What a year!

Emily is now one year, one week, and four days old!

At this time last year we had been home from the hospital for exactly one week, and had our hands full.  Emily was still healing from her clavical fracture, had already been in for a weight check due to her poor feeding and weight concerns at our home visit (by a visiting nurse), we had been back to the hospital to meet with lactation twice. Emily was still not feeding well, I was using a SNS, or having someone syringe feed Emily while I tried to get her to latch and if she was not sleeping she was screaming....Emily and I pretty much never left our bedroom.  Paul was still home from work and was an amazing help!  He cooked dinner every night and I do not know how I would have made it through with out him.

Now, Emily and I spend every day playing, and she is so happy!  I am thrilled at all the progress she has made over the last year.  We had our well child visit last week and she have moved up from the 0.81% to 0.89% in her weight.  She weighs in at 16lbs and 6oz this was the first time she has ever moved up percentiles.  It has always been exactly the same or lower, so Paul and I were very happy - every little bit counts!  I hope we can start making up for some lost time now :)  We have been adding wheat back into Emily's diet for about a week now and so far she is tolerating it!  We are going slow (very slow), but she shows no signs of any reaction so far.  She is still on the special "milk" formula, and will be until she passes a milk challenge in the doctors office, that is scheduled when she is 14 months old.  It has been so easy to prepare meals over the last week, and not only is she tolerating the wheat her appetite has really grown as well!  Emily is still at about the 30% for height and is almost 29 inches long.

Emily and I spend the days playing with toys, reading, and going for a walk.  We have started to go to "book babies" on Friday mornings, which she really enjoys!  It is a program at the Iowa City Public Library with singing, reading and music.  It lasts for about 30 min. and then they get out toys for play time, this gives me a chance to talk to other moms and dads and Emily some time to play with kids her own age.  And we usually go to Aunt Amanda's house once a week to visit and play with her cousins.

Emily is starting to sleep a bit better at night (up once or twice still) and usually takes about an hour nap now.  Things really are going well!

Emily has 8 teeth now, four on the top and four on the bottom.  She likes to bite her food with all her teeth (even when not necessary).  She adds to her vocabulary daily and is getting more and more steady on her feet. She is almost running!  She has a mind of her own though, and is starting to have little tantrums when she does not get her way...

Emily had a great birthday party the day after she turned one, with family and friends.  It was so nice to see everyone who made it for the special event.  We had an animal themed party with some snacks (thanks to my mom) and cupcakes decorated like monkeys (again thanks mom for the help decorating).  I think it turned out well, and Emily had such a fun time playing with her two friends that came and her cousins!

Birthday!

Well I can hardly believe it myself, but this is the last week where Emily is officially an "infant", one week from today Emily will turn one!

I have so many mixed emotions, and get tears in my eyes when I think about her big day!  I think about all that we have been through in the last year, it does not seem like a year has gone by.  This has been the fastest year of my life and at the same time the most rewarding and most happy year ever.  I look at my little baby and just wonder where the time went.  I am filled with joy each and every time I look at her, I love to watch her explore new things and grow every day.  I know without a doubt I was made to be her mom.  She has not been the most easy baby at some times, and we are still working on figuring her little body out.  And it pains me to think about all that she has been through at such a young age,  but I am glad that she will grow out of most of this and not remember any of it.  And it has just made our bond stronger.

So to catch you all up on Emily, she is now 16 lbs and 3 oz (as of yesterday).  She is still tiny and was officially diagnosed with "failure to thrive" at one of our last appointments at the University Of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.  That really hurt.  They also did several tests (blood work) to make sure she was not showing signs of malnutrition.  That hurt too.  Part of me wants to shout out "figure out what is wrong so she can grow" and the other part just crumbles inside when the doctors are so concerned about her weight knowing I am doing the best I can to feed her.  Anyways this could be a whole post on its own and I am not here to complain/get depressed about all our issues I am here to let you all know how amazing this last year has been.  And she is certainly thriving in all areas expect weight gain :)

Emily is walking, pretty much like a pro :)   She will still get down to crawl, or use a push toy for really long distances or if she wants to go really fast.  She pretty much runs with her little push toy and will occasionally say "yee haw"  it is pretty cute :)  She also says: This, That, Mom, Dad, Milk, Food, Bye Bye, Thank You, Cat, Done, Yes, No.  I know I am missing some, I do keep track of them all on a word document but to be honest I am too lazy to open it up!  My time is limited these days and I have to take full advantage of this rare opportunity to have a minuet to myself during a nap.  Emily still signs some words, but is starting to replace her signs with verbal vocabulary.

Emily has now slept through the night 4 times!  Though I still wake up at least once out of habit expecting her to as well :)  otherwise she is up only 1-2 times a night now.  So we are finally getting some much needed sleep at night, and now just to figure out this whole nap thing!  On a good day (today is one of those) she will take a one hour nap in the afternoon.  I am still playing around at what time will be ideal for Emily.  It seems if I start it too early she does not sleep as long and then ends up falling asleep at dinner and then up late.  And if I start it too late she is too tired and does not sleep as well and then is a bear all afternoon and we can not get her down at night and then up all night.  So I have yet to find the ideal nap routine for us but something is better than nothing.

