I know I’ve said this before in a previous post with the Activity GYM, but this is the coolest thing ever. Emma loves spending time looking at the toys which gives me some free time to do things around the house. Additionally, it is a great photo environment. So without further delay, here are a few more pictures of Emma and the Activity GYM.
And another day…
It’s been a few weeks since I blogged last. And as expected, Emma is ever growing and ever stretching. I had no ideas how fidgety babies are and how much they stretch. At least Emma does!
Right now she’s taking a morning nap so I thought I’d take this opportunity to write this post with a few more pictures of Emma. Her naps are usually in our bed and especially in the mornings she’s swaddled. That makes for some great stretching pictures once she wakes up and I un-swaddle her. Here are a few fun ones.
And as soon as she finds her hands, they are in her mouth. Fist first of course…
She is all hair… maybe someday it will fall off, as they say it could fall even after three months but until then, I sure am enjoying it!
Is the below a laugh, is it a cry? Whatever it is Emma is giving it all she’s got!
On another day, she continues to enjoy the bed and the stretching…
Emma’s uncle and aunt came by for a visit. Emma had some play time with Trevor.
Rory and Crystal chatted in the back yard while Rory cooked steaks for dinner using the Big Green Egg grill. Yummy.
Then, at the end of the day, Emma was exhausted and fell asleep in her daddy’s arms.
A perfect ending, to a perfect day!
This past week there were many birthdays to celebrate. It started on Wednesday with Rory’s birthday, followed by my brother’s birthday on Saturday and my father in law on Sunday. Today, Emma is 2 months old. My brother unfortunately does not leave near by so we could not spend time with him. However, Rory wanted to take his dad out for a bicycle ride for his birthday, so we went over to Cle Elum over the weekend.
While they had fun biking and meeting the neighborhood wildlife, his mom and I had fun with Emma and the dogs.
And I enjoyed some camera fun time after Rory reminded me about the color accent setting on the Canon cameras. I love this setting and it is one of the reason why I buy Canon point and shoot cameras. Notes that the images below have not been edited in Photoshop. They are the real images as taken with the Canon PowerShot cameras.
Before we left for home, grandpa Cameron took a brief rest with Emma on the couch.
I think we could have left them like this for quite a few hours. They were both happy and content. Unfortunately we had to leave and when we got home early Sunday afternoon, we did yard work. We weeded, bough mulch to cover the ground and keep away the weeds and mowed the lawn . The work that we did was under careful supervision from Teika and Emma. We believe Emma got a few tips from Teika on how to supervise us and make sure we produce the best quality of work possible.
The result speaks for itself and I think even the flies approved!
Emma will be two months tomorrow on the 17th, and as I put her in her crib for her afternoon nap, I felt the urge to blog about my experience as a mother thus far. I have to say that life is pretty good right now. But things weren’t always so as I look back and reflect on the past two months.
A c-section is a pretty serious surgery and it takes time to recover. I am still not completely recovered but I feel much, much better. Two weeks ago, after my six week checkup with the doctor, I started exercising again. I believe that has made a huge difference in my mood and look on life right now.
To begin with, while reflecting back on the first few weeks after Emma was born, I have to say that they were very tough. Those weeks are now a little blurry in my memory but I remember a few things very vividly. I was physically drained, mentally exhausted and had a baby that I needed to care for and hold 24/7. My body still looked 8 months pregnant, I was heavily swollen everywhere and I had major kankles. The only pair of shoes that fit were my house slippers.
Picture of me four days after giving birth. I was wearing Rory’s t-shirt to hide my belly though you can still see that it was huge!
My kankles which stayed with me for the first two weeks after Emma was born. The only thing I could wear were my cloth slippers. I had to go to my two week checkup at the doctor in house slippers!
While at the same time I had to learn how to nurse Emma (which was no small task), to rock and sing to her for hours in order to put her to sleep or to just hold her for comfort. I was a zombie through the day and night and slept whenever I could, wherever I could.
Luckily, as the weeks went on and on things looked better and better. Nursing became more second nature, Emma was gaining weight and being a happy baby, sleeping nicely through the day and night. It was still exhausting and I held Emma most of the day thus I was unable to do anything else but sit, nurse and sleep. I do know however, that holding Emma in my arms so much, was as much something that she needed as something that I needed.
