A Not So Great "First"

So Emily had another "first" this weekend, only it was one I was hoping was much farther away!  She came down with her first cold.  I thought she seemed to be getting a little bit of a runny nose last week, but it never got really bad and so I thought it was just a 24 hour bug.  However, it re-appeared this weekend.  Now she has a stuffy nose and is coughing and sneezing.  :(  I know this is something I need to get used to with her being in daycare, I just didn't expect it to hit us so soon.  It's so hard to listen to her cough and not be able to breathe well through her nose.  Luckily, she doesn't insist on a pacifier, so the stuffy nose hasn't been as big of an issue.  We've been using the saline drops and aspirator today and we've set the humidifier in her room for tonight.   I'm hoping this is a short-lived cold and doesn't turn into anything worse.  And thankfully, she is still is good spirits giving us lots of smiles.   So another "first" in the books. . .and one I hope we don't see again for a while!

Happy 3 Months!

What's happening with Emily at 3 months:

 - She wears size 0-3 month clothes.

 - She's sleeping in her crib full time now (finally!) and sleeping through the night (most nights).  We usually put her down around 8:00 and she will sleep until 5:30 or 6:00.  Usually she is so tired by the end of everyday that she doesn't put up any fight to go to sleep. 

 - She's not a great napper.  I think she's more aware of her surroundings now and she can no longer just fall asleep anywhere.  If she gets over-tired, she can get really fussy (see picture above).

 - We just switched to the "big" bottles and she's drinking 5 oz. every 3 hours.

 - She's discovered her hands and loves to try and stick both of them in her mouth (at the same time).

 - She's full of smiles and likes to blow bubbles.

 - She's starting to drool a bit.  I'm not sure if this means she'll start teething soon or if we just need to start buying matching bibs to go with every outfit.  :)

 - She can roll from her tummy to her back and from her back to her tummy.  But she prefers to sleep on her side.

 - She still loves to snuggle and prefers to be held (which I don't mind at all).  And if your holding her, she really prefers that you are walking instead of just sitting (this I'm not so fond of).

 - She loves to watch television (probably a bad habit to start this young, but it entertains her, so whatever works).

 - She's become quite the "talker."  Her and I have a "conversation" each night when I get home from work where she tells me all about her day at school.

 - Unless she's sleeping in your arms, she's a constant wiggle worm.  She likes it if you hold her under her arms and stand her up.  She's really good about putting weight on her legs. 

- She can go from being happy one minute to screaming her head off the next.  Patience is definitely not her best skill right now.

 - She's not a big fan of her carseat.  I'm thinking we need to start using the baby bjorn now when we go out.

 - She'll take a pacifier, although she prefers her hands. 

Wordless Wednesday

First Week Back At Work

Well, I survived my first week back at work.  Actually, it was only a 3-day week since I didn't start back until Wednesday.  But it was a LONG 3 days!  I started getting sick on Tuesday (of course that would happen after having 12 weeks off) and that just made things that much more difficult. 

Getting used to our new routine has been the hardest.  I get up at 5:30 each morning and try to get myself all ready and then wake her up to get her ready for school.  However, she's still a bit inconsistent with her sleeping and so my plan doesn't always work out the way I hope it would. In fact, Wednesday she decided to wake up at 6:00 and didn't want to go back to sleep.  That threw a kink into my plan and so Shawn actually ended up taking her to daycare instead of me.   Thursday and Friday worked out much better when she slept until I woke her at 6:30. 

Each day feels so long.  Not only am I having to get up early to get us both ready, but I feel like after we put her to bed each night, I spend at least 30 minutes doing things to get us ready for the next day.  It just feels like an endless cycle.  Needless to say between not feeling well and getting used to our new schedule, I was worn out by 8:00 or 9:00 each night and usually would end up in bed shortly after Emily went to sleep.  I'm sure it will get better in time.

Emily made it through her first full week at daycare.  She seemed to do pretty well.  Starting Wednesday though (her first long day), she was just exhausted by the time she got home.  On Friday, I discovered why.  When I went to drop her off, one of her teachers told me that Emily is such an alert baby and loves to stay awake and watch everything going on.  She continued to tell me that Emily is going to be a wild one when she gets a little older.  Great, just what I want to hear!

So I'm glad both me and Emily made it through my first week back at work.  I won't lie, getting out and having adult conversation during the day is a nice break.  However, Emily is constantly on my mind.  I so look forward to the end of each workday when I get to go home to see her.  I struggle with the idea of knowing that she spends such long days at daycare.  I know at this time though, this is the best situation for us as a family.  So as a working mom, I will continue to focus on making the most of the time I do have to spend with her.

Wordless Wednesday

Feels Like Spring

It was such a pretty day out today that I decided to take Emily for a walk after I picked her up from daycare.  We decided to try out her new "big girl" umbrella stroller that Mimi and Papa got her for Christmas.  She seemed to like facing forward, but she was pretty tired from being at daycare so we only made it a short walk.  It was still nice to get out and enjoy the great weather.  It made me impatient for spring to arrive.  I'm looking forward to having warm weather all the time.

