Emmy’s first trip down the hill was not that fun for her. She had an appointment with a pediatric eye doctor. He specializes with premies and babies who had traumatic births. Dr. Nichols sent us down to him to check Emmy’s eyes and make sure her vision had not been damaged.

I already knew that her eyes were doing okay becuase Emmy focuses on things so well. She loves to focus on faces now and responds to what you do with your face. She’ll also follows keys and bright objects back and with her heads. We also play a game where we wiggle our fingers and then tickle her tummy. She will follow my fingers all they way to her tummy and then laugh.

Anyway, Uncle Ray went down with us so that Emmy would have some entertainment while mommy drove. She slept most of the way down but it was still helpful to have Ray back there so he could put her pacifier back in when it fell out! Anyway, Emmy was still asleep when the doctor came in to see her. She wasn’t super happy to be woken up but she did pretty well with having her eyes dilated even. I thought she was going to scream when they put the drops in her eyes but was happy that she didn’t mind much. Little did I know that she was just saving it for later! After her eyes were dilated they had to shine some really bright lights directly in her eyes and they had to hold her head still. SHE HATED THAT! She was screaming and kicking me in the stomach since I was holding the rest of her body still.

When I came back out of the room I asked Ray if he could hear her screaming in the waiting room and all the other people in the room started laughing. They said that that was an angry cry! I guess it was just as loud outside! Anyway, as soon as he was done and I picked her up she was a lot happier. She was so tired from screaming, and her eyes were so sensitive to light, that she fell asleep again and slept the whole way home.

So after a quick stop at the taco bell drive through we went back up the hill and ended our fun Santa Fe adventure!

Emmy is still getting bigger and smarter! One new thing she does is smile! I think I talked about this a little in another blog! But now she is smiling even more! She opens her mouth really wide and makes a little giggle sound! Some of her favorite things to smile about are daddy making faces, any kind of light around the house, and her mobile.

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Although she’s been smiling for awhile, we were having a lot of trouble getting any good picture of her smiling. But after several attempts we finally got some great pictures of it. I even took a movie of her kicking and laughing at her mobile. I will load those onto the website soon!

She really likes to follow the yellow duck on her mobile with her eyes! She will watch it for seriously about 30 minutes and kick and talk and laugh. It’s one of her favorite times of the day! Mommy likes it too becuase I get to eat breakfast now! Well, I always got to eat breakfast but it was a lot harder one handed!

Emmy also loves looking at the neat lights in the upstairs bathroom! They are the kind that hang down and have a kind of crystal looking bowl over them. That’s not the best description but what I’m trying to say is they are SHINY. Emmy like’s shiny things! I told Alex that might get kind of pricy when she’s older! Just kidding. Anyway, if she gets kind of fussy we can take her into the bathroom and she will look from light to light and then look at the reflection of the lights in the mirror.

One of her favorites is dancing around with daddy! They listen to music and dance around. Or they do laps through the living room, around the kitchen and dining room, and back to the living room. It’s called the Emmy 500 and she really likes it! She loves spending time with daddy!

Well, so much has happened that I think I will break it up in to several entries with different titles. This is the entry explaining all the sudden entries. I am really going to have to get better at remembering to write more often! Anyway, happy reading!

Well, Emmy got her first set of immunization shots since she got out of Presbyterian. She really did not like them at all…go figure! When she got her first hepatitus b shot she was still pretty sedated on phenobarbitol. She barely cried that time. Now that is she awake and alert she was much more vocal about her displeasure with the nurse and mommy! She was smiling and giggling before the shot went in and then her little face just went bright red and she screamed at the top of her lungs. I was amazed at how high pitched she got! It made me pretty sad! But she calmed down within 5 minutes.

She also got weighed today and is up to a whopping 8 lb. 4 oz. I was really excited! She’s gained 2 1/2 pounds in 4 weeks! That is a really good sign that she’s going to do great! Her oxygen level was also 97% which was better than mine or the nurse’s.

Emmy has been sleeping so well lately. We’ve already started her little night routine. At 9:30 she takes a little bath. Now i’m going to pause to talk about her bath. SHE LOVES THEM! She kicks and smiles and talks. I don’t think she knows that she is the one splashing but she loves when the splashes happen. There are some really cute bath pictures in the gallery! Anyway, at 10:00 she eats and watches simpsons with mom, dad and grandpa. Then she has family prayer and goes to bed. (she’s really pretty much asleep after she eats). She sleeps from 10:30 to 3:30 and then again from 4:00 to 7:30. The 5 hour period really helps me to feel more rested.
Emmy has also started to give real smiles now! They are a lot cuter than her normal “gas” smiles. When she gets happy she will open her mouth really wide and give a big toothless grin while she makes a little squaky laugh. She does it a lot when daddy plays with her! She likes to dance around with daddy and listen to the baby cd he bought for her. It is a lot of popular artists singing kids songs and it is really cute! Almost as cute as Emmy’s amazing smile!

