Saturday, June 30, 2007

Pictures From Going Home

Emma is ready to head home so she can see what big recruit the Dawgs land next!!!


















Man, she looks tiny in her car seat.























Mom, looks ready to get home.


















Emma's packed and ready to go:)

Friday, June 29, 2007

Heading Home

Real life is about to begin. We are heading home from the hospital in about an hour. It will be crazy to be home, with Emma, and on our own. But we are ready. It will be nice to not have have someone coming in every 30 minutes to check Emma, check Andreja, take a picture, ask a question.... It seems like every 10 minutes someone walks in for something.

It's exciting to be our on our own (with the help of many friends of course) entering this new adventure. It's amazing that I've only know this little person for a couple days but I love her so much and can't imagine life without her. I know for Andreja the connection between her and Emma has been growing as she has the intimate relationship with Emma fro the last 9 months. I just would feel a kick with my hand, see Andreja grow, and grow in excitement at what was to come but that's about the extent of my connection with Emma before Wednesday. Now I just love to hold her, see her expressions, watch her movements, it's crazy. I can't even describe it (we'll see how excited i am tonight and for many nights to come when I'm up in the middle of the night:)).

Anyways, that's all for now. We look forward to introducing Emma many different people over the coming days, weeks and months.

Emma and Friends

Over the last two days we have been blessed by many visitors excited to meet the new arrival to the family:) Here are some pictures of Emma with all the people who visited us the last couple days.

Click on a picture to enlarge

Becky from Andreja's office.

Lisa. We've been babysitting for Lisa's three kids for the last 4 years.


Patrick, one of my classmates from law school and a member of our small group from church.


Rachel (Patrick's wife).


Katy, we know her through her husband Paul, who was on by B-ball team in highschool


Clayton (the husband of Anna, one of Andreja's co-workers) and I'm holding Ty, their 5 week old boy. We'll have to watch out for him in about 15 years:)


Anna (Clayton's wife), one of Andreja's co-workers.


Laura, a friend from church a former member of our small group. She's expecting a boy in about a month. Another one to watch out for.


Lindsey, another former member of our small group.


Ed. We lived in Ed's basement for our first 1 1/2 years of marriage. He and his wife Ginny gave us much valuable advice as we entered married life. Maybe they can pass on some wisdom for parenthood as well.


Rindy, Allison, and Ed. Randy taught a comprehensive bible course we took over a period of two years.


Richard. Our dentist (with Andreja's teeth we've been some of his best customers:)). Also his wife Eleanor is one of Andreja's best friends. He's proudly representing, wearing a Croatian Soccer Jersey.


Eleanor, (Richard's wife) also due in about a month.


David. A resent law graduate and a good friend from small group.


Fabienne (David's wife)

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Emma Grace has Arrived - Dobrodosla Emma Grace!!!

Andreja and I are excited to welcome Emma Grace into our family!!!

She was born this morning at 10:41 a.m.

Weight: 6 lbs 12 oz / 3.05 kg

Length: 21 in / 53.5 cm.

Here are some pictures of Emma for you to enjoy. Isn't she beautiful!!!

Click on the picture below to see more.

Emma's Arrival June 27, 2007.

Here's how it happened. Andreja woke my up this morning at 5am after her water broke. It was a flooding:) Andreja didn't feel any strong pain immediately after her water broke. We quickly called the doctor and he said to call him again around 7:15am to see what was happening. Andreja didn't feel any strong pain immediately after her water broke, but as soon as she hung up the phone the contractions started. We broke out the timer and to our surprise the contractions were only 6 minutes apart. Andreja wondered if she ought to call the doctor again since he said to wait to call him until 7:15. She didn't want to wake him again. I told her that it was his job and he wouldn't feel inconvenienced by a second call:) Once the doctor heard that the contractions were only 6 min apart he said we should head to the hospital. I quickly made some coffee so I wouldn't fall asleep during this whole ordeal and Andreja wanted to put on some make up because she thought she looked horrible. I assured that compared to most if not all women on the verge of delivery she looked amazing.

Once we arrived at Northside Hospital (the baby factory, delivering more babies than any other hospital in the US), around 6 am, Nurse Sheila checked Andreja and to her surprise Andreja was already dilated 8 cm and her contractions were only 4 minutes apart. Once the doctor heard how close the contractions were he decided to come check on Andreja before his shift ended at 7:30am. Sheila asked Andreja if she wanted the epidural. Andreja was debating until she had some very strong contractions, she said "give it too me." After the epidural kicked in the contractions were farther apart and we were able to get a little rest, take a nap, watch some Wimbledon.

Not much else happened until 10am when Dr. Dawson (he came on call at 7:30) checked and Andreja was fully dilated. Then the pushing began. I held one leg, the nurse held the other and Dr. Dawson monitored how close Emma was to entering this world. I had joked with Andreja that I wouldn't be able to handle all the blood, but I had a front row seat and it was great. It was fascinating to see her head come closer and closer to the exit. Once she finally emerged at 10:41am she was all slimy. It was crazy. All of a sudden this head pops out, then a hand, then the doctor pulled her out. Amazing stuff!!!

