Week 37

37 Weeks Old on 7/31/09

Last weekend we went up to Phoenix on Friday afternoon. About halfway up there the AC in our car stopped working. It was still cold air coming out, but it was barely blowing at all. It sucked. Once we arrived in Phx, we went to the California Pizza Kitchen to meet some friends for Jamie's birthday. Embry and Tony came in for about a half hour so Embry could give Jamie the sign she 'made' for her. After they got back to the car, I guess the AC decided to work again. It has been working good ever since, so let's pray it doesn't happen again. It's entirely too hot to not have AC. Then we spent the night at Tony's mom's house (Embry got a bottle of formula in addition to her bottle of milk cuz I hadn't pumped enough). I'm relaxing a bit on the whole formula thing. It's harder to pump now that my brother is living with us and if I don't have enough milk she'll just get some formula instead of me not going somewhere because there's not enough milk in the fridge. It's easier now to stretch out the milk since she eats baby food too. Although that never really seems to fully satisfy her. Anyhow, then we left on Saturday at about 11 to come home. We stopped at Arizona Mills on the way home and I did some shopping for Embry. Carters had about half the store on clearance and an extra 20% the clearance price. I had a hard time not buying EVERYTHING.

We went to Noah's 2nd bday party Sat evening in Tucson. It was great weather too. Windy and cloudy, so we weren't sweating up a storm. Embry enjoyed some cake frosting and riding on daddy's shoulders (her new favorite past time). We put her down 2 slides as well, she did not enjoy her thighs sticking to the plastic.

Sunday we went with some people from Young Marrieds to Mt Lemmon for a picnic and a walk around the 'lake'. It's more like a pond and I'm pretty ticked that there's no swimming allowed in any lakes in Tucson. We let Embry walk around on the edge of the water and she loved it as you can imagine. She's a water baby. :) Then Sunday night we went to church and in the nursery this girl told me that her aunt just had a baby girl and named her Embry, spelled the same and everything. Take that people who told me it was a dumb name! ;)

She really likes our friend's kid Noah. They get babysat together on Wed nights during young marrieds and this past Wed when he got dropped off, she saw him and immediately started shrieking at him. He was scared and hid behind his dad's legs. When we came home, the babysitter said that she chased him around all night squealing. Hehehe, I think that's so hilariously cute! I met Danielle and Noah at the mall yesterday for some shopping and Embry started screeching the second she saw Noah. Good times. :)

Embry can now crawl up 1 step. I was sitting watching TV and she was playing near the front door then I look back at her and she's on the bottom step whining because she can't get down. Looks like it's time to invest in some baby gates.

Last night I went with my sister to the presale at the Just Between Friends sale. I'd say that if you can't go to the presale it wouldn't be worth it to go unless you're just looking for clothes. I got a leapfrog music table, a fisher price activity push walker, mega blocks, and then other various toys, and a swimming suit/hat. This morning when I was feeding Embry on the couch she saw the new toys and kept eying them until I set her on the floor and she crawled right over to them to see what they were. I'm excited that she likes her new toys :)

Week 36

36 weeks old on 7/24/09

I'm really trying to get the blog done on Fridays, I really am, but it just doesn't seem to happen!

Embry and I had an interesting time in Costco this week. I went to get digital pictures printed, so I had to wait for an hour and look around the store in the mean time while the pics were being processed. Embry loves to scream in delight and she decided that Costco was just the place for it. She screamed and screamed and screamed. All happy, ear piercing screams, until I started clapping my hand over her mouth because people were giving me looks like, 'why don't you shut that kid up?' Then Embry got very upset and started screaming out of frustration. I wasn't about to leave without my pictures, so I tried to push the cart as fast as possible while looking at the ground avoiding eye contact with anyone. I tried to pretend that she didn't belong to me, but that's kind of hard when I'm the one pushing the cart. :/ Oh well, we made it out alive, although embarrassed.

Embry started stage 3 foods this week. They have little chunks of food in them instead of just mush. She seems to like them just fine as long as the words 'whole wheat' aren't in the flavor title. She will not even touch the 'garden vegetables with whole wheat pasta' or the 'chicken noodle.' We also got her some of the yogurt puff things which she likes a lot. I like them too!

She had a really bad night this week. She woke up at 2am and then cried until she went back to sleep around 5:15. In those 3+ hours I fed her 3 times and tried to lay her down in her crib twice, then we set up the play yard in our room, then finally moved it into our bathroom where she finally fell asleep. It was ridiculous. I was reminded of how it was having a newborn, not sure I would like to do that again. Now that more time has passed since having a newborn, it seems that it wasn't quite as bad as it was...although I know better...it was bad. As you can tell, I'm having conflicting thoughts about this more kids thing. We'll see.

Week 35

35 Weeks Old on 7/17/09

Oh my, I can't even remember what happened over the past week! Friday we took Embry out to eat with Kristy and John, then went shopping at Mayfair mall for a few hours before we had to be at Missy's rehearsal dinner. Embry was a sport throughout the long day and Mayfair had a nursing room that I got to use twice. She wasn't exactly happy at the rehearsal dinner, but she did enjoy playing with a cold can of diet rite and sucking the hair on a doggy in a touch and feel book.

Saturday we were going to Missy and Abe's wedding so Kristy and John babysat Embry from about 1pm-10:30pm. They took her to the zoo for the first time. I instructed them to take a lot of pictures and left my video camera with them to document the event. They said that Embry liked people watching more than animal watching and it was super crowded and hot so they left after an hour. After watching the video (good job guys!) I see that Embry was pretty interested in their fishtank and the fish are probably permanently traumatized from her smacking the side of their tank repeatedly. Oh, apparently she also enjoyed screaming at their dog and licking his fur. She went to bed at 8pm for them (which is 6pm our time)! Anyhow, I think that all parties involved were equally exhausted by the end of the day.

Sunday Embry went to her first baseball game (Brewers vs Dodgers). We 'tailgated' beforehand and then put her in the snugli and headed inside. We were on the club level (I think that's what it's called) and half of the level was in the shade and the other half wasn't...we were in the half that wasn't. These two very nice men offered to have Tony with Embry sit up in their seats in the shade until our seats became shaded to keep Embry out of the sun and heat. How sweet! After Tony came back to our seats Embry got restless so Kristy wore her in the Snugli and walked around inside. While doing so, someone stopped her and told her that her daughter was adorable and that she had Kristy's dimples. Kristy replied, 'thanks.' :) We left early and went to Kristy's granparent's house on Lac LaBelle in Oconomowoc. Embry loved the sand once again and was very persistent in trying to eat it. We went out on the pontoon boat where Embry expressed her dislike for the life jacket so much that I finally unbuckled the straps. Tony was holding her about halfway through the ride and lifted her up to find poo all over his swim trunks. We did not bring an extra swim diaper on the boat (my fault) so he just held her until we got back to shore where he took off her suit and her diaper. I had to get pics with naked baby and as we were snapping some photos she decided to pee on me. Luckily we had the lake to rinse everyone/everything off in. Kristy and I then buried Embry's legs in the sand to make her look like a mermaid. She didn't seem to mind.

Monday we went out to my aunt Linda's house. My cousins and their kids came out too and we made a day of it. Pretty much we just hung out, ate, and talked. Embry got to see the ponies (I think she wants one). I keep telling Tony if we got one that's under 5 ft then we could put it in the backyard and nobody would ever know! After that we went to Pewaukee lake and took some pictures.

