Schedule

It's really amazing how much of a difference Emma's schedule makes. This weekend we got a bit off of it (and I admit I'm much too controlling with it, but I'm the one left dealing with the fussy, hungry, tired baby), and it was not good. She's so much happier when she knows when she's going to be eating and sleeping and playing. Hopefully we'll be able to keep her on the schedule this week and get her back into her routine. We have a couple of weekend trips coming up soon, so those will be a challenge. Also, she's been back on the Prevacid for a couple days now, so hopefully the reflux is done flaring up. We bought a steamer at Walmart this weekend, along with several ice cube trays, so I'm going to try to cook and freeze the squash today for Emma's baby food. We will hopefully have some sweet potatoes and green beans also in by the time she's ready for solids. I'm excited about preparing her food myself. I feel a bit guilty still that I couldn't breastfeed her for long, so at least I know this will be healthier than buying store bought, processed foods. And it will give us a chance to go to the Farmer's Market, which is fun! Fortunately we have a deep freezer on loan. I am hopefully getting a new iPhone soon and selling my current one, so I can take videos of Emma with it. We have a video camera, but it's so much easier and faster to use my phone for pics and video. I never knew how hard it would be to take pictures of a baby...it's like she sees the camera and refuses to cooperate. Seriously...that's how smart and stubborn my child is already!

Update

Yes, I'm up at 7:30 on a Saturday morning while Emma is snoozing away. I've actually been up since 4:00am thinking (never good)...I'm sure I will regret that later. Emma's 2 month check-up was Thursday. She did awesome! She had her first shots, which I think were more traumatic for me than her. We had her favorite toy to distract her, and dipper her pacifier in sugar water...don't know if any of that helped, but I wanted to do anything I could. She cried pretty hard for about 2 minutes, and then she was fine. I cried for about that long also. So far, she hasn't had any fever or bruising from the shots. The nurse said she had good thigh muscles...good for shots maybe, but she'll hate her mama for the big thighs someday...sorry Emma! Unless she plays soccer, and then they're useful. Dr. Fraser said she looked perfect. She weighed 9 lbs 7.5 ounces (25th %), was 21.5 inches long (also 25th %), and her head circumference was 40 cm (close to 80th %). We attempted to stop the Prevacid, in the hopes that her earlier issues were more feeding related as opposed to reflux. That did not work...we barely made it 2 days before she started spitting up A LOT more again. Poor girl. Yesterday she was pretty fussy, especially when and after eating, so she's going to have to stay on the Prevacid for awhile longer. I hate to keep her drugged up (I feel like we're constantly giving her something...the Prevacid, laxative, gas drops, gripe water...), but she has been doing really well. The beginning of this week was particularly bad, especially Tuesday. Nick was mowing, and I just had to go outside and get him to come in. I needed a break....she cried almost all day. Nothing would calm her down (except her Daddy of course). She also was not napping well and woke up twice that night to eat instead of only once. But I consulted my Babywise book and website, and I believe it was a growth spurt. She was hungrier than normal, so I pushed her back to a 3 1/2 hour schedule (probably where we should have been anyway, so I'm sticking with it for awhile). Now she's fine. I'm thankful it didn't last long, because I was going out of my mind. Being a mom is hard! But she is too funny...she smiles a lot now, and actually focuses on and tries to play with her toys. She makes lots of funny noises, and she's getting so much more coordinated with her limbs.

I watched 16 and Pregnant on MTV this season, and the season finale for some reason really affected me. The couple decided to give up their baby for adoption, and the agency they went through happened to be the same one that just opened an office here in BG. http://www.bethany.org
The rest of the teenagers on that show were spoiled, immature brats (but so was I at 16...and still am at 27 I suppose), but Catelynn and her boyfriend seemed like the only ones who cared about their baby. On a sidenote, one of the girls on the show, Macie, had a boyfriend who was an absolute idiot. She went back to school and was working part time, and at night she asked him to help with the baby, but he was too tired. So he laid the screaming baby on the bed with all the pillows and blankets, crawled in on the other side, rolled over, pulled the covers over his head, turned out the lights and went to sleep. Isn't that child abuse or something? Anyway...after I saw it, I went to the website. They apparently do international adoptions also, which is awesome. I know I have a 2 month old, and TRUST ME, no more kids for awhile, but I've always thought I'd like to adopt from another country. My sister is from Romania, which no longer allows out of country adoptions. For some reason, I've been thinking about China. Obviously I don't know much about the process at this point, and I do know that it can be very expensive. But I'm glad we have an agency like that here in town now. I know my parents had to use one located in Louisville (I think), which makes things like meetings and home visits more difficult. They're having an informational meeting next week, so I'm hoping to go. I'm not sure how Nick really feels about adoption at this point, so I'd love him to go with me. And even if we decide adoption isn't right for us, you can sponsor a child through the agency. I've often thought of sponsoring a child, but I've never been sure if I could trust those companies you see on tv. And if nothing else, I signed up to be a prayer warrior...they send me updates with specific children to pray for. I can definitely pray for kids!

