12 Weeks Old: What's Happening

Probably the biggest change this week is that I've cried as much as I did immediately after Emily was born (which was a lot). I've spent more time away from her this week than I ever have before (the longest stint was 4 hours), in hopes that going away gradually would help make this easier. It hasn't. When I'm away from Emily, it feels like there's a part of me missing--after all, she has been with me everywhere I've gone for the past year! Mick commented the other day that for two people who used to have work as our first priority, we certainly have changed. He's so right--looking back, we probably often even neglected each other in order to work harder, or longer hours, and at the end of the day, we sometimes didn't have much left by the time we got home. One of the incredible things Emily has done for us is make us reprioritize, which we obviously desperately needed to do! Now, as I think about returning to work on Monday, I realize that I'd give up the great job that I've worked hard for in a heartbeat if I could stay with this sweet little angel we've created together. The only thing making this return to work a bit more bearable is the fact that I know Emily will be loved unconditionally by her grandma!

This week has been so hectic it seems that not much has changed developmentally with Emily. She is now laughing, which is the most adorable thing you've ever seen. She's becoming increasingly aware of her surroundings, and will usually fight sleep in order to stay awake and take everything in. This has become a little frustrating, since we're constantly worried that she isn't getting enough sleep. We're now learning to adjust everything around the harness she's wearing too--we were making some great breakthroughs with sleep, but she obviously can't wear the Woombie with the harness on, so she has had several very restless nights since Wednesday. By 2 or 3am most nights, I end up letting her sleep on my chest just so she'll finally rest. We're determined to figure something out though!

Emily seems to be reverting back to a very fussy stage in the last week or two. She was doing great for several weeks, but now seems to cry almost all the time. Sometimes she just doesn't like the position she's being held in, or she wants you to walk her around, or she's overtired and can't settle down on her own. She's also wanting to eat every two hours again, which makes me think she's going through a 3-month growth spurt. The fact that we're now upsetting every routine she had is surely not helping!

So it seems as if all I have to write this week is negative--and I didn't sit down with that in mind when I started this week's update! We continue to have wonderful days too, but of course, those aren't the ones we rack our brains trying to fix :).