Happy Halloween!!

Love, The Welkers

True Blue

Introducing the newest Cougar fan.....

She was really excited about the game as you can tell..... 

Our official BYU game watching buddies :) 

Our Cougar family on Game Day

GO COUGARS!!!!

Two weeks

Emery at two weeks:

Weight: 7 pounds 15 ounces- 36th percentile

Height: 19.75 inches- 28th percentile

Head Circumference: 13.5 inches- 12th percentile

She truly is her father's daughter...short, skinny, and a small head :) I guess I contributed to the short part too.

She is still in newborn clothes, which I thought she would've grown out of by now! Her newborn pants will fit her for a long time, they are all HUGE on her! Her onesies, we'll probably get another week or two out of, we'll see. 

She loves to eat...when she gets hungry, you know it, and you better get her food fast! -probably gets that from her mama :)

She is a total morning person she never wakes up crying, just babbling and cooing and smiley until we get up and pick her up. THEN she starts crying, just enough to let you know she is ready to eat!

We're still working on the whole pacifier thing...it's hit and miss. She LOVES to eat, and she doesn't like that it doesn't feed her. 

She loves to be cuddled, day or night, which we are happy to do. I hope she never grows out of this, we would gladly cuddle and rock her to sleep forever and ever! She loves to cuddle up on your chest and just look around, and usually eventually fall asleep. It makes it difficult to get anything done, but it's worth it.

 Now I know where Emery gets her sleeping with her hands above her head from

I can't believe how strong her neck is, she can hold her head up on her own for quite a while, I think having such a small head helps :)

I can't believe how much she has grown already! We love our little munchkin!! 

Tub Time

Emery had her first bath last night! Her cord finally fell off on Tuesday night, then Wednesday the doctor put some special stuff on it to help dry it out, then Thursday night we were finally able to give her a full on bath. It has some bruising around it still, but overall looks pretty good. To say she liked her bath would be an understatement. She LOVED it. She was so happy the whole time. After a while we finally just took her out, she cried for like an hour after. We now know our official go-to if she is in a bad mood.

Our Cute Girl

She is starting to like her swing a little more...still prefers to be held by us though!

The other day she started making the funniest faces when Jake put her in her car seat, we couldn't stop laughing!

Just spendin' the day hanging out with Mom and Dad

 We love weekends when Daddy is finally home!

Emery loves her naps

So precious. 

 haha, I LOVE the faces that she makes.

 The weather last weekend was so perfect! On Sunday we decided to take Emery for her first walk, she slept through the whole thing :)

 after our walk we Skype'd with Jake's dad and this is how Emery was sleeping while we talked, haha. Not sure how this was comfortable.

 Emery loves when Uncle Chance and Aunt Anna come visit!

Just looking through the camping gear ads with Dad

We love our smiley little girl so much!!

1 week

Emery is one week old! Actually it was yesterday but her 1 week doctor appointment wasn't until today so I wanted to wait to get her "stats" before blogging about it. I print out my blog so this is my journaling so sorry if I bore you with thousands of pictures and details, I just want to keep track of every minute! We have absolutely loved having her home. We have so much fun just watching her look around discovering things, doing tummy time, everything! 

Emery at 1 week is

 7 lbs 10 oz-39th percentile

19.5 inches

still perfectly healthy!

A few facts about Emery.

4 days old:

-She loves to be naked! If she is sad I just strip her and put her on her changing table. It has a chemise cover from Pottery Barn that is SO soft she loves it. She will just sit there and look around, perfectly happy.

-She is starting to recognize Jake and I. If I put her somewhere and start talking she will instantly turn to look at me and she is getting better at focusing on our faces. She will just stare and stare, I love it.

-She loves her sleep! She usually only wakes up once a night between 4:30-5:30, stays up for an hour eating, then goes back to sleep until 9-10. It is great.

-She loves to cuddle...or at least know I am nearby. I will set her down and leave the room and she starts to whimper. Makes it really difficult to get anything done! I have learned though if I leave I can talk to her and she is ok hearing my voice.

