Bill & Sandi Tepper were expecting their first child on or about September 12, 2002.
Well, Emma had other plans and arrived a few days late, on September 17, 2002, at 10:48 PM. The "Labor Story" will be on this other page - so you can go there if interested. Emma was 21" long and weighed 8 pounds and 5 ounces when she was born. And she was instantly alert and aware of every move made around her!
[4 Weeks] [5 Weeks] [7 Weeks - Ultrasound picture!] [11 Weeks - Ultrasound picture!] [16 Weeks] [20 Weeks - Ultrasound pictures!] [24 Weeks] [28 Weeks] [32 Weeks] [36 Weeks] [38 Weeks] [40 Weeks] [41 Weeks]
Emma is here!!!! We went in for the ultrasound on the 16th and the lady
estimated her weight to be 9.5 pounds! YIKES!! (With a 1 pound swing either
way.)
Ruth
(my midwife) asked if I wanted to go ahead and be induced or just
wait. When I turned to Bill, his response was "She isn't going to get any
smaller!" So
Ruth
set up for us to go to
Northside Hospital
Monday night. I
called
Mama and Daddy
to let them know and they headed over this way. Bill
called
Mom and Pop
and they said they'd come over as soon as they could.
We had to wait until evening to find out when to go to the hospital - not until 10PM! By then Mama, Daddy & Grandma Pell had arrived and spent a little while with us. Before they came, Bill & I made a video greeting to Emma letting her know how excited we were to meet her! I'll put the detailed version of the "Labor Story" on this page. Here's the abridged version: I got one drug over night to soften me up for the induction and that one actually started my contractions by 6AM. At 6PM, I received an epidural, then had to get Pitocin because the contractions stopped. At 9:30PM or so, the midwife, doctor, and Bill decided that we should do a C-section. (I had a fever and Emma's heart rate was getting high.) They did all the preparations (to me and Bill) and delivered Emma at 10:48PM. Bill got to spend a lot of time with Emma while I was being sewn up and recovering. We got into our room at about 2AM and Emma was waiting to be fed!
The folks at Northside were great! But,contrary to what people may tell you, you don't get any rest in the hospital! We actually went home a day earlier than we could have because every time I'd get to sleep - someone would come in to take blood or change a dressing or give me drugs. Didn't matter what time of the day or night, either! Back to top of page.
No pictures this time, either. No baby, too. We went for a check on Emma's due date but no luck. I've gone several times recently and have been dilated 1 cm for a week or so, but no progress other than that. Emma is perfectly healthy and happy I suppose. So we wait some more. We come back on Monday Sept. 16 for an ultrasound if Emma is not here by then. Let's hope she decides to make an appearance over the weekend - at least we wouldn't have the GA400 traffic!!
Back to top of page.No pictures this time. We are progressing at textbook pace it seems! The midwife is happy with how Emma is growing (37 cm) and my blood pressure remains low. So now we wait. Well, we wait and we have "practice" contractions, which feel annoyingly like they could be the real thing!
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And I thought I was big at 20 weeks ! Yikes! Here we are (actually these pictures are from 37 weeks) having gained 42 pounds! You can really see that tummy poking out! I keep telling myself "It's just because Emma is growing and healthy!" But I can't wait to be shed of all these extra pounds!
Another two appointments down! Both of them were very short, though. Emma is growing just on schedule and her heart rate is doing good, too. I had another test - Group B Strep - for a bacteria that can infect the baby and cause meningitis among other things. Blessedly, it came back negative, so I won't have to get antibiotics during the delivery. Ruth estimated Emma's weight at around 5 pounds.
We finally got our baby furniture in the mail! It is just beautiful!! We bought it on-line from Forever Mine . If you are ever in the market for nursery furniture I highly recommend them. We bought the convertible crib so that she'll have this same bed her whole life. We spent a lot of time getting her room put together and decorated. Here's a link to some pictures.
We also had three more baby showers! Nancy had one for us at her house on August 3. There were a lot of the ladies from our old church and several from Winnie's work. It was a lot of fun. We received three home-made quilts for Emma - one made of squares that her great-grandmother Bertie made. I cried a lot at this shower - it was just so touching!
We had another shower at my office on August 9. Bill couldn't make it unfortunately - but most of the folks I work with were present. They were very generous and sweet! I hope to get a few pictures from one of the ladies and I'll post them.
The third shower was with the ladies from Sunday School . It was today (8/15) at On The Border in Alpharetta . Misty came up with Rachel Kate and David Patrick. We had a wonderful time. I'll try to get some pictures up from it, as well.
Like I said before, Emma is truly blessed to be born into such a wonderful family and extended family of friends.I don't think Bill and I could have made it this far without them!
Back to top of page.Wow! A lot of things have happened in the last month! My friend Misty (see her picture below at 28 weeks ) had her baby on July 2! We helped welcome little David Patrick Riordan in to the world! He has the same bright red hair as his sister even though both of their parents are blond. Go figure! Its makes me wonder what Emma will look like when she is born.
On July 3rd, we celebrated Bill's birthday.
This is a picture of us before we
went out. We ate at
Fogo de Chao
in Buckhead. We highly recommend it but bring your meat-eating pants with
you! It's a lot of food and a lot of meat!
We've had two appointments since my last update. At the one on June 5th, I was worried because I hadn't been feeling Emma move for the past couple days. It's amazing how used to it you get and you miss it immediately! They did a test at the office, though, and said she's just fine. She did start moving again pretty strongly so I feel better! At our next appointment on 7/19, everything was fine. She measured 32 cm and her heart rate was 140. My blood pressure is staying low, which is very good. And my weight gain rate has slowed, which is also good!
