Reasons Today Is Awesome!

1.  It is Friday - do I really need any more reasons?!

2.  It is payday - thank the Lord!!

3.  I have every single paper graded and I'm going home empty handed.

4.  I just found out the second good friend of mine got engaged this week!  I so love this time of life that involves weddings and babies.

5.  My cousin is getting married tomorrow!  I'm sad we can't be there, but we'll get to see the newlyweds next weekend!  Yay!

6.  My aunt just found out she has Stage 1B lung cancer (which is very not awesome), but she is in good spirits and she and her doctors seem to have a good plan and it sounds like she has a lot of support!

7.  We have a packed month ahead of us.  We are either going somewhere or have company every weekend in October.  I am really looking forward to this weekend to relax with Ja, Caroline, and the boys and be able to slow down for a minute.  Then let the games begin!

8.  It is starting to get cool outside!  Since Ja has a home game tonight, I'm excited about bundling up (hopefully) and it really feeling like football!

Hope everyone has a great Friday and a great weekend!

‘School’

Well we are almost a month into me going back to work and Caroline going to ‘school’.  For the most part, it has been a great transition.  She did very little sleeping to begin with, which stressed me out quite a bit since she has always been a good sleeper, but she has adjusted well and does some pretty decent sleeping while she is there.  She is such an observer and so nosy and busy that she would just rather be singing, playing, talking, or laughing than doing such a silly thing as sleeping.  I’m sure, though, going from a quiet room at home to a busy ‘school’ room was enough to get adjusted to.  But she did it, like she has done everything, like a champ.  When I drop her off Mrs. Val and Mrs. Nita are so happy to see her and she just gives them a big toothy grin and I know she will be just fine.  All of her friends say hey to her and then I kiss her, tell her I love her, and head for the door.  It is all I can do to get to 4, but once I do I’m in my car and at her ‘school’ as soon as I can get there.  I’m greeted at the door with one of her teachers and (most of the time) that big ol’ grin I’ve been waiting for all day long.  If she hasn’t slept well, she is usually so tired she can’t even hold her head up.  If she looks like that, she’ll be asleep before we even reach the road!  Every day I get a report card to let me know about her pooping and peeing, how much she ate of her bottles and when, and how she did with her naps.  Mondays are usually pretty light on the sleeping since she is getting back into the busy routine at ‘school’, but by Friday we have had a couple 1 1/2 to 2 hour naps – which makes this momma very happy!!

Even though I know that she is doing great and doing great things, the bottom line is that it sucks.  It sucks to know that I have to go 8 or 9 hours without seeing her.  It sucks that out of the 3 hours that I have her at home before she goes to bed, she is asleep for half of it.  It sucks to know there is someone else watching her that may not do things like I do.  It sucks that she may not be getting as much sleep as she needs.  It sucks that I miss her and that there is a small ache in my heart all day until I can get to her again.

That is the down side.  I try not to roll around in that too much, because this is the way that life is now and it is not going to change any time soon.  So let’s focus on the positive.  She is making friends.  She is at a great place where I know the people there are taking great care of her.  She is building up her immune system.  She is learning and building brain cells every day.  She is learning how to adapt to life without having to have her mommy and daddy around her all the time.  She is experiencing things that she may not have experienced if she was home with me all the time.  4 o’clock has always been a good time of the day, but now it is just 1,000 times better.  I used to not be a morning person at all, but now when my alarm goes off I usually hop right into the shower, because the faster I get ready, the faster I get to see my sweet girl.

After all of that, the moral of the story is that we are all going to be just fine.  We are going to adapt to this and I will get to see my sweet girl grow more and more every day.  While all of that is happening, I’ll be praying for Thanksgiving Break, Christmas Break, Spring Break, and Summer Break to hurry up so I can spend time with my baby!!

6 Month Update

* She is a growing girl!  She weighs 16 lbs. 14 oz. (61st percentile) and is 26 1/2 inches long (69th percentile)!

* She is wearing size 1 diapers at 'school', but we have moved onto 1-2s at home and will soon be in the full swing of size 2s. We are SOOOOO blessed that we got so hooked up at showers and have not had to pay for diapers yet - other than preemies because no one had any idea she'd be that small!!

* She is in clothes anywhere from 0-3 months to 6 months. Her sleepers are 6 months, but most 6 month clothes are still a little big. We are migrating the small stuff out and the bigger stuff in to make sure she can wear all of her warm weather stuff before it gets cold. (Sidenote: Jason and I both have a baby clothes addiction and we need to seek treatment for it - right after we run to Target!)

* She is still sleeping three naps a day and I'm thinking that she will be for a while. She takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap at 'school' (about an hour to an hour and a half on good days!) and then takes another nap when we get home. It stinks that we don't get to spend that much time together after being a part all day, but I'd rather her get as much sleep as she needs.