Tuesday Embry turned 8 months old! We went to visit my friend Anne from high school. Her oldest, Kylie, seemed to like Embry quite a bit. We left Embry in the living room with Anne's kids when we first got there and then Kylie comes walking up to us holding Embry under the arms out in front of her, it was so funny! Anyhow, Embry really liked Anne's son Cade and kept screaming at him in excitement which basically scared Cade. Embry really knows how to make friends. Anne got Embry some puffs which she really really likes! We took the kiddos outside and let them play in the kiddie pool. Embry enjoyed putting every pool toy in her mouth, crawling in the water, turning in circles, and chasing a ball around the pool. Then we stopped at Pewaukee lake again for more pictures.

Wednesday we took Embry to meet my great Aunt Joyce and Uncle Al. She really liked their dog and kept grabbing his face fur and pulling as hard as she could. The dog was really funny because he kept picking up his dog toy and dropping it on Embry for her to throw. We also took her to see my aunt Tammy and cousin Chris that day. Tammy had lots of toys to keep Embry amused while we chatted. Then we went to the Waukesha county fair with Kristy and John. Embry went to her first petting zoo and went on her first carousel ride. She liked them both ok, didn't seem thrilled with either one. When we were leaving we went into the cow barn and set her in some straw for pictures near the cows. She didn't like it. After the first straw encounter she wanted nothing to do with it so when we took her over to another cow to pet it she started screaming thinking we were setting her in the straw again. Who can blame her? Nobody said straw was comfortable.

Thursday we had breakfast with Michelle before we caught our plane in Chicago. On the car ride to Chicago Embry decided to have a screaming fit for about a half hour. Then once we got to Chicago the traffic was horrible, so the car ride was a lot longer than we would have liked. We got to our gate just as they started boarding, but tony had to get gate check tags for the carseat, stroller, and play yard. He waited in line while I sat down with Embry and a lady across from me told me that Embry looked just like me. The plane ride was fine although an hour longer than on the way to WI. Embry fell asleep sometime in the middle after having a bottle of apple juice (never tried that one before) but only slept for maybe a half hour. Towards the end of the flight she was getting really antsy so I let her look out the window which was a mistake. She got so excited she started screaming. I'd quick put my hand over her mouth and shove some food in, but then it just sounded like a muffled scream, not a good sound on an airplane.

1808 pictures later, we're back from Wisconsin!

Week 34

34 Weeks Old on 7/12/09

So I'm super late posting this, sorry.

For the 4th of July weekend Tony's mom came down to visit. On Friday we mainly just hung out and I made some dinner, then went to run a few errands with Sarah. At Costco I found a pack of books for Embry that were Hello Kitty books so I just had to get them! That night I tried my hand at a korker headband (which involves wooden dowels covered in ribbon to go into the oven). Then on the 4th of July we put Embry in her outfit and headband and took lots of pics of her with little American flags I got for her. She really wanted to eat the flags or poke her eyes out with them, she wasn't too great at just holding them. We also went swimming for a while, which is always fun. We went to a young marrieds party that night and we drove to watch some fireworks afterwards but Embry had fallen asleep on the car ride so she didn't get to see them. I don't think she would have really cared much for them anyhow. So Embry's first 4th of July was a success.

She started pulling herself up all on her own this week. I had put her down for a nap, then she woke up but I needed to do my hair and makeup so I put some toys in her crib with her and brought the monitor with me. Then she was fine for a while, then started getting louder and louder, so I walked in there to find her standing up in her crib looking at me with the biggest smile on her face. She was so proud of herself. What a big girl! She also pulled herself up on the side of the couch. I got it on my video camera, but when I tried to get it with the digital she did a swirl and a fell onto the floor, which also made for an interesting video but not the one I was hoping for. We're now in WI and yesterday she pulled herself up on Kristy's coffee table, then proceeded to scoot around the outside edge of it.

Speaking of WI, we're here! We made in one piece and I didn't even need to have a breakdown on the plane ride! Woohoo! Embry did better than I thought she would on the plane ride and I think what really made it easier was the fact that I didn't need to use my nursing cover to feed her. My top shirt was rather flowy so I could unsnap my nursing tank top and feed her without anyone seeing anything and just using my shirt to cover up. When I use the cover sometimes she tries to rip it off so I get all paranoid and nervous even if she's behaving herself under it. I had gotten her some cheap new toys to play with on the plane because then they'd be novelties but she wasn't very interested in them. She was however enthralled with an empty mt dew bottle and a cup. She enjoyed throwing things onto the floor for her dad to pick up repeatedly and playing peekaboo with the poor asian guy sitting next to us. He was a good sport. Luckily she didn't cry at all and only shrieked with joy a couple of times. :) There was another couple on the plane with a little girl and then a 10 month old baby who were joking about how when their baby made noise they were going to point toward us and when ours made noise we could point to them. I thought it was cute. We had quite a time trying to fit all our luggage and accessories into a compact car that we rented. We brought 4 suitcases (2 very large), a duffle bag, a laptop, a stroller, a carseat, and a play yard. Luckily we flew into Midway instead of O'Hare because the rental cars are at the airport at Midway instead of offsite like O'Hare. I could just see us trying to get all that stuff onto a shuttle to go to the rental car, haha.

We stopped at the 'Welcome to WI' sign on the way up from Illinois and got bit my a million mosquitoes. Poor Embry was being swarmed. Oh yes, so I got her out of the carseat for the picture and showed her back to tony to ask if there was any poo, he said he didn't see any, so I walked her up the hill a little ways with my arm under her booty. Then I look and I had squished all the poo from her diaper up her back. I wasn't about to take her out of her cute WI onesie before getting my picture though, so we changed her afterwards. Booyah, I win. Then we ate at Culvers which was delic as always. Embry really wanted some, but she's too little. Poor baby, she's missing out.

Thursday we went to Minooka park (just down the road from here) and took Embry to a natural body of water for the first time. I wouldn't say it's a lake, it's more of a pond. Before we left we put Embry into her swim diaper and swimming suit and then got our suits on. While we were getting ready, she pooed all over her suit and the pad in her play yard. We got Culvers on the way and had a picnic while Embry ate, I mean played with, the grass. Then we took her in the water and she had a good time eating, I mean playing with the sand. She pretty much loved it. After realizing that I had forgotten to pack dry underwear, we took a walk around the pond at which point Embry fell asleep.

Days on Vacation: 2
# of outfits pooed on: 2
Amount of sand eaten: indefinite

Week 33

33 Weeks Old on 7/3/09

Embry started crawling this week! She didn't just kind of crawl either, she went all out and crawled across the living room numerous times. I was in the shower at the time and Tony came in with a big smile on his face and said that he thought I should hurry up. So I looked out of the shower and asked if he was having a problem or something and he goes, 'your baby can crawl!' I immediately asked him to take some video and, being the good husband that he is, he already had. He said that he was sitting on the floor reading a book next to her and she was on her hands and knees so he started patting her booty and she crawled forward. She's scrawling up a storm now, but occasionally reverts back to her army crawl. She can also stay standing holding onto something (like the coffee table) and today she pulled herself up onto just her knees and stayed there for a little while. She's gotten really good at occupying herself for a long time by just crawling from toy to toy and playing on the floor. It makes my life easier. Oh she will also walk for a long time while holding onto our fingers. She takes really big steps and gets all excited. Recently she started blowing raspberries and has decided it's really fun to do that while walking.

