There was a little girl...

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad, she was horrid.

Well Emery is certainly not horrid, but she has one lone curl on the top of her head that makes me think of this nursery rhyme every time I look at it. She looks just like the qewpie doll sometimes with her round little face and curl!

Cutest Cat in Town

Emery was a lion for Halloween, thus the title of my blog post. Honestly I've never cared much for the Halloween holiday. I guess it's because I grew up in Alaska, and having to wear your snowsuit over your costume kind of takes the fun out of it all. But it was definitely more fun this year with a baby around.

Emery turned 4 months on Sunday, I can't even believe it. Where has the time gone?? You know I never thought I'd be one of "those" moms who had nothing to share but news about their baby, but here I am. Although really just on the blog - I promise if you talk to me in person I really don't say that much about her. I might stare at her the whole time, but I always remember my mom warning not to brag too much about your child because it will come back and bite you, so I try not to. Plus I get that unless you have kids yourself, most really just don't care about the intricacies of motherhood. I could listen all day to a mother share her stories and strategies for navigating infancy, but understand I am one of a rare few. I share on the blog because people have the option of not reading if they are not interested.

Oh how my life has changed in just a few short months!! Sometimes I wonder if I'm normal because I love her/motherhood/my new life so much. I've even had people say "You can be honest with me if it's been hard" and probably think I'm lying when I say I am being honest, I have honestly enjoyed every minute with her. Granted she is a great baby - something we can take NO credit for. And on the very rare occasion when she "really" cries because something is wrong, it absolutly breaks my heart and all I want to do is hold her close until she calms down and we both stop crying. We have only been on one date since she was born - not because we don't have people that will watch her, but because we just love being with her so much ourselves!! I guess since she's not talking or mobile yet, Jeff and I still feel like we get good quality time together even when she is around. We go walking together most evenings, and love staying in to watch a good movie. All in all we just feel tremendously blessed!! And I do let other people hold her..occasionally:) Seriously I will let anyone hold her if they ask, but don't expect me to offer because I love holding her myself!!

Here's an update on what's going on with our little princess, for anyone interested.

Save one bottle in the hospital, Emery has been on an exclusive diet of breastmilk up to this point. I think I'm still going to wait until 6 months to start solids unless my milk production slows down. She has definitely filled out - especially in the last month. We think she is around 14lbs right now, and close to 25 inches long. She goes in for her 4 month shots (which I am DREADING) in 2 weeks, so we will know for sure then. As far as personality goes - I hope she continues to be as laid back as she is now. For the most part she is pretty content wherever we set her unless she is tired or hungry. Yesterday we went on a 2 hour walk and she was happy as a clam in the sling up until the last 3 minutes because she was hungry. Hopefully she'll continue to love her walks and being outside, because that is something Jeff and I both enjoy.

She started moving to a 4 hour schedule last week, and is eating more at each feeding now (finally) after months of barely taking 2-3oz per feeding. Two nights ago she drank almost 8 ounces in her evening bottle! She typically goes to bed around 8/830 and is up between 5/6am for a feeding, then up between 630/700am for the day. She was sleeping until close to 8am, but with the time change she's been up at 630am the past 2 days, so we'll see if that sticks (I hope not!). She is probably old enough to cut out that 5am feeding, but most days I leave so early I would not get to see her if she didn't get up then, so I'm in no hurry to drop it.

She's been sleeping tightly swaddled up until the last week. I think we've successfully dropped the swaddle for all but our evening nap, but she still needs it at night. I left it off the other night, and she woke herself up several times flailing around in the middle of the night.

She is still doing great at daycare - aside from getting sick every other week the first month and a half. She is extremely social and loves to watch the other kids. She also does well with different people. She doesn't seem to mind strangers, or when my mom or sister pick her up from daycare.

Although she does smile a lot, she is also very serious and we have a hard time getting her smiles on camera. She started laughing about a month ago, but it's usually just one squeal at a time and not a consistent "giggle" yet. She also talks a lot - just like her daddy.

A month ago she started doing well with sleeping in my arms or in the sling when we're out and about. I don't know if it's because she is used to sleeping with a lot of noise at daycare, or is just a good sleeper in general, but I LOVE it. Not just the snuggling part, it also makes it so much easier going out if I know she can grab a catnap in the sling or in my arms. Although she normally takes 2 hour naps at home, if she can get 20-45 minutes on the go she is usually good as gold when she wakes up. They say around 4 months they start wanting to just sleep in their beds, so I am treasuring every second of this current phase. I wish she would nap more in her carseat when we are out and about, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

We are headed to New Orleans to meet our new baby cousin Caleb this weekend. All 4 of the grandgirls and five of their six babies will be united once again. I'm sure it's going to be a great albeit chaotic visit!!

