Despite the ongoing lack of sleep and an increasingly fussy baby, there were lots of positive moments this week and I'm feeling quite okay overall. For those of you not familiar with me in my personal life, I'm an adoptions case manager. One of the best parts of my job is when I get to find a family for kids that are waiting to be placed for adoption... I had the privilege and enormous responsibility of finding a family for a sibling group of two amazing children the moment I returned to work from leave. I jumped right in and found what seems to be the perfect set of parents for them. I supervised a second visit between the children and the parents yesterday evening and almost found myself misty-eyed at the fact that this match has turned out so well. I'm such a sap these days. I also fought back tears a few times during my 13 1/2 hour road trip with a seventeen year old troubled teen and her baby. This is a kid who has bounced around in foster care for years and is one of those tragic stories we hear of all too often... at one point, she hated my guts and probably wanted me dead. She even saved my name in her phone as "piece of sh** case worker." Since becoming pregnant, she changed her attitude and started listening to me (finally!) and has grown and matured so much... during our road trip to look at apartments for her across the state, she started opening up to me about a lot of things that I never thought she'd say. I thought, my God, this kid trusts me. I ended my day with her on the receiving end of a hug and an "I love you, Miss Kelly." I wish everyone could understand the magnitude of that... this kid is notorious throughout our circuit because of her history and behavior. And here she is, using the word love. Directed at her piece of sh** case worker ;) It was a huge accomplishment to say the least, and again- I fought back tears. So to say that my job ended up being quite rewarding this week is an understatement- it makes all of the stressful days worthwhile.
So enough of my bleeding heart social worker talk. Onto the Emma monster. Still colicky. Still cheesy. Still really freakin' adorable. Today even included some sentimental firsts- I drove her to my parents' house for the first time so my mom could watch her while I got some work done without interruption (well, minimal interruption. At least I had two free hands) and I could get out of the house for a bit. My parents happen to still live in the same house they lived in when I was born, and for many years prior to that as well. So I had the rare opportunity to hold my daughter in what used to be my nursery when I was a baby, which was also the room that I grew up in. It was pretty surreal. Then we took her to my dad's store to surprise him and I dressed her up in a pretty yellow and orange dress that I've been dying to see her in. My dad was super excited to see her as he hadn't seen her since shortly after she came home from the NICU. She was probably about 6lbs then, and now she's over 10... before we left, she had been asleep for about 30 minutes when we woke her up to change her and pack her up into the car so I was worried that she'd be a grump. But no... she was a ham. A complete and total ham. She showed her grandpa how she can hold up her head, smile, coo, and look around at everything near her. She even looked directly at him and flashed her gummy little grin. She was just happy and content the whole time and made her grandpa (and mommy too!) very proud. It was super adorable. She always is.
We had two nights this week of 2:30am party time. I swear she's a college kid sometimes- she likes to party from 2:30am to 6am and then sleep for most of the morning after that. It's not fun when you have to work the next morning and there's no way on earth that you're going to get her to sleep when she doesn't want to. She's also been super fussy in her sleep, prompting me to get up every hour for the last couple of nights to rock her until she's asleep enough to put her back down. We're trying to transition her into her crib, and it's not going so well because she certainly isn't the biggest fan of it. She has too much freedom to roll around and it keeps her awake or startles her out of a sound sleep... I'm trying to figure out the safest way of making her more comfortable in her crib without causing a SIDS risk. *sigh*
Emma and the puppy have become best friends now and had quite the little play session on Wednesday (9/26). I put Emma on her playmat and she was all excited and happy, at which point the puppy came over to sniff and play. Emma just stared at the puppy and smiled, and the puppy decided it would be fun to lick the baby's face, hands, and feet. Basically, any exposed skin was getting the dog tongue treatment and it made the baby smile even more. Then the puppy realized that the baby was enjoying this, so puppy rolled over on her side next to the baby as if the baby was capable of petting her belly. Silly dog. She really hasn't a clue that not everything on earth will/can pet her belly. But she'll sure try to make that happen. So now they're the best of friends and I think it's so adorable that the puppy has accepted her so well. I was worried she'd be jealous... oh, and Emma also took a liking to my parents' dog today and flashed the same amused smile at their dog a few times this afternoon. So apparently she likes dogs.
Developmentally, she's doing amazing. She's meeting most of the milestones for her actual age and is progressing more and more every day. Physically, she seems to be doing wonderfully and is getting so strong, especially when it comes to holding up her head. She'll be walking in no time ;) lol.
And finally, I'm so glad she's off her monitor! And thank God for the Snuza Halo, because I can actually sleep without worrying about whether or not she's still breathing. Ok, fine. I still worry. But not to the point where I'm posted up next to her crib silently listening for breath sounds. I love my wireless baby.
So I guess that's it for now. I have a headache so I'm not able to form very many coherent thoughts right now. I also have to give the baby a bath so I can hopefully get her in bed at a reasonable time tonight and crash myself. I'm so exhausted, I don't know how I'm even able to type right now.
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