If you asked us to describe our first month as first-time parents in one word, we might say, awesome! Or exhausting. Or scary. Or flustering, joyous, emotional, and exhilarating...anyways, you get the point. There is so much that has gone on in four short weeks that it's hard to sum it up in just one word. It's been full of ups and downs as we experienced what it's like to have a little baby depend on us 24/7.
Here are some highlights from our adventures:
- Emma had met all of our immediate family in the hospital, save one very important member: our dog, Lizzy. We were a little apprehensive about how Lizzy would react to bring the baby home, even though we had been working on preparing her by caring a cabbage patch doll around our house and putting it in the crib and carrier seat. Well, when we brought Emma home, we left her in the carrier seat on the floor and cautiously let Lizzy check her out. It involved a lot of sniffing, especially of her diaper, and lots of attempts at licking. At first, Lizzy was very interested in every sound or movement the baby made. But we made sure to give her plenty of attention, and she's been really good. Nowadays, Lizzy is back spending most of her day sleeping on the couch and not really caring what Emma's up to unless she's crying extremely loud and interrupting Lizzy's nap time.
 |
| In her "super swaddle" and a hat to keep her warm |
- Our first night home, everyone zonked out, baby included. Our second night home, we weren't so lucky. After feeding, burping, changing, swaddling, and everything else, we just couldn't understand why she was having such a hard time sleeping at home. She'd fall asleep beautifully when snuggled with us, but when putting her in the crib in our room, she'd be up crying within 30 minutes. Finally, it dawned on us...she was cold! It had been really, really warm in our hospital room, and at night at home, we keep the temperature set to 70 degrees (which was not cold enough for my post-partum hormones), so her little swaddle blanket just wasn't enough. So, we made up our own "super swaddle" for her - in which we swaddle her tightly in a normal receiving blanket and then wrap her tightly again in a heavier blanket. Once in her "super swaddle," she's snug as a bug in a rug!
- At six days old, Emma had her first photo shoot. She was such a trooper once we actually got her to fall asleep (which took an hour!). Sheree' with Monkey Doodle Photography did such an awesome job capturing our little one's sweetness. It was fun to have an "activity" we could do as a family in the first few days of her life.
- After the first week, Emma had fallen below her birth weight. So our first full weekend home we were on this crazy schedule feeding her every two hours and alternating between breastfeeding and bottle feeding with formula. It was INSANE and so was the amount of spit up. Ultimately, we decided that her little stomach just couldn't handle feeding her that often and once we eased back on the strict scheduling, we had a much happier baby (and WAY happier parents).
- By the time Lizzy had adjusted to Emma, Lizzy had found a new baby item that she decided she need to take for herself: the pacifier. Apparently, if you stick something in the baby's mouth over and over again, the dog assumes it must be tasty food. Hence, when you're not looking and have left the pacifier unattended on the end table, Lizzy swipes it and proceeds to chew it up. To date, we've lost three pacifiers to the dog.
 |
| Listening hard at her hearing retest |
- We did have to go back to the hospital at week two to have Emma's hearing retested. She failed the two tests in her left ear right after being born. We knew she had hearing capability because on one test, she got up to 90% in the left ear, but you have to get 100% to pass. When they do a hearing test on newborns, they place sensors in three places on their heads and then two hearing pads over their ears that deliver the sound. The baby has to be mostly sleepy because what they do is send sounds at different levels and monitor the brainwaves to see if the baby is reacting to it. We think the first two times, Emma was so sleepy that she fell asleep too deeply and stopped paying attention. Well, third time was the charm indeed because she passed it in less than five minutes! Needless to say, we were very relieved and thankful that our little one's hearing was just fine.
- Both Kevin and I have been shocked at how something so little could make such big messes and noises. Emma literally fulfills the nickname "tooter-rooter" because she's excellent at doing both. Uncle Philip got to be the first person inaugurated with a massive spit up/throw up episode, and mom got hit by episodes #2 and #3. Now, I'm a little gun-shy about burping her. Every time she has a massive or remotely wet sounding belch, I flinch and am checking to see what came with that loud noise. Kevin got the be the first to have to deal with a "poop-xplosion" while rocking her in the chair, and he learned very quickly that even little girls need to stay covered up during a diaper change. Needless to say, we've become expert laundry doers.
All in all, it's been a great time. Watching her grow and change, over the past month has been wonderful, and at the same time, we've been growing as both parents and spouses. Knowing that we've "survived" this first month is encouraging because it's proof that we are doing something right even though we have days when it seems like everything is going wrong. To us though, Emma is such a sweet baby, even if she is a little stinker from time to time.
