xMas pt II

In this episode we play some games and take some pics. Hooray!

Mr. Social

Emmett is now a social butterfly. He prefers to talk, coo, play, and smile over sleep. And I do love it when he does all of those things but the boy needs his sleep (along with mommy!). He's throwing smiles are over the place now. He is also losing his hair. We need Rogain for babies!

During bath time he has this look on his face like, "Whoa, what the heck is going on here?"
But the good thing is that he enjoys bath time and doesn't cry.

Because he so aware of his surroundings it's harder to get him to sleep. He gets over stimulated and if he hears anything he looks around to see what it is. So I have resorted to putting him in "time out". I put him in the carseat and a blanket over him so he can rest.

He puts up a fuss for about a minute...but then he passes out. A momma has got to do what she's got to do.

xMas pt I

It's beginning to look a lot like the first in a three-part series (if I can find time to cut the other two viddies)… 

Walking with Gong Gong in Irvine

We had a nice walk yesterday in Irvine with Gong Gong. Now it's raining :(—good thing we got out yesterday!

Happy Holidays!

Ben and I along with baby in tow are heading to Southern California to visit my family. I am very excited to spend time with my family and introduce Emmett to those who have not met him yet. But I have to say, I am not so excited about the process of getting down there. We gotta pack up a whole bunch of crap (excuse the language but it is approriate) and drive down. I'm guessing it will take us 8-10 hours to get down there. The though of 8-10 hours in a car with Emmett makes me really, really scared. But you gotta do what ya gotta do.

Happy holidays everyone! From Mr. Emmett dressed up as Santa.

How you doin'?

Being Santa really wears him out!

Tummy Time!

Also known as "torture time". Emmett can handle about a minute of tummy time before he gets tired. It was recommended by our pediatrician to have some tummy time after a diaper change. And we always do what the Dr. tells us. Even if it does torture our child.

Here go with Round One: He lasted about 30 seconds.

Boy! I am exhausted!

Okay. I'm done. I want to eat now.

Round Two: He did better. He was able to withstand tummy time for a minute!

Umm. Excuse me. How long do I have to do this for?

I heart Trixie Tracker

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before - but I love pushing buttons, tracking things and collecting data. So when I discovered the website called Trixie Tracker....I was in love. This website tracks how well baby is doing in terms of sleeping, eating and pooping. After all, that's what babies do best!

So I started tracking Emmett last week. I recorded the times he was awake and the times he would be sleeping and the website gave me a visual graph along with sleep averages to give me an idea on how Emmett was doing. This thing is so cool. It even gives you the probablity of whether he would be alseep during a certain time of the day.

It's blurry cause I had to take a picture of this from the computer and then blow it up.
But you get the idea.

So according to the website: Emmett sleeps on average of 14 hours and 2 minutes a day. This is pretty good cause most 10 week old babies sleep an average of 13 hours and 30 minutes. He is away 9 hours and 57 minutes per day. We change about 8 diapers within 24 hours.

The nice thing also is that Ben can login and check on Emmett while he is at work. That way he knows if he can call me (he checks to see if the baby is up or not) and just more connected on how Emmett is doing.

Here is his diaper graph:

The blue lines represent a wet diaper and the brown lines are poopy diapers. He's obviously all over the place but he pretty much gets his diaper changed at 12pm-1pm everyday. This is a great tool to have cause next time when Emmett's Dr. asks about his diapers I will actually be able to show her how he's doing in terms of sleep, eating and pooping!

Holiday fun!

Enjoy!

Bad Mommy

I was a bad mommy today. All because I wanted to take the perfect picture for this blog. So I really blame the blog for this event. Well, I blame the blog and I blame it on this.

What the heck is that? It's a pillow. I blame the pillow. It all started with my new toy that I LOVE. It's called "My Breast Friend" pictured above. And it truly is my new friend. It's a breast feeding pillow that I bought yesterday. I have been using a pillow called the boppy for a while and it just never felt right. Emmett would never be positioned correctly to feed and this would cause my boobs to hurt. It got to the point where I wanted to give up breast feeding! But then I found this.


So I have been using it since last night and I love it! Emmett loves it too. So much that after a feeding he passes out on it. And it's pretty hard to feed a baby when he looks like this.


I thought it was kind of cute how he totally passed out before he finished eating. So I reached for the camera and took some pictures. Of course I wanted the perfect picture so I took a few with different angles.
At one point I leaned over to try and get his arm in the picture when he ROLLED off the pillow. It happened so fast and yet it felt like it was slow motion. I tried to catch him but he just slid right off. Thankfully I was sitting on the floor and didn't have far to fall. The crazy part is that he landed with a soft thud and stayed asleep! He didn't even make a sound.


