I think there's a natural mommy instinct that makes it sincerely impossible to resist picking at your child, even at the most inopportune moments. Baby just fell asleep after fussing for an hour, but has an eye booger? Certainly that eye booger has to come off immediately. Fuzz? Dry skin? Ear cheese? Neck cheese? Pick pick pick. Poor kid... I'm constantly messing with her.
Emma went to the doctor on 10/19 and weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds. After her two month well child visit in September, I realized that if she weighed 13 pounds at three months, she'd be in the 50th percentile for weight for a three month old baby. At 12 pounds, she's in the 32nd percentile, which is amazing beyond words for a preemie. Other than her (now only slightly) herniated bellybutton and the flat spot on her head, you'd really never know she's a preemie. She's also up to 23" in length, which is the 24th percentile. Not bad for a kid who was born weighing 4lb 5oz and 17 1/4" long at 32 weeks!
She's such a miracle for sure. Developmentally, she's really on track for her actual age. We need to give her more tummy time, though, so she can start to learn how to roll from her tummy to her back. When she does have tummy time (which we don't do as often as we should because she generally doesn't like it too much), she is able to lift up her head and chest very well and hold herself steady. Yesterday, I put her in her crib for a nap and she settled down and fell asleep. When I came back into her room a few minutes later to fold and put away her laundry, she was lying on her side- almost on her tummy, in fact- and was not happy about it. It was quite funny, though, because her little legs were kicking as she was trying to figure out how to correct her predicament. So I rolled her onto her back and gave her the pacifier so she could calm herself to sleep. She started to calm down, but then started fussing and getting progressively upset until she rolled herself onto her side and almost on her belly again. At that point, she was done trying to nap in her crib. Daddy put her into her swing and I went for a nap myself... she's been getting finicky about napping in her crib in the afternoon. She does alright if she naps in the morning, but by afternoon time, she doesn't want to sleep in there. I think we'll have to invest in blackout shades- maybe it's just too bright in there for her to be comfy. She sleeps in her crib like a champ at night still. Although lately she's been waking up every two hours after an initial long stretch of sleep. The more I'm reading, the more I'm realizing that she may not be hungry like we think. There have been a few times when I've given her the pacifier to help her calm down while I prepare her bottle, only to return to her room and find her back to sleep. So I think I'm going to try getting her back to sleep first and if she doesn't go back to sleep, then I'll assume she's hungry and feed her. She's only been eating about 2oz at a time during her nighttime feeds, which kind of screws up her feeding schedule during the day. It starts this domino effect where she eats 2oz at a time every two hours almost all day long, instead of 4oz every three hours. She should actually be eating 5-6oz at time by now, but maybe that's one of the few lingering signs of her being a preemie.
I was treated to a "mommy's day out" yesterday by my ever-so-amazing husband. God bless him... I haven't been myself at home since Emma was born. It's a combination of stress, sheer exhaustion, and anxiety about Emma's health (the latter has since diminished). Add to that the fact that I use up all of my happy faces, positive attitude, and energy reserves while at work, and I haven't necessarily been the sweetest and most upbeat person around here. At times, I've been downright grumpy and whiny. He really had every reason in the world for him to get out of the house and have some time for himself, but instead he decided to treat me to a 90 minute massage and some shopping. The massage was nothing short of amazing... the massage therapist commented on the fact that I had very few knots in my back, especially for someone with children.* Once that was finished, I drove up to the Grove shopping center (the massage was in Wesley Chapel so I was close to some good shopping) and proceeded to attempt to find some new clothes. It didn't really work out very well for me- I just couldn't find anything I liked in my size. I tried TJ Maxx and Old Navy and ended up with two shirts and a tank top. I did, however, find a cute long sleeved onesie at Old Navy that I couldn't resist buying for Emma. And then it spiraled from there- I had to go to Babies R Us to get some medium flow nipples and I am apparently completely incapable of just buying nipples. I left with much more than I intended on purchasing, but it was all stuff that I could somewhat justify buying. Including some super-cute long sleeved onesies. In six month size! Yep- based on Carter's sizing, she's 1/2lb and 1" away from the six month sized clothes. She's growing up so fast!
*I still haven't wrapped my head around the fact that I'm a mom. It's a very strange transition to suddenly have people ask about my child or to say that I do, in fact, have a child. Especially since most people think I'm barely 20 years old.
Things I know to be true about Emma: she loves staring at lights. She yells repeatedly (instead of crying) when she's hungry sometimes. She likes to try to swallow her own fist. Her reflection is one of the funniest and most entertaining things around. She can somehow launch her pacifier into the center of her room from her crib. She farts a lot.
And about the farts- it's funny to me that most people (especially those who haven't had young children in a while) attribute every red face, grunt, cry, or whine to gas. It's like there's nothing else that could possibly upset her- she must be gassy if she's not happy. lol ;)
The doctor told us we could give Emma 2-4 ounces of apple juice per day if she's constipated, which she has been. Needless to say, she loved it (great. If the constipation continues, we'll have to switch to karo syrup because I was hoping we wouldn't be giving her juice until she's much older. I don't want her to be a juice addict as a toddler...) and it worked its magic this morning. Now she's a pooping machine. Yay.
Not much else is new. Aside from the fact that mama bear came out on Friday on my way back from my parents' house with Emma. Some douchebag decided to tailgate me for no reason. Clearly I have a baby in the back- you can easily see the top of her carseat from behind my car. Put my life in danger, and I'll be pretty pissed. Put my child's life in danger... and your life may now be in danger.
No pictures again this time. It's already 9:01pm and time for an Emma bath. Maybe we'll get some bathtime pictures- she loves bath time. Bath time is the best part of her whole day. And immediately after bath time is the worst part of her day. As soon as I get her into her hooded towel, she starts screaming. She goes from happy and warm to cold and hungry in a split second. That kid...
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