41 Weeks Young!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

{I'm sorry I'm so very late with this post -- this is becoming a bad trend, please forgive me!}

This kid.  She is amazingly lovable.  Her smile lights up the entire world.  She's funny, and she knows it!  She's incredibly smart and very driven.  It's pretty hard to believe she's only 9.5 months old given all she's already accomplished, and all the joy she's contributed to the world!

Here's a quick recap of Emily's 41st week:

Daddy joined us for our baby music class!

Emily said "mama" for the first time!!!  In truth, it was simply a repetitive sound she made -- versus actually referring to me by name -- but it was music to my ears nonetheless!

Emily tried "real" (i.e. non-pureed) blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, steamed broccoli, carrots and pancakes for the first time this week!  She took at least one bite of everything, but not much more than that.  As I told Emily though, the important thing is that she tried it!  :)

On the other hand, she finds her toys VERY tasty!

Miss Big Girl also took a couple more steps this week, and went strolling around the apartment holding Daddy's hands.  :)

In tribute to Dr. Seuss' birthday, there was a Dr. Seuss celebration week at daycare!  The kiddies wore special attire (silly sock Tuesday, wear green Wednesday, and crazy hat Thursday), and they read Dr. Seuss books.  Emily LOOOOOOOOOVES looking at books, so I'm sure she enjoyed the week!

The celebration must have really tuckered her out, because when I arrived to pick Emily up on Wednesday afternoon, I found this:

We finally have proof that this little one does in fact sleep at daycare!!!  Hooray!  The only downside is that I had to -- gulp -- wake a sleeping baby to bring her home!  Now THAT is something I never thought I'd do!

33 Weeks Young!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look at me, I'm Thirty THREE {weeks old} !!!

Mommy tries to use her cute little sign with me to commemorate my weekly birthdays, but I keep trying to grab it!  So, she had to get creative and I got mad I couldn't reach it.

Here I am, happy again, because I forgot all about the sign and I love standing up on the couch!!!

This was a big week for me!

• I transitioned out of my newborn tub into a bigger infant ducky tub where I can sit up on my own while I'm bathing!  I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet, but I'm keeping an open mind.  ;)
• On 1/2, I decided to try out my new year's resolution.... I fell asleep at 8pm and slept until 1:40am!  When Daddy couldn't get me back to sleep, Mommy fed me at around 2am and afterward I fell back to sleep and she slept until 8:06am!  Woohoo!!!  A 5:41 stretch followed by a 5:24 stretch -- best sleep in a loooong time!  Mommy & Daddy are considering throwing me a party to celebrate! ;)
• I spent my first few days at daycare, and so far -- knock on wood -- everyone is surviving!
• I tried pureed mangos {bleck!} and also graduated to Stage 2 purees!  My first one was a squash, peas & pears combo, and I loved it {yum}!
• I went grocery shopping with Mommy & Daddy and sat in a cart like a big girl!

• Got my second flu shot, and barely cried!  The nurse had that needle in and out and my band-aid almost on before I even realized it!  I let out a little 1-second groan after I realized what happened, but by the time Mommy picked me up off the table I was fine!  I measured:  18 lbs 7 oz (with clothes & diaper on, 75th percentile), 28.5” long (97th percentile!), and 43.5 cm head circumference (62nd percentile)

Daycare Day #3

After debating whether I should continue with the 5-6 hours per day dropoff schedule after Emily's rough day on Tuesday, I decided to press forward.  I didn't know for sure if I could stomach it, but she's going to have to get used to daycare eventually, so I figured I may as well not send her the incorrect message that if she doesn't like it, it'll go away.  Ahhhhh, if only life were that simple.  ;)

I left Emily at daycare until 3:30 yesterday, which was a total of 6 hours.   She drank a grand total of 5 oz of milk during that time, which was slightly better than the day before.   The teachers said she drinks it eventually, they just have to keep squeezing it into her mouth every so often to remind her to suck it and grab her attention again.

