5 Months

Has it really been a whole month since I last posted?? AND...has it really been 5 months since we've been parents???!!! Where does the time go? This last month has been full of growing, learning and healing. Growing because our little girl was 17lbs at her last check up and in the 90th percentile of other babies her age. She quickly grew out of her 3/6 month clothes and is now comfortably wearing straight 6 months and soon will be in 6/9 mo. clothes I'm sure. Good thing she has a closet full of clothes all the way to 18 months!!! When I say this month was one of healing, I mean that I think we have finally gotten the breathing & eczema under control. Poor thing has to have breathing treatments daily, but they really seem to be helping. We saw the allergist and she has a few allergies -- and a slight reaction to the dogs. As much as we want them to be best buddies and play together, that's just not in the cards right now for Emmy. We have been keeping them out of her room and away from her as much as possible. Right now, they are really getting the shaft, but we try to give them lots of love at night after Emmy is asleep. They are good dogs and aren't really showing any jealousy signs. For that we are thankful! Emmy is learning that her "squeals, cries & general noisiness" will get mom & dad's attention. :) Hmmmm...I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing?? She is quite the stinker sometimes when she cries, but then we walk in the room and she's all smiles. Yeah, we're wrapped....what can we say?? She is starting to hold objects and put them directly into her mouth. Her favorite "chew toys" are her fingers or whatever blanket she happens to be holding. She has been drooling so much, I'm surprised we haven't seen teeth yet. Maybe by our 6 month update??? Since she has been feeling better, and showing all other signs that she's ready, we have been feeding her some cereal. Yay!! She enjoys it in the evenings and kicks her feet in excitement when it's time for the next bite!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family in Illinois! Emmy got plenty of attention and showed off her "talking" skills to anyone who would listen :) We are busy getting ready for Christmas and look forward to sharing our Christmas day with our daughter this year, as well as traveling to Indiana to spend the holidays with Truman's family.

Not quite 5 months old here. This was in the car on our way home from IL

Go 'Cats!!

4 Months!!

Baby Emmy is 4 months old today!! This month has been full of learning & development for her. Remember that I wrote in her 3 month blog that she was sick? Well, it never quite went away. We had been following the doctor's advice, but she never really got better. It all escalated last Friday when the daycare called to say she was so congested that she was having trouble breathing. I quickly left work and made a dr.'s appt. for that afternoon. Three hours, 2 chest X-rays, 2 breathing treatments and numerous pokes & prods from the doctor later....we leave the office with FIVE prescriptions! Poor thing had ear infections in both ears (in our defense...she NEVER had a fever, she didn't give us any signs that her ears were bothering her), had some liquid steriods for her congestion, an inhaler for the wheezing, topical steriod for the dry skin, suggestions to switch her formula to a hypoallergenic brand, suggestions to use Eucerin & Aquaphor more often than we currently do, referral to a Pediatric Allergist and instructions to bathe her only twice a week. OH! And the kicker - no solid foods until 6 months. Dang - I was looking forward to starting cereal tonight, but we will do what's best for her!! Let me just say....ALL of this combined has done wonders for our little girl!!! She was always a pretty good baby....but now - she is even more so.
Her dry skin (especially on her face) has cleared up, Her congestion cleared up so fast that she was back to sleeping on her back by Saturday night, and she is even more chatty than usual. The one side effect is that she is not eating as much as she once was. But, that could be a result of some of her meds.
Other than being sick, she has really started to grab at toys dangling in front of her. She enjoys having a blanket or bib to pull at and hold while she's eating. She has been kicking & pulling her feet up more, but not grabbing at her feet yet. She still does NOT like to be on her tummy much, but her head control is great. She can sit up pretty well with the assistance of the boppy. She is growing, growing, growing every day. We are all looking forward to spending some time with Truman's sister & her family this weekend. Then it will be time to travel to IL for Thanksgiving!!
Five months will be here before we know it!!


Until then...

Love,
S,T & E

Dossier Documents

Hey, what do you know - we got our original Ukraine dossier documents returned to us. It only took 4 months! Now if we can just recoup some of the money we lost....

I continue to read about other families Ukraine adoption experiences, and I thank God everyday for sending us our Emmy. We got cabin fever in Missouri for 2 weeks, I cannot even imagine spending 8 weeks (or more) in Ukraine. In the end it's about finding your children and that is what most of these families are doing. I'm just very thankful that we found our daughter (or did she find us?) :) when we did. She is such a joy and she makes all the stress of the day go away when she smiles at us. She is learning and growing each day; it's an incredible feeling to be a part of that.

