5 Weeks Old

My oh my the weeks are just flying by. Little miss thang is growing like a weed. I ended up getting plagued with Larry's cold, which was not so very pleasant. It was very hard to take care of Emma while I felt so bad, but fortunately Larry came home early the first day so that I could get some sleep. I was feeling much better by the next day.

Last Wednesday, Emma went on her first trip to the park. My old school, Lemon Crest, was having their end of the year picnic so Emma and I made a trip out there so we could get a little fresh air and sunshine. Perhaps this was more for me since I had not been out of PJ's in days. We had a nice time. Emma got hungry before we left so I had my first experience feeding her in the car. This worked out okay until we went to leave and my car wouldn't start. Long story short, my friend Mark and a tow truck driver came to rescue me and jump start my car. Wouldn't be an outing without a little drama.

On Thursday, Emma had her first real restaurant outing. We went to The Yardhouse in downtown San Diego with Khalielah, Jeremy, Mahalia, and Samantha. Emma was a little angel and only awoke to eat. I gave her a bottle because I was not quite ready to breastfeed completely in public. Maybe next time. It was great to see everyone. Unfortunately by this day, I was beginning to suspect that Emma may have a milk protein allergy based on her nasty green poops, spitting up, gas, and fussiness. So no cheese for mama. =p

On Friday, Emma had a big surprise and her kapuna drove down to visit her. =) We started off the day at our breastfeeding group, where Ms. Porky weighed 8 lb 6 oz. already. I am glad that she is gaining weight despite her poop issues. The lactation consultant advised me to cut all dairy out of my diet and see if things got better over the next two weeks. She also warned me that soy could be an additional culprit so to consume with caution. Emma had a wonderful time hanging out with her grandpa. She loves to just sit and stare at him. She gave him a genuine mischievous smile when he told her that he was going to teach her how to be bad to mommy and daddy. =) It was super duper cute. Grandpa left early Saturday morning and that evening, I went to dinner to celebrate Natasha's 30th birthday and left Emma at home with Daddy. She was a good girl and ready to eat again by the time I got home.

On Sunday, the Lui clan drove down to San Diego for dinner to celebrate Emma's one month birthday. We also celebrated Larry's first Father's Day. It was great to have all of the family together. Emma truly is blessed to have so many people in her life that love and adore her.

Emma, aka Gremlin Child, appears to be hitting her 6 week growth spurt a bit early. She has been eating like I starve her all day and been a bit more restless during the day. Yesterday, she refused to sleep at all. She woke up around 9:30 and did not go down for a nap until 5:30 in the evening. She was a whiny brat for most of the day! She only slept briefly when I put her in the baby sling so I could get some groceries. It is amazing how many things contain milk and soy, so needless to say, I am not a huge fan of my diet right now. Emma has been spitting up much less and seems much less fussy when eating, so I am hoping dairy or soy is the issue and I don't have to further investigate by cutting MORE items out of my diet. Eggs would be next, followed by nuts, and so on. Pthhhh.

Well, I finally had the chance to catch up now that the princess is sleeping. She has not been a big fan of sleeping in her crib, or her swing, or her pack and play. She's really been needing extra holding and sleeping with Mommy. Or should I say "on Mommy". It makes my sleep a bit less sound, but I know it won't be much longer that she will let me cuddle with her so I let her have her way every once in awhile. =)

Stupid DC!

Emma and I had a great visit with Vovo. Emma was a very good girl and impressed her grandma with her good behavior. =) It was great to have extra hands to help around the house. I really don't know how anyone could ever be a single parent. Being a mommy is so much work! The extra help ensured that I ate meals when I was supposed to, actually took a shower every day, and had hands to hold the baby while I did all of these things. Emma has finally passed her 3 week growth spurt, but her new favorite thing is to be held all of the time. She's been a bit more grumpy when someone is not holding her, but I have also have learned that sometimes I just have to hear her cry. She is producing real tears now, though, so that makes it a bit tougher.

We were both very excited for Larry to return from Washington DC last night. I had a really long day with the baby and was pretty exhausted by the time he came home. Well, he came home with a cold so my long awaited relief was sequestered to the spare bedroom and isn't allowed to pick up the baby until he is a bit better. It made for a very long night, but I hope he will recover quickly so I can get a few hours of sleep. Mama Lui is running on empty!

Bye Daddy! =(

Yesterday Emma's Vovo arrived in San Diego to help me take care of the baby while Larry is away on a business trip. She will be here until Saturday to help me keep my sanity. Last night she was very eager to babysit Emma so Larry and I went out for a lil' dinner date. The restaurant we initially chose to go to ended up being closed for a private event (go figure!) so we ended up at a sushi restaurant, which after 9 months of deprivation did not bother me at all. =) Dinner was fabulous and it was nice to spend some time alone with Larry. The report from Vovo was that Emma was a perfect angel the entire time we were gone. Not even a little peep. She's started taking a bottle of pumped milk once a day so I can have some slight relief from feeding her. She has not problem going from bottle to boob, so again, my child is wonderful. =)

Larry left at 4 this morning for Washington DC and will not return until late Saturday night. He was very sad to leave his princess, but we plan on using Skype so he can still see her. She seems to be smiling more now with intent and she is tracking all over with her eyes now. She is changing so much every day...I just love it! I really want to take advantage of all the time I get with her now before she gets too big and doesn't want mommy to hold her and smooch her adorable face. Now that laundry is going (P.s. had to do an emergency load after Emma had a projectile spray of poop all over mommy's clothes when I was changing her diaper last night. Ew, there was literally shit on my face....so gross!) I'm going to go take a shower. Hopefully there wasn't poop in my hair all night too.

