Growing Up Nehmer: June 2010

Emma is 6 weeks old as of yesterday. That was the same day that she melted my heart!! I remember that Benjamin would smile at us with huge open mouth grins about as early as 4 or 5 weeks. I was waiting and waiting for this day to happen with Emma. Few have claimed that she has given them a smile or two but I wasn't sure until yesterday that those were actually smiles and not gas. Yesterday, after Benjamin went to bed, I laid Emma in front of me on my lap and was talking to her and smiling. All the sudden, she was smiling back, and not just a grimace but a huge, wide, open mouth smile followed by cooing and mouthing back or copying my mouth movements. She continued to smile back and forth with me for at least a half of an hour. Those were the sweetest smiles I have ever seen! She has the cutest crooked smile. After I passed her off to daddy, she continued to show off those chubby smiles and melt daddy's heart too!
Today, I wasn't sure if she was going to continue smiling or if she just had a good day. Tonight, I got my answer! She was smiling again in response to me, it wasn't just a fluke and it made me get teary eyed because she hit this milestone and was responding to mommy! Even though I have been through this with Benjamin, it doesn't make it any less as sweet!! How can a baby's smile not melt you to pieces!! I can't wait until she laughs!!

Tomorrow, Emma will be 4 weeks old. And in 3 more days, she will be a month old! I can't believe it has been almost a month already. Almost a month since I slept in my own bed. Almost a month since I slept flat on my back without something laying on my chest. Almost a month since my 2 year old has felt abandoned by his mommy! Almost a month since I got more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying my beautiful little girl, but sometimes it still seems surreal. My little guy is searching for attention every second he can. He has been struggling with some hitting, biting, and naughtiness, but I feel like most of it stems from the lack of being #1 anymore. Personally, I feel like he gets just as much attention, if not more, especially from all the time he spends with daddy. Apparently, it's still not enough. He is still my little angel and I remind him of that every second I can.

Since Emma has been home, it has been a whirlwind of emotions. She has been a great baby and sleeps still most of the day. She is pretty predictable. If she wakes, she wants to eat. As soon as she is done eating, she pretty much passes right back out. Typically though, she at least finishes eating before she passes out, which is unlike Ben when he was a baby. I struggled feeding him because I could not keep him awake. Emma eats sometimes for a half of an hour, passes out for 10 minutes, and then wakes up crying to eat again. Sometimes we do this for hours, even though I feel like she has already emptied each breast!

I think I have gotten her to smile at me a couple times but I am still not sure if it was just gas or a mommy smile. She holds her head and neck up pretty well when trying to look for food. She seems to be growing very fast. At her 2 week appointment 2 weeks ago, she had gone from 7 pounds 4 ozs. that she weighed when we left the hospital, to 8 pounds 10 ozs. and was up to 22 inches from 20 inches that she was born at. Ben grow almost exactly the same. So almost a month old and almost too big for 0-3 month clothes already!! Thank goodness for hand-me-downs, otherwise I would have wasted alot of money on clothes she might never wear!

So far Ben doesn't pay too much attention to his new sister. The most he does is say, "baby cry" when she cries and when he is dispensing his kisses, he will kiss her head. Otherwise, he doesn't even pay attention to her at all. We managed to get one picture of him holding her. He was sitting on the couch and I quick set her in his lap. To my amazement, he didn't fuss or shy away. He is enjoying playing with all the old baby stuff. Today we tried to take them both for a walk and both of them wanted to be carried! She was fussy in her car seat/stroller so I carried her and pushed and he didn't want to walk so Jared carried him most of the way. I offered for him to sit in the car seat, even though he is too big, and he was more than happy too! He looked so funny, squished up in the car seat in the stroller. He just rolled along with a huge grin on his face!

Ben's vocabulary has taken off in the past month. He is so much better at putting words together, although Jared and I are still pretty much the only ones that can understand most of what he says. He loves to mimic most words that he says from us and TV and music. He is such a character. When he used to say thank you, we would say your welcome. Now he just says, "thank you welcome." He is also saying things like "Hi daddy", "I get it", "you get it", "be right back". Before he goes to bed, he likes to spit out almost every word he knows and things that are on his mind. Tonight before bed, this is what I could hear him telling daddy in the monitor:
Ben: "Daddy. Baby cry. Mommy. Grandma and Charlie. Grandma. House. Charlie. Cars. Charlie. Grandma's house. Dog ball. Grandma. Dinosaur. Grandma."
He has a whole lot to say!
Well, I am sure I had more to say but baby duty calls. I don't get much of a chance away from momma's girl who is a spittin image of her daddy!!
Love to you all and thanks again everyone for sharing in our special journey.

Ben and his haircut showing off his party beads!!