A Month of Adventures

I am enjoying Emily so much that I am rarely on the computer anymore! I keep thinking I will take time to write a blog, but I just don’t seem to have time!!! Emily is so cute! I say that all the time, but I just can’t help myself! I can’t believe she will be 6 weeks old tomorrow!!! She is changing so much already! She is smiling a lot, but I can’t seem to get a picture yet! She entertains herself by hitting toys above her in her bouncy seat and her monkey gym – a floor playmat. She is always kicking her legs and moving her arms all around! She is sooooo attentive. She loves to look at us and even follows us with her eyes, so we know she is watching us! She recently started cooing! It’s the cutest sound! It sounds like she is saying “ohhhhhhhhh.” A couple days ago she made the funniest sound…it seriously sounded like she said “Emily.” I thought I must be crazy for thinking that but then Phillip said the same thing! So we both thought it!!!! I sure wish I would have had that on video!!!! I think she knows her name already! :-) Emily is finally letting me sleep more! She recently began sleeping 4-5 hours for the first part of the night, then sleeping 2-3 hours more at a time for a total of around 8-9 hours! That means I got 8 hours of sleep the past 3 nights!!! Woohoo! I sure hope that continues!!!

I admit I had a really rough time after my c-section. I was so sore for the first week, which was to be expected. But then about the time I thought I would start feeling better, I got an infection! That meant antibiotics and another round of painkillers! I hurt so bad that it was hard to move to different positions, I couldn’t sit on the floor, it was hard to get out of bed, it hurt to walk up stairs, etc. I have finally felt almost normal for the past week and a half! It still hurts if I bump it of course. The worst problem now is that my back hurts when I do too much. They said that is normal because of weak stomach muscles though! I’ll be happy when that goes away, but for now I am just totally thrilled to not be in pain all the time!!!!!!!

We got Emily’s passport and report of birth in the mail. They are really neat! Her picture on the passport is adorable! A few days later, we got her social security card in the mail. The name on the card said Emila Grace Adams!!!! Emila?!?!? We were so upset! I called the social security office in the US. The lady who barely spoke English told me that there was nothing they could do to fix it even though it was their mistake. She said we’d have to go back to the US Embassy to fill out paperwork to request the change. I was so mad! That meant that Phillip would have to take a day off from the hospital and we’d have to waste about $60 to get to London. At the time, I was still really having a hard time getting around too, so that just sounded terrible to me! I emailed the US Embassy to ask about it. A British worker called me back the next day and apologized for the mistake. He said they would be glad to fix it if I would just mail the original card back to them! He was so nice! I mailed the card that very day! Hopefully we’ll get a correct one back soon???

They don’t do footprints at the hospital, so we bought some washable black paint and cardstock and did our own! We also decided to attempt handprints. The footprints turned out cute, but the handprints were a total flop!!! We gave up without getting any good ones and poor Emily ended up with paint on her onesie and on her face!!!! She was crying and screaming!!!! Poor little girl, I think we tortured her!!!

Emily has had lots of adventures lately and has been so good on every single one of them! She absolutely loves her carrier! She sleeps a lot in it, but when she is awake, she just stares at everything. It’s like she’s really looking at everything we are seeing. It is so cute! Everyone that sees her just absolutely loves her. Soooooo many people stop to look at her and ask how old she is. Everyone is excited to see a “new baby.” People say, “Oh wow, she’s new!” I love that expression!

On September 30th, Phillip had the day off from the hospital, so we went to Buckingham Palace. We took a tour and even got to see the Royal Wedding Dress up close! The Palace was really neat!

Phillip’s mom came to visit us October 5-14!!! She was so happy to see Emily!!!! It was so sweet…when she called Steve to let him know that she was here, she said, "I'm here, I'm in the flat, and I'm holding the most beautiful baby you've ever seen in your life!" She loved holding Emily and said that the trip was definitely worth it to hold that precious little baby in her arms! So sweet! We did manage 3 days of travelling while she was here! We went to the beach at Bournemouth on Friday! We were all very excited to see the beach! It was cold and windy, so it wasn’t quite like the beaches we were used to in St. Maarten, but it was beautiful. I just can’t ever get enough of the sound of the waves! Saturday, we explored London and showed Cheryl a lot of the important sites – Big Ben, Harrod’s, Buckingham Palace, The London Eye, and of course some souvenir shops! We had a fun day but Cheryl was not a fan of the cabs, trains, and subway rides! She said it made her really miss her car! Sunday, we went to Windsor and toured Windsor Castle. Phillip and I really wanted to go there. It was really neat too! We love seeing palaces and castles! It’s just not something you would ever see at home!!! We also took Cheryl to several neat little shops in Windsor. It was a fun weekend! The rest of the week, Cheryl and I just stayed around the apartment and enjoyed little Emily! :-) Cheryl was sad to leave Friday morning!

Phillip, Emily, and I had another busy weekend!!! We took a train to Bath on Saturday. Bath is really fascinating!!! It is pretty impressive how old Bath is and that people were able to figure all of that out so many years ago! The water bubbles up from underground and is really warm! I enjoyed learning about the history of the baths and how they believed the waters were sent from the gods and had healing powers. Fascinating! We were even able to touch the water in the bath!

On Sunday, we went to Kingston and walked around. Kingston is where Phillip has to go to take exams! It’s a really neat city and we enjoyed exploring. We even splurged (with bday money from his Grandma) and enjoyed a really nice lunch at Tony Roma’s! It was fun!

This week, I am attempting to catch up on laundry and organize/clean the apartment! It was a disaster from all of the chaos lately and was driving me insane! It sure does take longer to get things done these days though! ;-)