Shop Til You Drop!

We've taken Emily shopping a couple of times lately, and she just loves it. As long as she has a full tummy, she acts like a little angel. She really enjoys riding in her stroller and looking at all the people and lights, and eats up all the attention she gets! Most of the time, the excitement gets to be too much for her and she has to take a little nap. This was in Babies 'R Us after she'd had all she could take.

My, how things change...

I was in Atlanta for a meeting yesterday and was driving home last night, hating that I got stuck in traffic and knowing I would miss giving Emily her bath and good night kisses. I started thinking about how much has changed in the last 4 1/2 months of our lives...

The songs that I find myself singing during the day are no longer those from the radio, but instead are the tunes from Emily's toys or lullibies.

Dinnertime conversation is usually about dirty diapers or the latest smile or laugh that has us enamoured.

Everything in our day is planned around feeding time, nap time or bath time.

We used to get up before the sun in order to get to work and have an early start--now we try to stay in bed that extra few minutes and wonder just how late we can leave and still make it in on time.

All of my organizational skills have gone out the window.

Gracie and Bella are no longer number one--they have taken a back seat to their new little sister (they're still a close second, though).

I think the changes are definitely for the better, even though it might not always feel that way! When you have something this sweet to come home to, it's hard to doubt it :).

Settling In

Emily seems to be really getting settled in the new house, which is amazing considering all the unpacking we have left to do! She has a ceiling fan to watch in almost every room (one of her favorite things), and a great backyard with lots of shade trees. She's also finding new places to get comfortable and take naps.

She's just growing so fast, and is doing new things all the time. She has now decided she's old enough to hold her own bottle!

Since she's not wearing the harness anymore, she can use the Bumbo and really seems to enjoy the different perspective--I think she was getting sick of lying down most of the time.

On a Roll!

I had to spend 3 days in Denver this week for work, and got home late Friday afternoon in need of some serious cuddle time with Emily. Luckily, she seemed to want the same thing, so we spent most of the afternoon together :). It's amazing how good it feels to hold her again after that long! I put her down on her tummy on a blanket in the floor so we could play a little, and she started working her arms and legs...before long, she rolled over onto her back! It was the first time she did it that it wasn't an accident--she really seemed to be working on it. Of course, when I got the video camera out, she wouldn't do it again. Still, it was nice to think she had saved her new trick for when I got home!

Moving Day

After a few crazy weeks, moving day arrived. We were a little nervous about the drive to Charlotte since Gracie, Bella and Emily have all been known to hate car trips. Gracie and Bella rode in the back seat of Mick's truck, and Emily took her usual spot in the carseat.

As you can see, it was a very traumatic trip for her--she slept for over 3 HOURS! We finally pulled over at a rest stop because it had been a long time since she had eaten, and we wanted to feed her before we met our landlords and picked up our keys.

Gracie and Bella needed to stretch their legs too, so Mick took them out and let them run around a little.

We got to Charlotte and met the landlords at 5:30 PM, picked up keys and unpacked the car and truck. We camped out in the living room floor, and the movers will be here in the morning to deliver our stuff!

Chaos

Wednesday through Friday of this week, we had movers in the house all day long packing up everything. Each day, we had fewer pieces of furniture until Friday we were left with the Pack 'n Play, a couple of air mattresses and one rocking chair! We had originally planned to camp out in our house until we drove to Charlotte on Sunday, but decided it just didn't make sense, and ended up getting a hotel room a few miles away. We were really glad we did, and Emily was as happy as she could be. She has such a sweet disposition and an easy going personality now (most of the time), and is a pleasure to take anywhere.

One Thing at a Time

We've had such a hectic few weeks lately, and yesterday we decided we needed to slow down a little. I was on my way home from the airport after having caught an earlier flight, excited that I'd be able to spend some time with Emily and accomplish some things tonight before bed. I was about 4 miles away from our house when the car in the lane beside me swerved into my lane and hit the side of my car. I wasn't hurt, but the car sure was. The police responded pretty quickly and issued the other driver a citation--it certainly could have turned out much worse than it did, but it just added one more thing for us to have to take care of now, which is more of a nuisance than anything.

When I got home, Mick and I talked and decided to hold off on changing everything in Emily's life right now until we get settled in Charlotte. We are letting her cry a little when we put her to bed at night--the last two nights, she'll cry for 10-15 minutes and then fall into a deep sleep. When she wakes up during the night though, we're still feeding her and putting her back to bed. We know we still have plenty of time to sleep train, and feel like it will be less traumatic if we aren't in the middle of moving.

