Emi Chan

"Chan" - used by Japanese to show the speaker finds a person endearing. My Emi doesn't really have a nickname, but I do refer to her as "Emi Chan." I also assist in immersing her into her Japanese culture by having her waive good bye to people while saying "Sayonara."

Emi is ten weeks old today. She continues to change everyday and continues to fill our hearts with so much joy! (Are wondering if this is an over-the-top post about how great my daughter is? Yes. Yes, it is!).

Probably the biggest change is that Emi now sleeps through the night. And when I mean "she sleeps through the night" I'm not talking about the 5-6 hours that she had been doing since, well, since she was in the nursery at the hospital (c'mon, you remember me complaining about the nurses in their social hour at 3am). I got a very helpful tip from a co-worker friend to "top her off" with some formula before putting her to bed. After I got over the initial feeling that we were talking about cars leaking oil rather than babies eating formula I gave it a try. I have done it three nights in a row. Right before bed I give her two ounces of formula with her three ounces of breastmilk and she sleeps about 8 hours. It has been wonderful! I can't believe I waited so long. On second thought, it is probably good that I waited so long because I do think it is having a detrimental effect on my breastmilk supply (along with the exercising I have been doing). I am not sure how I feel about that yet. On one hand I feel really good about getting more and deeper sleep and some exercise. On the other hand, I feel really guilty that I am barely producing enough to feed her each day. I had a goal to breastfeed for six months. I have made it ten weeks so far. I'm not sure where I'm going from here.

Here Emi is with her first bottle of formula. Yah, no news really. She didn't mind it one bit.

Another big change is that Emi is now sucking her thumb. At first I was somewhat horrified by it. When I was younger, my sister sucked her thumb. A lot of my childhood memories are of my mom yelling at my sister to try to break that habit. I have been reading in books that it can be a good thing for a child to suck their thumb because they are learning to soothe themselves and are not relying on somebody else to provide the pacifier to soothe them. I did not think that this was a good thing because when I was ready to break her of the pacifier habit I could just yank it away. I can't very well chop off her thumbs. Now watching her spit her pacifier out to get her thumb into her mouth just melts my heart (much like everything else she does).

Emi is still quite the chatter box. In the mornings I get her out of her crib, which by the way, she is usually just smiling as I walk in and looks up as to say "oh, its you again!" I nurse her in my bed and then hand her off to Tommy and go downstairs to pump. This morning as I walked back up the stairs and down the hallway to our bedroom I could hear her and Tommy "talking." She would say a few things back to Tommy as he would talk to her. Honestly, I don't know how you could have a bad day after hearing that.

Here she is "talking" tonight with daddy. I also wanted to get a picture of her with her "Japanese Flag" pajamas before she grows out of them! Yes, she is about grown out of the three month size.

Emi had her two month appointment at the doctor on April 3. She was 25 inches long (remember she was 22 inches at her two week appointment and allegedly 20 1/4 at birth). Her length is the 99th percentile. Grandpa thinks she is going to be a basketball player which he thinks is great so long as she isn't like the girl on the Baylor team. She weighed 11 pounds 15 ounces which was the 61st percentile. Her head circumference is in the 89th percentile. I knew she was smart! Two month appointment also meant immunizations. That was miserable for all parties involved. A few minutes after the shot she was fine for a few hours, but it made for a miserable evening. I nursed her most of the evening. Sometimes she would forget she was mad at me and look up and smile and then start fussing after remembering the pain.

Emi continues to make even the simpliest of outfits just darling. Check out these leggings!

Yes, I'm aware I've posted this picture before. I just wanted to post it again- she is so cute!

Emi is showing so much more interest in her toys. She is talking to her stuffed animals and batting at her playmat. I should probably be working with her to spend more time on her tummy- which she doesn't really appreciate right now.

She isn't really onto a regular sleep pattern yet. She usually gets one good nap in (think 3ish hours) but sometimes that is in the morning and sometimes that is the in afternoon. In the opposite she takes like a 1ish hour nap or a few little cat naps.

I have been working 30ish hours a week which means Emi has been spending about the same with Grandma. I have no doubt she loves her time at Grandma's, but I miss her dearly when I'm without her. My mom says when I take her to the babysitter I will not be able to call this much to check up on her. I like calling my mom to check up on her because its like when she calls me to check up on her. :-) Slowly but surely my mom is starting to trust me with Emi. This is good because she still doesn't trust me with Anthony!