Week 24

SHE DID IT! Emmaline finally said "ma-ma". Granted, she only said it once, but we both heard it and therefore it counts! I doubt think it had any meaning, she was just mumbling it as we were in the car leaving for church this morning. She was also having fun just making the 'mmmm' sound. She also signed 'milk' before nursing this morning. And she slept through the night twice this week! Developments that I'm not thrilled about include discovering the litter box (and trying to eat the litter), throwing Dan's keys in the litter box, opening the lid of the new trashcan and throwing misc. things inside that. More positive developments: she is learning to follow directions. The other day I told her to come give me a kiss. She stopped what she was doing, stood up, walked over to me and gave me a kiss! She has been pulling books off her bookshelf for a while, but now she'll pick one and bring it to me. After I read it to her I can hand it back and tell her to put it away. And she does! (She takes it off again after she puts it up - but I'm still amazed.) Yesterday evening we were in the computer room which is right next to her bedroom. She walked out and came back with a book. She gave that to Dan and turned around and left. Then she came back with another book and gave that to me. After a couple minutes we gave her the books back and told her to put them away so she went back to her room and shoved them on the shelf. She has also become pretty helpful when it comes time to get her dressed or undressed. She will put her arm in if we hold the sleeve open. She sticks her legs out to put them in her pants/shorts/leggings/etc. She tries to pull the shirt/dress over her head if we have the arms out. And she loves putting on her shoes. She has been trying to put them on herself, but hasn't quite figured it out. It has made mornings much less frustrating!

If you can't tell, things have been pretty busy around here. All the things going on at home pales in comparison to the things at work! It was quite a week. I think I'm going to enjoy my class this year, but it's going to take a while to get them to stop talking! Right now it feels impossible, but I have to stick with it because I'm tired of coming home with headaches. This week is going to be even crazier! We have appointments or meetings pretty much every day. It is going to make it very difficult to stick to Emmaline's routine.

Things have been going well with just having 1 car now. I think it helping us communicate better since we have to make sure the other person knows exactly what we've got going on so we can figure out who should drive that day (basically, whoever can get to Emma the soonest after work is the one who drives). Most days I've been driving since Dan has bus duty after school until November, but on days when I have meetings he takes it. It's a pretty fun car to drive, especially because you always have the challenge of keeping the car on battery as much as possible. We compete to see who can do little things like make it up certain hills or accelerate the quickest without kicking it over to fuel.

With everything that's been going on, I haven't had much time to worry about Emma's weight. We started giving her lunch everyday at daycare in addition to the bottles/nursing. That seems to be going well, but she is a picky eater. It's not that she doesn't like foods, it's just that she only likes them in certain orders. We're discovering a hierarchy of foods and you have to work your way up. If she sees the 'better' food, she will refuse to eat what you've already given her. For example, tonight she was happy with mango.... until she saw the hamburger. Then she was happy with the hamburger (although she kept picking out the mushroom).... until she saw us eating corn. We hadn't planned on giving her corn tonight because she had it like 5 times this week, but of course we gave in to her whining. Usually we would just let her whine, but she was extremely cranky today and we just wanted to enjoy dinner.

The craziest thing is that it is less than 3 weeks until her 1st birthday! I've been trying to think about what I was doing 1 year ago. I know I was exhausted, my feet were ridiculously swollen, and my blood pressure was too high. I was miserable. A friend at work has the same due date that I had (Oct. 14). I watch her and I don't miss it one bit! I'm definitely NOT one of those women who say "I loved being pregnant". Heck no, it sucked! I am excited for her to have her baby though - Emma's instant BFF. I'm already planning to buy the girls matching outfits :)

Week 20

Another busy week! Emmaline had surgery to insert ear tubes on Tuesday. After the surgery, the doctor told us the left ear was infected which was the 4th infection this summer. She seemed to recover quickly. She was a super happy baby for about 2 days after the surgery and slept great. Then the sleep issues returned. She woke up 6 times last night that required us to go in and put her back to sleep and a couple times where we heard her, but she put herself back out. We're trying to convince ourselves that it's a teething issue. I've been able to see her bottom tooth (#8) for a week or so, but don't feel anything yet. I'm also wondering if she's working on a molar. Unfortunately, I also have a fear that it's something with her ears still. I've been holding off on taking her to the doctor b/c I don't like taking her in all the time (she's gone at least every other week the entire summer). Of course, if something is wrong and I don't take her I will feel horrible. Her follow-up with the specialist isn't until mid-October (a few days after her 12 month well-baby appointment).

The lack of sleep has pretty much consumed our week and I can't think of much else. We had swim lessons and went to the pool one other time. The weather was grey and rainy most of the week. We also went to Olive Garden with a friend from back home. I allowed Emma to eat a bunch of stuff that I normally wouldn't. I wouldn't feel horrible about giving her parts from the salad, but I know they are doused in dressing. We also gave her about 1/3 of a breadstick. She definitely enjoyed it. I am very happy to report that her tummy handled it fine! Perhaps we will allow more breads. I think I might start giving her some toast with puree on it so I can use up what we have left of purees.

Emmaline got her first haircut (I did it). I'm not happy about her bangs, but the rest turned out okay. She's been standing on her own for longer periods of time and is taking a lot of steps! I think I'm willing to officially say that she is walking (although she still crawls most of the time). A new development that I'm enjoying is that she can now put things away! She loves putting her blocks and toys back in the box and tennis balls back in the container. She has also become a complete chatterbox since her surgery! It's adorable. The only problem is that the little stinker still does not say ma-ma.