I sat down and made some baby headbands this week. I found stretchy white lace at JoAnn Fabric (in the past they said they didn't carry any, I'm not fond of their sales people). So I got a bunch of that and made a few headbands for friend's babies and make a couple new ones for Embry. On Friday I experimented and attempted my first korker headband to match Embry's 4th of July outfit and it turned out perfect. I was really excited that it looked so good. I figured I'd set the house on fire trying to make the ribbons curl in the oven, but I didn't.

We leave on Wed for Wisconsin and I'm getting increasingly nervous about the airplane ride. I saw a clip from Jon and Kate plus 8 where all her kids were having a meltdown on the plane and Kate just buried her head in her hands and started crying...that's going to be me. I told Tony that if she starts screeching, he will be able to find me in the airplane lavatory, hiding. Wish us luck!

Week 32

32 Weeks Old on 6/26/09

Can you see the brown in her eyes in this pic?

For Father's Day we had my parents, my sister, her husband, and my nephew over for lunch and swimming. The pool temp has been hovering just under 80 since the start of summer because the weather has been cooler than normal. It was a tad colder than I'd like for a baby, but we went in none the less and had a good time. We went to the early service at church that day and, needless to say, I was super tired by the time the day was done. Tony and I had celebrated Father's Day the day before for him. I made him some chocolate covered bacon and bought him 3 PS3 games, a bacon candybar, and a chipotle candybar. We went to see 'The Hangover' (which I thought totally sucked) and out to eat at Chili's while my mom watched Embry.

On Monday morning I was hoping to sleep in. Embry was up around 8am 'talking' which I could hear over the monitor, but I always give her some time in case she decides to go back to sleep. She was still chattering away by 8:30 so I figured my sleepy time was done and I got up to go get her ready for the day. I walk into her nursery to find her sitting up in her crib, happy as a clam, playing in a puddle of poop and pee! Unlike the apple juice incident, I decided to grab my camera and take a picture. It's already on facebook, but in case you missed it...

I thought Tony's question to me later on that day was pretty funny, 'Did you give her a bath afterwards?'

On Wednesday we went to young marrieds and left Embry with the babysitter at our house. I asked her after we got back if Embry cried at all while we were gone (because it's around this age that a lot of babies have separation anxiety and my mom keeps saying that it seems like Embry notices when we leave her). So the sitter said that no she didn't cry, so I explained why I was asking and she said that Embry didn't really seem to notice that we were gone. I'm sure it's different for her if she's in our house or someone else's house though too.

Embry and I have gone in the pool quite a bit this week and Tony even came in with us once! Since it was over 100 for a few days it seems like that's all it took for the pool water to heat up. It's now at about 83 and feels perfect! I was thinking of buying a solar cover, but I guess we'll wait until next summer for that (which is the same thing I said last summer, haha). Anyhow, I'm really glad that Embry likes being in the water because it's soooo nice to be able to cool off on a hot day and spend some quality time outside. I feel like we spend a whole lot of time inside and I like to get fresh air every once in a while.

So I was telling Janell about this the other day and thought I should post about it too. There are times when I'm with Embry and I feel this incredibly overwhelming sense of happiness. It's almost like I'm going to explode with love. This sounds really corny, but I don't know how else to describe it. It's like I want to squeeze her to death and squeal with excitement at how cute she is and how happy she makes me. It's a feeling I've never had before and I guess it'd be hard to imagine unless you'd felt it yourself. It's an amazing blessing to be a mom.

Week 31

31 Weeks Old on 6/19/09

First I have to talk about her outfit in this pic. I bought it and a matching one in blue a long long time ago before we started trying to have a baby. I HAD to buy it because of the adorable hat. I mean, how many outfits come with a hat that cute?! Then I got the blue one too because I still want the cute outfit with the cute hat if I had a boy. To top it off, I got them in the same size for the incredible unlikely event that I would have boy and girl twins. Yep, I'm one of those people. :) I took Embry out to get Tony part of his Father's day present today and go grocery shopping and my goodness, it seemed like EVERYONE stopped me to tell me how cute her/her hat was. I think maybe I should get one.

Embry turned 7 months old last Sunday. We went to church that morning (instead of evening because my nephew was having his first birthday party) and it turns out that they had been using someone else's diaper bag for her! When we walked in to pick her up, the lady holding her was also holding another little girl and a bottle with a drop in. I say that I'm there to pick up Embry and point to her, the lady gets up and references the bottle saying, 'she's just chewing on this, she's not really drinking it.' I say, 'oh ok' and look at Tony kind of bewildered and whisper, 'well that's because it's not her bottle.' Then the lady goes to grab her diaper bag and grabs the wrong one and I tell her which one it is. So we get the baby and the bag and go home to find that Embry is wearing a size 2 diaper (she's been in size 3 for a long time now) and she pooed all over the place. It's at this point that we realize they had in fact been using the wrong diaper bag for her and probably trying to feed her someone else's bottle. I'm sure if I worked in a nursery, I'd get babies and their bags confused all the time. Point is, I thought it was somewhat funny, but if it were someone else's baby this had happened to I'm sure they'd be none too pleased.

Embry started doing her army crawl forward this week. We quick got the video and digital cameras out and filmed her. Now she's going around the house like crazy. Back and forth from the living room to the dining room over and over again. Because of this, I'm realizing how dirty my tile floor really is. I've decided to save some time, I'm going to attach a swiffer sweeping cloth to her stomach and just let her go all out in the dining room/kitchen. She's also fascinated with chewing on the laptop cord, we'll have to do something about that. Another key development is that she's learned how to use her walker really well within the past week. She really enjoys scaring the crud out of the cats. She'll see one across the room and run full speed ahead towards it while screaming. They run underneath the dining room table and then Embry will run into the table repeatedly trying to get to them. I walked into the dining room yesterday after I heard a noise and Embry had grabbed my video camera off the coffee table and perched it precariously on the edge of her walker, I'm glad I caught her in time!

I've been trying to get her to use a sippy cup, but she really doesn't understand that you still have to suck on it to get liquid to come out. I gave her one yesterday while we were in the kitchen and she was mostly playing with it, but I figured it didn't matter if it kept her occupied. Then I look behind me after a minute or two and she had unscrewed the lid and had a large puddle of apple juice on the floor in front of her. Naturally she put both hands out to the side, shoved her face into the floor, and started to suck the juice off the floor. I had a moment of, 'should I go get the camera and take a picture or clean this up before she gets all wet and sticky?' Then decided to clean it up. She is so silly!

I took her to the dr yesterday for a follow up appt about her diaper rash. It had gotten a little bit better, but wasn't going away so the dr told me to come in. She weighed 17lbs 11oz with her clothes on. The dr prescribed some steroid cream in addition to what he prescribed last time and said it should be gone within 2 weeks. I asked him about his thoughts on orajel cuz I had heard it could make their gums hard and make it more difficult for the teeth to come through. He said orajel is ok, it will only numb it for a few minutes though, the best thing to use is a cold teething ring. I asked about those homeopathic teething tablets that everyone is raving about and he said that there's no evidence that they do anything at all. So that's that.

