10.5 Weeks

This past Sunday, May 22nd, was Caroline's baptism day! It went really well overall. She slept quite well Saturday night and we got to church right on time. Caroline slept for the first part of the service and then was wide awake during the actual baptism. She made a few good cries, but did pretty well! She has 4 wonderful godmothers- Elizabeth, Hillary, Allison and Kaci. After church we headed over to Mom's for a wonderful brunch spread. I think Caroline was totally worn out that night because she slept for 7 hours! Unfortunately, the following two nights have been far less.

What else has been going on? She has found her hands! She has been really chewing on them and almost finding her fingers for about the past week- Will we have a thumb sucker afterall? We shall see! Her movements are becoming far less jerky and she is moving her arms and legs like crazy! She is also growing so much! She is already into her 3-6 month clothing and that doesn't seem like it's going to last too long.

Big weekend!

Elizabeth will be here tomorrow to meet Miss Caroline, yay! Caroline is also being baptized on Sunday, so we have a big weekend ahead of us!
Caroline went back to sleeping for almost 6 hrs last night after about 3 nights of only 4-5 hours. Maybe it was a growth spurt (how much more can she grow?!?). So, I hope it sticks this time, especially knowing that we will be having a house guest for a few days! Elizabeth will be staying with us and then Saturday night we will likely have Judy, Kaci & Evan too! Full house!
We have also had a rude awakening this week about kindergarten for Meredith. Unfortunately, after months of waiting on our financial aid package, we found out that we will not be getting any funding since they offered us the same rate they offer to parishioners (Poorly handled in general- he had to hunt someone down to finally get an answer after we heard through the grapevine that the award letters had already gone out). It basically boils down to the fact that we aren't Catholic, nothing to do with our actual finances (which proves we should be eligible as compared to the families that has 3 kids there and a beach house and drive luxury cars, yes, apparently that is who gets 'financial aid'). It is just really disheartening that Chris' almost 12 years of service there have been ignored. We are thoroughly frustrated and saddened by this turn of events, mostly because Meredith has been so excited about 'going to Daddy's school'. He has appealed to his principal (aka begging) and we hope there is a change of heart. In theory, my recent sale of Biogen stock could cover the majority of the tuition, but we really wanted to actually have some savings- imagine that! Plus, we have to consider the fact that we will have additional daycare expense in a few months. So, we have some big decisions to make very soon. Our public school will be just fine I'm sure, but I think we will have one disappointed girl on our hands (mommy & daddy too!!).
By the way, I'm down to about 2 weeks before I go back to work :( Eeek!

Jinx

I think my last post jinxed me for last night. Back to 4 hrs of sleep...

Sleep Success?!?!

So, for the past 3 nights, Caroline has slept for around 6 hrs! Since it has been more than one or two nights, I'm thinking this could be for real! It's generally 10pm-4am and then she eats and goes back down for another 2 hours or so. If she can just get even one more hour in there before I go back to work, I think I will feel relatively human! 3 weeks from today I'm back to the grind :(

2 month checkup

Today was Caroline's 2 month checkup. She was being so sweet all morning, even slept a whole 6 hours last night!!! I felt bad because she had no idea what was coming- 3 shots! Meredith really wanted to go with her so she could comfort her after her shots :) I kinda think she was just excited that she wasn't the one getting the shots! So, I decided to keep Meredith home today and have her tag along.
The stats:
Weight: 13 lbs 12.5 oz- 97th percentile (Meredith was 13 lbs 2.5oz)
Length: 23.25"- 80th percentile (Meredith was 23")
Head: 40cm- 75th percentile
She really cried when she got her shots. Red face silent cry until she let loose! Poor baby, I even shed a few tears. Meredith wasn't quite as brave as she thought she'd be when it came time for the shots. She had wanted to hold Caroline's hand, but opted for sitting in the chair a safe distance away instead.
Caroline has been sleeping ever since we got home. Hope she doesn't end up with a fever. The things we do for healthy kiddos! At least I know she will never remember it!

My girls

8.5 weeks

So, what big things has Caroline been up to this week? She has started giving me hopes of sleeping better. She actually had 2 nights in a row of 5-6 hrs of sleep! Of course, on the 6 hr night, Meredith came in and woke me up an hour before Caroline woke up! I was a little bummed and her reasoning was that she wanted her music on at 3:30am! Let's say that last night I came kinda close to threatening her about waking me up for her music! Although, Caroline dropped back to 4 hrs last night, so it wouldn't have mattered much!

