Christmas in Connecticut

I've been negligent for more than two weeks this time! Sorry about that. The thing is, I haven't really found anything interesting to write about. Emelia is a joy to be with, but she's doing the things babies are supposed to do, which just doesn't give me much fodder for blog posts. I guess I'm just not very creative. Aaron also beat me to posting about how hard it was to put Emelia down awake, rather than holding her until she fell asleep.

We are now in Connecticut spending a week with my family. My parents and only sibling (sister Susie) live in southeastern Connecticut, where I grew up, and we spend our Christmases with them. Aaron's family is Jewish, so Christmas just isn't as important to them as to my family.

We always have a great time in Connecticut, and we are fortunate that this year my sister's kids Callumn, Acacia, and Branwyn are here for their holiday vacation, rather than in Maine with their dad. Alas, we don't see them nearly enough. We don't see any of our nieces and nephews nearly enough. They all keep growing and maturing, and we miss SO much of it!!

Emelia is having a great time being held and cuddled by her cousins, all of whom adore her. Callumn and Acacia (Cassie) are ten year old twins, and they both love babies. Branwyn is eight, and she likes Emelia, too, but she's not quite as enthusiastic about holding her. All three are great with Emelia, as they've been practicing with their one year old sister (their Dad's new daughter), Madeline.

Because she's having such a good time, however, Emelia is getting a tad overstimulated. She's not sleeping as much as she does at home, and we're having a bit of trouble getting her to go down at night. Once she's down, though, she's been really easy the rest of the night. She's not sleeping through (four hours, tops), but she'll wake and nurse for only a few minutes before going right back to sleep. This is making life much easier for me!

I've posted a few new pictures of Emelia, as well. Enjoy!

Emelia at One Month

Sorry I've been incommunicado for more than a week! We hosted our annual holiday beer tasting party on Friday, and I spent most of my "free" time last week preparing. That all is fodder for another post. I hear the party was fun, though. I spent most of it in the nursery trying to get an overstimulated baby to sleep. Now I need to find a way to tell my father in law that he was right without losing face . . . . Again, another post.

What I wanted to do in this post is to provide an update on Emelia's first month. She was one month last Thursday, December 7. Time flies! Here's the scoop:

1. She has, of course, grown. She just started wearing 3-6 month clothes because she was too long for most of the 0-3 month things we have. We haven't weighed or measured her lately, though.
2. She's smiling. We've tried to get pictures, but haven't been successful. You can ask her grandparents and Goldschmidt aunts, uncles, and cousins about the smile, too, 'cause they'll back us up. We're all convinced that she's been doing real smiles for at least a couple weeks now.
3. She seem to be a fairly easy, good natured baby. When she's awake, which is more of the time these days, she often just looks around or looks at us and smiles. This, of course, is when she's not overstimulated, which has happened a couple of times. Then she cries.
4. She loves to be held, and would prefer to spend as much of the day as possible in someone's arms. Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one who can sit down while holding her. Everyone else seems to need to move around to keep her satisfied. When she's not being held, she'll usually be content in the swing.
   
5. Yesterday, she turned her head to look at Aaron when he spoke, which we found pretty exciting. She was between us on the bed, and she was looking mostly at me, but when Aaron began speaking to her, she turned her head and looked at him. Then she turned her head back and forth when we were each speaking. It was neat.
   
6. Speaking of turning her head, she has amazing head control and upper body strength. She has since she was born. She can turn her head and look around with little support. I'm convinced it's because she "dropped" about eight weeks before she was born, so she had to support her whole body on her head and shoulders. It's a theory.
7. She loves her hands and she loves to suck. We're pretty sure she's going to be a thumb sucker, but she hasn't found her thumbs yet. She sucks her whole hand, instead. She'll sometimes take a pacifier, and she has a great suck for nursing.
8. She sleeps 3-5 hours at a time, most of the time. None of the 5 hour stretches have been at night, but we have had an occasional 4 hour stretch.
9. Aaron and I are doing well. I do most of the nighttime stuff, since Aaron's working, and I would have to be up, anyway. I'm so happy still that I'm not having too much trouble with the lack of sleep.
10. Emelia is still the most beautiful baby either Aaron or I has ever seen, and others sometimes agree with us!

I think that's Emelia in a nutshell. She's lovely and amazing, and I'm already having a little anxiety about the thought of going back to work in two months. I know I'll be leaving her in capable hands (Aaron's) for three months, but I'm just so in love with my daughter that I can barely stand to be in a different room from her, let alone be somewhere she's not for a whole day! I assure you, however, that my neuroses have not yet manifested themselves in overprotectiveness . . . I encourage others to hold her, and I do move freely about the house without her. I might even be willing at some point to leave her in Aaron's care when I leave the house, but that remains to be seen. I just wanted to let you all know that I'm not smothering her. I'm just completely smitten.