One Month Stats

It's hard to believe our sweet baby girl is one month old already! She had her one month checkup on Momday, the 21st, which was one month to the day.  She has already brought us such joy and we are totally in love.  Emily, I pray that you will always know how much you are loved and valued.  You are one God's greatest gifts to us and we will forever be thankful that he made you a part of the Duncan family! 

Sidenote: the pictures aren't great quality because they were taken with Kirk's iPod.  My camera has been misplaced by a certain young someone...I won't name names, ahem, Leah.  She has a tendency to hide things.  I'm sure it will turn up at some point!

You weighed in at 8 lbs, 4oz (25th percentile).  I knew you were feeling heavier, but I am totally impressed you gained over a pound since your last checkup 2 weeks ago!

I know, growing is hard work.  Big yawn!

Your tiny little head was just 13.25 cm, hardly even making the charts at the 2nd percentile.

You are 21 inches long, putting you right in the middle of the pack at the 50th percentile.

Percentiles really mean nothing to us, because to us, you are competely and utterly perfect!

3 Unique Looks

I was looking back at some old pictures today to compare my kids at one month of age.  I just do not think these 3 look alike at all! What do you think?

Emily

Leah

Elijah

The siblings

It is so easy to take pics of a newborn, that I've been kind of forgetting to take pictures of the other two. I snapped a few today.  Again, not the best quality because of the iPod, but these kids are stinkin adorable.

The Big Sis

For some reason lately, her favorite hang out spot is in this stroller (which is just sitting in the middle of the room...no one is getting ready to take her for a walk or anything).

A friend of ours gave us a bag of dress up clothes today for the kids (thanks, Monica!).  It was mostly princess dresses and such for Leah, but this Buzz Lightyear costume may have been the highlight in the house today. Elijah wore it for approximately 5 hours straight (minus the 4 times he had to go to the bathroom and we had to take the whole thing off).

One happy little boy!

Mom's Camera/ Easter pics

 I know it has been a long time since Easter, and I already posted pictures from my camera, but I just got a few more downloaded on to my computer from my mom's camera and they are cuter than mine, so I decided to post them.  All the posts below are pics from my mom's camera too. Looking back, it's crazy that we were a family of 4 then.  It's already hard to remember what that was like!

Sweet Leah girl.

Duncans, pre-Emily.

Love my family!

More cousin pics!

Norah, Charlie, and Leah all in their chairs, enjoying some good cartoon entertainment.

Campbell absolutely loves baby Emily.

Norah playing ball.  I just love the little curl on the side of her head.

I bought the bow before Emily was born because I thought the color was just gorgeous.  It is gigantic...as in, bigger than her head.  I put it on her just to see and we all laughed at how big it is.  But I actually still really like it, even though the size is a bit absurd :).

I think she likes it too :).

These are just too cute.

My mom snapped these pictures of Emily the other night when she was just wide awake and making some great faces! Here's a little wink for the camera.

She just is looking older and older every day :(.

Beautiful.  And I am not biased. At all.

My mom also snapped these when these 4 cousins were watching Sesame Street together.

Best buds.

It is rare for Leah to sit for a video. It is even more rare for her to snuggle up close to Charlie! 

Cousins

My sister Rachel and niece Norah came out for a visit during Emily's first week and I am just now getting around to posting these pictures.  Rachel was a huge help because she came on Kirk's first day back to work (after just 2 days off!) and helped me keep the kiddos in line.  Jessica came over with her 2 kids for a little while too and we had a full house of kids! We of course had to take a picture of all 6 cousins, which is always a task and these pictures make me laugh every time I look at them! 

This is actually quite good.  No one is crying and everyone is sitting upright. Victory!

And, it's falling apart.

A visit from 2 sweet girls

Last week, I was so happy to get a visit from one of my best friends Lauren and her sweet daughter, Paisley. One of the perks of being back in PA is I am less than 2 hours from her! I have met Paisley only once, when she was a mere 3 days old and I was AMAZED by how much she has grown in 2 short months.  It will be fun to have these 2 girls so close in age and I am hoping for many play dates in the future.  Lauren, thanks again for making the trip.  You are such a wonderful friend and I can tell that you are a great mom already! 

Lauren and Emily getting acquainted :).

 Friends already.

A weekend with the Duncans

This weekend, a good portion of the Duncan clan came up to PA from NC to meet the newest little Duncan, Emily :).  We are so thankful they made the long trek up here and still got to see Emily in all of her newborn cuteness glory :).  We really enjoyed our time and I told Kirk when they left their visit went by so fast!  Anyway, here are a few pics of our time together.

Elijah could not have been happier that they stayed in a hotel with an indoor pool.  He was absolutely chomping at the bit to go swimming and we got a taste for how much he will love the water this summer!

