Checking in

It's been a while since I posted!  What can I say, we got busy.  Hurray!

Emma will be 2 months old on Sunday.  I can hardly believe it.  Time is flying by.  Here's what's new with her:

• She is still sleeping really well at night.  She has dropped one of her nightly feedings, so she is down to just one feeding during the night, usually between 4:00am and 5:00am.  I can usually get her back down after that to sleep for another couple of hours. I think our bedtime routine is working really well.  She seems to understand the "it's time to sleep" cues; with the dark room, swaddling, and white noise.  She calms right down after I swaddle her tightly in the Miracle Blanket.  She is still going down between 9:00pm and 9:30pm.  
• She has developed a new skill - sucking on her hands!  This made her fussy for a couple of days (developing new skills does that to them).  But it's cute to watch her go to town on her hand.  Calms her down.  She will also suck on her arm, or my hand as well.
• She is SO BIG.  Over 10 pounds now.  She has chunked up and has cute chubby cheeks and thighs. She is out of her newborn clothes and in the 0 - 3 month size now.
• She is getting good at independent play.  By that I mean I can set her down for a bit in her chair, the boppy, or on her activity mat and she will babble and entertain herself for a while.  Gives me a chance to get something done!
• She is taking the bottle a little bit better.  Depends on the day and her mood.  I just keep telling myself she's not going to starve and when I'm not around she will take it eventually.
• We went to a local lake for the first time (see picture below).  She had a good time except she did NOT like the water.  In her defense it was freezing.

We are headed to the cabin this weekend and I am NERVOUS.  I am worried she will not react well to being away from home and her routine, and will be up all night.  We are going to try to maintain the routine as much as possible at the cabin.  This is mainly the bedtime routine that I'm referring to - quiet time before bed, dim lights and soft talking, then white noise where she's sleeping, no lights, swaddling, and then rocking and nursing to sleep. Hopefully it goes okay!  I keep telling myself if it's horrible and I'm not getting any sleep we can just pack up and come home early.  But I'm tentatively optimistic that it will be fine.

After we get back from the cabin I start school.  I'll be in class on Wednesday nights and every other Saturday.  Randy is in charge while I'm gone!  I know it will be tough at first but in time she will adjust to being alone with him and taking the bottle for food.  I worry about Randy 'cause I know he's in for some long crying periods with her.  But every day I try to leave Emma alone with him for short amounts of time so they can both get used to it.  It breaks my heart to see both her and Randy upset, but I just keep telling myself to give it time.

Personally I'm excited to start class and develop some kind of life outside of being home with baby all the time.  In addition to actually being in class I'll be very busy with homework.  2 graduate classes = a LOT of reading, online discussions, papers, presentations, and a final exam.   Emma is also signed up for an ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) class once a week, and baby storytime at the library once a week.  We are a busy little family!

A day in the life

I've been wanting to do a "Day in the life" post for a while now.  I love reading them on other mom blogs.  So here is ours!  A day in the life of Emma at 6/7 weeks old:

12:00am  Emma wakes up for a feeding.  This is very unusual, as she just went to bed at 9:00pm.  She has been down to just one feeding a night.  However we had our new mama class that afternoon, which she slept through most of, and then she slept a lot when we got home.  So she was not as tired at bedtime as she usually is.  I sigh, get out of bed and go into her room to feed her.  She's back down by 12:30am.


3:45am  Emma wakes up for another feeding.  This is more typical of her nightly feeding time (it's usually between 2:00am and 3:00am).  She is really tired, so she sucks down some milk quickly and then falls right back asleep. I gratefully crawl back into bed.

6:30am  Emma is up!  And she slept 'till 6:30!  She is usually up at 6:00am on the dot.  However we asked Daddy to be a little quieter in the mornings when he gets up for work, to see if she would sleep longer.  Seems to have worked?  Who knows.  She is still sleeping in her rock 'n play, and I put the shirt I have been wearing that day in with her so she has my scent. We also swaddle her at night in the Miracle Blanket.

Diaper change after we wake up.  Randy usually does this with her in the morning.  They have a cute dad/daughter bonding session and he usually gets some smiles.

6:40am - 8:00am  Nursing time!  Emma is a champion eater.  We have a marathon nursing session in the morning.  I get set up on the couch, with my cup of coffee, phone, boppy, burp cloth, and blanket.  She chows down while I sip my coffee and check email/Facebook/Twitter.  Randy usually sits with us for a bit drinking coffee too, before he has to get ready for work.

She takes a break from feeding to play/look around a bit.

