From A to Zig: April 2012

Emily has been amazing lately. Truly amazing. She really is such a good little girl. She talks a ton. Seriously, from the moment her feet touch the ground, till she falls asleep at night, she is talking. Her vocabulary is great. She forms complete sentences, knows how to communicate what she needs and pronounces things very well. Some of the things she comes up with are HYSTERICAL. I love listening to her and being able to have a conversation with her.

She is back on track with the potty training, but does have the occasional accident if she is playing to hard and we forget to ask her if she has to go. For the most part, she let's us know and a couple of times, she has gone by herself. We are working on getting her comfortable enough to go alone and ask for help if she needs it. She is capable of doing it, she just needs to gain the confidence.

She is the best big sister. She is always wanting to hold Sophie or help us take care of her. Everyday when I pick her up from school she runs to Sophie's car seat and talks to her sister. If I am giving a bath, she is right by my side handing me the soap. And if she sees me changing Sophie's diaper, she runs to get her stool so she can watch. I am so proud of my sweet little Emmy and what a nurturing little girl she has become.

She loves to be outside. The warm weather we have been having has really brought out a different side to Emmy. She could run and play for hours out there. She is obsessed with dresses. Seriously obsessed and will do ANYTHING to be able to wear them. We have used it as a "motivational" tool and it is working out great. Call it bribing if you will. In my last update post we mentioned how hard her bed time routine was, but in the last few weeks, it has been night and day. Every night we pick out a dress to wear the next day and explain to Emmy that only big girls get to wear big girl dresses, so if she goes to sleep like a big girl (being a good listener and not crying), then she gets to wear her dress. It works like a charm.

I can't wait for the warm weather to be here in full swing. Only in NM does it snow in April. It was seriously in the high 70's on Satruday and today it is snowing. We are looking forward to spending lots of time outside and swimming in Noni's pool all summer long!

It is crazy to me how quickly time is going by and I am so happy that I still have about 2 more months to stay home and really get to know Sophie. She is actually 5 weeks as I type this. Everyday I sit down to write a post, but I would rather spend the time just staring at my new little angel. She has been an amazing baby so far!

We had her one month check up and she grew two inches since her birth and put on a whopping 2 lbs since her two week check! She is definitely eating enough and it makes me happy that she is such an efficient eater, taking on average 15 minutes or so to nurse. The doctor was amazed and very pleased with her weight gain. So much so, she rechecked it twice. As of 3/26, she weighed 9lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 inches long.

She is such a calm sweet baby. She very rarely cries and if she does its either because she needs to burp, or she needs to eat. She is eating about every 3 hours during the day. I will wake her to feed if she isn't hungry before then. I think it really helps to stay on top of the feedings and not wait until she is super hungry and grumpy and mad to feed her. It also helps to have a little schedule for her.

I can also happily say that for the last 4 or 5 nights she has averaged 7-8 hour stretches between feedings. We don't wake her at night anymore, which has been really great for her and I. When I was waking her, she really wasn't getting a full feed and I found myself really struggling to keep her awake to eat. Now she chirps a bit when she is hungry and I get up and feed her. It really only takes about 20 minutes, but there is something so serene about sitting in a quiet house rocking in the glider with a sweet sleeping baby. I usually spend about 45 minutes in there just staring at her face.

Just like with Emmy, Sophia has been sleeping in her bed since night one. A great decision with both of our girls. I find that I sleep better and so does she because I am not stressing about every single noise. Plus it is her room, and our room is ours. I didn't want to worry about making a transition down the road, when she didn't know any differently either way.

Here are some other stats for our little Miss.

-She weighs 9lbs. 6 oz. and is 21 inches long
-She still wears NB size clothes, but depending on the brand, some are getting a little snug.
-We moved her up to size 1 diapers right at 1 month. They are a little big, but fit much better than the NB size.
-She loves baths. She gets super relaxed and calm. She has never once cried, which is nice. We used to do speed baths with Emmy in the beginning. Now we can't get Emmy out of the tub. I look forward to the day they can share a bath since they both enjoy it so much!
-She sleeps between 6 and 8 hours a night. I try to give her her last feed around 9 before putting her in the crib at night. She does tend to cluster feed from about 6-9, but if it means she will sleep longer, I will take it. She has been getting up for a feed around 4 or 5 every morning for the last week. I am not sure it will last too long, but we are taking advantage of the good sleep while we can.
-She loves her tummy and has a super strong neck. During the day, I let her nap on her stomach if she doesn't seem to get comfortable otherwise, but I am always next to her, keeping an eye on her. At night she sleeps on her back and is swaddled up tight.
-She has super fair skin. It's crazy. Emmy and I both have olive undertones, but neither of us are very dark. Zig is actually more tan then we are most of the time. Sophie has more pink undertones, along with lighter hair and eyes for now.
-She was not a fan of the paci for a while, but she is starting to like it now. I like it for self soothing and so she doesn't use me as a pacifier. The fact that studies show it decreases the risk of SIDS helps too.

And how is mom doing one month post partum? Great! I feel really good. My recovery was a lot better this time around. I am amazed at how quickly my body bounced back. I still have some tightening up to do, but I am back at my pre pregnancy weight. I would be super happy if I could shed about 10 lbs and firm up a bit, but considering I just gave birth a month ago I am not complaining. Since Sophie is sleeping so good at night, I have started pumping at night before bed and then in the morning after her first feed. They say that you should wake up in the middle of the night to pump, but unless I have supply concerns, I won't be doing this. Her cluster feeding during the day seems to make up for it. I have started a pretty nice stash of milk so far. Everything is going really well with breastfeeding and we even gave Sophie her first bottle, which she took to right away.

The last month has been amazing. I am seriously so lucky to have been blessed with such great babies. I don't know what is to come, but right now I am so proud to have such calm, happy, sweet little girls. Either way, it is so worth it losing sleep to spend time with such a great baby. I can't wait to watch her grow!