When I walked in to pick her up, one of the teachers was carrying her around.  When Emily saw me appear for pick-up she didn't cry, nor did she smile; she immediately reached for me and did one of her little grunt moans.  I went to kiss her and noticed she had the trace of a tear stream on her cheek.   I asked if she'd been crying and the teacher said she was because she wanted to be held.  I guess it's good news that at least they did pick her up to give her a little extra cuddling.  I know they can't do that with every baby all the time, but I'm hoping that they give her a little extra attention during her first couple weeks.  She normally is very independent and doesn't really ask to be held during the day at home, so I think she's just looking for some extra comfort in the new environment.  If I had to rate it, I'd say Wednesday was slightly better than Tuesday, though not as successful as Monday.

Daycare Day #2

Yesterday was Day #2 at daycare and I went into the day a lot more relaxed after Monday's positive experience.  Shep reported that when he dropped Emily off this morning, she immediately started playing with the toys.  Unfortunately that made it hurt a bit worse when I showed up at daycare to see her sitting in one of the teacher's laps drinking from a bottle (yay!) with what looked like red/teary eyes (boo!).  I stood there for a minute or so watching her, wondering if she had indeed been crying but hopeful that her bottle-drinking was improving.  She finished the bottle and sat up on the teacher's lap, saw me standing there, and immediately started to wimper cry and reach for me.  Which hurt.  A lot.  I could tell right away that she didn't have as happy of a day as she did yesterday, and I felt guilty and stupid for leaving her there for such a large part of the day, totally oblivious to her struggles.  I knew it was a possibility that Day #1 might be easier than the following days due to the novelty and excitement, but I still felt bad that I was at home clueless.

Emily was at daycare for 5.5 hours today, and only drank a grand total of 3.5 oz milk.  Yes, that's better than yesterday!  But definitely not enough considering she hadn't been nursed for almost 2 hours upon arriving to daycare in the morning... so in nearly 8 hours she only consumed less than 4 oz of milk.  No bueno.

Her little daily report said she took 2 x 30 minute naps, which is actually what she's been doing at home these days in the same timeframe.  So while the teacher seemed disappointed in this area, I was neutral.  I was far more concerned with the lack of drinking milk, and obviously the crying.  I feel like they didn't really tell me straight how upset she was during the day or how much she cried (though it's hard to quantify, and obviously subjective).

I asked what happened and they said she started the day fine, but that things sort of went downhill in the afternoon.  The lead teacher said she got woken up from both of her naps from the noise of the room (apparently it was a lot noisier today than yesterday), so I can understand how that might have made her a little bit cranky.  She also got her flu shot Monday afternoon, so that could've definitely contributed to a bad day too (though she seemed fine in the morning before she left).

She was definitely starving and exhausted when we got home.  I fed her and after getting a bit of her excitement energy out to be back home with Mommy, she promptly passed out in my arms.  This daycare stuff is exhausting!

I guess maybe 5.5 hours was too long of a time to leave her there so soon?  But on the other hand, beginning next week she's going to be there for 8 hours per day, and I want her to be ready for that.  Now I'm torn as to what I should do for the next 2 days.... increase the time, or decrease it again.  I want her to be as prepared as possible for next week, but also don't want to make her miserable during our last week at home together.  I think I am going to see how today goes and then take it from there.  Ugh, this mom stuff is hard!  :(

Daycare Dropoff Day #1

Source

Yesterday was Emily's first day being dropped off at daycare.

The way our center works is that once a child is registered, she gets 2 "transition" days before starting full time.  Friday was our first transition day, which meant that Shep and I brought Emily in for a 45 minute visit.  During this time, she got to play with some new toys and meet some new friends while we filled the teachers in on important tidbits about Emily's habits and behaviors and gave them caregiving instructions.  Overall, it was a pretty successful visit, except that we found out the head teacher (and one of the main reasons why we chose this center) was out on vacation until mid-January, and Emily fell and bunked her head on the floor while trying to stand up against one of the jumpers.  :(

Over the weekend I was a wreck about this big change.  What if they didn't watch her closely enough and she fell and hit her head again?  What if she refused to sleep or drink milk at daycare?  We've been unsuccessful at introducing her to a bottle over the past 7 months..... what makes me think that daycare can get this done in a matter of hours?  And sleep.... fuhgettaboutit.  This child despises sleep.  It takes a large part of every day for me to get her to nap for 30-45 minute segments (sometimes taking 20 minutes to get her to fall asleep for each nap!), and I know they don't have that kind of time to spend getting her to nap.  I spent most of Sunday with my stomach in a knot and tears streaming down my face.  My little baby was growing up way too quickly.  To date, I've only spent a grand total of less than 20 hours away from her over her entire life and now she is going to daycare 3 days a week.  Naps and bottles aside, I didn't know how she'd react to being without her Mommy or Daddy in a new environment.

