13 Weeks Old: What's Happening

The biggest change we've noticed this week is that Emily is becoming quite skilled at grabbing things (blankets, burp cloths, or our shirts) and putting them in her mouth. She's even surprised herself and gotten a hold of a couple of toys, including a rattle that amused her for at least 20 minutes and made her forget she was hungry!

She is still fighting sleep, both during the day and at night, and for two people who would give almost anything to have some uninterrupted sleep, we're just baffled. Understandably, she prefers to sleep while being held, but we keep expecting her to become a more independent sleeper, and we continue to try putting her down almost every time she falls asleep. We get to a point though, where we feel like her sleeping is more important than where she's doing it, so sometimes we just end up holding her while she naps.

It seems like Emily gets more and more fond of bath time every night--that's the only time of the day she gets her hip harness off, so she stretches her legs and toes and kicks like crazy. She's quite the water splasher now, and I don't think we'll be able to contain her in the baby bathtub for much longer!

The first week back to work definitely had its ups and downs (more for Mick and me than for Emily). She is adjusting quickly to her grandma, and the biggest problem now is that Grandma never gets anything done for rocking the sweet girl!

Sleeping Update

We made some adjustments to the Woombie so Emily could still sleep in that with her harness on. She is now eating her bedtime bottle at about 7:30 pm each night, right after her bath. She'll go to sleep pretty easily after that, but normally takes a little while for me to be able to put her down--she wants to continue to be held! After she's in the bassinet (by around 8:30 pm), she sleeps great until about 1:30 am. At that point, she begins to wake up but seems to only want her pacifier. She immediately falls back to sleep once we give it to her--the problem is that she won't keep it in her mouth! So after one of us gets out of bed 6-8 times to replace the pacifier, we pick her up and put her in bed with us. After that, she sleeps fairly well until about 5:00 am. We've done this for the last several nights--I don't think it's a long term solution, but it seems to be the way we all get the most sleep right now.

Back to Work

Monday proved to be one of the most difficult days of my life--none of the preperatory classes we took got me ready to get up in the morning and leave this precious little bundle!

We had planned to transition Emily to bottles during the day at least over the weekend so we'd know what to expect when I went back to work; unfortunately, she has been refusing to breastfeed since about Thursday, after she was fitted in her harness. I don't think she can get in a good position, and I know how uncomfortable it must be for her to try. So the switch to bottles happened a little earlier than expected, and now she's eating 4 ounces with every feeding, and is wanting to eat every 2 hours! It makes me happy that our little girl has turned into such a piglet, but it worries me that I won't be able to keep up with her by pumping now. After only one day at work, we're halfway through my freezer stash (yes, now I realize I should have been storing milk a lot longer than I did), and it takes me at least two sessions at the pump to get enough milk for one feeding.

I've increased the number of times I'm pumping now, and hopefully will be able to increase my supply--I'm also planning on eating lots of oatmeal, which is said to boost milk volume as well. I sure didn't want to have to consider supplementing with formula this early, but I'm afraid we might soon be faced with that.

Happy Father's Day

Dear Daddy,

What an eventful first three months we've had! I hope you've been as happy with me so far as I have been with you. I love our early morning snuggle time and playing on the living room floor with you. I'm glad you let me share your recliner--it makes for the best naps while we're watching the Golf Channel! I'm still not sure I'll want to play golf with you rather than go shopping with Mama when I get bigger, but you can keep trying to convince me.

I'm sorry if it seems like I cry all the time--I'm not unhappy, I just don't know any other way to talk to you right now, so whenever I'm hungry or tired or just want to be cuddled, I cry. One day, you'll probably wish I would open up and talk to you and Mama a little more, so remember that when you're wanting me to be quiet now! Thank you for being patient and loving me no matter how much trouble I am.

I can tell how much you and Mama love each other, and how hard you work to make sure I'll have a good life. You took such good care of us when Mama was pregnant, and I know you'll keep doing that now that I'm here and an official part of the family. Now if we could only get those two big furry dogs to keep quiet when I'm napping, this would be the perfect place to live!

When I was growing in Mama's belly, I heard you talk to me and give me kisses all the time, and I couldn't wait to meet you. You have sure turned out to be just as cool as Mama told me you were, and I'm glad you're my Daddy.

Happy First Father's Day!
Love, Wiggles

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 :).