I really hate whatever blogger has done with their photo upload, so there are just a few random pics at the top of the post. Hope everyone has a great week!

Just Pictures

So Tempting....

Lucky for Emery, green is not really her color.

Back to Reality

Well it's back to reality for this mom. After ten weeks of pure joy and bliss, it's back to the daily grind. Thank goodness I love my job and the people I work with, or I don't think I could have made it through this transition. Leaving her for 9 hours a day is one of the hardest things I've ever done, even though I know she's being well cared for. Right now Jeff is taking her to daycare in the morning and I'm going in as early as possible (630 or 700am) so I can pick her up as early as possible. My boss is completely flexible, and doesn't care what hours I work so long as I get my work done. What a blessing that has been! As much as I would love to be a stay at home mom someday, working at this point in my life is probably best for all of us. I think I would be a lazy slob if I was at home all day. I had this long list of projects I wanted to accomplish during my leave and books I wanted to read and did I do any of it - nope. I laid around all day playing with my baby and watching reruns of Little House on the Prarie and Who's the Boss. How is that for productive:) I definitely function better with a little more structure in my life.

Did I cry my first day back at work though? Surprisingly no. I choked up a few times, but made it through without shedding any real tears. However, the same could not be said for the 4 days before the big day. I don't think I stopped crying from Thursday to Sunday. My new hormones are relentless when it comes to dealing with strong emotions. For example, when she had to get her 2 month shots - I started crying as soon as I got to the doctor's office and did not stop until we got back out to the car. I'm sure the people in the waiting room thought something was seriously wrong with my child. Emery, on the other hand, was a doll as usual, and only cried when they gave her the shots. I'm sure she was wondering what on earth was wrong with her mother. Oh yes, I am definitely turning into one of "those" moms.

So how is life with a baby you ask? I can't imagine it any other way at this point. I have truly loved and savored every minute of it. It certainly helps that she is such a good baby - we just love her to death! And athough we can't seem to figure out who she looks like just yet, she is starting to show personality traits of her daddy. She's been smiling since 4 weeks and talking up a storm since 8 weeks, much to my delight. She's a good sleeper and only cries when she is hungry, tired or gassy. And her cry is still so cute - if you even call it a cry. It's more like she's complaining.

When I wasn't catching up on reruns on leave, I was enjoying visiting with some of my favorite people. My mother-in-law came over for a week, my friend Courtney from Alaska came down for a week and my cousin Shasta stayed with us for a week on her way down to her new house in New Orleans. We took two trips over the break as well - a long weekend to DeRidder, LA to visit Jeff's family and a trip to New Orleans to visit my cousin. Emery did great both times, although she wasn't nearly as excited about eating beignets at the Cafe Du Monde as we were. In fact she was konked out on me the entire time!

Okay that's all for now, folks. Pictures below for anyone interested, ranging from week 6 - 10 of Emery's life.

Baby Love

Jeff's mom has been here to help out this week, and she brought her computer with her, so I am squeezing in one more post before we are pcless once again.

Still loving being a mom. That's not to say we haven't had our challenges...learning to read and understand Emery Claire's cues and signals is a slow process. She really only cries when she is hungry, tired or gassy, but thus far the only cry I can distinguish for certain is her hungry cry. It's still a big guessing game with the others at this point, and as I'm sure most parents can relate, it is agonizing for me to sit and listen to her cry.

We took our little sailor on her inaugural boat ride this week. You can see in the pictures above that her lifevest was a tad bit too big, and I was laughing so hard at her I could hardly stand up. She was a good sport about it all though, hardly fussed at all, and ended up passing out in Mama Li's lap once we got underway.

Nursing is going okay, but it is still excruciating everytime she latches on. Her latch is not great, but she seems to be getting enough to eat, so we'll just keep working on it for now. I'm hoping once her little mouth gets a little bigger it will solve most of our problems.

