Almost 8 weeks

After about 6 weeks of seclusion, we felt it was time to take Emma to places, still being careful not to expose her too much. (Actually, yours truly was going a little stir crazy at home, and was spending considerable amount of time each day planning possible outings out of the home that would never take place. And we needed groceries.) Whenever we go somewhere, people are curious as to how old she is, to which we give two part answers: "She's 7 weeks old, but was born six and a half weeks early." Now that her "grace period" is over, and we can count her "corrected gestational age," I think I'll just say she's almost two weeks old (although she's been with us for almost 8 weeks).


Emma has been to church twice - the last time for the entire 3-hour block. She slept through the entire block (but then again, so do a lot of grown-ups!). The general public thinks she's an angel because they mostly see her sleeping peacefully. The general public isn't around when she needs attention at 2 am, 3 am, 4 am, ...



The update on Emma:

Where did my 4-pounder go? Emma is now over 7 pounds based on the "weigh with her and then without her" method on my bathroom scale. She has a two-month check-up next week, so we'll get the official weight. On her due date (April 15th), Emma weighed about six and a half pounds, so we think that's probably what her normal birth weight would have been. I bought a Darla doll (that talks and laughs) that was 18" tall - a regular sized doll - when we brought Emma home. Emma is now bigger than the doll, finally, but still just a peanut. This cute boy is Emma's cousin, Erick, who turns two in a few days. Erick was just a tad over 5 lbs. when he was born. You can't tell he was just a little peanut!





Funny things Emma does:

When Emma wakes up, she stretches all of her limbs, and each time she turns her head or stretches a limb, she squeaks - it sounds like a squeaky door that needs WD40. She suffers from a lot of hiccups still - about 3-4 times a day - and sometimes, the hiccups will wake her up from sleep. When the hiccups get severe, she sounds like a cuckoo clock.

Emma enjoys baths for the most part, although she never likes coming out of the water. The feeling of space/insecurity still makes her very upset, and she'll flail her arms wildly and cry. Here is her first bath in a large mixing bowl(!) with her Halmoni (my mother). We've been using the same bowl for a while, but we think she'll soon graduate to a baby bath tub.

Emma likes going places in her stroller. She often falls asleep during our walks. Here is Emma and her dad leaving for a walk in the neighborhood. This is a basic Graco stroller frame (about $60) with the infant seat dropped into it. It's perfect for our needs at the moment. I recommend it highly for anyone who uses the Graco infant seats. Thank you, Auntie Kristin Welsh, for the gift!