Second Christmas

Mick's family came up on Thursday to spend the long weekend and celebrate Christmas together. Emily was excited to see her Uncle Rob and Cousin Zachary, who she hadn't seen since we left Atlanta when she was only 4 months old!

When Grandma, Grandpa, Lala and Cousin Landon got here, she didn't know what to think! So many people wanting to hold her and give her kisses.

She had a great time trying to steal Grandpa's hat,

and enjoyed some good snuggle time with Grandma.

There were way too many gifts, but Emily seemed to enjoy her first Christmas. Everyone says that babies usually enjoy ripping paper and playing with the wrapping more than the actual gifts, but not Emily. She didn't like the sound of the paper tearing--she preferred that her presents were unwrapped and handed to her, ready for action.

The sock monkey was one of her favorites,

as was the pink pony on wheels. At one point in the day, I misplaced my camera and missed a lot of good pictures. I'm hoping to add some when I see everyone else's.

9 Month Checkup

Emily went in for her 9-month checkup on Monday, and she's perfect (like we didn't already know!). She weighs 17 lbs 14.6 oz, is 28 1/4 inches long, and her head is 17 1/2 inches--she's in the 25th percentile for her weight, but the 70-75th percentile for height and head circumference. Not too surprising, since she's moving 90 miles an hour these days and it keeps her thin!

She's doing all of the developmental things she should be (crawling, pulling up, cruising, starting to feed herself, babbling up a storm), and is sleeping through the night again now that she's over her stomach issues.

One thing we've noticed lately is a touch of separation anxiety--Emily will often start crying when we get ready to leave her at day care, or even if we walk out of the room at home. She'll hold her arms up and poke out her little bottom lip, and it's just the most pitiful sight. It always gets another hug and kiss for her, and then she's fine after we leave. We confirmed at the doctor's office that this is perfectly normal at her age.

She got one shot (Hep B), and she did great, and only cried for a minute.

The doctor told us that it's rare at Emily's age for a baby to have an allergy to dairy, and she thought it would be a good idea for us to try reintroducing some dairy into her diet to see how things went. Today, we took some of her yogurt blends to school, and Miss Amanda said she gave her about half of one and it didn't go well. Her little belly started reacting again, and she was working on a diaper rash again by the time she came home. We decided it was enough to get rid of the dairy for good though--at least until she's a little older.

First Snow!

In case you read the previous post and thought we didn't get outside to let Emily experience her first snowfall, I thought I should elaborate a little on our day today. We got up this morning and had about 3 inches of snow on the ground, with some still falling. We decided we'd take all three girls for a walk, so after Emily was all bundled up, off we went!

Then we went outside to take some pictures--it's really too bad we don't have an easy way to get a picture of all three of us together!

These were outside on our back deck.

Emily seemed happy to get back in the house when our walk was over. She still enjoyed watching it snow from the window though.

Even Gracie and Bella were glad to get back inside and cozy up on the couch.

Nine Months Old: What's Happening

This month has been one of the most exciting for Emily and for us when it comes to devlopment. It seems like yesterday she was just learning to sit up on her own, and now she's rarely satisfied just to sit--she'd rather be pulling up, cruising around or crawling, and getting into everything! She's so much fun to play with and seems like she enjoys life so much.

In her ninth month, Emily has perfected her cruising, and can now easily move between pieces of furniture or along the sides of her fence. Nothing goes unnoticed with her--she is very perceptive and likes finding hidden objects (especially our phones, cameras, remote controls, or anything else she isn't supposed to have).

She's becoming a proficient little eater too--some of the new foods she's tried this month are scrambled egg yolks, cheese, avocado, tortellini, blueberries and apple cinnamon puffs. The eggs are a favorite, along with the pasta. The puffs were mainly a starter that helped her learn to pick up small pieces, but she seems to still like the texture of them. And speaking of eating, it was this month that we switched to soy formula after ten long days of diarrhea and a very fussy little girl. She seems thrilled with the change, and we just couldn't be happier about the difference it's made.

Emily is still teething of course, although we haven't seen any more pearly whites peeking through her gums yet.

