Over the past week now, I am proud to say that our daughter has gotten herself into a great bedtime routine!! I am slowly learning that as hard as I try to get her into a routine that I think is right for her, she fights it and puts herself into one that works! Funny how things work out! Over the past week, Kaitlynn has gone down around 9:30pm and has gotten up for the day around 7:30am. Of course she is still getting up at night to eat! Our main routine with Kaitlynn is giving her the bedtime bottle around 9:00pm in the nursery where it's dark, then putting her down in the crib about 15-30 minutes later! It absolutely baffles me that as hard as I work to get her into a routine, she chooses one for herself in her own time.
Bath time doesn't happen every night, but she really enjoys it now!! We usually bathe her every other night or let her have 2 days between baths. She loves to kick & splash in the water - Kelly & I enjoy watching too!!
I have always heard that the bedtime routine is the hardest to get into play - seems like a lot is opposite of the norm for Kaitlynn. She has always been a great nighttime sleeper! We had a few nights where it was difficult getting her down, but once she was down - she slept great! Now it's very easy getting her down around the same time each night. The hardest routine for her is daytime! We are slowly working with her and letting her figure out her own routine herself with our help of course. We have come to a conclusion - our daughter is a very light sleeper during the day! She usually takes one really great nap for about 2-3 hours; usually in the morning. The afternoon naps are mainly "cat naps" in my lap for about 30-45 minutes a piece. However, whatever she's doing nap wise during the day right now really works for her at night - she goes down for bed very easily now!!
Kaitlynn experienced another first on Wednesday evening 10-28-2009!! This was the second night that Kelly and I have tried rice cereal with her bedtime bottle. Our first attempt did nothing to help extend her sleep - however we only gave her 1.5 teaspoons for a 3.5oz bottle. Later we learned that you can give 1 teaspoon for every ounce (meaning we could give her around 3tspns). Our second attempt last night - we fixed her a 3oz. bottle and added 3 teaspoons of rice cereal as well. After lots of work on one of her slow flow nipples, we got it just right - she took the entire bottle and went 5.5 hours between feedings!! She took her bottle around 9:00pm last night, went down in her crib and slept until 2:30am. It was fabulous! I do plan on going to Target today to purchase some medium & fast flow nipples so we don't have to ruin anymore of our slow flow nipples for her bedtime bottles :)
My biggest concern with rice cereal before 4 months?? Her digestive track not being mature and causing constipation. Let's just say she is definitely not a constipated-type baby! She has a couple blowouts each day! HAHA! Another concern was that she wouldn't take to the rice cereal - she definitely gulped it down last night!! Unless we notice any allergy problems, we're going to stick with adding rice cereal to one of her bedtime bottles.
Kelly and I also made another change with Kaitlynn's feeding! We switched her nipple flow from slow to medium. She has always had a great suck, and lately she's gotten a bit lazy with her feedings = not eating the entire amount! Once we switched her to a faster flow, she began taking her entire 3oz. bottle within 5 minutes! Great job, Kaitlynn!!
A few pictures from our day on Wednesday:
What is Kaitlynn staring at??
Her butterfly clock!
Kaitlynn loves to lay on her changing table and just stare
at her pretty butterfly clock! Gives my arms a
short break too :)
Our beautiful baby girl - 10 weeks old in this picture!
Thursday evening, Kelly and I had the privilege of going on a date!! Chris and Angi offered to watch Kaitlynn for us so we could have dinner alone! You never realize how much you need time with just your spouse!! It's so important to keep that 1st relationship very strong. We thoroughly enjoyed our time out - we ended up relaxing and having dinner together at Longhorn.
Friday was an exciting day for me especially!! Kaitlynn & I headed out Friday morning for our very first play-date with some ladies from our Sunday School class at church. It was so good to get out of the house and be around other moms!! Kaitlynn did great - she stayed awake for about an hour, then crashed in my lap. Once she woke up, it was about time for us to leave so we went ahead and skipped out 15 minutes early. She fell asleep on the way home and ended up sleeping in her car seat, in the crib for 2 hours after we got to the house!
Kaitlynn ready for playdate.....check!
Mommy ready for playdate....in progress!
Stopped by Kelly's office on the way to our playdate!
*Kelly & Kaitlynn in the parking garage*
Playtime after naptime & a new outfit for the day:
What is Kaitlynn smiling & laughing at??
Her crib mobile from aunt Mary :)
One more grin!!
