Six Months!

It's been an exciting month with lots of new developmental milestones and experiences for little Miss Emma! We can't believe how fast six months have gone by, but at the same time, it feels like she has been in our family for much longer. Her personality is really starting to show now, and you can see her thinking through things more than ever before.

Dan had a two-week fall break this month, which is a new perk since his school switched to a year-round schedule this year.  I still worked three days a week, and Dan kept Emma at home. Since he didn't have to get up early for work, we focused on sleep training - teaching her to soothe herself back to sleep on her own so she'll eventually sleep all night. We borrowed my cousin's book "The Sleep Lady's Good Night Sleep Tight" which has you sit beside the baby's bed and soothe her (without picking her up) the first few nights, and gradually move further away and soothe her less until she's okay on her own.  I don't think I could've handled the "shut the door and let her cry herself to sleep" method, but it was definitely harder not to pick her up when we were right next to her watching her cry. We kept the mantra "This is beneficial training, not torture," and now we're so glad we pushed her to learn how to get to sleep by herself!  I have to give Dan huge props - he did the majority of the ground work with her sleep schedule. After a week and a half, she would go down for a long nap three times a day with minimal or no crying, and she was sleeping 9-10 hours at night with only a couple of quick wake-ups!  That's pretty amazing, considering she used to cat nap all day long and we rocked her to sleep every single night, never knowing how long she'd sleep.

We did some fun things during fall break, too. Thanks to some gift certificates, we spent two nights in downtown San Diego right on the harbor and within walking distance of many of the touristy spots. We took long walks on the bay and along the downtown streets, took Emma to her first Padres baseball game, and went on a Sunday brunch harbor cruise.  It was fun to have so many great activities at our fingertips since we rarely spend time downtown. 

Dan and I scheduled a "date day," and dropped Emma off at her baby sitter's all day one Friday so we could do some fun things, sans baby.  We went shopping at the mall, took a 2-hour nap, rode our bikes along the beach, watched a movie, and went out to eat.  It was refreshing to not have to worry about carrying baby gear and stopping everything to feed/change/entertain her for a few hours.

We also got out of town with friends for a weekend. We stayed at a rental house on an apple orchard in Julian, CA with two families we're close to.  They each have young boys, and Emma loved watching them play. We all had tons of fun, and hopefully we'll do it again soon.  By this time next year, she'll be running around with those boys!

Some facts about Emma at 6 months old:

• She cut her first tooth!  A few days after she turned 5 months, she was chewing on Dan's knuckle and he could feel it just under the gum.  Now she has the cutest little tooth poking up from the bottom of her mouth.
• She's definitely sitting up on her own, although it's only a few minutes before she knocks herself off balance and topples over. It'll be nice when she's more stable, since she isn't happy playing on her back anymore, but she can't play sitting up independently yet. 
• She can now roll from her back to her belly! She'll often get one arm trapped underneath her, but we've seen her make the full roll a few times now. We put her on her side to sleep, and she'll often roll to her belly on her own as she's drifting off.
• She's becoming more socially aware. She used to smile at everyone and everything that entertained her, but now she gives the "What you lookin' at, Willis?" look to strangers until she warms up to them. She also notices as soon as we leave the room and will sometimes cry, even though she's having a great time playing with her toys. Also, I'll play videos of her or her baby friends, and she'll smile when she sees the video baby laughing.
• She rarely gets lost in her own little world, and is always craning her neck, trying to see what's going on around her.
• Tummy time doesn't seem to be so bad when she rolls herself onto her stomach, rather than us putting her there. She's starting to kick those legs and get on her knees, but she hasn't figured out how to use her arms to lift her upper body. So we'll see if she starts scooting or crawling soon!
• We've been inconsistent with feeding her solid food, since she gets constipated really quickly from almost everything we've tried. So we'll skip it for a few days until she's back to normal. So far her favorite is butternut squash.
• Sleep has been much better for the whole family! We can put her down for naps and count on her sleeping for at least an hour.  She still hasn't truly slept through the night, but it's so much more manageable now that we can just go in and check on her, and then let her soothe herself back to sleep. Dan and I get 7-8 hours of sleep most nights, so we're feeling almost human again.
• She grabs at everything now and wants to put things right into her mouth, so we really have to watch her! When she's in our arms, she could lunge in any direction toward something she sees, so we're learning to keep a tight grip on her.
• She's nowhere close to standing on her own, but she loves for us to help her stand up on tables or our laps.  She used to cry when we'd try it, but her legs have gotten much stronger from bouncing in her jumparoo toy. 
• She's becoming more vocal, which isn't saying too much since she's been a pretty quiet baby so far. But recently when we drive somewhere, Dan and I will be having a conversation in the front seat while we listen to her have a conversation with her toys in the back seat. It's really cute. :) 
• One of her favorite new things is when we "fly" her around the house with her belly resting on our forearms. She gets the biggest smile! It's modified tummy time for her and a great arm workout for us. :)

Happily kicking during a stroller ride. Dan is obsessed with how wide she can spread her toes.

