Happy Birthday Emma Bailey!

Our little baby Emma was born this morning, July 31st, at about 6:59am. She weights 5lbs 14oz. An oz bigger than Justin when he was born. She is 19 inches long. She has lots of dark hair. I think that she looks like Emily. Emily was in labor for about 12-13 hours. It was a long night. But Emily and Justin worked through the pain, without much complaining.
At about 6:ooam this morning the nurses at Ogden Regional Hospital began to get Emily and her room set up for Emma's birth. Emily's first push was at 6:33am. Emily pushed so well that they called the doctor and said that she was ready. So we all hung out, Emily, Justin, Emily's Mom and Dad, the nurses and myself to wait for the doctor. When he arrived Emily pushed a few more times. The doctor left to check on some patients and Emily continued to push. Everyone is waiting for baby Emma (I hope that Emily doesn't mind this picture. You girls are always so worried about how you look durning labor. You should look tired. Why do you think they call it labor!
A few more minutes went by and they sent for the doctor. He put on his gown and gloves, Emily pushed, and Emma was born. Justin cut the cord and the doctor showed Emma to Emily.
Emma had a bit of trouble staying pink, so they had some nurses from the NICU come and work on her for a bit. She responded well to their treatments and soon was pink and perfect.

Justin put on Emma's first diaper with some help from the nurse and Nana. He had never put a diaper on a baby. I failed in that preparation area. Oh well. He wasn't around a lot of babies when he was older (He was on his mission when Andrew was born, and Summer and her family lived in Salt Lake when Logan was born). The nurse swaddled Emma and handed her to Justin. He held Emma for a minute and then gave her to Emily.First family photos!

Emily's Baby Shower

On Sat. July 26th I hosted a baby shower for Emily and baby Emma (she was a bit shy so she didn't make an appearance at the shower).

We had a veggie tray and a fruit salad for refreshments.

The shower was a diaper theme, with a diaper cake, diaper invitations, and diaper favors with surprise's inside.

This is the finished diaper cake. I also made a table cloth out of four receiving blankets pinned together. The party favors were wash cloth diapers with a chocolate candy bar surprise's inside.

I made a fun diaper cake as my present to Emily. I got the idea first from Amy Snarr (she is married now but some of you may not know her by her married name). One of the hardest part was the shopping. I wanted to pick out things that Emily needed and wanted.
I really didn't have a clue how to go about making a diaper cake, so I turned to http://www.youtube.com/. Of course there were a bunch of women who had video taped themselves making a diaper cake and gave directions as they made the cake. So then it was pretty easy after watching some of those and a lot of fun too!

The first thing that you need to do is roll all of the diapers up and wrap a rubber band around each one.

Then you make groups of seven diapers and wrap a rubber band around that.

Then you keep adding more and more diapers,

till each layer is the size that you want. This cake used a whole bag of size 1 diapers. I think there was 93 diapers in the bag.

Now the fun starts. You can either cover up the rubber bands with ribbon or you can use cute receiving blankets. I got a package of 4 blankets. It took two blankets for the bottom layer and one blanket for each of the other two layers.

Baby bottles and a bottle brush are good items to use to attach the layers to each other. Just push some of the diapers a side and slide the bottle into the bottom layer, then carefully push the next layer onto the bottle. I used a bottle brush to attach the top layer to the bottom two layers. The bottle brush stuck out of the top layer and held the stuffed baby bunny blanket up and gave more height to the cake.

Then start adding all of the items to the cake. I put this big toy on first and ended up taking it off and moving it so that I could add the smaller items.

On the bottom layer I strung cute headbands around the top of the bottom layer, and attached them with the matching bows. You can use diaper pins (if you can find them) to attach different items to the cake. Mostly I just stuffed things in between the diapers. Something that is cute for a baby girl cake is to turn the little lacy socks inside out and then roll them up and make little rose buds.

Emma got some real cute clothes, a high chair, a quilt, a useful nursing cover-up, lots of onesies, some socks, and baby bottles.

Danny and Jenny slept through most of the shower. How did you girls sleep like that for two hours?

Blaine had fun inside one of the big gift bags.