I'm getting really nervous about taking her on a plane to go to WI in July. She needs a lot more to keep her occupied now and she screams extremely loudly for no reason at all. Mainly she does it when she's happy, like yesterday in the check out line in Costco. That place is extremely loud and her scream was ear piercing even with all the background noise. I'd be so embarrassed if she did that on a plane. Eeek.

Week 30

30 Weeks Old on 6/12/19

Well Embry is still not crawling and she'll be 7 months old in 2 days. Not that there's a time limit on this, but I figured she would be crawling by now. However she is very talented at swirling in circles on her stomach at a rapid pace. She started going forward (kinda) in her walker this week. I don't think she understands that she has to lean forward in order to go forward, but she is skilled at going backwards in it. Here's a video of her going forward today...


We moved into the pampers cruisers this week. I had gotten a box of Pampers baby dry because they were cheaper, but the cruisers have the dry weave inside and the baby dry have an inside like Huggies (which I feel is less absorbent). We'll see how the cruisers work out.

She pulls her hair whenever she's nursing. I feel like she's going to rip it all out. She also tries to grab my hair any chance she gets, so I try to keep it out of her reach. I think it's soothing for her. We need to get her a dolly with long hair so she can pull on that instead.

I took her to Agua Caliente park yesterday. I've been wanting to do that for a while because I thought she'd like the grass and watching the ducks etc. Tony was out to dinner and a movie with guys from work yesterday, so I took that opportunity to go to the park with Embry. Beforehand I stopped at BRU and bought an umbrella stroller (the big one takes up my entire trunk). So she liked the stroller and I put her on the grass while I sat there and took pictures of her (too bad I didn't have my good camera along, but oh well, next time). She LOVED the grass! She also loved all the random tree droppings that she tried to shove into her mouth. I let her play with a big palm frond (figured she couldn't choke on that) and she would flail her legs all around to feel the grass on them...oh so cute! That experience is what I envisioned when I thought of having kids, so perfect. I also fed her pears while we were there. Either she really liked them, or she was starving, because she gobbled them up. Afterwards we went for a walk around the park and walked down to the second pond, which actually had some water in it. Then Embry fell asleep on the way back to the car, it was great!

Last weekend I was not having a good time with Embry, I just wanted to get some time to myself for a little while. So I decided to go to church on Sat night while Tony hung out with a friend and then I'd get to put Embry in the nursery. We get there and I go to the room that she normally goes into and there's nobody there. So I go to another nursery room and ask which room she's supposed to go in, the lady points to the one I was just at and I tell her that nobody's in there. She asks someone else, they say somebody is there, so I go look again. I make a bunch of noise etc, nobody is in there. So I go sit on a bench until church starts and nobody ever comes to man the infant nursery. I just ended up putting her back in the car and going to Target instead. After that it was getting dark so I took her to purple heart park in Rita Ranch. We walked around there and looked at all the amenities, it's a nicer park than I had originally thought. They have an ok sized pool, a sand volleyball court, 3 baseball diamonds, a couple of play grounds, etc. I'm sure we'll be going there a lot when she gets a little older.

So, I feel like I've aged about 5 years in the past 7 months since having Embry. Not only that, I also look like I've aged 5 years. I am attributing this to my lack of sleep. Before I had her I would need about 16 hours of sleep a day. Not like I was lazy and just stayed in bed all the time, I literally couldn't function properly on less sleep. Now I'm getting about 8-10 hours a night. Fine for the average person, really bad for me. Also, Embry screams whenever I leave the room during the day, so the only time I have to clean is after she goes to bed at 10. Therefore I don't get to bed until around midnight. In addition, I also feel like I can't pump until she's in bed because otherwise I'll be pumping milk that she would need to eat at her next meal. On that subject, I realized this week that if you don't disassemble the membranes on a breastpump to clean them, they will grow mold. Gross.

Week 29

29 Weeks Old on 6/6/09

Embry rode in the kids part of the shopping cart (without the carseat) for the first time this week. To my dismay, she also decided to suck on most of the carts and try to hurl herself over the side in efforts to grab shiny things that we would roll past. I would have taken pictures of her in these carts, but I wanted to wait until she went for a ride in a Target cart because Target is the happiest place on Earth.

She also sat in a restaurant high chair for the first time this week. It was at the Texas Roadhouse last night. She sucked on the edge of the table and probably ingested the remnants of many peanut shells after dropping all of her toys onto the floor.

Here is a picture where you can see the little bit of brown around the pupils of Embry's eyes.

Week 28

28 Weeks Old on 5/29/09

Booyah! Embry is getting her first 2 teeth! I was sooooooo right about her teething, which makes me feel like maybe I kinda know what I'm doing? Anyhow, I was wrong about them being on the top, but whatever, I'm still right! So on Monday (5/25) I had my finger in her mouth because she likes sucking on it (and everything else) and my finger nail scraped against something hard. I quick stuck my fingers in her mouth to look at her bottom gums and sure enough there was a little tiny hole with the tip of an itty bitty tooth coming from her front bottom left gum!!! I called Tony over to look at it and we were both so proud of her. Also sad that she's growing up, but happy too. The next day you could see another little hole right next to the first one in the front right bottom gum. So, soon, she'll have 2 little teeth. I'm sure the bottom of her tongue is going to go raw from her sticking it out over the teeth all the time, but maybe that will entice her to stop sticking her tongue out? I went out and got her a baby toothbrush thing and some orajel. The toothbrush is like a rubber finger cap thing with little bristles on it and some baby safe toothpaste. She absolutely loves it! Once you hold it out in front of her, she opens up her mouth really wide and then if she's holding it, she'll fling it off of her upper gums over and over. Actually, here's a video!



Another thing she loves (which you get a glimpse of in the video) is the kitties! She gets so excited when they walk by or if they rub against her, she starts kicking and squealing. Then if she actually gets her hand on one she will occasionally pet them nicely but most of the time she grabs their fur on the side of their face and pulls really hard. This morning she got Sauce's tail and she wouldn't let go, Sauce was not pleased. So far we haven't had any maliciousness on the part of the cats, but the other night she was sleeping in her car seat and Sauce came up and rubbed on her foot then playfully bit her foot. Tony got mad, but I figure he didn't realize it was actually a foot because she was wearing tights. Point is, she loves the cats and I think they don't mind her too much either.

Another development is that she's getting the slightest hint of brown around the pupil of her eyes. I'm trying to find a good picture to show it, but maybe I'll have to wait till the next post to show that. The CPU fan on my computer broke, so until that gets fixed I can't use photoshop :( My bio teacher in college said that you don't have blue eyes if there is even the littlest bit of brown in your eyes. Maybe technically they're not called blue, but you can definitely have blue eyes with brown in them because that's how my blue eye looks. I doubt that her eyes will go all the way brown at this point in the game, but I guess it's still a possibility.

Tony and I had our 4 year anniversary yesterday. The babysitter, Sarah, came over to watch Embry for 3 hours while we went to BJ's to have a nice dinner. Tony got a pizza and 2 beers (he was quite thrilled with the beers and pizza) and I got a meatloaf sandwich with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. This brings me to another point...when friends brought us meals after I had Embry they asked what veggies I liked. I told them I didn't like any except corn. After talking to my mom, she said that she didn't like veggies either and therefore we didn't have them with our meals when I was younger and I'm guessing that would be why I didn't like them. Therefore I vowed that I would force myself to eat veggies in the hopes that eventually I might like them and even if I never liked them at least Embry would be exposed to lots of veggies. Well, I have to say, I think I'm actually beginning to like them! We started with a bag of frozen corn, carrots, and green beans from Costco and oddly enough, sometimes I find myself craving them! At BJ's, I had carrots, broccoli, squash, and zucchini and I liked ALL of them! It's a piddly little thing, but I'm so darn proud of myself! I never thought I could overcome my dislike for vegetables. I still have a strong dislike for peas though, not sure if I'll ever get over that one, but I've made great progress thus far. :)

I think Embry is this close to crawling. We set her on the living room floor and she can spin in circles on her tummy and can go backwards pretty well, but she's not so great at going forward. It's the same thing in her walker. Very good and going backward, but can't go forward at all. Maybe next week I'll be able to post a video of her crawling...we'll see.

