The Best Baby...EVER!

Ok, for those of you reading this blog who have children...we have a proclamation to make...Kate is the best baby who ever walked the face of the earth. Your child doesn't even come close. In fact, if there was a bumper sticker out there that said..."my child made her first 5 hour car trip without uttering a peep"...well, we'd put 10 of those all over our car. That's right folks...almost 7 weeks old and she didn't utter a PEEP the ENTIRE way from Philadelphia to just west of Pittsburgh (which is where we are now...more on that later).

Here's how we did it in case you are too much in awe to ask: she was home all morning this morning with her daddy while mommy went to the gym and daddy packed his stuff (I packed all of the rest of the stuff ALL day yesterday..which is an entirely different blog subject in which I had no time to write). ANYWAY...I came home, packed our car food (sandwiches, apples and some damn good brownies I might add) and then fed Kate. We then got into the car, and off we went. She made it about 3 hours until we thought we should stop and feed her. It was only then that she started to stir. Jon parked the car in a far-away spot and I put the breast pillow on in the passenger side and then he handed her to me and I fed her quite comfortably. She ate a decent meal and we changed her with her on my lap on the breast pillow and Jon in the driver's seat doing the changing...and then off we went. She whimpered a bit being put back into her seat , but then as soon as the car started moving again, she was quiet until we reached the Cranberry exit which is where I'm writing this now.

We decided that on her first long road trip, that we'd split the drive. In our opinion...we didn't think it was fair to strap her into her seat for 9 straight hours. So, we're here now at the Holiday Inn Express and I'm writing to you via wifi and Jon's awesome new laptop that his station bought for him. Since I got to spend time at the gym this morning, Jon gets to do his thing tonight which is watch the Dallas Cowboys game. Only thing...the game is on the NFL network and the hotel doesn't get it. So, here's how we worked things out...since we really didn't think it was fair to put Kate in her car seat while we went out to dinner. There is a pretty nice restaurant right next to the hotel. So, after feeding Kate, I walked over there, ordered a glass of wine and my meal to go. I drank the wine while waiting for the meal, and then came back to the room. Jon had set up the pack-n-play while I was out and watched Kate. I got back, ate my yummy food and Jon left to go to a sports bar to watch the Cowboy game and to eat some food himself. It worked out pretty well, and our little darling baby is fast asleep on her play mat as we speak. So far so good.

But, I'm not a total idiot. I realize that since she slept pretty much all afternoon, she'll probably be up at full-tilt-boogie all night. We'll just have to see.

Tomorrow will be a very exciting day. We're stopping in Cleveland so she can meet her Great Aunt Carol and Great Uncle John. I'm so glad we are going to get to see them...they are awesome people. Then, it's on to Ann Arbor where she'll meet her cousins for the very first time....and she'll get to see her Gamma and Poppa. An exciting day indeed!

As for my blogging over the next week or so...I'll probably be able to keep up somewhat, so stay tuned if you want. Happy holidays to you all!

Lots of Stuff

First...look at this picture. Wouldn't it be great to sleep this soundly? This is her typical sleeping position. No wonder she hated the small bassinet!

Now that Kate is six weeks, I have started back to the gym. I went to kickboxing on Saturday (a few days shy of the six weeks...oh well) and it was AWESOME! But, I'm still feeling sore in places today. Ugh. Then yesterday (Monday) my friend with the baby near Kate's age Lauren and I took our babies to a trail and walked a FAST 5 miles. It was 65° and amazing out. Today, ice pellets were falling from the sky. Go figure. I also started lifting with Sue again today. I'm sure I'll feel that soon too. Tomorrow is my visit with the doctor, and I'm sure he'll be fine with what I've done already. Hopefully, my weight will be close to where it was in a few months. Ugh.

Kate has started a new game while she's eating. It's called "let's pull and twist and look around at all of the other more interesting stuff." While it is funny to watch, feeding now is taking longer and let's face it...the pulling doesn't feel so hot...but she's SO cute when she does it, that who can get mad? Not me. Speaking of feeding...she's getting more and more adapted to taking breast milk from a bottle. I try to give her one bottle a day or at least every other day, so that she's used to getting a bottle when I go back to work. Plus, it'll be fun for others to feed her when we're in Ann Arbor for Christmas. And yes...I'll post from there, because who can resist looking at cute baby's first Christmas pictures?

Tomorrow is a big day. Not only is it my doctor appointment, but Kate is making her CW 57 studio debut. See, my doctor is pretty close to the studio, so we're going there first. If she's on TV, I'll effort the clip to post on the blog. I have her outfit all picked out!

Other than that, not much else has been going on...we're just busy getting ready for the big trip. I'll post again soon...

New Pics

There are a few new pictures on the flickr link...

Christmas Jammies!!!!!

Hmmmm, not sure why this is vertical...we're not dropping her from a 10 story building for this picture, but you get the idea....