Emma cried immediately, so we knew she was good. Over the next couple hours Emma was cleaned and checked out. Everything is good. Andreja was happy because Dr. Dawson had to do a C-Section at 11 and so she was able to push Emma out and then give the doctor a little bit of a break:)

So in sum, the labor was only for 5 hours, the delivery took 40 min, and now we're relaxing in the recovery room with Emma peacefully asleep. This whole birthing process is amazing. Andreja and I can see God's hand in this whole process. He had mercy on us as everything went great, from the entire pregnancy to the labor, to the delivery.

We're excited about this new chapter (maybe I should say new book) in our lives. It will be cool to see what Emma is like, how her personality will be, what her interests will be. I know one thing for sure, she will be a Bulldawg Fan. She already told me that Matthew Stafford will win the Heisman in 2008 as he leads the Dawgs to the national championship.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Chris & I


I think Chris and I do not have any pictures together since i got pregnant so we finally took one just recently when we were at our friend's place.


Mislim da odkad sam zatrudnila chris i ja nemamo zajednicku sliku. Tu smo kod frendova u kuci pa smo uhvatili priliku da nas uslikaju. Neznam sto je bilo tako smijesno, al bar izgledamo hapi:)

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Emma's room is finally finished!!!

It's taken us a while but we finally put the finishing touches on Emma's room.

It was a team effort as I (Chris) refinished the dresser and changing table. My sister Faith bought us the glider. My Mom recovered the cushions on the Glider/Rocker and the little ottoman. Andreja organized everything. And many people were generous and gave us many different things for the nursery. When we first found out Andreja was pregnant we wondered how we get everything for Emma's arrival and how expensive it would be. But, God provided through the generosity of friends and family from both Croatia and the US. It's awesome to see His provision of even cute little things that are not essential.

Click on the picture and you can see the complete room:
Emma's Nursery

Thursday, June 14, 2007

The challenges of the English language

Jos cekamo.../Still waiting

So yesterday i had my weekly checkup and it seems that evrything is perfect-as always. They put me ona monitor to check for Emma's heart beat, and see if there is any contractions. That was kind of weird. Having your belly hooked up to this machine and listening the heart beat and movements she makes. Just before that, I made a comment to the doctor that she has maybe slowed down in her movements and then they put me on this machine and she goes nuts.Actually the whole day yesterday, eversince i made that comment, she has been moving so much. I think that is telling us a little bit about her personality already:):) So yes, it doesn't seem she is coming any sooner then the due date of July 3rd. She seems to be doing just great and so far no contractions. I am glad as i want her to get the benefits of the womb for as long as possible, yet in anticipation also as i can't wait to meet her.

Dakle, jucer sam bila na tjednom posjetu doktoru i kao i obicno cini se da je sve savrseno. Rekla sam doktoru da mi se ucinilo da se emma mozda malo manje rita u zadnja dva dana pa su me stavili na motiro da vide otkucaje srca i pokrete, te da provjere dal imam trudove. bas mi je bio neki cudan/smijesan feeling kad su mi trbuh prikljucili na taj neki aparat. Slusam njeno srce-koje lupa fakat kao da trci 100 na sat-pa se mice...Cini mi se da Emma vec sad pokazuje znakove karaktera jer cim sam izrekla taj komentar da je mozda malo usporila, ona je krenula i cijeli dan jucer nije prestala se micat. Fakat mislim da nije nista jucer odspavala:):)Stoga cini mi se da ne bude se pojavila nista ranije nego termin 3.7. jer sve je super, nema znakova trudova...Iako sam hapi radi toga jer sto je dulje unutra to bolje za nju (a i nas nadam se), svejedno jedva cekam da dode i da je upoznamo. Stoga cekanje se nastavlja.....

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Our little niece MIA/Nasa necakinjica MIA




May 1st was not only the holiday in Croatia (Labor Day) but a day to celebrate in our family as our little niece Mia was born early morning. Mateja was thankful for short labor/delivery experience and was excited to meet this precious little one. It makes our wait for Emma more exciting!

Prvi maj nije bio samo obican praznik u Hrvatskoj, vec dan za slavlje i veselje u nasoj obitelji jer se u rano jutro rodila nasa necakinjica Mia. Mateja je bila zahvalna za kratki porod i uzbudena da moze upoznat svoju predivnu curicu. Mi smo sad jos vise uzbudeni dok cekamo da se nasa Emma pojavi!

ENGLISH vs. CROATIAN

OK. I realized that it is going to be hard to do this to satisfy both croatian and american audience. I'll try to post comments on both languages SOMETIMES but can not guarantee it all the time. You croatian folks will just have to do this in english. I don't anticipate a problem there anyway:)

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Tough Morning



This is hilarious.

Playing with Picasa



I'm trying to figure out how to best use Picasa.

Andreja's COTR Shower

2007 04 Andreja's COTR shower
Click the picture above to see some pictures from Andreja's baby shower with her friends from Church. It looks like they had a lot of fun.

Andreja at 36 weeks


Ok. So Chris and i are really bad at this blog thing. We have not posted anything for a few months. It is time to start keeping you all updated. Especially since Emma will be here soon. Emma? Who is Emma? That is probably what you are thinking-especially if we haven't talked to you for a while. Emma is our soon to come (4 weeks till due date) daughter. Anyway, we got too preoccupied with tax season, and law school, and exams and nursery and bla bla bla. I guess this is not the time for excuses. So here we go. I am posting the most recent picture of me pregnant at 36 weeks.