Here are some quick facts, from the March of Dimes website: 15 million babies are born too early each year and 1.1 million babies die. Yep- more than one million babies. That's a staggering number, and Emma could have easily been one of those babies, which is a very sobering thought for me. Had it not been for the fact that I had chronic hypertension prior to getting pregnant, Emma would probably have been born earlier than she was, and as early as 28 weeks. And at that point, she was less than 3 pounds in weight and her lungs were definitely not ready to work on their own without a ventilator. We're so blessed that, while she's one of the 15 million, she wasn't one of the 1.1 million. Things could have been so much worse if Emma wasn't such a strong, healthy little ninja. So for all of you who know me in real life, you definitely know at least one person affected by premature birth. You know my story- the four weeks of hospital bed rest, the three weeks of NICU hell. But in the end, we have a happy, healthy, feisty little baby to cuddle and love. So many families aren't as fortunate. It breaks my heart to hear stories of loss...
I'm really hoping to be able to participate in a March of Dimes event in the near future. It's because of their fundraising that there are so many good medical advances for premature birth. The kind of technology used in Emma's NICU was mind-blowing and we were so fortunate that we had access to that kind of care. Premature birth is very expensive- Emma's hospital stay cost around $150,000 and she was mostly healthy- she didn't require any surgeries, the ventilator, etc. But had it not been for the discovery of betamethasone shots and their affect on fetal lung development, Emma could have easily required the vent. These breakthroughs have saved countless lives.
So if anyone wants to join me in a March of Dimes event, let me know! I'd love to put together a team at some point for one of their walks... we can all be Emma's team. I know so many of you prayed for Emma and I during my hospital stay and hers, and I think it would be awesome to get everyone together to raise some money for other babies like Emma. And Emma will come too, and being the little celebrity she is, I know people like to see her ;) Who knows, by the time the next walk comes around, Emma will probably be jogging on her own. She's pretty incredible like that.
Alright, PSA complete. Onto the Emma monster and the mommy stuff, although I know you mostly care about the monster. But so do I, so we have that in common ;)
Naptime. Ugh. She is still having difficulty staying asleep in her crib. Sometimes she'll do alright, but for the most part she greatly prefers her swing for naps. I feel like doing one of those victory laps when I'm able to get her to sleep for more than 15 minutes in her crib during the day. My mom, however, can get her to nap for much longer than that. I've done lots of research, as is typical 90210 fashion, and found that it's quite common for babies to have issues sleeping in their cribs during the day. We've darkened her room with a blackout shade but that hasn't appeared to have helped tremendously. The next step is buying a crib soother- I'm already eyeing a few on Amazon. After that? Who knows. Nap Nanny? Standing on our heads? I'll try anything... because she's eventually going to grow out of her swing.
Swing= happy Emma. A big thanks to her "future in-laws" :)
This "preemie" is huge. She has her 4-month well-child exam on 11/13 and I'm curious, as always, to see how big she really is. I think I just need to buy myself a bathroom scale so I don't have to impatiently await doctor's appointments to find out if she really is as fat as I think she is. Fat is cute on a babies though, and I make sure to tell her that after I tell her how fat she is. I don't want her trying to diet or anything. hahaha... I officially packed up her 3 month clothes and moved all of her 3-6 and 6 month sizes into the higher drawers in her dresser. She's also in her size two diapers.
Speaking of diapers. I hate Huggies. Actually, I despise them with every fiber of my motherhood. Emma was in Huggies in the NICU, so we bought a box of newborn size diapers after she came home because we figured they were fine- she didn't have any diaper rash issues in the NICU and they seemed to work just fine. They also weren't too expensive either. It wasn't long before she started peeing right out of them and causing frequent clothing changes, for Emma and whoever happened to be unfortunate enough to be holding her at the time. That got old very quickly. So we switched to Pampers Swaddlers... the gold standard of diapers. Sure, they're more expensive. But my God, they work. Emma has never leaked out of a Swaddlers diaper, and she has had some enormous pee-filled diapers. She doesn't even get close to rashy, because they suck up so much pee that her little bum is still completely dry. I love them, I really do.