Kate got her first pair of Christmas jammies! They're actually 6 month size and while a little big, there's no way she would have fit into the smaller ones. How cute is she?



I actually wanted to blog yesterday, but got wrapped up in doing nothing, so it never happened. However, Wednesday night...we had an interesting evening...



We (Kate and I) were getting ready for our evening feed and so just before, I was giving her some tummy time. Thank GOD I was on the floor with her, because the power went out. It was pitch black in the house. Then about a minute later, the lights came back on, but were pulsing. So I ran to get the flashlight and just when that happened, the lights went out again...this time for good. After about 5 minutes I decided that they weren't coming back on soon, so I started looking for matches to light a candle or two. I had a crying (hungry) Kate in one arm and my flashlight in the other hand and I was looking for the only book of matches we have. Jon had moved them into a cupboard, so it took a phone call to him to find them. By this time, Katie was screaming for her dinner. I set her down and lit candles and she had her first candlelight dinner! It was actually very peaceful. During Kate's feed, my neighbor called and had learned that a transformer had blown...our entire neighborhood was out. So, Jon got home, we packed up the babe and went out to dinner. Lesson learned: always have emergency lighting handy!

Update: Growing Like a Weed

Today Kate had her one month doctor visit (a week late).

Just 2 1/2 weeks ago, she was 9 pounds 5 ounces. Today...a whopping 11 pounds 1 ounce! I'd say she's getting enough to eat. And...she's a full TWO inches taller than when she was born! She's now 23 1/2 inches! Our little weed! No wonder she's in 3-6 month onesies!

Dance Party USA

Question: When your non-fussy baby has a bit of a fussy period each evening around 5, what do you do to soothe her?

Answer: DANCE!

I'm not kidding...and I'm not sure what gave me the idea to do this (maybe Ellen Degeneres), but the last few days, Kate has been a tad fussy around 5, so I've put in a CD, cranked it up, picked her up and we dance! She....LOVES IT!!!!! She instantly stops fussing and looks right at me as I try to sing the lyrics to her. The first night...mambo cha-cha music. Last night, we did Motown. She lasts about 4 or 5 songs before she falls asleep. How anyone can fall asleep to someone belting Aretha's "Respect" in the face is beyond me...but I'll take it.

Plus, Mommy is doing squats while dancing...gotta get back into shape somehow!

So, for all you moms out there...the next time your baby has a clean diaper, a full belly and has had plenty of mommy time and still wants to fuss a bit...pick her up, crank the tunes and go for it. The best thing: she won't laugh at your singing (yet).

BLOWOUT!

Ok, some of you will think it's gross and wrong of me to post this on the blog...so a big raspberry to you, because we thought this was so funny and I thought I'd share.

Last night while eating dinner, Kate was in her swing...wide awake and looking around. All of a sudden we heard....the blowout. She seemed quite happy after (wouldn't you)? and so we decided to wait a few minutes in case there was more, and then change her. Jon's a slower eater (actually, I now gobble my food for some reason) so I got up to change her.

As you can see by the picture, a bath was needed IMMEDIATELY! Apparently, when one poops whilst in one's swing, the angle of projection directs the fired feces up the front of one's diaper as well as the back...yielding a sloppy mess all the way up to one's neck! She just looked around and grinned a bit and was happy to have a soak in a warm tub where mommy and daddy hosed her down.

About two seconds after the bath and after lotion and clean jammies, she was fast asleep. Imagine, a full belly, an empty bowel and a nice clean warm pair of jammies...you'd sleep too! Enjoy!

And oh yeah...for you cynics out there...we know this isn't the last time this will happen, but since it's the first, we thought we'd share!

Just Call Me Elsie

Not to be confused with Elise :-)

Seriously, I feel like Elsie the cow. I've been trying to build a milk supply for when I go back to work and using the pump is really funny...but it works so well. I've almost mastered the pumping and have reduced the time it takes to about 15 minutes, which will be great for work. However...feeding Kate the expressed milk is another story.

We started using a newborn feeding system for her and the difference between the breast and the bottle is HUGE. Poor little thing choked and choked as the milk from the bottle was coming out way too fast. So yesterday, I went to Target and bought another bottle system for her. We gave her a bottle last night and she seemed to do much better with it. She still choked a little, but it was nothing like the other bottle. It's hard to keep up with it...the bottle feeding, but she's got to get used to getting at least one to two bottles a day within the next six weeks. This week, I'm really going to stick to giving her a bottle every other day, then by next week, it'll have to go to once a day...ugh. It's so much easier to just pop her on the breast, but like any new experience, she needs time to adjust. It wouldn't be fair to leave Jon with her on my first morning back to work and have her not take the bottle.