Hip Update

Today was Emily's follow up ultrasound on her hips, and we had gotten such great news last time, I guess we sort of expected the same thing today. Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as planned--Emily's ultrasound showed that her left hip is still shallow, meaning the ball isn't as deep in the socket as they'd like. The bone doesn't move any more when the doctor applies pressure, which is a good thing; however, they measure the angle of the hip bones and look for 60 degrees or greater--her right hip is over 70, but her left hip is between 56-58. That's the same angle it was a month ago, so there wasn't the continued improvement we were hoping for.

The doctor has put Emily in a Pavlik Harness for what we hope will turn out to only be a month or two. She'll have checkups every two weeks, and ultrasounds every four weeks until her hip is where it needs to be. This thing actually looks a little like a medieval torture device--I'm quite sure it hurts me more to see her in it than it does for her to wear it. She fights really hard as it's being fastened on, and seems a little uncomfortable, but I'm sure she'll get used to it. It makes it very difficult to breastfeed, since she cannot lie on her side (she has to stay in this position with her legs apart at all times). I've held her in my lap with her legs straddling me and that works okay, but she's obviously not nearly as comfortable, and I really miss that snuggle time we had together. It's also very difficult to change her diapers because the harness is supposed to stay on all the time.

As easy as it is to complain about this and wish she didn't have to wear it, we know it could be so much worse, and we really are grateful that she has two beautiful little legs, and this will help her hip grow perfectly. We know it's the best thing we can do for her right now, so the inconvenience seems a small price to pay.

11 Weeks Old: What's Happening

I feel like every week I'm writing about how much Emily smiles and plays now, but it's more and more each day, and it's so much fun to interact with her. She loves mornings, and having her diaper changed. I'm not sure if she enjoys playing on the changing table or being naked more, but both seem to make her very happy. She's also in a great mood right after she wakes up, or right after she eats (as we all are, I guess). Sometimes she'll even stop nursing mid-way and look up at me and smile. It's enough to melt your heart :)!

This week, we've noticed that she's started sucking on her hands and fingers a lot more. She's trying hard to ger her entire fist into her mouth, and she's gotten pretty close a few times! We feel like she'll discover her thumb or a couple of favorite fingers soon, but for now she likes the whole hand. She's also starting to grab a lot (mostly our shirts or a blanket) and will put those in her mouth too. She's great at grabbing ahold of the pacifier and pulling it out of her mouth...she's not too skilled at putting it back in yet :). Luckily, although she sometimes wants the pacifier to help her fall asleep, she always spits it out when she goes to sleep and doesn't want it back (until 3am!).

Speaking of 3am, Emily is doing better at sleeping through the night, and we're trying our best to get a better routine down. She normally sleeps now until around 4or 5am, but we haven't been putting her in bed until late...last night, it was 11pm! She usually sleeps on one of us for a couple of hours until we put her in the bassinet.

This week is pretty sad for me since it was my last week at home alone with my sweet girl. Only one more week until I go back to work, and thankfully, my mom has agreed to come stay with us temporarily and keep Emily until I transition back to work. She'll be here with us next week, and Mick and I are both so relieved to know that Emily will be with someone who loves her!

Just like Daddy

Everyone has been saying how much Emily looks like Mick since she was born--I didn't really realize it until his mom recently brought me some of his baby pictures!

So the bassinet was worth it...

Some of you probably remember that we bought two bassinets before Emily was born. The first one was from a lady on craigslist--it was a bargain, but we both ended up hating it and we donated it at Babies 'R Us for a discount on a new one. We loved the new one, and had visions of our sweet baby coming home from the hospital and loving her bassinet. We had it set up by our bed, but shortly after we came home, we realized things weren't quite going to happen as we thought. Mick has a bad habit of destroying the box and packing material for things like this bassinet, so there was no hope of returning it, and we were certain it had been a waste of money.

This week, we decided to try the bassinet beside our bed, and it worked! I'm not posting a picture because we won't dare have a flash in her face and risk waking her up :). Every night seems to get a little easier, and she seems to sleep a little more soundly. Next step will be her crib!

10 Weeks Old: What's Happening

I've posted several times about how well Emily has been sleeping...but that's not the whole story. She's definitely not consistent yet. Last night, she only slept for 2 1/2 hours before waking up to eat--the night before, it was about 6 hours. So we never really know what to expect when we put her down at night, and we don't have a real routine. From what I've been reading though, it's not uncommon to not have a sleep routine at this age, and sometimes not until 3-6 months. Right now, we're just grateful for the nights when we have those long stretches of sleep!

