3 month pictures and a video

Emma laughed for the first time yesterday. She tried anyway. Close enough. We got to take a lot of 3 month pics yesterday too...she was tired by the end but she did good!

Nothing much new

I just put Emma down for a nap, so I have a few minutes to relax. She woke up around 5:00 this morning. While that's probably still considered sleeping through the night, we're still working on extending that time. But she's only 13 weeks old (tomorrow!), so we're lucky to be sleeping that long this early. The past week or so has been pretty great. She is so much fun now. We always heard that the 3 month mark is kind of like magic, and she really does seem different. We can sit her down alone and she's entertained by toys, her mobile or just the ceiling fan. She loves to put her hands in her mouth and blow bubbles. She smiles at us all the time. She just seems so happy and healthy finally. We still struggle with spitting up, but she just passed the 11 pound mark, so she keeps growing. I never knew I would love changing diapers so much...she just lays there smiling up at me. We are so very blessed to have her, even if we do get grumpy when her cries wake us up at 5am. Luckily that is becoming less common. I think she is on the brink of getting this sleep thing down. She took a 2 hour 20 minute nap this morning without waking up at all. I am really enjoying being home with her.

I went to MOPS last night at church. It's always hard for me to go alone somewhere where I don't really know many people. Making conversation with strangers is not my strength. I'm usually very reserved unless I know people (the people that do know me well probably wish I would shut up sometimes). I think it will be good for me though...an opportunity to get out once a month and get to know other women who have gone or are going through the same things I am. And it will push me out of my comfort zone (I hate that cliche phrase). I have gotten involved in a lot of things at church with Nick, but I think it's time to step out on my own a little. Sometimes it still surprises me just how large our church is. We've met a lot of couples, but I didn't know many of the women last night. After 15 (or something like that) years at LHBC, you'd think I would at least recognize everyone. I love that about our church. You have to make an effort to meet people, but when you do it's so rewarding. I would not fit in well at a small church. I was raised and baptized in one, but I'm so happy Emma will grow up at Living Hope. But I also tend to overextend myself. I want to make sure I have enough time to just enjoy this part of my life. Before Emma was born, it seems like we were always running around to some activity. I'm afraid I'll miss out on something great I guess, but watching my daughter grow up is the something great right now.

One thing that I am struggling with is expressing my appreciation to my husband. I think all the time that I'm truly lucky to be married to him, but I have a hard time actually telling him. He works so hard to provide for us, to lead us, and to also make time to be with us. I know he's also trying to make time for his relationships with family and friends as well. I don't know how he does it. I will admit that I am a demanding wife...there's always something I want us to be doing. Quality time is my love language, after all. I forget that sometimes he just needs to rest and relax (even if I'm dying to talk to another adult). It's just another adjustment we are making. I have talked to some women who are married to (sorry to sound harsh) lazy men. What a blessing to never have to worry about that, although sometimes I probably view it more as a curse. He commutes and works 40+ hours without complaining, mows yards on the side, takes great care of our home and vehicles (and saves us a lot of money!), is a very involved parent (he volunteered to get up every other night with Emma, which he still does), surprises me with nice things every week, still takes me out on dates (even if they are to Walmart instead of the movies now), and helps me take care of and play with the doggies. We are all fortunate to have him in our lives. What a great role model he will be for Emma...she is going to totally be a daddy's girl.

3 months old

I have not been good about updating lately. Emma will be 3 months old on Thursday. She's getting so big. Our schedule is getting better. She still usually wakes up during naps after about 45 minutes, but she can go back to sleep again after a few minutes. Except for the 3rd and last nap, and so I figure short nap is all she wants. That's close to bedtime anyway. She has slept through the night the past 2 nights, so we are very hopeful it will continue. We put her down by 7pm, and she sleeps until close to 7am, with a 10pm feeding. This morning we had to wake her up to get ready for church. It's awesome to not wake up in the middle of the night (although so far I still wake up on my own...hopefully that will only be temporary). Today was her first day to stay in the nursery for more than an hour. We took her to big church, and then started teaching our Sunday School class. We have 3 years old this year, which will be an adjustment. Apparently they're not all potty trained yet...something we hadn't thought about. But I'm excited about it...it seems like our class will be smaller this year, which will be nice. We're hoping to have Emma's 3 month photo shoot later this week, so I should have some pics to post later. We'll see how she cooperates. We're just doing it ourselves, so they might not turn out so great. Everything else is going well. Nick and I were able to go out by ourselves last night. We had a nice meal at Red Lobster, and went to Sam's Club, Lowe's & Walmart. I never would have thought that going to the grocery alone would be a date. But it's hard to shop with a baby.

NAPS!

We are having a hard time with naps this week. Emma won't go down without some fussing. Which is fine, sometimes she needs to cry or whimper herself to sleep. But she cannot make it past the 45 minute mark. Once she starts transitioning, she wakes up every time and is unable to put herself back to sleep. Part of it is probably the pacifier, which I think has become a sleep prop. She has a really strong sucking reflex, so if you don't let her have it, she lays there reaching for something to suck on until she wakes herself up. However, if it pops out of her mouth, she generally will wake up (unless she's in deep sleep, in which case she doesn't notice). We can't leave one hand out of the swaddle yet, since she'd still wake herself up and also hasn't found her mouth with her fingers consistently yet. I've read the books and websites about Cry It Out and No Cry and all the other methods of sleep training and soothing to sleep. Now I am just frustrated. She is so tired and needs to nap, but she fights it. I'm hoping it is temporary. She's gaining a lot more control of her neck and limbs so maybe that's part of it...she'd much rather be moving them around than be swaddled. She had been doing farely well with naps...she'd take at least one that was 2 to 2 1/2 hours, and the other 2 naps were for about 1 1/2 hours. Now she takes about 30 minutes to fall asleep, stays asleep for 45 minutes, and sleeps fitfully for just a few minutes after that. I need help!

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.