We also had our first baby shower for Emma! It was at Mamma Tessa and Daddy Ray's house and was all of my female relatives - about 30 to 35 people! And my Aunt Sheila and Uncle Don came up from Louisiana for it - that was truly a blessing! (They just became grandparents for the first time in June when my cousin Robby and his wife Lisa welcomed little Chloe into their lives!) We had a wonderful time and everyone was so generous to us! Our little Emma is lucky to be born into such a great family!
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I had my glucose tolerance test at this appointment (it came back normal!), which is basically drinking a bad orange soda and drawing blood an hour later. Emma measured 27 cm and her heart rate was 148 - all perfectly normal.I have been having some contractions where my uterus just bunches up really hard then releases slowly. They don't hurt at all, but it is weird. But also normal according to my midwife. I start going to the doctor every 2 weeks now.
We did our gift registry at Babies R Us on 6/3/02. It was a bit overwhelming to go in there - there's just so much stuff that you've never seen before! On 6/7 Emma got the hiccups for the first time! THAT is a very funny feeling! But it is just one more reminder of how alive she already is in there!
We officially stared the third trimester back around the 13th of June! In the home stretch! Emma is moving a lot every day now but no hard kicks or punches. Bill says she is just a very sweet baby! I still feel great. I am starting to get just a little bit of swelling in my feet and ankles if I'm standing for too long. This picture was taken on June 2. Misty is exactly a month away from delivering at this point - and I am only at 26 weeks. Why is it that I look more pregnant than she does!?
Back to top of page.This appointment was short and sweet. I did meet another of the midwives today - Ginny. She's seems just as nice as all the others. We took a measurement of the "fundal height" and it was 25 cm. It is supposed to be equal to the number of weeks pregnant I am, so that is about right. Emma's heartbeat is between 146 and 150 beats per minute right now. It seems really fast, but it will slow down as she gets closer to being born.
Bill was able to feel Emma move for the first time on May 15! It was pretty cool! We were laying in bed with his hand on my tummy and he felt two distinct thumps. I've actually been able to see my tummy bump up - that is really weird!
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Here we are at 20 weeks pregnant.
Bill took this picture in our kitchen
right before we left for the doctor's office. Even with 20 extra pounds, I
wanted to have a picture of us from the outside since I knew we would have
pictures of the baby on the inside later today!
This was by far the coolest appointment!!! Nothing can compare with being able
to see your baby moving and to see that all of her little internal organs and
external parts are right where they should be! We saw her brain, her heart,
her kidneys (Well we didn't really SEE her kidneys - we are just taking the
sonographer's word for those.)
We also saw all 4 chambers of her heart WORKING! You can even see the valves
opening and closing as it beats. We saw her open her mouth and stick out her
tongue! We saw her swallowing amniotic fluid. She is 13 ounces and about 6
inches from head to rump.
And, oh yeah! We saw that she is a girl! There wasn't much mistaking it,
either!As you can see, we are going to name her Emma Elizabeth - and call her
Emma. Both are family names on
Bill's
side. If you click on the picture to the right, you'll pull up the other
stills we got from the ultrasound. We also have a video tape of part of the
exam but that's a little tough to get on the web site. You'll have to wait
until we come see you ;-)
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Well, no ultrasound this time. I guess it was pretty unusual to have 2
already anyway. We went for our 16 week check-up on 3/28 and heard the baby's
heartbeat for the first time!! It was so COOL!! It sounded like a little pony
running on a concrete surface. Bill almost didn't come with me to this
appointment - boy is he glad he did now! The baby seems to be very healthy -
the heartbeat was between 151 and 159 beats/minute. I guess that's normal
because the nurse said it was fine. So far I feel great still. I feel a little
fat having gained 12 pounds already, but other than that - I feel great.
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This was definitely a COOL appointment!!We actually watched the baby move
around inside me! (S)He was stretching and turning and just generally
being uncooperative for the sonographer. But the heartbeat was strong and
(s)he obviously already has ideas about how things should be going! Everyone
is healthy and happy and that's such a blessing!
Yes, that is our little baby's face that you see in the center of the picture!
At this point, the baby has limbs and most major organs have formed. We could
see the arms and legs during the ultrasound, although you can't really in the
picture. We also saw the spinal column just plain as day. I don't know about
you, but that looks like a big ol' head already! But the baby is only 2.25"
long in this picture, so I guess I shouldn't complain yet!!!
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Our first doctor's appointment was on January 31. We are using
Northside Women's Specialists
. Everything went well and I really liked the midwife,
Laura, who will be
overseeing my pregnancy. She was very helpful and knowledgeable. We will see
her and the other midwives as the pregnancy progresses. So far we have this
one picture from our ultrasound at that appointment.
The baby is the oval-shaped blob within the black "triangular" region. At 1.5
cm (0.5") long, the baby did not yet have arms or legs or anything. But it
was still the coolest thing ever to see the heart beating in the middle of the
ultrasound screen!
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A week later, Sandi's best friend Misty and her husband David came over to
help us celebrate. Misty & David are expecting their second child in July!
Here are Misty & Sandi on January 18 - Sandi is the 5 weeks pregnant one on
the left and Misty is the 14 weeks pregnant one on the right. Yes, Misty
really
is that much more pregnant than Sandi - she is just such a tiny person!
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We found out for sure on January 10 that we were pregnant. (After one negative
test on 12/31/2001,one failed test on 1/7/2002, and one sorta positive test on
1/8/2002! Yes, I am a tad anal about these things!) We spent most of the next
day (Saturday) calling the family members to let them know. And, as you can
see, we have a big family (
Sandi's tree
-
Bill's tree
)!
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I'll do my best to keep this updated as we progress. So far, so good. The Lord has blessed me with no morning sickness (so far) and I'm feeling really good. Hopefully, that means the baby feels good as well!
See You Soon!!
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