Speaking of feeding...she's definitely getting her nutrients! Yesterday I had to go through her closet and fish out all of the 3-6 month outfits we were saving until she was..well...3-6 months. Not our Kate! Right now, she's wearing a little warm-up one piece suit that is 3-6 months, and it fits her perfectly! Our little weed!

Ooooo, I just noticed she's sleeping! That means I need to go so I can start to re-organize my closet and take out all the maternity clothes so I can send them to my friend Katie!

Have a great Monday!

Big Weekend

Wow...Kate had a big weekend. We took her out for the first time for dinner and we had a great time. She was EXCELLENT!

On Friday, actually, I took her to lunch with two of my girlfriends to celebrate a birthday. That was her first restaurant visit. She was awake for most of it and then fell asleep toward the end. We were celebrating my good friend, Sue's birthday. Sue is a very generous and thoughtful person and HATES fuss and gifts for her birthday. She LOVES, however, giving to people who are less fortunate. So, my friend Donna and I took her to lunch and presented her with two huge gift bags full of coats for needy children that we bought to donate in her name for her birthday gift. It was the perfect gift to give Sue and she loved it...but the funny thing happened as we were leaving the restaurant. As we were leaving, some jackass at the bar looked at the large gift bags and said to Sue "well...I guess it's not a recession for you..." She smiled and sweetly told him what was in the bags. Boy did he feel like an ass. It was funny!

Saturday night, Jon and I took Kate to The Lucky Dog. For those of you who don't know, that is the place where we usually go every weekend for either a meal or just a nightcap. It's less than a mile from our house and we know everyone in there...so it's like Cheers in a way. She was the hit of the night...although she slept for the entire meal. It was fun. Go to flickr for pictures.

I'd write more, but I've got to feed Kate and then dash off to Target to buy her larger onesies. She's now in the 3-6 month size. Eeeeek!

Big Girl!

The above picture is the bassinet where Kate slept...until last night.

Jon finally convinced me that she was getting too big for it and it was time for....THE CRIB! She did GREAT! She woke only to feed...I only wish I had slept that much...I was a bit nervous without her right next to our bed, but it was time.

Our little girl is growing so fast. All parents say "they grow-up so quickly" and now I know it's true. I hope she slows down a bit, because this is such fun, I never want it to end.

Sleeeeeeeeeeep!

Last night we decided to give Kate a bath after our dinner. She was a bit messy and still had ultrasound residue on her little hips from her appointment earlier in the day. So, since it was 9:00, we decided to use the "nighttime" bath soap. It's supposed to have aromatherapy to help her sleep. Well, I don't know what's in that stuff, but MAN does it work! She had a feeding at 8:30 before her bath, then she cuddled for a while with Jon and then we put her in her bassinet. She slept from about 11 (when I was preparing to give her another feeding) until 2:20!!!! Then she had a good eat and went back to bed at around 3:15 until 6:20! This is an hour more than usual, people!!!! Mommy was VERY happy. I put her back down at 7:15, but plan to get her up around 9. This is great...and why I'm able to update the blog....WITH NEW PICTURES!!! Just click on the flickr site!

Have a great day!

She's A-OK

First let me please apologize for not posting for a while...but as I'm sure lots of you know, it isn't exactly easy to sit down at the computer each day. I promise I'll try to be better.

Second, Kate had her infant hip ultrasound appointment today. The doctor wanted to just double check that her hips were in the socket correctly as sometimes breech babies have an issue with that. So, off we went to yet another hospital today and our little trooper did so well! She squirmed a little, but was a champ and the best news is, the results were perfect! Her hips are fine and so there will be no need for any follow-up. The people at the hospital were really nice, too!

Now for what we've been up to since last week. Really, not all that much, just living life, which is busy! My parents left on Thanksgiving morning...God love my mom for staying so long and for filling our freezer! As I write this, I'm smelling the lasagna she left for us! Mmmmm, can't wait! Jon and I had our first several days with just the 3 of us. It's truly great to have a family. Before it was just us, now we are 3 and I know it's cliche, but I can't imagine what life was like before Kate. She's our little ray of sunshine.

We took Kate for a walk on Saturday in the jogging stroller with the car seat attachment. It really was great...in fact so great, that I took her out for a few miles (yes...just walking) on Monday and I'm meeting a friend (the play date friend) for a long walk tomorrow...it's supposed to be a beautiful day. I got the Baby Bjorn all set up and adjusted to fit me, so maybe I'll use that on the walk tomorrow...we'll see what Kate prefers. Right now, she's just happy as a clam in her little seat watching me type!

I gotta say...this is the life. I love going about my day, and then having a nice dinner with my husband when he gets home and then snuggling with him and the baby after dinner. It's so hard to imagine that in 7 1/2 weeks, I'll be back to the grind of going to work at 2 a.m. everyday. Oh how I wish I didn't have to work. Maybe someday. I am, however, grateful for my job and all it provides for us...I'll never lose sight of that...especially in today's economy.