Emma Claire One Month

My sweet angel is one month old. When did that happen?! I feel like I was pregnant yesterday! Yet at the same time I don't remember what life was like before Emma Claire came along.

This past month has been so many things; exciting, scary, rewarding, stressful, exhausting, exhilarating, and extremely fulfilling.

Emma Claire has changed so much over the past month and I can't wait to watch her grow and change even more!

Your Daddy and I Love you SO MUCH little one. We don't know what we did without you!

I also want to say thank you for all of the advice on the gas issue. Last night from about 9pm until midnight she was extremely fussy so I gave her gripe water and gas drops. They didn't seem to help at first and I was so discouraged. I just kept laying her on her back and moving her legs and massaging her tummy until she was "relieved" :-) Finally she ate one last time and got sleepy. She fell asleep at about 12:30am and was up screaming an hour later. I knew she wasn't hungry and that it was gas so I didn't pick her up, I just put my hand on her tummy and started to move her legs up towards her chest. It only took five minutes and she was calm and asleep again. I repeated this one more time and then she fell asleep until 4:30 when she woke to eat. She only ate for 10 minutes and then was back asleep until 8:30. All in all I would say we had a pretty good night. I think she is worn out though because as I type she is asleep again! I'm fine with that though, we haven't had a morning nap in a LONG time!

Emma Claire Four Weeks

Well it's 1:30 and someone is asleep on my chest (she's been a little gassy lately and she sleeps better on her little tummy) hopefully I'll get to write this post in one sitting! HA wishful thinking! I can't believe that four weeks have already gone by! WOW! Little miss is getting more active and alert each day.

Here we are with our double name, in our big bow, and wearing our first smocked dress! Unless there's sweet tea in her bottle it doesn't get more southern than that folks ;-)

Loves: Sleeping on Mommy's chest...this is brand new and I think because she's been a little gassy and her tummy feels better if she's laying on it.

Eating: BF is getting better each day. I have decided that I don't LOVE breastfeeding but I do love the bond it's creating with Emma Claire and I as well as the health benefits she's getting from it. I'm going to BF as long as it works for us and when she isn't satisfied from BF she gets formula. She has gone a few days without formula and I think she really only needs it when she's going through a little growth spurt and breast milk just isn't enough.

Sleeping: We had our first night of sleeping through the night!! YIPEE! She slept from 12:30am until just after 6am on Friday, November 25th, 2011!  I know she can do it now! The downside to this...she hasn't done it since and I know what I'm missing out on!!! HA! The past few nights she has been waking up SCREAMING because she's gassy. At first I didn't know that's what it was, I was thinking she was really hungry but she didn't want to eat and was quickly rocked back to sleep after she went potty. I'm going to try giving her some gripe water at night, I've heard wonderful things about it. Do any of you have experience with it or have suggestions for nighttime gas?

Clothes: Still in newborn clothes and diapers. Although she has outgrown her first pair of pants! They were REEEALLY tiny though!

Fun Facts: Emma Claire now follows me with her head and eyes! If I stand over her and talk then move to one side she will track me with her eyes and move her head! When I first noticed this I'm pretty sure I moved back and forth over her for 30 minutes just watching her watch me! It's the little things! :-)

Mommy Moments: I was pretty excited for our first sleep through the night experience! I also got majorly pooped on today for the first time, it was so wonderful! HA!

Firsts: We went to our first birthday party!

Picture Perfect

This weekend Emma Claire went to her first birthday party!

Our friends have a sweet Little girl who turned one!

Isn't she ADORABLE!?

Auntie Leah and Uncle CJ got to meet Emma Claire for the first time!

I finally got a picture of Kelly with Emma Claire! :-)

I love this picture so much! They were all looking at her like they had never seen a baby before! Only two were brave enough to hold her ;-)

What a natural :-) She loved him!

We had a great week! I can't believe a month has almost gone by already!

Emma Claire Three Weeks

Well my little lady is finally napping and I'm hoping she'll stay asleep long enough for me to finish her three week update! HA! I'm just now finishing this up at 8pm...oh life with a newborn :-) Week three has been challenging but we are also working on establishing our routine.

Loves: Cuddling with Mommy, throwing up on Daddy (seriously it's happened several times this week!), going on car rides, and afternoon naps

Eating: Well I spoke too soon. While BF is going well I'm not producing as much as I thought I was, only about an ounce and a half per breast. Sometimes only an ounce. Since she prefers the right over the left she tends to drain that one first and then work on the left. Lately I've also been pumping the left if she's full after feeding on the right side. She tends to down that bottle and still be hungry. So she's been getting some formula bottles when that happens. Some days she doesn't need a formula bottle. When she does need one it's typically in the evening right around our dinner time. I've just been playing it by ear, if she is happy and satisfied after feeding then I'm happy. However when she's  finished feeding and is still hungry I give her a bottle. Another fun feeding fact is that while she hates taking a bottle she likes it much more if the bottle is warm. Not room temperature, but warm. I just run the bottle through a bottle warmer twice and she's a happy camper.  

Sleeping: This past week has been quite a roller coaster. We had our first night where she was up pretty much all night (only sleeping two hours). We also have been establishing more of a schedule since that night. She has been going to sleep between 9pm-11pm and sleeping for 3-4 hours then waking for a feeding. After the first feeding she has gotten MUCH better about going back to sleep. She usually only sleeps 2 hours after that feeding and wakes again. Then she will typically feed again and go back to sleep for 2-3 hours and then we get up for our day. Last night she had just finished feeding and I was moving her to her bassinet when she spit up all over her PJ's. Poor baby was not happy when I had to un-swaddle her and change her :-( Our schedule last night was: Sleep from 12pm-2:30am, feed/change, sleep from 3am-5:30am, feed/change (she also got a bottle) and then slept from 6am-10am

Clothes: I realized I didn't include this in the other weekly updates! It's basically been the same since birth. She's in newborn diapers and all newborn clothes. Anything 0-3 months is HUGE on her!