Emily saw her first snow on the day she turned 9 months old! She will surely enjoy it much more when she's a little older--for now, she seemed content to watch it from inside, so we skipped the snowman building.
She has her 9-month checkup on Monday, so there will be more updates then!

White Christmas!

It has started snowing tonight, and we're sure hoping there will be enough around in the morning for little Emily to experience!

Favorite Toy

One of the things we bought Emily for Christmas was a fence/play yard that we set up in the living room. She has such a good time crawling and walking around that we wanted to give her a safe area with plenty of room so she wouldn't get bored if we couldn't be down on the floor with her.

We've started calling it her pig pen, and our little piglet just loves it. She is so content playing with her toys, it's a great place for her to be when we're cooking dinner, but there's also enough room for us to get in with her.

Of all of her toys, Daddy is still her favorite thing to play on!

Little Elf

Mick's family will be coming in town next weekend, and we'll be celebrating Christmas with them on New Years. Today was just about our family and being together at home. It was a wonderful day! Emily's little Santa suit was perfect to keep her warm when we went for a long walk this morning.

Aunt Tennille gave Emily a kit to make her own handprint ornament, and we waited until today to make it. I wanted to get a picture of her actually making it, but it was a two-person job just to hold her and get her hand in the plaster. Gracie and Bella weren't up for using the camera, so we had to settle for an after-shot. We think it looks perfect on the tree.

The best thing about the day was that we both had plenty of snuggle time with our little elf!

Mommy's Little Helper

I worked from home this morning because we had a 1/2 day holiday this afternoon, and it didn't seem worth it to drive in to the office. I was also looking forward to keeping Emily at home with me!

I did some laundry, including her favorite blanket, and as I was taking it out of the dryer, Miss Emily came in to help out. She was trying so hard to get in the basket with the clothes, so I helped her in...she loved it! I can't say that I blame her though--there's nothing better than warm, clean clothes right out of the dryer.

Now if I can just convince her to leave the clothes in the basket instead of throwing them all on the floor!

Nice Surprise

My parents called earlier in the weekend to let us know they were coming to Charlotte for a funeral today, but they weren't sure if they would have a chance to come by since they were traveling with another couple. This afternoon, they called and were only about 10 minutes away. The other couple had something else to do, so they stopped by for a couple of hours.

Emily was long overdue for a nap, but refused to go to sleep--she had a great time playing with her grandma and grandpa, and showed off all of her new acrobatics. She even tried to give kisses to her grandma. She still doesn't quite understand that her mouth shouldn't be wide open.

I think she believes it's play time when a man is holding her, and snuggle time when a woman is holding her. That's usually the way she is with Mick and me :).

Bonus Visit

On the way to visit Santa today, Emily also got to meet Rudolph in one of the store displays. She went right for the bright, shiny nose!

Visit with Santa

We wanted to have Emily's picture taken with Santa, but have put it off until the last minute and were sort of dreading standing in line at the mall. When we got there, we found out there was a much easier process--we put our names in and received a pager and an approximate time to return. We then were able to walk around and shop, and Emily even took a little nap while we waited. Our pager went off and we walked right up for the picture.
There was a lot going on and she wasn't exactly sure what to focus on until Santa brought out the coloring book. He really knew what he was doing--our little girl does love books :).

Fun Stuff

We've been so busy worrying about Emily getting better that I've forgotten to post updates on some of the fun stuff she's been doing!

She pulls up on everything now, and loves the windows where she can see outside. Bella is a little jealous that she's not the one on the inside looking out!

She's Back!

The fact that we should have thought to switch Emily to soy formula two weeks ago does bother us, but the fact that she's back to herself makes up for it.We've been letting her go without her diaper as much as possible to help dry out the diaper rash, and she just loves it.Tonight before her bath, she got in some good crawling time on our bed.

Soy Baby

What a rough couple of weeks little Emily has had! Yesterday when I called to check on her, Miss Amanda told me she'd had diarrhea all day again, and just wasn't acting like herself.

I called her pediatrician's office and they told me if I could be there by 4:30, they'd work her in yesterday afternoon. I left work, picked up Emily and got to their office right at 4:30. After almost an hour, a doctor came in and agreed that 10 days was too long for her to continue to struggle with diarrhea on and off. She decided to get a sample for testing, thinking that this could be bacteria or even a parasite. She also advised us to switch to soy formula, and told us about a kind specially formulated for treating diarrhea.