So now that we've moved on to her size 2's, it's back to Huggies as we have two boxes of them in her closet. I hoped things would be different now that she's in a bigger size but WRONG. She still pees out of them. She's done it to my mom a few times. Poor grandma. And then yesterday... ugh. I was holding her after I fed her and smelled that all-too-familiar scent of a soiled diaper. Luckily, I had her sitting up in my lap with my hand supporting her upper back. I gave her a few minutes to make sure she was, ahem, done, and then plopped her on her changing pad. I'll spare you the yucky details, but I'll just say this- there was a poo eruption out of the top of her diaper and I didn't realize it until after it smeared up her back and got all over her (super cute) onesie. And this wasn't a monumental sized poo either. Grrrrrrr.
That was the second of her cute onesies that fell victim to being worn by a baby. She has a limited supply of long-sleeved onesies, which has been what I put her in for bed at night along with a SwaddleMe. The other night, most of them were waiting to be washed and I only had a few to choose from- a cute white "mommy's cupcake" one, one with lots of (probably itchy) embroidery on the front, her awesome one with a gold leopard bow printed on the front, and a pink one with ruffles on the front and snaps in the back (pain in the ass at night). I elected the white cupcake one, despite it being one that I wanted to save for her to wear when we go somewhere. But I thought... what's the worst that could happen while she's sleeping? Vomit? That's what OxiClean Free is for! Well, what could happen is this (and I'm sure it's not even the worst that could happen): Emma could rub the scab off of her face that formed after she scratched herself under her eye (THE RIGHT EYE AGAIN!), and then rub the sleeve of her adorable white onesie all in the blood coming from the scratch. Awesome. And then the cute pink ruffled onesie fell victim to the Huggies blowout. I guess Emma is trying to remind me that I shouldn't care so much about her clothes. But, ugh. Baby girl clothes are so stinking cute.
We got a big shipment of Carter's clothes in the mail this week from an online shopping spree I engaged in last weekend. She got a ton of cute outfits that will hopefully last her for a while. I sincerely hope she stops growing at this rate soon, or else she'll be in 12 month sizes in no time. Seriously. It's preposterous. But, without intending to, I picked out two really adorable wintery outfits that are going to be perfect for some Christmas photos. Yay! And we also have a photo shoot scheduled for 11/13 after her doctor's appointment with the fabulous angel-on-earth of a photographer who took her newborn pictures. I seriously can't wait...
In other news, this was my final week of being on-call in my current job, with today being my final day of it. Since on-call rotates between five people, it means I'm usually on-call for a whole week every fifth week. Not that we get many calls, but it's very restricting as I don't like to go out anywhere if I'm on-call. Obviously I don't have an engaging social life right now, but it's nice to feel like I can actually go somewhere without worrying about the phone ringing. I'm much more likely to have calls in my new job, but at least I'll have the phone for shorter periods of time and less often to boot.
Nothing much has really changed otherwise. Although it's amazing to see how things change week-to-week with Emma. She had one week of sleeping all night, and now she's back to having a middle-of-the-night bottle, which is still a big improvement from being up every 2-3 hours on the dot for a bottle or to nurse. That was exhausting. She had also been doing great about a bedtime routine around the same time every night- we were usually able to start her routine anytime between 8:30 and 9pm. Now it's all over the place because her schedule during the day has been erratic. Hopefully she settles into a nice routine soon, for everyone's sake. I experimented a bit tonight and did her routine at 7pm, which is much earlier than normal for her. But she was ready to eat, so I figured it didn't make sense to try to feed her and wait until 10pm, her probable next feed, to put her to bed. So we'll see how long she sleeps before she gets up for another bottle. It could be in 30 minutes, it could be in a few hours.
Her recent big accomplishment has been discovering her feet. She can now willingly kick something with her feet, but it requires an incredible amount of concentration, which is seriously adorable. She stares intently as her little foot slowly kicks whatever is near it. The other night, I put my hand near her feet during her bath and she would kick my hand, then try to curl her toes and feel my fingers as her foot slid down my hand. She was so happy with herself over it. And today, hubby lifted up her feet while she was lying down on the floor and she looked at them and seemingly recognized them, as she kicked her foot straight up in the air and watched it move. They're like brand new toys that are attached to her!
