4 Months

Emmarie,
You are so fun right now. Your personality just shines in everything that you do. Although we are not together all day, and I miss you, I think that you really love going to daycare. The ladies all love you and seem to be happy to see you in the morning. Every week when I take your weekly picture, I am surprised by how much bigger you are constantly getting. I am also a little afraid at how quickly the time is passing by. I was just telling someone the other day that I want you to be my little baby forever, but I know that won't happen. You have to grow up and become your own independent little person. For now, I am enjoying our sweet baby time together. Whenever you get upset and will not rest until I am holding you, I just remind myself that soon you will want to run around and will not want me to hold you anymore.

You found your toes this month, and that was really exciting. You constantly are doing whatever stretches necessary to get those toes into your mouth. You are not detered by socks or dirt. Your only objective is to get those little digits into your mouth. Your voice is also changing. You do not have that baby cry anymore. Your little cry is deeper and MUCH louder. I get to hear it anytime I put you down and run out of the room for a second.


You love: Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Papa, Beanie, Kari, YOUR TOES, your swing, your teachers at Methodist, your Bumbo, the rubber spatula from the kitchen, pretty much anything you can chew on to make your gums feel better, bright colors, television (still loving football and baseball), bathtime, and being outside.


You are not fond of: your carseat, the car (much to my disapointment), being cold, being patient, tummy time, laying flat on the ground, the dark, or being alone.

3 Months

Emmarie,
At three months you are:

• always smiling. You love to smile at me when you wake up in the morning. I will sing to you as I change your diaper and you just coo and squirm. It makes my day!



• Going to daycare. :( I took you to Daycare for the first time on the 1st of September. It was a really sad morning for me because I felt like I was abandoning you. I was used to leaving you with your G.G., but leaving you with strangers (even really nice ones) was scary. I cried as I left you there and sporadically for the next hour. I was so excited to see you that afternoon that I could hardly contain myself all day long.
• loving football and baseball. You will sit happily on the couch in your bumbo for quite some time!
• My snuggle bunny! As long as I am holding you, you are ready to do anything that Mommy wants.
• Maybe a little bit spoiled. Who am I kidding? At this point you are rapidly on your way to full blown spoiled...but we love it.

You love: Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Beanie, Papa, Kari, your bumbo, the swing at daycare(I don't know why you love theirs more than the one at home!), being outside (as long as you aren't hot), WATCHING TV (I foresee some issues here), football, the Aggies, and the Ricebirds!

You don't care for: the dark (you get that from me), loud sudden noises, riding in the car if you are by yourself in the dark, being wet or hungry (obviously), laying in your pack-n-play, or being put down if you want to cuddle.

2 Months

Emmarie,
At two months you are:

• Finally up to birthweight!!  It took you until July 11th to get there, but you are finally off the hook as far as weekly weight checks are concerned.  
• Spending a lot of time at hotels.  Your daddy's new job at Haliburton required him to go to Fresno (near Pearland) to do all of his training there.  They have been housing him at a hotel, and we have been going to see him and keep him company at night.  It is a little different being there since I don't take all of your regular stuff (your swing and bouncer), but you have adjusted well.  We only go for several days each week.
• Smiling.  It might now always be on purpose, but you are smiling a lot more now.  One night I had to stay up super late (like until 4:00AM) working on a presentation for a funeral, and you woke up.  I complimented you, and you just smiled and bobbed your head like you were so happy I said that to you.
• A little fish.  You went swimming for the 1st time this month, and you loved the water.  You get so excited and try to move around.  It was still a little cold since we went in the evening so you didn't stay in the water too long.  You also got a little bit scared when someone got water by your mouth.  Since then, you have had only positive experiences in the water!
• Scaring me to death!  I had to take you to the doctor because of some blood that I found in your diaper.  I was freaking out when I found it in the middle of the night, and it happened two more times before I could get you to the doctor.  You had a little bacteria, and they told me to just give you pedialyte until the antibiotics had time to kick in.  He was also concerned that it could be attributed to a milk allergy, so he told me not to give you formula anymore for a while.
• looking just like your Daddy.  I call you Daddy's mini-me.  You both stretch the same way when you wake up, you sleep with your mouth partially open, and you love to nap.  Everyone says that you are his girl.  Papa says that, "He stamped you good."
• Sitting in your Bumbo.  We tried it the other day, and you held your head up really well.  After 8 minutes or so, you start to sag to the side, but you are really building those neck and back muscles.

Stats at your 2 Month check-up:
Weight: 9 pounds, 10 ounces
Height: 21 3/8 inches

You love: Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Beanie, Papa, Kari,  the swing, the water (for swimming not bathing), your bouncer,  using the TV as background noise, listening to your lullaby CD, sitting in your bumbo, being held and cuddled, and having people "talk" to you and sing.