He looked so happy and content on the floor that I didn't want to move him. But babies are suppose to sleep on their backs. Darn it!! Should I risk waking him up and move him? Or should I sit there and stare at him to make sure he's okay?

I decided to move him cause I didn't know how long he was going to sleep and I didn't want to just sit there and stare at him. So I moved him to the carseat (his new napping spot).

I learned my lesson for sure. Pictures must be taken with one hand on the baby.

2 Months!

Emmett is now 2 months old. I can't believe it. He had his 2 month check up and he did great!
He is now the average baby. Even though he was 4 weeks early he appears to have caught up and pretty much where he should be in terms of height, weight and head circumference.

He is now 10 weeks old.
Weight: 11 lbs. 8 oz. He has gained 2 lbs. and 7 oz. from his last visit.
Height: 23 inches
And he fits in the 50th percentile for both.

He also smiled!!! At first it was totally random but now he's making eye contact, coos and has these little grins which makes him even more adorable. I'm trying to get a smile on film but he's a tricky one.

Emmett Burrito with some spicy salsa

Ben reading a story to Emmett

He likes to hold my hand while feeding

Uncle Brian with Emmett

we had a fun day!

Baby Gifts

The other handy gift is this wrap thing called A Moby Wrap. My friend Nicole gave this to me and said her little one (Hi Gigi!) loved it and though Emmett might like it also. Well, Emmett loves it along with his mom. This wrap is pretty versatile and allows me to do things around the house with Emmett in tote. I have both hands free which really helps when you want to eat. The bonus is that I can hold Emmett without hurting my back.
At first it looks complicated to use and I was a little intimidated by it. I put Emmett in it and he fussed - probably cause I was squishing him in some way. So I tried again a week later and he fell right asleep. Anything that helps him sleep I love.

Awesome Baby Gifts

A friend asked me the other day what gifts that I have received so far that have been useful. I would have to say all the gifts Emmett received have been great. He has enough clothes and books to last him for years. And of course there are the gifts that are obviously useful like a stroller, car seat, bottles and so on. But I would have to say there have been a few fun and surprising gifts that we received that I absolutely love.

First up is the Itzbeen - This cool little gadget really helps the sleep deprived parent. It helps you keep track of diaper changes, feedings, sleep. So when the baby is crying - you can take a look on the itzbeen and it gives you a good idea what baby needs - a diaper change, a bottle or maybe he's just being fussy! Uncle Brian gave us this nifty gadget and I would have to say it's pretty darn useful. It's a bonus for those who like to push buttons and track things (like me!).


I have other gifts that I want to share so stay tuned!

Desparate For Sleep

You know when you get pregnant and you tell people - you usually get two reactions.

Reaction A:
"Yeah!! That's great news" and excitement and chatter ensues. They ask about your due date and how you are feeling and if we know the babies gender and so on....

Reaction B:
(Smirk) "You better get all the sleep you can now."

Reaction A is usually from the folks who don't have children yet. Reaction B come from the people who KNOW that your life will be turned UPSIDE DOWN for weeks and weeks and that you can kiss your nights of sleep away. I had a lot of people tell me this - "Get your sleep while you can" and while I listened...I did not truly BELIEVE. Well. I believe it now.

For the first 3-4 weeks, Emmett would feed every 1.5 hours to 2 hours which means he would sleep only for 2 hours at a time. Now that he's a little older and bigger he's able to stretch it to 2.5 hours to 3 hours. The sad thing is that I CELEBRATE when I get 3 hours. It's amazing how priorities change. I used to get 8 hours a sleep every night with a nap!

And when you are sleep deprived you become desperate. And when you become desperate you are willing to try anything and everything to get that extra hour of sleep. I am all about throwing money at the problem and see if it helps. And just so you know - it's not helping.

I started to track his sleeping to see if he had any sort of pattern. Sleep training usually begins around 8 weeks according to my book about sleep called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.


So I tracked his sleep over 14 days. All of the white squares are when he's awake. As you can see, there is really no pattern. His sleep is all over the place really. But there are some general ideas going on. He usually sleeps around 10pm and goes until 1am or so and has a feeding. Then he sleeps again until 4am and wakes up at 6am. When 6am comes around he has what I call the "Happy Farting Hour". The name is a bit misleading cause he isn't happy at all. He's super fussy cause he is so so gassy. Either Ben or I put him on his tummy and he let's it rip like nobody's business. It's quite the feast for the ears. When this is over he goes back to sleep.