The doctor also wrote another prescription for an antifungal cream, since Emily now has a yeast infection as a result of the diaper rashes!

We bought the soy formula, and Emily drank her bottle last night like she was completely famished! She was in bed asleep by 6:30, woke up around 4:30 this morning and ate, and then went back to sleep.

She had a great morning, so we were optimistic that maybe the problem was lactose intolerance all along. She had a good day all day today with no diarrhea!

Maybe the soy was the answer all along!

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

We actually started decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving, but have just gotten around to taking a few pictures. I just love the way the stockings look on the fireplace.

Still Sick

Poor little Emily has had a very rough week! We ended up taking her back to the doctor this morning. Her diarrhea hasn't completely stopped, and she had a fever last night and this morning of 101.5. She's not drinking as much as she normally does, and her wet diapers are almost nonexistent.

She's just not herself--she wants to be happy, but you can tell she just doesn't feel well. Unfortunately, the doctor told us there isn't much more we can do than just wait it out and try to keep her hydrated. She's lost about half a pound since we were there on Thursday (she's 17.13 lbs today), but isn't showing any signs of being dehydrated yet.

We got home from the doctor and she took a 3 hour nap! We're hoping that she'll continue to improve this afternoon. It's just heartbreaking to see her feeling sick.

Hip Update

Today was Emily's follow up appointment with the orthopedic specialist in Charlotte. We were referred to him by her pediatrician, and went prepared with all of her records from Dr. Schrader's office in Atlanta. We even had the DVDs of her ultrasounds from past appointments. Unfortunately, we didn't fall in love with this doctor quite like we did with Dr. Schrader. He was nice enough, but for me, just didn't instill the same level of confidence.

Emily went back for an x-ray (they used ultrasounds before since there was so much cartilage--now that her bones are hardening, they can use an x-ray and see more detail), and here's what we saw.

Dr. Brighton told us he still saw evidence of slight hip dysplasia on the left side, but nothing that he felt should worry us. Her right hip continues to look perfectly normal. We know her legs are strong and certainly don't bother her at all, because she bounces, crawls, pulls up and cruises nonstop!

He wants to see her back in 4 months when he can do a standing x-ray and said they should know more at that point. He believes that her hips will continue to form normally and that she'll have no problems. Yes, this is great news--I guess I just wanted something a little more definite.

Not Feeling Well

Today was the second day this week we've gotten a call from Gateway to let us know Emily wasn't quite herself. Mick took half a day off on Tuesday and stayed at home with her because I had interviews scheduled that I couldn't rearrange. Then today, I scheduled an appointment with her pediatrician and stayed home with her after that.

The good news is that she's not really sick--the doctor said her ears look perfect, and her lungs and everything sound fine. She is much fussier than normal, and has a severe diaper rash. She's had some diarrhea over the past couple of days, and the frequency just makes it difficult for her skin to heal. It breaks my heart to change her diaper because she's so pitiful. The doctor gave her a prescription cream to help with it, so hopefully that will help do the trick overnight tonight!

I hate to find a silver lining to our sweet girl not feeling well, but if there is one, it's that she's so cuddly and just wants to be held. It's tempting to rock her to sleep and just hold her every time she naps! She's also much more subdued than usual--I put a towel down and let her go without a diaper for a little while to try to air out her rash, and she was perfectly content to lie on the loveseat while I sat in the floor next to her and worked.

For a little girl who wanted nothing to do with a pacifier for her first eight months, she has become quite attached to it within the last week. It is sometimes the only thing that soothes her when her little teeth are bothering her. I'm glad we didn't get rid of it!

Big Girl Baths

We have continued to use Emily's baby bathtub because it offered some support for her and she seemed to like lying back in it during her bath. Lately though, she has started trying to climb out of it, and we knew she needed to graduate to the big girl bathtub.

