First Smile!

Kate smiled for the first time this week in what Daddy P swears was an intentional manner. She's flashed a few more smiles since then that seem to indicate she is indeed practicing her charms. This week (week 8, or 5 from her due date) she is even more alert and curious about what's going on around her (which has made naps harder to come by). Today she's decided to pack on some more pounds by eating every two hours. Daddy P was up with her a lot last night to help her fight some tummy problems and help her to fall asleep.

Thanksgiving Family Fun

All the family was in town to meet Kate. She has been quite the center of attention! The baby has hardly had any time alone in a week! She's met her aunt, uncle, great aunt, and second (??) cousins... and loved the attention from them all...



Even better, Daddy P and I got to actually go downtown for a few hours to hang out with the family and have a drink to celebrate everyone being in town. Kate was very nice to Grandpa and Grandma while we were gone and gave them an easy evening.

Pre-Thanksgiving Disaster

Well, we got our oven disaster out of the way early.

Daddy P woke up with a screaming baby this morning around 6am. Gotta love gas pains. Daddy P has now X'd off my food list: caffeine, heavy milk and cream, and coffee.

But, the story... He got her fed and changed, but she just wouldn't calm down much. He decided since she was up, he was going to make the sticky buns our lovely friend Vicki sent over. He set the oven to PreHeat, and let it go. The baby finally falls asleep and is put in her crib. Moments later, the smoke alarm goes off. It does this frequently for little things like heat, rather than smoke or fire, so Daddy P's response was to bat it off the ceiling. As he was doing this (in the name of letting is wife sleep a little longer) he noticed there was indeed smoke coming out of the oven! Yet, nothing was in it. He turns the oven off and opens all the windows. After the smoke clears, he decides the coast is clear to try again. Switching the oven on to "bake" nothing happens. He is estatic: sticky buns ARE in his future! He grabs the plate of buns from the freezer and... drops it. Shatters. Everywhere.

Just as Daddy P cleans up the glass, I wake up with a start to the smell of smoke. I run downstairs in a panic, to find Daddy P bouncing a baby Kate on the couch next to the open back door (both of them in a daze). The smoke is still too thick for little lungs, so we quickly open all the windows, turn on the fan, and bundle up the baby. We then head to Dunkin Donuts to grab some coffee and try to wake up enough to plan next steps.

Now, safely at the grandparents' house, with our home airing out, we can look back and laugh. Well, I can. Daddy P is still mourning his sticky buns...

The Many Faces Of Kate

A Great Night!

Kate had a great night last night! Granted, it was after an hour of screaming at Daddy P while I snuck in a quick nap before bed, but... great! She went to bed at 10:30, woke at 2:30am to eat, and then slept after that until 6:30am! Woo hoo! Now, I know better than to think this will happen again tonight, but boy did I need those chunks of sleep!

We are trying to see if it is the result of one of two things... Last Thursday we called the doctor because her tummy problems had escalated to the point she wasn't eating full feedings because she would arch her back and twist off and cry. The nurse wanted us to try a few things before we brought her in. We were to give her Mylicon (an anti-gas medicine) four times a day (including once at bedtime), burp her more (which was impossible so we ignored this one... we already burp her for a total of a half hour each feeding), burp her more often (we tried this but it led to her spitting up more, so we stopped), and keep her propped upright for an hour after feeding.

Coincidentally, around the same time we started this regimen, we also ran out of milk in the house and have figured out how to help her to get her gas out more efficiently... so we are now left with the question of whether it was my crazy amount of milk consumption, her tummy gas pains, or the nurse's orders that has led to a noticeable decrease in spitting up and less scary screaming.

Whatever it was, it is working, and I am not going to change anything right now!



Here is a pic of Kate being fascinated with herself.

Mommy's first jog!

Wow it felt good. Okay, so it was super duper short, but it counts. Baby bundled up in a warm cozy bear cover-up from her aunt, and got to ride in the jogging stroller.

Isometrics

Kate's been swinging her head around all over when we're holding her, so we finally gave in and stuck her on her tummy to see what she could do. Boy was I surprised! She's pretty strong for a little girl of nine or so pounds!