Well my mom and Christian left yesterday so I’m starting to realize that I’m really a mom now. I know it sounds silly since Emmy is already a month, but yesterday was the first time that I’ve been the only one with her. She had the hospital staff for the first two weeks and then my family has been her since she got out. It was nice being able to take 20 minute showers while Christian played with Emmy or having my mom hold her while I made dinner! But I think Emmy and I are doing okay on our own during the day.

Emmy has been staying up more and more during the day. The nurses at Presbyterian would be so excited to see her up and moving around so much! She likes to lay on the bed and kick and squirm. She’s even turned herself around in her crib. She is still trying to turn over but it’s going to be a long time before she succeeds in that one. It is fun to watch her try though.

Emmy also likes her swing that we set up yesterday. Beth and Nathan (and Logan!) lent us their swing. Emmy even fits in it really well. A lot of her other stuff (i.e. crib, carseat) seem to dwarf her. She loves watching the swing mechanism move back and forth but she falls asleep after about 10 minutes in the seat.

Dr. Nichols told us that since she did so well this weekend without oxygen she doesn’t have to go back on it! So tomorrow I get to call the oxygen guys and they will come pick it up. YEAH! One of the women in the ward was telling me about how her daughter had pneumonia last year and had to be on oxygen too. Only her daughter was like 4 and so she was mobile and hooked up to a tank! Now that would be hard! Hopefully this will be Emeline’s last time on Oxygen.

Well Emmy is asleep right now so I think I’m going to take advantage of that and take a nap! More later!

Emmy had her one month check up on Friday! She weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces! We were really excited! She’s been gaining one ounce a day which is right on schedule. She’d also gained an inch! So now she is 20 inches. Everyone at church was saying that now she is the size of a newborn. Which is really true. I just keep thinking how will a normal sized newborn fit inside me next time! Emmy seems so big to me now it’s hard to imagine her being scrunched up inside a 5’2″ woman.

Emmy also got some great news at her appointment and that was that she no longer needs to be on oxygen. Her blood saturation has been better than mine and that doctor’s on a regular basis even! She’s been at 99% most of the time! So this last weekend we took off the oxygen and he sent us home with a small monitor to check her oxygen level while she was asleep. She never dropped below 93! Alex and I would take our own levels after each time we checked hers and it was always about 5% below hers. For those of you that have never seen a monitor like that it’s just a little thing you put on your finger and it shoots a light through and monitors the level of oxygen saturation of your blood. Emmy is so small you just put it on her whole hand.

This weekend was a four day weekend for Alex so he got to spend a lot of time with Emmy. He watched her on the bed while he did his homework so mom could run some errands on Friday and Saturday. Then on Sunday Alex blessed Emmy at church. She wore the same dress that I was blessed in so that was cute. The blessing went really well but Alex had to be to church early and he accidentally took off with my car keys. So when I went to get in the car I couldn’t and the car seat base was locked in it. So Emmy and I barely got there in time for the blessing! But it all worked out in the end. Alex did a great job and Emmy didn’t even cry during the whole thing. She did have a case of the hiccups but that is a pretty common occurrence. She always had them when I was pregnant with her and she has them just as much now.

After the blessing we had a lunch over at our house. All of the Bakers and Bill Brown came over and ate with us. We had sandwiches, oriental chicken salad, fruit and dip, and cinnamon rolls. Kath also brought a pasta salad and pumpkin pie for dessert. Alex was in heaven with cinnamon rolls and pumpkin pie! Then we took a lot of pictures with Emmy in her little blessing dress.

For Labor Day we went and saw Ray and Laura’s new apartment. They had just painted and it looked really cool! Then Emmy and I went on a walk with my mom at the park across from their apartment while Alex helped them move in. Emmy really likes her car seat and stroller. She pretty much falls asleep instantly as soon as you put her in it.

Today Emmy has wanted to be held pretty much all day! She didn’t want to be in her bouncer chair, on the floor, or in her crib! Luckily Grandma Layman and Uncle Christian took turns holding her so that I could eat and do a few things today. Her dad held her most of the night once he got home! Well, that was pretty much the day! The main point is that Emmy is cutest!!