She is done feeding for now and will happily entertain herself for a little bit.  So I put her in her vibrating chair while I go make breakfast.  She coos and kicks and looks around at stuff.  I make a smoothie and we wish Daddy a good day at work.  I down my smoothie and open my laptop to get some more stuff done online while she is still happy in her chair.

8:30am  Emma starts demanding to be picked up from her chair.  She is making her "annoyed" cries/sounds.  I scoop her up and see that she has had her morning explosion!  Time for another diaper change.  After that she is back on the boob for another feeding and I am on my laptop one-handed.   I am also really hoping she'll go down for her morning nap soon so I can take a shower.

9:45am  Emma has fallen asleep while nursing but then wakes up.  This is unusual too, as she will normally go down for a 45 minute to 1 hour nap in the morning.  I am considering just putting her in her chair so I can shower.  We've got things to do!

10:00am  I put her in her chair, turn it on vibrate, tuck a blanket around her, and hope for the best.  I jump in the shower.  I contemplate shaving my legs, but I suspect that Emma is not sleeping and therefore I do not have time for this luxury.

10:15am  Thwarted!  I come back out to the living room after showering and getting dressed (yes, in 15 minutes) and Emma is not sleeping.  Again, this is unusual.  Oh well, guess we're having an off day.  I know that she will sleep in the car when we finally leave the house to run our errand.

10:15am - 11:00am  I throw her back on the boob.  She's eating a lot today, maybe it's another growth spurt?  After she's finished eating again, I change her out of her "pajamas" (which is just the onesie she wore to bed last night) and into fresh clothes.  We get packed up and ready to go run our errand for the day.

11:00am - 12:00pm  We are at Walmart.  Gross, I know.  But there is a new Walmart Super Center in Brooklyn Center off of 100N that is 5 minutes from our house, and I saw online while doing a Google search that they had some cute, cheap nursing tank tops.  Once we enter the Walmart I realize I made a mistake.  It's disorganized and I can't find the tank tops anywhere.  I get the rest of the stuff on my list and we head home.  I could have stayed out later with her but there is stuff I want to get done at home.  She sleeps the whole time.  I realize once I get back home that the nursing tanks are only available online and not in the store.  Dumb.

12:00 - 1:30pm  We are back at home and she is starting to wake up in her car seat.  I quickly heat up and wolf down some leftovers from dinner last night, as I am starving.  She fully wakes up while I am trying to eat, so I put her on one shoulder and eat with the other hand.  I pretty much only eat things that I can eat with one hand these days.  She's fussing so we sit on the couch and she nurses some more, then plays on the boppy while I do some more stuff online while talking to her/making silly noises and playing with her feet. Multi tasking is key.

1:30 - 3:00pm  I strap her in to the Baby K'tan so I can get some stuff done around the house.  I quickly fold and put away the laundry in the dryer, put in a new load, do the dishes in the sink, write a thank you card, and make and eat a peanut butter sandwich with a glass of milk (yes, hungry again).  I also put Maggie out on her tether so she can pee.  While I'm doing all these things I talk to Emma and describe what I'm doing and let her feet touch some things.  This lasts for an hour before she starts to fuss and root around.  I am convinced she is having a growth spurt.  I take her out of the K'tan and we sit back on the couch to have some quiet nursing after all that stimulation.  She then spits up most of what she ate.  Awesome.  I still want to go for a walk at some point today, play with her on her activity mat and do tummy time, and sit out on the back deck with her while I read my book and she looks at the trees.  She also needs to take an afternoon nap at some point.  Also I get a text from Randy and he is very busy at work and may be home late.  This makes us sad because Randy coming home from work is our favorite part of the day!  But of course we understand he needs to work.

3:15 - 4:15pm  She's sleepy.  I put her in her chair to nap and head downstairs to clean the cat box room.  When I'm done cleaning it she is awake again.  Le sigh.  Oh, she has pooped!  That is probably why she woke up.  I change her, and then we go in to my bedroom so I can change as I'm now covered in cat litter dust.  She happily lies on our bed and stares out the window.  I make faces at her and get her to laugh and smile.  Then we head back out to the living room where she stares entranced at the black lamp for a while.  She is really starting to notice shapes lately.  Randy texts again that he's not sure when he'll be home.  Normally at this time we would head out to the back deck, Emma would nurse and I would read a book/check my phone while we wait for Randy to get home.  Then we would all hang out together, catch up on our days, go for a family walk, make and eat dinner, and then watch some tv together.  But since he'll be late I decide to nurse Emma again for a little and then take her and Mags for a walk on my own.

