Four month check up

Emmy had her four month check up today. She is 9 lbs 13.2 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. She's in the 5th percentile now for height and weight which means she is ON the growth chart! WOOHOO! Her head is 10th percentile, so she's got a big noggin! Dr. J was very pleased with how she's holding her head up, following faces and objects, laughing, etc. All things a four month old should be doing, so she's ahead of her adjusted age. She had her 4 month shots and she only cried for a second and was then fine until a couple of hours later when it was obvious things took effect and she became pretty grumpy and fussy. She wanted to be happy, she'd stop and smile or giggle at you, but then she'd fuss some more. Poor baby! I left choir early so I could go ahead and bring her home and she's sleeping soundly. I'm sure tomorrow she'll be her old self again.

And then she threw up

Isn't she cute? I know, I'm biased. I took this earlier today after we came home from church and lunch. I knew a nap was in order for all three of us, so I changed her out of her church dress and put her in comfy clothes...the t-shirt was a gift from Granddaddy and DiDi after their trip to Seattle this summer and the cute shorties were knitted by Lizzie and we inherited them after Timothy outgrew them. They are wool so she just wears them over her diaper. I realized she'll be outgrowing them, too, before we know it, so I grabbed the camera because she was happy and smiling at the fan. And about 2 seconds after I took this photo, she barfed and I had to change her shirt. Oh Emmy.

Fans, oh how Emmy does love fans. She smiles at them and laughs at them. She's been rather fond of lights for a while, but fans are a more recent attraction. She also adores the painting we have over the sofa in the living room that our friend Jocelyn painted for us when we moved in the house. She would stare at it for a long time and now she smiles at it. Too cute.

Charles noted today as we drove up Walton Way after lunch that we had not come that way in a while and that was odd for us! I realize this means nothing to most of you, but this is the route we took to and from the hospital all those months. First, I was driving that way for doctor's appointments twice a week, then Charles was driving that way two or three times a day when I was in the hospital, then one or both of us was back and forth at least twice a day while Emmy was still in the special care nursery. And now here she is, such a big girl!

When we go out people who do not know us will comment on her and ask how old she is and we say "four months" or whatever. Inevitably they then say something to the effect of "oh, she's so tiny I thought she was a month old," etc. etc. But to us, she's huge! And, of course friends and church family who saw her earlier in the summer will see her and comment on how much she's grown! Charles says that she has worked hard for every ounce, every fat roll. He told her yesterday she no longer has calves, she has cows. Haha.

We don't know exactly how big she is. I know you all LOVE statistics and as soon as I find out how much she weighs and how long she is at her next doctor's appointment later this week, I promise to update you. I'm guessing 9 lbs 8 oz and 21 1/2 inches. It's hilarious that I know people how have given birth to babies bigger than that.

P.S. I hope you all enjoyed her awards tonight...she must have decided she needed to stay up and watch the Emmy Awards because for a change getting her down took forever!

Back from the beach and a wedding

We're back from a short trip to the beach. My cousin, Michael, was married this past Saturday in his hometown of Ocean Isle. I convinced my parents to rent a beach house for a few days instead of hotel rooms, so Charles, Emmy and I packed up and headed to the Wendy Gayle on Wednesday. We've stayed with them many times, but we've never actually stayed on the beach there. What a treat!

Emmy did okay on the trip, but four hours in the car is certainly a lot harder than 2.5. She does NOT like to be in her car seat that long and we had to stop a couple of times to let her eat and be changed and there was still a good bit of fussing. She did sleep, too, though, thankfully. Definitely not a trip I would want to make on a regular basis, though!

We had Wednesday and much of Thursday to ourselves. We went by my aunt's house on Wednesday evening before dinner and saw her and my cousin Lauren. We grabbed a quick dinner and hit the store before heading home. We got Emmy ready for bed, then swaddled her up and went for a walk on the beach. Fabulous! Thursday Emmy and I took lots of naps (a two hour nap in the morning for both of us, a four hour nap for her in the afternoon and about another two hour nap for me...guess who is still catching up from sleep deprivation?) and my uncle and Michael and my other cousin, Garrison, came by to meet Emmy. We spent a couple of hours on the beach late morning. Emmy loves being outside! She ate, took a nap, and played under the umbrella. We dipped her feet in the ocean, and I can't wait to really get to spend time playing in the sand with her next summer!

It was really nice having the house, especially with an infant. We had access to the kitchen for making and storing bottles, plus when we put her down at night we could stay up in the living room and not worry about waking her up. I'm so glad we had the house!

Thursday evening my parents arrived with my grandmother, so all of us met up for dinner. Mmm...seafood!

Friday was a cooler day and we walked on the beach, but didn't really go down to sit or play in the water. By the time we had folks stopping by, then we had lunch and went to see my cousin's new house, it was about time to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday was the perfect beach day, so it made for a great wedding day! Unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time at the beach besides a couple of quick walks. With the wedding at 2:00 pm by the time we'd have gotten down to the beach, it would have been time to come back up. So, we took walks, went to breakfast and my sister arrived mid morning for the festivities. Yay! The wedding was nice and the bride, my new cousin-in-law Crystal, and her family put a lot of work into the reception. I'm sure they were all exhausted by Saturday night!

