Weeks 18 and 19

I had every intention of posting a blog after we returned from Vegas, unfortunately we were too exhausted. It has been a long 2 weeks to say the least.

Last weekend, before the trip, Emmaline starting taking a few steps on her own! We've counted up to 6 before she falls or sits down. We didn't mention it to family, because we didn't want pressure for her to "perform" there. That was a good thing since she was pretty overwhelmed by the whole experience anyway (although her cousins got to watch her take 2 steps).

We woke up about 3:30am on Thursday morning. Got Emma out of her crib by 4 and hit the road. Our flight didn't leave until 7am so we thought we'd have plenty of time. We didn't. We had to run to get to our plane before they closed the gate and we didn't have a chance to get breakfast. Luckily, Emma slept on the flight to Dallas and then she was able to crawl/cruise around during our layover. She slept a little bit more on the connecting flight to Las Vegas. Once we landed, we called Dan's parents to see if they could come pick us up. They said sure, but then had trouble finding the arrival pick-up so we were standing outside in a sweltering parking garage for about 45 minutes. I thought I was going to pass out and can only imagine how miserable Emma was! We had no problem checking in early and then it was time to sit around and wait... wait for my family to arrive and wait for the hotel to actually bring us the pack'n'play. By the time both of those arrived, it was way past bedtime and we were all very cranky.

We spent the entire trip there at the hotel (luckily there was a Denny's on the property that we frequented). The only time Emma left the hotel was when we went across the street to wander the outlet mall and took her on the carousel. Dan and I did sneak out one night to go to the Mystere (Cirque du Soleil) at Treasure Island. We put Emma down for bed and our moms came over and stayed in the room to keep an eye on her. She woke up once and they had to spend about 45 minutes getting her back down. Other than that, we spent the day at the lazy river or the pool and going to/from the grandparents rooms. Emma is definitely experiencing separation & stranger anxiety. She did not want to be held by anyone else and didn't even want people getting close to her if she wasn't right there with mommy or daddy. I think it made for some disappointed family members. By the last day, she did warm up a little. The trip back was a bit disastrous. We made it out of Vegas fine, but the stop in Denver sucked. Out of the 4 airports we were at during the trip, Denver was the one where we didn't feel comfortable letting her crawl around. The floor was absolutely filthy! We got down and picked up the bigger things we could find before letting her out of the stroller, but within 10 minutes she still found a variety of nuts, raisins, fingernails, etc. We finally boarded the plane and then sat there for over an hour! There was bad weather and we had to be re-routed before takeoff. Emmaline slept for that hour, but then refused to sleep for most of the flight. It was an evening flight and we were counting on her sleeping since it was bedtime. She finally feel asleep around 11:30 (bedtime is 7) and slept for the last 45 minutes of the flight. She woke up after the flight but zonked out once we got to the car. The icing on the cake was hitting a deer at 2:30 in the morning when we were finally about 10 minutes from home! We were fortunate that it only damaged the driver's side door and no one was injured (Emma didn't even wake up).

On another note, we took Emma to the ear specialist Wednesday morning for a consultation. We decided to go ahead with tubes since she has been on 3 different antibiotics this summer alone and still has fluid in her ear. We are scheduled for surgery Tuesday morning. Dan and I are very nervous, but hoping that it really helps her!

Yesterday morning we took Emmaline to the Little Gym for a free-trial class. She absolutely loved it! We were nervous that she would just sit and stare the whole time while clinging to me, but she took off and tried things out. She didn't throw a fit when we took things away to transition to the next activity and she didn't cry when the instructor helped hold her to do different things (like the front roll and flipping on the bars). We went ahead and signed up for the fall semester which starts in 2 weeks and runs through January. With her being so close to walking, I think it's the perfect time.

After the class, I decided it was time to start letting her crawl up the stairs. I didn't think she'd be ready for it because our stairs are pretty narrow, but she took off! She's also been doing a lot of cute things that are new: giving kisses, starting to "share" things (actually letting go and not just holding it in our direction), taking naps in her crib instead of the swing, playing chase (we crawl after her down the hall and she laughs the whole way), and she also started taking her toy cellphone (Christmas gift from grandparents) and holding it up to her ear making a "hello" kind of sound. Yesterday I was also able to see tooth #8, but it hasn't broke through yet. I'm thinking that (along with the ears and still adjusting from vacation) is probably the reason for her waking up constantly throughout the night and not wanting to go back to sleep.

Emma had her first meal at daycare this week. We were running late, so we took her cereal in and let her have it at lunch time. She did very well and didn't make a huge mess. That was good to hear since she'll be having breakfast there everyday once we start back to school. In about a month we will also start sending lunch. (Right now she still just has breakfast and dinner.) I need to start looking up info about transitioning to cow's milk since we will begin that process in just under 2 months! My plan is to phase out the daytime nursings first so I can eliminate the need to pump at work. If we can continue the nighttime/morning nursings we will for at least a few months beyond her birthday.

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.