Busy Weekend!

What an interesting weekend. It was a big eating weekend and a strange sleeping weekend. This weekend Emma ate:

Banana Pancake
Pumpkin Pancake with Applebutter (she LOVED the applebutter)
Avocado, Chicken and Goat Milk Cheddar Quesadillas
Chicken and Dumplings
Meatballs
Mashed Potatoes (made with olive oil and almond milk)
Pumpkin Mini-Muffins
Mashed Peas

Everything was made from scratch! We froze the muffins and pancakes so there's plenty for later. She absolutely loved everything and ate so much.

Yesterday she had some great naps -- a 2 hr, 20 min nap in the morning and an hour and 15 minute nap in the afternoon, but then she fought going to sleep and around 9:30pm, she woke up and cried for about an hour and a half before going back to sleep. It took almost that long for me to figure out that it was probably her tooth and I gave her some generic tylenol, but even after that she was restless and up half the night.

But I was right! Tooth #7 broke through the skin last night.

Today she took a 1 1/2 hour and a 1 hour nap, went down very quickly at 7:30 after we gave her some more tylenol and orajel. She's sleeping now... we'll see. That top tooth (#8) has yet to get through the skin, but we can see it.

Tonight we also got to talk to Grandma and Grandpa L! It was really fun seeing them on Skype, and they got to watch Emma walking all over with her walker and playing with Samson. Skype is a wonderful invention.

We didn't get many pictures, but we will soon -- next weekend is Pumpkin Patch weekend!

Naps

I just want to say that ever since we read about the 2-3-4 naptime schedule, naps have been fabulous here at home. What is it? Well... Emma gets up, and 2 hours later we offer her first nap. She's been going down VERY easily and napping between 1 1/2-2 hours. Then 3 hours after she gets up, we offer the second nap. Typically again, she goes down very easily and naps for about an hour. And then 4 hours (or so) after she gets up from that, it's bedtime.

We're flexible about half an hour around each time, but so far it's worked like a dream. It's just too bad that it doesn't work like that at daycare -- she's just too excited to be around her friends to nap there.

We're In Washington, DC!

It only took 11 hours for us to get here. Emma did fantastic until the last hour -- we were stuck in horrible traffic. I actually took her out of the car seat when we were stopped on 270 to feed her, and then she had a big poo, so I changed her while she was on my lap. Exciting, I tell ya.

Here she is at the start of the trip, talking to Mr. Monkey. She took 5 naps in the car seat all together!



I'll try to upload some video later. She's waking up from her morning nap as I type. Oh, but at 5:18 am this morning, she rolled from her belly to her back!!! Mommy & Daddy were SO excited. :)

11 Weeks!

A short update before bed...

Emma had another big day today. She visited another one of Mommy's facilities, and met a LOT of the staff and some of the residents. For the most part, it was a great visit -- she smiled at people, only fussed a little, and captured the hearts of everyone.

After changing her and feeding her there, she fell asleep... so I went and picked up Daddy, and we had lunch at the park and walked around with the stroller for a while. It was 60 degrees and sunny out! I think it helped all of us tremendously. Mommy & Emma also had a nap when we got home, which helped even more.

As I get closer to going back to work, it's very likely I won't be able to do daily posts but I will try to keep updates and pictures going for everyone. I'll definitely do the milestone posts!

Here we are yesterday, on our 11 week birthday, watching the fan (again!). She's a fan fan!

Deep Breath

It was NOT a good night or morning....

* We tried to put her in her bassinet for the first portion of last night. She must have suspected something was up because she wouldn't fall asleep while being rocked like she normally does, and she was very fussy. It took until 8:30 and Daddy rocking her before she fell asleep, then we transferred her into the bassinet -- she lasted there for 10 minutes before she woke up and was crying. It took until 9pm to get her to sleep again.

* After an initial 2.5 hours of sleep, she was up almost every hour, squirming and whimpering. Then she'd let out a big fart, and immediately start to cry. It sounded like it really hurt her. It took a long time of patting her and cuddling to get her to calm down and go back to sleep. So none of us got a good night of rest.

* The first thing Mommy discovered when we got out of bed this morning is that Aunt Flo decided to come for her first post-partum visit. 10 weeks, 5 days after delivery, AND I'm breastfeeding! I had no tell-tale dip in my supply (thank goodness) but I should have noticed when my skin did it's normal thing and I've been extra moody lately.

* Then we decided to try the bottle. OMG, I hate bottle feeding. She was giving the hunger cues, so we got the bottle of breastmilk out of the fridge and started heating it up. It took FOREVER to heat it up! By the time it was ready, she was practically hysterical. But she ate 1.5 ounces of breast milk from the bottle for Mommy, so at least I know she'll take it.

Ironically enough, she fell asleep at the bottle, so I laid her down in her crib and thought I'd go get breakfast. 5 minutes later she was up and crying, so I picked her up and breastfed her, and she ate readily, then fell right back asleep and is now out on my chest, poor thing. Just too much going on. I'm happy that she takes right to the breast after a bottle though.

I foresee a nap in everyone's future today!

Routine Day

We've had a run-of-the-mill day today, I think. She had a great night.... slept from 8pm to 7am, needed a diaper change at 10:30pm, 2:45am, 3:15am (she had a post-BF poo), and 5am. She ate during all those times too. I actually got some good sleep in between the BF and diaper changes.

Today we took our mini-nap from 8:30 to 9, then the BIG nap from 10:30 to 1:30 (wow!), and then she had a couple of cat naps. We didn't get our second big nap until just now -- she's been down since about 5:15pm on my chest and I plan on rousing her around 6:15 so I can change a diaper and eat.

We're still counting down to our first day away from each other... I'm still very anxious about the whole situation, but everyone I've talked to has been very supportive. I just know it'll be hard, but it'll get better.

Here she is during her mini-nap! She loves all her Aunties!!

Our "One" Thing

Today our "one" thing was to nap in the crib for longer than half an hour -- and we did it, TWICE! We have definitely learned that Emma needs 3 naps during the day to be a happy baby.... one around 9-10 in the morning, then one around 12-1, and then another one between 4-5pm. Then the goal is to get her to bed around 7-8pm and keep her there until 7am the next morning.

We got the naps down today, yay! And she's been a much happier baby. We've been happier too! Here she is, napping in her crib in an outfit she has not worn before because it was too big! Oh -- AND we took a bath today. It's been a busy, busy day for all of us (including Daddy, who shoveled the foot of snow we got off the driveway and sidewalk, and Mommy, who did a load of diapers, Emma's clothing, and 5 loads of Mommy & Daddy laundry, plus cooked dinner and made brownies).