All Dressed Up

Emily did a great job at Greg and Elizabeth's wedding this past weekend.  It was also a great opportunity for me to dress her up in a couple of outfits that we have had since Abbie was little, but that she never had a chance to wear.  Here is Emily just lounging on the hotel bed a couple hours before the ceremony.  Grandpa also got a really adorable picture of her at the rehearsal dinner that I may be able to post sometime soon . . .

 . . . well, this isn't the photo that I was thinking of, but it is a pretty cool photo because it shows her beautiful blue eyes!

Two Month Check-up

Emily was nine weeks old on Thursday and had her two month check-up on Friday.  She is doing great - now weighs 10 pounds, 2 ounces (about 33rd percentile), head is 38 cm (also around 33rd percentile), and 21 inches long (about 8th percentile).  She is a shorty, for sure.  She survived the 3 shots they gave her - very mad and sad, but doesn't seem to be too sore.  However, she has been fighting a little bit of a stuffy nose the past few days.  The burden of being a younger sibling, no doubt.

At only 2 months old, Emily is already becoming an experienced traveler.  We took her to San Francisco last week for a few days and she did great - slept the entire flight, continued to sleep well at night.  Later this week we are heading to Washington DC for a long weekend.  This flight will be much longer and I can't imagine that she will sleep the entire time, so we'll see how we all do.

Emily is still really mellow (and probably always will be).  We have two major "issues" at this point.  First, she has developed some cradle cap, which just makes me nuts.  Second, she is still really opinionated about using a bottle.  Every time we think that we've got it figured out, she decides to resist it.  I have pretty much decided to quit fighting the losing battle.  When I need to be out of the house, she will need to do the best she can with it.  When I don't need to be out of the house, I will just let her nurse.  Most people that I have talked to tell me that by 6 months kids are cool with a bottle, so I assume that at some point this issue will just go away on its own.  I'm just not going to worry about when that will be.

Mellow Baby

Emily is such a mellow baby.  She has lots of times where she likes to be put down to kick and to take in the scenery.  The other day, she was lying on her exercise mat and the next thing we knew, she was asleep.  No fussing, nothing, just passed out.  Too funny.  The only time when she seemed to be stubborn or difficult was when taking a bottle.  This week we got her some preemie nipples, rather than the newborn nipples.  This makes all the difference.  The milk comes out much slower and she does better with it.  Turns out that she wasn't stubborn, she just didn't like being water-boarded with breast milk.  :)

Cheeks!

Emily is quickly becoming known for her cheeks, which seem to have filled out a bit.  Above, you can see them in both the upright and reclined position.  Even more adorable is the place where her chins meets her body.  For most people, this is referred to as their neck.  For Emily, it is just a little crease that likes to gather sweat and spit up milk.  I am constantly trying to clean it for her, but she rarely lets me at it.

In the bottom picture, she has a little half-smile going.  She has actually started giving us big open-mouthed smiles.  They say this doesn't happen until 6 weeks, but both Chad and I are convinced that these are purposeful, directed at us, and not caused by gas.

Emily is still sleeping on about the same schedule as she had been and it seems to be working OK for all of us.  Also, she is slowly getting used to taking a bottle.  She'll only go for it if she is really hungry, and it is taking her a little while to adjust to how quickly the milk comes out, but we are definitely seeing progress.

Almost 3 weeks

Tomorrow Emily will be 3 weeks old.  The time has really flown by.  Already she is so much bigger than she was when she was born - I can actually feel her getting heavier.  She continues to be increasingly alert during the day.  Also, she is starting to have periods where she is more fussy.  This peaked at about 5 weeks with Abbie and then started to get better.  I expect that the same will be true for Emily.  She is able to hold her head up now when she is in an upright position.  Sometimes I have her over my shoulder and it is so cute to look over and see her head up as she looks around the room.  She has big blue eyes and we have a suspicion that they will actually stay blue.  She is VERY observant and is always looking around at us and at the house.  She loves looking out the window and at the ceiling fan.  Also, she seems to really enjoy time on her exercise mat.  Little does she know that in a few days we will be starting tummy time on that mat!

Emily is still doing a great job at night.  We have started swaddling her now.  It helps her sleep and causes her to fuss less.  She usually starts with a 3 hour block of sleep, then eats, then sleeps 2 more hours before eating again.  The only catch here is that after 3am she turns into a little grunter.  She seems to sleep just fine, but the grunting has been something for me to get used to.  I am starting to do a pretty good job of sleeping through it - I'm not sure if its because I'm getting used to it, or if its because I am starting to get more and more fatigued!

