My final week: a day in the life...

...of my stay-at-home-mom period.  So I don't forget.

Almost every one of my days in the last 2 months has started between 7:30 and 8:00am when Emerson starts cooing, crying, waving her hands wildly at the monitor camera (I swear she knows we can see her), or pulling on the octopus legs to make it burble or sing.  I had almost daily intentions of waking up at 6am in order to get a few things done first, most importantly walk my attention-starved dogs, but that rarely actually happened.

So I make my way to Emerson's room where I find her in various positions in her crib but always watching the door and usually with a big smile on her face.  We kill a little time rocking and saying good morning until the fish clock strikes 8, at which point we head to the kitchen to make a bottle.  Measure the formula, boil the water (I think it tastes better boiled in the tea kettle rather than run hot from the faucet), inject the iron and head back to her room where she sucks it down.  Next we play in her room for a bit where there are plenty of toys to choose from - she has some wooden puzzles that keep her very busy - and one or several of our furry friends usually stop in for a visit.  She has been working on crawling, usually motivated to get over to a cat or dog to pull on their fur or to hijack my phone (often with my mom's voice on the other end).

Breakfast is around 9:30 and she must have a banana each day. Yesterday I showed up at the table without a banana and although she was enjoying her oatmeal, she stared pointedly at the bananas on the other side of the kitchen until I righted the breakfast wrong.  And for the record, we watch Regis and Kelly during breakfast every day. There, I admitted it.

We work very hard to fit a nap in between breakfast and the noon bottle.  She really does not like naps but her daddy can usually coax her to sleep (by napping himself).  Mid day goes by rather fast: bottle at noon, playtime, lunch around 1:30, errands, bottle at four, more playtime.  We have dinner at 6 and all eat at the same time. And, yes, we still have a pretty significant eating-out habit that, unfortunately, Emerson has not hindered in the least.  She loves checking out all the people around her in restaurants and charms waiters with her big toothless grins.

At 7:30 we have a bath. We meaning me and Emerson.  In China it was a necessity and I can't give it up.  Daddy takes her from the bath, gets her ready for bed, gives her a bottle and she is usually fast asleep by 8:30.  And, although it's hard to tell, these days are sweet but exhausting!  Brian and I hit the sack shortly after that, and usually get to snooze through the night. If she wakes before 2am, Brian's on duty and my shift starts at 2am. 

So, all this is going to change next week.  Wish me luck.


Here is a shot of morning playtime in her room:

My final week: Tuesday and emerging personality

Emerson has two dominant personality traits that have been obvious for a long time: she is happy, oh so very happy and incredibly observant.  It doesn't take much to make her smile - a smile, a hug, a shake, or a shimmy. And counting to three makes her laugh since she knows something funny will happen on "3".  New people are checked out from head to toe, new rooms examined inch by inch, and surfaces constantly explored with her fingertips.

She is not as easy going as in the early days - she is fiesty (to quote her Dr). When she is unhappy, it's unmistakable - she kicks, screams, and streams giant crocodile tears down her cheeks. Luckily, she is also very easily cheered so the temper doesn't last long.

She is not an affectionate baby. She often turns away from kisses and pushes away from hugs.  So, I treasure her moments of cuddling when they come and hope this is just a phase.  Her 6 year old cousin told me it was and that she'll learn to cuddle - she's probably right!

She is still pretty independent. Not sure if that's from necessity or personality.  Here's a glimpse of her independence:

My final week: Monday & a whiney girl

With one week left before I return to work, this will be a week of Emerson updates.

Our happy, quiet, peaceful baby has turned sleepless and whiney in the last few days.  I can speculate a million reasons why.  Over-stimulation from 4 days of Christmas activity is a favorite, but right now, my money is on giardia.  This is a common issue and especially with babies from her Yangxi orphanage.  She was diagnosed and treated in November but we never tested to make sure the treatment  worked.  Some slight symptoms have reappeared but her general unhappiness has me convinced today.  We are now armed with a "specimen container" and will carry a little "specimen" to the lab tomorrow for another test. 

As for the symptoms... the whiney I can handle.  I don't mind holding her all day long if it makes her happy and it generally does.  Sleepless is a problem.  She has been a great night sleeper since we got her: 10-12 hours a night with rare interruptions (daytime naps not so much).  Last night, she woke up every 2 hours and had to be rocked back to sleep.  At 2am (the beginning of my shift) she decided that she was done with her crib and only wanted to sleep on me.  We went to the guest room and slept there together.  Neither of us slept well and I do worry about starting habits that will be hard to break but ... oh, so sweet.

We probably looked a little like this, taken on Christmas day when she fell asleep for a poorly timed nap : just before we left for our 2-hour drive to East Texas:

An update as the end of the year looms

First, a picture for the season:

We went to NorthPark so Emerson could meet the famous Santa. As you can see, she was very happy about that.  This was a few days before the clingies set in - more on that later. We are experiencing and celebrating the season in a brand new way. We have a tree. For the first time. It's covered in prayer beads and pine cones. Perfect. We are discussing whether Santa will visit our house this year. Who knows?  At 10 months, she won't know the difference but we will.  All shopping is done and I plan to wrap gifts today. Today!  It's only December 19th! (quick fact: for about the last 15 years, I've done all shopping on the 23rd and wrapped gifts on the 24th).  This has everything to do with the fact that we did most of our shopping in China this year and my leave from work, but I'm still going to take credit and celebrate this accomplishment.  And, there are other signs around the house that the humbugs have lifted.  Let's just say the gift of Emerson is overdue yet perfectly timed. Merry Christmas!

The clingies.  Emerson has shown signs of attachment to both of us for a long time - in fact, we think it happened pretty quickly.  But now, she wants to be held all the time and gets very fussy when we aren't providing full attention. Especially Mommy.  I'm perfectly fine with this but her timing couldn't be worse since I'm now counting down mere days before I have to go back to work.

Development.  Maybe a little slow. She's "crawling" backwards but still working on the forward movement. Not a single sign of a tooth and not really ready to move off the baby food. She did figure out a consonant - "da da" to be specific, but it's only a noise at his point. She's also just started to hand me things and can put her blocks into and take them out of a box or bag.  I was feeling a little anxious about her progress but have come to peace with the fact that she didn't get much attention for the first 8 months of her life. Probably very little since she is so content. When I asked one of the nannies about her personality, she said she was "easy and happy".  Which is wonderful but I also think it probably translated to - we didn't have to worry too much about her. She just needs a little more "baby love" before she moves on.