Nick and I are taking Emma to Ohio County today, to hopefully get her in a real pool for the first time. Maybe the rain will hold off. My parents got free tickets to the Hot Rods game tonight, so we might take her to her first baseball game too. Although that will interfere with her bedtime. Ideally we'll put her in the carrier and she'll sleep the whole time...right.

2 months old

Emma is 2 months old today. This weekend we took her to Jackson's Orchard for the first time. It was so nice this weekend, and it wasn't crowded at all. Usually we go in October and there are people everywhere, so this was much more fun. She also got to take a trip to the dog park with Isabelle and Sydney. We had a fun weekend. I wish it wouldn't get hot again...the weather was so nice. We're going to try to take Emma swimming next weekend at Nick's parents' house. She hated the tiny pool, so I doubt she'll like the big one. She is approximately 22 inches long now, and is 1 ounce away from weighing 9 pounds. It's still pretty small for her age, but compared to where she started, she's doing great. One problem we have been having is with her naps. She's having some trouble with her 2 afternoon naps. Sometimes she just takes a long time to fall asleep, others she wakes up crying several times. Sometimes I don't even think she's awake, just crying in her sleep. Usually she does well with the morning nap, so we're going to have to figure out what the problem is. I try to put her down when I see her sleepy signals, but I don't know if she's too alert still or too tired. It's frustrating.

Emma's First Smiles

Emma is 8 weeks old today! She has finally started smiling. She's been trying so hard to lately, and last night she finally did. Nick was in the shower, but managed to get out and take a couple of pictures. This morning she smiled at me again. It's funny how hard we'll work to get her to smile. In case you're wondering, I have a towel on my head, so that's the weird thing in the picture. We also took some pictures of fireworks on the 4th and Emma's first time in a swimming pool. As you can tell, she hated the water and slept through the fireworks.

We're still working out the right schedule. I'm trying to keep a log of everything, so I can see what works. We go back to the doctor next week for her two month well visit (2 months!). She has to get shots, so I'm not looking forward to it, but I will be glad to have the doctor reassure us that everything is fine. She's obviously behind in the weight, but she's growing pretty quickly now. She's still spitting up a lot, but it doesn't seem to bother her, and she's still gaining weight. We'll be glad when she grows out of it though. She's so much fun now. We can finally play with her toys (by play, I mean that she can focus on them and follow them around with her eyes), and she has started talking in her own little language. She's still a little fussy at times, but I think being on a better schedule has helped.

Babywise

So, I read Babywise, and am going to give it a try. I've read a lot about how controversial it is, but I think I have enough common sense to implement it appropriately. Yesterday I tried the whole feeding, waketime, nap routine, and she did pretty well. She woke up earlier last night than normal though, so I was pretty tired this morning. Today I was able to put her down for a nap in the nursery...she did cry quite a bit, but finally put herself to sleep. You always hear that you can't spoil a small baby by picking her up when she's crying, but Emma sure seems be getting to that point. She'll fall right asleep if we hold her, but the instant we set her down, she cries. So I was excited that she finally went to sleep on her own...and without the pacifier, which I'm afraid she's becoming a little too dependent on to sleep. We'll see how the Babywise thing goes. I do have her on a semi-schedule for feeding...about every 4 hours. Sometimes that varies depending on her, but it makes it a lot easier to get other things done to at least have a semi-fixed schedule.

She's still constipated, so we're supposed to start her on Miralax (sp?). I'll be so glad when we get all of her stomach issues worked out...she's 7 weeks old tomorrow and she's had to deal with something her whole life, as short as it may be. I look forward to the day when she can just be a happy, healthy baby who can eat and poop without any problems. We've tried a few different times to mix back in breastmilk, but it makes her fussy during her feedings and she spits up more. I'm trying to not feel guilty for having to put her on formula, because I know it's better for her. And I would obvuously much rather breastfeed, but it just doesn't agree with her. I'm still pumping and freezing some milk, so maybe in a month or so, we'll try again to at least supplement. I have definitely learned than I will have to be flexible and take things as they come, as hard as that may be for me.

Tonight we have our first infant massage class. I imagine Emma will scream the whole time, but maybe not. I've heard good things about infant massage. Plus it's free, so what the heck.