Our precious baby girl – Ember Jean Roloff – is finally here!!! 7.13 lbs 20.25″ long and born on September 10th.
She is a little over 3 weeks old today, and we are just growing to love her more and more! She’s likes cuddling on our chests, swaying, and when her daddy sings to her! We think she looks like Jeremy so far, but she might have a little glimmer of strawberry in that peach fuzz hair. Only time will tell! We are still hoping for the boing boing curls though;)
Wow. Natural labor was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, (more on that in a different blog post – so make sure you’re subscribed to my blog!) but holding our baby for the first time was undeniably the most empowering and rewarding moment of my life. Of course, I wrote “always more” on my hand when I went into labor, but never have these words carried more meaning. The whole time I just kept reminding myself of the MORE that was within me through Christ – that I could keep enduring, surrendering, trusting, and pushing more and more because of Christ’s strength within me. The second she was out of my belly and into my arms, the tears of pain ceased, and Jeremy and I looked at our daughter and each other with tears of uncontainable joy.
We are in complete awe of the miracle of life, and feeling so blessed to be entrusted with such a beautiful daughter. We can’t stop staring at her! Also, this whole parenthood thing has made me fall so much more in love with Jeremy, it’s wild.
Sweet little Ember, may you always be a light in the darkness, glowing in all you do, enduring, fierce, and hard to extinguish;) May you always believe in the more that is within you, and when stoked and kindled by your Creator – may you be able to burn and glow even MORE than you ever could on your own. We love you so much Ember Jean Roloff. Thank you for making us “mom and dad”
I had a pretty great pregnancy and incredible labor/delivery experience, but to be honest, these first few weeks of motherhood have been TOUGH. The “fourth trimester” hit me hard. The first 24 hours with Ember were bliss, but after that, it was as if I went back into labor again… I was well prepared for the pain and suffering that comes with childbirth, but I was not prepared for the pain and suffering that comes afterwards. I got all the things… the common “TMI” postpartum hurts, along with severe engorgement, too much milk, not enough milk, blisters, bruises, clogged ducts, and mastitis. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the pain that I’ve experienced while breastfeeding has been comparable to unmedicated labor contractions…
Inevitably, all of this has left me feeling like I am failing my baby, frustrated, discouraged, and heart ached. But even though the tearful sleepless nights persist, so will I. I will continue to pour myself out in sacrificial love for this baby girl who makes every hurt worth enduring. And not by my strength or striving, but in Christ alone. I’ve been humming these lyrics while I nurse and pump through the nights, “Lord, I come, I confess, Bowing here I find my rest, Without You I fall apart, You’re the One that guides my heart, Lord I need you oh I need you, Every hour I need you, My one defense, my righteousness, Oh God, how I need you…” Motherhood is already refining me so much and I am blessed.
Oh, and Ember is already lovin her “Always more milk” onesie! Get yours >>here<<
Keep following our journey
The photos of you & Jeremy as Ember was literally just born are incredible and some of the most surreal images I’ve ever seen. Childbirth is awe inspiring in all forms, but you really show the beauty of nature and the beauty of the female form in those. Thank you for sharing them
Congratulations to the Roloff Family Chad &Nicky enjoy your TV show we are hoping everyone can pull together as a family and be happy.
What makes me watch is Amy &Matt they really know how to make things very interesting for us people and I enjoy Matt’s handy work of the forts etc the train Christmas program for unfortunate kids you’re family giving other kids gifts art projects. What I would like to see is Matt &The boys make a cross for the yard or a flower thing than have the babies Baptized at the farm or in the church as a family.
Sincerely
Chad &Nicky.
Minneapolis,MN,
So beautiful. Thanks for sharing your joy and struggles.
She is beautiful. Enjoy and savor every moment,it will,pass by so quickly.
Wow, your birthing pictures are so empowering and beautiful. Baby Ember looks like sure a beautiful blend of you both. The fourth trimester hit me hard with all my boys too, you’re not alone. Enjoy the good moments, it all goes by so so so fast.
Congratulations on the birth of your baby girl! she is beautiful and I can’t wait to follow your journey as she grows up!