Bundled up and contemplating life

Little diva in the California sun

She loves grabbing hair, so I look like a wild woman most of the time. Dan is lucky he only has a little chin hair that's almost impossible for her to yank, although she's gone after his leg hair and chest hair, too. Ouch! Side note: I hope I never forget how sweet her profile is. I love that button nose!

Sitting up on the table

A hilarious picture of her trying to grab and eat Dan's phone, but you can see her tooth poking through

The view of the San Diego harbor from our hotel room downtown during fall break.

We did lots of walking around that weekend

Petco Park, home of the Padres

First baseball game! It was cold, windy, and way past her bedtime, so Emma wasn't all that thrilled about it.

We had gorgeous weather for our brunch harbor cruise the next morning. You can see downtown San Diego behind us.

Enjoying the sunshine and beautiful sights from the deck of the cruise ship.

All that fun wore them out!

Our other fall break getaway with our friends in Julian. We spent most of our time at the house and apple orchard, but we drove into town one day to walk around and shop.  We got one picture of the whole gang.  (left to right) Ann, Eli, Paul, me, Emma, Dan, Chris, Owen, and Adessa.

Emma taking a big bite out of her freshly picked apple from the orchard we stayed on!

My little pumpkin :)

We spent one morning at a nearby park to let the boys run off some steam. Here's a picture of the dads swinging the kids.

Emma loved the swing!

She also got to go down her first slide at the park

We love this sweet girl so much! Time is flying and she's growing up before our eyes.  Happy half birthday, Emma!

Family Pictures

My awesome and talented cousin Emily took pictures of my family and some separate pictures of Emma during our Labor Day reunion in Texas, and they turned out great!  Thought I'd share just a few of my favorites!

The whole family

Emma with her Papa and Nana

Steve and Sheila

Our little family

Sweet girl!

This picture makes my day every time I see it! Ha!

Five Months!

It's been a bit of a crazy month! Dan went out of town for two days and nights for the Junior High and High School retreat.  So Emma and I made it through our first two nights alone.  The first night, we invited our friend Sue over for dinner, and the second night, we went for a run on the beach.  I intentionally filled the evenings with something fun so it wouldn't feel so lonely at home.  This is the only time that Dan is gone every year, and I'm so thankful for that!  Kudos to all the moms and dads whose spouses are away often - it is hard!

The day that Dan got home from the retreat, we flew to Texas for a family reunion over Labor Day weekend.  It was a blast, as always, and the family is growing quickly with new spouses and babies. Emma is the youngest right now, but my cousin is expecting a baby girl at Christmastime. So fun! Since Emma's sleep has been hit-or-miss this month, I was nervous about sharing a bedroom with my mom, dad, and brother Paul. The Ranch House has large bedrooms that sleep five people in beds and more on the floor if needed.  So we've always shared the room, but I was imagining Emma waking everyone up all night long. God answered prayers, though, and she slept really well both nights there! She only woke up once per night, and since she's not a loud baby, I don't think we really disturbed anyone.

Unfortunately, after several nights of less than ideal sleep, Dan came down with a miserable cold during the family reunion. After about four days, he felt better, and then I came down with it. Ugh.  But so far, Emma has stayed healthy, praise the Lord!

Dan and I are taking some steps to get healthier, since we've both found ourselves bone-tired this month.  The first major step is sleep training for Emma.  We're going to be intentional about helping her learn to soothe herself to sleep so she will hopefully sleep through the night soon.  She's physically ready for it - she's slept through the night once before and has waited up to 7 hours between feedings. But mostly, Dan and I desperately need this to happen!  I can handle it when she only wakes up once at night, but she often wakes up more than that. We sometimes have trouble getting back to sleep after we're up with her, so the fewer interruptions we have at night the better. 

Also, we each have some weight to lose and our goal is to lose it by Christmastime. I am determined to fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes, since I don't want to spend the money for a new wardrobe!  We'll both feel more energetic without the extra weight, which will only help when Emma becomes mobile in the next few months. So we're eating healthier and encouraging each other to forgo unnecessary (but delicious) calories.

And now on to more fun topics, like what Emma is up to at five months!

