Happy 4 Weeks, Emma! (Anna & Caroline)

Yesterday, Emma was four weeks old. In honour of the occasion, we are finally posting some more photographs. No, we haven’t just been saving them up for this day; the USB drive on our computer was broken and we couldn’t connect our digital camera. And you know, priorities and everything – a baby who needs feeding wins out every time ☺ Thanks to all those people who have “gently” reminded us that they couldn’t care less about words – they want baby photos!

Since she was born, we have noticed so many differences in her. For the first few weeks, she was a very sleepy baby. When she was awake, she would squint at us from one eye. It took her over a week to show us both eyes. Now, she is often alert and active, taking in the things around her, gazing at us for hours. She’ll often lie in our arms on the couch looking for all the world like she’s browsing our bookshelf for the next good read. She has a full repertoire of squeaks, bleats, grunts, and cries, and can coo like a pigeon, quack like a duck and whimper like a puppy. She will now tell us when she is hungry and demand cuddles when she wants attention, rather than waiting for us to come to her. She can lie on her front and pull her neck up, moving her cheek from one side to the other with only the occasional head butt. And she nuzzles in our necks when we cuddle her, and gives gorgeous little baby smiles when the mood strikes (or when she passes gas, depending on which school of thought you belong to).

As for us, we’ve grown too, although perhaps we are the worst people to try to tell you how. We are growing into ourselves as parents, a journey we expect to take a lifetime, and falling even deeper in love with our bub. We take advantage of having a peaceful baby to go out – we can hang out in coffee shops without feeling the need to tear our hair out. This might be a limited time opportunity, so we don’t take it for granted. We curl up for naps with her, and sing silly songs to her and give her endless kisses and cuddles. We go for walks along the sea wall – which we did all the way through the pregnancy as well. And of course the feeding, nappy changes, rocking, bathing and everything else. This parenthood thing is pretty profound.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past few weeks. The food, the phone call check-ins, the gentle, loving emails, the packages, the hand-me-downs, the hugs and chats, the visits, the house work, the encouraging words, the space for us to figure it out for ourselves – we have been extremely lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives and so much support.