three months

-I feel like I'm finally starting to get some sleep at night.  For the past few weeks, Emily has consistently slept until about 4 or 5 every night.  She'll then go back to sleep and wake up again around 6 or 7.  I've tried keeping her up in the morning, but she gets cranky if I do.  After she eats for her morning feeding, she'll go right back to sleep until about 9 or 9:30.  At least it gives me a chance to sleep in!
-Emily loves staying up at night.  I've tried several times to move her bedtime earlier, but she either won't go to sleep, or she'll only sleep for an hour or two.  We've decided it's because she wants to spend time with daddy.  When he gets home, no matter what mood she's been in previously, she's all smiles when she sees him.  She adores her daddy!  It's fun to see that she knows who her parents are.  She'll smile and laugh at the sight of us or the sound of our voices.
-It's fun to see how things she used to hate have now become some of her favorite things.  She now loves diaper changes.  As soon as I set her down to change her she'll start giggling and talking.  It's hilarious!  The only exception is during the middle of the night.  She would much rather eat and go straight back to bed, so she gets really annoyed if I try to change her.  If she's not dirty or too wet, I sometimes let it go by to help her sleep better.  Her night feedings have become smaller, so I'm hoping that's a good sign that she won't have trouble sleeping through the night soon.  She's also starting to be able to soothe herself, which is another plus.
-Emily discovered her hands this month.  She's been chewing on them like crazy, and she's even sucked her thumb a few times.  While I know it could be a habit that's hard to break in the future, it sure is nice that she can resort to her hands when her pacifier falls out, rather than me having to go over and give it back to her all the time.

Outtakes:  She did such a good job during her photo shoot that we couldn't help but show more pictures :-)

Emily's new trick

Our talented girl learned a new trick today!

two months

We realize that Emily's two month birthday was a couple days ago, but with all the excitement of Thanksgiving, family being in town, trying to run errands while Grant's off work, and internet issues, we're just now getting around to blogging.  We did take pictures on her actual birthday, though, so maybe we can get credit for that.  We took Emily to the doctor on Halloween and she was in the 80s for her percentiles in all categories (weight, length, and head circumference).  Now she's in the 70s.  She's still a big girl and we're glad to know that she's staying proportionate :)  Here's our big two-month-old girl:

-This month was a little harder than the first month.  Around 5 weeks she started getting a lot more fussy and would cry every time I fed her.  It got pretty bad, to the point where she would sometimes refuse to eat and arch her back and kick her legs when she cried.  Thankfully, a friend mentioned that it could be reflux, so we took her to the doctor.  The doctor agreed about the reflux and prescribed some medicine.  It helped a little bit.  It calmed her down enough that she was able to get through feedings, but she would still cry at the end of feedings until she was burped.  At her two-month checkup yesterday, the doctor said she thought Emily might respond better to a stronger medication so we're planning on starting that soon.  She was a lot fussier in general this month and it was a little discouraging some of the time.  After reading some books and getting advice from friends we were able to help out with that.  But the last week has been so much better so I think we might be past her fussiest point.  Now, looking back on it, I feel like it wasn't that bad, but I probably wouldn't have told you that in the moment.  It's crazy how fast we can forget those things :)  And luckily, even during her fussy days, she still had happy, smiley moments that made it all okay.  We're glad to see those smiling faces coming out more often.

-Because of the reflux, Emily was eating smaller, more frequent meals for a while.  She's eating a little more now, but she's still up a few times at night.  She pretty much eats every 3 hours 'round the clock.  The past three nights, we've seen a glimpse of better sleep patterns forming.  Monday and Tuesday night she went 5-6 hours her first stretch and then about 3 after that.  Last night was incredible... She slept 7 hours and then 4 hours after that.  And we found her awake in the morning smiling and talking to herself in bed.  What a great Thanksgiving gift!  We're thinking it could possibly have something to do with her being tired from her shots yesterday, but we're hoping it means good news for nights to come. Her naps in the day are a little shorter and she's starting to become much more social while she's up.

-Toward the beginning of this month, Emily started losing some of the hair on the sides of her head from the way she laid while sleeping.  The hair on the back of her head started getting much longer than the rest and it looked like she had a little mullet.  All of her hair has started growing out again.  It's spikey and really cute.  Inside it sometimes looks brown, but when we're outside it's a definite red and it usually shows up more red in pictures.

-She's been mistaken for a boy twice now.  One time it was understandable because she was wearing green and I had taken her headband off.  The other time was a little surprising.  Emily was wearing purple and she had a purple headband on.  The lady looked at her and said "Oh, look at him sleeping.  He's so cute!"  Really?  She also commented on how much she liked "his" car seat cover, which has flowers on it and adds to the girliness.  I couldn't believe it!

