All Smiles!

1 Month?!

This past month has absolutely flown by and I'm sure I'll be saying that the rest of my life! Emmersyn is a great baby, although she doesn't have much "happy" time. She is either eating, sleeping or crying. However, she is VERY happy when she's held so if she's awake she's almost always in my arms or strapped to me in the Moby Wrap. I've always loved wearing my babies, but she has been worn more than both of the other two. Kasey got me the Moby as a gift and I could just kiss her for getting it for me, it has literally made my life so much easier. Emmersyn will sleep for hours and hours in it (today she slept for 4 hours in it).

Speaking of sleep, she started out her first week or so sleeping at night for 6 hour stretches and I was thrilled because I needed the sleep! However, after that week she changed things up and is now sleeping for 3-4 hour stretches which I can handle. I do feel fairly sleep deprived most days, but I think I will probably be tired until all my kids are out of the house!

Emmersyn started smiling at about a week and a half old and smiles more and more each day. I think she may be getting a cold, Riley and I have one and I have a feeling we've given it to her. As much as I've tried to keep Riley away from her and as much as we wash our hands it may not have been enough...

She had her 1 month doctor's appointment this morning and she weighed 11 lbs. 14 oz. (exactly 2 lbs. more since her birth) and was 22.25 inches long. Her head circumfrence is 37.5 cm. No shots today and Doctor Walker said she looks prefect! She was also impressed at her neck muscles, she is a strong little girl and can hold her head very well!

I don't think I mentioned this before but she had jaundice in the hospital which is normally not a big deal, but she didn't have the "normal" jaundice. She had something called a a Positive Coombs Test. Her jaundice was caused because she has A+ blood and I have O+ blood. When she was born my O+ antibodies were found in her system. It was explained to me that my antibodie were attacking her Red Blood Cells causing the jaundice. Anyways, it's a long story but thankfully it was caught and treated by the bili-lights and a bili blanket so it was not serious like it could have been. Anyways, her jaundice is completely gone now!

My sweet girl under the billights. I couldn't hold her for about 24 hours, other than when she nursed and when she did it couldn't be longer than 20 minutes because she literally couldn't be out of the lights or they were afraid her levels would spike. It was quite scary to me knowing it could have been a serious issue! But, thankfully her bilirubin levels never exceeded 9.7.

Visitors

We've had few visitors come to see us from MI since we're so far away, but we've been lucky to have a couple (other than family, of course). Our good friends, who we've missed a ton, the Hart's, came for a quick visit on their way to NC where they were moving to (that weekend). I was lucky that we weren't too far out of their way for them to come see us and meet Emmersyn. They didn't stay long, but it was so nice to see familiar faces and now that they're closer to us hopefully we can plan some "meet in the middle" get togethers!

Kendyl and Kaitlyn holding Emmersyn!

Luke and Lincoln "playing"!

Checking on our peanut while she was sleeping!

All six of our combined kids! Ty and I have now caught up :)!

The following week my good friend, Molly, and her kids came to see us. They recently moved to Columbus, OH so they are closer now too!!! They stayed for two days and Riley and Evan (especially) acted like they hadn't missed a beat. They picked up right where they left off. They play very well together and although we were widely outnumbered we had a blast. They came over on Thursday, the kids played and played and I SO enjoyed having someone older than 3 to talk to! Friday we met them at the mall, ate lunch and the kids played at Jump Street (the Bounce House). It was my first outing taking all three kids by myself and although I was suppose to meet her at 10:00 at the mall, but didn't leave here until 10:15, I'd say it was still a success!

The best shot I got of all of our kids...not a great one because it was WAY past nap time and the kids had been running around for literally hours. They weren't thrilled with us trying to get a group picture ;).

On a completly different note, check out the gift Molly got us for Emmersyn. It's the bright polka dot cover in the picture. I LOVE IT! It's called "Tensy Tents". It's a infant car seat cover. Snaps down the front to lift the kid out and snaps on the handle to stay on. I had never heard of it before she got it, but I'm in love with it and it's SO convenient to have! Thanks Mol!

I am so thankful for both Molly's and Christy's friendships and am so glad I've kept in close contact with many of my Kzoo friends still! Although I LOVE having visitors, it makes me so much more homesick, I still miss my old friends in Kzoo and the great group of women and kids we hung out with! But when I think about it the three people I hung out with the most: Mandy, Christy and Molly have all moved to Mexico, North Carolina, and Ohio so really Kalamazoo wouldn't even be he same if we moved back. But I still miss it...

So You Think You Can Dance...

Enjoy Lincoln's "So You Think You Can Dance" tryout video...

Not bad for a 2 year old!

Cereal Galore!

A very small portion of my stockpile:

Now that I can walk again I'm getting back into couponing. I took a while off because it was literally getting really hard to even walk towards the end of my pregnancy. I went to the grocery store for necessities and that was it. But now I'M BACK! Between today and yesterday I have "bought" 58 boxes of cereal. 18 yesterday and 40 today. I paid nothing out of pocket and got back $8 in catalina coupons! Yeah for free cereal. This is a good week of "deals", so I planning on making a few trips to get everything I need! (ps. I still don't let the kids have "sugary cereal"...so that's ALL for me...and Ty :))!

Comparison

So I thought Emmersyn was looking a lot like Riley...until I found this picture: (or maybe it's just the cheeks that are throwing me off :)!!)

Lincoln at 4 days old

Emmersyn at 1 day old

E's first photo shoot

Remember the photographer (Betsy Wright) who took my maternity photos? Well, over the weekend she took Emmersyn's newborn photos as well. She did a great job, even though Emmersyn didn't want to cooperate at first, peed all over her props, and the other kids were driving me nuts...she was very patient! Click HERE to take you to her website and enter the password "baby" in the box to view them.

I have to order soon...now I just need to decide which ones.