Emma's First Month

It's hard to believe that Emma is already a month old!  She's growing and changing so fast.

One day old

One month old

Emma weighed 9 pounds, 8 ounces (75th percentile) at her 3-week checkup.  Dr. Huitink, our pediatrician, was very pleased with her growth.  We're getting the hang of breastfeeding, although it definitely wasn't easy for the first couple of weeks.

She is sleeping pretty well.  She takes good naps during the day and normally sleeps about 4.5 to 5.5 hours when we put her down for the night.  After the middle of the night feeding, she normally goes back down for another 3 hours or so. She slept through the night for the first time when she was exactly one month old!  She fell asleep at 10:30 p.m. and didn't wake up until almost 6:00 a.m. (7.5 hours)  Unfortunately, she hasn't done it again in the week since then.

She is a very good natured baby.  She only fusses when she's hungry, tired, and when we're trying to put her down for the night.  She's starting to hold her head up by herself pretty well.  She makes lots of faces, but the cutest is when she puckers her lips like she's drinking through a straw.   We've gotten a few grins out of her, but we're still waiting for a real smile.

Other tid-bits:

• We were locked out of house when we brought her home from the hospital.  Carolyn's sister accidentally went back to Ft. Worth with our house keys and our neighbor locked a door that we normally leave unlocked!   The neighbor had to come home from work to give us our spare keys back.
• She had a lump on her upper back right after she was born.  It was about the size of a marble!  We thought it was a cyst, but the doctor said it was just tissue and would go away.  Sure enough, by her 3 week appointment it was gone.
• We thought we would have to get her frenulum (the tissue under the tongue) clipped, but the ENT said it was not severe enough to put her through the procedure.
• Her umbilical cord stump fell off after just 11 days!
• We lost power at the house for several hours when she was one week old.  Her very first outing (besides the doctor's office) was to Dairy Queen for dinner.  Fortunately, the power was back on when we got home!
• We got lots of meals from our wonderful friends from our Sunday School class at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church!
• Daniel had to work the second shift when Emma was 3 weeks old.  Fortunately it was only a four day week because of Labor Day because she was very difficult to put down two of the nights he was gone.
• We started taking her to church when she was almost 3 weeks old.  We only took her to Sunday School the first week and she started to fuss in the middle of it.  Daniel took her outside and got her to fall asleep.  Carolyn missed half of Sunday School the next week for a feeding, but Emma did great during the worship service!
• Other outings:  Walmart, baby shower for a friend from church, Sunday School social/lunch, Just Between Friends consignment sale, Target, Vitek's BBQ, and the post office