• She can sit on her own for very short periods! We have to get her set up perfectly, with her legs spread apart for balance and her body leaning forward a bit, but she can hold herself upright for a little while. We practice every day, and I think she'll be a pro very soon.
• She can also roll from her back to either side. She still hates tummy time with a passion, although she can lift her head and chest off the ground with her arms.
• We introduced solid foods to her this month.  We started with about a teaspoon of rice cereal mixed with milk once a day. She handled it fine, but then got constipated after about five days in a row, so we moved on to avocado, and then carrots.  If we go back to rice cereal, we'll also give her a fruit so it hopefully won't have the same effect.
• She has learned to drink water from a cup, and it's now her favorite thing to do! She kicks her legs and opens her mouth wide when you bring a cup anywhere near her.
• Bath time has recently started to resemble the Splash Zone at Sea World!  She has a little pink bathtub that we put on the kitchen table while we bathe her, because we like having her at waist level instead of kneeling and bending over our bath tub.  We may have to move her to the sink or the tub soon, though, since her goal seems to be to kick at least half the water out! We have hardwood floors, so it just takes a minute to mop it all up with a towel afterwards.
• After three months of sleeping in her car seat at night, we moved her back to her bassinet. As long as you lay her on her side and she stays in that position, she sleeps so well! We have also darkened her room at night to encourage her to stay asleep.  Nap time is sometimes a struggle, but once she falls asleep she will sleep for over two hours! She would only take cat naps in her car seat during the day, so this is a big improvement.
• Her sleep pattern this month was unpredictable.  She had progressed to generally only waking up once during the night, but several times this month she'd have 3-4 nights back-to-back where she'd wake up multiple times. The worst was a night when I was up with her five times and then later learned that Dan got up another two times when I was sleeping too hard to even hear her.  All I can say is it's a good thing she's so cute! Now that she's sleeping so much longer in her bassinet, we suspect she was growing uncomfortable in her car seat.
• We had her four-month doctor's appointment, and she measured in the 90th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight. Dan's dream of her becoming a professional hockey player may come true!
• One of my favorite things about Emma right now is her laugh. A few weeks ago, she started to laugh and squeal out loud, but it quickly went from normal-sounding baby laughs to a hilarious growl.  It's sometimes very sinister-sounding, like a velociraptor from the movie "Jurassic Park."  It cracks us up and takes others completely by surprise when they're expecting to hear a giggle and get a growl instead!

Taking a run along the beach at sunset while Dan was away at the retreat

I didn't get many pictures at the Labor Day family reunion, but here's one of us gathering for prayer before one of our meals, followed by a few of everyone enjoying the great food.

Emma got to spend a lot of quality time with her Nanna. They even coordinated their pink and white outfits one day!

She enjoyed her first swing

And practiced her foot work

She got her "1st Iowa Shirt" from Uncle Steve and Aunt Sheila. They're living in Cedar Rapids where Steve is a philosophy professor at Coe College.

She's learned to drink water from a cup, which she obviously thinks is the best thing ever despite the fact that most of it pours down her chest.

She seems to be enjoying the solid food, too, but isn't as enthusiastic about it as she is about drinking water.

She can now stand in and play with this toy, which we got as a gift months ago and thought it would be forever before she'd be big enough to play with it!

Her favorite sleeping position with her bunny in her bassinet. It looks like she is pooping a fireball, but that is just a beam of sunlight coming through the window.

Here's a video of her growl-laughing while we were waiting for the doctor at her four-month checkup. During my early pregnancy when people asked what I was having, I'd say "a cute kid with a really deep voice." Well, there you go.


The family who keeps Emma for us invited us to a pancake breakfast to welcome their daughter home from Colorado.  Not only did they make us pancakes and smoothies, they also lit a candle for us and told everyone to stay away from the kitchen table for 10 minutes so we could have a date. Ha! There were only about 15 people watching us from the living room - very romantic. :)

A picture of Emma's second family. Every one of these sweet friends has helped to care for her at one time or another, so you can see that she's not suffering from lack of attention! Although I have to say, Dan and I get some crazy pictures from them sometimes...

I think they are trying to influence her to be a rock star.

But they are VERY involved in their care taking. Heh!

And Emma gets sweet time with her best friend, Ellie

She is such a joy to us every day! We're loving this fun and playful stage she's in!

Four Months!

The single biggest event for Emma (and us) this month was her surgery, and we're happy to report that she has been healthy and infection-free since then!  She had a follow-up ultrasound, and her urologist was very pleased with how everything looks post-surgery.  We're so grateful to God, and praying that He keeps her healthy! 

In other news, the Monday after her surgery, Dan's school year started.  What in the world?  For the first time this year, they are following a modified year-round schedule, so summer break was really short.  He missed having those extra weeks to prepare for the year, but he'll have a brand-new fall break and an extra week off at Christmastime, so hopefully it'll make up for school starting a month before everyone else. 