Randomness

One of my newest pics of my cutie... thought I'd share...



We're hoping to try out one of those Kiddie picture places sometime this week. I found a local photographer that I love, but she's pricey. We're trying the cheap route and then if that fails I'm sucking it up and paying the big bucks. She's only little once, right? (I wonder for how many things I can use that excuse for...)

Soothers

In honor of my first all-nighter since college, I decided to dedicate this post to the things that we have found soothe baby Kate...

- top fav is sleeping on people
- second up is being swung in her carseat (Daddy P discovered this one) which led to this novel creation, courtesy of Daddy P...



(and yes, we do own a swing, but apparently the frequency of the oscillation is not to her specific demands... she prefers a person-length arm from the center of gravity, and manually swinging a carseat gets really exhausting so Daddy P hung the carseat in our bedroom. we've since had to adjust the chain shorter to a person-length arm, of course...)
- being walked under the bathroom fan (thanks for this one, Cat and Noble!)
- sitting in the swing while Mamacita blow-dries her hair
- car rides
- eating (of course, aren't we all really just emotional eaters?)
- bouncing (but, not in the bouncer... no, she likes to be held perfectly horizontal and bounced by hand)
- being cuddled by Daddy P

Sweet Reprieve

Last night, Daddy P took care of all the feedings/burpings/changings. It was heavenly. I got to stay in bed for a full six hours and only had to wake up enough to roll on my side to feed the baby. Daddy P's surprisingly chipper today, and seems unscathed by the experience. There's some hope he might even do it again! Although, there's a story about his first time that I will let him share that might get in the way of it...

The trade-off was that I do diaper duty all weekend. So far this is proving to be a deal that is well worth it!

Fashion Faux Paux

Well, for those keeping track, the gDiapers don't quite fit yet... as I found out the hard way through a leak all over my lap. And, Daddy P pointed out that I put them on backwards. "G" in the back, so they say...

Fashion Sidebar

Time to talk fashion for a minute.

Not that either Kate or I really have any sense of it. Daddy P seems to be better at coordinating Kate's outfits than I but regardless...

I bought Kate some baby leggings for the upcoming cooler months. Since she has mostly onesies and dresses, I thought some leg protection was in order. They look a little silly (like she should know Jane Fonda personally) but they are sooo nice since there is no fumbling with buttons or snaps to get at the diaper. I'm a big fan. Plus they come in all sorts of cool patterns. Daddy P picked out a pirate print for a present for Kate's friend Samantha.



Meanwhile, Mamacita is having more trouble in the fashion realm. I am in that painful in-between phase of clothing. Nothing really fits right. So, I have pulled out my trusty BellaBands again. Not only are they helping with the whole keeping-my-pants-up problem, but I am finding they are great for nursing with a crowd since they cover the tummy if I have to hitch up my shirt to take care of business. Too graphic? Yeah, I thought so... oh well... never been one for censorship! I'm quite happy I have two more months to try to regain some of my figure (16 lbs to go! Halfway there!) and will have a shot at fitting into work clothes. My current uniform wouldn't quite work for seeing clients I'm afraid...

Kate's going through about 5-6 outfits a day (depending on how good we are at keeping her in dry clothes) due to her spit-up problem. Doc says it isn't really a problem unless she's in pain (not at all) or she's losing weight (NOT at ALL). I believe his words were: "Wear cotton and don't get the floors cleaned for a year." Thanks, Doc...

Wandering Eyes

Just this week Kate has gotten really good at tracking faces; moving not only her eyes to follow you but controlling her head enough to turn it with her gaze. She's quite an impressive young lady!

Since today is her 1 month mark, we decided to follow little Maddie's lead and pose Kate by an object so that we can track how much she's growing. Since she's destined for the AVP (per Daddy P... she has a hope even with our genes since Misty May Turner is only 5'9"...), what better to use as a comparison than a volleyball!



Oh, and we found out today that she weighs 8.3 lbs! Up two pounds in a month!