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.