Congratulations!! She is absolutely beautiful. I love her name.
What an amazing and inspiring post! Your daughter Ember is absolutely adorable and precious, I also love the name it’s so unique. t’s so inspiring that you are willing to talk about your experience. Good luck as new parents, and hope you are doing well!
What an amazing and inspiring post! Your daughter Ember is so adorable and precious, I also love the name it’s so unique! It’s so amazing that you talk about your experiences and share it with everyone. Hope you are doing well as a new mom!
She is truly beautiful. Labour and delivery is no joke, and neither is the fourth trimester. We have thankfully made it through most of that part, as we are now three months out, but there are always new bumps along the way. It feels like we blinked and she’s already three months old. So much has changed and I miss my snuggly baby. Enjoy these moments (even when it might seem hard to) and snuggle that baby every chance you get lol. Hope you feel better soon, and hope she will let you get some sleep. That part does get better :).
You prayer for your daughter was absolutely wonderful and I join with you in those prayers for you perfect gift to be blessed by the Lord in all of your requests and that your precious little girl will always walk with God and be protected by Him and serve with a joyful heart. The nursing and all of the beginning things will eventually work themselves out and try to remember to not stress over the things that society or a doctor says you “need” to do because ultimately what you need to do is what make you and your sweet little girl comfortable and gives you the most amount of rest! I’m a mother-in-law nurse and a mama to two boys and what I know that in the end nursing was wonderful but didn’t always work the best for me and in hindsight maybe I should have backed off and just enjoyed my babies a little more and stressed a little less about how they were going to eat because we both stayed really tired and cranky all of the time and I felt like a failure much of the time. In the end what mattered was the time spent loving my little ones and loving one them. God bless your little family!!
Have you had her checked for anterior and posterior tongue ties? These are very common and can cause this snow ball of issues you’re having. Please have her checked it will save you! If she’s need checked and you’ve been told she doesn’t have this please get a second opinion. Also finding a really great lacatacion consultant would be helpful.
Congratulations ???? Ember is so precious and your family is beautiful ❤️
Having Christ in your life makes the hard things seem like nothing. Every part of parenthood is hard yet very rewarding. As a parent of a 15 and 12 year old the one thing I have learned is that you have to enjoy and embrace every second of your child’s life because it just goes by in a blink of an eye. The Lord will guide you in raising children, always remember that your growing up together and don’t ever feel like your failing your child, your doing everything you can and that alone makes a great parent.
Congratulations!! I’m so happy for you two!! I’ve watched Jeremy grow up on the show and watched you two fall in love and you guys are such an inspiration to everyone that a God centered life can be so awesome!! Enjoy your beautiful little one. They grow up so fast!! Thank you for sharing your journey with us!!
I know you don’t know me-I’m a Mama of 8-5 miscarriages and 3 beautiful rainbow babies I got to hold in my arms and raise-they’re now 19, 16 and 9-and I can remember that first month of being a new Mommy so very well. I married my high school sweetheart at 20 and at 22, we had our first little girl. She was beautiful and perfect-so many things went right-and she was the first Girl on his side of the family in over 100 years! So, needless to say-she was. Special blessing-and as you know now-even a special blessing can leave you crying on the floor at 3am wondering why it was not going like you needed it to. She cried and projectile vomited when I breastfed her-she wouldn’t latch on properly and while my lactation consultant could get her right on, no matter what-I could not. I felt broken, unworthy, lost and weirdly alone. All while I had my amazing husband and God right there. I grew up in a Baptist church, went to Christian school-WOLBI and Liberty University were my choice colleges-I knew the Bible back and forth and thought I could truly handle it all with God-and I could-but I wasn’t aware of the journey just yet. I was blessed to never have to choose between work and my kids, my kids were my work-and for me, that was the right choice. That can also be very draining-so always remember to go on dates wit your husband at least once a month-remember that you are a wife as well as a mother..it is good for all 3 of you- But when my little girl was born, I questioned the choice to stay home many nights. I remember begging God to help me-to just let her sleep for a couple hours straight. To just HELP-all