We had an extremely relaxing weekend!! We spent Friday & Saturday evening at home. Kelly fixed homemade potato soup which was fabulous since the weather turned a little chilly & gloomy! Saturday afternoon we headed out after Kaitlynn's morning nap and looked at different neighborhoods & homes for sale to get a better idea of location. I think we have it narrowed down to Lower Roswell and interesting streets between Powers Ferry & Johnson Ferry! Not too far from where we are now - about 10-15 minutes north! Saturday was also Halloween! We dressed Kaitlynn up in her pumpkin costume and got plenty of pictures! We were planning on going to church Sunday morning for the 1st time with Kaitlynn, but I was not feeling well so we made the decision to stay home and rest. That afternoon, Jenny McNair came over to the house to take pictures of Kaitlynn for us! We were coworkers at Sweet Apple and now she does photography on the side of teaching & coaching GT Rowing! Busy lady :) Check out her photography blog! Jenny McNair Photography.
We cannot wait to see the pictures she took of our daughter!! Kaitlynn did a fantastic job - only had two diaper changes, and one very short fussy moment during the entire photo-shoot! Jenny was able to get both awake & asleep pictures.
Halloween pictures from 2009:
Hat from aunt Mary!
Hat and socks from aunt Mary!
Happy Halloween!!
Kaitlynn's little pumpkin!
Love this one - tongue sticking out at the pumpkin
Grinning for mommy & daddy!
Our beautiful, wide-eyed, little pumpkin!
Monday rolled around..... I was feeling a lot better than over the weekend, but Kelly seemed to still have his head-cold! Those things take forever to get rid of! After Kaitlynn's morning nap, we headed out for our 2nd play-date! We went over to visit with Andrea Monroe - another teacher friend from Sweet Apple. She has an almost 2-year old, Jack!! He is so precious :) It was wonderful getting to catch up with her today!! I had plans to also have dinner with Ginny tonight, but had to postpone to next Monday due to Kelly not feeling well. Our upcoming date on Wednesday was postponed to next Wednesday also! Sad, but happy to have a few things to look forward to for next week :)
Even though Kelly hasn't felt well this week, he came in from work Monday evening with roses for me!! It was definitely a surprise - he told me he had to stop and get gas for his car, which he did. Little did I know that he had left work early to get the flowers for me, and gas for his car! I cannot saw it enough - my husband is truly amazing!
Kelly and I also made the decision to get the H1N1 Nasal Mist - we are considered "high risk" because Kaitlynn is under 6 months of age. With Kelly having several people at work already with the swine flu, we didn't want to take any chances of him bringing it home to me or our daughter!! We headed to the PED Wednesday afternoon and had the nasal mist! This is the 1st year I have ever had the flu shot, and now the H1N1 mist - definitely don't want to take any chances with a little one in the house now!!
On Tuesday, Kaitlynn threw me for a loop!! Once again - I stand by my statement, that as soon as things settle in, something always changes!! Kaitlynn had been taking a morning nap again for the past 6 straight days!! Usually her morning nap would last anywhere from 1hr - 2.5hrs. I choose not to wake a sleeping baby!! If this is her only long, consistent nap right now - I'm definitely letting her sleep no matter how long it lasts :) Back to the story..... Kaitlynn decided to not take her morning nap on Tuesday! Instead, she chose to take short naps - about 30 minutes long - every 1hr-1.5hrs. Since she was taking so many short naps, I ended up staying at home all day just to make sure she slept! Thankfully when Wednesday rolled around she took a morning nap for 2hrs.10min.!
Wednesday night hit and Kaitlynn still hadn't been eating sufficiently for the past couple of days! It began to worry both Kelly and I so we placed a call into the PED office. Dr. Smail returned our call around 5:45pm. We explained to her what was going on - that Kaitlynn would take only about 1.5oz every feeding - during each feeding she'd cry, straighten out her legs, and push out her tummy. Dr. Smail told us it was either reflux or a cold. That was when I told her about Kaitlynn's cough and congestion. She told me to try saline drops before each feeding - that if she had a cold, it would cause her to eat less because of breathing issues. She told us if that didn't work with a humidifier in the room as well, then we needed to think along the lines of reflux. However, we didn't want to think along those lines because she doesn't spit up.... ever! Spit up is a huge indicator of reflux. So, I headed to CVS - picked up some saline drops and we tried it on Kaitlynn before her 7pm bottle. It worked! She finally guzzled all 3oz. in her bottle. Thank goodness! We hate that she has a cold, but we're both so happy to know that it's not reflux, and to know what to do to make her more comfortable.
A few pictures from this week:
A few things we have to look forward to......
