7 Months

You crazy little girl, you are growing up much too fast for my liking.



We got to spend a lot of the past month together since I was off of work for two weeks for the Christmas Holidays. We spent our days running around trying to get things ready for Christmas and then recovering during the aftermath. It was an entirely wonderful time that I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to have. We stayed up late, made Cookies, tried new recipes, WENT SHOPPING, hung out at Nana's house, played Kinect, listened to Christmas music, played on the floor, read books, and watched movies. We did anything and everything that we wanted to do. Perhaps we/I did not get all of the "projects" that I had planned to do during my time off, but we enjoyed quality moments together and I think that is what really matters. The dirty house will still be there, but you may not always want to snuggle and watch movies.




Since last month, you can really sit yourself up all on your own. You can pose yourself like a model as you move around trying to reach all of your toys. You are also becoming SUPER SPEEDY when it comes to crawling. In the blink of an eye it seems you shoot across the room in search of the buttons on the blue ray player at Nana's house. AND YOU REALLY TURN IT OFF! You also started pulling up on the couches, your toys, my legs, and anything else that you can get to. I try to make you slow down, but you are intent on becoming a big girl.





You love: Being held (if it's your idea), crawling, drumming on the Christmas tins, chewing on the outside of your pacifier, eating, playing your piano, saying "DaDa," chasing the puppies, giving kisses (especially to Maggie), your wooden rolling toys, and getting your way!





You don't like: sitting in your exersaucer, the johnny jump up, your carseat, the dark, being told "No," being put down (if it's not your idea), being around loud groups of people, and being held by strangers (you are starting to realize that strangers do exist).





You are eating: Milk (of course!), Green Beans, Peas (if we make you), Squash, Sweet Potatoes, and Banana Puffs. Some days you can eat a whole jar of baby food in one sitting and still look at me like what else do you have and other days you seem satisfied after a couple of teaspoons.

6 Months

This past month was a busy month of firsts for you! You tried green beans and LOVED them! As we were feeding you, you kept trying to grab the spoon out of our hands so that you could do it yourself. It made me seriously wonder if someone had already been feeding you solids...hmmm. You also tried green peas...those were not your favorite. I think I will blame the consistency of the peas. You kept rolling them forward and backward with your tongue as if you were trying to figure out whether or not you should spit them out or swallow them.

You also started crawling! You are now everywhere and we cannot contain you to any given area. This poses a problem at our house since we have all tile floors downstairs. We are currently in search of a good rug so that you can play at will.


You said your first word this month as well: DaDa. The way you said it is really a story all in its own. We were sitting at Nana's house and I told you that you could not do something (far be it for me to correct the perfect little miss Emmarie), and you started crying and said "dadadada." It was as if you were threatening to tell on me when your Daddy got home. I promptly called him and filled him in and he laughed and said I shouldn't have been so mean to you. (I THINK/HOPE that he was joking...) We are going to have to stick together when it comes to keeping you in line. You are so cute and can be so sweet that I am afraid it would be all too easy to give in to your angelic smiles.


You are also sitting up on your own. The sitting up and the crawling came about really quickly. One day you were pushing up on your hands and knees


At six months, you love: sleep!, Sometimes you can sleep until 11:00 a.m. if I let you, Playing with your toys, hanging out in your exersaucer, eating, saying DaDa, playing with your toes, MRS. RITA, throwing fits (you may have my temper), and crawling everywhere. You scoot, roll, bear crawl, or do whatever is necessary to get to what you want.

You eat: Milk, Green Beans, and Peas.

You dislike: the car seat (no big surprise there), the dark, being put down, being told "no," hunger in any shape or form, and not getting your way.

This month was a month of big changes for you, and it makes me very nervous/sad/excited about what we can expect this month!

5 Months

You are getting to be such a big girl! You are becoming a little bit mobile and love rolling all over the floor to get to whatever you want. Gone are the days when I could leave you in the middle of a blanket to play in the living room while I cook. You are trying to get into everything, and require CONSTANT supervision. The only way that I can get anything done without another person there to play with you is to put you in your exersaucer. You will play in that thing for approximately 15-25 minutes, and I madly dash around the house trying to get a few things done.

You love: having us sing to you (the Acorn song is still a favorite), rolling around on the floor, jumping and stomping the keyboard in your exersaucer, eating, playing with toys, eating your toes, doing stretches, watching the puppies play, "talking," and having things YOUR way.

You dislike: the dark, being ignored (or even perceiving that you might not be getting some one's full attention), your pack-n-play, the words "bye-bye," startling noises, and your car seat.

This month you are going to start trying baby food so we shall see how that goes. You seem content with milk right now, but your Nana is freaking out that she doesn't get to feed you baby food. We shall see how that goes.