-Emily is a talker!  She loves having conversations with anything and anyone.  Some of her favorite things to talk to are lights, colorful patterns, the bugs on her mobile, and the dots on the inside of her carseat cover.  Sometimes these things are funny to her and she laughs a lot at them (which right now usually comes out as a gurgle sound).  She's started using consonants sometimes when she coos.  Usually it's still just vowel sounds, but she has used the letters h, k, and g.  She focuses a lot better on things and is fascinated by what she sees.  She could spend all day long staring at lights.  If you hold her up in a burping position, she'll lean back as far as she can to see the lights above you.  It's adorable.

-She still loves bath time, and she's actually gotten to where she likes the shampooing part, too.  For our bedtime routine we'll have a bath (not every night), put on pjs, nurse, and then sit in the rocking chair for lullabies.  She loves rocking and listening to me or Grant sing.  Sometimes she'll sing along with us.  It does a great job of calming her down enough to get her to go to sleep.  She still tries to fight sleep sometimes, though.  She'd rather be up with us.  One of my favorite things when she's tired (whether it's after she wakes up or when she's about to go down) is that she'll rub her eyes with the back of her hands.  If she's swaddled up or in a position where she can't get her hands to her eyes, she'll rub her face against the shoulder of whoever's holding her.  It's adorable!

-Some of the things that work best to calm Emily down when she's upset are taking her outside, swaddling her, walking around with her, or giving her a pacifier (not necessarily all of those things together).

-Emily would still much rather be held by someone than left in her bed or a carrier.  She's usually okay in her carseat as long as the car is moving.  She'll usually cry whenever we get to a stop light and then she'll be okay when the car starts moving again.  Sometimes when I try to put her down to sleep she'll be okay for a few minutes and then start crying.  The second I pick her up or put her in the big bed she'll go right back to sleep.  She definitely prefers sleeping in someone's arms.  We don't want to sleep train her just yet, so we'll see how that goes in a month or two.

-She's rolled over twice, but we think they were flukes because she hasn't done it since then.  The other day, Grant was getting ready for work and found her laying on her side in her sleep.  And today I saw her roll onto her side while sleeping.  I don't think it will be long before she rolls over for real and starts doing it on a more regular basis.

We're having a great time with this little girl!  We're so glad to see her becoming happier more of the time.  She's growing and learning so much every day and I'm sad to see how fast she's changing!  But it's also a lot of fun getting to watch the growth in our little baby.  We can't wait to see what the future has in store for us and Miss Emily!

one month

It's hard to believe our little girl is one month old already!  She's already changed and grown so much!  Today at church people were commenting on how little she is, but to me she's so big!  She hasn't been to the doctor since her two week appointment and won't be going again until she's two months, so Grant and I did some at-home measurements to figure out about how big she is now.  She's packing on the pounds, which you can definitely tell by her chunky cheeks and rolly arms and legs :)

-Emily is sleeping much better.  On good nights, she sleeps 5+ hours and then another 2 or 3.  On not-so-good nights, she is up every hour (thankfully, we haven't had one of those nights in a while).  Most of the time, she's up every 3 hours, which means I'm up twice during the night.  It's usually a little hard getting her to go down in the evenings.  Maybe she can sense that it's her "real" bedtime because she fights going to sleep.  She'll sleep great if she's being held or in bed with us, but as soon as we put her in her bed she wakes up and starts crying.  I read that the key is to put them down when they're first showing signs that they're tired-- when they're sleepy, but still awake.  I didn't think this would work since she doesn't even like going to bed when she's already asleep, so why would she let us put her down if she's still awake?  The first night we tried it, it worked perfectly!  Whenever we're able to get the timing right and put her down before she's overtired she sleeps great.  We're still working on perfecting this new trick.

-We were hesitant to give her a pacifier for a while, but once we did it made a huge difference.  If there's ever a time when she's being fussy and nothing else seems to work, a pacifier always does the trick.  The only problem is that she likes to hold it in place with her hand, but usually her hand ends up knocking it out of her mouth and that upsets her.

-Last week Emily went through a growth spurt which meant she was eating all the time and was a lot fussier than normal.  I was very discouraged for a while, but thankfully it only lasted a few days and then things got better.  She's still fussy occasionally, but usually being held or her pacifier makes her happy again.

-Emily loves to cuddle!  She'd much rather sleep in someone's arms than in her crib.  She'll let anyone hold her!

