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 13

This week started with the return part of our vacation. We did the same routine on the ride back (drive for several hours, stop and play for an hour or so). She continued getting a bottle of prune juice daily even though we didn't see any results for an entire week. Since then she has become very regular and doesn't seem to be in pain.

New foods this week include mushrooms (portobello) and plums. She ate 2 entire plums by herself this afternoon! We have stopped giving any kind of grain/cereal until her digestive system is ready. Other foods we have lined up for her this next week include - chicken, peach, kiwi, mango, more plums, green beans, and orange/red/green bell peppers. Not sure if each colored bell pepper is supposed to be introduced separately, but oh well. It's not like we've ever followed that 3-5 day wait rule too well anyway.

Recent developments include crawling over things, climbing up things, walking holding on to the edge of something (or holding on to 1 finger), she can stand on her own for a couple seconds before she plops onto her rear, she loves giving high-fives, and started waving today!

I thought she would have like 4 new teeth by this point, but she still just has her bottom 2 and the vampire fangs up top. The bottom side teeth are visible, but just under the gum and haven't cut through yet. The top center have been felt on two separate occasions, but seem to disappear after we feel it. Not sure what's up with that. She has been fussy lately at home and her sleep pattern is all messed up. She is waking between 5 and 9 times a night!!!! Needless to say, Dan & I are exhausted.

I woke up this morning feeling horrible, my entire body ached, I was getting hot/cold flashes, and was throwing up. I stayed in bed most of the morning and then took a hot bath. Felt better after that and was finally able to get moving. I know some of the upper body stiffness was from the gym yesterday. Dan and I are really trying to get back on track. We went 3 times last week! We're trying to take advantage of the time when Emma is at daycare during the week (we're on part time during the summer; 9-2) and use it to run errands, clean the house, go to the gym, and have some time to just hang out with each other. The gym also offers a kid center and will watch her for $1 while we work out. The only problem is that I don't trust them very much. Their swing is broken (understandable after I saw a 9 year old sitting in it!) and their pack'n'play has a giant hole in it. When we went in to pick her up after our work out yesterday, the girl was holding her in her lap while texting. Granted, I do that all the time, but she's my child. It just seems a little sketch, so we only use that as a last resort. Anyway, I'm still feeling okay this afternoon and have a massage scheduled tomorrow morning. Definitely looking forward to that, although it means that Dan will be watching Emma on his own since daycare is closed for the holiday weekend.

We had planned on taking her to the town pool today, but that got cancelled after I woke up feeling so awful. We are hoping to go tomorrow. (And we're sending in our registration for swim lessons that start at the end of the month.) I'm not a fan of wearing a bathing suit - especially in a public area where I know I'll see students, and I really don't like the sun/outdoors but I will suck it up since Emma loves the water so much! Who knows, maybe I'll even get a little color on my legs this year.

Week 12

I had every intention of blogging as soon as we got back from vacation. Obviously, I did not follow through with that intention and now it's almost a week later and I'm finally getting around to it. (I had even started writing my blog on my cell phone during the first 2 days -- that didn't last either.)

BLWing on the road:
Day 1 - We packed most of the car the night before and just had a few final things to do in the morning. We left right before Emmaline's normal nap time in hopes that she would soon fall asleep in the car. (It worked.) After a few hours, we stopped at McDonald's for lunch since they had a playland and we figured Emmaline could crawl around for a big after being cooped up. Dan ordered the fruit/yogurt/walnut thing and Emma munched on an apple slice, but didn't seem to eat much of it or really care about it. We stopped that night in New York state, not far from the PA border. We went to a Perkins restaurant close to the hotel. Emma had her first clown experience there. She was very interested from afar, but wasn't sure when he came closer (Dan on the other hand was freaked out the entire time, even though the clown talked to him about the World Cup and USA's win against Algeria that afternoon). I ordered a side of fruit (canteloupe and honey dew) with my dinner so Emma could eat something. We brought some of her puffs and she was grabbing at them so fast that most ended up on the floor. Apparently we can only put 2-3 pieces in front of her if we are away from home. We sliced the melon into strips for her to grasp. She was a fan! She also tried some turkey from Dan's club sandwich and enjoyed that as well. She got a little sticky from the melon, but not too bad and we were able to clean her up with a wipe. I realized that I should have packed her bib in the diaper bag (it was somewhere in a different bag in the car). Emma also got her regular bottles during the day and nursed in the evening/night/morning. Pumping in the car is always an adventure, but I'm getting used to it and keep my cover handy.

Day 2 - We had the continental breakfast at the hotel. They had plain cheerio's so that was what Emma ate. I was nervous b/c they don't dissolve like her puffs, but she did great!
*That's where my cell phone journal ends and now I have to figure out the rest by memory. The evening of Day 2 we went to Spanky's Clam Shack in Hyannis with the rest of the MACK. I ordered a side of cooked veggies (yellow squash and zucchini). Later that evening we ended up with a big problem - constipation! It was horrible (lots of screaming and some blood). We called the doctor's office immediately and they said she probably tore from pushing. We felt awful. i've looked up everything I can find about constipation in babies and the puffs (and cheerios) are the only offenders I can find, so those are out of her diet for a while!

Day 3 - I think we kept her just on breastmilk today after the previous night's incident. We also went to the store and bought some prune juice for her.