I've also read that whether your baby is a night owl or a morning lark, that pattern will probably stay the same throughout childhood. Mick is thrilled about this, because he's an early morning person and is looking forward to spending that time with Emily as she gets older.

She's beginning to have much better control of her head, and enough to hold it up for short periods when she's sitting up. She's not terrific at pushing up with her arms just yet, but we're working on it. She's so curious about everything around her, I know it won't be long until she's doing baby push ups!

The other milestone this week--Emily laughed in her sleep! I can hardly wait until she does it while she's wide awake :).

Mama's or Daddy's Girl?

These are a couple of my favorite pictures so far of us with our sweet little girl! We're both trying hard to be her favorite :).

All Night Long

Emily slept for SEVEN HOURS STRAIGHT last night! I gave her a bath and put her in her pajamas, then we settled down in in her room for a big dinner. After that, I zipped her up in the Woombie, rocked her to sleep and put her in the bassinet around 9:45 pm. She didn't wake up until 4:45 am! Mick and I didn't sleep very well though--we both kept waking up to make sure she was okay :). Now that we know she can do that though, hopefully we'll all be sleeping better!

What's a little strange is that she's been sleeping a lot yesterday and today too. Every time she eats, she falls asleep before she's finished nursing, so I'm a little worried that she isn't eating enough, but she seems perfectly content. I can't imagine that she'd sleep this well if she was hungry. Funny that one thing improves and we find something else to worry about!

9 Weeks Old: What's Happening

It's amazing how much Emily changes and grows each week! She seems to be becoming a better listener because she'll have conversations now--when Mick or I talk to her, she responds with the sweetest little sounds. It's the most beautiful music we've ever heard! We just know she'll be laughing any day now, because some of her noises sound like the start of a laugh.

She's really becoming aware of everything around her--this week, Gracie and Bella started barking when Mick pulled in the driveway, and Emily was actually startled enough to quit nursing and stick out her bottom lip like she wanted to cry. She quickly realized everything was okay though, and went right back to having dinner :).

Sleeping is gradually getting better--the first time she wakes up after going to bed is usually 1:45 or 2 am. We're still working on getting her to bed early though. She's really tired by 7:30 or 8 pm most nights, but by the time Mick gets home, we rush to eat dinner, feed Emily and get her settled down and in the Woombie so we can sneak her in the bassinet, it's more like 9:30 or 10 pm by the time she's sleeping. She is still having trouble falling asleep on her own at night, so we can't just put her down and walk away. We'll get there though!

This is one of my favorite pictures yet--she just looks so incredibly relaxed. We had friends over for dinner and grilled out last night, and this was her pre-dinner nap with Daddy.

Breakthrough!

I have hesitated to post this for the past few days, not wanting to ruin our streak of good luck by bragging, but now I just can't wait any longer. I think we've had a breakthrough in our sleeping saga...Emily has slept on her own in the bassinet for the past THREE NIGHTS! Mick had bought a smaller bassinet that actually fits in our bed, hoping that would make the transition a little easier--but she wouldn't have anything to do with it until this week. We've gradually gotten her used to it, but we think the trick was the Woombie! Tricia and Natalie recommended this, and it has been fantastic. It's the same idea as swaddling, but zips up the front and is made of stretchy fabric so Emily can still move her arms and legs around in it--she just can't startle herself awake with those flying arms. Our next step will be moving her to the bigger bassinet so she's not in our bed anymore. That might be a bigger challenge!

Two Month Checkup

Emily had her two-month checkup with Dr. Bramwell today, and she's doing fantastic! She's up to 9 lbs, 9.6 oz and 21 1/4 inches. We can tell she's growing because she's actually fitting into some of her 3 month clothes now. She can still wear the newborn sizes, but they're getting a little snug. It's nice to be able to expand the choices a little since we received so many sweet little 3 month outfits at the baby shower! Emily looks so cute in all of these little girly dresses and sunsuits.

I've struggled a lot with the vaccination decision--we thought about an alternative schedule, and just didn't know what was the right thing to do. I've read a lot about it and seen a lot of different opinions on TV, but we ultimately decided to go with the doctor's recommended "normal" schedule. That meant that Emily got three shots in her thighs and one oral vaccine today (a combination of six different vaccines that she'll have to repeat at 4 and 6 months). It was hard to watch someone hurt this sweet little girl that we've done nothing but try to protect over the last two months! Definitely a lot more difficult than I expected--for Mick and me, not necessarily for her. She did turn bright red and cry, but was fine once we picked her up and held her. I, on the other hand, was still crying as I tried to get her dressed and buckled into the carseat! She slept all day long after we got home, which is expected, but far from our tyical day!

