When Hadley was born I was doing a blog a month for those interested, mainly family, in her development.
I feel as though Emma is just getting short changed all around. She doesn't get the one-on-one time Hadley got with us. I stayed home more with Hadley to keep her on a good schedule and it worked SO WELL. Poor Emma gets trucked around with some semblance of a regular eat-play-sleep routine.
One thing I can say for Emma is she handles things like a champ. She hardly ever fussed in the NICU, except for when they were sticking her with needles. She really didn't cry much at home. When she woke up or was hungry she'd whine a little and we usually knew exactly what she needed. Just in the past three weeks she's started her "fussy evening" time. So we can expect at about 6:30-7:30 she'll cry and not much will make her happy. I know she's tired but she won't go to sleep. I seriously believe she feels left out with Daddy home and Hadley playing in the evening. So we just deal with it. We take turns walking her around if that's what we need to do. I know it's just a phase that will pass as she gets used to staying awake a little longer.
She had a great 2 month check up. The Dr. went over her stats, she was long and lean but growing great! She got her two shots which I think effected Hadley, Jon and I more than her. We had been working hard to at least get on the eat-play-sleep routine and for the most part stuck to it. I'd like to think that hard work of being consistent helped her sleep longer and longer at night but who really knows.
At about the 3 month mark she really started having long stretches of sleeping at night but her naps during the day were only lasting an hour, maybe. We started officially letting her cry herself to sleep. Here's the real kicker, we also started taking the pacifier away. We did not want her to be dependent on us helping her get it to fall asleep. I realize eventually she'd be able to get it herself but we just didn't want to even start that. I'd say it took about a full 4 days to be able to put her to sleep without any help from Jon or I or crying. I HATED LISTENING TO HER CRYING. I think it was even harder the second time around. Don't think for one second that we enjoyed this but we knew it would help her, all of us for that matter, in the long run.
At this point Emma had been sleeping in her crib for a few weeks. Her naps were still a struggle and I knew 1 hour was not enough for her as she would not eat well upon waking, she'd just fall right to sleep. I read another mom's blog where she said for just one week she fed her baby twice in one hour before laying her down for a nap and that extended the nap time, so we tried it. And it worked. I'm not sure why. Emma never seemed like she was more hungry but I suppose that could have been the issue. Anyway, naps are going well now. She generally takes 3 a day. If we're home she does a 2-3 hour one in the morning, a 1 hour one around lunch time and then a 3 hour one in the afternoon. This means a combo of 2-4 hour stretches for feeding. I feed her about 7:30 at night, then do a "dream feed" again about 10 before I go to bed and Emma will sleep until 6 or 7am.
We moved Hadley into her room about a week ago and really overall things have been going great. I've been able to keep both the girls on the same nap schedule. I know we'll have a few rough days but they're doing well.
We'll take Emma for her 4 month check up this week. I'll admit, because of what we went through with Hadley not gaining weight when she was this age, I'm worried the Dr. will tell us the same thing with Emma. Especially now that we have her on a routine. I have checked her weight a few times at home and she's almost 13 lbs. if our scale works correctly which means she is in fact gaining weight.
She has laughed a few times which is so fun. Her eyes are still blue, she's sucking two fingers, just like her daddy did, with an occasional thumb for sleeping, she LOVES her big sister, and she just rolled over back-to-front today while laying on her play mat. I was in the kitchen making lunch and turned around to see her on her stomach.
We love her so much and are so blessed to have her!
