Sunday, May 31, 2009

LONG UPDATE AHEAD!

Only start this if you have time and a cup of coffee. Or tea. I don't drink coffee. Don't worry, I've included lots of pictures to keep it interesting!

It's been a while, no? Lots to update! In no particular order...

Memorial Day weekend: We spent the weekend in Oklahoma. My baby sister graduated high school! We went to her graduation (235ish in her class, she finished 17th she thinks) and it was short and sweet. All the grandparents were there, 2 aunts, me, Scott, Charlotte and my parents. Some of the family:
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Holly, my sister, sang with her choir one last time, and she also sang the national anthem as a quartet; she is a soprano. We went up on Thursday, stopping after 7 hours of driving to visit my old office to show off the baby. A $35 parking ticket on campus that we're not going to pay later, we made the final hour to Ponca and relaxed the rest of the night. The next day was graduation. It began at 8p, which is past C's bedtime, so I wasn't sure how that was going to go, but she did great! She was asleep when we got there, but she woke up with the noise of the crowd and just chilled in her carseat for a while.
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She got hungry, so we broke out a bottle to entertain her for a while. Many of the families had airhorns and every time one went off or a bunch of people cheered, she got HUGE eyes and looked very startled, but she never stopped eating! :) My sister and my mom, after graduation:
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On Saturday, we met a couple of friends and their baby for lunch. They live in Arkansas but were in OK for the weekend, so we found a place between where we all were and caught up! Baby H was born in January. We hadn't met her and she hadn't met C yet, so it was so much fun! The girls smiled at each other, so cute!!
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That night, my sister and 2 friends had a get together for the families, so we went to that before headed to Scott's parent's house. The two friends:
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It was a late night because we sat up chatting with his parents and sister. Sunday morning, we went to our old church to show off C and hardly anyone was there!! There might have been a youth trip, as I saw not a one there (I used to volunteer with the youth). We hung out at Scott's parent's house with some friends for the afternoon. It's so great to see people you haven't seen in a long time!
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Monday, it was time to head home. It used to take us 6hrs, but with baby and feeding it took about 7.5 to get home. Scott mowed when we got home, and I unpacked and started laundry. A boring end to a really great weekend. Because he's cute, here's a pic of our nephew:
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Shredding: Scott and I have started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD. We have completed 5 days so far and are so sore! The goal is to do it 30 days in a row, so we are 1/6 of the way done. We may try to do it longer than 30 days, that's just the first goal. It's only 20 minutes a day, but we struggle to make it each time! The first day was a killer, but we're getting better. I didn't take measurements before, but I did use string to measure my chest, waist, and hips. I'm anxious to see how many inches I can lose. I really want to fit back into my prepregnancy pants so that I don't have to buy a whole new wardrobe. I did check my starting weight, but I know it's just a number. I mean, I hope I lose weight, but if I don't, I'd settle for fitting back into my black pants! Day 30 is the day I leave for a conference in Dallas, so I can't skip any days! Oh, Jillian Michaels is the Jillian from the Biggest Loser, fyi. And I'll let you know at the end if I lost any inches. Maybe by then I'll be brave enough to measure my string lengths. [No pictures here, it's not a pretty sight. Imagine lots of sweat and there ya go!]

Charlotte: Her routine is working! She is finally sleeping a little more at night! I am beginning to realize that one day she will not need me in the middle of the night, and that makes me a little sad. I like being the one that can take care of her needs, and it's so quiet in the middle of the night, just us. That said, I am happy that she is starting to sleep longer. Now when every. single. person. asks me if she's sleeping through the night yet, I can say yes. I mean, really, is it a competition?? No! Babies develop at different rates, and you're not the one getting up with her, so what does it matter to you?? But, technically, yes, she is sleeping through the night, 3 nights in a row now. 5 hours, then 5 hours, then 6 last night. She actually went 7 hours between her feeds last night skipping one entirely, but she fought sleep for that first hour, making it only 6. Sleeping in the cradle at the inlaw's house:
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She has been smiling more lately too. Especially if you say "buh buh buh" to her over and over. She's practicing her B's and blowing bubbles! She sticks her tongue out too if she's especially smiley!
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This past Friday and Saturday, she was pretty grouchy all day. Today off and on too. I think she's tired, so tomorrow I'll probably let her sleep whatever she needs to. She's usually tired after the weekend anyway and needs extra sleep.
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My job: I am officially a SAHM now (stay at home Mom!) and I'm excited about that. Me staying home was our goal, but Scott's job was in question for a while. Starting in January, they've been doing layoffs at his company every 4 weeks, never knowing in advance which area would be affected. We had said that if he still had a job on June 1, I would not go back to work. We hung onto my job a while to make sure that, come the end of maternity leave, one of us still had a job. June 1 is tomorrow, so I begin a new job. Staying home is tough! Days are long, and, even on the days we actually stay home the whole day, there are things that I want to get done that just don't happen. I can't go out and work in the yard when she is sleeping, because what if she wakes and I need to get to her and I'm covered in dirt?? No can do, so I did yard work today while she and Scott napped! Even though it was 94 degrees out, I loved being outside and getting dirty. (I may be sleeping all day with her tomorrow, I'm wiped out!!)

