Dear Emily,

Today you are 2 mos. old, I am amazed by you daily.  Our lives have changed unimaginably since you have come into the world.  You are a true blessing! 

Your favorite things are your pacifier, woombie (or to be swaddled), music, and your swing (moving side to side).  You would prefer to be held all day long :)  At times you are picky with who is holding you.  Sometimes you just don't like new people to be holding you at all, but that's ok because then mommy does not have to share you :).  You love to play your little games with daddy, and listen to his voice when he gets home from work.  We spend our day together talking and singing and looking at some black and white picture books.  Sometimes we will get a rattle out and you are starting to show more interest in them.  You are cooing alot now and giving us lots of smiles.  You are one strong little girl, you are most happy sitting up, you have started to sit up with some help already!  You are fussy at times but I don't mind because it just means we get to cuddle more that day.  I feel bad when you have a fussy day because I know you are uncomfortable because of your reflux.  Otherwise you are a happy girl unless you are tired, hungry, gassy, or mom makes you wear a hat outside.  

I love you so very much, more than you will ever know.  My biggest fear these days is that if something were to ever happen to me you would not know how much I loved you.  I would miss all the opportunities to tell you and miss all the hugs and kisses.  You are such a gift, and I feel blessed to have YOU as my little girl. 

A few pictures at 2 mos. with your favorite things :)

Love
Mommy

8 weeks!

Well I don't know where the time has gone, it seems like just yesterday we brought home our little girl and now she is 8 weeks old!  Emily had her 2 mo. check up last Friday afternoon, she is now 9lbs 1oz.  (my birth weight).  She has moved up to the 15-20th percentile for weight now, her length remains at the 50th percentile (21 3/4 inches).  Dr. Becky said that was good growth and her weight will continue to catch up to her length.  We also discussed feeding and her reflux issues.  We started a new reflux medication after the appointment, and so far it seems to be working well.  I still have not tried to lay her down in her pack n play to sleep though. 

Emily continues to breastfeed without the nipple shield, I even took it out of the diaper bag and returned an unopened one to target yesterday.  I don't think we will need to use it ever again!   I can tell that she is getting more to eat,and can eat quicker without the shield.  Since stopping with the shield she has started to look more filled out!  I am so happy that we got our feeding problems figured out. 

Sleep has left our house though, and I really miss it.  Ever since I posted that she was sleeping so well, Emily decided to prove me wrong...Now I am lucky to get 3 hrs. of sleep at once.  Over the past week I really think her reflux was getting worse, and the medication was wearing off sooner and just not working as well as it had.  When she would be sleeping she would often cry out in her sleep and I could hear her cough, choke, gag, and clear her throat.  While she would stay asleep, I would be awake listening.  Since starting the new medication (prevacid) she has not made these reflux sounds, but it has only been two nights so far.  I hope that the new medication continues to help and provide Emily with more comfort.  Maybe once she is feeling better she will start sleeping well once again. 

Happy Days

We returned from a very nice weekend visit with my grandparents in Columbia, MO.  Emily and I rode along with Amanda and the boys; it was a very nice visit but not nearly long enough.  Emily did much better in the car than I thought she would, we had some sleeping issues once we returned (since she slept all day in the car two days in a row) but we are back on track now. 

She is now sleeping even better than she was prior to the trip.  She still has to sleep in the swing or the Fisher-Price rocking seat.  If she has her head elevated (she is pretty much sitting up) she will now sleep for 4-6 hrs. at once!  It's amazing how good I feel after a stretch of sleep like that, it's the most sleep I have had in many months!  I just hope she keeps it up, after I catch up on some sleep and we get her reflux problems taken care of I will try to get her sleeping in the pack n play (or crib if her room is done).

More good news is Emily has been nursing nipple shield free!  She has been doing this for a week now; I'm not tossing them out yet but am very pleased with the progress.  Emily still needs some convincing at times that she must nurse without them, but its better and better every day.  It only took her 7 weeks to learn how to breastfeed, but what is important is that she did it! 

Emily's next doctor visit is this Friday; I am really looking forward to seeing how much she weighs and how long she is.  I think she has been growing a lot the last few weeks, I can tell a difference with how her clothes are fitting.  She has not filled them out, but she is too long for some of her sleepers.

Emily Update

     Well, my little peanut is not so little anymore.  I stopped by my work yesterday on an outing to get vitamin D drops (you are suppose to supplement if you are breast feeding). She is almost 6 weeks old now so I figured it was time to start.  I had waited because I wanted her nursing well before we added something new and she already takes so much medicine during the day (baby zantac three times a day and gas drops 2-3 times a day).  I was hesitating to give her one more thing - but she needs them, so we started yesterday.  But back to my original thought, Emily is now 8 lbs and 1 oz.  The nurse in me had to figure out how many grams per day since her last weigh in.  Turns out that she is up 25 grams/day since her last weight check, that does not mean much to many of you, but its amazing progress!  I am so happy with her weight gain, which ideally is 30 grams/day in the beginning, but goes down as they get older.  25 grams is the biggest weight gain per day for Emily yet (she started out at 4 gm/day). 

She is still small for her age, at the 10-15th percentile for weight and wearing all newborn clothes with room to grow, but she's doing great! 

Here are some recent pictures, from the last week.  I try to post pictures frequently on our Shutterfly share site.  The link is on the right, the password is sugarandspice.  I selected the option for being a password protected site and did not post the password before and was just giving it out as people asked.  Like I mentioned before, I have become much more paranoid since becoming a mother. I've had this fear that strangers would read my blog and get access to the pictures and figure out where we lived.  I can go on and on...but I guess that won't really happen...