-She loves having her diaper changed...weird I know, but if she is crying she will stop. Not sure if it is because of the soft changing table cover, or losing the diaper, but she loves it. 

-She eats SO much. Really for such a little girl, I don't know where it goes. 

5 days old:

Things Jake and I have learned since Emery came into our lives

-No amount of planning will ever ensure that you are on time. If you need to be somewhere by 2, start getting ready as soon as you get up! You never know when you'll have time again.

 Big yawn!

- We never realized how hard it would be to keep up on our relationship...even with just one little newborn it is still hard to find time for us. 

-I never thought it was possible for me to be more of a worrier than I was with just Jake! I wake up multiple times a night just to make sure she is still breathing...I get scared riding in the front seat in the car because i can't check on her every second. It is ridiculous really.

Emery's first "sponge" bath

-Jake says, "Bringing a baby into the world is more hectic than my worst finals week, but a lot more rewarding."

And he's right. We love this little girl!

Emery's Birth Story

Well Emery is FINALLY here! I never thought that this day would come, but am so glad that it did. Nothing went according to "planned" but it all went perfectly and we ended up with a perfectly healthy little girl! So here is Emery's story...it all started about 2 weeks ago now when I went to my 39 week appointment, for some reason that week I started measuring big which concerned my doctor, also when he did my check I was still dilated to a 1, 75% effaced, and at a -2, which I had been for 3 weeks already. He wasn't so much concerned about the dialation and effacement, mostly just that she was still at a -2 and not dropping! He mentioned that due to about 3-4 different factors if nothing changed, and depending on a ultrasound that he wanted to get, we might need to do a C-Section. I couldn't believe it. I cried the whole way home, Jake didn't go to the rest of his classes that day and I just came home and cried and prayed to know what we should do. My whole pregnancy had been perfect, no problems, we had planned a normal birth without even so much as an epidural, so to be told that I may have to have a C-Section was a complete shock and opposite from what we had been planning! So we waited anxiously for the ultrasound on Thursday to see what it said. We went and she was still looking great, but there were a couple concerning things, I had A LOT of extra fluid, a normal AFI is 5-25 cm, I was at 27 (hence the measuring big) And she still wasn't dropping at all. After the ultrasound they called my doctor, told him what they found and he asked to talk to me. He told me that with that much fluid, and her not dropping I was at a high risk of if my water were to break the umbilical cord could very easily slip down under her head getting compressed and causing her to not get any oxygen. At this point we would have to get to the hospital immediately and have an emergency C-section. But a baby not getting oxygen for that long could still be fatal. The ultrasound also said that she weighed about 9lbs 8oz, the doctor wasn't sure that this was true exactly, but if she were that big, he was worried that maybe she wasn't dropping because she couldn't, he was worried her shoulders would get stuck and end up with shoulder distocia. He said that he highly recommended doing the C-section, but I needed to make the decision. He wanted to do it that Saturday morning. He told me to talk to Jake and make a decision and call him back in the morning. We went home and continued praying and praying like we had all week to decide what we should do. We couldn't really make a decision still, we didn't feel good about doing the C-section yet, but also didn't feel like labor was going to be good either. We called him back and told him we didn't want to do it on Saturday. He said that was ok as long as I came to an appointment on Monday and we could see if anything had changed and would need to make a final decision at that point. So we did. I continued to walk and walk and walk. We prayed so much that weekend to know what to do. I had been having a lot of contractions all week, some even were pretty painful and I wondered if they were real but they never went anywhere. I was hoping that these contractions would move her down and we wouldn't need to worry about the cord compression and we wouldn't have to worry anymore. But no luck. We went to our appointment Monday morning and once again no change. 1cm, 75% effaced, and -2, like I had been since 36 weeks! I was so upset! Dr. Nance at that point said we really need to get this baby out, nothing is progressing and I am really worried. Jake and I knew that the C-section was what we needed to do, we both felt so at peace with the decision and I didn't even cry! (big feat for this pregnant girl in the last 2 weeks of pregnancy...) We told him that we agreed and he left to go call the hospital. He scheduled us for first thing Wednesday morning. I was terrified. I knew without a doubt this was how our baby was supposed to get here, but I have never so much as stayed a few hours in a hospital or taken any medication stronger than a Ibuprofen! And here I was going in for a major abdominal surgery, going to need an epidural, and about a million other medications! At that point my only tears just came from being so nervous! But neither Jake or I could deny how peaceful and right the decision we had made felt. So we went through Monday, it drug on...Tuesday drug on even more, I couldn't believe this day was finally coming! Finally it was Wednesday morning! Dr. Nance wanted to start by 7:30 so we had to be there by 5:30. I couldn't sleep anyway and was up by 2 am...Jake got up about 4:30 and we got there at 5:30 got checked into our room and it began! I got 2 liters of fluid, antibiotics, and then the anesthesiologist came in and did the epidural. (Which I never want to have another one of again!) But he was SO great, I could not have had a better anesthesiologist. He talked me through everything through the whole epidural and the whole surgery. He just kept asking "Ok dear how are you now, how do you feel". At about 7:15 Dr. Nance came in to check on me see how we were doing and if we were ready. We were so nervous! Jake just kept looking at me and saying "We're going to be parents! I can't believe it!" At 7:30 on the dot they rolled me into the ER. About 5 minutes before that was when it started to get bad, I got really sick. I was really nauseated and freezing cold, I was shaking pretty much uncontrollably. They got me in there and put me on the table and it was freezing in that room! They strapped my arms down and I just started throwing up everywhere...Jake was holding the bag next to my head, but I was numb from the chest down, and my arms were strapped down! I could only move my head. It was miserable, but after a few minutes I started feeling better, just freezing still...they put up the curtain and put this warmer thing on my upper chest that really helped. And they started! It was the weirdest feeling I have ever experienced, no pain just pulling and pressure, so weird. This was when the anesthesiologist was a life saver he talked me through everything! Ok now you're going to feel pressure here, pulling here, then he said ok it's almost baby time! He pulled down the curtain for Jake and I to look and see and then said you're going to feel a lot of pushing up at the top of your abdomen and out she came! Oh my goodness she was so beautiful I couldn't believe it. And so loud! It was the most amazing sound I have ever heard, she came out screaming. Dr. Nance held her up and showed her to me while Dr. Dayton kept going in the surgery then the nurses took her to get cleaned up and Jake left and went with. I could just hear her screaming and screaming. After a few minutes Jake came back around the curtain holding her and just kept saying "She is so beautiful, I can't believe it, I can't believe how beautiful she is, She is so beautiful" over and over. It was so cute. He is SO in love with her. He still says it all the time. Every time he looks at her pretty much. And she is...