He usually takes 2-3 naps during the day lasting anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours. But then 6pm hits and he is FUSSY FUSSY FUSSY. He looks like this.


After what feels like FOREVER - he falls asleep and we start the pattern once again.

Sleep Grins Part II

So I mentioned before that Emmett is being stingy with his smiles - he only smiles when he's falling asleep. Since he is holding out on me I decided that I would need to be his baby stalker and watch his every move so I can get as many sleep grins as possible. So I watch him sleep. And it totally worked! I caught it on tape!

Sleep Grins

So according to all of the baby books I read - Emmett should smile ANY day now. Starting at 6 weeks they are a little more social and aware of their surroundings. But I still haven't seen anything yet. Ben says he smiled at him yesterday while he was counting to him (in Chinese) but I have my doubts (sshhhh. Don't tell him). Anyway, in my mind ONE smile doesn't count. It has to be consistent smiling. So whenever E. is awake I talk to him, play games, sing songs, tickle him hoping he will crack a smile. But he's giving me nothing. Nada. Zip.

All I get now are sleep grins. This is when the baby smiles in his sleep. He doesn't KNOW he's smiling. Basically his face is twitching while he is falling asleep and to us it looks like a smile. I'll take what I can get now. I managed to catch one of those fleeting twitches the other day.

Notice his eyes are not fully open. But it's still a cute smile, right?!

Daddy Care

So before Emmett joined us in this lovely world Ben took a "How to care for a Newborn" class. Let me tell ya- it has paid off for sure. Ben is in charge of changing diapers, burping and grooming Emmett's fingernails.

Here you see Ben ready to dive in and change a most likely poopy diaper. Life is like changing a babies diaper. You never know what you are going to get.

Baby fingernails grow really fast! Emmett likes to use his nails to scratch the heck out of his face (and sometimes my boob). Well, he probably doesn't LIKE to do it. He just has no muscle control. This is how Ben "cuts" Emmett's fingernails. He bites them. We read somewhere that you can use those tiny nail clippers (which are totally useless) or just bite the nails off. Aunt Sherry tried to use the nail clippers and gave Emmett his first cut.

Ben reading Richard Scary to Emmett. If I wrote children's books I would not want my name to have the word "scary" in it. Just sayin'.

What do you think Emmett is thinking about here?

One Month Check Up

We made a trip to the Dr.'s today for Emmett's one month check up. He did a great job! Ben and I were wondering if he had some baby acid reflux going on but it turns out the spitting up, grunting and arching of the back is normal. Who knew?

Here are his stats!
Weight: 9lbs. 1 oz (from 6lbs. 4 oz.) He gained close to 3 lbs. - 25th percentile
Height: 22 inches (from 19.5 inches) - 75th percentile

Check out his chubby neck! I find all sorts of interesting stuff in those folds. Lint is the most common thing but I did find some bread crumbs. I guess I should stop eating toast while holding him.

He also got a shot today :( He did not like that but he was a trooper. I guess the visit to the dr. wore him out cause he slept for most of the day.

Which means he's gonna be up all night. Oh joy.

Mr. Photogenic

Mr. Emmett had the chance to be the star of his own photo shoot a few weeks ago. Our neighbors are professional wedding photographers but would also like to get into portrait photography. So they offered to take some photos of Emmett while he was still an itty bitty thing.

The photo shoot took a lot longer than I thought it would. It takes a lot of time to stage everything and I had to feed Emmett so he would sleep. The other issue we came across was his need to pee on everything. Naked pictures are the best but it ain't pretty behind the scenes. We were very thankful he did not poop. At one point Ben was worried about Emmett getting cold being nakey butt and all so I stood there with a blow dryer over him to keep him warm. Now that is super star status for sure. Emmett had his very own personal assistant keeping him warm. Let's hope this doesn't spoil him.

Alright - no more talking. You want to see the pictures already

Notice how his foot is strategically hiding his "goods".

Sporting Auntie Sherry's hat she made for him

Another hat Aunt Sherry made - Grandma Trudy loves this hat!

I wish he was delivered to me this way. In a basket with a nice blanket on the couch.

Ben holding Mr. E. This is when Emmett decided to pee on daddy.

Don't mind my cleavage here. That was totally staged. I think this is one of the few shots that Emmett is looking at the camera. It's a miracle they got this cause he kept wanting to eat while we were laying there.

And one of my favorites.

Our neighbors are still looking to build their portfolio with newborn portraits so if you happen to be pregnant or know someone who is and due in the next few months let me know! I'll send their info along to my neighbors.