4 months old!

Emily starts her 4th month in a huge heat wave, which means she hasn't been outside in a week, with not much relief in site! Yuck!

At 4 months Emily is:

• 15 pounds (4 month Doctor visit is next week, so we'll get more stats then)
  
• giggling and making lots of talking noises trying to join in the conversation
• still kicking her legs like crazy, but has now figured out that she only needs to kick one leg to make her favorite seat bounce up and down

• sucking on her fingers whenever she can
• losing more of her shiny brownish/red hair that she was born with, and it looks like the hair that will replace it is coming in blond
  
• grabbing her toys and bringing them all to her mouth
  
• taking longer naps during the day (usually around 1.5 hrs) and therefore only eating 5 times per day, 4 of them being formula (at least for another few weeks until mom completely transitions and then when the frozen breast milk is gone)
• still sleeping in the swaddle, but tends to get her arms out sometimes, so we think we will try and transition out of it in a few weeks

• continues to sleep through the night. If she wakes up usually a diaper change or a pacifier tends to put her back to sleep fairly easily.
• had two successful half days at daycare in preparation for starting full time at Sue's house August 1st. Mom and Dad were more nervous than Emily was...

We were all excited that Emily had more visits from grandparents and great grandparents this month (see photos below). She saw Great Grandpa Paul at the cottage over the 4th of July, Grandma and Grandpa Hicks and Great Grandma Mae came last weekend and Grandpa Lee and Nana Ellen are coming this weekend! Wish Nana Ellen good luck next week while she has Emily all by herself for the week while Mommy and Daddy go back to work full time!

Emily's first vacation!

Happy July! Emily went on her first vacation to her Great Grandpa Doege's cottage in northern Wisconsin. She is now the 6th generation to have visited the cottage (built by her Great Great Great Grandpa!!!)

What would have taken Mom and Dad 6.5 hours to drive took the three of us 9.5 hours! We stopped three times at parks along the way to feed Emily and let her stretch and play a bit before being put back in the car seat. Emily slept most of the time she was in the car. On the way up she only fussed a bit during the last hour and on the way home wasn't very interested in eating much, but still did fine in the seat and slept most of the way.We arrived Thursday evening before everyone else in order to get settled a bit (and everyone was right, we only used about half of the stuff that we packed). On Friday it was very hot and humid (which is quite rare that far in the north woods, so there is no air conditioning) so Emily spent the whole day in just a diaper. We found that putting a wet washcloth on her head helped her cool down! Daddy says she looks like George Washington! She got a bit fussy because of the heat once, and a few times had trouble getting her regular naps, but other than that she was her usual happy self! After the heat broke, we had two beautiful days! She had a great time playing with Nana Ellen and Grandpa Lee and loved smiling at her Great Grandpa! She spent some time hanging out down by the lake and even did a little "swimming!" She also got to chill out on the porch swing with Mom! Emily also got to meet new friends, Anna and Grant Johnson and told us she hopes they bring her a playmate in a couple years!
Also new this week, we have started giving Emily formula. We will gradually replace one nursing with formula for a few days and then a second, etc. Daddy gave her the bottle and she fussed a bit and made some funny faces to let us know she wasn't too sure about this new taste, but eventually got used to it and took the whole bottle. She also continues to do great at sleeping through the night and most of the time sleeps from around 9pm until 6am. And she really seems to have found her voice lately and is babbling lots more.

Three Months Down

You are able to read this because we were able to survive our first three months as parents. Emily celebrated her third month on Earth with some early morning photos (because that's when she's most content and Megan had to go to work), eating, sleeping, dirtying diapers, smiling, cooing, and kicking. We are excited for cake when the time eventually comes. Looking back on her first three months, there are a few things we've enjoyed and others we've been lucky to have:

• Every parent, grandparent and sister visiting us in Iowa. So Emily has met all of her grandparents, her 2 great grandparents and her 3 aunties!
• No significant health issues. About a month ago we thought she had acid reflux because she was frequently very fussy in the evenings when eating. But she has overcome that and it is rare for her to be fussy for any stretch of time.
• Progressively longer sleep at night (9pm until at least 5am) and down to 6 feedings during the day.
• More feedback in the form of smiles, kicking (lots!), and vocalizations (some really funny sounding laughs that kind of sound like a goose honking). She's also very alert and watches us all the time. We are so lucky that she is content to just sit in her bouncy chair or on her playmat and watch us. Although if we get into a long conversation just the two of us, she will start cooing too, just reminding us that she wants to be included I guess!
• Long walks in the warmer weather.
• Steady growth (especially her head :) She's up to 14 pounds now and into her 3-6 month clothes. She's pretty good at holding her head up, but still doesn't like tummy time for any more than 5 minutes at a time.

We had a great visit just over a week ago from Grandpa Joe and Aunt Rachel and Aunt Julia. Emily was great with letting them hold her and gave lots of smiles and excited kicking. We were able to spend some time outside on the patio and at the Farmer's Market.


We also took Emily to meet Sue, her day care provider where she will start the first week in August. Unfortunately Emily started crying pretty soon after we arrived and was not able to be calmed down for more than a few minutes at a time before she would start crying again. So we left after about 20 minutes with Emily still upset and Mom fretting for the next three days about how this was going to work out... But we think Emily just got thrown off by all the kids who got in her face to welcome her when we first arrived and we were outside where it was very bright and hot, which also made it hard for Em to calm down. We will do another visit soon and then do a couple half days in July just to try and get used to it.

Now we better get back to packing for our trip to Great Grandpa Paul's Cottage in northern Wisconsin! We continue to be amazed at how much stuff such a little person needs!

Happy Baby!

We just had a great week-long visit with Megan's Mom (aka Nana Ellen), and we are all sad to see her leave! Luckily we get to see her again in about 2 weeks up at Great Grandpa's cabin in Northern Wisconsin. Emily had a great time with Nana Ellen and Mommy and Daddy really loved having the extra help and support! We can't thank her enough!Megan and Nana Ellen had a great time shopping at the outlet mall on Sunday (thanks for the new clothes Mom!). Megan is super excited to be back at her pre-pregnancy weight (even if her stomach still looks and feels a bit different). Plus Nana Ellen is an excellent cook and our freezer is stocked up again! We also celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary and are amazed at how different our lives are now! Thanks to Nana Ellen for babysitting while we had a nice dinner out at Red's Alehouse!

At 12 weeks old, Emily is SO smiley now and very responsive when we walk into the room and talk to her. She loves to kick here legs and wave her arms around. She had her first laugh for Nana Ellen on the first day of her visit!

http://youtu.be/Npzn6YIp7iw

http://youtu.be/6ijTptUQZFg

Emily continues to sleep through the night from around 9 or 9:30 until about 5:30 or 6:00. Some nights she wakes up around 4:00, but Tom just changes her diaper and rocks her a bit and usually she goes back to sleep without too much fussing. Her fussy time is still in the early evening, but not every night, and doesn't last too long when she does have an episode. Emily is still eating 6 times a day, and taking about 1 hour naps in between. She loves playing on her playmat and batting the dangling toys around. She also is very responsive to singing and blowing raspberries! She only uses a pacifier when she wakes up early from a nap or sometimes in the evenings when she can be more fussy and just has a harder time calming down or napping.

Mommy and Daddy continue to alternate days at home with Emily, each of us are working two or three days a week until the end of July when Nana Ellen comes to visit again for a week and then she will start daycare the first week of August.

We are excited for a visit from Grandpa Joe and Aunt Julia and Aunt Rachel this weekend!

Sleep, Shots and Smiles

Our Emily (who turns 10 weeks old tomorrow) has started sleeping through the night... sort of! She has slept from about 9pm until around 4 or 5 am about 4 or 5 times in the last 8 days. So she can do it, just not consistently yet. And of course everyone's reaction to telling them that she did this is, "oh, you must feel great after getting that much sleep!" Um... NO, unfortunately Mom and Dad continued to wake up several times during the night, especially Mom, whose body is taking a long time adjusting to not nursing in the middle of the night (ouch!).