Thankfully, Emmy slept right through the service. I nursed her right before the ceremony started, and she just did great. By the time the reception started she was awake and happy. I couldn't ask for more!

After the wedding we all went back to our house to get comfy, and then the family started arriving to check out the house and hang out. Beer was brought out and everyone sat on the deck and talked and had a good time. But, by 7:30 or so Emmy was turning into a pumpkin. I thought a cat nap was in order, but that was short lived. Charles gave her a bath, and it was like the light switch flipped and she knew it was her bedtime routine. I fed her, put her down, and she was out before 9. Ahhh. The family was gone by then and we ordered dinner from this fabulous takeout and delivery place we found. Delish! Seriously, one of the best meals I'd had in a while...delivered to our door!

Sunday the six of us had breakfast with Aunt Priscilla, Uncle W.C. and Grandma before parting ways. Mom and Dad took Grandma back home, Mer headed for her house, and we went to feed Emmy at Aunt P's one more time before we hit the road. Oh, and to fill the car up with washer fluid, thanks Uncle W.C.! We had to make one stop in Florence, then in Columbia we went to see our friends Libby and Tony. They just bought a new house, so we had to check it out! We had an early dinner with them and it was great to catch up. I thought Emmy would be fine getting back in her car seat after a couple of hours out, however she was just DONE. We stopped like 10 minutes from the restaurant to change her and feed her to see if that helped, but no. She just wailed for quite awhile until we stopped again and I nursed her. That got her to sleep and she was at least more peaceful the last 30 miles home. Whew.

Needless to say, we were glad to be home and glad to see Rags, who hung out with Mary Ann and Joel and Lucy-dog and Stuart-cat while we were away. She took a 5 mile walk along the canal on Saturday with them and even put her paws in the Savannah!

Today Charles went back to work. It was SO great having him around the last week and a half. We need to be independently wealthy so he can spend more time at home like this. Ha!

Four Months old!

Emmy is four months old today! Our sweet baby is getting so big.

We have pulled out most of her newborn sized clothes to pack them away with the preemie sizes she'd already outgrown. I took this photo as I was cleaning out her drawers. I realized I never took a picture of her in this cute hat her Aunt Beth and Uncle Griffin gave her. Clearly, she's not happy about out growing such cute clothes, but on to bigger sizes!


We had a lovely visit to Greenville Saturday-Monday. We celebrated Big Daddy's birthday, Will's baptism, and cousin Joanna's birthday. Unfortunately we didn't get to celebrate Joanna and Justin's ENGAGEMENT because the big proposal took place just after we all had dinner. But we will see them soon and we are so excited for them. Emmy's just excited to get to wear a party dress. And to eat cake.

Emmy met Mrs. Macauley, one of my childhood best friend's Mom, and finally met Uncle Chase. She spent time with Aunt Mer, who drove down with Chase, of course Big Daddy and Su-Su, and Cathy and Rafal. What a weekend! Charles and I often feel like we need another day to recover every time we come home.

This weekend she will attend another family wedding, so more tales coming soon.

A long overdue update on the happy, smiling baby

Hello all,

I know I haven't posted in a while! After we returned from Greenville, there hasn't been a whole lot going on around here, just taking things one day at a time! This past weekend Charles' parents came for another quick visit and we had a nice time with them. Richard took TONS of pictures, of course, and we downloaded them before he left so I have added those to the August web album and will shortly upload a few more of my own that I have taken in the last week.

Let's see...Emmy and I came home Thursday before last after stopping in Spartanburg on Wednesday to see some friends/former colleagues (here she is below with baby Stella!) and Anderson on Thursday to see Grandma (see all four generations at left!). We had a good time away, but we were glad to be home and Charles was of course glad to have all of us home again. That Friday night Emmy had her first non-family baby-sitter come over to take care of her while we went to our friend Jim's retirement party. We had a great time and were reminded of how much we love our Augusta friends with all the antics. Emmy did great and Celia even agreed to come again. :) The rest of the weekend passed pretty uneventfully as well. Charles helped our friend Joel put up a fan in their new house. It took them 4 hours. They said it was because of the giant hole in the ceiling under the exisiting light fixture. I think the beers they were drinking might have slowed things down. Ha! While the boys were "working" Mary Ann and Emmy and I went to Ms. Peggy's 75th birthday party. Except, oh wait, the party was Sunday. So we got all the way out to Hephzibah just as Pam and Steph were getting ready to take her to get her hair done for the party the next day. So we headed home, only to get caught in major traffic because of a wreck or construction, we were never sure, with Emmy screaming in the back. As Mary Ann said, we spent an hour and 45 minutes NOT going to a party. So, we returned Sunday, this time with Charles, to celebrate with them.

