Dear Emerson Claire,

You have rapidly entered the second month of your life. I still cannot believe how quickly you’ve grown, and continue to grow each and every day. Your second month of life started off a bit rough, as we had to take you to get your 2 month shots. It’s safe to say week 8 was a tough week. You were cranky, tired and hard to soothe.

Thankfully week 9 has turned things around. We’re seeing more and more of your happy, calm, alert self. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still having some evening where the Mamaroo has proven its worth over and over again, but for the most part you’re back to being an easy baby.

One of your favorite things is to sit up and watch the world. You particularly enjoy being outdoors. You’ll hold your head up nice and high, taking in the surrounding as long as your neck muscles allow. I must say, you’re head control is getting better and better every day. It sometimes surprises me how long you can hold your head up by yourself. During tummy time you’re starting to push up more on your hands to lift your head even higher– just so you can look around even more.  You still like to scoot around with this semi-army crawl; something the pediatrician says is both exciting to see so early on, but also terrifying (since it most likely means you’ll be a quick learner of crawling/walking).

I’ve started giving you a bath towards the end of the day since you’ve acquired a new skill of drooling. You’re exploring new movements of your mouth, one of which involves repeatedly sticking your tongue in and out of your mouth. You’ll suck on your hands and you’ve figured out how to produce spit bubbles. Needless to say you get quite slobbery towards the evening. I’m also hoping the nice calm bath with help make bedtime easier over time.

You enjoy being in the water now. Before it was just a big cry fest! I’m also figuring out what keeps you calmer in the tub. That’s one of the things- you’re in the big tub already! You love lounging on your tub cushion since it holds lots of warm water in it so it keeps you pretty toasty. In fact, the last two times I put you in the tub you proceeded to give me a wild grin! I’ve noticed that if the water is too cool you are not a happy camper. Sometimes you’ll even kick the water with your feet.

You and I have been busy during the week while Daddy is at work. We go walking on Fridays with our Summer 2014 babies group, we go to our breastfeeding club on Thursdays, and we’ve been getting together with our birthing classmates during the week as well. Don’t forget that we also run errands! I couldn’t think of a better sidekick to have while running errands and doing chores.

Well my little Claire-bear, everyday you look less and less like a generic newborn and more like Emerson… Every day a little more of your personality shines through as well. We’ve been having so much fun watching you grow and learn. Being your Momma rocks.

Yes, time is a funny thing. Babies create a paradox within time; days can feel so long, but weeks just fly by.

Emmie asked for a Mohawk.

We’ve had a good week this week. Emerson had her 1 month check up — she’s doing great. Officially 7.5lbs! I also had my pulmonary clinic and I’m doing pretty well too; PFT’s were stable at 80%, weight is still 3lbs higher than pre-pregnancy, and overall we have a good plan for inhaled antibiotics to hopefully help me meet my 6 month exclusive breastfeeding goal.

Meeting Auntie Meghan for the first time

Over the weekend Meghan came to visit, and Emerson warmed right up to her Auntie in no time. The weekend was filled with lots of baby snuggles. Emerson even enjoyed having a bath for the first time — usually she cries and fusses, but with Auntie Meghan helping she was cool as a cucumber.

Afternoon snooze with Mom

 Emerson sleeps in her Rock-n-Play at night, but I’ve been worried about transitioning her to the crib. Knowing that she sleeps at an incline I’m afraid the transition to the flat crib will be tough. So, in order to hopefully avoid a hard transition, I’ve begun putting her in her crib for naps. I walk with her until she gets her ‘sleepy eyes’ and then pop her in still awake. She’ll fuss and roll side to side for a few minutes, but the past few naps she’s been able to put herself to sleep in her crib. She doesn’t sleep as soundly there yet, but it’s good progress. She also never sleeps on her back. I always put her on her back and within seconds she’s rolled to her side.

Mohawk baby!

Yesterday was the first day I saw a social smile from Emerson! It was the cutest, gummiest smile you ever did see. It was in the morning and I was asking her if she would like to smile for me, when she did! And then she did it again! It was the best. Amazing how little things like a smile, that normally people would take for granted because it’s seemingly so simple, can be a truly amazing feat. This morning we got another morning smile. I have yet to really see any during the day, but after a night full of gassiness (on Emmie’s behalf), lots of fussiness,  and lack of sleep – a morning smile makes it all worth it.

Look at that strawberry blonde hair!

 Emerson’s hair is starting to thin out in the front a little. I’m not sure if it’s because her hair is turning lighter, or if it’s actually falling out, but either way she has about half strawberry blonde/light brown hair and half super duper blonde – as in white, you can barely even see, hair. I’m curious to see what color it decides to be. Oh, don’t worry the mullet is still nice and thick. Her eyes are still as blue as ever, but occasionally they look a little violet or grey.

Learning to focus on toys

 Emerson has been having long chunks of awake time in which we work on our eye focus, smiling, and of course tummy time. With a big ‘ole Overdeep noggin she really needs to work out those muscles to hold that head full of brains up!

Tummy time with a ruffled butt.