Happy Friday!!
Love,
S,T & E

Trick or Treat!!

Emmy's first Halloween was so much fun! We borrowed the costume from a friend and I'm so glad we did. I wasn't going to dress her up this year, but we got some super cute pictures of her. The past few weeks have been wonderful. My mom came to visit and we went to the pumpkin patch and got Em's 3 month pictures taken. This weekend Truman's parents came and Emmy got to spend Halloween with them and helping mom & dad pass out Halloween candy to all the neighborhood kids. Emmy also got to meet some of daddy's friends from "across the pond" who came in town for a wedding we all went to on Saturday night. Grandma & Grandpa got to watch Emmy while we were gone and they say she was a perfect angel. Hmmm....why isn't she like that with us???!! LOL! Em has really started to grab at toys or her blanket and put them directly in her mouth. Today Truman got her to give a little giggle. I think it was the cutest thing I've ever heard!! She is still eating well and sleeping very good at night - although with the time change today that may throw her off just a bit. Ten more days until we can officially try to feed her cereal. I'm hoping that goes ok. Some babies just aren't ready for cereal until 6 months. But, she is downing her bottles so I think she needs a little more to fill her belly.
I'll leave you with a few pictures from the weekend....
Love to all,
S,T & E

Adoption Music Video

Two very special people sent us a music video. It's definitely worth watching if adoption has ever touched your lives. I have added the link on the right sidebar of the blog under "Adoption Articles". Have the kleenex's ready....:) And let me know what you think.

3 months!!

Our 3 month old Kentucky girl!!

Update

Well, I see it's been awhile since we updated you on our baby girl. She will be 3 months old on Sunday and I think it's been the quickest 3 months of our lives!! Since I last updated we have spent our first weekend apart from Emmy so we could go to Bourbon Fest in Bardstown, KY. Thank you so much to my good friends, Rachel & Melissa, for coming to spend the weekend with Em. I only wish I could have spent more time with them. But, I'm quickly learning that when you have a baby, it's not about YOU anymore. It's about THEM! We have also completed our "post-placement" requirement for the state of KY. Whoohoo! All that's left to do on that front is to get a court date in our county and finalize. All that should happen before 2008 is over. We also visited the doctor twice. Once for a cold that she got from her mama(poor girl was so congested and coughing!) and 3 days later for her first round of shots. Em weighed in at 13 lbs, 10 oz and 23-3/4" long - that puts her in the 70th percentile according to the doctors charts. She hollered during the shots, but calmed down pretty easy and fell asleep on the car ride home. She is still trying to get over the cold, so in the meantime she continues to sleep in the carseat at night to help with the congestion. Speaking of sleeping.....this baby is a gem at night. Since 8 weeks old (give or take a night or 2 for whatever reason), she has been sleeping through the night. I give all the credit to following the "Babywise" philosophy. It's a feed/wake/sleep pattern that you start from Day 1 and it has worked wonders for us (and for several friends!). There have been no other huge issues for her other than the yucky dry skin. That is why her face is so red in the picture. It gets so dry, she starts rubbing her face against her hands or against our shoulders or in the crook of our elbow if we are holding her. Finally we wised up and started putting on vaseline-type stuff and it has cleared up pretty good. But, going into colder weather will probably not help the dry skin. We'll just keep her slathered up each night!
Truman and I seem to be adjusting quite well. I can now say, "what did we do with our time before she came along??". Sometimes it's so cool just to sit and watch her and try to get her to smile at us. (which comes REALLY easy in the morning!!) She is quite the talker and happy to chat back & forth to us most of the time. The teachers at her daycare love her. One even said the other day that she came in early to hold her because she didn't get to the previous day. Awwww.....it's good to hear those kinds of things.
The dogs are still doing good with Emmy. I catch her watching them every once in a while, so I know they will all be good friends. They greet her just like they greet us when we come home -- with kisses! She doesn't seem to mind one or 2 kisses. :) Tonight we are off to an event at the distillery. She has so many admirers there, so I know we'll enjoy ourselves. Then next weekend Grandma Peggy is coming to visit & we'll get some 3 mo. pictures done. I'll try to do a better job at updating this blog a little more often. Thanks for reading...

Love,
S,T & E