From the second she was delivered she was screaming at the top of her lungs. She has a very healthy set of lungs! She screamed and screamed the whole time they were cleaning her I could hear her. She stopped once Jake was holding her and brought her to me. 

8 lbs 2 oz

3683 grams

Daddy holding her for the first time. 

Jake bringing her to me.  

Our first family picture. 

Oh I love this little girl! I could not believe how beautiful she was and how much I could love her within her first 2 minutes of being alive!

After I we all spent a few minutes together they said it was time to go and Jake went with them to take her to the nursery. My mom was waiting in my room and went down with them. I stayed to get stitched up :) They finished stitching me up and Dr. Nance came around to talk to me. For anyone looking for an OB this is your guy, he so wonderful. He is a long time friend of my grandmas, he delivered me when I was born! And most all of my cousins, and my little brother. He is wonderful. Not only is he a great doctor though, but a very humble and spiritual one. He came around and said, Well she wasn't near as big as the ultrasound said, but once we got in there your uterus was not ready at all to give birth it was still thick and not thinning at all. He said I just want you know that I know we made the right decision, he said I prayed about this alot and I really felt inspired to do this C-section. At that point I knew even more so that I had before that we had made the right choice in getting her here. I don't know what would have happened had we not, but I don't care! Once you have your little baby in your arms it doesn't matter how they got here, just that they got here safely!

