Random Birthday Thoughts

(I meant to post this on Emery's bday, but it just didn't work out. Better late than never!)


I feel like the culture here in the South is pretty different than where I grew up. People here speak their mind---simple, blunt, and honest. While I'm used to getting lots of "beautiful baby" type comments when I'm out and about with Emery at the grocery store or running errands (she's been called everything from a simple "cutie" to "sweet potato pie" by those passing by), lately I've been the one getting comments---and not about my beauty (haha), about my age: "Is that baby yours?" "How old are you?" and my favorite today while I was at the store with the baby: "You look just like a baby yourself!"(make sure to read that last one with a heavy southern accent for full effect). I never know quite how to respond to these abrupt comments---do I say thank you? Anyhow, I guess it's nice to hear, because I'm feeling a bit old now that I have a 1 YEAR OLD!

I can't believe how quickly a year has gone by and how quickly my sweet tiny baby has become not so tiny and progressively less a baby (but she's still very sweet) :). She gives me big, wet "kisses," points to her nose, tries to comb her hair, puts the phone to her ear to "talk," plays hide and seek with me around the house, and thinks she's grown up enough to be the sole keeper of my car keys. It's so fun to see each new little step she makes into growing up. She has such a sweet, fun personality and I can just tell she's a thinker---quietly but confidently curious about people and things. She also likes to be silly, and when she notices me quietly laughing at something funny she's doing, she gives me a big grin and keeps right on doing it. She's recently developed a little attachment to her stuffed dog and won't leave her crib without bringing her "gog" along with her.

I love that Emery's birthday is right on the brink of spring. Budding tulips and brilliant daffodils take me right back to those early months of Emery, when I would often take her out for walks. I hope warm weather and the pretty flowers that come in early spring will always remind me of the birth of my little Emery. Today in the grocery store, an older woman stopped me, told me my baby was "just beautiful" and then looked me straight in the eyes and pointedly charged, "you enjoy every day of her." I guess sometimes those grocery store comments do hit the nail right on the spot :)

I sure love my little Emery Jane and hope that I continue to enjoy her more with each passing day.

11 months

Dear Emery,

This last month flew by, though we didn't do too much out of the ordinary. We've got a pretty good daily routine these days with three meals, snacks, exercising, two naps, cleaning/laundry, running errands, and at least a once weekly, get-out-of-the-house adventure. Adventures include the aquarium, the park, the library, or my new favorite: Ikea. You love seeing all the colors, people, and playing with the toys there. Ikea is close to us and great for simply getting out of the house.

I find you in the funniest places :)

You are still obsessed with dogs, and love books. Some new things you like to do are comb or brush your hair, play peek-a-boo, and "sing," which is probably my favorite. When I sing to you, you get this cute little look on your face, raise your eyebrows, and start softly singing "ga-ga-ga." It's so cute! You are quite the helper these days---anytime there's laundry to be folded, dishes to be loaded, or food to be made, you want in on the action. I can't open the fridge or pantry door without you scurrying over to see what's inside. When I'm in the kitchen, you pull yourself up on the back of my legs until I pick you up and show you what's cookin'. 

"helping" with the laundry (aka throwing it out of the basket as fast as you can)

Speaking of food, you are doing great with solids these days. You still nurse a lot, but you love bananas, oatmeal, beans, lentils, spinach smoothie, squash, and pretty much anything that we're eating. Also, you've finally been sleeping 11-13 hours through the night which makes for a much more rested momma. Since your dad's school has been less intense lately, you've been getting in some extra daddy time which is so fun! You love to crawl around the house with dad "chasing you." He makes you laugh and laugh and gives you all kinds of interesting nicknames (currently: oooo-deee, t'mon/t'mon-ee). My favorite time with you is bedtime---and not just because it's right before I get some "me" time; I love how quiet and still you are as I rock you and how you let me sing you songs, kiss your cheeks, and tickle you under your cute little chin. Well, I can't believe you will be a year old soon. I can't wait to see how you'll change in just month's time. Keep being your crazy, silly, cute, and curious little self!


Love,

Mom

10 months

Dear Emery,

Happy 10 months + 2 days! I often think about all the fun things I should be recording about you and hope to do better at it this year. For the past month of your life, we’ve been traveling and visiting family members. You’ve been a gem through all of it---plane rides, lots of new faces, and even the bumpy, off-roading trip to the desert (in fact, you didn’t complain nearly as much as I did about that one).