We went on our first post baby date last night. I had a hard time finding something to wear - I'm afraid I'm going to have to buy a whole new wardrobe now! My stomach is still not back down yet, but it's my hips I am most worried about. I can't even get close to buttoning my pre-pregnancy pants. When I had a huge stomach, it wasn't as obvious that I'd grown in other areas. Now it's plain and clear. I told Jeff last night that I felt self conscious out without the baby. At least when she's with us, people see her and think oh she just had a baby. Without her I just look pudgy. I have not weighed myself since I had her, but I think my total pregnancy weight gain was 43lbs.

I think Jeff is enjoying this time as much as I am. It's so cute to watch him interact with her - he is such a good daddy already. It melts my heart to see them together!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Emery Claire Smith

Sorry for the delay in posting. We don't have a computer at the house, and haven't exactly been out much this past week. I'm over at my neighbor's writing this update.

Emery Claire was born on 7.7.10 at 12:43am, and we are 100% head over heels in love with her already. I fully anticipated having to have an induction, when she didn't arrive on her due date despite our best efforts, but little miss had other plans. I woke up on Tuesday at 330am having contractions. They say you'll know when it's the real thing, but honestly I did not until about 5am. By the time Jeff rolled out of bed at 6am (we were both planning to go to work that day) I was pretty sure Emery was on her way.

We wanted to delay going to the hospital as long as possible, so waited until around noon when my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart before heading in. They were intense at that point, but not unbearable. However, my water broke as we were pulling into the hospital, and by the time I was admitted to the OBR things were starting to get very uncomfortable. I'd considered not getting an epidural depending on how far along I was, but when I found out I was only 2cm dialated said sign me up at around 230pm. However, because of staff shortages and the time it takes to get admitted, did not end up getting it until 530pm, and those last 3 hours were MISERABLE!! By that time my contractions were hitting every 1-2 minutes, and I was deathly afraid I wouldn't be able to sit still for the procedure. As scared as I was it ended up being fine, and I felt much better after the procedure.

We were so blessed to have Katie Rachel as our nurse for most of the afternoon/evening. She had worked the day before, and came in just to be our nurse. But at 9pm, despite the fact that I had been contracting regularly, I was only 4cm, so she had to hand us off thinking we wouldn't be delivering until 6am the next morning. My new nurse checked me at 10pm, and I was 6cm, so they were still thinking it would be awhile. Jeff and I had just settled down to get some rest when Emery's heart rate dropped to next to nothing. Before I could move the nurse was running in yelling for the doctor, and they had me rolled over onto my side with the oxygen on and were trying to reposition her to get her heart rate back up. I've never been so scared in my life...I seriously thought we were going to lose our baby right there. Both Jeff and I were crying, but after 5 or 6 minutes they were able to get her heart rate back up. Apparently in 30 minutes my labor had progressed so quickly that she wasn't able to tolerate it. At that point I was 8cm. They called my doctor (who had to arrange childcare and drive in from brandon to deliver me - LOVE her) and by the time she arrived at 11pm I was ready to go. We started pushing around 11:15pm, and out she popped at 12:45 am. And my infamous first words to my daughter - not anything sweet mind you. They were "She's HUGE!" And she was/is, at least for me, at 8.3lbs 21.5 inches. That would explain why she was stuck for 20 minutes. I won't lie - I do believe pushing her out was the hardest thing I've ever done. I had what is called a walking epidural - so I could feel all of the pressure and some pain. I could definitely feel that she was stuck. I thought I would never get her out, and I can't IMAGINE going through all of that without an epidural.

But as they always say, it was so worth it. She is such a little doll. We are both totally in love. She is sweet, sweet baby (except when she gets hungry!) and it already bringing us so much joy. We are just eating this sweet time up with her. Jeff is off this whole month, and we're spent the past week just bonding together as a family and watching lots of episodes of 24. Our SS class has hooked us up with meals, so we've been able to focus more on taking care of baby. It's been great! You know before I had her I'd heard people say they could sit and stare at their baby all day, and I always thought that sounded so ridiculous. But now I know what they mean - I really could stare at her all day long!!

Sorry if this is kind of running together - I'm trying to rush so we can get home for our next feeding. I'm not even going to try to label the pictures, but you can probably piece most of them together. The belly shot is the last one we took at 39 weeks and 5 days. As big as I thought my stomach was, now that she's out it's hard to believe she ever fit in there!!

That's all for now. Hope everyone is well! If I haven't returned your phone calls please forgive me - I haven't forgotten about you! Take care!