Week 27

27 Weeks Old on 5/23/09

Embry had quite a time this week because she was sick. We went to 3 parties on Saturday and Embry was feeling warm all day, then we got home and took her temperature. It was 104. So I'm thinking that's an awfully high temp for a vaccine reaction and we call the Dr. The only person you can talk to when the Dr's office isn't open is a nurse hotline thing. The nurse says that a vaccine reaction can occur for 48 hours, so keep giving her tylenol and if it's not gone by Monday to take her to the Dr. Long story short is I got Motrin, called the nurse line again, they say not to worry unless her temp is over 105 (that's insane!) and she still had a 102 fever on Monday morning. I took her to the dr and her temp there (although it was an ear temp not rectal) was only 98.3 so I probably ended up looking like a freak. The Dr then said that since her lungs and ears were clear that he figured she had a cold and that was why she had the fever. After that point her fever kept getting lower and lower until it was gone completely on Thurs.

We also think that she might be teething, but we're really not sure. The signs would be that she sticks absolutely everything in her mouth and I think I can kinda maybe sorta feel some teeth under her gums on the top. Who knows? I certainly don't know what I'm looking for, but at least that would explain her fussiness.

We took her to my brother's graduation on Thursday and she fussed for the first hour, so Tony walked her around the perimeter of the auditorium in the snugli. She was somewhat ok after that.

She started on sweet potatoes this week. She kind of likes them, well better than peas anyway. She started to kind of lift her stomach off the ground this week too. This is a good step on the way to crawling!

Week 26

26 weeks old on 5/15/09

Embry turned 6 months old yesterday! I can't believe it's already been half a year since we welcomed her into our lives. She's such a miracle and a blessing, I'm happier than I could have ever imagined. Ironically enough as I write this she's sitting in her swing crying because she doesn't want to go to sleep. Being the push-over than I am, I just gave into her demands and picked her up. She smells so good.

She had her 6 month check-up yesterday as well. Here's what the dr said: she is definitely thrush-free, she does not have a cold but instead has seasonal allergies (to this she says, 'thanks dad'), and she has a fungal diaper rash. We started using the nystatin cream he prescribed for it last night and it's practically gone already. She got 3 shots. 2 in her right leg and one in her left. I held her down on the exam table while the nurse gave her the shots, but I was out of her eyesight. She was quite upset when she was getting the shots, but as soon as I picked her up afterward she was fine and even smiled at the nurse again. The dr thought her tongue fetish was particularily funny as well as the fact that people compare her to Gene Simmons because of it. She's my little rock star! I'm convinced that when she's older instead of 'Kiss' she's going to start a band called 'Suck'...get it? Because she sucks on stuff? I crack myself up.

Here are her stats:
Weight: 16lbs 1oz, 50th percentile
Height: 26 & 3/4", about 80th percentile
Head Circumference: 42 cm, about 45th percentile

On Friday Tony's mom and sister came down for the weekend. Tony's mom watched Embry that night while Tony, Allison, and I went to the Gaslight to see 'Harlie's Angels' which was hilarious as always. Saturday we took Embry in the pool for the first time. I had dipped her feet in before and she would cry a bunch cuz it was numbingly cold. So I put her little swimmer on (dang those things are expensive!) and her sparkly blue bikini, took a bunch of pics, and then went out to the pool. Tony video taped, Tony's mom took regular pics, and Allison and I tried to put Embry in her floatie outside of the pool so I could just plop her in all at once. That was interesting in itself, but once I put her in, she was really really mad! I watched the video back and I was like, 'jeez why didnt' someone stop me?!' Anyhow, my thought process was that after a few minutes in the water she would become acclimated to it and then all would be fine. That's pretty much what happened. After about 5 minutes of crying she just all of a sudden stopped. She whined after that for a while till I took her out of the floatie and held her, then she was happy. She also enjoyed 'standing' on the top step. She got tired midway through and we put her bouncer in the shade so she fell asleep in that. My friend Jamie came down from Phoenix too, so later that day we went to the mall. Tony's mom got Embry a hat and some sunglasses and I got her another swimming suit, a one piece. That night we played Quelf and Embry was very sleepy from her time out in the sun.

Sunday we got up very early to get ready for Embry's dedication at church. It was also Mother's day and Tony made us all breakfast. When I came downstairs there were cards for me on the dining room table and Tony had put my new camera up there with a bow on it too. It was cute. My parents came over early and rode with us to church. We put Embry in the nursery and gave everyone instructions on how to use the cameras during the dedication. The dedication went very smoothly. Embry hardly made a peep, which is odd for her, and she looked super cute in her pretty green dress. On that subject, I was having a really hard time trying to figure out what Embry should wear for the dedication. She had already worn her pretty purple dress on Easter, she had another fancy dress in 3-6 month size but it was a little Christmas-esc and I didn't have good matching shoes or a hair accessory, and if I were to buy a new dress then I run the risk of another baby wearing the same dress on the stage. Then I realized that I had bought the most beautiful fancy baby dress about 2 years ago when The Children's Place had all the dresses on clearance for $4.25 each. Only problem was it was in a 6-9mo size, but I tried it on her, and it fit perfectly! I wanted a fancier looking headband to go with it, so I made one. I really like how it turned out and it was my first time trying to make one by sewing it, normally I used the hot glue gun. The other issue was I didn't have a pair of white dress shoes in the right size, but I used some that were a little snug, but we made them work! Anyhow, I'm really glad with how the dedication turned out and we got a lot of pictures.

Afterwards we came back here, got more pictures, and Tony grilled chicken, ribs, and corn on the cob. My friend Anna and her girls and our friends the Fransiscos came over. We ate some delicious food and then went swimming. Embry really enjoyed swimming the second time around. She was so adorable because I put her in the floatie and she just laid back with her hat and sunglass on and played with her keys as she floated around the pool for a few hours. I'm so glad that she likes the pool! I'm thinking of enrolling her in a swim class.

Tuesday I took her to the picture people for some 6 month pictures. They turned out soooooooooooooo cute! I had such a hard time deciding which ones to buy and ended up spending way too much money, but it was worth it. We did pictures in her dedication dress, in a diaper cover, and in her tutu and matching headband. I used the nursing room at the park mall for the first time while we were there waiting for the pictures to be processed and what I figured would happen is what happened. About 5 minutes into my nursing session, someone knocked on the door wanting in. One nursing room for an entire mall is just about as good as having no nursing room. Embry was getting fussy as I was picking out pictures (because it took forever) but then finally she fell asleep and I got to do a little window shopping. Here are some of the pictures. The ones on the right are the ones that I bought, the ones on the left are others that I liked.