**Friday morning - my first MOMS Club meeting!!
**This coming Saturday we're going out house hunting with our realtor, Angi Sklar!! We're looking inside and out this time - not just window browsing :)
**Sunday, Kelly is heading to the Falcons game with his dad, brother, and brother-in-law.
**Receiving Kaitlynn's 2-month pictures by Jenny McNair
**Massage & Facial from my amazing husband!!
Bath time doesn't happen every night, but she really enjoys it now!! We usually bathe her every other night or let her have 2 days between baths. She loves to kick & splash in the water - Kelly & I enjoy watching too!!
I have always heard that the bedtime routine is the hardest to get into play - seems like a lot is opposite of the norm for Kaitlynn. She has always been a great nighttime sleeper! We had a few nights where it was difficult getting her down, but once she was down - she slept great! Now it's very easy getting her down around the same time each night. The hardest routine for her is daytime! We are slowly working with her and letting her figure out her own routine herself with our help of course. We have come to a conclusion - our daughter is a very light sleeper during the day! She usually takes one really great nap for about 2-3 hours; usually in the morning. The afternoon naps are mainly "cat naps" in my lap for about 30-45 minutes a piece. However, whatever she's doing nap wise during the day right now really works for her at night - she goes down for bed very easily now!!
Kaitlynn experienced another first on Wednesday evening 10-28-2009!! This was the second night that Kelly and I have tried rice cereal with her bedtime bottle. Our first attempt did nothing to help extend her sleep - however we only gave her 1.5 teaspoons for a 3.5oz bottle. Later we learned that you can give 1 teaspoon for every ounce (meaning we could give her around 3tspns). Our second attempt last night - we fixed her a 3oz. bottle and added 3 teaspoons of rice cereal as well. After lots of work on one of her slow flow nipples, we got it just right - she took the entire bottle and went 5.5 hours between feedings!! She took her bottle around 9:00pm last night, went down in her crib and slept until 2:30am. It was fabulous! I do plan on going to Target today to purchase some medium & fast flow nipples so we don't have to ruin anymore of our slow flow nipples for her bedtime bottles :)
My biggest concern with rice cereal before 4 months?? Her digestive track not being mature and causing constipation. Let's just say she is definitely not a constipated-type baby! She has a couple blowouts each day! HAHA! Another concern was that she wouldn't take to the rice cereal - she definitely gulped it down last night!! Unless we notice any allergy problems, we're going to stick with adding rice cereal to one of her bedtime bottles.
Kelly and I also made another change with Kaitlynn's feeding! We switched her nipple flow from slow to medium. She has always had a great suck, and lately she's gotten a bit lazy with her feedings = not eating the entire amount! Once we switched her to a faster flow, she began taking her entire 3oz. bottle within 5 minutes! Great job, Kaitlynn!!
A few pictures from our day on Wednesday:
What is Kaitlynn staring at??
Her butterfly clock!
Kaitlynn loves to lay on her changing table and just stare
at her pretty butterfly clock! Gives my arms a
short break too :)
Our beautiful baby girl - 10 weeks old in this picture!
Thursday evening, Kelly and I had the privilege of going on a date!! Chris and Angi offered to watch Kaitlynn for us so we could have dinner alone! You never realize how much you need time with just your spouse!! It's so important to keep that 1st relationship very strong. We thoroughly enjoyed our time out - we ended up relaxing and having dinner together at Longhorn.
Friday was an exciting day for me especially!! Kaitlynn & I headed out Friday morning for our very first play-date with some ladies from our Sunday School class at church. It was so good to get out of the house and be around other moms!! Kaitlynn did great - she stayed awake for about an hour, then crashed in my lap. Once she woke up, it was about time for us to leave so we went ahead and skipped out 15 minutes early. She fell asleep on the way home and ended up sleeping in her car seat, in the crib for 2 hours after we got to the house!
Kaitlynn ready for playdate.....check!
Mommy ready for playdate....in progress!
Stopped by Kelly's office on the way to our playdate!
*Kelly & Kaitlynn in the parking garage*
Playtime after naptime & a new outfit for the day:
What is Kaitlynn smiling & laughing at??
Her crib mobile from aunt Mary :)
One more grin!!