* She has two teeth! The second tooth came in a couple of weeks after the first one. She was fussier with the second one, but it was over in no time and there it was!

* During her first week of 'school' she got a nasty virus and she had these tiny red bumps from her face to the bottoms of her feet! The doctor said it could be any of a number of viruses, but that it was a pretty severe case. Here goes the building up of that little immune system!

* She is on to Gerber Stage 2 foods now. She ate two good boxes of Stage 1 foods from Sam's (thanks, Mom!) and then it was time to move on to more exciting mixes! She has LOVED all of the fruits, especially banana mixes, but is not as much a fan of the peas, green beans, veggie beef, or the chicken noodle. She likes carrots and garden and mixed veggies, so it looks like I'm going to be sneaking peas and green beans into things!

* She has the same eating schedule as she did at 5 months. She eats cereal and half a fruit at 7 and then finishes the rest of her 6 oz bottle. She gets an 8 oz bottle at 11 and 3 and then gets a veggie/meat or veggie combo dinner at 7 and then a 6 oz bottle before bed. Once I get a little more comfortable with her school, I'll start sending some food for her to have at lunch with her 11am bottle. That way she can get adjusted to a normal breakfast, lunch, dinner schedule.

* She is almost up to completely formula bottles. My goal was to have enough milk stored up to make it to six months - she was six months yesterday and I have 5 bags left! So she is now getting 4 out of the 6 oz and 6 out of the 8 oz of formula and the rest breast milk. Once those 5 bags are gone, it'll be all formula.

* We have been putting puffs on her Bumbo tray. (We don't have a high chair and I don't know that we will. For right now we have the Bumbo on the island in the kitchen and then we have the booster seat that attaches to a chair.) She could entertain herself for hours. She is starting to figure out that they need to get into her mouth, but it is awesome watching her learn from each grab she makes.

* We have also had a sippy cup at both breakfast and dinner. I figured out the cups we were trying to use were too advanced for what she is capable of right now, so after we got her a stage 1 cup, she is drinking like a champ!

* She is siting up pretty well and still standing up when you hold her up or if she is holding onto something for just a few seconds.

* She is doing better about being on her tummy and can now hold herself completely up on her arms. She'll actually play when she rolls over now instead of crying after just a few seconds.

* You can tell that she is starting to notice that there are things away from her that she wants and she will get on her tummy and push herself up and those feet just start going crazy. Once she figures out how to dig those toes in - she'll be gone!

* She loves playing in her exersaucer, but she never has jumped in it. Even when we put her in Leslie's Johnny Jump Up she just rocks back and forth. She can get some pretty fierce rocking going on, but not a big fan of the jumping.

* She has also figured out how to squeal and make her voice do all different kinds of pitches and volumes. She has been saying 'Hey!' for a while now and she has recently said 'Da da' and 'Bla bla' and all sorts of other sounds that end in aaa. Jason has done a really good job of not rubbing in that she said da da first. He has been trying to get her to do it since she was born, so I guess his work paid off!

* She is laughing fairly easily now. If we catch her in the right mood we can start to tickle her and she will just cackle. I wish I could bottle up that sound and keep it with me all the time! It is one of my favorite sounds in the entire world!

* She is starting to notice when she is around people other than us. Sometimes she will just stare and study and not give them anything (sorry, Leslie!) and other times she will just smile and grin at whomever it is that is looking at her! I have a feeling she is going to be quiet the outgoing child. She smiles at Mrs. Val and Mrs. Nita every morning when we get to school and when people stop to say her to her when we are out, she often flashes that toothy grin!

* I cannot believe my sweet girl is 6 months old, but it has been, by far, the best 6 months of my life! I had no idea that such a little thing could make my heart grow and grow like she has!

Tell me that is not the cutest smile you have ever seen!

I LOVE when she laughs and scrunches up her nose.  She has grown into such a little person!

She gets so excited when we read her a story right before bedtime.

She has all sorts of tricks now!  She will tear up some fruit in her net thing.

That’s my girl!

 

I took this so we could have an aerial view of the chunk of thigh she has hanging out from her diaper!  Love it!

She is OBSESSED with cell phones (or anything with a screen) and the remote.  We are doing our best to not let her have them, but I think it is only a matter of time!

She worked for the first six months of her life to hold her head up.  She has just recently realized that can lay her head down now.  It is absolutely precious.

Me and my sweet girl on my 27th birthday and her 6 month birthday!

Daddy and Caroline on Daddy’s 31st birthday!

Happy 6 months to my sweet, happy, smiling, ridiculous, growing, loving girl!