I knew I'd cry if I took her in, which would only upset her; not to mention make me look silly.  So, we decided that Shep would drop her off in the morning, and I'd plan to pick her up 3 hours later.

After all the stressing, it turns out that at least the first day was a lot harder on me than it was on her. Shep called me immediately after dropping her off, and said that she went right to playing with toys and didn't cry at all when he left her.  Well that was a good start!  So I did all I could to distract myself for the 3 hours -- first I got lost in some new mom support forums while I ate some cereal; then I put together a "simple" chili recipe in the crock pot (which took me forever because I both suck at and hate cooking!); and then I treated myself to what was meant to be a super long shower including washing my hair and shaving (gasp!), only to come out and find that what felt like an hour long shower lasted only 15 minutes!  But, the good news is that by the time I blow dried my hair and got dressed, it was time to go pick her up!  The 3 block walk to the center was especially quick; I had a spring in my step due to excitement to go see my little girl!

When I got there I spotted her right away and smiled at her, and she didn't smile back but instead looked a little confused -- perhaps wondering what I was doing there or where I appeared from?  I put out my arms to take her from the day care teacher and for a split second she turned her head away from me to the teacher's shoulder (which she does a lot when I'm holding her and someone else comes over to see her). I guess that means that she was comfortable there, which is a good sign!   But then she quickly smiled and reached for me, and holding her in that minute was the best part of my entire day, and erased all my worries away.  I was just so happy to see her.  Even though the 3 hours went by quickly on the one hand (I didn't get a chance to get the laundry or dishes done that I had hoped to do!), it seemed like forever since I'd held and hugged her.

To my incredible surprise (and Shep's great suspicion), she supposedly even took a 50 minute nap at daycare!  This is actually on the longer side of naps that she takes at home, and I was fully expecting her report to show no naps at all, so it was quite a shock to hear!  The teacher said that she fell asleep in the bouncer/rocking chair (which I can believe since she was up most of the night before and was exhausted for sure) and they transferred her to the crib from there.  She woke up when they laid her down (which is typical for her), so the teacher picked her up and rocked her a little bit in her arms to get her back to sleep.  I don't know how long it took the teacher to get her back to sleep, so she likely didn't sleep that whole 50 minutes, but for the first day it's not bad at all.  My only worry is that the teachers have told me they're not supposed to rock the babies to sleep, so I'm not sure how long they will continue to help her in this way.

They also tried to give her some pumped breast milk, which was very minimally successful. 2.5 oz were missing from the bottle I'd sent, but some of that was on the shirt they changed her out of and sent home with me, so I'm not sure exactly how much she actually drank.   The teacher guesstimated 1-2 oz.  First they tried a bottle, which she wouldn't take. Then the teacher tried spoon-feeding her a little bit.  And then finally they used the sippy cup.  This is the area I'm now most concerned about. Today I am going to leave her there for 4-5 hours, and hopefully that will get her hungry enough to use the bottle or sippy cup.  Unfortunately, my office is too far away for me to go to nurse her during lunch so I really hope she learns the sippy cup or bottle in the next 3 days or I'm going to be a mess next week when I go back to work and have to leave her there for 8 hours without eating.   :(  There are still a few more days this week for those daycare baby whisperers to work their bottle-feeding magic, so I'm not giving up hope just yet.  I will be crossing my fingers and holding my breath that she learns to drink.

In the meanwhile, I'm just so relieved that her first day went as smoothly as it did!  I snapped this photo of Emily on the walk home.  A picture is worth 1000 words, and it looks to me like she had a pretty good first day!