Fun Facts: Emma Claire had her 2nd doctors appointment on Monday, she did great! She is 20.5" long (50th percentile), her head circumference is 14 1/4th" (50th percentile), and she weighs 8lbs 1oz (25th-50th percentile).

Mommy Moments: I wore pre-baby jeans this week! Actually I wore a pair the week after her birth but after wearing them for a little bit they became uncomfortable with all that was going on. I also realized through this experience that I have no "fat jeans". Which to some people sounds like the opposite of a problem...but it's a big problem when you're in between regular jeans and maternity jeans! ha!

Firsts: Emma Claire met Uncle Candler and Auntie Alecia for the first time, went to a Smithsonian Museum (Air and Space Museum), took a bottle without spitting it all out during drinking, first time throwing up on Daddy

Picture Perfect

I've gotten several great smiles on camera this week...

"What's that Mommy? You don't like just getting two hours of sleep?"

Cuddling together after a good night's sleep

First trip to a museum...she was obviously thrilled.

Hanging out with Uncle Candler and Aunt Alecia!

I just love her so much!

Sweet baby before bathtime

Swing-time...sadly she ONLY likes the swing if she's literally sound asleep and doesn't know she's in it! HA! AKA when Mom needs to put her down for 10 seconds to do something! :-)

We love playtime!

Second trip to the doctor!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Wednesday everyone! I'm linking up with Jamie from This Kind of Love today!

What I'm Loving today...

{One}

My Sweet Hubby/Emma Claire's Daddy

He works SO hard, I am so proud of him! Lately he's been leaving the house at 5am and not getting home until 8pm :-( This has been hard since he works so hard all day long he is exhausted when he gets home so we usually head to bed right after dinnertime. AND on top of all of that he is working to finish up his masters so he has LOTS of homework lately. I am just so proud of everything he is doing for our little family. He comes home and spends as much time with Emma Claire as possible...hence holding her while she sleeps and he works :-) Which is pretty adorable.

{Two}

My Sweet Sweet Smiley Baby

Be still my heart...I cannot get enough of this cute face! I'm also loving that for the past two nights she has slept for two four hour stretches and has only been up for an hour in between!!! Hallelujah!

Happy baby before bath time.

I just love her smiles more than anything else in the whole world! I can't wait until her smiles become more intentional :-)

{Three}

My Fur-Babies

I promise I haven't forgotten them :-)

{Four}

Made Up Dinners

I made a yummy tater-tot casserole a few nights ago. I just kind of made it up as I went along and I think it's one of my favorite dinners I've made in a while! In it is ground beef, onions, peas, cream of mushroom soup, milk, and crushed up tater-tots. Then I topped it with tater-tots and cheese!

{Five}

Big Bows

Hehe her face cracks me up in this one! It's like she's thinking..."holy cow, is Mom serious with this bow?!" This was her first time to wear a BIG bow and she was such a trooper and just looked so cute! A double name and a big ole' bow...doesn't get much more southern than that, if she was in one of her smocked outfits we'd be all set ;-)

Emma Claire Two Weeks

I know I'm going to be saying this the rest of my life but I cannot believe how fast the time has gone! Emma Claire is two weeks old and already has changed so much since we brought her home.

Emma Claire: Two Weeks

Loves: Making silly faces, cuddling with Daddy while he does school work, eating (A LOT!), car rides, being held, dancing with Mommy and Daddy, bath time

Eating: Breastfeeding is going much better. My milk production is up which is wonderful. However someone thinks that she can eat CONSTANTLY. I was worried that this was a sign that my milk production was low but after pumping to see how much I produce versus how much she was eating I'm not concerned. I make way more than she eats and she HATES taking a bottle. So we're back to "normal"...whatever that is now! HA! We're working on a schedule but she needs to eat so frequently that it just isn't happening yet but I'm confident that it will. I'm not going to stress out over it!

Sleeping: Sleep has not been quite as good as her first week. She tends to only sleep two hour stretches which is to be expected because of her tiny tummy size. I just pray that we will start sleeping for longer stretches of time at night. Last night she fell asleep at 10pm and slept until 1:30am then was awake until 3am and slept until 5am and was awake until 7am and slept until 9. I officially got up with her around 6:30am and we cuddled and watched the  news until she fell asleep. As I type we are working on a nap...it's been in the works for about an hour now ;-) So she has been up since 9am..that's almost four hours awake!

Fun Facts: Emma Claire went out to eat for the first time yesterday! We went out to lunch with friends and she slept the whole time! After we went to the farmers market where she continued to sleep. When we got home she woke up and Daddy fed her a bottle of breast milk and then she was awake and alert. She loves people and had a great time meeting Jack and Kelly. Kelly held her and she was so GOOD!

Mommy Moments: I am feeling MUCH better and breastfeeding is getting easier and easier each day.

Firsts: First time out to eat (at the Bungalow Alehouse), Emma Claire pooped on Mommy for the first time ;-) we skyped with Aunt Paige, Aunt Rachel and Grammy and G-Pop this week, Emma Claire had tummy time today for the first time! 

 Picture Perfect

I love waking up to this face each morning

Her hair is getting SO LONG! I can actually make it stick up hehe :-)

Someone did NOT want her picture taken!

This makes my heart melt

Sweet princess

Out to eat for the first time

Helping Daddy with homework for his Masters program

First time on our play mat and first tummy time! She liked it for all of about one minute ;-)

Ahhh...someone is finally asleep! However she woke up about 5 minutes after I took this ;-)

Just for fun, here's a comparison of this week and last week. I can't believe how much she's changed already!