Here’s just a few quick things I want to remember about you:

4 teeth at 8 months

Pushing yourself up to sitting position at 9 months

Crawling (finally!) at 9.5 months

Pulling yourself up on furniture and cruising at 9.5 months

Eating solids like cheerios and bread (without choking) at 9.5 months

Drinking water from a bottle at 9.5 months

10 month stats: 17 in head circumference,17.2 lbs, and 27 in. long

You have quite the array of little tricks these days. My favorite is probably waving. You started consciously waving to people around 8 months and have since been perfecting your wave. You used to just wave by folding at the wrist, then you started folding your fingers down with your palm facing you (it was so cute how you waved to yourself!), and now you’ve put it all together to fold your fingers down and face them toward the person you are waving at. Basically, anything moving gets a nice hand wave from you these days (including animals, the flames of a fire, trees, etc.) It’s so cute and fun to watch how social and aware you are of the people and things around you.

At about 9.5 months, you started doing a funny little bear crawl in addition to your normal crawling. While all this moving around makes more work for me, I honestly don’t mind, because it’s so neat to see you gaining more skills and more control over your tiny little body. Another trick is what we call “crazy face,” where you either smile or open your mouth wide and then shake your head all over the place. It evolved while we were on a long car ride. I think you wanted out of your car seat, so you started flopping your head around. Your dad copied you, you thought it was funny, and what could’ve been a meltdown turned into a game. Now you do crazy face just for fun, or to music.

You recently started doing the actions for your favorite “Popcorn Popping” song, and you love to clap your hands together. During our stay at the Hoyts, all the boys were up in the loft watching a football game and even though you couldn’t see them, you heard their occasional bursts of yelling and clapping and would face the direction all the racket was coming from and add your own clapping to it. So funny! You’re also really fascinated by books these days...you love looking at them, playing with them, and turning the pages.

Reading with Aunt Hailey.
She was your best friend while we were at the Hoyt's!

In other news, you’re still not sleeping through the night (vacation didn’t help that), but I’m not too worried about it at the moment. It’ll happen someday. Eating and everything else is going great. You recently decided that sneezing or watching people sneeze is pretty funny and you are constantly “ga-ga”-ing and “ma-ma”-ing and “da-da”-ing. You took a particular liking to the Hoyt’s dog at Chrismas time and I’m pretty sure you try to say the word “dog.” Most times it comes out like “gog,” but pretty exciting nonetheless. Since your dad and I hate dogs, I’m not counting it as your official first word yet. J Everytime you see a dog (they're quite prevalent in our apartment complex) your whole body goes rigid and you flap your arms around excitedly saying "gog, gog."

Just playing :)

You got spoiled with all kinds of attention over the break from family members, it was so neat to watch you get acquainted with all your extended family and so sad to have to leave them all behind. You seem to gather smiles from everyone: great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, teenage uncles, young cousins, etc. I’m constantly amazed at how many smiles and how much laughter a sweet baby like you can bring to all and especially to me.

With the Hoyt fam

With the Jensen fam

Sometimes your dad and I jokingly debate about who loves you more, me or him. The funny thing is, each of us is pretty sure that we’re winning. Thanks for being such a sweet, happy baby. While I want you to be little forever, I can’t wait to watch you grow up!

Love,

Mom   

8 months

Dear Emery,

Today you are 8 months old! The past two months have gone by fast, and it seems you are learning and changing everyday. At 7-1/2 months, your dad noticed that you were getting a tooth! Since then, another one popped up and you are now working on your third. You gnaw on everything and drool everywhere. I'm amazed at how much drool comes out of your tiny little mouth. As far as your temperament goes, you've been a champ. I really haven't noticed a change in your fussiness or irritability level. Mainly, you continue to be a happy, fairly easy-going baby.

It's funny to think back to the days when you weren't eating well, because now you love to nurse and are making good progress on solids. You eat oatmeal every morning and in the evening have squash, green beans, or your new favorite: black beans. Sometimes I give you cold apple slices to gnaw and suck on and you really like that as well.

In the past two months, we've been two busy girls. Here's some of what we've been up to:

Running! You didn't like the new jogger stroller for a while, but now you do just fine in it on our daily runs. The picture below is you and your buddy, Ryker. He's about twice your age and seems twice your size. You guys are pretty cute together. We go running with him and his mom, Lindsay, nearly everyday. Having a running buddy has been very effective for me. On those days that I just don't feel like running, I usually get a text message like this from Lindsay: "How does a run sound?" and I usually say something like, "Terrible. I'll meet you outside in 10 minutes?" Thus we push each other...out of bed and out the door...up the hills and down the hills...all the while pushing you and Ryker. It's a good system we've got going.

