More of Emma Kate

It has been a little while since I have had the chance to post. We have been distracted with the situation with Sam and Emma has continued her night waking and consequently has been the world's crabbiest baby. She is doing some new things, but most of her learning is still focused on finding her fingers to suck on. She is working so very hard to get her thumb in her mouth (and I never thought I would want my child to suck her thumb so badly). She takes the pacifier very little except at sleeping time. She has just figured out how to blow spit bubbles and make raspberries. She is very excited but the amount of drool coming out of her mouth is amazing.

Today one of my very sweetest friends is sending her mom over to help me with teaching Emma soothing mechanisms to replace the pacifier. She is an occupational therapist and part of what she does is help moms of babies with colic. I am so thankful for this opportunity. Although Emma is outgrowing the colic, there are still some areas that she struggles with like soothing herself. She is behind the average baby when it comes to playing alone and sleeping alone because of the colic. When she gets upset she goes into screaming fits that you would be amazed at. We are working on these things and it is difficult for me that she is not where she should be, especially with the sleep, but she will catch up. Aside from that, she is like a different baby and when she is not crabby, she is so sweet and interactive and precious.

Here are some videos and pictures of what Emma is doing now. The video of Emma and Monkey happened last week. Emma always wakes up from her 30 minute naps screaming. On this day she woke up and was cooing and talking to herself. I went in to see what she was doing and she had found Monkey in the crib and pulled him over and was talking to him. I of course could not get the best of it because I had to turn on the light to be able to video. It was so sweet. Then the other video is of Emma at playtime on her mat. It is just a glimpse of her during a normal day as she plays with the toys and gets very excited. She has become so interactive.

We were holding Emma up over our heads and she was just giggling.

This was Emma the morning she and Monkey were "talking" after nap time.

She loves Monkey! She especially loves to bite his face and ears.

I took this picture the day we tried taking the pacifier away. She was so desperate for something to suck on that she found Duck's arm and sucked on it. It was precious and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Grammy stopped for an overnight on her way to Pittsburgh to be with Sam at the hospital. Emma has started to soothe herself by rubbing her head. It is so sweet and so encouraging that she has figured something out on her own to soothe herself. That is a big step in the right direction with overcoming the colic.