Emma: Week 8

Emma's 8th week of life was from September 18th to 24th.

Emma is currently going through her second wonder week. This wonder week is no where near as bad as the first one was. She has her fussy times and days, but the first one around 5 weeks she was pretty much fussy for a week straight. This time we have happy days in between!

 She is really starting to express herself and I love it!

We took her to church for the second time. She fell asleep as soon as the music started and then woke up during the message, but was quiet until the last 10 minutes. We fed her and tried to take her to an actual sit down restaurant but that won't be happening again any time soon. She was so fussy since she didn't sleep much that morning. I tried to get a picture with her before we left for church, since I dressed to match her, but she was having none of it. 

I try to take her on walks a couple of times a week in morning before it gets to hot. We normally get to go about a mile before she is ready to go inside. Once it starts getting cooler earlier I will start taking her at night after I go back to work. 

On Tuesday she slept all day except for when she was eating which only adds up to 3 hours or so. She still slept all night. 

On Wednesday I had a haircut and my mother-in-law watched her. Then I stayed at my moms house that night.

It was a pretty low key week, which was good because that following weekend we went to Austin and that was a lot for her. 

Emma: Week 7

Emma's 7th week of life was from September 11th to 17th.

She is getting so big!

She is getting better at holding up her head and likes actual tummy time more and more. She still prefers it leaning on my chest though. She has really good control of her head while holding her upright. I think she will have complete control of it here in a couple of weeks!

She still likes her daddy snuggles. 

On the 12th we had Peyton's, Emma's cousin, birthday party. Peyton just got an American Girl doll so all the ladies went and had lunch and went to the American Girl doll store to get her presents. Peyton was dressed like her doll and Emma has a doll with a dress to match, but I wasn't able to get a picture because Emma got a little fussy. I managed to get a picture with the birthday girl though! 

After the birthday party my mom took Emma for the night so Bobby and I could have a date night. Emma did so well and they loved having her. It is crazy how much stuff a baby needs though. Between her pack n play, bathtub, clothes diapers, etc my trunk was full! We are going to Austin in a couple of weekends and I'm not sure how we will fit all of that plus mine, Bobby's and my sisters stuff. 

They got home right when she needed to eat so Aunt Victoria got to feed her. 

And then Great-Grandma came to visit her. 

She slept just as well at night there as she does at home. I was nervous about naps because she doesn't nap well at home, but apparently she took all of her naps no problems. I really wish she would do that for me!

She got to have breakfast on the back deck by the lake, how lucky is she!

Then Gramps got her her first fishing poll so she got to go fishing. 

She loved it so much she wanted to sleep with it! They had to pry her little fingers off of it to take it out. 

All ready to come home!

I was kind of worried that she would have a hard time going back to breastfeeding after getting a bottle for 24 hours, but we didn't have any issues, thankfully!

She has also really started smiling and cooing a lot. I love playing with her after she nurses!

When I put her in her crib in her room for naps she always goes to sleep fine but then wakes up 30 to 60 min later and won't go back to sleep. I am so tired of fighting it and it makes her so tired for the rest of the day. I am going to start trying to get her to take naps in her pack n play, since that is what she sleeps in at night, and see if it is just the new room that is the issue. If so, then I figure I can put the pack n play in her room and slowly transition her to her crib. We shall see!

At night sometimes she will fall asleep while nursing and I can just curl the Boppy around her, like a dog bed, and move her to the side of me. She will sleep there until I move her to her bed. It is so cute!

When I was little from about 11 months to 2 years or so, a lady named Maria took care of me during the day while my parents were at work. Even though she stopped taking care of me when my mom stayed home, we got so close to her that even 25, almost 26, years later we still see here several times a year. It was really important to me that Emma got to meet her before I went back to work and she finally got to!

Emma took to her right away and passed out within just a few minutes!

Emma has started to really handle being out and about with no problem. I breastfeed her in the car, which I prefer because I don't have to mess with the cover, and while she isn't a huge fan of the cover in public she with nurse under it or a light blanket. The day she met Maria we left at 10:30 am and didn't get back until 5:30 pm. She only got 1 really good nap in while Maria was holding her so she was pretty tired. She fell asleep with in minutes of being back in the car and only woke up enough to eat for the rest of the day.

She even slept through her bath and didn't actually wake up until we took her out of it. Then she nursed and passed back out again!