Perfect Hips

Today will definitely go down as one of the best days in Emily's first four months. She had her hip ultrasound yesterday (the first one in five weeks, since she's been in the harness), but her follow up with the orthopedic specialist wasn't until today. I had to be in New Orleans for work, so Mick came home early to take Emily to her appointment. The doctor looked at her ultrasound and examined her hips, and said they're perfect and she no longer needs to wear the harness! We are absolutely ecstatic!

It's so nice to hold her now and let her get all snuggly and close, and it's even nicer to see her kick those perfect little legs around! She seems very excited, because her legs haven't stopped moving yet. She looks so much bigger because she can stretch all the way out--we feel like she's grown 6 inches overnight!

It probably sounds funny, but one of the other things I'm most looking forward to is changing her clothes more often--she could only wear a onesie with the harness on, and she has so many sweet little girly clothes that she has almost outgrown :).

4 Month Checkup

Emily had her 4-month checkup today with Dr. Bramwell, her pediatrician. She weighs 12 lbs, 7.4 oz now--what a growth spurt she's had! She's 23 1/2 inches long, and all of her measurements are in the 25th percentile now. So she's still on the small side for infants her age, but she's staying on track with her growth and developing perfectly.

Dr. Bramwell asked about the latest tricks Emily had mastered, so she showed all of them off--sitting up (with assistance), lifting up at almost a 90 degree angle while on her tummy, and trying to roll over. She told us we can start to introduce rice cereal any time now--I'm not sure Emily is quite ready, but we'll be trying it in the next couple of weeks, just to see what happens. She does watch more intently now as we eat, but seems to be perfectly content with just milk right now.

She also told us we shouldn't be using the Woombie any more at this point--that Emily needs to be able to get to her hands at night and doesn't need to be swaddled at 4 months. We're a little nervous about how sleeping will go without it, but we're willing to give it a try.

And speaking of sleeping, the doctor said it's time to start sleep training, and letting Emily "cry it out" some. She said she shouldn't be needing to eat in the middle of the night--Emily is still waking up pretty consistently to eat, and we've been feeding her since it puts her back to sleep much more easily than just the pacifier. Again, this makes us nervous, especially when you think about the fact that we've been working on making her stop crying for the last 16 weeks...and now we're expected to sit back and let her cry herself to sleep! This is gonna be tough.

Lots of changes to come, and I'm not sure we're prepared for all of them at once--what a week to be moving, on top of everything else!

Keeping Busy

If we could pick one word to describe Emily, it would probably be curious. She constantly keeps busy by checking out her surroundings, and seems to really enjoy sitting up so she can look around. The best positions for her in the harness are supposed to be on her back or on her tummy, but we've been thinking of getting something she could sit up in to give her a change of scenery. She sits up really well in the Bumbo seat, but can't stay in it with her harness on, so we bought her this little froggy jumper seat. She really enjoyed it, and we think she'll get a lot of use out of it as she gets a little older and more coordinated.

Emily is also getting a lot better with her hands, and she's really good at grabbing toys and taking them straight to her mouth! Mortimer the Moose was the first toy I bought for her before she was born, and she grabbed him today and chewed on his foot.

This teether was a gift from the baby shower, and she seems to like the taste of it now too!

16 Weeks Old

We can't believe our little Wiggles is 4 months old already! It has been the most eventful and rewarding 4 months of our lives. She'll visit the pediatrician on Monday and we can hardly wait to see how much she weighs. She's so much bigger and stronger, and seems to be doing new things every day. She'll also be going back for another hip ultrasound on Monday, so we'll find out on Tuesday how much longer she'll be in the harness.

We're planning a mini vacation at the beach with Uncle Jason, Aunt Jenn, Aunt Julie and (Uncle?) Albie in September, and we'll be staying in a condo with a kiddie pool and a lazy river--it will be Emily's first time really in the water, but we think she'll have a great time with her cousin Cody. We bought this sweet little bathing suit for her to wear on vacation, but just couldn't wait to try it on her--it's a 12 month size, so it's a little roomy, but they don't seem to make really small bathing suits for baby girls.

Road Warrior

This was a very eventful week for Emily--she spent more time in her carseat than she has since she was born, and she was such a trooper! She doesn't usually love the carseat anyway, and it seems to be uncomfortable for her with her harness on, so we planned in some extra stops.

We drove to Charlotte on Monday to look at some rental houses, and luckily, the third one was a charm! We loved the house, and talked with the owner about filling out an application. It seems a little unbelievable to us that with less than two weeks until we're supposed to be out of our house, we are just now securing a new place to live. We've been worried and anxious about this, but now we know we were just waiting for the right place.