City Adventures! We went to the world of Coca-Cola when your Uncle Tim was here. This was something I wasn't too excited about, since we don't drink Coke and I'm not too interested in soda in general. However, it was really fun to learn about how coke was invented (by a pharmacist in Atlanta) and see and taste all their many different soda and juice products from around the world. We also went to the Georgia Aquarium with Lindsay and Ryker and had a great time. You were really excited about the penguins (forgive the blurry penguin picture...I was holding you in one arm and trying to take pictures with the other).

Friends! Clara came over to play one day. She's exactly one week older than you and as the youngest baby in her family with three older brothers, she wasn't phased a bit by your poking and prodding of her. You had a fun time playing together.  Another day, we made dee-licious caramel apples with some of your dad's classmates: Jenny and Jackie. They had fun playing with you (and the caramel apples were to die for. I might have to make more before this autumn is over...just in the off chance that I don't live to see another caramel apple season. Because they were just that good. Recipe here).

At 8 months, you're trying really hard to scoot/crawl and I'm wishing really hard that you slept through the night (you usually wake up twice, sometimes once if I'm lucky). You weigh a little over 16 pounds and seem pretty short to me. Your feet are the tiniest little things...still in the 0-3 month shoe size. I've started buying you 6-9 month size clothing even though you fit perfectly into your 6 month clothes still. (I know these details are probably kind of boring, but they're things I want to be able to look back on and remember). You continue to be super cute and we continue to love you more and more as time goes on. Keep growing, little one.

Love,

Mom

5 months

 

Dear Emery,

Happy 5 months! I'm amazed at how much you change in just a month's time. These days, you love playing with toys and you make sure I know it if I take one away before you're done with it. You also love paper and plastic...and it's probably not a good thing...but if I let you crinkle a piece of paper in your hands (closely supervised to prevent it going into your mouth) you are the happiest, most excited little girl on the planet. The soft, stuffed bunnies that Grandma Hoyt got for you and the bright pink poodle that Grandma Dana/Jensen (not sure what we're calling her yet...) got for you seem to be some of your favorites. Up until now, you haven't shown much interest in books, but these days you seem to love looking at the pages and helping me turn them.

Guess what else? Your sleeping and eating seem to be improving greatly. For the past week, you've slept around 11 hours at night, only waking up once around 3 am. I hope you keep it up and getting better and better! Also, you are nursing better than you ever have before. Life seems to be looking up around here these days :)

In the past month, you got your first haircut (just a little trim from me...it was time for the natural mohawk to be tamed), tried a few solids and so far only like squash, have been giggling and smiling lots, and love being in the center of whatever's going on (cooking, cleaning, crafting). I'm starting to think you're growing up too quick! My favorite part of each day is coming to get you out of your crib when you wake up---you smile and flap your arms around, looking at me like I'm the coolest thing since sliced bread. It's so cute!

Love,

Mom

Letter to Emery---4 months

Dear Emery,

Happy four month birthday! You weigh 13 lbs, are 23.5 in. long, and your head is 16.5 in. around. Each of those measurements put you in about the 50th percentile.
Yay for a healthy average :)

While your stats may be common, I think your personality is above and beyond :)
These days you love exploring with your hands and are so curious about the world. You reach out to grab onto just about anything---the doctor's examining hands, the dinner plate placed just a couple inches too close to you, my necklace, your own shirt (we see lots of your tummy these days), etc. You love to be held facing out to see the world (unless you're sleepy--then you like to be upright with your head on my shoulder).

This outfit finally fits you! It was the first little 0-3 month outfit I bought when I found out that you were a girl!

You have rolled from your back to your tummy while on my bed, and while propped up slightly on the floor. We'll wait 'til you do it alllll by yourself on the floor before we count it as a new trick---but you're getting close! You love to be propped sitting up and are always using your abs, trying to sit-up better. You also love playing with your little toes and kicking them up in the air, looking at yourself in the mirror, seeing your dad when he gets home from school, and being sung to.

You are smiling pretty well these days and have laughed a few times...at the strangest things. Yesterday I was simply carrying a bucket of wheat around the house and you just thought it was hilarious. Don't ask me why!

The pediatrician is really confident that you have acid reflux and that is what is causing your feeding problems. The only time I can get you to eat for more than a couple minutes is during the night when you're sleepy or sometimes during the day when you're really tired. Sometimes after eating or suddenly during a nap, you start screaming inconsolably. It's sad for me to think you are uncomfortable and/or hungry all the time, and the fact that my milk flows really fast is not helpful. We are working with the doctor to try and find some things that will help you. I hope you get better soon! Your night-time sleep and any good routine/schedule we had going for us is just completely out the window. I spend most of the day trying to help you eat and at night you wake up about 4 times (though you have done two 7-hour sleeping nights since we've been in Georgia). I can't really complain about you getting up in the night, though, because I'm just happy that usually you will eat smoothly at those times!