the while, I was just exhausted, in pain for an episiotomy and my boobs would shoot milk anytime I loved they were so engorged. Getting into the shower and watching them implode all over actually was pretty funny but such a relief to get some of that pressure off! As you now are learning, it’s so much easier for them to latch on to a noob that isn’t stretched to its limits-but, it’s ok to not know all this-baby number one is a learning lesson and you grow together. My little girl just moved away to college and you’ll hear SO much to enjoy the time, it goes so fast. And that’s SO very true. But also, at 3 am when you’re exhausted and haven’t slept in days and your wearing old sweatpants and an old band tshirt and crying on the floor while she cries in your arms-you’ll wanna throat punch anyone who tells you that. But, all those moments-they make you the mother you’re meant to be. You are strong-stronger than you still don’t even know. There will be times you will cry with her, cry over her, cry for her and cry because of her. You are her mama, her advocate and her lifeline to a whole new world. You’ll grow together, you’ll have a very special bond and you’ll appreciate your mothers so much more and in a whole new way now. Being in love doesn’t always make this easier, but it does strengthen your love with your husband. Some nights, he would come I. And take over for me-and I would feel like such a let down to my baby. He was just trying to help, but in those moments I felt he was more natural, more patient than me. And well he WAS more patient-not so much more natural 🙂 but def. more patient-and down the road, that came in handy many times. But so did what I brought to the table. We have raised 3 amazing children-Im not ashamed to say that I did not love every minute of it-Some days, it was HARD. But, we made it through together-and you will too. You’ll come out of this so strong, knowing so much, feeling so much love and pride for your little girl. And there will be times that you’ll look back and wish you could tell this young mom all you now know-and that it’s going to be ok. And that it’s ok that it sucks sometimes-it doesn’t make you less-it makes you more. So let hubby take over sometimes, some of my favorite moments are me waking up after a couple hours and finding my husband with his little girl sound asleep in his arms and he just would stare at her and how amazing that feeling is-my letting go, allowed him to have those moments-so you’re even more amazing…because giving your little girl daddy moments, well that is just priceless to her. You are going to sometimes stumble-but you will always get back up. You may argue with the man you love, that’s ok-you’ll love him still and you’ll both learn from it all. You are going to be amazing. You already are-and to her, you’re her everything.
Darling, congrats…god bless you and jeremy and baby ember. Love your family, love the show…can’t wait for next season!!
What an amazing and inspiring post! Your daughter Ember is so adorable and precious, I also love the name it’s so unique! I love that you are honest about your experiences and that you share it with everyone. Hope you are doing well as a new mom!
Such an amazing and inspiring post. Your daughter Ember is so adorable and precious, I love the name too it’s so unique! It’s great that you share your experiences with everyone, hope you are doing well as a new mom!
I do see the red hair on that precious girls head!! ???? Keep striving, you are NOT failing your daughter. Being a new first time mother (& father) is hard & when life throws you curve balls…Ugh! We are horimonal, (I cried at commercials????) & tired beyond exhaustion.We all want what’s best for our baby, nursing was my struggle, I couldn’t produce enough for my son, he was up every 2 hours at night & I would be lucky to get 45 minutes of sleep before each feeding. I felt like you do. But that is our natural Mother’s love that keeps us going. She will grow up to be a strong empowered young woman. My son just graduated high school & started his first year of college this fall so I must’ve done something right. Keep the faith, even look back at your blog & devotionals for inspiration. You are & will continue to be a wonderful mom!
You are awesome. I am a mother of 4 and I have been watching the show since the beginning. I love reading your blogs.
So sweet! You can see the love for each other and this sweet baby girl.
Such an inspiring and amazing post! Your daughter Ember is so adorable and precious, I love the name too it’s so unique. I think it’s so great that you shared your experience of giving birth to everyone. Hope you are doing well as a new mom!
ps: you look amazing in all of these pictures!
She kinda reminds me of Zach a little…
Thank you for the precious pictures????
So stinkin’ sweet 🙂 Love the show, love your guys’ heart for the Lord, and everything you are promoting/sharing! Congratulations on your sweet little girl and my thoughts and prayers are with you on this journey of parenthood and beyond!