So many things have changed around our house in the last year, all for the better!  I never thought it would be possible to stay home with Emily and had planned on returning to work when I left on maternity leave.  Thanks to my amazing husband it has worked out to care for and enjoy every day with my girl!  I cherish every day with her and really do just love being at home with her and not missing out on everything.  We have made many sacrifices but it is all well worth it!  And having her mommy with her everyday is the best "gift" we can give to Emily.  Her gift from us for her birthday is me :)

Our Summer In Pictures

Helping Daddy with his furniture.  This picture is from late April/Early May.  I think she looks like such a baby...

You have to forgive me because the pictures got all out of order and I have tried to move them around some but it was not working so well.  I will put captions under most to give you an idea of when they were...sorry

Meal time!  Emily is a very silly girl and likes to make faces.  

Em started to eat all finger food at about 9 1/2 months old, she LOVES to eat solids!

Waiting for surgery (June 26th)

 Playing with our farm!  I think Em would play farm all day every day if I let her :)  We got the farm in Mid July and this picture was taken shortly after.  

 For Fathers day we went on a weekend trip to Des Moines.  We went to Blank Park Zoo and did some window shopping at Jordan Creek Mall.  Em did get some new clothes that trip :)

Emily and I rode a camel, Em thought it was the best thing ever and was so excited the whole ride, we also all got to feed a giraffe.

 Another Farm picture - it was taken the same day as the first.  Sorry again that the pictures are so out of order...

Cousins!!  Emily has so much fun with the boys, and it is so cute to see them care for her.  Both Noah and Eli just love her, and are so sweet to her.  They had to take turns pushing her and Eli would give her kisses whenever needed.  In the top picture Eli is sharing the leaf he found with Em.  I do not remember when these pictures were taken, it must have been earlier in the summer since we are in long pants/sleeves.  Amanda would know because it was shortly after Maggie joined their household.

Baptism Mid June

 Memorial Day weekend we went to Old McDonalds farm in Cedar Rapids.

 We went to Niabi Zoo for my birthday (end of may).  It was a very nice day, and Emily loved all the animals!

our monkey!

 These two pictures (top and bottom) are from the Circus, Emily really loved it and it was the first of all our animal themed trips this summer.  The Circus came to town at the end of April if I remember correctly...

 Emily loved all the pool time in Orlando, we were lucky enough to tag along with Paul to Orlando (mid July), Paul attended a Tax conference during the days.  We had lots of time as a family in the evening and then stayed a few extra days.  We went swimming every day, went to the beach, and Gatorland.  It was a a very nice first family trip :)

 Paul and I eating gator!  We decided we had to try it at Gatorland, it was really tough and greasy and I don't know if I would recommend it to a friend.

 Emily picked out one good pearl for Mommy!

 Getting ready to Swim in Orlando
 We took the scenic rout home from Columbia, Mo. after visiting family.  We decided to go to the drive in that night on the way home in Grandview, IA and found this foot bridge just off the highway in Columbus Junction, IA.  I was too afraid to go on the bridge with Emily or by myself, so Paul was the only one who enjoyed it!  He looks so small in the picture!

 At Grandpa and Grandma's 60th wedding anniversary dinner, the last weekend in July

 

 "You be my puppy, Emily".  Noah walking Emily, both had a great time!

Trip to Omaha, NE the second weekend in August.  on the way to Omaha we stopped in Prairie City, IA to see the 8,600 sq. mile prairie restoration.  It was a nice almost half way stop for lunch and a beautiful drive through the Prairie.  We were lucky enough to see two free roaming buffalo, and one came very close.

 Omaha Zoo!  We had so much fun, could have gone back another day.  It is a large zoo, with a wide variety of animals.  We did not even see the whole zoo and spent the entire day walking around it.

 Emily LOVED the Gorillas.  She was so excited the second she saw them and was kissing the glass.  Grandma bought her a stuffed gorilla in the gift shop and it is her favorite toy, she kisses it all day long :)

 Just relaxing and enjoying the ride!

 Emily also enjoyed the Tigers very much!  She kept saying "cat".

 She really enjoyed watching all the animals!

 Her Gorilla :)

 Enjoying her Dairy, Soy, Wheat free pizza!  She LOVED having a whole piece and her own plate...

We stopped in Elk Horn, IA to stretch our legs and see the Danish Windmill.  The windmill was brought over from Denmark piece by piece, it was a nice stop on the way home.  

Emily, sitting in front of the windmill

This pretty much sums up Emily :)  As happy as can be upside down sticking her tongue out at us...

And that sums up the summer for us, the university school year starts back up on Monday so Paul will be working some longer hours then.  We love having him home early (well on time) during the summer but he ends up working longer hours during the school year when the students are back.  Emily is just starting to ask about him during the day, she will say "daddy?" and I tell her he is at work and then she waves and says "dada bye bye"  she really misses him when he is away and has just started to yell for him during the day when I tell her no, like he will let her do it instead...and on our fussy/cranky days she asks about him more as well, she is in search of some more love and sympathy...