Your dad and I talk about how it's hard to think back to before you were born---it just really seems like you've been in our family for a lot longer than 4 months! While I look forward to when your reflux is better and your nights a bit longer, I also am enjoying you now. It's such a sweet thing to watch you learn and grow and see how you are discovering this beautiful world. Keep it up little one :)

Love,

Mom

Letter to Emery---15 weeks

Dear Emery,

You are almost 4 months old!
Oh how your life has changed since I last wrote.
We moved to Georgia; you have your own room and bathroom (probably the only time in your life that will happen...too bad you're too young to appreciate it!), fun pools to play in, a nice ward with lots of friends your age, and many new things to get used to (like spiders. and giant crunchy centipedes. shudder.)

Your dad and I think you just get cuter and cuter and more fun as you grow older---it's so exciting to watch you learn new things. For example, you've been rolling from your tummy to your back for quite a few weeks now...I think it's your way of getting out of doing tummy time :). On the day before Father's Day, you laughed for the first time! Here's how it happened: you were on the couch and me and your dad were rearranging our furniture for the bajillionth time and your dad started waving his arms up and down like a crazy person at you and apparently you thought it was pretty funny. How fitting that your first laugh was at your dad...I think there will be many more laughs in the future that stem from him. We haven't replicated your laugh again, but we've come close and we'll keep trying!

Outside near the pool on a hot day

You love to grab onto things these days---you bat your hands at toys and are fascinated by bright colors and people. You are always trying to sit up too (probably because we often keep you semi-propped up to help with the reflux). You are a pro now at holding your head steady and recently got to experience the Bumbo! You seem so tiny in it to me, but you like it pretty well.

You also love using your leg muscles to stand up. It's so funny to watch you wobble back and forth on unsteady muscles as we support you by your arms. This past week, I took you to the pool! You looked adorable in your swimsuit, too bad I didn't really get any pictures. We'll get some soon though. Some of my favorite times are when we just "talk" together. I'll be holding you and all of a sudden you just stare real intently at me and start making all kinds of baby noises. When I respond back, you get a big smile on your face and start talking again. It's so cute! On Father's Day, you had a special surprise for your dad. Kind of. You had a little blow out while he was holding you :) But it's okay. He was a good sport and let me take a picture. I love the expressions on your faces.

It's fun for me and you to spend our days together! Hopefully we start getting more sleep soon and have the energy to go on more adventures. We are still working on unpacking and getting settled. It's been a slow process, but is coming along. Well, I feel like there is lots more I could tell you---guess I'll save it for a couple weeks later. Though you take a lot of time and energy, your dad and I love having you in our family! I am learning so many new things as a mother and am excited to keep watching you grow and develop.

Love,

Mom

Letter to Emery (8 weeks)

Dear Emery,

You are nearly 8 weeks old now! I can't believe how big you're getting; you're almost 10 pounds by now. Much has happened since I last wrote.

As you can see...the double chin is coming in nicely :)

First of all, you made your first road trip to Nyssa! With two feeding stops, our trip only took about 8 hours instead of 6.5 (I believe your dad took advantage of being the driver and made up for lost time if you know what I mean). Your dad left us in good hands with the Jensen family for the week while he flew around the country trying to decide where to go to Physical Therapy School. How nice it was to just hand you over to Grandma and Grandpa on a couple of those mornings and get an extra hour of sleep!

Your Easter outfit! Headband made by me and
adorable bunny gown from Grandma Hoyt

In Nyssa, you learned a new skill---smiling! You're still working on it a bit, but it's definitely there and makes my day to see it. Hopefully one of these days I'll catch it with a camera. You also got to meet your Baxter great-grandparents!

Emery and Baxter Great-Grandparents

Your family sure loves you lots! It was especially fun to watch Uncle Nate (who's almost 5 years old now) interact with you. He was convinced that petting your head was comparable to petting his fluffy kitty, Zurk. He said things like "I just looooove Emery," and "I think that Emery thinks I'm her best friend." Luckily, we convinced Nate and Grandma J to make the drive back to Utah with us. Not only did Grandma drive the whole way, she also succeeded in reaching Nate's McDonalds chicken nuggets daily quota, stopping for all my bathroom breaks, and making sure we were getting you fed. We even stopped in Burley and met your Jensen great-grandparents! I wish I would've gotten a picture. Hopefully you get to see them again when you aren't as fussy :). Great-grandma Jensen gave us one of my favorite books: Love You Forever. Both me and your dad read the book to you last night (dad did the reading parts, I did the singing parts).