Some of Emily's friends came to the shower, and Jenny, Danny, Brooke, Christine, Grandma Thompson, Debbie and Papa Thompson came too.

Andrew's Birth

Andrew Bryan Anderson was born on January 4th, 2002. He weighted 6lbs. 20 oz. and was 20 inches long. He was born in Ogden, Utah.

Andrew is our first grandson. It was a great experience being able to see Andrew be born. While Summer was in labor, I looked over at her, and instead of seeing a grown woman I saw a little girl. It was so strange to think how everything had come to a full circle. Me having her, raising her, she getting married and then watching her deliver her first baby. Wow! Life is full of so many blessing!

Summer had a pretty easy labor and delivery. Bryan was in worse shape than Summer was. He had been admitted to the hospital a few hours before Summer for extreme dehydration and vomiting. So he spent a lot of Summer's labor in the bathroom. We had to call him out of the bathroom so that he could see see Andrew being born. But he was a real trooper. Luckily it didn't last to long, and no one else got his bug.

Summer and Bryan holding Andrew.

Logan's Birth

Logan Mac Anderson was born on April 20, 2005. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He weighted 7lbs. 7 oz. and was 21 inches long.

Bryan, his mom Nancy, and I were able to watch Logan be born. Watching the birth of a baby is always an amazing experience. It is such a blessing to have babies come into this world without any problems. It is truly amazing!

Logan being weighted and measured.

Bryan and Summer holding baby Logan.

I brought Andrew up to the hospital to see Summer and Logan. But he was more interested in playing with the rubber glove balloon, than seeing Logan.

Blaine's Birth

Blaine Taylor Swenson was born on June 13th, 2007. He weighted 6lbs. 14 oz. He was born in Provo, Utah.

He was born a little early and his lung wouldn't open all of the way, making it hard for him to breath. He was given Surfactant, an antibiotic, a breathing tube, and a feeding tube. Unfortunately one of the tubes nicked his stomach and his was bleeding internally. So, he had to stay in the hospital for a week. We were all pretty worried about him. He was given a blessing and he was able to come home sooner than expected.

Jenny and Tyson adopted Blaine from a wonderful, caring, loving, young women named Katie. She found Jenny and Tyson on-line and knew as soon as she read their profile that they were the parent for her baby.
Jenny and Tyson found out about Blaine in February 2007. Their case worker had come over to our house to do a home inspection, (Jenny and Tyson had moved in with us and so our home needed to be inspected). Jenny and her case worker were talking and the case worker handed Jenny two scrapbook pages of ultra sound pictures. Jenny and I both started to cry as we realize what this meant. It brings tears to my eyes even now a year and a half later. Katie has been very open with Jenny and Tyson. They met a few times and started to go on double dates with Katie and her friend Brandon.

Katie asked Jenny and Tyson to be at the hospital when Blaine was born. Jenny was in the delivery room and was able to watch Blaine be born. Jenny held Blaine first right after he was born. It was such a wonderful experience for Jenny and Tyson.

Blaine also became jaundice and had to be put under a light to treat this.

Jenny and Tyson spending time with Blaine in the hospital.

Words can't express how grateful I am to Katie. She has blessed Jenny and Tyson greatly. We love her and know that her future will be blessed because of her love and kindness to Jenny, Tyson and Blaine.

One Month Old!

Guess what, everyone? I'm one month old!

It's hard work being a month old! I have to eat and sleep and all day long! I also have to endure millions of hugs and kisses from my adoring big brothers. (I have them both wrapped around my little finger!) I hate having my diaper or clothes changed, but I like having my hair washed! (What girl doesn't?) I really love to cuddle up on Daddy's chest! I have lots of nicknames like "Pretty Princess," "Baby Girl," and "Hannah Banana."

I really love my new Peanut Shell! (THANKS Nana and Papa!) When Mommy puts me in it, I just snuggle in next to her and fall right to sleep! It's so comfy! Mommy likes it too because she can get some housework done while still being with me, AND it matches her precious Ju-Ju-Be diaper bag!

It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it!

Love,
Hannah

P.S. I'm so excited for my baby GIRL cousin to be born!!! Congratulations Uncle Justin and Aunt Emily! Emma and I will be good buddies!