I'm getting into the groove of working three days a week, and I think it allows me enough time in the office to be productive and helpful to my department.  But I treasure the other days I have off to be with Emma!  We've settled into a fairly regular routine on the days I work and the days I don't.  Since Dan takes her to Sue's house on the days I'm working, we set everything out the night before for him to grab on his way out the door in the morning.  On the easy mornings, Emma sleeps until he belts her into her car seat, and then falls asleep again as soon as the car starts rolling.  Other times, she'll wake up when he's trying to get ready for work and need food or a diaper change.  Occasionally, he'll wake me up to help him so he won't be late for work, but that's hardly ever happened, and I normally get to sleep later.  He handles everything so well and is amazing with Emma, and I appreciate him more every day!

On the days when I'm at home, Emma will wake up around 7:00 and I'll feed her, change her, and then we'll sleep off and on for another two hours or so. We usually have a lunch date with Dan or a friend, so that gets us up and out the door, and we might run an errand afterwards or I'll take her for a run/walk in the jogging stroller in the afternoon.  

It seems like Emma is developing a new skill every week now!  Some facts about her at four months old:

• Her favorite new trick is blowing spit bubbles. :) Whenever she has nothing better going on, you'll see her get this intense, somewhat cross-eyed look on her face, and then the bubbles start showing up. All that intentional drool coming out of her mouth means we go through bibs like crazy!
• She's getting really good at grabbing and playing with toys now ("playing" = putting them in her mouth)
• She is working sooo hard at sitting up on her own! She's not quite there yet, but she loves to sit up with assistance and see the world around her. She can get herself from a reclining position all the way to sitting up straight before she topples over. That Buddha belly is hiding some strong ab muscles!
• We've gotten a couple of chuckles out of her in the past couple of weeks - no real laughs yet, but it won't be long!
• We've noticed recently that she startles more at loud noises or when we move into her eyesight suddenly. 
• She's just beginning to mimic us more intentionally, like moving her mouth around as if she's forming words or smiling every time we smile
• She'll anticipate our movements now when we repeat an action over and over, like wiggling our fingers over her face before tickling her belly 
• She still sleeps in her car seat at night and loves to hang out in it during the day, mainly because we keep it in a snap-and-go stroller and wheel her around the house so she can be a part of the action when we're not able to hold her. It's common to find the stroller sitting in the kitchen when I'm fixing dinner or outside the bathroom door when I've gotta go. Hey, maybe she'll be potty trained early since I'm demonstrating so often. Heh. :)
• Sleep is similar to last month - she sleeps 4-5 hours at first, wakes up to eat, then sleeps for another 3-4 hours. I still wake up with her in the middle of the night, and Dan takes care of her in the early morning.  We're working on moving her bedtime earlier, but we have mixed emotions about it. The past couple of nights, she's gone to sleep at 8:00, and it's given us a precious hour to relax and just be together before we go to bed. (Yes, we go to bed at 9:00. We don't even pretend to be cool.) But since we both get home from work after 6:00, we feel robbed of quality time with her since we still have to fix/eat dinner and get ready for the following day.
• Her bedtime routine is pretty much my favorite time of day. She sits in her chair with us at the dinner table while we eat, then we clean up the dishes and get her bath ready. We normally bathe her every evening, then we get her diapered and dressed and I feed her while Dan reads a chapter from the "Jesus Storybook Bible" to her. I cannot recommend this children's Bible enough - we love the wording, the pictures, and the way every story points to Christ. She usually falls asleep within minutes after her story, but it's such a sweet time for the three of us.

She is loving the toys now that she can grasp them and put them into her mouth!

She's also still enjoying the play mat with music and moving toys

We just recently tried the Bumbo seat, and she did great sitting up in it!

This is her "high chair" and pretty much how she entertains herself while we're eating. Kicking the table, playing with her hands, and blowing bubbles. It doesn't take much!

The "spit bubble" face

She and her best friend Ellie are still super adorable together

Emma doesn't quite have Ellie's hair, but there has been some growth! I mean, look at those flowing locks!  At this rate, I'll be able to put it in pigtails when she's 12.

Goofing around during bath time :) 

We visited our friends, Dave and Cynthia and their daughters Olivia and Kailey, to celebrate Kailey's 2nd birthday

 Kailey loved "Baby Emma"!

 Emma and I met my department from work for lunch one day. My boss cannot possibly ask me to work more days now that he's seen how adorable she is.

 The NHL season calendar was released, and Emma celebrated by dressing in her NY Islanders gear

Her excitement doesn't quite match Dan's, but they are looking forward to watching hockey together soon.

One of the highlights of me having days off is that Emma and I can pick up Dan for lunch once a week. She usually sits in the middle of the table playing with one of us while the other person is eating. We still tag-team a lot during meals.

Me and my pretty girl!

It's a lot of work to get her to smile for the camera since she usually freezes when she sees it. But we did catch her classic raised eyebrow. She's been able to do that since birth, accomplishing in mere moments the "don't mess with the principal" look that Dan has been perfecting for years now.

This little four month old is growing up so fast! We are loving life with her more and more with each month!