I'm really hoping to be able to participate in a March of Dimes event in the near future. It's because of their fundraising that there are so many good medical advances for premature birth. The kind of technology used in Emma's NICU was mind-blowing and we were so fortunate that we had access to that kind of care. Premature birth is very expensive- Emma's hospital stay cost around $150,000 and she was mostly healthy- she didn't require any surgeries, the ventilator, etc. But had it not been for the discovery of betamethasone shots and their affect on fetal lung development, Emma could have easily required the vent. These breakthroughs have saved countless lives.
So if anyone wants to join me in a March of Dimes event, let me know! I'd love to put together a team at some point for one of their walks... we can all be Emma's team. I know so many of you prayed for Emma and I during my hospital stay and hers, and I think it would be awesome to get everyone together to raise some money for other babies like Emma. And Emma will come too, and being the little celebrity she is, I know people like to see her ;) Who knows, by the time the next walk comes around, Emma will probably be jogging on her own. She's pretty incredible like that.
Alright, PSA complete. Onto the Emma monster and the mommy stuff, although I know you mostly care about the monster. But so do I, so we have that in common ;)
Naptime. Ugh. She is still having difficulty staying asleep in her crib. Sometimes she'll do alright, but for the most part she greatly prefers her swing for naps. I feel like doing one of those victory laps when I'm able to get her to sleep for more than 15 minutes in her crib during the day. My mom, however, can get her to nap for much longer than that. I've done lots of research, as is typical 90210 fashion, and found that it's quite common for babies to have issues sleeping in their cribs during the day. We've darkened her room with a blackout shade but that hasn't appeared to have helped tremendously. The next step is buying a crib soother- I'm already eyeing a few on Amazon. After that? Who knows. Nap Nanny? Standing on our heads? I'll try anything... because she's eventually going to grow out of her swing.
Swing= happy Emma. A big thanks to her "future in-laws" :)
This "preemie" is huge. She has her 4-month well-child exam on 11/13 and I'm curious, as always, to see how big she really is. I think I just need to buy myself a bathroom scale so I don't have to impatiently await doctor's appointments to find out if she really is as fat as I think she is. Fat is cute on a babies though, and I make sure to tell her that after I tell her how fat she is. I don't want her trying to diet or anything. hahaha... I officially packed up her 3 month clothes and moved all of her 3-6 and 6 month sizes into the higher drawers in her dresser. She's also in her size two diapers.
Speaking of diapers. I hate Huggies. Actually, I despise them with every fiber of my motherhood. Emma was in Huggies in the NICU, so we bought a box of newborn size diapers after she came home because we figured they were fine- she didn't have any diaper rash issues in the NICU and they seemed to work just fine. They also weren't too expensive either. It wasn't long before she started peeing right out of them and causing frequent clothing changes, for Emma and whoever happened to be unfortunate enough to be holding her at the time. That got old very quickly. So we switched to Pampers Swaddlers... the gold standard of diapers. Sure, they're more expensive. But my God, they work. Emma has never leaked out of a Swaddlers diaper, and she has had some enormous pee-filled diapers. She doesn't even get close to rashy, because they suck up so much pee that her little bum is still completely dry. I love them, I really do.
So now that we've moved on to her size 2's, it's back to Huggies as we have two boxes of them in her closet. I hoped things would be different now that she's in a bigger size but WRONG. She still pees out of them. She's done it to my mom a few times. Poor grandma. And then yesterday... ugh. I was holding her after I fed her and smelled that all-too-familiar scent of a soiled diaper. Luckily, I had her sitting up in my lap with my hand supporting her upper back. I gave her a few minutes to make sure she was, ahem, done, and then plopped her on her changing pad. I'll spare you the yucky details, but I'll just say this- there was a poo eruption out of the top of her diaper and I didn't realize it until after it smeared up her back and got all over her (super cute) onesie. And this wasn't a monumental sized poo either. Grrrrrrr.
