From NC to PA...: At home with Emilia: 9 weeks

Emmy is now 9 weeks old! Time is a strange thing - Joe mentioned it seems like we've had her longer than that - I agree in some ways since she already feels like such a part of the family, but it also seems like such a whirlwind and that time is going at warp speed sometimes!

Emilia Caroline: 4 Weeks old

So how is life going? I think it varies between peaceful and chaotic! Let's start with the big one - Sleep! Can everyone stop asking if we're sleeping? Does anyone remember/even know that you're not supposed to be sleeping with a two month old?! I started answering "just like we should be sleeping with a 2 month old!" when people ask now :) The real answer is we're still feeding 2-3hrs around the clock, but I'm definitely starting to see Emmy get more active during the day and we've gotten a handful of longer stretches at night... so it's happening, slowly but surely - we will sleep again one day! I think she even technically "slept through the night" once, which I believe is considered 5hrs straight - which for her was 10pm to 3am ;) We've gotten a few 4hr stretches too. We still mostly have her in our room at night. She's been doing better sleeping in her rock n play, but when i get too tired (usually in the early hours of the morning...) I'll bring her into our bed and let her "feed on demand", which gives me a lot of rest. We did get her to sleep nearly 3hrs in her crib straight the other night, so I think that will be something we'll try more often now too. I'm really taking this whole thing much more casually than last time. I have a longer leave, and she's "probably" my last baby, so I'm soaking up having her near me and I know she'll by sleeping in her own room before we know it.

Sleeping in our bed "frog legged"

Stretttttch it out!

Emmy not sleeping in her crib :)

As far as "routines" - it's still early for that yet. Our days are still pretty variable as I'm letting her lead the way with naps/feedings. Weekday mornings are pretty insane with me usually about to pull my hair out by the time we get everyone loaded up in the car. It would probably be easier if I got up earlier to use Joe for help more and/or prepared everything more the night before, but exhaustion usually wins! I usually drag me/Emmy (who is often times peacefully sleeping!) up out of bed around 7:45/8am, get Nolan (who is usually awake and playing alone in his room), come downstairs, get Nolan set up with milk/breakfast, get myself some breakfast, put on a TV show for Nolan, feed Emmy, try to squeeze in a pump session for my frozen milk storage, get everyone dressed, get Nolan's back pack ready, put anything in my bag if I plan to go somewhere after I drop off Nolan, and get everyone into the car. Often times Emmy wants to be held during this entire process and Nolan gets uncooperative ("one more show", "I don't want to get changed/go to school", etc), which makes everything pretty interesting! Unfortunately, even though Nolan's daycare is super convenient when I'm working, it is not so much while I'm home since it means two 1 hour round trips back and forth to get him each day. Since he is in King of Prussia, which has every store you can possibly imagine, sometimes I build in a shopping trip right after drop off. Other times, I head straight back home and either try to nap while Emmy sleeps or get some things around the house. If I go straight back, I'm usually home by 10am then leave again to pick Nolan up around 3:30/4pm. That time usually flies by so quickly! Joe gets home by 6pm, we eat, and play with Nolan until he goes to sleep around 8/8:30pm. Then I relax a bit with Joe/Emmy, more feeding, pump, and go to bed. I'm trying to get Emmy into some good "eat, play, sleep" cycles, which is the most routine you can hope for at this age. She is naturally getting into longer naps around the times I drive Nolan to/from school, which should transition hopefully well into AM/PM naps.

Other notes:

Emilia still loves to be held. All day. Every day.

Luckily she loves being in the moby wrap (and so do I!)

We've also done the Ergo successfully now!

I weighed her (informally) recently and she is now over 10lbs! We'll get her official weight/percentages at her 2 month appointment next week.
Emmy is great in the car (mostly). It usually makes her fall fast asleep. However, when she's not sleeping, she can cry and cry and CRY!
Emmy cries LOUDLY! Nolan then repeatedly says "Why's the baby crying?" and "She hurts mine ears"
She's getting more aware/interactive. We're getting more fleeting smiles and eye contact. She's enjoying playing in her gym more and making more cooing/non-crying noises.
Blow outs! yep, we've got them ;) The best so far was somehow going out the side of her diaper, through snaps in her sleeper, and directly onto Daddy's shirt/pants!
She's officially moved into her 0-3 size clothes. Managing her clothes/switching her closet has turned into a full time job. I'm determined to not store more baby clothes than we already have so I've been doing the tough job in only keeping a few pieces from both Nolan/Emmy for each size and selling/donating the rest.
Nolan's started into the birthday outings age - he recently went to 2 "outside the house" birthday parties. Turning four seems to be the magical age for this. One was for Cylar at a gymnastics place and one was for Liam at a music place. He was pretty shy at Cylar's party, but came right out of his shell for Liam's!