They took me back to the recovery room and promised to get me to my baby as soon as I was stable enough to go! I did really well recovering, no problems at all, I was just so cold I was so wrapped up in warm blankets and was shaking uncontrollably still! And I was exhausted...I have never in my life been more exhausted that I was that day....My mom had come back up to my room and was there with me. After a while Jake came back up to see how I was and get ready to come downstairs with me. He said that on his way up he had run into Dr. Nance who stopped him and told him basically what he had told me after the delivery and that he felt really good about our decision too. He told about how perfect our little girl was and she was just down on the warmer waiting for me to come! I couldn't wait! They packed up my stuff, got me down to my new room and brought her in! It was honestly the most exhausting day of my life, I could not keep my eyes open, I would fall asleep just talking to people! But it was the best day too, there is nothing better than having a baby, or seeing the love of your life with his new baby girl. There aren't words. Jake is so in love with her, I've been replaced! haha not really, but he is head over heels for that little girl and I wouldn't have it any other way! Life is perfect right now. 

This is Jake's favorite picture because it shows her chunky legs! I love her little rolls, so freaken cute! She does this little move with her legs all the time. (She did it all the time before she was born too believe me :))

 After her first bath. So beautiful. 

Jake bringing her to me for the first time. I was so happy to finally see her again. She was even more beautiful now she was all cleaned up and sleeping perfectly. I couldn't believe she was here and she was mine!

Love my baby girl. 

Grandma Kilmer holding her for the first time.

Proud daddy. He can't stop looking at her and talking to her. 

Love those little baby toes!

and her tiny ears. 

I'm obsessed. 

Our cute new little family

Great-Grandma Kilmer

She's the first Great-Grandchild!

Aunt Shay

She has such beautiful eyes, I cannot wait to see what color they will end up being. Most likely brown, but we'll see. They are going to be so pretty!

 1 day old.

Daddy wanted to get her all dressed up.  He did a good job, until she pooped all over it. haha. Oh well it was cute for like 3 hours. 

The finished product

We had so many wonderful friends and family come and visit us! Aunt, Uncles, Cousins, Grandma's, Grandpa's, and lots of friends! Thank you everyone who came and saw us, we appreciate it so much.
Emery has so many people who love her!

2 days old. 

I love love this picture haha! It shows perfectly how big and beautiful her eyes are! She just looks around with those big eyes and I cannot get enough of it! 

3 days old.

Just getting ready to leave the hospital.

All ready to go home. She is so tiny in her little car seat. 

She did so well in the hospital, got her shots, got her blood drawn, all with no crying! It is amazing! She has lost some weight, she was down to 7lbs 9 oz last check, but that is pretty normal. And she is eating so well she will gain it back soon! You'd never notice she lost it with those adorable chubby cheeks! I love those things! My recovery is going well. There is A LOT of pain and I can't do a lot of things, but Jake has been amazing. The incision is healing well, I get around ok, it takes me longer than most and I need help sometimes but in time I will be good as new! 

We ended the day by cheering on the Cougars to a win! Emery is a big fan already... :)

Most of all I just love waking up everyday knowing that I am her mommy. It is crazy I wake up just like everyday and then I remember that I have her or I look over and see her and I instantly just get so happy inside knowing that she is here and she is ours and we are her parents! I love being a mom so much. It makes me so happy when I talk and she will look towards my voice, or when she is crying and someone hands her to me and she instantly stops. Being a mom is the greatest thing I could ask for, and I wouldn't want to be a parent with anyone but Jake! He has been the BEST daddy in the whole world to Emery, and the best husband to me. He waits on me hand and foot, I can't do a lot right now still and he is constantly running around getting me anything he might think I will need. I am so grateful for him! My family has also been SO awesome! Everyone came to the hospital to see us, my mom has been driving back and forth, and stayed the weekend with us. Cooking, cleaning, taking Emery so I could sleep, changing her, everything. She has been a LIFESAVER! My grandma is all ready to help this weekend when my mom and dad are out of town. We are so grateful for all the help, love, and support we have received from all of our family and friends! We couldn't do it without you and are so grateful that you are the people that are going to be helping us raise our beautiful daughter!