Dear Emme,

Wow.  This time with you has FLOWN by.  The month of March is over (and let’s be honest, half of April- but we’re focusing just on March).  This month you were between 1.5 and 5.5 weeks.  and WOW, what a change!!  You have been an absolute joy.  You are a great sleeper, and love to nap on your Mama during the days.  Your brother still adores you, and we can keep our fingers crossed he won’t squish you before your first birthday.    I’ve got some stats for you:

 at birth- Height 19.75 inches (63rd percentile)           Weight- 7lbs 10 oz (55th percentile)

at 17 days old- 21 inches (72nd percentile)                                   -8lbs 1 oz (37th percentile)

at 26 days old – 21.75 inches (82nd percentile)                            -8lbs 14 oz (48th percentile)

Those were just the dates that they did both height and weight, and you’ve grown tons since then- but you get the picture…. tall and skinny, just like your Daddy and big brother!  Speaking of medical stuff, you’ve had your fair share of trouble.  We discovered that you had an upper lip tie, and a posterior tongue tie.  Thanks to my Mom intuition on that one- I knew from my online moms group what an upper lip tie looked like, and I immediately diagnosed you myself, even after several doctors and lactation consultants when you were born said you didn’t have one.  I pointed it out to my favorite pediatrician and she referred us to a specialist here in Lexington.  I had done a bunch of research, and found that you had a class IV tie (the most severe on the upper lip) which involved the gum line.  This causes troubles in nursing, and troubles with your teeth and speech down the line, and the absolute best way to treat it is with a laser.  I also knew that in almost all cases these go hand-in-hand with a tongue tie, so I wondered if it was a possibility you had a posterior one.  So off to the Lexington specialist we went.  The Lexington Dr. was super nice but said he had only done a handful of upper lip tie releases, he didn’t have a laser, he didn’t think you had the posterior tongue tie, and he didn’t even know what the classes where for the upper lip tie.  SO, no way was I going to let this guy perform a procedure on my 3 week old.  I researched to find the closest laser specialist to us, and found a Dr in Indianapolis, 3 hours away.  So we made an appointment, and away we went.  Daddy and I drove you up there, and after consulting with the Dr, found that you, indeed, have a class IV lip tie, and a posterior tongue tie as I had suspected.  He performed the procedure right then and there.  I can’t lie- it was rather traumatic, but very quick.   Daddy held you down on his chest, and you both wore glasses to protect from the laser.  You were starving and SO MAD that you couldn’t eat.  They numbed your mouth with some gel, and then went to work with a laser that was the size of a pen.  It didn’t last more than maybe 5 minutes for both procedures, but you were screaming bloody murder.  Afterwards I tried to nurse you, but your mouth was too numb, and you started breathing a bit weird.  It was really scary, and all the nurses, and Dr. came back in to check on you.  In the end it was fine, you were just so worked up from being hungry and held down.  All of this was out of pocket, and not through insurance- but it’s worth it to get this taken care of before it caused any problems to you.

You also have had some reflux/allergy problems.  We are unsure whether you have a dairy allergy like your brother had, or if it’s just reflux.  But whatever it is, it’s causing you pain and vomiting.  I went completely dairy free for several weeks as a test to see if it was dairy.  And let me tell you- that is difficult- no dairy, no cheese, no butter, no anything (breads, restaurant foods, nothing) that has a derivative from dairy.    It may have helped? I don’t know- it’s so hard to tell.  I’m going to discuss it again with the pediatrician at your next appointment.  We’ll get you figured out baby sweetie.

On top of all that, you also had your first cold.  Luckily it was just some congestion and snottiness, but it is so sad to see your baby uncomfortable.  Even with all of this, you have consistently slept well. You slept for 3.5-4 hr stretches ever since you were about a week or so old, and by the end of March it was stretching out even longer. your Daddy- the best man in the whole wide world, does most of the night time stuff. When you wake up he will take care of you, and bring you to me if you need to nurse.  He sleeps right next to you to make sure you’re okay.  You are SUCH a noisy sleeper that I can’t sleep in the same room because you wake me up every 5 minutes.  So you and Daddy sleep in the other room- him on the couch, and you in your rock n play,  so I can get some rest.  I hope you find a man like your Dad when you grow up, he truly is amazing.   You sleep a ton, but sometimes get mad at the world that you are tired, and you fight like hell to not go to sleep.   You are very opinionated (no idea who you got that from haha), and are very vocal if you don’t get your way.  When you are hungry, you want your milk, and you want it right NOW.  You also love to grunt and growl grr grrr when you want something.  You’re a girl who isn’t afriad to speak her mind!  Your very favorite position besides nursing is sleeping on my chest.  We snuggle all day long.  I just can’t bring myself to sit you down.  I don’t want to miss one minute of you.  It’s my very favorite thing to have you laying on me, and smelling your hair and feeling you against me.  The sweetest girl.  I have 8 weeks at home with you before I go back to work, and I am making the most of each and every minute of it.

You’ve had so many visitors come see you this month!  Of course your Grammy came many times, your Aunt Jera came up from TN, Aunt Katie, Uncle Michael, Deanna, Elyse, Desiree, Andi, Desmond, Doris, Justin, Lindsey, Auntie Brooks,  Auntie Alaina, and Auntie Woods and even Ashley Davenport all the way from England!  Everyone adores you!  You’re a lucky gal to have so many people who already love you.

You’ve had many firsts this month, such as your first bath at 2 weeks old when your belly button stump fell off.  You immediately peed AND pooped all over me as soon as I took your diaper off, but liked the bath pretty well. You were shocked when we put you in the water, but got used to it pretty fast.  Your big brother wanted to be a part of it, so he stripped off his clothes and diaper while we weren’t looking and climbed in his own bathtub behind us, and yelled for us to turn on his water too. Hahaha.   You experienced your first U of L elite 8 basketball game (we watched on TV)- Go Cards!  Also this month was your first St Patricks Day.  You and your brother were the cutest little leprechauns that I ever saw.  At about 5.5 weeks you started cooing and smiling on purpose, absolutely precious!  You love to smile at your Daddy best.

Oh! And this month your new baby cousin, Grandin Slater Coe, was born.  You two are almost 5 weeks apart, even though you were only supposed to be 3 weeks apart- you were born 5 days early, and he was born 7 days late.  You went to the hospital to meet him when he was born, and of course we took lots of pictures.  Get used to that now, your Mom is a self-proclaimed photoholic.   It will be so fun to watch you, your brother, and your cousin grow up together.

Right now you still have a head full of dark brown hair, and blue eyes.  Everyone says you look exactly like Lucas, and also like me.  We’ll see!  Whoever you end up looking like, I’m sure you’ll be beautiful- inside and out.   We love you so much baby girl.  You have completed our family, and I adore you in a way I didn’t think possible.  I’m so happy you are a part of our family, and I can’t wait to show you the world!

Love Always and Forever, Your Mama