position every 30 minutes,  I never dilated more than 3cm.  It seems that the progesterone shots may have worked even better than they should have (a.k.a turning my cervix into stone).

We experience two episodes of a team of nurses and doctors come running into the room flipping me over changing position and frantically searching for baby's heart beat that was there just a minute ago.  After all that time and those two nervous breakdowns I was practically begging my doctor to perform a c section.  At the time, we didn't know why Mila wasn't dropping (she was still in my ribs).  It could have been she was crooked in there, maybe she had a short cord that wasn't allowing her to drop, or something else....

37 weeks!

...and 1 day, but who is counting? We are just sitting around waiting, and waiting, and waiting. It's driving us all insane!

Emma (10 days from her 4th birthday)

Baby (20 days from her estimated due date)

Mommy (32 years and counting)

 In many ways this seems like a first time pregnancy for us.  Things that are new this time around
1. physical discomfort (oh my aching feet, back, hips)
2. anticipation and excitement overload!!
3. waiting
4.  Oh, and that crazy almost 4 yr old that is running circles around me