Emery Tracker: Month One

Author's Note:  The post you are about to read is very honest.  Not because I don't love my precious baby.  I do.  More than words.  I would take a bullet for her without thinking.  I would empty my entire bank account to make her happy.  I literally would do anything for her.  It's honest for a couple of important reasons.  First, I think that generally we have a habit of speaking only about the positives in child-rearing and never talking about some of the tough times.  This leads anyone going through a tough time to feel like they're alone.  Or crazy.  Or both.  Well, it's not all unicorns and rainbows in the Martin residence- and that's okay.  So hopefully if you are raising your own strong-willed infant this will bring a smile to your tired face.  Rest assured knowing that not all infants are the constantly cooing, smiling, content ones you see on TV.  Second, I want to remember these times for when we have our next little bundle.  That way when I am up late on mile 5 of 15 in laps around our first floor thinking to myself, "Was it really like this before?!" I will have proof positive that it INDEED was.  Lastly, I feel comfortable being honest about this because I know that we will all get through it.  And we will laugh.  Even more than we do now, if possible.  With all that out of the way, let's talk about my beloved angel.

The Story:
It's hard for me to believe that our sweet little lady bug is already one month old!  Okay, so maybe she's really nearly a month and a half at this point, but you know what I mean.  From here on out I am going to make some solid attempts at doing this timely.  No promises because as I have learned in the last 6 weeks- Mama isn't in charge anymore.

I'm way too cute to cause anyone any trouble, right?

Since you are already up to date on the birth/hospital stay, let's start from the beginning of life at home, shall we?  On Monday March 11th we took Emery in to her first pediatrician visit.  As I previously alluded to, this wasn't exactly the happy visit most parents pen in their baby books.  If you'll recall, sweet pea weighed 8 lbs at birth and we left the hospital at 7 lbs 7 oz.  Just 3 short days later she had dropped down to 7 lbs.  Mama got a tongue lashing from the doctor for not taking care of herself and the pediatrician ordered formula feeding from either Grandma or Daddy every other feeding. Between the lack of sleep, the raging horomones and the overwhelming guilt I felt for not providing appropriately for the tiny creature I already loved more than life itself - I started crying.  As many of you probably know, I'm not much for public crying as an adult.  Apparently I had been saving it all up for this exact moment because I really lost it in the pediatrician's office.  Shining parenthood moment #1.

How on earth could Mama ever cry when she has this cutie pie to come home to?

How did we get to this point?  Oh, let me recount THAT for you.  It should be noted that my stubborn child knows all the mechanics of eating.  She demonstrated that in the hospital.  However, in keeping with both my pregnancy and the delivery, she made it known that she does things on her time.  Literally every single feeding she would scream for somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 30 minutes, shake her head, kick her feet, bat her arms and then spontaneously out of nowhere decide to go ahead and do what she was supposed to do.  This is on both sides.  Did you think that when you moved from one side to the other she'd remember what she was JUST doing?  If so, you were wrong.  If it weren't so frustrating at the time it would have been hilarious.  This behavior persisted for the first two weeks of her life.  I tried everything to get her to nurse properly.  I finally learned at the beginning of week 3 if I got her naked before feeding her, she would eat the way she is supposed to.  I pray this is not foreshadowing of any type.  If so, there's no way her father doesn't have a heart attack by the time she reaches 14 years of age.  Since we learned this trick, she has been eating like it's her job ever since.  After our weigh-ins during weeks two (7 lbs & 10 oz)  and three (8 lbs & 2.5 oz), the pediatrician decided we were back on track and doesn't make us come in every week anymore.  HALL.E.LUJAH. Parenting challenge #s 1 and 2: owned.

Who doesn't love a cute baby butt?

