Emi's First Doctor's Appointment

Emi had a busy day today. I had to run by the office quickly to finish up a few things. Tommy and Emi went with me so that Tommy could wash the car and stop by the bank. I was planning on taking Emi inside my office with me, but as we were driving to my office I said to Tommy "Don't you just love being a dad? I love being a mom." Tommy said "Well, I feel like you get to experience being a mom more than I do a dad." I instantly felt a little guilty. Am I hogging too much time with her? Should I be delegating more tasks to him? Since Emi is strictly breast fed then I obviously get more time with her because I am feeding her at least 8 times a day and a feeding takes a minimum of 45 minutes. (Who knew breast feeding alone was a full time job?) Tommy is somewhat anxious for me to start pumping so that he can bottle feed her with the breast milk. I'm not quite as anxious as he is, but I think he knows what special bonding time Emi and I have when I feed, and I think he wants to experience that too! So while I went into the office Emi stayed with Tommy and they ran errands together.

We stopped by my mom's house for a special lunch date with my mom, Anthony and Angie. Angie LOVES babies, and she enjoyed holding Emi and Emi enjoyed being held by her. Angie was a bit upset when it was time for me to leave as there was a bit of a struggle to get Emi out of her arms. Angie kept asking my mom "Pauline, can't I hold her a little bit longer?" As if my mom had the authority to trump my decision making power over Emi. It was really sweet. Also, it was nice that Anthony seems really fond of Angie, and Anthony usually isn't fond of anybody. He was asking Angie all sorts of questions and asking her to play cars with him. It was a fun lunch! Also, Anthony also gave Emi two kisses on the forehead. Talk about major progress! I wouldn't say that Anthony loves Emi yet, but he is super sweet to her.

We made our way out to Dr. Rinderknecht's office in Waukee for Emi's appointment. This was like the first test to see if they really should have let us take Emi home from the hospital. I enjoy breast feeding, but there is a certain element of the unknown that comes with it that drives me a little nutty. (On a related note: do you know those type of people who do not find out the gender of their child until birth and they act like they are just a little bit better than those who do find out the gender? Come on, you know those type of people. Well, I totally feel that way about breast feeding. I totally have my nose up in the air about breast feeding Emi, and actually being good at it. Yah- hate all you want!). Anyway, they say babies are supposed to be back to their birth week by two weeks. Emi was born 7-13 and today she weighed.... 8-5!! As the Doctor said "Well, it looks like your breast milk came in just fine." Also, I remember my mom telling me when they measured Emi at the hospital that they did a piss poor inadequate job measuring her. Unless Emi grew 2 inches since birth, my mom is right. Today she was 22 inches long. She was measured at 20 1/4 at the hospital.

I absolutely love Dr. Rinderknect. I love how the nurses in the office wanted to hold Emi like they don't see a new born everyday. I love how before Dr. Rinderknecht came into our room I heard him say to the nurse "Oh, I've met Emi before!" Seriously, this guy sees tons of babies at the hospital each week and he remembered our little Emi!! He keeps a straight face when Tommy asks him why some of Emi's poop stinks and some doesn't (kudos to my hubby for sniffing her diaper... in my opinion, they all stink, and I don't need to sniff them!) He does a really thorough job answering our questions and taking care of Emi. It is so nice to have such a great caregiver for her! And when we leave the office he says "Well, take care of this little gal, and we'll see ya again in 6 weeks!" Will do, Doc! It also doesn't hurt that the nurses kiss your butt compliment your child by saying "Wow- she is so alert for a 2 week old!" We were beaming the entire appointment!

I found the questionnaire that they asked before the appointment a little confusing. For example, it asks "What new things is your child doing." Um.... she is two weeks old. Everything she is doing is new! They also asked random things about your child like whether she lifts her head at all while laying on her back, whether she makes eye contact with you, and whether she turns her head to noises. Well, if I knew I was going to be quizzed about this then I would have been paying better attention. I mean, I think we are making eye contact, but I'm not really sure if she is looking at me. I found the most humorous part of the survey where it asks you to mark either "not stressful" "slightly stressful" or "very stressful" to some questions. The questions included "I find taking care of my new baby..." or "With a new baby, I find my homelife is..." I marked both questions "slightly stressful." Um... isn't taking care of a newborn and adding another family member to your house stressful regardless of how well it is going? I wouldn't call it a bad stressful, but it definitely changes the dynamic. Tommy must be living in a different household because he reviewed the questionnaire and changed my answers to "not stressful at all." So says the dad....

Because Emi is over 8 pounds now she gets to use her new bouncy chair! It was a hit, but at the end of the day she just loves to be held by anybody her mama!