Emma Elizabeth Early

Emma Elizabeth Early has arrived!

7 lbs. 4 oz.
21 in.
12/25/08
1:27 pm

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DrewsBaby

We are all doing pretty well. We ended up having to take Emma to the doctor yesterday afternoon after she was sleeping way too much, eating less, and was starting to show signs of jaundice. Her bilirubin was high but not high enough for a bili-blanket yet. So, we are going into the doctor's office tomorrow for another weight check to see how things are going. We are not quite settled back in as Christmas at the hospital (because you know that Santa can always find you) along with a new baby has overtaken our world. We are just trying to figure out when to "finish" Christmas with the rest of the family. We are going to be "going" a lot over the next week or so as some of the great-grandparents can't really travel to see her. So, we will probably be heading to Carmi, Jasper/Dale, and Owensboro during the next week or so which will make us hard to catch (especially with added doctor's appointments due to the jaundice). Things should settle down after Drew starts back to school on the 5th of January. We will try to keep the blog site updated as time permits with the new adventures of Emma and Drew.

Wishing everyone the best throughout the rest of 2008 and a Happy New Year!

Kim (Ben, Drew, and Emma) Early

12/25/08 Pictures

12/26/08 Pictures

12/27/08 Pictures

99.9% sure...Official Announcement of her name!

We have decided that it is time to let you all in on what our new little girl will be called. We are 99.9% sure that her name will be Emma Elizabeth Early. We have purchased the letters (however, they are not on the wall yet). I took a picture so that you could see the "bumpy soft" bedding that we have for her (at least that is what Drew calls it).

As Drew was named John Andrew after family members, she to will be named after family members. My maternal great-grandmother's name was Mary Emma Fields; however, she went by Emma. Ben's aunt was named Elizabeth and was a very important person in his life. To top it all off, my Grandma Juanita's official given name was Eliza Juanita. She would have been proud to know that the "Eliza" would be incorporated in this great-granddaughter's name. Her other great-granddaughter's middle name is Juanita after both of her great-grandmothers.

We go back to the doctor again tomorrow to find out how things are going. With a due date of January 3rd, we are hoping to make it well into December this time around if all goes well.

Boo at the Zoo!

We took Drew to Boo at the Zoo in his "Fun Fireman" costume. He was quite tired; therefore, pictures were a luxury. Hope you enjoy these. Notice the flames on the back of the boots at the top (you can see a little bit of it in the last picture)...I think that they are his favorite part of the costume.

Adrian...for Uncle Bobby!

Prayer Request for my Uncle Bobby and Cord Blood Info

Drew, my dad, and my uncle (at Corn Day 2007)

My uncle was admitted to Barnes-Jewish in St. Louis this past week to start a vigorous course of chemo before his anticipated stem cell transplant. He has Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a condition that affects the blood and bone marrow. He will continue chemo until Monday, have "the day off" on Tuesday, and will get his stem cell transplant from an unknown international donor on Wednesday. I ask that you all keep him and his family in your prayers.

Here is their CaringBridge website if you would like to know how he is doing:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/robertlamp

As Uncle Bobby was going through this process, his doctor mentioned the fact that he had "weird" German blood and unfortunately he didn't match either my father or my aunt. Luckily, someone somewhere had registered and was a perfect match for my uncle. Please consider donating blood and being added to the registry if you ever hear of a blood drive that is also typing people for the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry. I was unable to participate this time because I was pregnant. However, anyone can request the tissue typing be done for approximately $52. http://www.marrow.org/

As for saving the stem cells from cord blood...here is some information that you might not be aware of.

Most of the cord blood programs that advertise on television and in magazines are private donation centers. They cost between $1700 - $2000 to collect and around $125 per year to store your child's cord blood privately. Most people do not know that there is another option available. The National Bone Marrow Donor Registry site has a link as to how to donate cord blood to a public bank. However, Indiana does not currently have any participating hospitals. There is an option to go through Cryobanks International Inc. that will accept cord blood donation from throughout the United States for either public donation or private storage. http://www.cryo-intl.com/ My sister and I have the registration paperwork on the way for participation in this program. They only ask that you register early in your pregnancy so that all of the paperwork can be submitted in time. Please consider telling others about this program as most people only know about the private banks. Why not donate the cord blood to a public bank? Otherwise, it will just be considered medical waste...

Our little painter...and chalker...

While I was gone to San Antonio for the week, Grandpa descended upon our house many nights to help paint Drew's new bedroom (one of the colors was red and took four coats - Grandpa really loves us because he hates to paint red). Drew is moving to the front bedroom which has been an office/storage room for the last few years so that the baby can be in the closer bedroom. Drew is all excited because he will now have the bedroom the both his dad and Aunt Riah had at one point. When we were moving things out of the room, he was convinced that the CD's that were in there on the CD stand were Mariah's from when it was her bedroom. He is just a little confused...but, excited to be moving into his new room. We bought him the new bedroom furniture for his birthday. However, we haven't gotten the room fixed up due to the busy summer that we have had. Dad doesn't like me to be around painting while I am pregnant...so, he painted the room (with help from Drew) while I was gone. Drew even said at one point that he was a better painter than Grandpa. Grandpa didn't mind.

To keep him entertained while I was gone, Ben allowed Drew to sidewalk chalk the world...or so it seems being that we haven't had much rain since then and it is all still there. One of the drawings is in the photos below. Ben asked Drew what it was...he said, "A rocket." So, Ben made him put flames coming out of the back...for reasons that you will surely understand.

