Now that's what I call holding my baby

Hooray! Today I finally got to hold Emma - actually hold her in my arms, against my chest. I, of course, started crying, and it was just amazing. She was a little fussy this afternoon, we think because she had another case of extreme boredom and maybe a little bit of hunger. It definitely wasn't time for her to eat yet, so we put her on her back, and I rocked her in my arms. She and I were both so happy!

I won't go into details about her incision because it could get kinda gross. But I will say that Dr. Troup wasn't concerned about the consistency of it changing since we've been putting her on her back some. I, personally, am concerned that where it once was level with the rest of her skin, there's now kind of a hole there. It just makes me nervous to be moving her around!! I know that most first-time parents are scared they're going to break their kid, but once all this heals on Emma and we're past the shunt surgery, it's all downhill for us. We'll be able to move, feed, and change her like champs after all this. Dr. Troup didn't even feel for the fluid on her brain because it wasn't going to change his assessment of when to shunt her. One thing broke my heart a little for the first time today: you can kinda tell that she has extra fluid on her brain just by looking at her. So please, please pray that she'll have this surgery on Tuesday before it gets any worse by waiting until Thursday to do it. Emary still isn't showing symptoms of fluid on her brain - she's still eating like crazy, right on schedule; her breathing and heart rate are fine as well.

Russell and I had a visitor today during our dinner break at home. Lola, our dog (and really our first child), has been staying at my parents' house for the last 2 weeks. Staying at my parents' house is like Doggie Disneyworld for her. My dad brought her to visit us tonight, and it was absolutely wonderful! We loved on her for an hour or so, and when my dad got up to leave and take her back to their house, Lola ran down the stairs and never looked back. So much for missing Mom and Dad. Here's a cute picture of Lola and her daddy snuggling...we miss her so much.



Our nephew, Mason, went home from the hospital today, and they still don't know why he had seizures yesterday. So we're praying it never, ever happens again!

This pic of the day is what Emma looked like when Russell and I walked in this morning. She managed to get her giant hat over her eyes and was perfectly content sleeping like this. That's really all for today - probably more uneventful since it was a Saturday, but oh, what a nice Saturday it was to just relax with Russell in our baby's room.