You Move Me Honey, Yes You Do...

Hello all! So here we sit at 3 months... WOW!! time flies, though I knew it would. Things are pretty uneventful in the Sehy household of St. Louis, we're all just living and loving each other. Everyday we find ourselves gawking at each other, love just oozing out our pores, still waiting for the fact that we have such a beautiful little one (thats actually ours!) to sink in. Sounds cheesy but funny enough its true!

Before I share a little bit of Emersons fun personality with you, I'll share some other exciting news (that I'm sure most of you are clued into by now) but Luke and I are getting married!! :) :) Now, you may be thinking to yourself 'Isn't that a little backwards?' or 'duh, you have a kid. Of course you're getting married!' or many other sarcastic or even supportive thoughts but I'd like to clear the air a little. We are not getting married just BECAUSE we have a child and yes, backwards according to the societal 'norm' (not that I've ever been a big fan of following the rules just because they're rules) but when it comes down to it, child or non we are absolutely crazy about each other and simply put, that is why we're getting married. We are fortunate to have a child as some people in our position may not be so lucky to even get pregnant down the road. I love the fact that Emerson is around to be involved in our wedding and everyday we show her how much we love her and each other and she will be a testimony to that as we make it official :) It will be one of the greatest days of my life (following meeting Luke and then meeting Emerson for the first time :)). I cannot stress how lucky I feel that Luke loves me back in such a way that he wants to spend the rest of his life with me... I know without any doubt or hesitation that there is no one else I would want to share my life with and for all of the above reasons we are all incredibly happy!!

Now for the joys of parenthood :) That sounds sarcastic and maybe it should be a little bit but surprisingly I can tell you that there is not a minute that I have been even remotely close to throwing my hands up, nor has Luke for that matter (at least I'm pretty sure on his part ;)). You know, we'd heard before Emerson arrived that if our relationship could survive pregnancy and the first year of raising her together that we'd be 'good'. Maybe because we're not married yet our relationship could be viewed as not being as strong. That is SO wrong. This being said, everyone is different. Perceptions, temperment, patience, background, ideals, virtues, etc, etc... I feel like all of those things plus more determines the outcome of such a situation. For us the pregnancy and the first 3 months have been such a positive experience and I feel has only enhanced and strengthened our relationship. The end of the pregnancy was difficult physically and there were a few nights in the first 3 months that were long nights but overall with a little bit of team work we've made it efficient (if you can call it that ;)) and positive. We are nothing short of a happy family :)

Now all of this may sound 'fairytale' and you might be thinking "right, she's sugar coating it. No way can it be so 'perfect' and positive and blah blah blah" and again this is where I'd say its perception of experience which is fueled by so many things past and present. For me I loved the long nights holding Emerson, consoling her, feeding her, simply realizing that she is real, and amazing and ours :) Knowing that this part of her life will pass and she'll be an adult before we know it, I try to take every experience with her a positive one and really absorb it. We are all learning together; her, Luke and I :)

Moving on I do have to say I never thought I'd find myself just staring at a baby. Staring at her for as long as she'll let us, she probably finds her parents a little creepy :) (I kid, I kid:) Of course she ours and that makes the difference. We never thought we'd find 'poop' so funny, hilarious at times. Her 'poop face' as we call it never gets old... we laugh every time! We see it less and less the older she gets and so I even find myself missing it at times. We know there's a package coming when we see this expression, never fails... typically referred to as "a package for dad!" because it happened frequently in the beginning when he was holding her:) The running commentary on the color of her dirty diapers also so funny. They're all reruns at this point but still hysterical :) I find myself having conversations I never thought I'd have, mostly because they're one sided conversations with a 3 month old. But hey, I might as well treasure the moments she finds me interesting and engaging because it might not always be that way. I've never had a smile melt my heart the way her smile does :) I've never had a cry cripple me the way hers does :( As every parent does, I wish to keep any pain away from her all the days of her life and knowing thats not going to be possible breaks my heart.

Emerson has many nicknames, all applicable depending on the time of day or kind of day but amongst them is One Eyed McGee (though this is fading), triple chins, stinkybutt (slowly becoming 'stink' for short), chunk, beautiful (thats a given:)), bean (this will never get old), beanerson, little bean and many more bean oriented nicknames and most recently, quarter-slots (tends to happen as she's fading to sleep).... all said with fondness and love of course :)

One of the first questions that usually comes from strangers when we're out and about... "Is she a good baby?" Ummmm, no, no she's not. She's awful, just awful. Really?! I know people mean well but like any new parent is going to say their child is not a good baby. In my eyes she is an amazing baby. Also, "Is she a good sleeper?" which usually directly relates to the good baby question. Because there is quiet the broad scale when it comes to a newborn's sleep habits I would say yes, I think she is a good sleeper. I think it could be much worse... I know it could be much worse. She was never hard to get back to sleep after a night feeding, only wakes up when she's hungry and has transitioned nicely to longer bouts of sleep and fewer feedings at night. There is an occasional night when she has some difficulty being perfect ;) but there is also the occasional night when she sleeps through the entire night without waking up (though this has only happened a couple of times but hey, its a good sign). A typical night is as follows... around 5:30 or so its bath time. We spend about 10 minutes in the water because she loooooves it:) Then she has a bottle (if she's hungry), then story time (if she makes it through though a lot of times she's just ready for bed) and then bed (by about 6:00 or 6:30pm). She sleeps until we wake her up about 9pm to try and feed her as much as she'll eat. She goes right back to sleep (most of the time doesn't even wake up, just 'eat-sleeps' :)). Then she'll wake up between 2 and 3am on her own, take a full bottle and then go right back to sleep until between 6:30 and 7:30am. We get up in the morning, hang out between an hour and an hour and a half and then she's ready for a nap... between 1 and 2 1/2 hours. No, I'm not making this up :) I think its amazing. I think we're going on about 3 weeks or so of this being a steady occurance. And trust me, this is her setting her own schedule. We have not forced anything that hasn't been natural for her. And when she gets all the rest that she needs she is the happiest 3 month old I can imagine. So, is she good baby? yes. Is she a good sleeper? yes.

And lastly.... ( I need to do this more often so i'm not writing books).... She lifts her head on her own and is almost to the point that she can control it. Everyday she gets better at it:) Also she has rolled over a few times on her own. She smiles ALL THE TIME and is starting to talk a lot :) We are absolutely in love with her!!

I'll try to post more frequently to keep everyone updated.... next blog will highlight our parenting skillz :)

Love and hugs to everyone!