Leah obviously enjoyed swimming too..especially with Grandpa!

Miss Emily and I sat (or slept, as the case may be) on the sidelines.

Elijah loves his Daddy.

The whole clan in the hot tub (the adults much preferred the warm water to the cold pool...unfortunately, the kids only wanted to be in there for short periods of time and preferred to spend most of their time in the big pool!).

Aunt Konni loved holding her little niece. I don't know if you can read Emily's shirt, but it says "My Auntie Rocks" and was a gift from Aunt Katie and Aunt Konni.

The little lady has been a little (or a lot) clingy to her parents recently.  I am pretty sure she is feeling a bit upstaged by our new addition.

Man, this girl is cute.

Elijah roped Grandpa into reading approximately 13 books in a row. Good man.

Grandma with her oldest and youngest grandchild :). Love this one!

All 3 grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa.

And with Aunt Katie and Aunt Konni!

Thanks again for making the trip, Duncans.  You are welcome here anytime! We love you all!

Emily Kendra Duncan is rocking our world!

Whew...what an insane 9 days it has been! We are so thankful and excited to welcome Emily Kendra Duncan to our family.  She made her grand entrance on Saturday, April 21 at 10:57 am, weighing in at 7 lbs, 1oz and measuring 20 inches long.  She was born exactly 3 weeks early and is absolutely precious! 

We, of course, fell in love immediately.

Elijah is a little undecided, but we know he loves her deep down inside :).

Leah is completely smitten with her little sister and wants to hold her constantly.

And Daddy has yet another little girl to spoil and love.

My labor and delivery was smooth and easy overall and we could not have been happier to have her here, as the last several weeks of the pregnancy were quite uncomfortable.  We spent the standard 2 days in the hospital and left without a concern.  They mentioned when we left that her bilirubin level was right on the line, but wasn't enough of a concern for them to treat it right then.  We headed back in to the pediatrician for a check up last Thursday, 3 days after we had been discharged and the DR said she thought Emily looked a little yellow (we agreed). She ordered some blood work, which we did immediately.  We got a phone call just an hour later from our pediatrician saying her bilirubin # was high enough that we needed to pack a bag and head back to the hospital to have her treated.  I was bummed we had to go back, but I knew this was a very treatable thing and we would hopefully be out of there soon.

They treated her with what they called the "triple light system", and she looked (and acted) as chill as can be.  It actually made me want to sunbathe just looking at her.

The goggles took up most of her face.

The DR came into my room on Friday morning and said she had good news and bad news.   The good news is her Bilirubin numbers did exactly what they needed to do, and she was in the range she needed to be.  Praise God! It only took about 18 hrs for her to get those numbers worked out.  The bad news was that overnight, the nurses had noticed that her oxygen level had dropped numerous times, causing periods of apnea (when breathing stops) and she needed to be monitored more closely to determine what was going on.  As a parent, you never want to hear that your baby is having trouble breathing.  The DR ordered what's called a pneumogram, which she would be hooked up to for at least 18 hours to determine the issue.   When they got her all hooked up, she looked like this:

...which broke my heart a little bit.  She was FURIOUS when they put that probe up her nose and down to her esophagus, and I found myself hating the nurses a little bit too (only kidding...the nurses were fabulous...I just hate when my baby screams!). 

After that monitoring, it was determined that she was having a combination of issues.  Central apnea, which is just immaturity in the brain and lungs due to her being 3 weeks early.  Basically, her brain forgets to tell her lungs to breathe.  We are treating this with a small dose of caffeine each day, which gives her brain a jolt and reminds her lungs to do their job.  The other part is obstructive apnea, which is when she is trying to breathe, but something is blocking the airway.  When this happens, if it lasts long enough, Kirk and I have to stimulate her by rubbing her hands or feet until she comes out of it (although 9 times of 10 she gets herself out of it within seconds without needing our help).  The way we know she is experiencing a period of apnea is she's hooked to a monitor and it alarms when her oxygen level dips below a certain point.  We came home around lunch time today, with the monitor in tow, and she has not had a single alarm since we've been home.  We are thankful for that! The first night at the hospital she was alarming several times an hour and by yesterday, she had only had 3 the entire 24 hour period, so she is definitely moving in the right direction! We are expecting to have her on the monitor for the next 4 to 6 weeks.

So, all in all, it had been a crazy 1st 9 days of life for little Emily (and the rest of us!).  However, we are so thankful that the issue is treatable and temporary.  The first night Emily was born, Kirk and I spent some time in prayer for Emily and asked the Lord to keep her in the palm of his hand all the days of her life.  We know that is where she is and she is safer there than anywhere else.  I am so happy to be home with my whole family of 5 and excited to get adjusted to our new normal.  Thank you for all your love, support, prayers, and encouragement since her birth.  We are truly blessed!