Last Wednesday some of the wives in Charles' unit threw me (and Emmy) a little shower. It was lots of fun to be out and we were also celebrating the upcoming birth of one of the other girl's baby boy. It was a nice evening and the diaper cakes that our hostess made as centerpieces were fabulous! I forgot to take any pictures at the shower, but I did take a couple of photos of the cake when I brought it home. Isn't it fabulous? She said she knew I was using cloth, but of course that would have been a bit more expensive so she used disposables. I'm sure I can find someone who needs them!

We kept the weekend low key with Granddaddy and DiDi in town. They got here Saturday evening just in time to head to dinner. Then we played hooky Sunday from church (the choir traveled to Louisville to sing with another choir for a big concert and we opted out since Charles couldn't take off work and I was pretty sure that 8-10 hours in a bus with Emmy wouldn't have been much fun for anyone). We had a leisurely breakfast and dinner and then they headed home late afternoon.

Emmy has been sleeping really well at night, on average 7-10 hours. Ocassionally she will wake up earlier or have a "bad" night where she's up a good bit, but those are rare for now. She is not napping very well during the day, though, unless I hold her or lay down on the bed with her. It's a big challenge to get her to nap in her crib, but I'm not complaining as long as she keeps sleeping well at night. And lately day napping has been better.

She's really "talking" and smiling a lot and she's better at entertaining herself for longer stretches in her bouncy, swing, or just hanging out on the sofa or floor. This weekend we put her in high chair for the first time while we were eating and she loved it! Richard took tons of cute photos of her in it, like the one here.

Emmy also LOVES her changing table. Seriously, about the only time she's unhappy there is first thing in the morning if you change her before you feed her. The girl needs her food. When you put her down and start to take her diaper off, she starts kicking those legs. She'll babble and wiggle around. When we take all her clothes off before bath time, she really gets going. We call it the "naked baby dance," and it is hilarious.

She's also started "talking" to her food sometimes. It's like she's so excited to eat, just just has to say so. It's pretty funny, but obviously an event pretty much reserved for my enjoyment. I'd imagine she's thinking, as one of my favorite bloggers interprets it, "shut up, another buffet?"

Her eyes have become very blue, as you can see, and I expect at this point they're probably going to stay that way, which is exciting. She's getting these amazingly long and thick eyelashes, which she'll thank her Daddy for later. I'm a little jealous, I must admit. Her hair is growing in a bit darker, but still pretty blonde. A friend said she looks like a little doll, and I guess she does!

Anyways, the smiles and laughs are lots of fun and we're enjoying it all!

Hanging out

We're hanging out in G'vegas for a few days. One of my longtime friends was married yesterday (congrats Tresca and Robert!) and so we came up Friday and attended the lovely wedding yesterday. Then Charles had to hit the road and head home to re-pack and then leave early this morning for a conference in Florida. Right into the fun tropical storms heading that way. I hope he took his rain jacket.

I decided that I'd stay and hang out and let Mom help with Emmy for a few days. Maybe I'll make a dent in thank you nhttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1189669567638578517&postID=1636815581441787697otes or addressing birth announcements.

Emmy's not too happy with having her photo taken here and I'm looking rather goofy, but it is fun having her photo (our little future Wofford grad) with Dr. Owings, a longtime member of my home church and Wofford's oldest living graduate. He just turned 102 last month. Dr. Owings' daughter and son-in-law are two of my parents dearest friends. Mom forgot her camera yesterday when they went over for a visit, so we took a photo today at church.

I added some of Mom's photos from our last trip into the "Emmy's first trip to Greenville" album, and a couple of photos into August's. I will later add a few more photos off of my camera, which sadly do not include any wedding photos since my camera battery is dead and I cannot find the blasted battery charger. Fortunately it worked long enough to get a photo with Cindy and Emmy yesterday at lunch. We had a good time catching up with Cindy and Kyle! Also, fortunately, my dear cousin Joanna has the same camera so I can charge my battery tomorrow.

Three Months

Happy Three Month Birthday, Emmy!

She is smiling and talking to us a lot now. She loves baths and she's usually very happy when we put her on the changing table. We think she might be an exhibitionist because the child likes having no clothes on, at least for short periods of time. She's sleeping well...often 7 or 8 hours a night the last couple of weeks, and we'll take it when we can get it! Naps during the day are often hit or miss, and we need to work on getting more into a routine.

Emmy loves to nurse and the last couple of days she's been rejecting the bottle more and more, which is not good since I'm not producing enough for her so she'd just nurse all day if I'd let her and she needs to take the supplement. That's a bit frustrating, but it does keep me going!t. She is now waking up and fussing more when we take her out to eat or during church, but we can't complain. She's still such a good baby! She likes noise and I think we need a recording of a loud cocktail party to play in her room at night!

She stayed in the nursery for the first time when I returned to choir on Wednesday night. She did fine, but it was a bit of an abnormal night since some of us from the choir were rotating through taking care of all the kids because the regular nursery workers weren't there this week. However, tomorrow during church she'll get to meet them! There are two, sometimes three, other babies in the nursery so I'm sure the three or four of them, plus the older kids, will keep everyone on their toes!

We weighed her on our scale while Charles was holding her last night and we think she's about 8 lbs now! Yay! Soon she'll be triple her birth weight. It's delightful watching her grow and change!