1 month

Today baby girl is one month old! She is still such a sweet baby and we are so happy that she's part of our family. She is sleeping pretty well at night. She's had 3 nights lately where she's slept from 11-5 and then eats and goes back to sleep until 8:30ish. She is sleeping in the bassinet in our room and sometimes she'll join us in our bed when I feed her in bed and we both fall asleep. When she's in our bed she manages to snuggle up right next to me. I'll scoot her away and a few minutes later she's snuggling next to me again. I don't know how she does it. She does not enjoy being swaddled, and pretty much never has. She loves to have her hands free and often clasps them like she's praying. I'm not sure how much she weighs, but at 3 weeks she was finally past her birth weight at 8 pounds 14.6 ounces. She is wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes. It's been a busy first month of her life and celebrated her first holiday, Thanksgiving. She has met her Omie, Uncle Todd, Aunt Breezy and cousins Maison, Blake and Case and lots of friends. In her second month of life she'll be just as busy and celebrate her second holiday, Christmas. She'll also meet her Grammy, Aunt Rebecca, Aunt Sara, Grampa, Texas Grammy and cousin Grace.





After one month of knowing Emalyn, we're all in love with her.

Meet Cody...the elf

Sorry Maddi for putting up a goofy picture of you, but it's all I have of the "Elf on a Shelf". We have a new visitor at our house. It's an Elf on a Shelf! The kids (really Cade) named our elf Cody. Very weird since that's my brothers name, but Cade thinks that's a good elf name. The elf came with a book that says that he watches the kids and reports back to Santa every night. If the elf is touched by the kids he'll lose his magic and can't return to Santa so Santa will think they've been naughty. Every morning when the elf comes back he is in a different place.

Here the elf is "hiding" in a statue on our sofa table. Today he is hanging from the lights at the kitchen table. The kids can't wait to wake up and see where the elf is each day. Cade is SO SUPER excited and so into this. He talks to "Cody" all the time. The elf can hear the kids but he can't talk back to them. Maddi and I had "the talk" last year and she is having fun with the elf too, but not as into it as Cade. We have our elf here but we have no other Christmas decorations out yet. Last weekend everyone was sick so hopefully we'll get the decorating done this weekend.

Just had to throw in a picture of my girls. Maddi is so good with Emalyn. Cade is too, but Maddi's just a natural. Emalyn will be 1 month old on Sunday. I already had to put away clothes that she's too big for. They were newborn size, but still...makes me very sad that she's growing so big.

Swine Flu Stinks

Our Thanksgiving didn't turn out exactly as planned, but we made the most of it. Maddi came down with swine flu Tuesday. Wednesday morning Omie, me, Emalyn and Cade went and stayed in the city with Todd and his family while Brett stayed home and took care of Maddi. Cade went with the Stanleys to the zoo and then we hung out at the hotel and ate dinner and went swimming that evening. Thursday morning mom, me and Emalyn stayed at the hotel while Cade went to the parade with Todd and family. Cade really enjoyed his time with his cousins while poor Maddi was stuck at home with the flu. Brett came down with swine flu Wednesday night. We came back home Thursday evening and that night Cade woke up with a high fever...swine flu victim number 3! Omie felt lousy with a cold, but so far has avoided the swine of 09. Our time with our family wasn't exactly as planned, but I'm so thankful my mom was here and was able to help. Since she had a cold and didn't know if she was gonna fall victim to swine flu, she didn't hold Emalyn. She tried to avoid Maddi and Cade's germs too, but Maddi talked Omie into some Connect Four, Guess Who, etc. Omie made a yummy Thanksgiving meal for us Friday and sadly it was only Omie and Maddi who ate together. Cade and Brett couldn't be around us and Emalyn decided she wanted to eat so I missed out on lunch with Omie and Maddi.

Here's Emalyn at her first Thanksgiving. We ate at Rosebud, one of our favorite Italian places. We were planning on eating there even before everyone got swine flu. Emalyn has her head in her snuggly, I guess she was trying to avoid any germs!

Cade, Maison and Omie at lunch.

Me and my momma at lunch. Love my mom so much and am so thankful she was here for Thanksgiving even though things weren't as we planned.

Cade with one of the "bubbas" sharing an ipod. Amazing that the little ones know how to use ipods. Even Maison, who's 4, has her pink ipod and knows how to use it!

Case on left and Blake on right. The boys LOVE trains and enjoyed all the train rides in Chicago. They are the sweetest and funniest boys. I love being around them!

Blake with Emalyn. Blake reminds me of my brother Todd so much in this picture. The boys loved Emalyn and would always ask where she was. Omie told Maison babies love when you pat their knees (so she wouldn't poke her head) and Maison would always come and search for Emalyn's knees and pat them so soft. So cute!

We took some pics for our Christmas card before we went to the city Sunday. I love my little baby girl.

Maddi with her baby sister. I love this picture of them! Maddi adores her sister and I know Emalyn will love her too.

Girls lunch at American Girl

Sunday morning Maddi and Maison enjoyed some girl time reading Pinkalicious. Then the girls (me, mom, Emalyn, Maddi, Breezy, and Maison) drove to the city and checked in the hotel and had lunch at American Girl Store. The boys (Brett, Cade, Todd, Blake and Case) rode the train, because the twins LOVE trains, and then they ate lunch and went to Lego store.

Maison, a borrowed AG doll, and Breezy at lunch.

Emalyn sleeping through lunch.

Maddi and Maison's favorite part of lunch...the desserts!

Cheese!

Me and my girls. Never thought I'd be blessed with two sweet girls!!! I had a fear I'd only have boys when I had kids. Sooo thankful for my girls and doing girl things with them.

