Emma is now 4 months! I had started taking notes on cutesy things about her during the first few weeks, but then got a bit off track. Here I am with her post on months 0-3!

Life got a bit out of control with so many major changes happening in such a short time, all the while a toddler ran around excitedly, arms flailing. Emma is growing more and more each day, with all the chubiness of a primarily breastfed baby. She is a cutie, and while we still can’t exactly tell which parent she is a mini-me of, we love getting to know her. Here is a brief recap of the last 4 months:

• Grandpa was the first grandparent to hold her at 1 week old
• Omi loves calling her “My little china doll”
• Omi says she gets the shape of her ears from her great-grandmother (Omi’s mom)
• Favorite nicknames:
  • Em Bem: Michael started this one and it seems to be sticking. I believe it is a take on the Name Game and it just fits her!
  • Emma Bear: I have been calling her Emma Bear. It’s not as rhymie-rhymie as Claire Bear, but she is just as much of a baby bear to me.
• In the very beginning she had kind of like a deep, raspy voice when she made baby noises sometimes. It was pretty funny.
• Has almost an Elmur Fud-like cry when she gets really upset. It’s sad but at the same time kind of cute.
• Gets the hiccups. A lot.
• Slept 5 hours through the night at 5 weeks! It wasn’t quite consistent yet, but at 5 weeks she seemed to be settling back to sleep more easily after being fed in the middle of the night, which was such a relief!
• Slept 8 hours at 8 weeks
• Started smiling at me and Michael and even Claire!
• Has always made sweet baby noises, and now within the past few months has really started to be quite the baby talker and even gets into laughing quite a bit when you talk to her and it is downright adorable.
• Started grabbing my hair around 2 months
• Met Uncle Joe & Aunt Conny when they came to visit for Thanksgiving. Aunt Conny assigned her a cute nickname based on her middle name (Charlotte): Lottie <3. These two were quite the entertainers and provided plenty of companionship for Emma whenever she might yell out for a friend to come hang out.
• Also got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa over the holidays. Grandma and Emma chatted and Emma was quite the giggler!
• Has now rolled over both ways. I noticed that I didn’t have her on the floor for tummy time as much as I did with Claire because now I have Claire running around and didn’t feel safe having Emma on the floor unless I was right there. But I started laying her down on the living room floor atop blankets in our new house sometimes during Claire’s naps. It was sweet to set her down there while we had the Christmas tree up so she could look up at the lights and ornaments. I remember thinking I wonder what she thinks about the Christmas tree and how big it must look to her.

I carried her around in the Ergobaby quite a bit until pretty recently, especially in the mornings because she seemed to nap better that way at that time of day. I got a KeaBabies wrap when she was first born which is something I didn’t get with Claire. I love my Ergobaby, but I remember with Claire I was worried when she was so tiny about the sides of the Ergobaby being open. And Emma was born below the minimum weight requirement for the Ergobaby and I just knew I would need a carrier for her.

It’s hard to believe that Emma started out in our old house for a few short weeks. Those first few days I was carrying her all over our 2 story house in my wrap carrier, while also having to carry Claire down the stairs or picking her up while she scampered up the stairs. No wonder my legs were sore like all the time!

Emma was with me when I found our new house, and I breastfed her while we revisited it with Michael after we had basically bought it before he even saw it in person. I also breastfed her while walking through the airport, come to think of it, but since then I have gotten a morning pumping routine down now that she sleeps nearly 10-11 hours a night! So I now have the luxury of bringing a bottle with me when we go places, and sometimes we even give her formula and are ok with it 🙂

We are at the point where we will be transitioning her out of the bassinet very soon and navigating the transition to sleeping Claire and Emma in their shared room. Claire just loves her baby sister and if I let her she would definitely carry her around like a doll baby 😉 But soon Emma will be big enough to play and I am sure they are going to have so much fun (and their share of differences, but that’s all part of sibling life!).