During the day, Emily is a GREAT nap companion!  When we aren't napping, she prefers to be held (as all babies do).  The nice thing is that she is totally cool with being put in the sling if I am trying to get stuff done.  Abbie never tolerated the sling, which made life more difficult, but Emily seems to be a total trooper about it.  Yay!

Awake!

Now that she is a week old, Emily has started spending time each day wide awake and looking around.  This morning, Chad laid her down on her exercise mat and she spent a really long time looking at all the colors and even batting at a stuffed elephant over her head.  Most people would probably say that her actions weren't intentional, but they sure do seem as if they are.

Key for me is that all this new awake time is happening during the day and not at night.  She is still doing a great job of sleeping in about 2.5 hour stretches before she wakes up to eat.  Then, after she eats she is usually pretty easy to get back to sleep and will even fall asleep on her own without being held or nursed.  I'm trying to be a bit more conscious of this to avoid all the sleep issues that we ran into with Abbie when she was a baby.  Hopefully it will work.

A big yawn - just for fun.  It is really fun to see all the little faces and hear all the little noises that she makes.  There is no way to capture it all with a camera.  I need to spend some time filming her with the video camera.  I know Abbie did all this stuff, too, but it is just so easy to forget once they start getting bigger.

More photos

Here we are in our first family photo after Emily's arrival.  All in all a pretty good picture of us, and Emily even has her eyes open (a rarity).

Here is Emily all ready to leave the hospital.  She looks so much like Abbie looked when she was born.  It'll be interesting to see how much they look like each other as Emily gets older.

Meanwhile, life at home has been good.  Emily just sleeps all the time.  She is a really good eater and has already put on an ounce since she left the hospital.  Last night she had a couple of hours at dinner time when she was awake and looking all around.  It was so nice to see her eyes and to feel like we could really interact with her.

Announcing Emily Marie

We are happy to announce that after weeks of contractions that seemed to go nowhere, and after a quick 4-hour labor that started in the wee hours of the morning, Emily Marie made her entrance at 6:13am this morning.  She weighs 6lbs., 12oz. and is 18+ inches long.

The upside of this quick, "easy" labor is that mommy is feeling great and that Emily never developed the classic cone head, so she is looking great.  The downside is that she didn't have much time to make a smooth transition and has been struggling all day with amniotic fluid in her tummy that she keeps spitting up.  :(

That being said, she is doing all the classic baby things - sleeping, trying to eat a bit, and pooping.  We are expecting to go home tomorrow morning.  Hopefully once she gets all the junk out of her system she'll be even more interested in eating.  Stay tuned, as more pictures and updates will surely follow over the next few days.

Approaching 39 weeks

Here we are at almost 39 weeks.  Initially, I didn't think that I looked much different than I did at 36 weeks, but upon further inspection, I think I do.  Apparently Chad thinks I do, too.  He informed me that I look like a moose.  Half joking, of course. 

I am definitely antsy to have this baby.  I have been tracking the moon and the changes in barametric pressure.  The full moon is scheduled for the 27th (Thursday) and the barametric pressure is currently climbing.  I am hopeful that a fall in barametric pressure will coincide with the full moon later this week, but we'll see.

Abbie has been talking to the baby and is getting really excited to see her.  Her big thing lately is to tell the baby, "Baby, don't you make Mama explode.  Come out of there."  I agree.  I really would prefer not to explode.  :)

36 Weeks

Here we are at 36 weeks.  I tried to replicate the picture from 31 weeks so that I could make an accurate assessment of whether I was bigger or not.  While in theory this sounds like a good idea, it turns out that providing sound evidence that you are bigger is not always the best idea from a mental health perspective.  :)

Anyway, I think that Chad, Abbie and I are all ready for this baby to make its appearance.  We are not ready for all the work and sleepless nights, but Chad and I are ready for me to start getting back to a more normal shape.  Meanwhile Abbie is really ready to have a sister to interact with.  She has been touching and poking at my belly a lot lately and she is often talking to the baby, asking her what she's doing in there, etc.

I think that most of the baby needs - diapers, etc. are covered.  I was able to pick up a boppy and a vibrating baby seat from Craigslist this weekend.  Other than picking up some Desitin and a nightlight or two, I think we have everything we need.  Now, we just have to wait . . . .

31 Weeks

Here are baby and I at 31 weeks. Now that her arrival is getting closer, I have finally taken the time to give her her own blog. Of course, there is not much to report right now. She is always busy, kicking away, and growing all the time. She has been head down for awhile now and I am hopeful that she will stay that way. Last night I felt her moving to more of an angled position, so I promptly stood up and encouraged her to go 100% head down again. I didn't want to run the risk that she would accidentally pop right side up. As I told Chad, "We need to keep these kids in line - literally." :)