In love

Well, it's official. We are completely in love with our little Princess Poopy Pants. She's just so fantastic!

Getting excited

She's getting good at holding her head up. Such a strong baby!

Emma's latest trick is getting excited when food is coming. When Papa is bringing her a bottle, she kicks and coos and gets all worked up. Pretty cute! She doesn't really do the same when Mama is about to feed her yet, though.

She's settled into somewhat of a daily feeding schedule. She eats about every 2-3 hours from about 4 am to 4 or 5 pm. And then from 4 or 5 pm to 4 am she sleeps a lot more and eats maybe every 4 hours. If we could only shift that schedule forward about 4 hours, we'd really be in business!

Beautiful Midwives

Here are pictures of all of our beautiful midwives. They are some of the most important and special people in our lives and we seriously don't know how we could have done it all without them.

Birth Class Reunion

We had a really great weekend. Friday we went to a friend's house and hung out. Emma was a bit fussy, but we eventually got her calmed down. She watched her first movie, Equilibrium. Saturday we went to one of our midwife's house for a vegetarian BBQ and our two favorite families were there, plus almost all of our midwives and tons of really cool new friends. It was really wonderful. It was a great big baby party! Definitely the best time we've had in years. Honestly, years! Emma loves making friends!! On Sunday we went down to Salem to see Grandma and Grandpa. Emma was pretty fussy when we got home and ate all night long. But she was really good today, so tonight will probably go well.

Here is Tallia and Derrick holding Emma when she was only a week old. Tallia's shirt says "Epidural Shmepidural." I love it!

Last night was pretty rough. Emma wouldn't go back to sleep after her 4 o'clock feeding. She's never really done that before. I hope it's not a new trend. It wasn't pleasant.

Here are two pictures from Emma's second day of life! Look how much hair she had. Sigh. Oh well, it'll grow back.

Emma started to hit and kick at the toys hanging from her playmat yesterday. We can't tell if it was on purpose yet, but soon it will be.

We've noticed lately that Emma is growing very tall. We think she will look a lot like her cousin Kylee as she grows up, tall and thin.

Emma is definitely beginning a new growth spurt. Yesterday and last night was all about food. I completely lost track of when she woke up. I've been sleeping a lot deeper and not fully waking up to feed her, so I don't really remember how many times she eats at night. But I've been more rested, so it seems that my body is finally learning to compensate. Yay!

This morning she woke up in such a great mood. Smiling and chatting. She is trying to laugh now, but can't quite do it yet. It ends up as a sort of heaving breathing sound. It's completely adorable.

Very First Mother's Day

We had a really great first Mother's Day. I got a beautiful bouquet and we visited with a family that we met in our birth class--Tallia, Derrick, and Sequoia Jade. Our babies are one month apart in age, but weigh the same amount! These aren't the most flattering pictures of me, but what are you going to do? The babies look cute, and so does Tallia, so that's what's most important.

Top 10 Greatest Things About Having a Baby

1. Rocking her to sleep (and she actually falls asleep)
2. Reading her a book and she looks at all the pictures
3. Baby smiles
4. Baby laughs
5. Baby goos
6. When she cuddles up on you
7. Sleeping on your chest
8. When she grabs on tightly
9. So cute when she is asleep
10. Super soft and round and tiny

What's so bad about 9PM?

Here are two pictures from Emma's first walk (she's in the sling). She loved the cherry blossoms and the wetlands. :)

For some strange reason, Emma seems to hate 9PM. For the last week, she's been throwing a fit starting around 9PM and lasting for about an hour. She won't eat, she won't sleep, just wants to cry. We can't figure out what the problem is. Yesterday we tried feeding her around 8PM to make sure she wasn't getting too hungry, and it made the fit last a shorter amount of time. My best guess is that she's overly tired. Tonight we'll try to make sure she's asleep before 9PM comes around.

Last night was very strange. She slept for 3 hours, then 1 hour, then 2 hours, then 2 hours. Don't let that fool you. It does NOT add up to 8 hours of sleep for us! :) She must be going through a growing phase or something.

Pulling faces together

My baby made me late for work this morning! She was being so cute that I just couldn't pull myself away from her. She was wide awake and smiling and making great noises, so I laid down next to her and made faces and noises with her. She seemed to especially like farting noises. I guess there's no accounting for taste!

Last night was much better. She woke up only twice during the night at 3 hour intervals.

This is an older picture, from the end of March, but she's so cute laying against her Hello Kitty pillow!

You can lead a horse to water

There was none of this all night long last night. Major regression in sleeping behavior. She awoke every hour to eat for only 2 minutes and then burp and then go back to sleep. I may not make it through the day.

But this morning she did the cutest thing. She made a really loud goo sound and as she was still making noise she sneezed. She froze with a look of "what on earth just happened?" Then in slow motion her face got sad and she started to cry. かわいい! Almost makes up for last night's fiasco. Almost.

First jeans

This is definitely Emma's cutest picture yet. She's in an outfit that our neighbors bought: her first pair of jeans!! So cute!

Let's see, Saturday night she slept for 3 hours at a time; Sunday night was 4 hours, then 2; and last night was 4 hours, then 2. Now, if we could start sleeping when she does, then I think we'd be in business. But we keep staying up until midnight! I don't know why, it just seems to happen without us even knowing.

Here is a picture of Emma when she lost the last bit of her cord. She was 1 week old. It feels like a million years ago!

Today she was very talkative and spent a lot of time "standing up" on my legs. So cute!

Last night she awoke about every 3 hours. I'm going to call that progress!

Well baby

We had our 2 month well baby exam yesterday. Emma is 10 lbs, 10 oz and 23 inches long. She is in the 50th %ile for weight, and 80th %ile for height. No problems at all, just a happy, healthy baby. Yay!

Wed night sleep: 3 hours, 3 hours, 3 hours!

Thurs night sleep: 2 hours, 4 hours...is that better??

Emma sure is skeptical sometimes! Things to notice in the picture: receding hairline is receding even further, blotchy birthmark over right eye and in the center of forehead that is identical to one that Papa had as a baby, and fantastically gorgeous blue eyes that we all hope will stick around!

Last night's sleep: 3 hours, 3 hours, 2 hours. Hey, if this trend continues... (Disco Stu gives two big thumbs' up)

Here's a picture from Sunday at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Emma's first Sunday Dinner was pretty loud! Grandma had to hold her until I could finish eating and take her. Next time we'll take the vibrating chair to calm her down. That's what we do at home when we eat. Either the vibrating chair or the swing.

Each day she smiles more and more. Yesterday she smiled at me and made cooing noises several times. It's amazing how your baby smiling at you will make you feel so completely in love.

Last night she slept for 4 hours, then 2.5 hours, then 2 hours. That's better, I guess. :) Trying to stay positive!