A new thing she's doing is that she's able to get from laying down to sitting up when you hold her legs down. Also she's pulling her legs up under her and trying to crawl, but she just ends up going backwards. It's kind of funny.

Pictures!

For those who don't have facebook, here are some pictures from Mother's Day weekend and Embry's dedication at church. Enjoy!

Album

Week 25

25 Weeks Old on 5/9/09

I'm so terribly sorry for posting this late, but it's been a rather hectic weekend.

Last weekend I went shopping with some girls from YM in Phoenix. We went to Culvers for some delicious lunch, then to Anthem to shop at the outlets, then to dinner at Carrabba's in Chandler. Let me just say, those outlets had some impressive sales! I got Tony 2 pairs of pants and about 8 polo shirts, myself 3 shirts and a pair of pants, and Embry a billion things but all in 12 months + sizes. I got her some really cute stuff, but my favorite thing was this strawberry outfit from gymboree. I normally won't even go into that store because it's insanely overpriced, but I went in and as soon as I saw the knit hat shaped like a strawberry I knew I had made the right decision. So then I had to get a dress, headband, sun hat, socks, shoes, pants, and a onesie to match! Tony stayed home to watch Embry while I was gone, then at around 7pm Sarah came over to watch her while Tony went to play poker with the guys. I got home at 10:30 and Embry was asleep, so Tony put her in bed at 11 when he got home. It was a really good day. I love shopping.

On Sunday I took Embry out to my parent's house to see my sister Jen, Jason, and Colter. Embry and Colter seemed somewhat interested in each other, as much as babies can be I guess. Jen and Jason got to hold Embry and we took a lot of pictures since it was their first time meeting her. I was only able to be out there for a few hours because I had to get home in time to church on Sunday night. Plus Jen and Jas still had a lot of organizing and unpacking to do.

On Tuesday we had the last MOPS meeting of the year. We got a cute group pic and hopefully we'll set up some play dates for over the summer. I'm excited for the MOPS family picnic on May 30 at Brandi Fenton park. I had never heard of this park before, but I guess it has a 'splash pad' for the kiddies which is free...sign me up! I love free stuff!

On Wednesday we tried out the other babysitter for YM. Her name is Sara and she seemed to do a good job with the kiddos. We peered in through the window next to the front door before we came back and she was sitting on the couch with both kids reading them a story, it was pretty cute. Before Esteban came over to drop Noah off I asked her a bunch of questions about prom. That combined with the fact that we saw a bunch of couples out for Prom dinner in Phoenix made me desperately want to go to prom again. I had so much fun at both of my proms. Why don't they have proms for people who are out of school? I love dresses, I love sparkles, I love dancing, I love prom.

I'd like to talk about the baby dedication, mother's day, grandma Ledlow and auntie Allison's visit, Embry's first swim etc, but then I fear that next weekds blog post would be extremely boring. I'll leave you in suspense and save those tidbits for next time!

Week 24

24 Weeks old on 5/1/09

Boy oh boy, a lot has happened this week for Embry!

She can roll over towards her left now. I think this is partially due to the fact that I have been placing her head towards the window in the nursery at night. I guess babies like to turn towards the door and this way the door is to her left. Now we often find her rolled over and her little legs stuck inbetween the slats on the crib. I'm hoping it doesn't actually hurt her, but I worry that she'll be in there and in pain and I will just think she's fussing because she's on her tummy.

She has rolled from her stomach to her back a few more times. She'll lean over really far to one side with the top half of her body and you can just nudge her a little and she'll flip onto her back, but she's still having a hard time doing it herself.

She started eating 'real' food. On Wed night after young marrieds we gave her half a jar of carrots. The ped said to start with veggies cuz they're less likely to eat veggies if they eat fruit first (I know I wouldn't). She still doesn't quite grasp the idea of moving the food to the back of your mouth with your tongue and then swallowing it, which made for a very messy experience. I got her a space saver type high chair that attaches to a dining room chair, so most of the mess was on her, her bib, and the high chair tray, but some landed on her clothes as well as my clothes too. Verdict is: she LOVES carrots. It was so cute, she would kick her legs and flail her arms and open her mouth all wide while she leaned forward to try to get more carrots. I got some great pics too, with my new camera, that are now posted on facebook. Things like food on a kid's face used to really gross me out, but with my kid, it was just cute.

Wed night was the first time Embry was babysat by an actual 'babysitter,' as in someone we don't know. We hired two girls from Katie's English class at Empire to alternate babysitting every Wed night for our young married's group. When we came to pick up Embry, she was sleeping in her bouncer and I asked the sitter if Embry did any screaming for her and she goes, 'yes, she did. I've never heard anything quite like that.' Ha, I thought that was funny. I'd say the sitter did a good job. Embry was fed and burped and asleep and Noah was also in bed, so she gets an A+ from me. We're trying out the other girl next week and I'm thinking we'll like her just as much.

She can say 'dada' and 'baba' and 'blah blah' yet still no 'mama.' It doesn't really bother me, but then, it kinda does. I mean, I'm here all day with her and then she goes and says 'dada' first! Some would say it doesn't count because she doesn't know that Tony is 'dada' but a word is a word, right? So maybe 'mama' will be her first word associated with a person, that would make me happy. :)

I had a horrible experience taking Embry to a babyshower on Tuesday. It was one of those moments where you think, 'there's no way I could do this again.' Basically she was fine in the beginning, but then I think there were so many people there, including a bunch of kids that she kinda went over the edge. She started doing her screaming thing. She does this all day at home, but at home it's only me and Tony who hear her and the occasional visitor, so it doesn't really matter. Basically she makes very shrill screams because she's excited and she likes hearing the sound of her voice. So she did this at the shower and everyone was looking at me and commenting on it. I'm guessing it didn't actually bother anyone except for me...and it bothered me a LOT. I tried shoving toys in her mouth or covering her mouth with my hand, but it didn't work, so finally I just put her in her carrier and said, 'sorry, gotta go' and quickly left. Then of course I started crying as soon as I got outside cuz I'm a big baby. Ugh, I hate moments like that. Then once we started driving away she fell asleep and stayed asleep for a whole grocery shopping trip.

Embry spent her first night away from her parents on Sat night. Tony and I went camping with the Young Married's group and thought it would be easier without Embry, so we left her with my parents overnight. My parents said that she did really well, but I guess I'll never know how it really went since I wasn't there. I called a couple of times to see how things were going and she was crying a bit, but she will cry everytime I leave the room, so I'm assuming she did the same thing with my mom. I pumped a bunch to try and get enough milk for when we were gone, and then one of the bags (one feeding's worth) leaked on the way to my parent's house. When I saw that, I seriously almost cried. It seems trivial, but it's a lot of work to get 5 ounces of milk. I guess that's why it's called 'liquid gold.' Anyhow, I also brought along a can of powdered formula and for the last 2 feedings my mom mixed 2 oz formula with 3 oz breastmilk to make it last. Apparently Embry didn't mind the formula at all and I didn't even notice any difference in the smell of her poo. So she has officially had formula now and I don't feel nearly as bad about it as I thought I would. We stayed out at my parent's house after we got back from camping and my brother and 2 of his kids (Oasis and Harbour) came out to visit. The girls really liked playing with Embry and luckily my neice Oasis told us, 'there's poo dripping down her leg.' So my mom picked Embry up which forced a bunch of poo to come out the top of her diaper and drip onto another spot on the carpet. It was everwhere. Tony cleaned up the carpet while my mom cleaned Embry's clothes and I changed her diaper.