-She's not a fan of tummy time.  She'll usually tolerate it for a little bit and then decide she doesn't want to deal with it anymore and get fussy.  Most times she just lays there until it's over, but occasionally she gets some exercise by moving her legs around and lifting her head up.  She almost rolled over the other day!  We've been trying to get her to do it again, but I guess she just hasn't felt like it.

-We're so glad that she likes bathtime!  She wasn't a fan at first, when we had to give her sponge baths, but luckily her cord stump fell off after just a week so we didn't have to do too many of those.  Since she's been bathing in her little tub, she's been a champ.  She's perfect the whole time until it's time to wash her hair.  I think that part scares her.  But we'll take what we can get and we're grateful she's pretty easy for most of it.

-We see lots of smiles from Emily when she's sleeping or gassy.  We've even seen some smaller smiles from her when she's looking at us but no obvious big ones yet.  I can tell she wants to sometimes, though.  We can't wait until she starts smiling more!

We just can't get enough of this little girl!  She brings so much fun and love into our family and we're so glad to have her!

Emily Kate

It's hard to believe that our little girl turned 2 weeks old yesterday.  In some ways it feels like she was born just yesterday and in others it feels like we've had her for so long.  She's already grown and changed so much.  We had her two week checkup at the doctor yesterday and she's now 8 lbs. 11.5 oz.  That's almost a whole pound up from her birthweight!  The doctor said they just hope for her to be back to her birthweight at this point (since they lose a little after birth) so it's fantastic that she's already gained so much!  It almost makes me a little sad knowing that she's growing so much.  I don't want her to grow up too fast!

Two weeks ago was a very special day for our family.  I was over a week past my due date so the doctor decided to induce me.  I thought since I knew what was coming I would have a hard time sleeping, but I actually slept great.  It was a little bit bittersweet knowing our lives were about to change so much.  We were so excited for Emily to come, but it was also crazy thinking about how Grant and I would never be just the two of us again.  He gave me a blessing the night before so we were ready and calm about everything that was coming.

On Thursday, September 20th, we woke up at 5 and called the hospital.  I was a little worried that they would tell us to try back later since it kept getting pushed back and eventually cancelled on Tuesday. But, fortunately, they told us to come on in at 5:30.  When we got there we had to do some logistical stuff, so they didn't end up starting the Pitocin until around 6:40.  The Pitocin made the contractions start coming more regularly, but they still weren't unbearable.  At 8:00, my doctor came in and broke my water and that made the contractions come with more frequency and intensity. I ended up getting an epidural around 10:00.  The epidural itself was awful, but it made everything a lot easier once I had it.  The nurses continued to come in and check me and they were very surprised at how quickly everything was progressing, especially since it was my first baby.  I kept having Grant change the temperature in the room because I felt hot, but I was shivering uncontrollably.  Finally, one of the nurses said that it's normal to shake that much and it wasn't because I was cold.  That made me feel better.  At 12:45, I was fully dilated and effaced so they had me start pushing.  I only did a couple of times until they told me to stop so the baby didn't get there before the doctor did!  It took them a while to reach my doctor and she ended up having to leave a surgery to come.  By the time she walked in the door, it was only 7 minutes before Emily arrived!  I couldn't really feel anything because of the epidural, so when Grant told me to look down I didn't really know what'd I'd see, but I looked down and there was Emily!  She arrived at 1:09, just 3 minutes before Grant's guess.  They laid her on my chest for a little bit and Grant ended up cutting the cord, even though he insisted beforehand that he wouldn't do it.  While she was laying on my chest, I just tried to take in everything.  She was pretty purple, which made her red hair obvious at the time.  I noticed that she had Grant's mouth and my big eyes and I even noticed a hint of a dimple.  They took her to clean her up and do some tests.  She passed all of her tests and she's happy and healthy!

The recovery process was actually a lot harder than labor for me.  When they first had me get up, the epidural hadn't completely worn off and I almost passed out on the way to the bathroom.  I also tore and had to have an episiotomy so I was sore from that and the stitches.  Luckily, we haven't really had any problems with breastfeeding.  Emily and I both caught on fast.  The only issue we're having is that once or twice a day she likes to "cluster" feed, where she won't eat very much, but wants to eat several times in the course of a few hours.  At first it felt like she was eating all the time, but she's gotten better about eating more at most of her feedings and going longer in between.  She's now usually only up twice during the nights, which is so much better!  The first night home from the hospital she was up all the time and wouldn't sleep in her crib so Grant and I had to hold her the whole time.  My arms started hurting so bad! But now she's sleeping well and eating well.  The fact that she's gained so much weight tells me that she's getting plenty of food!