8 Weeks Old: What's Happening

I can hardly believe it's been two months since little Emily made her debut! She's getting so much bigger and has the sweetest personality. She's definitely a snuggler, and sometimes just wants to be held--which does make it difficult to get anything done, but also makes me sad when I think about only having 4 more weeks at home with her! I'm just trying to cherish every second I have with her while she's this little because it's already going by too fast.

Emily does have the sweetest smile, and will even flash it mid-cry if you do just the right thing! She's such a curious little thing too--we're wondering if she sometimes fights sleep just so she can keep an eye on everything going on around her. She still isn't much of a daytime sleeper; I can usually get her to nap "unassisted" in the mornings long enough to take a shower and brush my teeth, but by the time I've dried my hair, she's waking up. She can fall asleep on her own, but 30 minutes is her maximum nap time before she wants to be held again. Nighttime is typically much better for sleep--she's ready for bed by around 9pm, and almost always goes until about 1am before waking up to eat again. Once in a while, she'll even go 5 hours! After that one long stretch, she'll wake up every 3 hours like clockwork.

We're still working on getting her to sleep on anything other than her mama at night, and we're making a little progress, but still not where we need to be quite yet. We bought a mobile and she loves it, but the music and movement only lasted about 3 minutes before you had to wind it up again, so we bought a different one that plays up to 20 minutes and has a remote control! The box says it's so you don't disturb the baby, but we all know it's to make it easier on us :). If it works and helps her fall asleep on her own, it will be worth the two mobiles.

Another thing Emily is trying to do is stand up--of course, we know she isn't really going to stand up, but she's bearing weight on her feet if she's in your lap (and sometimes even when I'm putting her in the Moby wrap). She's also getting stronger with her head and arms, and we think she'll be pushing up in no time when she's on her tummy!

Good News

Most of you know that the pediatrician who saw Emily in the hospital felt a hip click, which he said could be an indicator of hip dysplasia. This would potentially turn into a significant problem as she got older and started to crawl and walk. They check the severity with ultrasounds, but like to wait to do them until babies are at least 6 weeks old, so we've been double diapering her since she was born, hoping to keep her legs in kind of a squat position, which helps her hips grow at the correct angles. Today was Emily's much anticipated hip ultrasound!

The great news is that her hips are showing a lot of improvement! The doctor said her right hip is perfectly normal, and her left is about 4 degrees from perfect. Rather than putting her in a harness that she'd have to wear 24 hours a day for the next 6-12 weeks, he said he recommended giving her another 4 weeks to see if they continued to improve. We'll go back for another ultrasound then, and will know the verdict! The cool thing is that two of the things she's been doing (and we've been trying to change) are turning out to be the most beneficial for her hips. Her position while she's sleeping (on my chest every night with her legs bent up under her), and her position in the Moby wrap have both been helping her over the past 7 weeks! So maybe everything really does happen for a reason :).

7 Weeks: What's Happening

It seems like Emily is visibly growing every day. She's more awake and alert during the day, and loves to play on the changing table. She always responds with smiles when you talk to her or tickle her, and is starting to make a lot of really sweet sounds, other than crying! She's now able to really focus on toys and and follow things that we'll hold up or move back and forth in front of her. She also seems to like watching the ceiling fans, and we bought a mobile that she's fascinated with this week. She's getting really strong, and holding her head up like a pro!
When she's fussy, she seems to enjoy a change of scenery--she loves going outside, and will normally get very quiet and wide-eyed when we walk in the front or back yard. It's been turning into a typical Georgia summer, so I try to get her out in the mornings or early evenings, when it's not quite so hot. Gracie and Bella enjoy having some company when they go outside too :).

Daddy's Smitten

By far, Emily's fussiest time of the day is in the evenings, from about 6-9pm. Mick has been frustrated since that's usually the only time he really gets to see her and sometimes it seems like she cries the whole time. It's been easy for him to get discouraged and feel like she doesn't like him--when the reality is that he sometimes just doesn't have the stamina at the end of the day to wait her out.

Tonight, he won and this was the result. I think Emily and Daddy are both in love. So sweet!

Bath Time

Emily is really starting to enjoy bath time, which is such a relief since she wasn't crazy about the first few. Today, she smiled the whole time, and never cried--even when I washed her hair (usually her least favorite part).

I just love the way she smells after she's all clean and I put lotion on her :).