We had an extremely relaxing weekend!! We spent Friday & Saturday evening at home. Kelly fixed homemade potato soup which was fabulous since the weather turned a little chilly & gloomy! Saturday afternoon we headed out after Kaitlynn's morning nap and looked at different neighborhoods & homes for sale to get a better idea of location. I think we have it narrowed down to Lower Roswell and interesting streets between Powers Ferry & Johnson Ferry! Not too far from where we are now - about 10-15 minutes north! Saturday was also Halloween! We dressed Kaitlynn up in her pumpkin costume and got plenty of pictures! We were planning on going to church Sunday morning for the 1st time with Kaitlynn, but I was not feeling well so we made the decision to stay home and rest. That afternoon, Jenny McNair came over to the house to take pictures of Kaitlynn for us! We were coworkers at Sweet Apple and now she does photography on the side of teaching & coaching GT Rowing! Busy lady :) Check out her photography blog! Jenny McNair Photography.
We cannot wait to see the pictures she took of our daughter!! Kaitlynn did a fantastic job - only had two diaper changes, and one very short fussy moment during the entire photo-shoot! Jenny was able to get both awake & asleep pictures.
Halloween pictures from 2009:
Hat from aunt Mary!
Hat and socks from aunt Mary!
Happy Halloween!!
Kaitlynn's little pumpkin!
Love this one - tongue sticking out at the pumpkin
Grinning for mommy & daddy!
Our beautiful, wide-eyed, little pumpkin!
Monday rolled around..... I was feeling a lot better than over the weekend, but Kelly seemed to still have his head-cold! Those things take forever to get rid of! After Kaitlynn's morning nap, we headed out for our 2nd play-date! We went over to visit with Andrea Monroe - another teacher friend from Sweet Apple. She has an almost 2-year old, Jack!! He is so precious :) It was wonderful getting to catch up with her today!! I had plans to also have dinner with Ginny tonight, but had to postpone to next Monday due to Kelly not feeling well. Our upcoming date on Wednesday was postponed to next Wednesday also! Sad, but happy to have a few things to look forward to for next week :)
Even though Kelly hasn't felt well this week, he came in from work Monday evening with roses for me!! It was definitely a surprise - he told me he had to stop and get gas for his car, which he did. Little did I know that he had left work early to get the flowers for me, and gas for his car! I cannot saw it enough - my husband is truly amazing!
Kelly and I also made the decision to get the H1N1 Nasal Mist - we are considered "high risk" because Kaitlynn is under 6 months of age. With Kelly having several people at work already with the swine flu, we didn't want to take any chances of him bringing it home to me or our daughter!! We headed to the PED Wednesday afternoon and had the nasal mist! This is the 1st year I have ever had the flu shot, and now the H1N1 mist - definitely don't want to take any chances with a little one in the house now!!
On Tuesday, Kaitlynn threw me for a loop!! Once again - I stand by my statement, that as soon as things settle in, something always changes!! Kaitlynn had been taking a morning nap again for the past 6 straight days!! Usually her morning nap would last anywhere from 1hr - 2.5hrs. I choose not to wake a sleeping baby!! If this is her only long, consistent nap right now - I'm definitely letting her sleep no matter how long it lasts :) Back to the story..... Kaitlynn decided to not take her morning nap on Tuesday! Instead, she chose to take short naps - about 30 minutes long - every 1hr-1.5hrs. Since she was taking so many short naps, I ended up staying at home all day just to make sure she slept! Thankfully when Wednesday rolled around she took a morning nap for 2hrs.10min.!
Wednesday night hit and Kaitlynn still hadn't been eating sufficiently for the past couple of days! It began to worry both Kelly and I so we placed a call into the PED office. Dr. Smail returned our call around 5:45pm. We explained to her what was going on - that Kaitlynn would take only about 1.5oz every feeding - during each feeding she'd cry, straighten out her legs, and push out her tummy. Dr. Smail told us it was either reflux or a cold. That was when I told her about Kaitlynn's cough and congestion. She told me to try saline drops before each feeding - that if she had a cold, it would cause her to eat less because of breathing issues. She told us if that didn't work with a humidifier in the room as well, then we needed to think along the lines of reflux. However, we didn't want to think along those lines because she doesn't spit up.... ever! Spit up is a huge indicator of reflux. So, I headed to CVS - picked up some saline drops and we tried it on Kaitlynn before her 7pm bottle. It worked! She finally guzzled all 3oz. in her bottle. Thank goodness! We hate that she has a cold, but we're both so happy to know that it's not reflux, and to know what to do to make her more comfortable.
A few pictures from this week:
A few things we have to look forward to......
**Friday morning - my first MOMS Club meeting!!
**This coming Saturday we're going out house hunting with our realtor, Angi Sklar!! We're looking inside and out this time - not just window browsing :)
**Sunday, Kelly is heading to the Falcons game with his dad, brother, and brother-in-law.
**Receiving Kaitlynn's 2-month pictures by Jenny McNair
**Massage & Facial from my amazing husband!!
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