We go back to work Thursday and daycare hours will be back to normal. I'm really going to miss the extra time during the day with her. I know we'll really have to take advantage of weekends and holidays.

Week 5

Week 5
Arg! I just spent like 20 minutes writing a post to update on the last week and the internet froze up. Deleted the whole thing! I absolutely love technology, but I've become very impatient when it doesn't work perfectly.

I think I started by apologizing for the week lapse in posts. I knew this would happen. I always start off with such great intentions and quickly start slacking. This week has been incredibly long and busy (next week looks like it's going to be the same).

I can't remember what Emma ate Monday night, we skipped Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Thursday night she had steamed broccoli and pureed carrots, and then we skipped Friday. Dan did Thursday night on his own since I was at a retirement dinner for work. I guess she threw most of the broccoli on the floor, but still ate more than she did last time.

Wednesday we were able to pick up her pictures. They are all so adorable - not sure where we are going to put them all! I've been having fun showing them off to everyone I know.

Today we discovered that Emma's first tooth is actually her first tEEth! Both of the bottom teeth are appearing. :) She's such an awesome baby and we haven't had to deal with much fussiness or drooling. Today she turned 7 months old and tomorrow is our first Mother's Day! I remember being pregnant on Mother's Day last year. Dan bought me a mommy-to-be card and gave me the Vera Bradley baby bag I had been wanting. At that point I was barely showing and hadn't even felt her kick yet. We'd heard the heartbeat, but hadn't had the ultrasound and I don't think the idea of having a baby was "real" for us yet. I'm not really one for holidays, but I'm actually pretty excited about tomorrow. We're not planning anything special, I've asked Dan to make me pancakes for breakfast. My present was the pictures last weekend. Emma brought home a carnation and a card from day care (those brave ladies did their handprints on the cards)- as simple as it is, I know I will treasure that card forever! I am so happy and proud to be her mom (even if she still refuses to say 'mama').

Days 30 and 31

Day 31

Menu: Carrot/Apple puree mix

We finally got a high chair! (Britney, the cat, was very excited about this since it meant a big box for her to play in all afternoon.) She was having fun with the carrot/apple stuff again, but got fussy at the end. Dan discovered why when he went to strip her down for a bath. (I'll spare you the details, but wow! There is no doubt that she is eating a good portion of what we offer.)

After a major clean up, we headed out of town and went to Portrait Innovations to get her pictures taken. She was wonderful! At first I thought she was going to cry, but after about 30 seconds she warmed up to the photographer and was my perfect little model. She smiled on cue, clapped her hands, sat in a chair by herself, stayed on her tummy without rolling all over the place. We got a package yesterday from Dan's parents with 3 beautiful dresses, so we took one of those along to use in addition to a couple other outfits we had already picked out. The photographer was very happy to have such a cooperative baby. We were bummed because their printer was broken (waiting for a part to arrive tomorrow) so we weren't able to walk out with the pictures, but we will have them by the end of the week. It was so difficult to narrow down our options. I know I'm biased, but that baby is stinkin' adorable!!! We had been wanting to do pictures for a while, but decided to hold off until she could sit up on her own. I also wanted to do them before she got teeth because I have this fear that she's going to look really weird when they come in. Apparently we picked the perfect day, because tonight she grabbed my thumb and stuck it in her mouth (like usual) and I felt something really sharp on the bottom gum!

Day 30

Menu: Watermelon and Carrot/Apple puree mix

We used the crinkle cutter again, but sliced the watermelon much thinner. We didn't have any gagging, but that was because she sucked on it for a minute and then threw it on the floor. We kept putting new slices on her tray and she proceeded to pick up each one and toss is on the ground. I thought that maybe she just didn't want food, but she went to town when we gave her the spoon! The carrot/apple mix tasted mostly like apple. Dan couldn't get the spoon loaded fast enough for her - she ate about 1/2 a jar.

I keep reading about other BLW babies and it seems like most of them spend the first few months just 'playing' with their food. Emmaline is pretty much all business when it comes to food. She doesn't mash it up, doesn't smear it around, just picks it up and either eats it or drops it on the floor if she's not interested.

Day 14

Menu: pureed carrots

Tonight is one of those nights where we are completely exhausted. We're also out of any "non-cook" items to give Emma so we opted for the carrots again. I'm think that Emma now has a favorite food. This was the first night where she would drop the spoon once it was empty and wait for it to be re-loaded. After she'd eaten half a jar (probably more like a quarter since a good amount was all over her body) she decided to hunch over and try to suck the carrots off the tray! It was hilarious!

Days 12 and 13

Day 13

Menu: banana and pureed carrots

Tonight I gave in and tried a puree with Emma. We still let her feed herself with the spoon and she had a blast. Even though we ended up with a big mess, I think she still actually swallowed a good amount. She was awesome with the banana. Picked it up with ease and put it straight into her mouth. She's been working on the chewing motion lately. If she sees one of us eating, she will mimic the movements.

Day 12

I could never be a single mom. I find myself completely lost on evenings Dan is away with soccer. Although I feel comfortable doing most things with Emma, I still don't like to give her a bath alone. Since I skip baths on those nights, I can't actually give her any solids. Well, I guess I could but her crib would be a mess!