My sister Jen, her husband Jason, and their 1-year-old son Colter moved to Tucson. They arrived last night and will be staying with my parents for a little while. I'm so excited to see them, to get to know Colter, and mostly for Embry and Colter to grow up together since they're only 7 months apart. We used to hang out a ton when we lived in WI. Pretty much every Sunday we would go to the movies, or to eat, or to the mall, or the beach...those are some of my most favorite memories. Now we get to make all new memories with our little kiddos too!

Week 23

23 Weeks Old on 4/24/09

I've got quite a long story to share about going to visit Tony's dad with Embry last Sunday. The part I was most worried about, the loooong car ride, was pretty ok. Embry was completely fine there and back until about the last 1/2 hour of each leg of the journey. Then one of us would go sit in the backseat with her and give her a bottle and play with her. She was probably a combo of hungry and bored each time. I know I'd get a little antsy if I had to sit backwards in a car staring at the backseat for 4.5 hours straight.

Ok, so to set the scene: at the prison there's a looong open field with a long driveway into the prison. At the end of the driveway is a small parking lot for visitors. Then there are stairs (probably 40-50) leading from the parking lot up a hill to the prison. So we get there and change Embry's diaper in the backseat and get our gallon ziplock bag packed with 4 diapers, some wipes, a small toy (her plastic keys), and a bottle filled with pumped breastmilk. Then we're walking up the stairs and halfway up there's a bathroom where tony was going to wash his hands, then I notice that there's a big poo stain on the back of Embry's dress. We go back to the car to change her into the other cute outfit I had brought along. Then we go up to the prison to sign in. We get to the door and I realize that I still have my sunglasses on, which isn't allowed, so Tony goes back down to the car to get my regular glasses. While he's gone I fill out the sign in forms and while diong that I realize that I left my ID in my wallet. Then the security guard looks at the gallon ziplock bag and says that the bottle has to be empty. So I go, 'well how do I get the milk in then, because either way it has to be in a bottle?' and he tells me that I can bring in the bottle empty and give them a sealed container of powder formula which they can then open and inspect and give back to me. I tell the guy that since I'm breastfeeding, I have no formula and I pumped the milk specifically for the trip. Then he tells me that maybe I could breastfeed in the visitation room to which I reply, 'if there was one thing I thought you DEFINITELY wouldn't allow, it would be that!' Honestly, that's what I said. I mean, really, there are guys in there that haven't been around women for years much less one who they know has a boobie hidden under a blanket in the same room! Anyhow, he called back to the visitation room and found out that I could bring in my nursing cover and go into a separate room with the door shut and nurse in there. By this time Tony had come back and I told him about my ID but told him to wait till we knew for sure I could nurse inside, then he went back to the car to take the bottle back (after I had Embry eat from the bottle for about 10 minutes outside) and bring my ID and the nursing cover back up. Then we get that squared away and we go to the visitation door again and there's a paper outside listing that you can only have 2 keys on a keyring. So Tony goes back to the car yet again to drop off the rest of his keys. Then right before we go through security, the security guy looks at the ziplock bag and says that normally they don't allow any toys, but if the guys inside the visitation room don't say anything then they'll let me keep them. It specifically says online that you're allowed one small toy, so I don't know why they normally wouldn't let you bring one in and bonus, what kind of a threat do 3 plastic teething keys pose?! So 45 minutes after our arrival, we finally get into the visitation room and then the whole time I'm worried about them telling me my undershirt is too low because it's the same one I wore last time that the made me go back to the car and change. Luckily they didn't say anything about the shirt or the toy! We got 2 pictures taken while we were there, one of Tony's dad and Embry and then one of all 4 of us. I was sweating a bunch while we were outside because it was hot and I was trying to keep Embry entertained, so then I decided she was hungry and took her into the side room to feed her. Well turns out it wasn't sweat, but a whole lot of breastmilk! Good times. Oh then in the middle of feeding her, I unlatched her and set her up to switch sides and she did one of those things where they're crying but no noise is coming out because they're crying so hard and need to take a breath, then she let out a horendously loud wail and I thought for sure one of the guards was going to come in. Luckily, they didn't cuz they would have gotten more than an eye-full. That's pretty much all the excitement that occured on our trip. Told you it was a long story!

Embry has started making a bunch more consonant sounds as of yesterday. She now does B's, L's, H's, G's, P's, and D's. I'm going to scream if she ends up saying 'dada' before 'mama' because I seriously sit here everyday and go 'mamamamamamama' over and over and over again to her. She probably will though because the D sound is easier than the M sound.

We found out that she REALLY likes beach balls at young marrieds on Wed. Our friend's son had a beach ball that he was bouncing in front of Embry and she was just cracking up! I thought it was funny that Tony and I will drive ourselves crazy trying to make her just laugh a little, but then bring out something as simple as a beach ball and she thinks it's hilarious. I quick got my digital camera out and took a video. Her laugh makes me so happy! I thought it was the cutest thing when she started to smile, but laughing is even better!

I have discovered that Bookmans is the best place ever. For those that don't live here, Bookmans is a used book store where you can trade in your books and games and get credit for stuff there. So a couple weeks ago I went and bought a ton of dr seuss books and then yesterday we stopped and got a bunch of Clifford books, some Beatrix Potter books (btw, I watched the movie about her the other day with Renee Zellwegger and I liked it a LOT), some Dr Seuss, and some board books. Also, has anyone ever read 'The Snowman?' I got it in a board book and hello?! Why does the snowman melt in the end?! That's so sad! I've also decided that I could easily write and illustrate children's books, seems easy enough, getting them published would be the hard part.

Embry will be spending her first overnight trip to my parents house tomorrow night while Tony and I go camping. I'm hoping she'll be a good girl and I think she will seeing as she sleeps from 10pm-6am and then goes back to sleep for at least a couple of hours. I just hope I have enough milk pumped, but I'm sending along formula too, just in case.

Week 22

22 Weeks Old on 4/17/09

Embry fell asleep in her jumperoo today, it was adorable. Her little head was squished against the side and she was snoring. Of course I got out all my cameras (video, digital, and the *new* digital slr) and took lots of pictures. I knew she was tired when she was standing in there yawning, but I didn't think she'd actually fall asleep standing up. She's been bouncing around in there like a crazy kid, she really loves it and it makes me happy to see her happy. Here's a short video so you can see how much jumping she does!


Embry has been completely cured of her bottlephobia. On Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wed I exclusively fed her with a bottle. I have to say that anyone who pumps exclusively deserves a lot of praise because it is not an easy task! On top of taking care of a baby, you have to take the time to pump and then clean everything you used in the process. Not to mention, it's pretty rough on the tatas if I do say so myself! Anyhow, she took the bottle right from the start and I learned how great the dr brown's bottles are too. I used 'the green bottle' (a Nuby, the one I bought with a nipple more like a breast) for the first feeding and I could tell that Embry was actually having to suck pretty hard to get the milk out. She does this thing every couple of sucks where she shakes her chin and during those times the bubbles of air would go into the bottle to make it easier to suck. Point is, this never happens with Dr Brown's bottles because she doesn't ever have to come unlatched to let the air into the bottle. Booyah!

