One Month Old

Dear Emily,

We cannot believe you are already a month old! Time has passed so quickly since you joined our family.  You have brought so much joy into our home.

I love being your mom and all the precious moments that come with it.  Feeding you in the middle of the night and using your cold toes as an excuse to hold you a little longer than I need to before putting you back in your crib. Watching you sleep peacefully swaddled in a blanket. Playing the piano with you sitting on my lap. Going on walks with you and seeing you look around at the world (today we made it 3.25 miles in the beautiful fall weather).  Having you snuggle up against my shoulder and fall asleep.  Rubbing your very soft hands and feet.

We have so much fun watching you figure out how to use your body. You are becoming much more alert. You are now following us with your eyes and we enjoy helping you practice this trick. You’ve started testing out your voice with little noises in your crib when you think you are alone. Your neck is getting stronger thanks to tummy time (which you still aren’t a huge fan of but you had a few moments of contentment that give us hope) and you love holding it up and looking around the best you can. You are now capable of launching yourself off our laps by shooting your legs into our stomachs.  While you most certainly don’t have control over your arms, they are becoming a more active part of your body which has unfortunately led to a few scratches on your face despite our best efforts to keep your nails filed. You distinctly say, “a-choo” when you sneeze and usually there are 3-4 right in a row. Hiccups are also a regular occurrence throughout the day and resemble the sound of a squeaky toy.  Pacifiers and fingers (ours or yours) are rejected from your mouth with a very disgusted look.

You have a pretty awesome sleep schedule. We put you down between 9-10 and you sleep for about 6 hours followed by another 3 hours. The last few mornings you have been wide awake between 6-7 but then you sleep for another 2 hours. You are strong enough that you’ve begun breaking out of the blankets we swaddle you in, so two days ago we started using the wearable blanket the hospital gave us (that is until there was an accident at the diaper changing station and it now is in the laundry). We can also still put you in your crib when you are wide awake and you will fall asleep – as long as you are tired.  When you are not tired you start calling out to us after about 10 minutes; you make a noise and wait for a few minutes and then try again a little louder.  This is what typically happens between 6-7 in the morning.  You scrunch your body up and turn to the side as part of your stretching routine to wake up – adorable!

At your doctors appointment on Tuesday when you were 4 weeks old you weighed 9lbs 1.3oz and were 21 3/4 inches long. The doctor told us that the red patch we discovered on the back of your head two weeks ago is a “stork bite”, which is basically a red birth mark.

Uncle Derick liked the last picture so much that we figured we would do another one.

I didn’t want to forget the other expressions that you make when you are awake, so here are some of the “bloopers” from this morning.  The blanket you are on is from your Grandma Jackson.  The front side is even prettier.
We love you Emily!

Here is the post when Emily was one week old if you want to see her growth. We were amazed!