OK, so it's not perfect, but I thought I did a pretty good job making this cake from scratch. David said he wanted a Black Forest cake for his birthday, so I had to rush out and buy the ingredients. I was a very bad wife and forgot that his birthday was coming up so soon. He forgave me enough to eat some of my cake, though, so I guess I'm not in too much trouble.

On another note, I got to talk to my parents really for the first time since Emmaline was born. I got to talk to my mom on the phone the weekend after Emmaline was born, but the phone cut out after only a minute or two of talking. It was so nice to hear their voices and talk to them! Mom even sang a lullaby to Emmaline who was stirring in her sleep, starting to wake up. She went right back to sleep just as soon as she heard my mom's voice. I just broke down crying; it made me so happy yet so terribly sad to hear my mom speaking to Emmaline. It just broke my heart that my parents aren't here to hold her and cuddle her as I know they are anxious to do. I miss them so much, and I miss them on behalf of Emmaline. I struggled the rest of the day with a mild case of depression, yet I was elated to have been able to speak with them!

We have finally moved into our house. We moved in with the help of Luke and Erin Thanksgiving weekend; Amber and Ava helped too! While I have been busy with Emmaline, David has been busy fixing this and installing that. So far he has fixed the shower, toilet, and sink in the hallway bathroom, knocked down a brick column, installed our stove, added breakers, installed water lines for the washer, added wiring and installed an outlet for the dryer, built a cabinet for our oven, added new wiring and installed the oven, and installed a new water heater all on his own! I am so proud! Now the only thing I would really like is a furnace to heat the place!!! David thinks I am just a big wuss, but the house gets so cold. All we have are baseboard heaters, and he doesn't want to use any of them besides the one in our bedroom. I have been walking around in my thickest, warmest jacket, and have had to invest in some nice thick sweaters. Poor Emmaline has been mostly confined to our bedroom due to the cold. We have had some warmer days, though, so she has actually spent some time in the living room with us while she was awake. Woo hoo!!

So the past four weeks I have kind of lost my mind. I have been trying to get used to my new schedule and adjusting to the fact that my time is no longer all my own. Now that I have finally accepted that last fact, I am beginning to settle down. Things with Emmaline are going a lot better. I dreaded nursing during the first week or so, but now it's not so bad. Emmaline was a really sleepy eater, and it took her half an hour to forty-five minutes just to feed fully on one breast. Now she is actually timing in at ten to fifteen minutes. Thank goodness!

Emmaline is really starting to fill out now. I look at the pictures of her right after she was born and am amazed. Her preemie diapers were HUGE on her; now she has graduated out of those and the newborn diapers into a mixture of the disposable diapers Erin gave me and her cloth diapers. So far we have only tried two of the different cloth diapers I have purchased. We will see which one works best for her.

Emmaline's eyes are still a bluish gray, and she has broken out with acne which is now starting to clear up. She has smiled at me a couple of times; I'm pretty sure she wasn't gassy at the time. She has the cutest little half laugh/half sigh that she does when she is about to sneeze but doesn't. It almost sounds like a cooing laugh. Adorable!!

Emmaline is now almost five weeks old, and David and I were a bit taken aback at how quickly time has gone by. We are both thankful that there have been no signs of a GBS infection, as the critical weeks were the first four. We continue to pray that God will continue to watch over her health.