In A Nutshell

Today - Emilia will be visiting Cathy's House for her trial run at daycare. She will there in the afternoon from 1pm to 5pm. We wrote up the following to help Cathy get to know Emilia as she prepares for her new adventure...daycare...







Personality
Emilia has a very sweet, happy personality. She loves interacting with people - sharing smiles, laughs and stories through her coo’s and ahh goo’s. She enjoys short periods of time on her back and tummy if she is talked to and encouraged to look at a toy or grasp something in her hand. If she seems to be getting “bored” and fuss, a change or scene often helps. She loves looking out the window, in a mirror or at lights on the ceiling. When she has had enough stimulation and begins to look away or fuss, a cuddle and a soft, long “shhhh” help to calm her down. If she still seems out of sorts (and it has been at least 30 minutes since she has eaten) she enjoys being carried around belly / face down in the football hold.

Feeding
We have been working on getting Emilia to more readily accept the bottle, but she seems to know when the “real deal” is available to her and refuses to take it. Since she doesn’t take a nuk, she is not well trained on how to suck the way that is required for bottle-feeding. Please keep in mind that she does have a touchy gag reflex and putting the nipple into her mouth before she is ready could result in her gagging / spitting up. With all of this being said, she may take the bottle with no problems as she is in a new environment that she doesn’t associate with me. She has taken the bottle for our parents when I am not around, but she doesn’t seem to take as many ounces as she would if she were breastfeeding. I’m sure she’ll make up for it at night if she needs to! I would suggest starting with 2 ounces in the bottle and offering up to 3 ounces if she takes the first 2 ounces quickly. She does her cluster feedings between 5pm and 10pm and goes for longer stretches between feedings during the day. We just warm the breast milk by setting it in a cup of warm water until it is body temperature.

After a feeding, she can sometimes take a long time to burp but they are in there - usually more than one! If we don’t get them out after a feeding, they often build up and cause her to be uncomfortable with gas pains or to be “tooting” later! We would just suggest trying a couple different positions while patting her if it seems like they are not coming out.

Sleeping
Emilia sleeps very well at night and takes catnaps throughout the day. We expect that her schedule will change significantly from what it currently is as her days will be getting started much earlier and will be filled with activity she is not accustomed to, so it’s hard for us to say what her nap schedule will be with you.

Her signs of being tired are probably much like the many children you have cared for. She loses interest in activities / interacting with you and often begins to fuss. Her cries end short and tapered down. She relaxes / naps best when swaddled with her arms down otherwise, her uncontrolled movements keep her from falling / staying asleep. She likes to be pat, rocked, sung to or to listen to soft lullabies. At night we have white noise on near her crib, but the sounds coming from the other children in your house will probably do the same thing. After waking up she likes to be cuddled before resuming her activities.