Adjusting

So far, we are adjusting to our new family of three pretty well. The first two weeks, the only places that I left the house for/took Emmy were to my mom's house (the third night we brought her home) and the doctor's office (both hers and mine). We were not planning on taking her to church until after she was two weeks old, but since Father's day was the Sunday before her two week mark, I decided we could go early. We got to church a little late, and I kept her strapped in her car seat the whole service. After church she stayed in her seat, and I tried not to let anyone touch her hands. I had new mom syndrome, and I was sure that if they touched her hands, she would put them in her mouth and get sick.

Her two day check-up after leaving the hospital.

At her two week check-up. She had to get shots!

After that, I slowly started taking her other places. We went to Wal-Mart late at night, the mall after a doctor's appointment, and to church again the next Sunday. When she was three weeks old, we took her to Cedar Park. I was really nervous about taking her in the car for that long of a trip. Since she was not drinking a bottle at that point, I did not want our trip to get in the way of her getting to eat at the appropriate times. We were still having to take her to the doctor weekly since she was not up to birth weight, so I knew that skipping feedings was not in her best interest. I was also apprehensive about packing her stuff to be gone that long. Would I forget something that she vitally needed? I just had a bad feeling about the whole trip and almost told Brad that I did not want to go. I knew that we needed to go see everyone though so I just had to make myself get over it. She slept the whole way there, and I fed her as soon as we got to Brad's grandma's house so all was well. Below is a picture of her all snuggled up in the car. Brad had it FREEZING on the way there!

Since then, we have settled into a nice routine. I try to keep her up at night until around 11:30 or 12:00. Then she will only wake up once around 3:30 or 4:00 to eat. If I put her to bed any earlier, she wakes up twice to eat, and it is really hard for me to go back to sleep. Her doctor's appointments have been going well. As soon as she gets up to birth weight, we won't have to go back weekly anymore. All is well thus far, and I will keep you posted!

The Midnight Oil

At the hospital, everything was perfect. There were visitors all day that wanted to hold Emmarie. She roomed with us at night, but if I just got too tired, they would take her to the nursery. Like I said, Perfect. Then we had to go home. This was very bitter sweet for me because I had a lot of anxiety about being responsible for keeping her safe. She had a couple of incidents in the hospital where she would stop breathing for a second and act like she was choking. At the hospital even though I was scared, I knew everything would be alright. We were never more than 25 feet from a health care professional. Taking her home would be different; I would have to make sure that I was watching her in these situations.

So we went home. On the way to our house, I sat in the back with Emmarie and watched her like a hawk to make sure she would be okay in the car. This was our routine for the first few months anytime we went anywhere in the car. Someone was always in the backseat with her. On our way home the first day, we stopped and took her picture with the Hoffer's sign.

Since Emmarie was born at night, she had her nights and days mixed up for a while. This left us burning the midnight oil. She spent a lot of time sleeping, but she would only sleep for about two hours at a time and then she was ready to wake up and spend some time with Mommy and Daddy. This turned out to mostly be time with Mommy since Daddy had to go back to work after the first week. Since I was scared to go to sleep because I was afraid she would have one of her choking spells, my mom came and stayed the night with us the first few nights. She and I would sleep in the recliners in the living room and take turns holding Emmarie while the other slept. These brief breaks were the entirety of what I was sleeping. I am not a napper, and I could not fall asleep during the day when Emmy was napping no matter how hard I tried. I could finally get a few hours of sleep because I knew my mom would keep an eye on her and wake me up if anything happened.


After a few nights, We finally started getting the hang of things, and I could sleep a little bit at night without her there. Emmarie would wake up, and I would remind myself that it was okay because I did not have anywhere that I needed to go the next day. I would sit up with her and play and watch T.V. Here is a picture of her that first week around 2:00 A.M. She was wide awake and ready to party! I could not believe how alert she was.

Even during all of the sleepless nights, I was loving everything about Emmarie, and I was so proud that she was here! More posts to come.

The Quilt

I had a specific idea of what I wanted the baby's room to look like color wise. I wanted the room to look like a baby's room without being too babyish. I know that sounds like a contradiction so I will explain. I wanted her room to have colors, textures, and patterns appropriate for a baby or small child, but I did not want the room to be the stomping grounds for the newest trend or theme in Babies-R-Us. I also did not want a designer room that looked like it would be better suited for an adult. It's not that I have anything against either of those concepts...that is just not what I wanted for her room.

I decided that I wanted her room to be decorated in shades of green and pink. I know this is not an incredibly original idea for a little girl's room, but I needed a complimentary color to go with the pink so that it would not end up looking like a ball of cotton candy. I searched the Internet, children's' stores, and Craigslist for the perfect bedding set. I knew that once I found bedding, I could build a room around it. Nothing was right. This one was too old. That one has teddy bears on it. This one is perfect but has fuzzy fabric that the baby could smother in. The list goes on and on. I finally decided that I am too picky, and if I wanted the perfect bedding, I would have to make it myself.

