Catherine Rose @ 11 Weeks

Another early-morning getting ready for school picture. But, she's pretty awesome.

Quick Update

This is my first full week of work (with full days of daycare for Cate). So far, it is going pretty well. In exactly a day and a half I've learned:
1. That getting ready in the morning takes 1000 hours longer than I will expect that it should (aka, I did not get to the office early like I had hoped Monday). Kids have SO MUCH STUFF to pack. Not to mention that getting myself showered is not easy when she's awake. Good thing I didn't have a meeting scheduled until 11:30am.
2. The kiddo can be cajoled to eat at daycare (yay!). We had to buy her different bottle nipples, but Monday she ate normally for them. Lets hope she keeps this up.
3. The kiddo cannot (so far) be cajoled to take a nap at daycare. It is too much fun playing instead. This means I have a sleepy/cranky baby when we get home.
4. The axiom that overtired kids sleep less is true. She is back to getting up twice a night and she got up at 5am this morning and refused to go back to sleep. So I got up at 5am this morning. Boo.
5. The kiddo does love playing at daycare. Yesterday she was playing so happily that she got annoyed when I removed her from the toys to take her home. She also loves her teachers, which is such a blessing.
6. I am tempted to update my blog about the kiddo during my lunch break rather than grade papers like I should be doing.

Well, I think that despite being a very sleepy mommy, we'll survive.

BBQ!

Last night we went to Capitol City RibFest - a BBQ street fair. They bring in BBQ vendors from all over the country (and a few from international spots). Several of the BBQ stands boasted having been featured on the Food Network and the Travel Channel. I had some pretty awesome Ribs and Chaz had Aussie BBQ Shrimp. The weather was beautiful - mid 80s - and quite windy (hence my hair flying all over the place in the pictures). Cate loved people watching, and lots of people stopped to talk to her when we were eating. I think she very much enjoyed her first fair.

We also got to enjoy a funnel cake while listening to an outdoor band. We couldn't have asked for a better family Saturday night.

Back to school...

10 weeks old - As the new semester is quickly approaching (I start inservice this Monday), Cate started daycare half-days this past week so that we could both adjust to it (and so I could get my office and syllabi in order) before she starts full time this next week. Here is a picture of her before her first day of school. She's still pretty sleepy because it is 6am.

She attends the University's child care center, which is about a 20 min walk from my office. Her teachers, Jennifer and Tiffany, are wonderful women and the student workers who help out in her room seem really engaged too. Every day when I went to pick her up she was playing happily. She is quite popular at the center, as several of the teachers from other classes and both center directors stop us to talk to her every time we leave (getting out of there takes us quite a while). The only down side is that she doesn't like eating there. I'm not sure why she resists taking a bottle from them, as she doesn't mind taking one from Chaz at home. But, she won't eat more than 2 oz every three hours (and often less than that). I'm hoping that she gets more comfortable eating from them as she gets more used to all the excitement.

Cate has also been consistently sleeping better at night. She's been sleeping from around 9pm to 3:30am and then until 6:00-6:30am. This means I'm now only getting up once at night, since I get up at 6:00 for work anyway. It also means that I'm getting 5 hours of sleep in a row pretty much every night, which makes me a happy mommy.

Life at home has been as exciting as ever. Our air conditioner died Wednesday night, and I spent most of the day Thursday trying to get it fixed. It was only 24 hours, but geesh it was hot.

In other news, school and work start in full force next week, so life will get even busier (is that possible?)

Vaccination Day

Yesterday went pretty well. Cate and I made it to my mom's group in the morning. The women there are great, so it always makes our day go better. We then went with Chaz to meet Cate's daycare teachers. They both seem great and I'm feeling pretty good about Cate starting daycare on Monday. She'll only have to do part-days next week, so it will be a good transition for us (I hope). We then went up to my office and moved about 3/4 of my belongings to my new office down the hall. Cate had a meltdown before I could finish... in all fairness we had been out and about too long. So, I'll have to finish that project next week.

Today started on the best note ever. Cate ate last night at 9:30pm and slept from 10pm-5am! That is 7 hours for those of you that are counting. This means that I got 6 hours of sleep in a row for the first time since a couple months before she was born. I have no doubt that she will not sleep so well every night yet, but I'm feeling much better today.

Finally, today was Cate's two month vaccination day. We went and got her shots around noon. She of course screamed the second the shots began. I shed a couple of tears while she screamed and screamed. Thankfully, however, I took the advice of the women in my mom's group who encouraged me to feed her immediately afterwards. She screamed right until we started breastfeeding. She ate quietly for 10 min and then fell asleep and slept the way home. Since we've been home, she's been sleepy but too fussy to fall asleep. In fact, I'm holding & bouncing the grumpy bear right now. I think we may have a grumpy afternoon/evening, but otherwise we seem to be dong fine. I hope this is the worst of it.

Two months - I cannot how believe how fast she's growing. Where does the time go?

2 Month Update

Cate had her 2 month check-up at the doc office today, and it went great. She is 22 3/8 inches long (45th percentile) and she weighs 10lbs 12 oz (45th percentile). Basically, the doc says she is just about average in height/weight. So far, she seems to be hitting her developmental milestones as well. She smiles, coos, grabs things, and loves making eye contact.

We had to make a seperate appointment for her 2-month vaccinations, so we aren't doing that until Thur. Wish us luck!

I am also thrilled to announce that since Cate's actual two month birthday (Friday) she has been sleeping in her crib in her room (she spent the first two months in the Pack-N-Play in our room). Actually, I think the transition was only hard on me. I sleep so lightly that every squeak/kick/sigh from the baby monitor woke me up. She slept fine (still getting up twice a night at 2am and 5am just like she has been for the past month... Boy I hope she drops to one getting up time soon!). On Sat night then, I turned the monitor down to half volume so at least I don't hear the tiny sighs and squeaks. I still hear her babble in her sleep, but at least I sleep a bit better now too.

Baby Gym - 9 weeks old

Cate has recently (in the last week) discovered her baby gym. She had been in it before, but never seemed to notice/care. But, now she loves watching her toys and she likes to hit them so they swing and make noise above her head. She smiles and coos at them too. You will also notice that she is not smiling in her "tummy time" photo. She no longer acts like she is dying when we make her lie on her tummy, but she still hates it. However, as you can see, she has even started to grab onto the toys (though she's never quite sure what to do once she has ahold of them)! She and I now play baby gym a couple of times a day.