Emily spent her first night in a hotel on Monday--the Hilton Charlotte Center City. Since this was our first road trip with her, we thought we way overpacked, but we ended up using everything we took. She slept in her pack 'n play and loved it, and I would sometimes put her in the bed with me in the mornings as she woke up.

Mama and Emily entertained each other during the day while I was in meetings--the hotel is connected to some shops and restaurants by an overstreet walkway, so they spent part of each day strolling around and exploring. Emily LOVES her stroller, and made lots of friends while she was there! She got so comfortable that she even fell asleep in the stroller once after a long day on the go.

As usual, one of Emily's favorite times of the day was bath time--we created a makeshift bathtub in the hotel sink, and as you can see, she made herself quite comfortable! It was hilarious.

I'm sure they felt like the walls were closing in on them by the end of the week, but selfishly, it was so nice to have them there with me.

On Wednesday, we got word that we were approved for the rental house but we needed to sign the lease and take care of a few more details, so Mick decided to drive up on Thursday afternoon. Mick and I met with our new landlords at 7:30 that evening, took care of everything, and Mick drove back home to Atlanta so he could be at home for work on Friday. We got a hotel room in south Charlotte so we didn't have to keep Emily in the car for another four hours. We hated to all be apart for another night, but felt like it was the best decision.

Friday night when everybody was finally back together, Emily and Daddy made up for lost time and took a nice long nap with each other (Daddy requested to be cut out of the picture).

It's All Good

We've had a very busy couple of weeks, and I know I'm behind on Wiggles Updates, so just wanted to let everyone know that things are fine. I had a somewhat successful trip home from Denver last week--I made it through security with every drop of milk I had pumped out there, and Emily woke up to eat literally 5 minutes after I walked in the door, so I got to snuggle with her a little, which was wonderful. I say somewhat successful because my flight was delayed, and of course there was nowhere to pump in the airport, so by the time I landed in Atlanta, it had been almost 7 hours since I pumped and I was completely miserable. Yes, I hooked up the battery pack and pumped in the car as I was driving home. I was convinced that if I was pulled over, I could make the officer understand that it was a necessity :).

As everyone knows, we're in the process of moving back to Charlotte from Atlanta. We were having no luck in selling our home, so we ended up renting it out. It happened a little more quickly than we anticipated, and our tenants are moving in by August 1! We also have the moving company packing our household goods up July 21-23, and planning to deliver in Charlotte on the 26th. Needless to say, we're trying to find somewhere for them to deliver that day, so we've been looking for houses to rent nonstop. Mick went to Charlotte on Friday to look at a bunch of places we'd lined up, but they were all terrible. It's amazing how different a place can look in person! Hopefully we'll have better luck on Monday when we both go back.

So that's why I'm behind on Wiggles Updates--every time I'm on the computer, I'm looking for houses! But Emily is doing terrific, and is looking forward to her first business trip this week (I'm going to be in Charlotte Monday-Thursday, so Mama and Emily are coming with me). I'll get back on track with updates soon!

15 Weeks Old

Emily is getting so strong and independent--we just know she'll be sitting up in no time. She tries to pull herself up into a sitting position on her own, and when we help her, she seems to sit right up with no problem.

The harness gets in the way of her doing things a little--we are taking it off to wash it about once a week, and she goes wild in those few minutes. Her little legs move like you've never seen, and she has such a good time. Hopefully it won't be too much longer until she can move like that nonstop!

Pure Torture

I guess it was inevitible that I would begin to travel again for work--I had just hoped it would be a while before I had to make my first overnight trip. Unfortunately, I got word on Friday afternoon that I needed to be in Denver this week...COLORADO! Seriously, do people realize this place is 1,500 miles away from my sweet angel?? It's hard to even enjoy a beautiful city like Denver when all I can think about is going home to everything I love. This is not fun.

So here I sit, pumping in a hotel room in the middle of the night and hoping I'll be able to make it through airport security tomorrow with my breastmilk. I even printed the guidelines I found online, hoping the agents will be easy to work with when I present my cooler for inspection. I'm also hoping that I'll get home tomorrow night right about the time Emily is waking up for her midnight feeding :).

Happy 4th of July!

We bought this sweet little dress for Emily a couple of months ago, thinking she'd wear it for the 4th of July. She's not able to wear it with her harness on, but the harness has gotten so dirty from wearing it nonstop that we decided to take it off long enough to wash it today. While it was off, we took advantage of the opportunity to try on the red, white and blue dress and have a little photo shoot!