Day 4 - Emma got a bottle of prune juice in the afternoon. At the rehearsal dinner M kept slipping her stuff everytime I walked away. I came back from telling Dan that dinner was ready (he was at the bar watching the USA lose to Ghana and get knocked out of the World Cup) and found a bunch of crumbs all over the table from the oyster crackers she gave her. M told me that Emma loved them, but told Dan that Emma hated them - who knows! I wasn't thrilled that she had given her food without permission, but she had warned us that she slips food to her nephews all the time and I should have known better. Later she gave Emma a mini wine bottle. It was sealed up, so that was fairly harmless and we did get some cute pictures of Emma gnawing on it. Dan apparently missed that entire incident and was very shocked when I had the pictures printed! :) M also gave her green beans. That was totally fine, but she kept cutting them into tiny bites even though I tried to explain that Emma could handle it without cutting it up.

Day 5 - This was the big day: K's wedding! It was incredibly beautiful. Words cannot describe how perfect it was! Emma had another bottle of prune juice in the afternoon. She also got to snack on yummies from the fruit cup (kiwi, honey dew, canteloupe, and watermelon) and had more squash from the main course.

That wraps up the eating portion of our trip. Here were some other highlights - Friday K's dog snuck up and licked Emma on the back of the leg. It totally freaked her out and took her about an hour to finally warm up to her. We realized that Emma hasn't really been around dogs, although I'm not sure if this one even counts as a dog since it's smaller than one of our cats! Friday morning we also took her swimming for the first time (indoor pool at the hotel). Emma absolutely loved it. So much that we are going to sign her up for swim classes when we get back to town and perhaps even go to the town pool this summer. I know she'll be super excited in August to swim with family in Vegas. We also took Emma to the beach for the first time. The weather was perfect for our entire trip so we loaded her in the stroller and headed to a private beach a few blocks from K's parents' summer house there on the Cape. Emma tried to eat sand but didn't care much for the texture (in her hands or on her feet) and soon started fussing. Dan was such a life-saver (as usual) on this trip and took care of Emma for most of 3 days so I could run around with K doing wedding stuff. We got so many compliments at the rehearsal and wedding about how great she was. She even took a nap in her stroller during the reception even with the band playing away in the next room. The only problem we had (other than the constipation) was that Emma did NOT want to go to bed at night. It took 1-2 hours to get her to sleep each night. She also decided to start waking up 30 minutes early. Overall, we had a fantastic time and look forward to our next travel adventures.

Week 11

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

I think we had an enjoyable day. Emmaline woke up around 6 as usual. We were able to get her to take a nap around 8:15. She slept for about 45 minutes and then we got dressed and went to church. We went up to Target to print off some pictures since I'm trying to update the scrapbook. I know I'll have a lot to add after our trip to Cape Cod next week for K's wedding and want to be caught up with months 6-8 beforehand. After a long afternoon nap, Emma and Dan did some grocery shopping. We all had dinner together (Emma had puffs, kiwi, and banana; we had frozen pizza). The kiwi was new and she seemed to really enjoy it! She was absolutely covered in the black seeds afterwards. They were suck in her neck folds, between her fingers, in her hair, and all over her face. Such a mess! We tried pureed peas earlier this week and she didn't seem to thrilled about those. Because of the long late-afternoon nap it took almost an hour to get her to sleep tonight. Nursing was also a pain (literally) because she is getting more teeth and was chomping down again. Luckily, this was the first biting all week.

Speaking of teeth. Emma has cut 3 teeth this week and I have a feeling that 1 (if not 3) more can be expected very soon. I think that is going to make for a difficult vacation, but we'll take some tylenol (generic brand, not the icky stuff that has been recalled even though we have a brand new bottle of that). We could tell that she was getting another one this weekend because she tugged on her ear more and has been chewing on her tongue with it hanging out. I thought it would be the bottom side teeth, but finally thought to feel her top gum tonight and discovered that a center one has already cut. I think I mentioned last Sunday that we felt a top side tooth. By Wednesday we could see the opposite tooth as well. I'm glad that the center tooth is coming in, because I was worried that she would look like a jack-o-lantern. So far, her teeth have arrived in pairs so I think we should see or feel the other center tooth within 2 days.

Yesterday we went to our first Baby Signs class. We learned food signs (eat, drink, cereal, milk, all done, and more). We had a good time other than the car ride. Looking back now I blame the tooth, but she was a little monster. I rode in the back seat with her the whole way back (about 45 minutes) and she was very unhappy. I am praying that she is better on our trip this week since she will be in the car about 5 hours for 4 days (2 days there, visit for 3 days, 2 days back). I don't know how we are going to fit everything in the car for such a long trip. We were planning on taking the travel swing, but there's no way to fit that. We bought an umbrella stroller because her other stroller won't fit with luggage. The pack'n'play has to go even though we know she won't sleep in it. With all the crawling she is doing, we need some way to contain her occasionally. She is also pulling herself up and learning to climb things. She is already taking steps if she's holding on to something (table edge, crib rail, hands, etc).

Few random things- Tuesday was officially our last day at work for the school year. I had a job interview that afternoon for a different position within the district. I went to the dentist on Wednesday for my fillings and a cleaning. My experiences with this dentist haven't been horrible and I may actually go on a regular basis (cleanings twice a year and yearly exams). Dan had his exam on Thursday - he doesn't have any cavities though. Dan & I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary on Friday. It was nice to be able to drop her off at daycare and spend a day together. That same day we also said goodbye to the doctor who delivered Emma. She finished her residency at our family practice so we took Emma up there after we picked her up from daycare and let her see the doctor. We are going to continue going to the same practice, but will probably keep seeing the nurse practitioner there. She is really nice, adores Emma, and is easy to schedule with.