Speaking of milk, last week when she was in the nursery during MOPS she was given one of the 'in case of emergency' bottles of formula I have in the diaper bag instead of the milk I had pumped for her. Up until that point, she had been given zero formula what-s0-ever. I was quite proud of that fact. I have to say, I in no way dislike formula...in fact, I think it's darn great! I mean, what did women do before they had formula? What if you couldn't breastfeed for whatever reason or if you adopted...how could you feed your baby...it's a mystery. Point is, I had this weird thing going where I wanted to be able to say, 'my baby never had one drop of formula.' Don't ask me why, I don't know why, that's just the way I felt. So, she was given the formula, but when all was said and done, I don't think she actually drank any of it. This was back in the bottlephobia days and judging from the large cream colored stain on her shirt, none of it actually made it into her stomach.

I discovered a few days ago that if I sat Embry up, she could stay there for about 30 seconds. It was a pretty amazing discovery and I imagine she could have stayed sitting up weeks ago, I just didn't realize it at the time. I had been sitting her up on uneven surfaces up until a few days ago when I sat her up in her crib and *poof* she stayed there. Amazingly, I didn't run to get my camera but that's probably because she wasn't in a super cute outfit. Yes, I'm neurotic. Wait is that the right word...looking it up online..."Also called psychoneurosis. a functional disorder in which feelings of anxiety, obsessional thoughts, compulsive acts, and physical complaints without objective evidence of disease, in various degrees and patterns, dominate the personality." Yes, that's me.

And my sarcasm brings me to another point: My Blog. I've been having quite the struggle with honesty/secrets/being myself (call it what you like) lately. Ever since receiving a rather subjective comment around week 30 of my pregnancy followed by a very disheartening email, I've kept my true feelings on most subjects to myself. I feel that my sarcasm and humor have been completely lost in this blog and I'm sorry to the few people who read along every week for the extremely boring content. There were a million things I wanted to say over the past months, but bit my tongue for fear of being too transparent and possibly hurting feelings or offending others. Although I love my daughter to pieces and could talk about her for days on end, every week when I write this blog I feel like I'm saying 'blah blah blah.' At least inbetween the 'blahs' I'd like to throw in something with perspective about the delights, struggles, and flat out hysteria that comes along with being a mom. I recently heard about this mom who blogged about her journey to and through motherhood and took a no-holds-barred approach...she ended up making tons of money with a huge blog readership which led to book deals and tv appearances. Not that I could ever be remotely that interesting, but I admired that she was able to speak her mind and share her true thoughts with the world even despite receiving lots of critisism for it. So now I wonder if I should just say whatever I want in this blog or start another one somewhere and keep this one just a weekly Embry update or just forget about saying what I want to and continue doing what I've been doing? Then I think about all the stuff I didn't say and how dissapointed I am that all those raw feelings were never expressed or documented, not only for my own selfish reasons but it might have helped someone else in the long run, who knows? Now I sit and wonder if I should delete this entire paragraph. Guess I'll just throw it out there and chalk it up to the 'what's done is done' mentality.

Week 21

21 Weeks old on 4/10/09

Well Embry has another cold. She's had a dry cough since the last time we took her to the dr (about a month ago) and then this morning she woke up with snot all over her face, gurgling, sneezing, and gooing of the eyes. I took her to the dr because I knew that if it was worse tomorrow then I would have felt bad for not taking her in today (otherwise I'd have to wait till monday.) So basically he said her lungs are clear, so it's just a cold. She got her weight taken, with clothes on, and was 15lbs 10oz. I asked if he had any advice for getting her to take a bottle. Other than trying out nipples that are similar to a boob, he didn't have any advice. He said if she's hungry enough, she'll eat to which I said, 'well when my mom is babysitting and Embry is screaming, I'll have her call you.' :)

An incident occured yesterday which I debated telling Tony or not, but decided it was probably best if I did. I put Embry on the couch sideways leaning back in her boppy while I sat on the floor to put away some wrapping paper. I would have put her in her swing or something, but I was about to take her upstairs to change her diaper. Then I get distracted for a minute because some loon on Oprah was talking about mothers telling daughters about vibrators (hello!) and then 'thud.....WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!' As you can imagine, somehow Embry either rolled over or scootched off the couch and fell onto the floor hitting her head on the coffee table in the process. So I picked her up, bounced her around for a sec, then started feeding her at which point she forgot she was even hurt in the first place. I got an icepack to put on her head, but after about a half hour it was barely even a scratch, so I'm guessing there won't be any permanent damage. Obviously I felt really bad, but I'm sure it won't be the last time she bumps her head. I must have really been having a spacey day because I almost overflowed the pool yesterday too, but that's another story.

Embry's tutu and matching headband are complete. I'm not sure I want to have her picture taken when she's sick though. I might take some here at home in the meantime while she gets better. I looked for some baby ballet slippers today at the mall, but did not have any luck. I'm thinking it would be a waste of money to buy some just for a picture anyhow, but it would be a nice finishing touch on her outfit.

She turns 5 months old on Tuesday. When I look back, I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I was just thinking the other day that I wish she could stay this age forever. She's adorable, she sleeps 12 hours a night, she laughs and smiles all the time, she can't really go anywhere (except falling off the couch apparently), she fits into my arms perfectly...I don't know, it just seems like I could live the rest of my life stuck in this time with her and be completely happy.

Week 20

20 Weeks old on 4/3/09

I finally got Embry's 4 month shots on Tuesday. Boy that was an interesting experience! The shot part itself was pretty standard. I held her on my lap and the nurse gave her 3 shots in her right thigh. I thought it might be good to get all her shots in one leg since last time it hurt afterwards when she would move her legs. She cried, but not nearly as much or as loud as last time. I thought she might even be ok without getting fed right afterwards, but I decided to cover my bases and fed her for a few minutes anyway. Good thing too because the nurse had forgotten to have me sign for one of the shots.

The interesting/extremely frustrating part was the waiting to get in. I didn't mind waiting since Embry was really well behaved, but there was a mom and her 2 kids (7 and 6) who sat right next to us. The 2 kids were obviously not feeling well since their voices were hoarse, they keep sniffling, and they were sneezing/coughing. Well, they repeatedly got within an inch of Embry's face (I'm not exaggerating) and talked to her. They were trying to be funny and play with her, but my goodness, I was about to freak out. I'm normally not at all germophoby, but this was a little extreme even for me. So what am I spos to do in that situation? Moving across the waiting room would have been blatantly rude (although it was rude of the mom not to corale her kids in my opinion) and saying something would have caused confrontation (which we all know I'm extremely opposed to.) So yes, I was really confused, hurt, and frustrated by the time we were called into the exam room.

In other news, Embry no longer wants to take her bottle and it is a little bit maddening. She used to not have any issue with taking it, but now she'll just squish the nipple around in her mouth which causes the milk to flow down the side of her face and make a mess. She will suck a few times or if she's super hungry, but I don't know what her deal is. I'm contemplating buying those bottles where the nipples are more like a boob shape, but then I feel like if she doesn't like that either then I'd just be wasting a bunch of money. Also, we're out of size 2 diapers. According to our scale she's 16 lbs now, which is the bottom threshold for size 3, so we just moved her into those tonight. Hopefully they won't leak overnight.

I found a rainforest jumperoo on craigslist today for $45 and when I called the lady I expected it to be gone, but I was the first one who called! So I drove to the middle of nowhere (ie Catalina) and picked it up. Embry loves it, so it was definitely worth the drive! Woohoo!