That was the second of her cute onesies that fell victim to being worn by a baby. She has a limited supply of long-sleeved onesies, which has been what I put her in for bed at night along with a SwaddleMe. The other night, most of them were waiting to be washed and I only had a few to choose from- a cute white "mommy's cupcake" one, one with lots of (probably itchy) embroidery on the front, her awesome one with a gold leopard bow printed on the front, and a pink one with ruffles on the front and snaps in the back (pain in the ass at night). I elected the white cupcake one, despite it being one that I wanted to save for her to wear when we go somewhere. But I thought... what's the worst that could happen while she's sleeping? Vomit? That's what OxiClean Free is for! Well, what could happen is this (and I'm sure it's not even the worst that could happen): Emma could rub the scab off of her face that formed after she scratched herself under her eye (THE RIGHT EYE AGAIN!), and then rub the sleeve of her adorable white onesie all in the blood coming from the scratch. Awesome. And then the cute pink ruffled onesie fell victim to the Huggies blowout. I guess Emma is trying to remind me that I shouldn't care so much about her clothes. But, ugh. Baby girl clothes are so stinking cute.
We got a big shipment of Carter's clothes in the mail this week from an online shopping spree I engaged in last weekend. She got a ton of cute outfits that will hopefully last her for a while. I sincerely hope she stops growing at this rate soon, or else she'll be in 12 month sizes in no time. Seriously. It's preposterous. But, without intending to, I picked out two really adorable wintery outfits that are going to be perfect for some Christmas photos. Yay! And we also have a photo shoot scheduled for 11/13 after her doctor's appointment with the fabulous angel-on-earth of a photographer who took her newborn pictures. I seriously can't wait...
In other news, this was my final week of being on-call in my current job, with today being my final day of it. Since on-call rotates between five people, it means I'm usually on-call for a whole week every fifth week. Not that we get many calls, but it's very restricting as I don't like to go out anywhere if I'm on-call. Obviously I don't have an engaging social life right now, but it's nice to feel like I can actually go somewhere without worrying about the phone ringing. I'm much more likely to have calls in my new job, but at least I'll have the phone for shorter periods of time and less often to boot.
Nothing much has really changed otherwise. Although it's amazing to see how things change week-to-week with Emma. She had one week of sleeping all night, and now she's back to having a middle-of-the-night bottle, which is still a big improvement from being up every 2-3 hours on the dot for a bottle or to nurse. That was exhausting. She had also been doing great about a bedtime routine around the same time every night- we were usually able to start her routine anytime between 8:30 and 9pm. Now it's all over the place because her schedule during the day has been erratic. Hopefully she settles into a nice routine soon, for everyone's sake. I experimented a bit tonight and did her routine at 7pm, which is much earlier than normal for her. But she was ready to eat, so I figured it didn't make sense to try to feed her and wait until 10pm, her probable next feed, to put her to bed. So we'll see how long she sleeps before she gets up for another bottle. It could be in 30 minutes, it could be in a few hours.
Her recent big accomplishment has been discovering her feet. She can now willingly kick something with her feet, but it requires an incredible amount of concentration, which is seriously adorable. She stares intently as her little foot slowly kicks whatever is near it. The other night, I put my hand near her feet during her bath and she would kick my hand, then try to curl her toes and feel my fingers as her foot slid down my hand. She was so happy with herself over it. And today, hubby lifted up her feet while she was lying down on the floor and she looked at them and seemingly recognized them, as she kicked her foot straight up in the air and watched it move. They're like brand new toys that are attached to her!
To avoid being yelled at, here are some pictures of the monster baby.
 |
| She always looks so surprised. |
 |
| This playmat will forever amuse her. |
 |
| Mommy and baby! |
 |
| 11-9-12. 4 months old! |
 |
| Glamor Shots. |
 |
| This is what happens when she's been sucking on her pacifier. |
 |
| Showing off her big girl kicking skills! She loves this ball. |
No comments:
Post a Comment