14 Weeks Old: What's Happening

Emily seems to be changing every day, and sometimes it seems like she's grown just in the few hours we're away from her! Her personality is developing more and more, and she's so much fun to be around all the time. She no longer has consistent fussy times during the day, and really only cries when she gets very hungry or very tired. Luckily, she's eating on a pretty regular 3-hour schedule now, so we can usually avoid her getting very hungry!

She's starting to grab on to almost everything she touches, and it all goes straight to her mouth! We bought some lightweight rattles that she can hold easily, and she has plenty of teethers, but she seems to be much more interested in eating her hands and all of her blankets.
Just in the last day or two, it's started to cool off slightly and even temperatures in the high 80s feel pleasant after the almost 100 degree days we've been having! Emily loves being outside, so we'll take her out in the late afternoon sometimes and swing on the back deck, or just walk around and let her look at the trees and listen to the birds. She's so curious about everything around her, and is so observant of every little sound and sight. It's a lot of fun to watch her taking everything in.
Naps during the day continue to be a challenge. She is a terrific sleeper while she's being held (will sometimes nap for 2-3 hours), but most of the time will sleep less than an hour if she's in the crib, swing, or anywhere else on her own. She seems to be getting a little better with age, so we're hoping she'll be a pro by 5 or 6 months!

Sleep (Dare I Say) Routine?

It seems that as soon as I post something about Emily's latest and greatest, she decides to change it...so I'm curious to see what will happen after this. She is certainly not yet sleeping through the night, but we are seeing a definite pattern emerging. Each night, we give her a bath and her bedtime bottle by 8:00 PM. Sometimes she's ready to go right to bed, and other times it takes a while to get her quietly in the bassinet. Once she's down, she'll sleep soundly until 12:00 or 1:00 AM before waking up. We were giving her the pacifier and getting her back to sleep--the problem with that is it seemed to be never ending, and we might be up and down for an hour replacing the pacifier until she finally settled enough to fall asleep again. This week, we decided to get her up and feed her and see if that helped. It has--tremendously! She doesn't usually eat much, but just that little snack seems to satisfy her just enough to put her back to sleep soundly until about 3:00 AM when she wakes up again to eat.

We were initially discouraged that she still needs to eat a couple of times during the night when she seemed to be past that for a while, but are now really glad we switched things up. Now we know she's getting plenty to eat, and it's much easier to get up and feed her for a few minutes than to get up and down for an hour with the pacifier!

Poison!

I've officially poisoned our sweet little girl. This weekend, we gave Emily formula--twice, to make things worse! We decided to give her a bottle of formula once around lunch time and once before bed, just so I could keep up with her a little better. She seems to now be getting back into the habit of eating every 3 hours again, which has been a huge help for me. I've also seen an increase in my milk supply, so I can usually get a full 4 oz. feeding every time I pump now.

When we decided to introduce formula, my thought was that as long as I was still pumping as often, and Emily was still getting every drop of milk I can make, we're doing the right thing. That was until we tried to give her the bottle--she definitely knew the difference and did NOT want the formula at first! Of course, that made me feel like I was doing something wrong and I cried through the whole feeding. I talked to my sister in law, who told me the first time she gave my nephew formula, she felt like she was feeding him poison. I guess I'm not alone after all, and I feel like every other mother who just wants to do what's best for her baby.

Three More Weeks

Monday was Emily's scheduled appointment with Dr. Schrader, the orthopedic specialist. He wants her to wear the hip harness for another three weeks at least--at that point, she'll have another ultrasound and he'll decide what to do from there. He said he thought her hip probably wouldn't be perfect by then--it's still a little immature--but that he's optimistic that she won't be in the harness long.

He did say it's okay that we're taking the harness off of her once a day to give her a bath and change her clothes. He also said it's okay for her to lie on her side long enough for me to continue breastfeeding her. This was really important to me, because Emily has refused to nurse since she was put in the harness on June 16. I was really excited to give it a try when we got home yesterday--unfortunately, she started off strong, but after about 10 minutes, she pulled away crying and wouldn't keep going. Her little leg was kicking the whole time, so I can't help but think she just can't get in a comfortable position.

The inability to nurse her has made me even sadder about returning to work--that was our special time together each day, and I was looking forward to still having it in the morning and at night. Instead, I'm usually hooked up to the breast pump while Emily drinks from a bottle now :(. We'll keep trying it though, and hopefully she will remember how much she enjoyed it just a couple of weeks ago! If not, we did have those two wonderful months when it sometimes seemed like she nursed nonstop, and I'm really grateful for that.