1 Month Old!

Today marks one month since Emerson Leigh made her debut in this world! Since it is a Saturday, we have been enjoying a day at home as our little family of three. The Kennedy girls love when Daddy is home! The morning started off with Emerson getting her first big girl bath in the tub. We have been doing sponge baths up until this point, but her umbilical cord fell off a long time ago, so it was okay to do an immersion bath. I was waiting for a time when Boomer and I could both do it since it seems to be a two-person job. I think Emerson liked it!

 After Em was squeaky clean (oh, and after she peed while we were drying her off but before we got her in her diaper!), we took out the 1 month onesie for a photo shoot. These special onesies were passed on to me from my sister. She used them with both of her boys, and I can't wait to compare all of the pictures. Right now, it seems that our children have their fathers' genes, so there may not be too many similarities!

As I mentioned, I have heard from many people that Emerson looks like Boomer. Here are a few more pics from the week, where she is perhaps looking like Daddy!

To give a quick update on Emerson's weight and her feeding, we are seeing progress each day. We had several appointments this week, at the pediatrician on Monday and then with lactation on Wednesday. At the pediatrician appointment, Emerson was up to 7 lbs 14 oz. In just a week, she put back on about 15 ounces and was finally back to birthweight. Praise the Lord! Our strict feeding schedule had helped Emerson regain the weight she had lost during the first two weeks. At our lactation appointment on Wednesday, Em seemed to be slightly more efficient at breastfeeding. After 30 minutes at the breast, Em took in about 1 oz of milk (in comparison to 0.5 oz after 45 minutes at last week's appointment.) It was recommended that we still give her a bottle with at least an additional 1.5 oz of milk. I am continuing to pump often throughout the day. We have almost completely eliminated the use of supplemental formula, and I have started to even freeze some extra milk. We had one last appointment on Friday. It was actually a home visit through the hospital's follow-up program. The nurse that came brought a scale, so Em was weighed one more time. Her weight is finally in the 8s -- 8 lbs 2 oz as of yesterday! We still have some work to do to improve her efficiency when breastfeeding, but it seems that we are on the right track.


Amidst the week of appointments, we also had our first night out to dinner (I forgot to take a picture!) Boomer took both of his girls out to one of our favorite Japanese restaurants in Kville. Our regular waitresses were glad to see us back and were excited to meet Miss Emerson. On a low note, I had a stomach bug Thursday night and in to Friday. I didn't have all the usual symptoms, but the stomach pain lasted about 24 hours. Unfortunately my mom and dad are still on their cruise (we miss them so much!), so Boomer stayed home from work on Friday to help with Em. He had to go out that evening for a performance at school, but he called in reinforcements, and Meg came over to hang out with us. Both Meg and Boomer were so helpful this week. I continue to be humbled by this whole parenting thing, and I am so thankful for the network of support surrounding me.