You don't care for: the dark, loud sudden noises, being forced to go to sleep at night, laying in your pack-n-play (it's too hard for your superior standards), being hot,  letting Mommy nap or get house work done (but I don't really mind), formula/bottles (we had to give you a few bottles per doctor's orders), or being put down if you want to cuddle.

1 Month

Emmarie,
At one month you are:

• Setting into a schedule.  You are sleeping a little bit better than you did right after I brought you home.  you wake up twice a night to eat, and you usually stay up about an hour to an hour and a half.  Since it is summer and your mommy is a night owl, this works out well for us.  Usually you will sleep again until about 8:30 or 9:00 before waking up again to eat.  You still have a lot of rough nights though if you do not burp right.
• You are awake a lot more during the day.  You look at everything around you like you are comitting it all to memory.
• Quite a traveler.  You have been all kinds of places this month and visited with so many family members and friends.  You've visited Cedar Park, College Station, Sugarland, Wharton, THE MALL (during the daytime after a doctor's appointment), Kingsland, Marble Falls, and IKEA.  
• A Facebook star.  Everyday of your aunts, your Nana, or your Mommy posts pictures of you on Facebook, and people just go crazy over you.  You garner more comments with a funny look than I could if I said something that was a groundbreaking break through on the road to world peace.
• Finally eating but not back up to birth weight yet.  We are getting really close though so hopefully our weekly doctors appointments will end after this week.  I am not in love with having to take you to the clinic all the time with the "sick" people, and I worry the whole time that we are there that some kid will sneeze in your face or something and infect you with some scary virus.

You love: Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Beanie, Papa, Kari,  the swing, your bouncer (especially in front of the door during "sun time"),  WATCHING TV (we have watched countless episodes of Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory this past month during our sleepless night sessions), listening to your lullaby CD (Thanks a million Lorie for buying that for her),

You don't care for: the dark (we spend a lot of time with light on and daddy doesn't love it), loud sudden noises, being forced to go to sleep at night, laying in your pack-n-play (it's too hard for your superior standards), being hot,  letting Mommy nap or get house work done (but I don't really mind), formula/bottles (we had to give you a few bottles per doctor's orders), or being put down if you want to cuddle.


You had your first scary road trip experience while we were visiting your great grandparents in Cedar Park.  We decided to go to Ikea to buy a shelf for your room because we have already bought you more books than will fit on the shelf above your chest of drawers.  You did great at Ikea, and you slept your way through most of the shopping trip. By the time we left, it was time for your next feeding, but you were waiting like a champ.  We get about a mile away from Ikea, and the Impala starts to overheat.  I was sitting in the back with you and Daddy and Grandma Susan were in the front seat.  Daddy turned the car off and got out to check the water level and see what was going on.  It instantly got hot in the car.  It was in the high 90s that day, but I didn't panic.  I took some wipes out of your bag and dabbed your forehead, underarms, and feet (places they say cool you off quickly).  We drove a little further down the road and the car heated back up again.  At this point, your grandma started to worry and got on the phone to call 911 or the sheriff's office so someone could come and pick us up.  GrandBob was getting off of work, but it would take him at least 45 minutes to get to us. While she was on the phone with the dispatcher telling him that we were having car problems and we had a 3 week old baby in the car, your Daddy was on his phone trying to locate the nearest gas station where we could buy antifreeze and get you out of the Texas heat.  We started the car and drove slowly and found a gas station about a mile away that Robert could meet us at.  I went in the store and told them about our car issues, and they said that I could stand inside with you.  At this point, you began to stir because we were about an hour late on feeding you.  Since you were still not up to birth weight, staying on schedule with feedings and giving you the best opportunities to eat was very important.  I started to worry that you would cry and be upset and annoy the clerks in the station.  I considered taking you to the bathroom to eat, but that seemed so dirty.  You were also still having trouble eating so we needed a better set-up.  I finally broke down and took you to the bathroom to eat.  We were getting situated when Susan knocked on the door and said Robert was there to get us. THANK GOD!  We found a parking lot nearby that it would be safe to leave the car to cool down until later that evening, and we rode with Robert in the van back to Cedar Park.  You were so excited to be back at Grandma's that night that you blew bubbles at us for the first time.

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.

Meet Emmarie Elizabeth

Emmarie Elizabeth was born at 8:41 p.m. on June 6, 2011. She was 8 pounds and 5 ounces and 20.5 inches. We are very excited to have our new addition, and I will post more information about everything later. As usual, enjoy the pictures!