While we're pretty exhausted and still new at the parenting thing, we're loving every minute of it!  It's so fun knowing that we made her and seeing ourselves in her looks and personality. Sometimes I feel like I could just sit and stare at her for hours!
Here are some of our favorite pictures of our little girl:

I like how this one shows off her red hair :)

her favorite way to sleep is with her arms up by her head like this

We sure do love this girl and we're very excited to have her as a part of our family!  We can't wait to watch her grow and develop her own little personality!

The waiting game

Well, today is September 12th and for those of you who may not know it is also our due date.  Still no baby, though.  For most of my pregnancy I actually expected that I would go past my due date before Emily was born because that's common for a first child.  Last week, however, my doctor said she didn't think I'd make it to my due date because of how far I've already progressed on my own, so I got my hopes up.  But here I am on my due date with no baby and no signs that she'll be coming anytime soon.  We'll see how much longer Emily decides to stay in there.  We're very excited to meet her!
In other news, it's been a lot of fun being back here in Houston.  Last week my sister, Fleming, and my mom threw me a baby shower.  We invited people that I haven't seen in a really long time so it was fun having a little reunion.  We spent all day the day before cooking, decorating, and getting everything together and it turned out really cute!

prepping

Jeff helped out too :)

all the food (we had lots of leftovers!)

cute dessert!

Fleming made us a cute diaper cake

great to see old friends!

my cousin, Keri, came down from Dallas to join in on the festivities (sorry we didn't have the baby while you were here!)

favors

Thank you to Fleming (and Jeff) and my mom for putting together such a great party and thanks to everyone who came!  We had a great time! Now we just need Emily to get here so the celebrating can continue!

our new home

For the next couple of months, Grant and I (and baby Emily) will be living in my parents' garage apartment while we prepare for the baby to come, get settled in the area, and begin searching for our own place.  Since we won't be here long, we left a lot of our stuff in boxes.  We came into the apartment with it partly furnished, so we were still able to add a lot of our own little touches to make it feel like our own place.  It's small, but works perfectly for our needs, and we really like the way it's turned out!


Entrance:

Living Room:

Kitchen:

Bedroom (and nursery):

fun headband holder that my mom and I made (thanks to Amanda for the idea)

poor Grant has to use the "hobbit closet"

Bathroom:

We like our little place and are excited to spend the next few months here.  It's our 2nd home together, but it will be little Emily's 1st home!

(make sure to read the previous post about our last few weeks in provo... we have so much to catch up on that I decided to split up the blog posts!)

On to the next chapter

Sorry for the lack of blog posts in the past few months... things have been pretty crazy for our little family.  We spent much of our summer packing up our home in Provo, preparing for our move to Houston.  Now we're finally here and we're counting down the days until our little one arrives.
Provo has been very good to us for the past several years.  Grant and I were both able to study at and graduate from Brigham Young University.  Grant was able to teach missionaries at the MTC and I taught second graders at Westside Elementary.  And Provo is also where we were able to meet each other and fall in love :)  We've made great friends that we know we'll have forever and made lots of memories that we'll cherish.  For all of these reasons (and many more) we are very grateful for all of our time spent in the beautiful Provo, Utah.  Here are some pictures of our last few weeks:

After several years and countless intramural teams, Grant was finally able to win a shirt this summer... TWICE!  The first one came from coed kickball during the spring term, and just a few weeks ago his softball team became champs.  The team was thrown together last minute and most of the members didn't know each other.  They only won 1 game during the regular season, but came together and meshed so well during the tournament that they made it all the way to the end!

We had heard this was the best snow cone place in Provo and it definitely didn't disappoint!  I only wish we had discovered it earlier in this super hot summer!

Last cafe rio :(

Grant's birthday!

He got a new BYU blanket

and we went to Brick Oven one last time for a birthday dinner

Grant didn't end up walking in his graduation ceremony, but we did take some pictures to document the occasion!

Our final to-do list, preparing for the move

The morning of the move was very bittersweet.  We were excited to be moving close to family and starting the next chapter, but it was very hard leaving all of our friends, our first apartment together, and the security and familiarity of our college town.  It was a great 5 years for me (and 4 for Grant) that we will always remember and hold dear.  We don't know when we'll be there again but we're looking forward to it someday!

The move wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, especially considering the fact that I was 8 months pregnant at the time!  It went by pretty fast and I was fairly comfortable.  The only complaint was that my legs and feet swelled up like balloons!  It was pretty embarrassing!  But it's been so nice being able to swim and spend time in real air conditioning since we got here to Houston.  I never realized how wonderful swimming is for a pregnant woman, but now that I know I'll definitely be spending lots of time in the pool before the baby comes.  I'm 37 weeks today, so I'm technically full term and baby could come anytime.  Only 3 weeks until the actual due date... CRAZY!!