She had such a busy week but she was such a trooper. She has become less fussy and I am now able to realize what she needs much faster most of the time. I really do wish she would nap better during the day without being in the swing or being held, but I am so glad she sleeps so great at night!

We are having trouble getting full feedings in at the breast in the mornings, but I am also so engorged that I think it just doesn't take her as long to get full as it does in the afternoon and evenings when I don't have as much milk. Around 3/4 am she eats from one breast for about 10 min and then passes back out, then at 6:30 she eats from the other breast for about 10 min, then will eat from the other at 9:30 for about 10 min and it isn't until her 12:30 feeding that she actually eats from both and it takes her longer than 10 minutes. I am pretty uncomfortable until her 12:30 feeding, I have to fight the urge to pump so much, but I just keep telling myself if I pump my body will think she needs it, when she obviously doesn't. I think I may start to have an issue with oversupply when I go back to work and have to pump there, so I hope my body regulates a little bit more in the next couple of weeks before I go back. 

I love that I can take her places now and I know she won't be super fussy. Even if she is really tired, she normally just sits there with her pacifier and stares off into space until she falls asleep. This makes me way less nervous about the 3 hour drive to Austin in a few weeks!

Emma: Week 6

Emma's 6th week of life was from September 4th to 10th.

She has been really fussy this week was well and eating a lot more so my guess is growth spurt.

I will say I feel like she is never content. She is either eating, sleeping or crying, I maybe get a total of 15 happy minutes the whole day.

She still is not sleeping well during the day, and I plan on really working on getting her to nap during the day in her crib starting next week. I know once she goes to daycare if she isn't sleeping they probably won't be as diligent in making sure her routine stays in place so the next three weeks that is what we will be working on.

Fighting sleep all day and being exhausted at night is her specialty!

In her watermelon out fit that her GaGa made for her. There is a matching hat and shoes as well. 

Drama Queen!

This is Hope, the midwife that delivered Emma. I had my 6 week postpartum visit this week. My recovery was right on track the first 3 weeks but then it took a turn for the worse, my hemorrhoids got really bad and I was in constant pain no matter what I did. Finally at 5 weeks postpartum I realized that the sitz baths that everyone raved about that I was doing was making them worse, so finally they are almost healed. Also, because of the 5 doses of antibiotics I got while in labor due to being GBS + I got a really bad yeast infection at 5 weeks postpartum and here we are a week later and I still have it a little bit. My bleeding stopped at 3.5 weeks postpartum and then I got my period at 4 weeks postpartum. Now at 6 weeks I am bleed again, I am really just ready to stop bleeding so I can start working out again. The more active I am the more I bleed so I have to be careful on how much I do. Right now I'm limiting it to just walking the block with Emma. 

My mom came up to watch Emma during my doctor appointment, and it is a really good thing she came because Emma had a huge blowout diaper and then screamed for the entire appt. After my appointment we went to the mall so I could get some nursing bras for when I go back to work, so Emma had her first trip to the mall!

Emma has really started liking her baths and now gets one every night as part of her nightly routine. She screams when you take her out, but she would stay in there for a long time if we let her. She does try to turn on her side and drink the water though, so we have to be extra careful that she doesn't roll off of the hammock. 

My favorite time of night is after her bath and her massage when she nurses for the last time. I really like it when she falls asleep nursing but she doesn't do that very often. She is normally still pretty awake when she is done. The nights she does fall asleep I like to just cuddle her for a little while. 

Emma: Nursery Reveal

I spent a ton of time looking at pinterest trying to come up with a theme for her nursery.  I finally just decided on a color scheme with some patterns thrown in. The winner was: navy, white and coral with a little bit of gray here and there. The quilt my Nana made is chevron patterned and then the curtains also have a pattern.

I wanted to be mega organized in her nursery since the room is pretty small. I also wanted to minimize the amount of furniture in there as well. My plan going in was a crip, dresser/changing table, the rocking chair and some place for her books.

I had planned on my making my own closet clothing organizers but then my awesome dept. chair made some for me for my shower.

The best thing about them, besides being super cute, is that I can wipe off the months and rewrite it as she gets bigger and bigger. So far it goes from newborn to 24 months, and with all the clothes we got from my cousin's little girl, Peyton, it is full.