She’s so beautiful she looks like grandma Amy.
Ember is just beautiful!!
Adorable ????
Please tell me where you found Ember’s white and pink rose onesie and rose swaddle!!!!
Love your blog btw! So inspiring! I’m scared of labor and delivery, I want to go natural but I dont know if I’m strong enough. I’m hoping our Lord will help me decide when the time comes!!!
xoxo Kate
Ember Jean what a beautiful name. She is so precious. What a pure Blessing from our Father, Creator off everything good. Dear God may you continue to Bless, Protect & Provide.
Auj & Jeremy thank you so much for sharing your journey of your perfect lil girl & family moments.#Godfirst#alwaysmore.
Ember is absolutely adorable!!! You and Jeremy will be wonderful parents! Your precious baby girl has the same birthday that my sister has and my sisters hair is exactly the color of yours, Audrey.????????. I can see that she favors Jeremy but Hoping that Ember has your hair????????. God bless your sweet family.
This too shall pass:) and you and Ember will be rocking this breastfeeding journey. Because that is what it is, a journey to getting to know each other and your new self as a mommy 🙂 It will all come together magically before you know it:) relax and enjoy the ride!
You’ll never fail your child as long as you love her. Breastfeeding, bottle feeding, as long as you are nourishing her regularly is all that matters.
Not everyone is able to breastfeed. It’s not a failure if you are unable to do so. It just means it didn’t work out that way.
Too much pressure is placed on how we feed our babies, how we deliver them, how we get them to sleep or whether or not we let them cry. As long as you are there for your child, as long as you make every effort to provide them with nourishment, shelter, and comfort, you cannot be a failure.
Oh how blessed your beautiful baby girl is already to have you as her mother! I now have five kiddos My youngest is about to turn two. I have nursed everyone of my children for over a year each. I can completely relate to what you are experiencing breastfeeding for the first time. It really is a pain like no other. You WILL make it through and it WILL get easier. Don’t lose heart, continue to rely on your faith and loved ones. Before you know it your body and your baby will find a rhythm. You will feel when she is ready to eat (if you don’t already) and eventually your body will produce what your baby needs. Nursing on demand helped me along with a good nipple cream/balm ( one you don’t have to rinse off and safe for baby). I would put the cream on the middle of the breast pad( so I didn’t have to touch my nipples, gently pressing the cream on with the pad and then putting bra back on) after every feeding. It takes awhile but eventually I healed and the hurt finally subsided. I continued the same routine to help any chapping, etc. Maybe will help you too.
All my best,
Jen
Being a Mom is tough, but well worth anything you go through. Don’t ever think you are less of a Mom for any reason. You are learning the ropes as a New Mom and that means ups and downs, breastfeeding issues that you can overcome with a little help, (I sent you some tricks that helped me in a post on Facebook) and many sleepless nights. Sleep during the day when Ember is sleeping.
You, Jeremy, and Ember are a beautiful little family. I wish you all much happiness and more little sweeties in the future. I’m hoping for those boing boing curls too.
I just signed up for your blog although I have watched the show since it first began. Can’t wait for more.
She is adorable. I just found your blog today, lucky me! Wow, the pictures bring back memories! My babies are 17 & 21 now. I’ll pray that things get a little easier for you. You aren’t failing by far from what I’ve read on here today she is a very, very lucky little girl! Bless you & enjoy your sweet child.
Having just been through the struggle of early breastfeeding myself (my daughter is 6 months), this is what I wish I’d known:
Whatever you decide will be the right decision. Breastfeeding is hard.
It does get easier. It took me about 2 months before I could pump without vowing I was quitting. By 3 months, I knew I could keep going as long as we needed to. When I hit 6 months (which was my original goal), I vowed to try for a year.
I still deal with clogged ducts every so often but I’ve gotten much better at recognizing what my body needs and is trying to tell me.
That said, looking back at the last 6 months, I’m only glad I stuck with it because of the money I’m saving not buying formula. My baby would be fed and happy and healthy whether I was breastfeeding or not.
Hang in there. It gets easier. You’re doing a great job.