I needed to hold her, to have her little body next to mine, to see her comfortable while sleeping because I was a mess inside. You see, no one told me of the things I may feel after giving birth. And even if they did, I don’t think it would have registered with me while I was pregnant anyway. I had to really experience those feelings for myself. At first I told myself that everything was all right. That I was happy and excited. And though I loved Emma from the second I saw her, I was depressed and saddened by my experience giving birth to her. I expected to feel plenty of pain as she came into this world but instead with a c-section, I was completely numb. And thus, the weeks following her birth I felt robbed of the proper feeling that a woman should have when giving birth. I felt that somehow I failed her…and myself. And I felt a lesser woman for not being capable of giving birth to her naturally.
I am lucky though because I had a great friend that I could lean on. She too had a c-section not long ago and when I called her, she was there for me and listened to my story as I was crying and crying. She gave me words of encouragement and after that day I knew that things would be better.
And they were. I gradually became less emotional thinking about the experience of giving birth, was more able to let go of Emma and have a few minutes without her in my arms. Though to this day I still love taking afternoon naps next to her while holding her little feet in my hands, I’m fine with being away from her to work on the computer, in the garden or to go swimming at the GYM.
I also now realize that I am not a lesser woman for having a c-section, but that I’ve done everything I could and the doctors too to have a natural birth. But that was not in the cards for me. So instead, I am now proud of what I’ve gone through and accomplished!
Two months later, I feel great. Life is full of adventures and definitely worth living every moment and accepting every adventure that comes our ways. But as a mother, I am now worried all the time. I am worried that she is not getting enough to eat, or not sleeping enough or not feeling well. Or I’m worried that she won’t need me soon or that she will need me and I won’t be there. I think this is normal and natural as we become parents.
Taking pictures of Emma has been very therapeutic and as this blog attests, I’ve taken many. I’d like to end this blog post with a picture of myself to the left and Emma to the right. Though we are not the same age, the resemblance is there and my heart melts looking at it.
Finally, these past two months have gone by so quickly. Physically, I still need to loose twenty pounds which believe I will be able to by exercising. Mentally, I have experienced so much newness and things I never thought I would or never had any idea of the kind of feelings that one is capable of experiencing. But I’ve embraced and will continue to embrace new feelings as a mother and living in the moment every day. Because these moments are so short in our lives and if I just blink they are gone…
In experimenting with the camera, I’ve captured a few portrait shots of Emma from the side that I think are very adorable. I especially like when she wears the turquoise blouse as it bring out her blue eyes.
I cannot help but photograph every inch of Emma. She is so adorable and lovely and I’m completely smitten by her. I love her little feet, her little hands, her eyes and mouth. Everything. Absolutely, everything. So this post has some of my favorite close-ups so far of Emma.
And in a king size bed, she is but a tiny, tiny person.
Yesterday Emma took a bath and we used her brand new ducky towel to dry off. It even has a little pouch for the head. So, so cute…
The sun is out and so are the sunshades. Styling Emma wasted no time to relax on the porch with her shades.
Ah, this is the life… Asleep and in the sun!
Having a daughter is very fun. Every time I go to the stores I can’t help but go into the baby department and look at all the wonderful and cute cloths. There are so many cute shirts, pants and dresses that I have to really restrain myself from getting them all. I often grab a few only to put them down after a few minutes realizing that I don’t need them. Emma has a lot of cloths already and she is growing so quickly that it is really very had to justify buying more cloths.
Yet, I can’t help it and I have bought a few cute little dresses. And since I’ve started dressing her in cloths other than pajamas, she is starting to look more and more like a little lady.
Here she is in a brown and blue outfit.
Today she rested on pillows and for the first time was able to hold her head up. I can’t believe how quickly time flies. She is already seven weeks old. And as the days go by, she is more alert, more responsive and more fun to be around. When she smiles, my heart melts especially if she’s smiling at a silly noise or face I made.
Here she is in a red and green one.
She is quickly becoming a lady!