Her daddy and I probably went a little overboard with the bath toys, but it's so much fun to play with all of them...I mean, to watch Emily play with all of them :). She does love bathtime. And check out that belly!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

We have really been getting some winter weather lately, and we decided Emily needed a new hat to keep her head and ears warm. I don't know why everything we find and like has ears on it, but this is about the cutest little thing ever.

It has gloves to match, so we think she'll stay toasty warm!

Busy Girl

Emily is very busy these days trying new things--she is pulling up and beginning to cruise around furniture now. Still clumsily, but she's extremely determined, so she always gets where she wants to, even if she has to crawl halfway.

When I picked her up from day care on Thursday, her teacher had written "Emily is starting to wave at friends" on her daily info sheet. She has been working on waving for a while now, but is really starting to understand when to do it and what it means. Her teachers told me they need to put her on the payroll because she's so happy and friendly when they tour parents of prospective new kids through the center.

Christmas Time

It's almost winter time, and Christmas is just around the corner! We decided to go pick out a tree this morning--we've always felt like if we don't decorate right after Thanksgiving, it's almost not worth the trouble because the month flies by so quickly.

Emily has always loved being outside, and this morning was no different. She seemed to love seeing and touching all the trees!

We knew it would be a challenge keeping Emily away from the tree, but still decided to set it up in the living room, where we spend most of our time. The look on her face when the lights went on was just priceless--pure awe and fascination. It's what I imagine every little kid looks like when they see their first Christmas tree.

She has found a couple of favorite branches that she can touch easily, but I'm trying to keep the ornaments and hooks out of her reach.

A few of these were moved shortly after this picture was taken :).

Eight Months Old: What's Happening

Every month, I feel like I comment on how unbelievable it is that another month has passed, and on how much Emily is doing, but I just can't get over how quickly the days are flying by. Eight months ago today, our lives changed in a way we couldn't even imagine yet. Emily continues to be the sweetest gift we've ever given each other, and we feel like we can never get enough of her.

This month has been full of exciting activity! Emily has learned to sit up on her own, and gets faster and more skillful at it each day. She is so determined that she'll sometimes sit up in her crib to play--the other day, I put her down for a nap, and when I came downstairs and turned on the monitor, she was sitting up playing and singing. I knew she was so tired that she'd run out of energy soon--and sure enough, we watched her on the monitor until she fell asleep sitting up, and fell over in the crib! It was hilarious and adorable.

She's getting stronger and faster with her crawl--she still isn't completely on her hands and knees--she seems to prefer the military-like crawl on her forearms for now, but it certainly gets her where she wants to go, and quickly! Last week when I picked her up from day care, she crawled over to me and held her arms up for me to take her. I almost cried right there in front of her teachers!

Emily's pulling herself up to stand every chance she gets. She hasn't started cruising around furniture, but is strong and has a terrific grip once she stands up, so it probably won't be long.

Her two bottom teeth are very evident now, and she's showing so many signs of teething that we know the top ones are coming any day now. This month, she fed herself for the first time--sort of unintentionally though. She was trying to play with the pieces of banana I had on her high chair tray and accidentally got one in her mouth :). She hasn't gotten the pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger) down yet, so she still grabs with her whole hand most of the time.

She's becoming more vocal now. She's added la, ba and ma to her vocabulary, and I really think she associates Mick with da. She says da, da, da every time she sees him. She also says it sometimes when she seees Gracie and Bella, but I think it's because I keep telling her "dog" when they're nearby. The "ma" has only been a couple of times, and there is for sure no association with it, but we'll get there. For now, I'll certainly take her bright little smile and reaching hands every time she sees me!

Emily is a constant joy to us, and it's an adventure just waiting to see what she'll do next!

First Thanksgiving

We always have Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with Mick's, and Charlotte is about the most central location for all of my family to get together. Jason, Jenn and Cody got to our house Wednesday evening, and Julie flew in a little later that night. Then my parents and grandmother (my mom's mom) came down Thursday morning.

Jason and Mick deep fried the turkey--this is the third year they've done that, and this one turned out better than ever!

As usual, there was way too much food in general, but everything was scrumptious.

No one had seen Emily since she's mastered all of her new tricks, so she and Cody provided nonstop entertainment for everyone, including each other. It's incredible to think that last Thanksgiving, I was having my 3D ultrasound performed...this year, we have a precious little girl to enjoy!