It's a Girl!!!

As many of you know, Drew has said that the baby was a girl from the beginning. He said that God told him that it was a girl. Well, I guess you can't argue with God and a 4-year-old! He really wants a sister! We were happy to find out that we don't have to tell him that God had made a mistake when we found out on Thursday that it is a GIRL! We are telling him tomorrow morning (Saturday) as this is the first time that we will all be home at the same time and awake since we found out.

Be back next week...

We are finally leaving on vacation...Drew still hasn't stopped asking when we are leaving...less than two hours to go. We are leaving at night so that we can drive while Drew sleeps...at least that is the hopeful plan. We are going to Orlando for three and a half days and then to the beach for 3 days before we drive back. My parents, sister, and brother-in-law are driving down with us. They are doing Disney World with us on Tuesday then driving to Key West to see the Dry Tortugas (something about going to as many National Parks as possible). They will drive back on Friday to meet up with us at the beach (Treasure Island - the Tampa/St. Pete area) for the weekend before we drive home. We are going to do Disney again on Wednesday and Sea
World on Thursday before we drive over to the beach Thursday night. All Drew knows is that we are going to Florida and to the beach. We haven't told him about Disney World for good reason...to keep our sanity. We aren't planning on telling him until we get there. It should be an amazing reaction as he is a huge Mickey Mouse fan!!! Anyway, I am sure that we will have lots of pictures and videos when we return.

P.S. Hopefully, my father gets to finish out the vacation (or maybe not). We are anxiously awaiting the test results of his stem cell match test for his brother who has Myelodysplastic Syndrome and is in desperate need of a stem cell transplant. So, keep them in your prayers as we hope that my father (or his sister) is a perfect match for my uncle.

End of June...

Today, I had an appointment with Dr. Foster. Ben went with me. Everything was just fine. She decided to use the ultrasound to find the heartbeat because she said that it was sometimes hard to find with doppler at 13 weeks (they found it that early with Drew...but, I wasn't going to argue). She tried to get a "picture" of the baby. However, each time she got a profile view of the baby..."it" would move. "It" is apparently a wiggly little one. This is no surprise as Drew never cooperated for ultrasounds either. She kept apologizing about not getting a picture. I said that I didn't care as long as everything looked alright. All this and she didn't even tell me the heartrate...

We went to what was supposed to be the Balloon Glow tonight at Tri-State Aero (part of the Freedom Festival). Drew was disappointed when we had to leave due to the impending storm with 60-70 mph winds. He didn't understand why the balloons didn't blow up. Mariah told him that if they went up now that they would be torn up and he wouldn't ever get to see them again.

I will attach a few pictures of him getting his blanket ready, the red airplane that he loved, and him dancing...he is crazy!!!

Ultrasound Pictures...Actually at 8w4d

Drew's Fun at TeenPower's Burdette Swim Party

Drew's TeenPower Fun 2008

Drew's 4th Birthday!

Drew turned 4 on May 30th! He is really excited to be 4. We took the day off of work and took him to the "green slide park" for a picnic lunch and to play. While we were at the park, we let him open a present. It was his "I'm going to be a Big Brother" scrapbook. He didn't get as excited as we expected...mostly because he wanted to go play on the playground. We then had a party at the "brown slide park" with a bunch of family and close family friends. Drew enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs with his special ketchup, all kinds of fruit from Nana, and special Mickey Mouse pasta along with special lemonade and sweet tea that Susan and Holly brought. He got a purple phone (the one that used to be Mommy's and Aunt Holly's when we were kids) that he really wanted for his birthday. His favorite color is now Purple instead of Pink as Pink is not in the rainbow! He even got a special present from GiGi that we found when we were cleaning out her apartment...she hadn't missed a birthday party yet! He couldn't eat his birthday cake. So, I attempted to make a Mickey Mouse shaped cake. Well, Drew will tell you that it broke into a million pieces. Luckily, Drew was happy with eating Mickey's feet for his birthday and eating the pieces for the next few days!

Official Announcement!

Some of you may already know. However, we haven't been able to tell everyone yet...we are expecting a baby with a due date of January 3rd, 2009! We found out that I was pregnant in late April. We decided to wait until after my doctor's appointment to tell Drew on his birthday. So, we only told our mothers on Mother's Day weekend (along with Kimberly's father, our sisters, Uncle Aaron, and Caleb). We slowly told others that were going to be a Drew's party (and a couple of others) when we knew that it was safe that they wouldn't see him before the party. We went to the doctor on May 28th, informed Kimberly's work on May 29th, and told Drew at the park after a picnic on his birthday, May 30th, by giving him a scrapbook to make about being a big brother! Don't think that we forgot any of you or meant to leave you out on the announcement. We have been extremely busy during the past few weeks. Kimberly's grandmother (Judy's mom) passed away unexpectedly on May 20th. We had a lot to deal with on that front (and still do). After getting through the funeral and Drew's party, Ben has been at High School TeenPower Camp this week. I will be in training in Evansville next week and Atlanta the week after. When I get back, Ben will be involved in Middle School TeenPower for half the week. We will then have a little over a week before we go on vacation to Florida. It has been a busy summer and we don't see a slow down anytime in the future! We will try to get the Ultrasound pictures scanned in this weekend so that we can post them on here.

Easter Sunday - Early Style