Cute Litte Ducky

Kelsey took some more pictures. Happy Halloween!! :)

Happy Halloween!

From the cutest little ducky on the block :)

P.S. Aunt Kelsey is here and took MUCH better pictures than Mommy, but we haven't had a chance to download those yet. Many more to come!

Photo Shoot

Milestones

This last week has brought about several milestones for Miss Caroline and her Mama. It's also proved harder to find blogging time...

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few of those milestones with you all since I have a minute. Last Thursday night she and I had our first outing as just the two of us. I had a women's gathering at church (only for about 15 of us - so not a lot of people which was good) so decided it would be a good trial run for us. She did GREAT! Mom was a bit nervous, but it really went petty smoothly. Here's a picture before we headed out. Also, not documented in the picture but another milestone that evening...my first REAL pants with a real zipper & button! Yay!

Friday night Dan decided it was time we all got out for a bit, and he'd been salivating over the Red Lobster commercials advertising their annual all-you-can-eat shrimp dinner. So we got ourselves all ready and headed out (in real jeans this time!). Caroline did wonderfully, sleeping while we ate, then contentedly looking around for awhile while we enjoyed the time. It was so nice to go out together as the three of us :)

Sunday we had some nice (albeit a bit cool) fall weather and decided to try a short "hike". So we bundled her up and Dan strapped on the Baby Bjorn and we headed for Radnor Lake. It was beautiful! She seemed to enjoy being all snuggled up next to nice warm Daddy, and Mommy was pleasantly surprised to be able to walk the trails pretty easily (with only a little huffing and puffing up the hills!). We had walked the same trail about a week before I delivered and this time around was MUCH more enjoyable!


I also was able to get my rings back on. I'm really starting to feel back to (semi) normal and am rather enjoying not being pregnant!

This last picture was from a mini photo shoot we did yesterday, so I'll try and get those pictures posted soon as well.

A New Reality

Things are settling in here now that we're truly on our own. It was wonderful to have the Johnston's with us for a few days. Dan's Mom was such a blessing, cleaning & cooking & even doing our laundry - giving me more time to rest & recover. His Dad was a huge help to do some "man work" for us like getting the oil changed in the car, and the whole crew is just generally a whole lot of fun. We missed having Jewel but are looking forward to seeing her at Thanksgiving. Here's a quick picture of Dan & his sisters playing a friendly game of Settlers of Catan.




Aunt Amanda getting to know Caroline:

And Aunt Katee gave lots of snuggle time :)

We miss you guys!

The crew left Sunday morning and Dan and I began to realize that it's really just us now. That night I started feeling rather puny, then downright awful as I started running a fever which brought with it all the body aches & chills. No fun sir. And no fun for Dan either as it lead to a long night for all 3 of us when Caroline got really fussy (not fuzzy) during her feedings. As it turns out, I had a clogged milk duct, and after following some tips from my pediatrician, we got it worked out in a couple days.

Now I feel like we're just trying to really figure out what a normal day is supposed to look like. Caroline is showing us more of her sweet personality every day now and I am loving getting to spend my days with her. I am slowly implementing something of a schedule, although she has honestly worked into her own pretty easily as we've tried to stick to 2 1/2 - 3 hour feedings. Just out of curiosity, have any of you other moms out there read or used "Babywise" or some other form of putting baby on a schedule? I'd love to hear your thoughts - what worked for you, and what didn't. I'll write more about this as time goes on, I'm sure.

Anyway, here are some more Caroline pics for all of her fans out there. Enjoy!

So big!

And yet, so tiny in her big crib.

She loves to sit up and hang out with Mom & Dad.

Or sometimes lying down is even better :)

Precious

Week #2

Not much time, but my Mom was asking for some new pictures so I better not keep Nana waiting :) Here are a few from Caroline's 2nd week of life.

Sleeping beauty


Loving the swing (Mom too!)

The Johnston's came to visit! Dan & Katee making chocolate chip cookies.

Baby Love

Only 2 weeks and she's already taking over! I propped her up on our bed and we thought she was just pretty darn cute there.

Can you imagine having a bed this big?

Trying out the tummy-time mat. She's been trying to hold her head up since we were still at the hospital, so I thought we'd give this a try. A couple of minutes worth & she was done, but she seemed to do pretty well!

This was this morning - hanging out with Mom for a bit.

Hey - I think I know you...

Caroline is becoming more alert & attentive every day which is so much fun to see. She's also sleeping well at night, which Mommy & Daddy are both very grateful for (and fully realize that is has nothing to do with anything we're doing!). She had a great report at her 2-week check-up yesterday and seems to be growing QUITE well. She's already up to 8lbs. 9.5oz! The Doctor even commented that she's one of the "best eaters" in her practice. Sounds like we might have a chubby baby on our hands before too long! She's had a few bouts of fuzziness, but when I can honestly only say a "few" at 2 weeks, I think we're doing pretty well! Praise the Lord for a happy and content baby.

Dan's family leaves tomorrow so I should have a bit more time to blog then. I still would like to write about her birth from my perspective (really for my own benefit - just to remember) and get better about blogging some of the day-to-day "notables" for those who are interested (possibly just my Mom, but we'd like to keep Nana happy).

I suppose this has officially become a "mommy blog" huh? Well, I guess I'll embrace it for what it is. I still do love Oreos (and have even received several packages alongside baby gifts - AWESOME!), and I still intend to write about other things from time to time. I hope you'll hang with me - I rather enjoy knowing that a few people read this occassionally. Thanks again for all your encouragement!