Emily's great grandma got to meet her for the first time, and my mom suggested we take a "four generation" photo--it's difficult to get everyone at just the right time, but this was our best shot.

Thanksgiving Art

Here's another beautiful art project--it's actually a magnet, and is of course displayed proudly on the refrigerator!

New Toys

Emily's grandma gave her a cool new toy when she was here for a couple of days last week--it's a magnetic barn with different animals that you put together--they play music and sing songs and make barnyard sounds. It's really cute, and as I was putting groceries away today, I decided it would be a good time to take it out. Emily has started crawling around the house to follow us from room to room, so it's nice to have something she can play with wherever we go. She sat in the floor this afternoon and played with this for the longest time.

Most of the magnets didn't stay on the refrigerator for long--she pulled them all off to chew on them :).

Sippy Cup

Things are happening so quickly with Emily--it seems like she learns something new every day now. She's been a fan of her sippy cup for a while now (we bought her one with a rubbery nipple-like spout, which is supposed to make it easier for her to transition from a bottle), but she's now figuring out how to actually drink out of it instead of just chewing on the handles or the spout.

Crawling!

Emily has been working so hard at crawling, and she's almost got it! She can definitely get where she wants to go (quickly!), but isn't quite up off of her belly yet. It's a little like a crab scurrying across the floor, and it's just the cutest thing ever. When I picked her up from day care this afternoon, Miss Amanda asked me if she had crawled at home yet. I told her what she'd done this morning, and she said she was all over the classroom today!

Weekend Away

We made plans to go out of town this weekend with my two closest friends from college--Tennille and Neely--and their families. We all met up at Kerr Lake in Clarksville, VA and rented a house on the lake.

It was a lot of fun, and great to see everybody and spend some time together! This is far from the way we used to hang out in college, but I think we're better than ever :).

First Diaper Rash

Emily has been fortunate for almost 8 months now to have never had a diaper rash. When I picked her up yesterday afternoon, she had a really bad one, and seemed so uncomfortable. We've used plenty of diaper cream though, and it already appears to be improving drastically. I've heard it's common to have a diaper rash during teething, so we think that probably explains it.

Pumping Days Are Over

Today was a sad day for me--it was the first day since Emily was born that she didn't start the day with breastmilk, and it marked the end of my pumping days. After I got sick a few weeks ago, it seemed like my milk supply never fully recovered, and I gradually got to the point where I was only pumping twice a day, and then only once in a 24 hour period. Last night, I made the decision to put the pump away for good.

I cried as I fed Emily a bottle of formula this morning, but she didn't seem to mind at all! I know I've given her a great start, and while I wish things had turned out differently, I think we're both better off if I try to believe I did the best I possibly could with breastfeeding. We certainly had our fair share of obstacles, but I would go back and do it all again if I could.

New Trick

Emily seems determined to stand up, but hasn't mastered crawling yet! This afternoon, she was trying to touch Bella through the side of her pack 'n play, so I helped her stand up, where she reached over the side and let Bella lick her hand. When she grabbed onto the side, I let her go for a minute and she hung on! Standing up really excites her. Who knows? May she'll be one of those babies who skips crawling and goes right to cruising :).

Emily's 7 Month Photos

Here's a link to the gallery from our last session with the photographer: click here!

First School Pictures

Wednesday was picture day at Gateway--Emily was sent home with a flyer a couple of weeks ago where we could prepay and buy a package of pictures. Of course, even though we haven't seen the pictures yet, we had to buy them! Luckily, they weren't expensive at all, and they'll be a nice memento, even if they don't turn out great :). We can't wait to see them!

Little Ballerina

We didn't go all out with a Halloween costume for the first year because Emily goes to bed so early that we knew we wouldn't go trick or treating with her.

We also knew that she'd just end up wanting to eat whatever costume she had on!

We just put the tutu on long enough for some pictures (the headband and flower didn't even stay on that long!). This evening, we did go over to have dinner with some friends and walked around their neighborhood for a little while before we decided it was time to head home and get the princess to bed.

We're quite certain that next year will be a whole different story!