On April 8th, Emery turned 1 month old! We are completely smitten with her and can't imagine our family without her in it. She is so cute and it's so neat to watch her grow and develop new things each week.
ONE MONTH!
To celebrate her turning one, Emery and I met Kyle for lunch at Willy's! It was my first time driving my car since she was born, talk about saving some gas money! She does great in the car as long as we are moving!
Here she is all set in her car seat... the shoes just kill us haha:
SLEEP!
The first two days home Emery had her days and nights confused, so I think Kyle and I got a total of 2-3 hours of sleep each night. That was rough. Once we did get her sleepy and put down in the bassinet she would get the hiccups or have a huge blow out in her diaper. Then it would be time to feed again and the whole process would repeat itself- ahh! Since she never was happy in the bassinet, we would rock her to sleep and sometimes fall asleep ourselves in our glider. I am so thankful we bought a reclining, super comfortable one! The first week she slept in her bouncy chair at night instead of the bassinet as it cuddled her more and she would fall right asleep.
We finally moved her back to the bassinet but let her sleep on her side cuddled by receiving blankets rolled up next to her. She LOVES to be swaddled and really warm, so most nights she wears hats and warm pjs. The miracle blanket is by far the best swaddle blanket we own. That thing is like a straight jacket with flaps that hold her arms down before you swaddle her body. But she loves the little cocoon that we put her in every night and sleeps like a baby! I never had to set an alarm and she would go 3-4 hours in between feedings.
We have never wavered in our schedule of feeding her every 3 hours and it's totally paying off. By week 4 she was going 6 to 8 and a half hours a night between feedings. We thought it was a fluke but it happened every day that week (and has continued since then!). So we continued to feed her every 3 hours during the day and then let her go at night until she wakes up which is around 7 hours, feed, and then she goes back down for another 4 to 5 hours. Hallelujah it's amazing to get sleep :)
Although she's mastered sleeping at night, the daytime naps have been harder. She sometimes would go all day with only taking a 40 minute nap (combine). We discovered it was gas or burps keeping her awake, so with the recommendation from my friend Amy we quickly bought some Mylicon and our lives were changed forever. We give that to her at every feeding now. Sometimes she skips her naps (too busy just looking around and being alert) but I'm not complaining since she's sleeping so great at night!
She also does well sleeping in her pack-n-play for naps since it's downstairs, as long as she's warm she'll stretch out and sleep hard!
FEEDING!
This was the one thing Kyle and I truly were prepared for to be difficult, and instead it's been a breeze. I am so grateful!! Emery latches on immediately, and is such a great eater. I started out timing her 20 minutes on each side, but by week 4 we were only doing 12-15 on each side. Between feeding, burping and changing her diaper it normally takes an hour. I time her because she'll never push away when she's full. She has such a strong sucking reflex, so I have to be aware of her not using me as a human pacifier. THAT is why we have these.... WUBBANUBS! (Soothie paci's with basically a beanie baby on the end. It sits on their chests so when they can find their paci's a lot easier then little ones that fall all over the place)
The only frustrating thing for me has been the fact that she falls asleep during feeding! I looked up online ways to keep her awake and tried them all (stripping her down, cold rag, blowing on her, etc) but the technique that has worked the best is feeding her in the football position. It's less cuddly/warm and she stays awake! I still have to rub/tickle her back sometimes but it's a huge improvement from where we were!
I feed her at 9 am every morning (Babywise encourages to start feeding at the same day to help establish a schedule) and then we go every 3 hours from there. So our last feeding is at 9 pm and then she'll sleep until 5:30 am or so, feed, and then go back down until 9. Works very well for us and our schedule.
As far as weekdays go I get up and do the night time feedings & changes by myself. Since I'm at home with Emery all day while I'm on maternity leave, I can sleep when she sleeps.
Weekends though are fair game and it's Kyle's turn to do everything but feed her -- which he would be willing to do if he could :)
RANDOMS!
- She had stork bites in between her eyes and at the base of her hairline on the back of her head. They are both fading though!
- She has a strong little neck and always tries to hold up her own head. She gets tired though and slams her head down on our shoulders. What a little bobble head!
- Baby acne came on STRONG at 2 weeks and has stayed till week 4. Poor thing!
- She started "cooing" when eating around 3 weeks old and it's the sweetest sound. It has then developed into a grunting and everyone can hear it when I talk to them on the phone when she's eating... hilarious!
- Around week 3 or 4 she started focusing on us and following us with her eyes if we moved around the room. Love it!
- She does the "fencer position" A TON.
- She LOVES sleeping on her stomach! Can't wait till she can sleep like this in her crib too!
- Without a doubt she has Kyle's long eyelashes. Oh I just love them and they keep growing longer by the day! We are still unsure what her eye color will be, but as of right now they still look light so she MIGHT have gotten my blue/green eyes!
- She also has Kyle's big feet! BUT she has my toes :)- We think she inherited my nose, chin and cheeks and Kyle's lips! - She has ear hair! We are still waiting for it to fall out but it cracks us up! She has it on her shoulders too... just like grandpa and uncle Nick :)
Here she is at 2 weeks:
And here she is at 4 weeks:
Growing up so fast!
