Baby Explosion

Clint and I have had a blast getting to know our baby girl these past 7 1/2 weeks.  There are tons of things we still have to learn, but fortunately Emma is being very patient with us!  We remind her daily that not only is she a new baby, we are also new parents, and we will all figure this out together.

Since Emma is so young, we still have to give her a couple of bottles during the night.  This week, Clint has been kind enough to do the 1am bottle so that I can do the 5am bottle and then get ready to come on into school.  Last night before we went to bed, he asked if I wanted to switch this morning.  I told him that I would really rather keep it the same if it was alright with him.  He doesn’t have to get up until a little later than I leave for school, so he could get more rest if he did the 1am and I could get more rest if I did the 5am.  So…we set our alarms and called it a night.

I heard Clint get up with Emma for her 1am bottle and was glad I had 4 hours of sleep left to go.  However, she didn’t quite make it to 5am for some reason…she’s probably growing again!  She started getting fussy around 4:30am.  I decided to go ahead and get up and do her bottle even though it was early.  While I was feeding her, I was trying to decide if I should go back to sleep or just stay up at that point.  I usually leave the house about 6:15 for school.  I decided 30 extra minutes of sleep really wasn’t worth it, but I could go ahead and get a jump on the laundry and do a few other quick things around the house with all of my extra freetime after I put her back to bed.

I changed her, held her, and then put her in her bed.  She was giggling and smiling…and THEN IT HAPPENED!!  She started shaking and all of a sudden, formula starting spewing out of every hole in her face.  It wasn’t just running out of her mouth a little…it was shooting out of her mouth and nose.  I can honestly say I have never seen such a thing.  I immediately picked her up and flipped her onto her stomach in my arm so she wouldn’t choke.  Once the explosion ended and my heart restarted…I heard the oddest sound.  Emma was laughing!  She was completely covered in spitup…and so was I…and she was laughing! Did she not know that she was covered in spitup?

There was a blanket on her floor.  I immediately stripped her clothes off and wrapped her up in the blanket.  I took all her bedding right down and put it the washing machine.  I then carried her down and gave her the best, most thorough bath she has ever had!  I washed her hair twice just to make sure everything was washed out.  I wrapped her up in a hooded towel and just held her for a bit.  Then, I decided she must be hungry, so I gave her another bottle which fortunately did not return like a volcano!

I then took her upstairs and put her in her bouncy chair so that she could get some more sleep and I could hurry up and get ready for work.  She sat in that chair and laughed the whole time I was getting ready.

Fortunately, when I left, she was back sound asleep and I put her in the pack and play and I’m sure the little princess is still snoozing!  I woke up Clint to say goodbye and gave him a quick rundown of what happened…Emma spitup, I washed all of her sheets, I gave her a bath, she is dressed and ready for daycare, I also did some of our laundry, assured him that Emma was just fine, etc.  He also laughed…but I certainly can’t blame him!  It was pretty hilarious to retell…but only because she is obviously ok!

Of course, I didn’t end up having to think of any activities to fill my extra 30 minutes…that went away very quickly and I had to really hustle to get here early enough to get some things taken care of.  However, God brought something very important to my mind as I reflected back over holding Emma while she was still covered with spew.  I loved her so much even though she was dirty and smelly.  There is nowhere on this earth I would have rather been than to be right there holding her close.

God does that for you and me everyday.  We don’t even realize the magnitude of His love because we are constantly covered with spew.  He very patiently holds us, cleans us up, loves us, and sends us back out to try another day.  Thank you God for loving me and for giving me that precious time with Emma this morning!