5. Aden and Anais Swaddle Blankets. I had these on our registry but we never received them. Since they were a bit on the expensive side I opted for a cheaper version. Well, a neighbor ended up gifting these to us, and they are great! They are much bigger than the other cotton muslin swaddle blankets I ordered which makes a big difference with her not being able to wiggle out of these. They are super soft and cuddly. They are great for taking on the go and using as a nursing cover too since they’re pretty thin and light.

6. Boba Wrap. This is Kyle’s favorite baby item we own. He loves to wear Emmie around the house. If she’s fussy, we wrap her up and almost instantly she’s asleep. It calms her like you would not believe. If every other method of getting her to sleep has failed, we Boba her and sure enough, out like a light. As an added bonus, we can use both our hands when she’s wrapped up, but she’s still snuggling with us. The only downside to the Boba is that it gets pretty warm. We usually crank the AC while we wear her in the Boba to keep both of us cool.

7. Summer’s First Infant Snuzzler. With Emmie being such a peanut, she bounced around in her swing and her rock-n-play. In order to help her feel more secure in both, we use the infant snuzzler. Basically, it’s very similar to the infant inserts you find in carseats. It has head support and extra body support on the sides. We have it in her rock-n-play and she loves being snuggled up in her infant snuzzler.

8. Baby Jogger’s City Mini GT stroller with car seat bar. Since we have a dog, we started going on family walks a few days after bringing Emmie home. This stroller with carseat bar has been great! It makes going anywhere very easy since it folds flat with a simple pull of a strap. It has quick release wheels, and most importantly fits in the teeny tiny Prius trunk! It’s small enough that we feel comfortable taking it into stores and we don’t feel like we’ve got this gigantic stroller taking up the whole aisle.

9. & 10. Medela breast pump and Dr. Brown’s glass bottles. After introducing the pacifier with great success, we moved onto giving her a bottle once a day. I pump with my Medela pump, and Kyle gives her a bottle. We had a few different brands of bottles – and Emerson took all 4 brands with ease – but Kyle prefers the Dr. Brown’s bottles because she seems to get less air with them. We also prefer to store pumped milk in glass bottles vs. plastic. Dr. Brown’s is one of the only brands that still have glass available. The bottle has allowed Kyle to give me a few longer stretches of sleep on occasion, so it’s been very, very nice. It’s also nice to know that I could go somewhere and leave her home with Kyle for more than an hour.

Dear Emerson,

Today marks your one month of being outside my belly. One month filled with cuddles, kisses, and an absurd amount of cuteness. Every day you’re looking older, and every day you’re learning new things. You open your eyes wider and the distance you can focus has grown by leaps and bounds.

You’ve slowly started to discover your hands. It frustrates you when you try to suck on them and then your jerky movements interrupt your attempts at self-soothing. For the most part you’re still accidentally scratching your face and poking yourself in the eye. Ouch!

When you were first born you were a very quiet and content baby. Somewhere during the second week you started to get very gassy. With these new pains came a new voice. You always had a little pouty face, but your sad face just breaks my heart! The loud cry associated with gas is one that sends me into mommy panic mode: “My baby is hurting! I need to hold her close this instant. I need to soothe her. How can I fix this?” Sometimes when you’re uncomfortable in your carseat you make your sad face, squirm and then let out your angry, uncomfortable cries. I find these rides nearly unbearable since I can’t scoop you up right that second and hold you close to my chest. Luckily these instances are dying down since I’ve cut a lot of my milk drinking out of my diet. When moms have dairy, little babies like you get pretty gassy since you can’t digest the protein found in cow’s milk yet.

Over the past 4 weeks your Daddy and I have just fallen so in love with you. It was hard to imagine just how much we’d love you when you were cozied up cooking for 9 months. We weren’t sure how parenthood would fit us, and we were unsure of what struggles we’d face. I think it’s safe to say that we are loving being parents to you. You made our relationship as a couple stronger. I’m so glad you’re part of our family.

The first week of your life, I didn’t want to put you down. I wanted to relive and retell the story of the first time I met you; my baby. You were super sleepy the first few days of your life, which was great, because all we wanted to do was snuggle with you. Since you came into this world so quickly and your noggin didn’t get a chance to squash itself into a funny cone-shape, you were a really cute newborn. You had bright, alert eyes and a perfectly round head. You had the perfect amount of hair and the chubbiest cheeks. You truly are beautiful- inside and out.

Now at the 4th week of your life, you’re still perfect in my eyes. Your hair is starting to grow in super blonde- almost white, but you haven’t lost the little brown locks you were born with yet. You went through a newborn skin peeling phase, but now all your flakes are almost gone. You seemed to have skipped the newborn acne phase, with only having a few white heads here and there.

One of the cutest things that I will miss is your Moro Reflex. When you’re startled or moved suddenly your little arms and legs shoot straight out. Your hands open up flat and your eyes go wide. The reflex is leftover from when we were monkeys and had to cling on to mommas’ backs. It may be one of my favorite things you do. One of your Daddy’s favorites are your little sneezes. You have been sneezing a lot since you were born. Just your system’s way of working itself out. You also still hiccup frequently just like you did in the womb.