So here is her closet: the clothes that need to be hung, on the top are clothes that will go in her drawers but she doesn't fit in yet and then the black cube shelf as socks, hose, and swaddles.gowns. The opposite side of the closet has diapers and odds and ends. I use d a shoe organizer on the door for her hats, bows and shoes.

The wall that her closet is on we used a cube shelf that we got at Walmart. The top three cubes are used for clothes, onesies/tops, pants and then sleepers. Then we have books and toys. The wall art I made with picmonkey.com and got inspiration from Pinterest. Once I had them how I liked I simply printed them as 8x10s at Walmart and put them in frames. 

The wall perpendicular to the closet is the wall that her crib is on. The crib is from Target and the letters for her name are from Hobby Lobby. For the E I just cut and glued scrapbook paper on it. That is also the quilt my Nana made for her. 

The next wall as her changing table and window on it. There is a dirty clothes hamper in the corner between the crib and the changing table, along with a diaper genie. 

The first shelf of the changing table has wipes, diapers and a basket with things like Destin, a thermometer etc. The boxes are just a diaper and wipes boxed with some fabric hot glued to it. The bottom shelf has a basket with blankets, a basket with burp clothes and some other odds and ends. The picture above it we got from Hobby Lobby along with the fabric for the boxes and the curtains. The rocking chair in the corner was actually my Papa's when he was a boy and has been passed down through the family. The pillow on the rocking chair I made from leftover fabric from the quilt my Nana made. 

The last wall has some of our maternity pictures on it. When I was little my Papa made me a toy chest/bench with my name on it, but it is in storage at my moms. When we get I will repaint it and it will go on this wall under the pictures. 

Then lastly you have the door that has the wreath from my baby shower on it. 

Well there is her nursery, I love it and I can't wait until she is actually old enough to sleep in it, As soon as she will sleep a good 7 to 8 hour stretch at night I think will move her in there. 

Emma: Week 5

Emma's 5th week of life was from August 28th to September 3rd.

She went through her first wonder week this week and was so fussy the whole week, thus there weren't a lot of pictures taken.

I wish she slept this good at every nap, we are really having trouble napping well during the day, which makes for a very fussy afternoon and evening. Once she is asleep unless I am holding/wearing or laying down with her she won't sleep longer than 30 min to an hour. 

So we have been spending a lot of time in the Moby wrap so I can get things done. 

She does like the swing although her naps are normally pretty short in there as well. 

This is at 7 am when she had a blowout diaper that was so bad we had to hose her off in the shower.
The blowout diapers are an every morning occurrence, normally during her first feeding. That is also normally the only time she will go for the day, although she will occasionally have another blowout in the evenings.

 I love me some snuggles!

Emma: 1 Month Old

Emma turned one month old on August 30th! I have been reading what to expect the first year, and while I don't really find it all that helpful so far, I do like looking at the developmental milestones to see if Emma can do them or not.

She can do all the things that most babies will probably be able to do

- Lift head briefly when on tummy
- Focus on a face
- Bring hands to  face
- Suck well

She can all the things that half of all babies will be able to do

-Respond to loud noises in some way, such as startling, crying, quieting

She can do all the things that some babies will be able to do

- Lift head 45 degrees when on tummy
-Vocalize in ways other than crying, such as cooing (she doesn't do it very often though)
-Smile in response to a smile

She can do all the things that a few babies will be able to do

- Lift head 90 degrees when on tummy
- Hold head steady when upright (for about 30 seconds or so)
-Bring both hands together
-Smile spontaneously (also rare, but has happened)

-Kirstin

Emma: Newborn Pictures

Emma: Week 4

Emma's fourth week of life was from August 21st to 27th.

We went on our first outing as a family that was not at a doctors and it was a success! She also got her first bottle of pumped milk which also went great. I was nervous she might not take the bottle but she had no issues. She drank that stuff up and then passed out. 

She also made her first trip to Mabank and got to meet her Great Grandmother.

We also got a 4 generations picture.

Apparently, sleeping sitting up is the new thing


Daddy snuggles are the best!




We really started to get into a semi-regular schedule this week. She is still the champ as fighting naps, even though I start the nap process before she even shows any sleep cues. I have a feeling we will have to let her cry it out when she gets older, but for now we will just have lots of cuddles! She is going two, five hours stretches at night now which has been great for our sleep. Now if she would stay in her bassinet between her feedings that would be amazing!