First Day of Daycare

Today was Emily's first day at Primrose Daycare.  I dropped her off around 9:00 this morning.  We were greeted at the door by the assistant director which made me feel very welcomed.  They even had a sign on the infant room welcoming baby Emily.  The teachers in the infant room were so excited to have a little girl starting because Emily is in a room full of baby boys.  She'll definitely have her pick of boys!  It was tough dropping her off, but seeing how excited they all were to have her and how welcoming they were, I know I have nothing to worry about.  I know this will make it so much easier for when I go back to work.

It was weird to not have her around during the day, but it was nice to be able to run some errands on my own.  Around 3 though, I was itching to go pick her up.  The teachers all said that she had such a great first day.  She seemed a little tired when I brought her home, but other than that she didn't seem to be phased.  I'm glad we both were able to make it through her first day.  I'm sure it will just get easier from here.

Here she is after I picked her up

And here she is with her new school diaper bag

Home Alone

This week me and Emily are home alone.  Shawn left for New Orleans Sunday night for work and won't be back until Friday night.  Being home alone with Emily makes me appreciate all the little things Shawn does to help out.  It's hard to find time just to wash bottles and do laundry while he's gone.  Luckily, he made some meals for me before he left so I'm good in the food department.  I think he was afraid I would starve while he was gone. . . or just eat cereal every night. :) 

Today was mine and Emily's last full day together before she heads off to daycare tomorrow.   We decided to start her a few days before I go back to work so both her and I could ease ourselves into it.  I'm anxious to see how her first day goes.  I can't believe how fast the last 11 weeks have gone and that it's almost time to go back to work!  I'm sad that our time together during the day is over.  Even though some days were definitely tough, I wouldn't have traded the last 11 weeks for anything. 

Here are a few pics from today. . .

This is the outfit we brought Emily home from the hospital in.  It swallowed her then.

Playdate With Hudson

This morning, my good friend Kara and her son Hudson, came over to visit with me and Emily.  It was nice to have visitors and Emily enjoyed watching Hudson run around.  Hudson was great with Emily.  He'll be an awesome big brother to the new baby.  Watching Hudson play made me so excited for when Emily gets to be that age.  Hudson was also great at helping me determine what areas in our house need to be baby-proofed.  :)

Emily was happy to share her toys with Hudson

Hudson visiting with Emily

Hudson saying "cheese" for the camera

Emily sitting with Kara

Roly-Poly

Emily had another big "first" today.  This morning while Emily was down on her playmat for tummy time, she rolled over from her tummy to her back!  I knew this would happen soon as she seemed to be getting much stronger and often would roll on her side. 

I thought this might be the only way she rolled for a while, but apparently I was wrong.  I put her down for a nap this afternoon on her back and went in to check on her about 10 minutes later and she was on her tummy.  She was crying, so I turned her on her back thinking she didn't like being on her tummy.  But a few minutes later she was on her stomach again.  I then watched her roll back over to her back.  I'm not sure if she spent anytime napping or just spent the whole time rolling back and forth.  I'm curious to see if she's going to be a tummy sleeper now that she's figured out how to roll over.

Here's how I put her down in her crib. . .

And here's how I found her a little bit later.

And I had to post this picture from earlier today, just because I caught such a good smile.

Sleeping Through the Night!

Emily has crossed a huge milestone in the last couple of days.  The last 2 nights she has not only slept in her crib, but she has also slept the entire night!  Monday night she slept from 10-6 and last night from 10-7.  I'm hoping that by writing this I'm not going to jinx us, but so far so good!  And it's perfect timing too, as I start back to work in a couple of weeks.

On another note, we finally found a formula that works for Emily!  She's now on a formula called Nutramigen.  It's working wonders!  Apparently the formula is supposed to be very broken down so it's easy on her system.  She's not nearly as fussy and just doesn't seem uncomfortable like she did before.  Of course, with the good things, there are downsides that come along with it.  It's expensive (the small can of formula costs $21 - that's the price of the big can for other formulas) and since it is so broken down the formula goes straight through her, which means we have a ton more dirty diapers and explosive diapers to deal with.  I'm hoping as she gets a little older, we may be able to wein her off this special formula, but for now I can deal with the diaper issue if it means she's a much happier baby.

Just A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

After a busy weekend of doing chores around the house, we took full advantage of our quiet Sunday afternoon.  During the Cowboys game, Shawn built a fire that both Emily and Lily seemed to fully enjoy.

Here's Emily "peeking" during her nap.  I swear this child sleeps with at least one eye always open.  Apparently she's afraid she's going to miss something.

Go Red Raiders

Last night, Shawn, Emily and I went over to our friends Matt and Kara's house to watch our favorite Red Raiders defeat Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl.  Emily had a bit of an embarrassing moment when she had an explosive diaper that got all over me and Kara's couch.  Luckily, since they have a little boy, Matt and Kara didn't seem too alarmed and helped get Emily and their couch all cleaned up.  Once we got her in her pj's we were all set to watch the game.  We had a great time and hopefully, we'll still be invited back!  :) 

She started out the night in her red and black. . .

But ended up in her jammies shortly after we arrived.

Here's a picture Kara took of us enjoying the game

On a side note. . . Emily slept for a 5 hour stretch in her crib last night.  Woohoo!