Omie with her 3 granddaughters. Right now she has 8 grandkids (3 girls and 5 boys), but Cody and Katie are expecting this summer and we are really hoping for a girl for them to even out the boy/girl ratio.

Poor Maddi wanted to buy the Charissa doll and eat lunch with her. When we got to AG their computers to read gift cards were down so she couldn't buy her new doll until after lunch. She was so big and got out her wallet and her gift card, her money, and then my wallet and credit card to pay for the doll since my hands were full with Emalyn. She is growing up too fast!

Back at the Stanley family hotel room, Brett was enjoying playing with Case and Maison.

Aunt Pam and sweet Blake. I love his Texas accent and how he said "Aunt Pam" over and over as we were talking.

Cade building yet another Lego...

Random

My mom, Todd, Breezy, Maison, Blake and Case got here on Saturday. We were so excited to have them all here. Everyone stayed at my house Saturday night and then Sunday we went to the city and Todd and family are staying in the city the rest of their visit. We will meet up with them again and stay the night in Chicago Wednesday and celebrate Thanksgiving with them. The cousins were so happy to see each other and had so much fun together. Maison looks up to Maddi so much. It's so cute to watch them together.

Todd, Breezy, Blake and Case hanging out in the basement.

Omie and her newest baby girl.

Uncle Todd meeting Emalyn. I love the looks on their faces.

Snuggly baby all ready for bed.

Our friend gave us this headband and I just love it!

Another bath...showing off the curly hair.

Love the sweet look on Cade's face even though Emalyn was not so happy.

All stretched out and getting so big. She was 18 days old and we had another weight check and she was almost back to her birth weight. She got down to 8 pounds and has been gaining the weight back slowly. She was 8 pounds 11.6 ounces, so only 1 1/2 ounces to go to at birth weight! Pics from American Girl lunch to come...

Emalyn's first few days

Emalyn's first trip out of the house was Monday, November 9th. Me, Brett, Omie and Emalyn went to eat at Red Robin and Emalyn slept the whole time.

When Cade got home from school Monday he decided he wasn't afraid of her anymore and he absolutely loved holding her. he loves when she's awake and looks at him and recognizes his voice. It has been so fun to watch him fall in love with his baby sister.

The next day was Emalyn's first trip to the pediatrician. She had to have a checkup 2 days after getting home. She was down to 8 pounds, which was 9% of her birth weight, so they wanted to monitor her weight gain and check it again on Friday. Other than weight issues, she was a perfect angel and got a very good report. She had also shrunk an inch from birth because her big cone head had gone down! After the doctor, we ran to Target and then lunch at Chilis. She didn't make a peep the whole time!

Tuesday night was her first sponge bath at home. Maddi was at dance and missed it, but Cade enjoyed watching it. Emalyn loved to hear the water running and for the most part enjoyed her bath.

She enjoyed getting her head full of hair washed.

Check out the curls in the back! It's only curly when wet. Maddi and Cade had curls on their wet baby hair too. Can't wait to see what her hair will really be like.

She is such a good baby and so happy and alert when she's awake. Here she is some with some of her flowers.

Maddi is such a natural with babies. The girls were enjoying some snuggle time before bed.

Saturday afternoon Brett went to Green Bay with some friends for the Cowboys/Packers game. He got home late Sunday night and the kids were so helpful while he was gone. Maddi has shown a few bits of jealousy, but overall we are all adjusting to being a family of 5 very well. My sweet 3 little munchkins!

Cade's huge hand on the bottom, Maddi's in the middle, and Emalyn on top.

More sister love. Emalyn has been a great sleeper. She usually goes 3-4 hours at a time at night and then eats and goes right back to bed. She's even had a few 5 hour stretches. Babies that sleep make me very happy!!

Brother and sister love.

Cade is really getting the hang of being a big brother. He asks to help and hold her all the time. I just wasn't sure how he'd react to having a baby around, but thankfully he's really enjoying it.

I love how Emalyn was crying (hungry) and Cade still thinks she's so cute. We asked the kids if having a baby is what they thought it would be like and they both said it's way better than they thought because Emalyn is so sweet and hardly cries.

I love this headband from the Lairds! She was 12 days old in the picture. I think her look is changing. Can't tell if she is just less swollen or what but she looks different to me.

They say babies don't smile until their older, but I swear she smiles at us all the time. She'll even smile in her sleep when we talk to her.

Emalyn Comes Home

Sunday, November 8, at around 5:30 pm Emalyn was released from NICU and Omie brought Maddi and Cade up to the hospital lobby so they could all meet each other. Big Sister and Big Brother were so excited! Notice the sign behind them exlplaining the new visitor policy.

A close up of the sign...darn that swine flu. I think I'll always remember the swine flu outbreak of 2009.

We were all so excited to see each other!!!

Love this picture of my 3 babies.

The kids thought it was pretty cool that Emalyn would grab their fingers even though she was sleeping.

Cade was so overcome with emotions. He was crying because he was afraid he would break Emalyn.

All the special girls in my life...mom, Maddison Shea and Emalyn Faith.

I never imagined I'd have two daughters. I felt so blessed to have just one since there are so many boys in mine and Brett's families. I'm so happy for Maddi to have a sister.

Our welcome home gifts from mom, Maddi and Cade.

The cake was supposed to be for her birthday, but it had to wait for us to get home. What a great idea Omie.

Sisters...

Poor Cade man was crying again. By the next day Cade was much more comfortable and he is now totally in love with that baby girl.

Hard to believe that Emalyn will be as big as Maddi and Cade one day. My babies grew up too fast.

Emalyn reminds us so much of Maddi when she was a newborn. Maddi was showing us her double/triple chin with the tongue hanging out look that she did so well as an infant and now Emalyn does just as well. Love those girls!