4:30pm  We are off for our walk.  I've got 3 choices for carrying her - the Baby K'tan, the Ergo, or the stroller.  The K'tan is not good for long walks, and I already tossed it down in the basement to wash it.  She likes the stroller now, since I put her in it without the car seat and turn on her fan.  But since I've got Maggie with me I decide to use the Ergo so both my hands are free.  She loves it, looks around for awhile, and then dozes off.

5:00pm  We are back from our walk.  We head out to the back deck to nurse and relax.  I am pretty exhausted by this point in the day and am thinking to myself, only 4 hours 'till bedtime!  Randy is still stuck at work.  So I feed the pets and make dinner for myself (mac & cheese).  I put Emma in her bouncy chair on the kitchen table so I can bounce her while I eat.  We clean up, I grab my phone, and we head downstairs to watch some tv.  Emma will cluster feed at this time, meaning she will nurse until she passes out for bed.  I relax on the couch and watch tv.

7:30pm  Randy is finally home!  Poor guy had a rough day at work.  We chill on the couch and he gives Emma a bottle.  We are all tired but Emma is showing no sign of being ready for bed.

9:15pm  Emma finally passes out.  Randy holds her while I get "bedtime" set up.  I turn off/dim most of the lights upstairs.  I turn off the light in her room and turn the nightlight on, her box fan, and put my stinky shirt in her rock 'n play.  Then I go back downstairs to take her from Randy.  We whisper goodnight.  I take Emma into her room and shut the door.  We have a diaper change, put her in a comfy onesie, and then swaddle her in the miracle blanket.  There is no talking or interaction while this happens.  Then we sit in the rocker and nurse and rock her for a bit.  I put her down in her rock 'n play, turn off the night light, and tip toe out.

9:45pm  Good night!


So this was not a "typical" day for us, because Emma woke up for two feedings, didn't really go down for her naps, and Randy was home late.  But you get the gist!  Last night Emma was back on track.  She woke up at 4:00am for a feeding and slept 'till 6:50am.  I'll take it!  It's 8:30am and she is currently taking her morning nap while I finish this blog post.

Other news:
I have bought the 30 Day Shred, in the hopes of getting back in to shape.  I love Jillian Michaels and have done the Shred before and know that it works for me.  However I have yet to start it.  Not sure when I will find the time??
I have also submitted my resignation to my job.  For those that don't know, we have decided that I am going to stay home with Emma for the first year.  We crunched the numbers and it made more sense financially for me to stay home with her, rather than have my entire paycheck go towards daycare.  I will be staying in school and finishing my master's degree however.  I am taking 2 classes this fall, and 2 in the spring.  I will graduate in May.  I am growing concerned about when I am going to find the time to do my homework.  2 graduate level classes = a lot of work.  I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  I will probably rely on Randy to take over for chunks of time so I can get some school work done.

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments!

1 month

Emma is one month old!

 What is this thing on my head?

Remove it at once!

Ah, much better.

I can't believe how fast time is going by.  We have had lots of new developments lately:

- she is sleeping much better at night.  Suddenly when we hit the 4 week mark something changed.  She seemed to figure out her days from nights.  She takes much shorter naps in the day (typically a late morning nap, an afternoon nap, and an early evening nap) each lasting about an hour or less.  At night she goes down by 9:00pm, sleeps 'till about 1:30am, wakes up for a feeding, goes back down until around 4.  I can usually feed her at that time and get her to go back down until at least 6:00am.  This makes for a somewhat well-rested and happy mom!  As she gains weight and her stomach gets bigger she should sleep for longer stretches at night.  And some magical day I will put her down at 9 and she won't wake up until 6:00am!  :)

- she is SO much more alert and active during the day.  She smiles and laughs with us, and interacts when we play with her.  We play with her toys every day.  We also try to go for a walk every day in her Ergo carrier.  She loves looking at things, out the window, at faces, basically taking everything in.  Every day she changes a little bit more!  She's also rocking at tummy time.  She lifts her head and turns it to the other side.

- the transition to her room went really well.  She is sleeping fine in there, and I sleep much better not having her in our bedroom.  She is still sleeping in her rock 'n play.  I have purchased a wedge to elevate the crib, to see if that makes her like it better.  But I've decided to not stress about her not sleeping in the crib.  We'll keep working on it, and hopefully when she is 3 or 4 months she will start sleeping in there.

- Randy took some Fridays in August off, so he can be home with us more.  We love having daddy home!  We are looking forward to a fun month of spending time together as a family.