We borrowed this cute flower from Aunt Mallory while she was at school :)

Love this little face :)

This past Sunday, your dad and I made an attempt at taking you to church. You and I were both bathed, dressed, and ready to go (which is no small feat), but 1:00 sacrament meeting just happened to fall at your feeding time...so you ended up being hungry and we spent the hour feeding in the car. I'll let you know in the future how attempt #2 goes!

One thing that you've been struggling with the past few weeks is feeding. You've been super fussy and grumpy and it takes about an hour to get you to eat for only 10 minutes or so. It's been a frustrating experience for both of us! This week, I went to the lactation clinic to see if they could help us, and it turns out I have a LOT of milk  (which I was definitely aware of) and a pretty hefty let-down reflex (sorry if that's TMI). No wonder you've been fuming mad---you've essentially been trying to drink from a fire hose! We got some help and are doing a little bit better. We also visited the pediatrician and got some Prevacid for you because it seems like you've been having some reflux that makes you uncomfortable. I really hope that you start eating better, because right now it's virtually impossible to nurse you in public. Since you and I will likely be making a plane ride to Georgia in a month, this is kind of stressing me out.

Today your dad and I tried to ask how you felt about living in Georgia for at least the next two years, but you didn't seem to respond much, so we're assuming it's okay :) A plus for you is that you will get your very own room! You won't have to sleep in the living room/kitchen area or nap on mom and dad's bed :)

Well, time continues to go by quickly and I'm still amazed at how much there is to learn as a mom! I'm hoping you start sleeping more at night and eating better. Keep smiling away :)

Love,

Mom

Letter to Emery (life the past three weeks)

Dear Emery,

You are over three weeks old as I write this! Time is going by fast, but slow at the same time. You are beautiful! Every time I look at your tiny little face, fingers, and toes I am amazed at how perfect they are. I am even more amazed that you are mine! However, I try to keep in mind where you came from---that you are truly a daughter of Heavenly Father.

cute little toes :)

 It's funny how almost anything you do is wonderful to us! Your dad and I could hold you for hours and be entertained simply by the funny faces you make in your sleep.

Dad laughing at your funny sleeping faces

For the most part, you have been a happy baby. I feel lucky and hope this continues! For your first week of life, my mom (your grandma) and the rest of the Jensen family came down to help us out. I don't think we would have survived without them! Having them make us meals, clean, do laundry, and help us get to appointments was life saving. After the Jensen fam left (and just when I was starting to subsist on cheerios daily), Grandma Hoyt showed up to help! What a blessing. It has been fun having you meet so many family members---everyone adores and loves you so much.

Emery and Grandma Hoyt

In the past few weeks I have felt overwhelming joy, love, and peace. However, I've also felt some physical pain, emotional stress and anxiety, and quite honestly, some grief regarding the loss of the way my life used to be. It's a big change to go from being spontaneous and free to living in a 4 hour cycle in which I sleep night and day, wear sweats and pajamas around the clock (when my incision was still a bit tender for jeans), am pretty confined to the house (unless the weather is nice outside and we go for a walk!), and ultimately my time, my life, my world revolves around one thing: you. I'm realizing that my life used to pretty much revolve around me. So far, motherhood has been a great lesson in unselfishness.

Some highlights from the past week: bath time! Well...sponge-bath time! At first you weren't too sure how you liked being bathed. We've found that as long as we keep it quick, you don't mind a bit. Your umbilical cord fell off yesterday though, so you'll be getting real baths now! You are also learning to nurse better (thankfully), and are gaining weight well! At your two week appointment you were up to 6lbs 11 oz! Still small...7th percentile in fact...but the doc said that's really good for you :) Take heart, though, your head size was in the 25th percentile---so at least your brain is good-sized. Also at your two week appointment, you were the unhappy recipient of one heel stick (PKU test), one shot, and a frenotomy (you were a bit tongue-tied, so they clipped the frenulum holding your tongue down). Let's just say it's a good thing the nurse left the room quickly after all of this because you weren't the only one that was teary-eyed! I was surprised at how hard it was for me to watch you be in pain.

Bath time!

Well, I've discovered that the key for me these past three weeks has been to take it one day at a time...one feeding at a time...one nap at a time. Being a mom is beautiful and I've had distinct feelings that it's definitely the most important thing I can do with my life---and it's what I want to do more than anything else! I'm trying to focus on just enjoying every minute of you, because everyone tells me you'll grow up too fast, that this newborn stage will pass too soon. In the meantime, know that you are wonderful, a miracle. Let's continue learning and growing together. I'll keep writing.

Love,

Mom