Over the last couple nights Emily's sleep pattern is most likely thrown off because she went to the doctor on Friday for her well-baby check-up and got 3 shots! She screamed immediately and started turning purple because she was screaming too hard to take a breath, but that only lasted a few seconds before returning to normal crying. So far no other adverse reactions besides maybe messing with her sleep patterns. She has grown to almost twice the size she was when we brought her home from the hospital (that was 6lbs 4 oz). Now she is 11 lbs and 15 oz. and 22.5 inches long (from 19 inches at birth).

Emily also has picked up on the best times to smile at us and melt our hearts. She most frequently gives us big smiles and coos when we are changing a big dirty diaper or when we are trying to put her to sleep for the night. She's also very good at smiling a lot for us and being super cute and then stopping as soon as we get the camera out! She especially likes playing on her play mat and reading books.
Funny story from yesterday. It stormed all morning but cleared up in the afternoon so we decided to get outside for a bit. Mom put Emily in the Moby wrap and we went out to watch Tom do some yard work. Then we decided to take a walk. Tom went inside to change his shoes and came out the garage, closing the garage door behind him (without the opener). This is right when Megan came around the corner to tell him that she couldn't pull the front door closed because she couldn't get into the porch because the porch door was locked! So we were locked out! After trying to pop the lock with a wire hanger through the mail slot, Tom called Coe Security and they came with some tools which allowed him to pick the lock and let us in before Megan started to panic too much!

2 Months Old!

Emily is 2 months old today! She is such a happy baby!

We had to take a trip to the doctor a few days ago because she is having some tummy troubles and difficulty taking the bottle sometimes. The doctor thinks she has some acid reflux and gave us some medicine for Emily. The hardest part is that she doesn't have it every time she eats, only some times, and usually in the evening. So we are working on that.

At the doctor we found out Emily is up to 11 pounds 7 ounces! She also is getting to be a better sleeper at night, and has dropped one of her night time feedings. Now she goes to bed at 9pm, wakes up once during the middle of the night and then gets up at 6:30am. So we are making progress!

Tom's whole family came to visit last weekend, including his grandmother who turned 91 while she was visiting. Everyone got to hold Emily, watch her take a bath, and enjoy a fuss-shortened restaurant meal.

Megan started part-time back at work this week, so Emily got to spend lots of time with Daddy. Daddy even had fun dressing Emily! It's been hard for Megan to leave Emily behind but easing back into work by working only two or three days a week until the end of July helps.  She is looking forward to finishing up the school year at Cornell this week.

Ten Pounder and Mother's Day

Emily is at ten pounds! Her diapers were fitting more tightly so we thought we should put her on the scale. Sure enough, she's over ten pounds now and we have been putting size 1 diapers on her. We have mothballed her newborn outfits and have liked the new variety her larger outfits afford us. Adding to the ability to vary her outfits is the warmer weather we have now. Megan has been able to spend lots of time with Emily on the porch and in the stroller. Emily seems to like the outdoors :) although her carseat/stroller seat gets very hot for her, the fabric doesn't breathe. If anyone has ideas on how to keep her from getting so uncomfortable, we will try them!
Two Wednesdays ago (we know, long time no post) Megan got her first well-deserved chance to get out of the house without Emily. A little retail therapy and fresh air was exactly what she needed. This past week she brought Emily to Cornell so she could meet all of mom's coworkers. She also enjoyed her first Mother's Day that included a few extra minutes of sleep, beautiful weather, and a trip to Mt Vernon to see Chalk the Walk and the Sutliff Cider Company. To cap it off, she was treated to a free meal at one of her favorite restaurants, HuHot.
The most exciting development so far has been Emily's ability to smile. We have seen it a few times and Megan managed to capture it on film recently. She's also starting to make a few different cooing noises. Just in time to meet Tom's family next weekend.