Church: There have been lots of changes at church. I had 3 (5) bosses when I worked there, 3 full time, 1 associate, and 1 part time. The only of those still there are the associate and the part timer! Two of the FTs quit and one was laid off. So those departments are all going through changes. Also, a new Sunday school class formed for Young Couples. Seeing as we are a young couple, it would seem logical for us to join that class. However, we are in the old YC class, now the Faith Class. We are the youngest in the class and have been since it started almost 2 years ago. I have felt some pressure to join the new class, but we tried it out today, and I don't feel like we will be going back to it. There is nothing wrong with it, but we are still the youngest! We feel like we can stay in our current, more developed class and be the youngest instead of moving to the new, developing class. I've been thinking about it since January, when we were first asked to switch, but the class didn't start til April, and we weren't going to church then. We were finally able to say we tried it out today though.

That's all I can think of for now. It's late, I'm sore, and I'm tired. I hope that you all have a good week!

PS: I had to do all the pictures twice, because I didn't do them right the first time. That's how much I love you people that read things like this when you probably have better things to do with your time. :)

Friday, May 15, 2009

Two Months Old!

Charlotte had her 2 month check up today. She is 12lbs, 2oz (84th percentile for her age) and 23.2 inches long (83%)! We knew she had grown more, we just didn't know how much! Then she had her shots, and that was not happy for her or for Mommy! Daddy came along to be with Charlotte during her shots while Mommy didn't watch from across the room. Her shots were at about 9am, and she's been asleep since then.

This past month has brought lots of fun! Charlotte began smiling around 6 weeks, and we see it daily now. She is really happy when you get her up from a nap and after she finishes eating. We've heard 3 giggles, and I hope that they become more frequent soon! We all went to church for Mother's Day and we had a good time! She slept for about 2/3 of the service and was good and quiet for the rest. Then I took her to my work to show her off! She smiled and cooed for 2 hours, never getting unhappy. The next day, I met a couple of girls at the movies, and Charlotte and I saw her first movie! Again, she slept, woke up and ate, then went back to sleep. Such a good girl!

Enjoy some pictures from Month Two:
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Thursday, May 7, 2009

One step forward, three steps back

My positivity from yesterday has flown out the window. We had a good night's sleep 2 nights ago, followed by a great day yesterday. Then last night, starting about 10:15, we could not get her to sleep. I tried for an hour, Scott tried another hour. Then she slept for 15 minutes at a time the rest of the night. I think her tummy was hurting. She hadn't pooped in almost 48 hours, so when she finally did around 1:15, I thought, whew, now we can all sleep.

Not so much. At 5, I asked Scott to take her to the living room so I could get an hour and a half of sleep. He battled with her during that time. I got up to feed her a little before 7, and she was a happy smiling baby, no matter not sleeping all night. (Scott and me? No smiles there.)

She started yawning, so I put her down for a nap at 8, and I could not get her to sleep until 8:45, and that was with her laying on me. We slept til 9:30. I just battled her second nap for 1.5 hours, and finally got her up, because it's only 10 minutes now until her next feeding. She is sitting in the Boppy next to me on the couch, just about asleep.

I'm exhausted. Scott is going to take her tonight and let me sleep. He laughed that if she didn't sleep last night and doesn't sleep all day, she'll pass out tonight and he'll have an easy night! Not funny, because I bet that's true.

Ok, now she's sound asleep. Great.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Good Night's Sleep!

Well, "good" might be a stretch, but we had a decent night last night!

We put her to bed at 8, and I fed her at 10:30. She didn't wake up again until 1:30. She woke up about 3:15, fussing. I read yesterday that when a baby wakes up before 3 hours have passed, they probably don't need food, especially if they ate well the last time, but that they just need help getting back to sleep. I gave her the pacifier, and she didn't wake up again until 4:30!

This is the first time in at least 3 weeks that she slept between 2 and 4! I got up to feed her at 4:30, and she had decided that she was ready to get up. She was giggly, smiley and cooing at me. It took all I had to put her back in bed! I just wanted to talk to her and watch her smile. I felt good at that point, I think I had gotten about 5 hours of sleep total by then. But I put her back down with her pacifier. I replaced it every 10 minutes for the next two hours, but I told Scott, I'd rather replace a pacifier for 2 hours than be holding a screaming baby!

Her pacifier kept falling out, because she was keeping her head turned, staring at the light coming from the bathroom. She does this thing when she is happy where if you touch her lips with her pacifier, she "talks" so every time I went to replace it, she started chatting with me!

We got up at 6:30, I fed her, she grinned for 15 minutes or so after then played on her playmat while I ate breakfast. She is back down for a morning nap, and now it's my turn. We're going to try to get out to Walmart this morning, but it looks like rain. We may have to wait til this afternoon.

And finally, her first smile captured on camera:
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Friday, May 1, 2009

Five Weeks Old

I thought I posted this when I sent the email out, but I guess I didn't! So this is a week late, as she will actually be 7 weeks tomorrow!

Charlotte will be 6 weeks old tomorrow, and week 5 was a lot of fun! The most exciting thing is that Charlotte started smiling yesterday! We've gotten her to do it probably 10 times today, but she shuts it off as soon as the camera comes out. We will catch that allusive smile soon, I hope! Charlotte found herself in the mirror this week and has enjoyed staring at herself in the mirror in her crib! We have started a bedtime routine, in hopes that it will help her figure out when to sleep. At the start of the week, she had her days and nights reversed, but by the end of the week, it's starting to turn around. Thank goodness! I had 3 friends visit this week (2 from out of town) and that was good for me. Charlotte got to be held by someone else, and I got a little break! Another friend in town kept Charlotte at her house a couple of hours on Friday while I ran errands all by myself! It was nice to have that break but I was ready to get back home with her. Here are a few pictures from this week.