She continues to refuse any sort of pacifier. I mean to tell you that I have bought at least 5 types plus the one from the hospital and there is only one that she even remotely seems to be able to keep in her mouth and that's only by holding it in there! Basically the same is true for bottles. She pretty much hates bottles. We have tried at least 3 kinds and have struggles with each one. The Playtex bottles with the drop in liner thing seems to be the front runner right now. She also seems to take formula better than my milk from a bottle. Guess she really just wants it from the source! We are down to just a few weeks for her to figure this one out!!

She is still kicking away and even acting like she wants to roll over! She's got a ways to go, but she is actively trying to get those legs over like she wants to roll. Oh boy!

She still has some pretty rough times with crying, but it seems to be getting less and less and her awake time is more active and semi-happy. I'd say we are making major progress and hope she settles into a more predictable sleep pattern sometime soon!

Mother's Day was this past weekend. Chris had given me a beautiful pendant with both the girl's names on it a few weeks ago. Meredith made me the little teapot in the picture. It was so cute to get a gift she had made at school...love it! He made breakfast and we went to church and then over to Allison's for brunch...yummy shrimp and grits! We were both too tired to cook that evening, so I think I ate a hotdog or something. I did get a kid-free trip to Target for about an hour, which was lovely. Of course, I only bought things for the kids while I was there :) So, my first Mother's day as a mother of two was pretty quiet, but I am so thankful for being blessed with two healthy, beautiful girls!

7.5 weeks & Easter

Well, here we are, 7.5 weeks. I'd like to say that a lot has changed since my last post, but sadly, not so. Caroline took a step backward around week 6 and only slept for 2-3 hours at a time for several days. She has had a few nights of 4ish hours of sleep, but mostly it's betwee 3-4 hrs. I think I have really just gotten used to it, but I'm feeling especially tired today.

She has started giving us a lot more smiles and almost laughs during her awake time, all of which is gladly taken! It never lasts for more than a few minutes, but I'll take it! She has also found her arms and legs and just kicks and punches all the time. She still has her hands clenched into a little fist most of the time, but she's starting to loosen up a bit.

She doesn't seem to be eating all the time anymore, but there is little that soothes her when she is upset other than nursing. She won't take a pacifier, well let me clarify that if you hold it in her mouth, she somewhat tolerates it and stops the crying momentarily in a pinch. She just can't keep it in her mouth and pushes it out with her tongue every time. She still doesn't much like the bottle either, which is going to have to change in less than a month when I go back to work.

She has been to church twice now and managed to sleep through the service both times. Her baptism is scheduled for May 22nd while Elizabeth is in town. Hope Caroline behaves!!

I know she has grown a lot. I put her in s 3-6 month outfit yesterday and it fit perfectly! Her 2 month checkup is on the 11th and I'm fully expecting that she gained a few more pounds. She also gets several vaccinations, so I'm not looking forward to that part.

Easter:

At the last minute, Chris decided that it would be a nice idea to spend the Easter weekend down at Myrtle beach. Thanks to Chris' mom, we were able to stay at a time share condo and ended up having a great time. I was quite apprehensive about taking a 6 week old out of town, but she slept the whole way there and back! The first night didn't go well, mostly because Caroline is such a loud sleeper (grunting and groaning and sighing and crying) and having her in the room with us didn't allow for much sleep. So, I decided that her crib would fit in the adjoining bathroom! The next two nights went much better and she didn't know the difference!! We spent one good day on the beach and she napped in her crib under the tent and I was able to soak up a little sun. Meredith had a blast and made all sorts of friends on the beach. In the end, I was glad that Chris nudged me into going. It was really nice to get out of the house for a few days and see the ocean :) (We were also able to Skype with Hillary and Joey and 'show' them the beach too!).

Part of why Chris wanted me to be able to go to the beach was because he spent most of the next week back in Myrtle beach for a golf tournament. It was my first time solo with both girls for more than a few hours and overall it went well. Meredith stayed with mom one night and I had lots of visitors and tried to keep busy, but I was really ready for him to get back by Sunday.

Well, that's enough for now. Hopefully by my next post, I'll be a bit more well rested. Fingers crossed!