Comments

I think I fixed the comment feature so it should be working now! =)

Emma and Mommy

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Picture Website

I uploaded all of Emma's pictures to a shutterfly website. I think this will be the easiest way to keep up with all of her photos. The website is

http://emmakalai.shutterfly.com

Enjoy her cuteness! ;)

Meeting Her Fans

While I am waiting for the bagillion pictures to upload to shutterfly for me to post up here, I figured I had a few free moments to post before the munchkin wakes up for breakfast. Emma and I went to her two week doctor's appointment on Thursday. I started getting her ready with PLENTY of time to get there by 10:15, but of course, she had to poop and barf right as I put her in the car seat. At least I was only 5 minutes late. =p Everything went well at her appointment. She weighed a whopping 7 lbs, 1 oz! Her jaundice is all cleared up and the doctor was pleased with how well she was doing. She was very alert during the whole appointment and did not make a peep even when she had to lie naked on the table. =) Such a good girl. Next appointment is in 6 weeks for her shots. Oh no.....

On Friday, Emma and I went to Children's Workshop (the school I work at.) The kids were putting on a Spring concert and even though the doctor suggested that I avoided crowded places until she is 6 weeks old, we went anyways. I just didn't let anyone hold her this time around. I was so excited to see my boys and they were all very sweet to the baby. I received many comments about how much she looked like me. I didn't believe this until my dad sent a baby picture of me. It looked just like Emma. Same bad hair line and everything! I'll post that too when I get a chance.

Emma has had lots of visitors since we have been home. I feel so lucky to have so many amazing people in our lives. Everyone has been eager to meet her and fortunately Emma has behaved while company was here. =) She has now met all of her grandparents and uncles.... Kapuna Kane and Vovo, PoPo and GongGong, Mema and Grandpa Rai, and Uncles Michael, Gary, Jon, Kenny, and Vincent. She sure has a big family! Since Larry and I both only have brothers, Emma is blessed with 5 uncles! This means that all of my dear female friends get to be her "aunties". She has met.......Hilary, Dave, Andreas, Tina, Billy, Dallas, Khoan, Hillary, Alicia, Laura, Megan, Sara, Tristen, Tifani, Liz, Natasha, Khalielah and her future playmate Mahalia, Monica and Miles, and Kelly. This afternoon Dave and Hilary are coming down to see her again and Emma will get to meet Tio Mario and Tia Sandra for the first time today. She is such a lucky girl!

Well, the princess is beginning to stir. I will post all of her photos as soon as they are finished uploading!

Two Weeks Old

Time is flying by and as of today, Emma is 2 weeks and 3 days old already. It is amazing to see her change each day. Every day is an amazing new experience and I am enjoying being a mom more than I could have ever imagined. It helps to have a relatively calm and peaceful baby, but trust me, she is not perfect all of the time. =) Larry is a natural at being a dad and I never imagined that I could love him more than I did, but that love just grew to a whole new level after the arrival of our daughter. Clearly I see his eyes every time she stares at me. =) I can't believe she is ours!!

Our first few weeks at home have gone very well. Since newborns don't do much more than eat, sleep, and poop, I love when Emma stays awake and absorbs the world around her. She loves doing tummy time and will scoot across the blanket when I put my hands by her feet and rotate her head from one side to the other. She thinks she is so big and tries to hold her head up when I burp her over my knee. Sometimes she resists taking a nap and gets a bit cranky when that happens, but overall, I could not ask for a better baby!

Larry had to go back to work on Monday. Thankfully, I am off until August 31st so Emma and I will really get to spend some quality time together before I go back to work. =) After our first few days home together, I decided that I could easily get used to hanging out with my girl all day. =) Yesterday we ventured out to Target. Emma was wide awake, quiet as a mouse, just looking around at everything. I realize now that it will take me an extra 30 minutes to get places after loading up all of her crap. Plus, right now, I'm still moving a little slow so things take longer than usual. I wanted to do a practice outing since tomorrow I have to take Emma to the doctor for her two week checkup. She was slightly jaundiced at birth so they will check to make sure that is clearing up, as well as weigh her. By two weeks, she should be back up to her birth weight (she was born at 6 lb 10 oz and was 6 lb 4 oz when we left the hospital.) The way this piggy eats, I have no doubts that she has not only returned to her birth weight but surpassed it as well!

Emma has quickly learned that mommy is her traveling milk truck and daddy is the guy that plays with her. She likes to stay awake and play with daddy and becomes eager to eat when I am around. This child likes to eat like her parents. =) Breastfeeding has gone better than I expected, although I must admit that I wanted to quit at first cuz it is not so very comfy to get used to! =p The things my poor body is enduring for my baby! The only downfall is that since I am her sole food supply, I have to feed her every 2-4 hours. During the day she eats every 2 1/2 to 3 hours and at night she has been sleeping for 4 hour blocks. I'm getting some sleep so it's not so bad. =) Last night she even slept in her crib all night like such a big girl!

Someone is awake and ready to eat........

New Website

Since Baby Lui has arrived and my life is a whirlwind and I can't remember one day from the next, I decided to move Emma's blog over and save babyluiiscoming for whenever Baby #2 comes into our lives. (Yes, this means I will allow siblings for Emma once she is older!) I doubt I will be a cool enough mom to actually keep a baby book, so the website is the best way for me to document all of the changes going on and keep Emma's numerous fans updated on her growth!

XOXO

Maile