It's a good thing that we completed those challenges when we did because it happened just in time for challenge #3.  At about two weeks, the tooth fairy's much b***hier third cousin, the colic fairy, came and took my sweet, sleepy (when not eating) baby and replaced her with a really, really fussy one.  It started out slowly.  Each night sometime between 8 and 11 pm, Emery would start screaming, and I do mean screaming, until somewhere between 12 and 4 am.  If you are thinking to yourself, there's no way an infant can scream that long- our door is ALWAYS open.  You are welcome to come investigate our honesty yourself any night of the week.  It baffles me too.  When I think to myself that this is longer than it took me, a full grown adult, to run a marathon, I am just beside myself.  Maybe we have an opera singer on our hands?  Maybe an auctioneer?  She certainly has the lung capacity.  Over time the "colic period" has gradually extended itself to kind of an all-day thing.  Whataburger, and colic periods with Emery, are available to you 24 hours a day.  Sweet girl sure knows what she wants.  It would be cool if she'd let the rest of us in on it.  I would like to say we have conquered this challenge but I'd be lying to you.  Per my in depth online readings hopefully I'll be able to say we have closed the book on colic in the third month.  Stop laughing, Ryan.

Brief glimpse of scowling face.  Probably because my shoe is falling off and Mama says that genetically I should love shoes.

The last, but not least, challenge we have faced in month one is probably the most difficult.  Our dear princess won't be put down.  Like ever.  I know what you're thinking- can't you just get her asleep and then toss her in a swing?  Um.  No.  She will wake up sometime between immediately and an hour later.  Ninety percent of the time it's much closer to "immediately."  Also, "wake up," in this case is synonymous with "scream my head off."  What about the bouncer?  Uh- same story.  Except we have yet to get her to remain content in there for longer than 15 minutes.  The car seat has the greatest success rate, but the record to date still remains 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The moral of this story is that I haven't slept in a bed since March 5th basically.  Ryan and I sleep on the couch in the living room with her on top of us.  Don't worry though- we continue to try putting her down each evening.  I pray that one day we strike gold because it's going to be really awkward when she's 18 and still sleeping cuddled up with us on the couch.  Stay tuned- maybe by her 2 month post we'll have conquered this one?  Fingers crossed.

I really like looking at Daddy.

Overall, despite being the most difficult month of our lives, it's also been the most rewarding.  As much as sometimes parenting this little diva exhausts us, we would not change it for a bajillion dollars.  This weekend for instance I'm giving Daddy a break because he's working and Emery and I came to visit Nonnie & Grandpa at the lake.  Not 3 hours after we were gone, Daddy texted me that he missed Emery.  So rest assured little one, if you're reading this, that we truly could not love you more.  You are the (very noisy) light of our lives.  We couldn't be happier to be your parents and I look forward to what month 2 brings!

Nostril check!

Behind the scenes in the staging area.  Please note that the Princess is requesting no photographs at this time.

The Stats:

• Height at 2 weeks*:  21.75 inches (97th percentile)
• Weight at 2 weeks*: 7 lbs 10 oz (31st percentile)
• Head at 2 weeks*: 14 cm (61st percentile- Jen, does this surprise you?!)
• Height at 1 month: 22 inches 
• Weight at 1 month: 8 lbs 13 oz
• Diaper size: 1
• Clothes: 0-3 months, you are too long for nearly all of your newborn outfits now
• Feeding:  You eat pretty much every 3 hours.  Although sometimes you like to switch the game and make Mama hop to it every 2 hours.  No more formula at this point.  You only had formula every other feeding for about 3 days.   
• Other Notables:  You are really strong.  Multiple people (nurses, doctors) have commented on both how strong you are and how alert you are.  The lady who tried to take the blood for your second set of newborn screenings is lucky you didn't kick her arm off.  Of course, WE know that already courtesy of colic.  You also move a TON.  You are constantly moving your arms and legs.  Constantly.  If only Mama had that kind of energy!

* These are the last OFFICIAL stats from the doctor.  The next appointment isn't until 2 months.

Sweet pea's 2 week report card.

The John Mayer station on Pandora makes me think deep thoughts.  Don't tell Daddy that Mama was playing this for me.

Gosh you're boring, Mama.