So, I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out material in the colors that I liked. Next, I looked up ideas for quilts online, and I decided that based on my nonexistent sewing skills, a scrap quilt would be the best place to start. Then I went to Wal-Mart and purchased a sewing machine. The quilt took me approximately two days during spring break to make working on and off. I have posted a few pictures of the different stages of the quilt so that you can see the progression. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. It is by no means perfect. There are flaws. There are MANY flaws. BUT I (with the help of Bradley) made it for her, and that makes it special. I lovingly told my sister that it has "character." Hopefully the quilt will be something that she will love and cherish forever.

The material that I chose from Hobby Lobby. I started out with six different colors.

I sewed the strips of material together into a large box shape. Next I turned the quilt and cut the box into strips. Then I sewed the strips into a pattern that created diagonal patterns.

The next step was to cut this shape in half and sew it together. This step was much harder than it looks so I will probably pick a different pattern for future sewing projects. Then I added the batting and sewed on the backing.

The finished product!

Belly Pics

Here is a progressive chain of pictures of me during the pregnancy.

11/02/10

12/25/10

1/16/11

3/29/11

4/23/11

5/7/11

Church Shower

The ladies from Bible Truth Church threw a shower for Emmy and me. It was held at the home of Carol Cory. It was a beautiful garden party, and once again there was a great turnout. There were a lot of people there from out of town so I was pleasantly surprised! The food was great, the company was awesome, and I am so blessed to have such an amazing church family. The baby received so many beautiful gifts, and I am excited about putting them in her room!

School Shower

Some of my fellow English teachers threw me a shower at the school. Everything was beautiful, and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of teachers that showed up. That day at school was a crazy day so this was a wonderful way to relax. It really makes you feel good when people are so nice! :)

Family Shower!

My dad has a really big family, and they know how to party! In this family, a shower is more like a family reunion. Everyone shows up, and they have a good time. The shower was held at Raeassia Jacob's home out in the country. She has a beautiful house, and it the perfect setting for parties. She went above and beyond on this party. She and all of the other hostesses put together a shower that looks like it should be in a magazine. I have a whole album of pictures on Facebook, but here are a few of my favorites. See the cake? Rae made it!! If you every need a cake for a party, shower, or wedding, she is the girl to call!

Gender

Brad and I went to the doctor on January 21, 2011 to find out the sex of the baby. To say that I was ready and excited about finding out would be like calling the Superbowl a little football game. I had restrained myself up until that point, and I had not really bought the baby anything. I did not want to spend a bunch of money on neutrals when I could bide my time and get what I really wanted. I knew that I wanted to tell our family in a special way so I had made previous arrangements with the Screen Stop in El Campo to have t-shirts made right after our appointment. As soon as we left our appointment, I would need to call them so they could print the shirts. I gave them two designs so that we would be prepared either way. They would then print the shirts and put them in a sealed box. Then my sister would come and pick up the shirts for us since they would be closed by the time we got back to EC.

I was so anxious as the ultrasound technician started looking at the baby. I wasn't sure when she would look at the sex of the baby. She looked at the head first since the baby was in a good position for those measurements. Then she finally looked at the sex. When she said it was a girl, I was shocked! I wanted a girl so bad, but I just knew that it was going to be a boy. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved a little boy too, but I WANTED A GIRL! I felt my eyes start to fill up, and I looked over at Brad. I asked if he was disappointed that we weren't having a boy and he said, "No Way!" He is so sweet! Here is a picture of our little girl's face. Brad agreed to take me for a short shopping expedition after we found out. It was only fair since I had been such a good sport about not wasting money thus far!


Next, we called my family and told them to meet us at Casa Hernandez for dinner. Wendy and Jason had made a trip down to EC as well so they met us at the restaurant. We had our t-shirts on underneath our coats (it was cold outside). We ordered our food, and then we pulled of our jackets and said, "It's a girl!!" Everyone was really excited, and the whole restaurant started to clap. It was a sweet moment. Brad was on the phone calling his family while they took our picture.

Telling Our Secret

We had told a few people about the baby, but we did not want everyone to know until the pregnancy was further along. Coincidentally, the twelve week mark was VERY close to Christmas. I always send out Christmas cards. They are probably my favorite part of prepping for Christmas. The second issue that the cards solved was the problem of who we would tell first...this is one of those things that could lead to a lot of hurt feelings. SO, the cards solved this problem. Along with our Christmas card, I enclosed another card in the envelope. It told everyone that we were having a baby and when "it" was due. This way, I had no control over who found out first. I put the envelopes in the mail, and the rest was up to the USPS! I am attaching a copy of the card, Enjoy!