The Gentrys

It's hard to believe yesterday Emma Cate was one week old! The days since we've been home have flown by and we are settling in more each day. We've continued to try to take a few pictures, but she doesn't like to be naked at all so it's made it a little difficult :) Here are a few that we got this afternoon.





And one more that I found from our first day at home. I can't help but think she is absolutely an angel!

I promise I've been trying to get pictures taken and up, but I'm sure all of you who have children understand how these first few days at home with a newborn are...the hours pass so quickly and there just doesn't seem to be enough time to get everything done. Please be patient with me! I just checked my email this morning for the first time and Phil actually put pictures up on my facebook that different people took while we were in the hospital. I'll try to do better though! For now, here are a few we were able to get yesterday :)






And one after her first bath at home...she hated being naked, but loves her hair to be brushed!

It's early Sunday morning and I am sitting in the hospital bed with our little angel beside me sleeping. We've been here since Wednesday afternoon when they kept us after our 40 week checkup and we are hoping we will get to go home sometime this afternoon. It has been an exhausting 4+ days, but our little girl is perfect and we are amazed every second by God's gift to us. Thank you all for the sweet comments. I didn't realize Phil was posting updates (I think I was a little out of it at the time!), but I'm so glad he did and glad Brant posted some pictures of her first few hours. I know this is shocking for those of you who know me, but I have not really been taking pictures yet! I have big plans for when we get home, but we just haven't had an opportunity yet between nursing and visiting with sweet friends who have come to the hospital to see us. If you have called and I haven't called you back, I apologize! It has been a whirlwind!

I won't go into all the gory details, but here is a brief version of the last few days.

Wednesday we came in for our appointment and still had not made any progress. They put me on the monitor for about 45 minutes and were a little concerned that her heart rate dropped after contractions (which I was having about 7 minutes apart). They also did an ultrasound to check her fluid and a contraction stress test, and while they did not see any signs of danger, she was looking like she weighed close to 9 lbs on the ultrasound and they decided to induce. We were admitted Wednesday evening and started the pitocin Thursday morning. It was a very long and difficult day with contractions coming about 1-2 minutes apart, but no progress.

Thursday night, we decided since I had made very little progress to stop the pitocin drip, let me eat, and start it again early Friday morning.

4am Friday morning I got up, took a shower and we started the pitocin at 5. After only about 10 minutes the contractions became pretty intense. Then we got a surprise around 7am when our regular doctor came in (at this point we had seen 3 different doctors because our doctor was not on call, but she happened to be in the office on Friday morning). She made the decision to start an epidural and break my water. After this, I progressed pretty quickly and we were ready to push when she was finishing her morning appointments.

We were so thankful that our doctor was able to be there, and after pushing for an hour, Emma Cate arrived. We had a slight scare because the cord was wrapped around her neck twice and they had to call in extra help to get her going, but she soon was fine and is now perfectly healthy.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. I will hope to post some pictures tomorrow after we are home and settled in.

Emma Cate Gentry
02.19.2010
8lbs 20 inches





a head full of beautiful hair!

She's here and she's perfect....8 lbs. 20 in. born at 2:43pm Pictures to come!

It's been a long couple of days, but Ashley has started to really progress and it looks like Emma Cate will be here before too long (maybe this afternoon). Thanks for all of your prayers! We will update again once she is here. -Phil

This is Phil.... We are still waiting on our little one to make her appearance. It has been a long day, but Ashley and Emma Cate are both doing great (just tired). She was induced this morning around 8:00 and has made some progress, but she still has a ways to go. Please continue to pray for her safe and "speedy" arrival.

So Here is the Recipe:

• 1/3 cup chopped onion (this is what the recipe calls for, but I never measure how much I chop - I know I always add more than this though)
• 1 minced jalapeno, seeds removed (I use pre-minced in a jar and just add a very heaping T)
• 1 T minced garlic

• 48 oz container chicken broth
• Shredded chicken - I usually use an already cooked rotisserie chicken and shred to bite sized pieces
• Lg can of diced tomatoes (do not drain)
• Lg or small can of stewed tomatoes (do not drain)
• Lg can of whole kernel corn drained
• Lg can of fresh cut green beans drained or we've also used chopped spinach
• You can add any vegetables you would like or beans
• 2 T Chili Powder
• 1 T Cumin
• 2 tsp oregano
• I usually add some extra ground red pepper
• salt and fresh ground black pepper

5 minutes before serving you can add fresh chopped cilantro if you have it and like the taste. We rarely have it and have found we prefer it without.

Serve hot over tortilla chips and shredded monterey jack cheese!

Tomorrow is our due date and we go back to see our doctor. Still scheduled to be induced next Tuesday if she doesn't come before then.

Sorry...no fun pictures with this one. Just wanted to give a quick update from my appointment today. Still no progress. We asked about inducing next week, but my doctor said she would rather wait until the next week. She said it was up to us, but she told us her reasons for preferring to wait until a week after the due date to induce...longer, harder labor with inducing and higher chance of C-section. So we are scheduled to be induced a week from next Tuesday (the 23rd) if Emma Cate hasn't decided to grace us with her presence before then! That will be almost a week after our due date so we are hoping she'll go ahead and come on her own before then, but trying to be patient! I go back next Wednesday (on our due date) for a regular appointment.

Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers!

Try it, but I'm warning you, you'll be addicted!

Jake says, "I'm still waiting!"



We saw the doctor today. It was somewhat eventful, but everything turned out fine. Her heart rate was a little high when they checked it the first time so I had to be hooked up to the monitor for 20 minutes to see if it stayed high. It was a scary 20 minutes for us (thankfully Phil was with me today), but it came back down to normal and looks like she was just very active when they checked it the first time, causing it to spike, which they said is completely normal. I hadn't really made any progress...only dialated 1 cm...but my doctor was also concerned that she may be breech. Last week they were 100% sure she was head down, but this time it wasn't clear. So we got to have a quick ultrasound! She is head down so that is good (although if she was breech they were going to go ahead and schedule a C-section for next week) but now we are just waiting! The ultrasound tech was really nice and spent a lot of extra time trying to locate between her legs just to verify one more time that she is in fact a girl! Which she is! She also printed us some pictures of her face. It was hard to see much because she is VERY squished in there, but we could make out the lines of her eyes, nose and mouth. It didn't tell us much about how she looks, but it was fun to see her again! The ultrasound tech said she thought it wouldn't be much longer because she was completely out of room and probably wasn't very comfortable. I'm going to start walking on the treadmill for at least 30+ minutes every day from here on out to see if we can get things going!

So that's the update! We are just hanging out for now and enjoying our last few days as a family of 3 (counting Mr. Jakers of course!)

Hi. My name is Jake and I am super excited about meeting my sister...hopefully soon! Emma Cate, feel free to come meet me!



Also, here is the latest version of the Amy Butler Birdie Sling bag that I have made. I made it to be a purse/diaper bag for the spring. It's packed right now with a few outfits that we may or may not need for her for the hospital...I've heard mixed opinions on bringing clothes for her to the hospital. Some say do because the clothes they have for the baby are pretty much paper shirts and then some say don't because they'll probably get ruined in those first few days...not sure why. Any thoughts from those who have been there?

So the deer are safe, for this year at least...

Nothing to report with the baby. I've come down with a cold so I haven't felt like doing much the last 2 days. I'll go back to the doctor on Thursday and will be 38 weeks Wednesday!