Awake time where I spend my time gazing into those gorgeous eyes: 3 wks old (left), 2 wks old (right).
The elusive smile in her sleep (this was the first time I captured it and got so excited when I saw it I jumped and it made the photo blurry!)--1 week old
Just waking up one morning (left; 2 weeks old) and after falling back to sleep in my arms she gave me a smile while sleeping.
Sleeping in my arms
Sleeping through a happy hour that John and I snuck out to last week
Sleeping in her rocking chair (left) and sleeping in her swing (right).
She also, like her brother did, has had a few major spit ups...one of the first bad ones we encountered with her was our first Sunday night home when we were putting Evan to bed. We had put her down in her pack n play in our room while we went to tuck Evan into his bed, and when we came back to get her we found her laying in a big pool of spit up. It was soaked into her hair and all over the pack n play mattress beside and under her head. Poor girl! A few other big ones have happened while she's on my lap...sometimes while I'm burping her (trying to get out the air bubbles that probably cause the projectiles in the first place), but the worst was about a week ago Monday. It happened WHILE she was nursing! And even once I pulled her off it just kept pouring out all over the both of us. Since then this has become at least a once a day occurrence.
I'm happy to say we have not had any messes during diaper changes yet! While she did pee during one diaper change I was doing, it wasn't anything like the pee fountains that Evan did, rather it just trickled down below to the diaper I had waiting to put on her (thereby "ruining" that fresh new diaper right away). Speaking of diapers, I just tried cloth diapers on her this past Wednesday. I figured since she was already getting quite big (see below her latest weigh in!) that she could maybe fit into them already. Nonetheless, they are still awfully big on her and she had a blow out of one already given it was gaping around her leg a bit. In fact, when I put that one on her and saw the loose fit around her thigh I told myself if she were to have one of her explosive poo's, it would most certainly leak. Sure enough, that's when she decided to have one of her explosive poo's of the day, when that diaper was on!
First Bath
We waited quite awhile to give Emma her first bath, given they told us at the hospital they only really needed wiped down with a washcloth in the early weeks. So her first official bath (in the net sling of the baby tub) was when she was 12 days old. And she did great! The water didn't bother her at all. She cried a bit when we took her out before she was dried off, as I'm sure she felt cold then, but otherwise she was a superstar! Her umbilical cord came off when she was 9-10 days old, so we didn't have to worry about avoiding getting that wet in her bath either. And speaking of her umbilical cord/belly button...Evan has been so cute about it. He immediately noticed that strange thing on her belly button during her diaper changes, and he would always ask "What's that?". I told him it was Emma's belly button growing. Now he looks at her belly button (and he did this for when she still had the umbilical cord stump too) and he'll say "it's growing up!". Lol...yes, her belly button is growing up, and so are both of my kids, seemingly at a record pace.
Peaceful and serene, even during bath time. Love that chubby belly!
2-week doctor check up
At Emma's 2-week doctor visit this past Tuesday (when she was actually 2.5 weeks old), she weighed in at 9 lbs 10 oz already (86%)! Her head was 14.5 inches (half an inch growth already! 85%) and she's now 21 inches long (71%). She is looking very healthy, and her heart murmur seems to be gone. She cried most of her check up though because she was just woken from a 3-hour nap and was very hungry (and I was very full to say the least). If she wasn't hungry I think she would have been so much more at ease. She has some "stork bite" marks on the back of her neck and also some other birth marks on her lip and side of her tummy that we will have to watch and see how they change with time (especially the one on her lip to make sure it doesn't interfere with her ability to nurse).
Earlier this week she started having some nasal congestion...maybe it's her first cold? :( Or perhaps it's just the change in weather. Regardless, we had to use bulb syringe and saline nasal drops to help clear her out several mornings this week. Nothing sounds worse than a poor baby trying to nurse who can't breathe out of her nose!
My recovery
Now that Emma's 3 weeks old, and thus I'm 3 weeks postpartum, I'm finally starting to feel mostly like my old self. My tummy still isn't completely back to normal (thanks to the diastasis I had who knows if it ever will be actually) and my pain isn't too bad. I took it really easy in the first week or two at home, limiting myself to very short walks and resting a lot. My body always told me when I had tried to do too much, so I just listened to it and rested when it got painful again. But just this past week I found myself able to pick Evan up and dance with him in my arms (oh it felt so good to be able to do that again!), and I am able to get Emma into and out of the car in her car seat (she's really quite light to carry...for now!). One crazy thing though is that I'm just starting to have the night sweats this time around. With Evan I started having them in the hospital, and I don't remember how long they lasted, but this time I didn't have any until about a week ago. It is so awful to wake up in the middle of the night completely drenched in sweat, but at least I think that's my body's way of getting rid of excess water weight and helping me slim back down to "normal" size.
First family visit
This last weekend, when Emma was two weeks old, my mom and step-dad came to visit. An added bonus from this visit was that Mom cooked us dinners every day (and made a lot of prepared dinners for the freezer too) and they got to meet Emma and spend time with Evan.
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