11.29.2011

Thanksgiving 2011

I know it's a little delayed but better late than never!!! This year was the first time to be away from home at Thanksgiving for me! It was very bittersweet, I had my husband and our beautiful daughter AND wonderful friends to spend the holiday with. I am so thankful for great and supportive friends (that are more like family) to spend holidays with when we're away from our "real" families!

My little turkey!

Our first Thanksgiving as a family of three.

Dana's family always puts their hand prints on a tablecloth! Such a fun idea!

We decided to do Emma Claire's foot...it was much more cooperative than her hand ;-)

Emma Claire loves Alli!

and Austin! Such sweet kids, I'm so glad Emma Claire has made "Friends" :-)

The men carving the Turkeys. Yes, we had two!

The beautiful table full of wonderful food!

Daddy and Emma Claire after dinner!

We had a wonderful day and have so much to be thankful for this year!



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!



11.28.2011

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!



11.25.2011

Thankful

Our first Thanksgiving as a family of three!

I am thankful for so much this year; my amazing Husband, our sweet Emma Claire, wonderful friends who have become family and allowed us to spend Thanksgiving with them, my family and the Hubster's family who we missed so much this year, a wonderful home, the Hubster's new job that allowed us to move to Virginia, our health, our fur-babies...the list goes on and on. We have been so incredibly blessed this year!

Here's hoping that someone chooses to nap this weekend so that Mommy and Daddy can get the house cleaned and Christmas decorations up! :-) I was supposed to start today but I spent the day cuddling and watching lifetime Christmas movies with my favorite girl because someone had no interest in sleeping (unless she was in my arms!) I'm not complaining though!

 

11.23.2011

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!



11.21.2011

Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend we had our first "non-family" overnight house guests! :-) The Hubster's best friend and his girlfriend came to visit us and we had such a great time!

I just LOVE this picture! It took some convincing but Candler finally held Emma Claire, he was a natural! :-) I didn't take a picture but Alecia was WONDERFUL with Emma Claire as well!!! She rocked her and held her, I'm pretty sure Emma Claire was pretty smitten with her!

On Saturday we went to the Air and Space Museum. It was Emma Claire's first trip to one of the Smithsonian museums! Granted we didn't go into the city ;-) We went to the museum out at Dulles.

It is HUGE!

She was thrilled ;-)

Someone was not happy in their stroller so I held her and we walked around for a bit. Luckily she fell asleep and spent the rest of the trip happily lounging in the stroller.

The boys and the babe. I feel like the Hubster looks like he is modeling the stroller here! Ha!

Texas!

The Enterprise. So very cool!

Our family picture...although one small member isn't visible :-)

I tried to take miss Emma Claire's 3 week picture tonight. However, most of them turned out like this...

We're going to try again tomorrow...

I can't believe that this time next week my baby will be a MONTH old. WOW!



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