"I'll call you back."

Hi everybody. I was going to just come on here and say that Dee is still getting lots of rest as we get used to Emily's schedule and as she recovers from the reaction she had in the hospital (turns out it was part contact rash, part drug reaction). So, with that in mind, she wants you to know she's checking the comments on the blog, getting the phone messages from me, but that she'll call you back when she feels a little more rested and recovered.

Mom is visiting and helping out with a LOT around here, which is a great help to us both. The nights are a new experience for us, but we'll get used to it, and then Emily will get to sleeping through them...

So I was going to just tell you that piece of news, but I suppose... I could put some more pictures of Emily up for you to look at.

This is Monday, the day before we left the hospital. Dee is wearing shorts, by the way! But you can see that her legs are not completely red, which is about how they were on Sunday. The rash improves each day!

Emily's first time in a carseat!


On the way home from the hospital, here are the girls holding down the fort in the back seat.

Babies' eyes are funny at first, and this is a picture from Emily's first bath at home that we find particularly amusing.

Pics

We've been very blessed to have family visiting the past few days. Dee's mom and nanny are with us for the next couple of days (they arrived on Emily's birthday afternoon), and my mom and dad came up for the afternoon Friday to see us all in the hospital. Thanks for coming everyone!




And here's my favorite picture yet of Emily...

Update

Things are going well with Emily and Dee. We think they'll be coming home Monday. Dee has a bit of a rash that the doctors/nurses are trying to get under control before she goes (they think she's allergic to the bed linens, so they have "burn linens" on her bed now, which are sterilized to protect people who have very sensitive skin. We didn't know Dee's skin was that sensitive.

I've been staying in the hospital with them, but will have my first night apart from my girls (Dee loves it when I call them that!) tonight, so that I can preach tomorrow morning and show some pictures around to the people at church.

Pictures

Emily

Hi everybody! I had a great post all ready to go this morning at the library, and of course, my luck, after I got the pictures uploaded, blogger disappeared for a bit and I couldn't publish the post.

So for those of you who would love to hear the official word, Emily Dee Kohler was born yesterday at 10:51 am, after a relatively quick (but not painless) 7 hours of active labour. We got to the hospital at 2:30, but things really got going at 4. The pain was pretty bad (judging from the perspective of watching my wife go through it - I can't imagine what it felt like), but Dee was awesome. I have whole new appreciation mothers, and specifically of Emily's mother, after yesterday's adventure.

Mom and baby are doing great. The numbers:

Emily Dee Kohler
born April 19, 2007, 10:51 am
Weight: 8 lbs. 5 oz.
Length: 20 3/4 inches
Time of arrival: 4 days early

Thanks for your prayers, support, and excitement, everyone!

The Case of the Itchy Belly

So it turns out that the itchy belly I have is not just from stretch marks, but rather a pregnancy rash that occurs in less than 1% of prego women, where your skin actually has an allergic reaction to the stretch marks and causes a rash inside the stretch marks. Weird, eh? The major symptoms are the red inflammation (your skin feels like a mountain range), extreme itchiness and not being able to sleep (you can imagine). So anyways, Scott and I found this on the internet yesterday and I was in so much discomfort that we went to the local clinic and waited 2 hours to see the doctor at the end of his shift. My shirt was up above my belly the whole time at the clinic b/c anything touching my tummy would irritate it...it made me think about how in labour you just don't care about being exposed you are so concerned with other things- this was like a mini practice. ANyways, thank the Lord, he was able to give me some steriod cream that allowed me to sleep all thru the night!! Yeah! If you want to find out more about this interesting condition, check out www.babycentre.com and the name of it is PUPPP (it's a really, really long name). Ok bye for now, thanks for everyone's encouraging words and prayers!

New Belly Pics at 39 Weeks!

Not much to say other than we are waiting with great anticipation and if any mamas have advice on dealing with an itchy abdomen, please let me know!! One week til due date!
Also- a HUGE congratulations to Matt and Christine on their new bebe girl- Sarah. She is so beautiful and we wish we were close to visit them. Happy Birthday, Sarah!! You're gonna love being a part of your family:)

Oh she smiles, but sometimes she gets impatient with the pregnancy...:):)

"When is this baby coming?? And how much bigger can I get?"

New Scrap Pages-Europe '01

Hello everyone! We are anxiously expecting baby anytime now- but meanwhile please pray for us as we deal with numerous non-descript aches and pains, akwardness and irritability...:) Other than that I am feeling pretty good and the doctor today said I'm more effaced than last time, so that means things ARE progressing, no matter how slowly:)

Here are some scrap pages I've recently finished, hope you enjoy them!:

"Larger than life"- visiting different structures in Rome


I love Bubbled letters and if you have black stickers,
just make them "bubbled" by putting
a clear page pebble over the sticker

I really went crazy with my embossing pen and white embossing powder on this page, but I like it, and Miranda and I thought this color combo worked and I think it does, so yeah! All the dots are just done by freestyle, and the title is Heidi rub-ons in white.

Sorry so blurry, I got this 3 in one idea from Miranda!

All the writing is done by hand with my embossing pen and powder- it was fun to see my own writing turn into white shiny letters!

Stamps and handwriting for this one, and a pop dot to raise it up (the edges are also clear inked and then white embossed).

PS- If anyone knows my lovely sister, Tara, and wants to see her strutt her stuff salsa dancing, check out this website!:
http://www.salsavancouver.net/photos/
20070401heritagehall/20070401heritagehall.html

(She's in any of the posts that say "tara" and also in the "footwork" posts, they are short video files so give each one a minute or two to download:).

Danielle's Visit!

So, Danielle came up on Wednesday to visit me from Cape Breton for a couple of days!!...While I still have the belly! (She's 4 months prego, but I'm much larger as you can see....:) We had a great time and I'm soo glad she was able to come...I know she missed the Rickster and Elliot, but I was so thankful she could come for a visit!! It's always awesome just to have down time together and catch up and just chat. Miranda came over on Thurs. and the 3 of us put together our new Bassinet which is SO cute!! Now I feel a lot more ready for baby to come- it's a big job to put that thing together- thanks girls! We also watched a very cute movie called "Someone Like You", thanks to Miranda's extensive chick-flick collection:). Anyways, we had an awesome time, and hopefully we'll be able to visit Danielle and fam up in CB sometime after the baby is born! We love you guys!
Here are some pics (Miranda has the ones of us setting up the bassinet- but here it is all put together):

Chillin' on the Couch

Danielle, once she'd been introduced to Facebook:)

Danielle, Master Hairstylist/Straightener, and Dee, Carrier of an Almost-done Baby

Us with Straight Hair

We had a hard time getting a decent picture- it was pretty funny:)

TA-DA! The Bassinet (thank you, Nanny!)

Cute mobile toys...this thing even has a remote control-
for music and lights and stuff!
We feel so blessed!