Crazy, Busy Week

This week started off pretty low-key and worked it's way into a busy schedule!

Thursday, Kaitlynn and I spent the day at home - spending a lot of time outside walking, and a lot of time on the couch for her cat naps! She has continued doing an excellent job taking a morning nap, allowing me to have a morning quiet time, do some house work, and catch up on some emails. Although, she has been doing something weird the past few mornings - I think tied to her cold. She has been waking up around 4:30/5:00am, wide awake and taking about 30 minutes - 1 hour to get back down. Most of the time we have just been putting her back down in her cradle swing. With her congestion, it allows her to rest upright verses laying down, since she lays flat on her back all night in the crib. Hopefully this early morning wake up call is part of her cold and will go away in a few days as she starts recooping! Fingers crossed!

Even though Kaitlynn has thrown us for a loop with the early morning wake up call and her 1st cold, she is still going down for bed around 9:00pm. However, Thursday evening she went down at 8:00pm! As hard as we try keeping her awake, she is SO tired by 7:30pm. The past two weeks, we have decided to just let her sleep when she's tired. It's either sleep, or a fussy baby wanting to sleep! She normally sleeps from 7:30pm-9:00pm in Kelly's lap, then eats and goes down in her crib until around 7:30am (of course waking up to eat!). That is why I think her wake-up call at 5:00am has something to do with her cold..... because she didn't start it until we noticed her congestion increasing and her cough starting!


Kaitlynn's beautiful smile!!


Bonding time.....

Friday was another 1st for Kaitlynn and I. After her very EARLY morning nap: 7:00am- 9:00am , we headed to our first MOMS club meetings. MOMS - Moms Offering Moms Support - the East Smyrna group meets at Smyrna First Baptist once a month on Fridays at 11:00am. Perfect timing with Kaitlynn having a morning nap these days!! I'm starting to learn to do things after she gets her nap. She can cat nap anywhere, but getting her long, well-rested morning nap makes for a much happier baby during the rest of the day!! When we got to the church, we found out that unfortunately the meeting was not until next Friday! Several ladies were there, but we all just headed home. I came home wanting to get Kaitlynn to rest as much as possible.
Why?? Read below......


Rest = Success!


Where's Willa??


There she is!!


Kaitlynn showing off some leg during one of her naps!

Friday afternoon, Jenny McNair was planning on coming by to take a few more pictures of Kaitlynn, but because of the lovely ATL traffic, we had to postpone her additional visit until next weekend! She did such a great job working with her last week that we are thrilled that she wants to come back out and get some more! She put a few up on her website-Jenny McNair Photography
We cannot wait to see the rest of Kaitlynn's pictures!!

Kelly surprised me today and came home from work early! Unfortunately it was mainly because he wasn't feeling great towards the end of his work day. But, I was still so very happy to see him, as was Kaitlynn - check out the photos below! After he took some medicine and sat down for a few minutes, we took the girls out for a walk!


Kaitlynn is smiling at her daddy!!
She loves having him at home :)


Free Information!! Our home is for SALE :)


Kelly pushing Kaitlynn's stroller!

Beautiful fall leaves!!

By the way..... remember those gorgeous roses I told you that Kelly brought home to me last week on Monday?? Check out some pictures! They were beautiful as always...........

Saturday turned into one very interesting day! It started off quite early for us because we were having our house shown at 10:30am. Kaitlynn woke up around 7:30am, which meant we would try and put her down around 8:30am for her morning nap. That nap never happened...... she was one tough cookie all morning! Kelly and I decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to take Kaitlynn with us to look at homes since she hadn't had her morning nap. He ended up staying home with her while I went with Angi to look at homes! It was a great afternoon, we spent 4 hours looking at about 6-7 different homes. We were able to cross some off our list and keep some for later looking. Kelly & I can't get serious until our condo sells, but it's definitely nice having some that we're considering in case they're still available when our home sells.

Sunday morning came very early! I decided to make a quiet getaway to Greenville for the day - I actually ended up staying the night too! I left around 7:30am after Kaitlynn ate her morning meal so that she would take her morning nap on the way in. She did great! She only woke up twice, but was able to put herself back to sleep within 10 minutes. If only she would do that outside of the car seat! HAHA. My trip to Greenville with Kaitlynn & Willa Grace was wonderful. I explained to my mom that I didn't want to let anyone know of my visit because I was very anxious and nervous about traveling alone with Kaitlynn for the first time. I was also worried about Kaitlynn's routine not being consistent since we would be away from home. With the trip down being successful, I called Blythe - another friend who made a quiet trip to Greenville, and my brother - Mark to let them know of us being in town! My mom and I headed to Jan's house - Blythe's mom - to visit with her, Blythe, & the little Mr. Hendrix - precious! It was wonderful being able to spend some time with Blythe and catch up on life. Hendrix is so handsome and truly has the longest arms & fingers I have ever seen! :) Him and Kaitlynn became BFF's while we were there for a few hours! They already cannot wait to see each other again!
**One of the best things that happened - Kaitlynn stayed on her routine at Blythe's and took an hour-long nap in her nana's arms! Sweet!**
After our nice visit with Jan, Blythe, and Hendrix - mom & I packed up Kaitlynn and headed back to her house to relax. We spent some time outside with Willa and Kaitlynn before Mark, Bridgette, and Elizabeth came over! They were able to spend a few hours at the house and have dinner with us. It's always so nice being able to see them and spend some time with my niece, Elizabeth - I don't get to do that enough! She's starting to learn to sit up :) So cute! And, she's blowing tons of bubbles and making a "zoom" noise with her mouth! Love her! Kaitlynn did great while we had our second round of visitors - she took two more 45-minute naps while they were at the house!!

After they left, it was around 7:00pm and I told my mom we needed to feed Kaitlynn and work on getting her down to sleep for the night. She ended up going down a lot easier than expected! I was very nervous about spending the night and her not sleeping much at all. I made sure to take her humdifier, and heat spacer with me - the noise seems to do wonders for her sleep! She ended up doing a great job - Kaitlynn was down in the crib by 8:30pm. She slept even better over night than I thought as well. Go Kaitlynn!!
We headed out around 8:30am, another early morning start, to allow her to have her nap on the way home! We ended up stopping in Commerce for a quick diaper change, but that didn't seem to startle her sleep. Thank goodness!
Overall, Kaitlynn's first overnight trip was extremely successful. We're looking forward to many more overnight trips to her Nanabug's house in Greenville and to her Nana & Papa's house in Hayesville! We'll just make sure to take the humdifier for noise :)

Here are some pictures from our getaway trip:

Kaitlynn staring at Blythe!


Blythe & I with our precious babies!!
Hendrix - 2.5 weeks old
Kaitlynn - 2.5 months old!


Hendrix has the LONGEST arms and hands I have ever seen!


Uncle Mark and Aunt Bridgette stopped
by for a visit with Kaitlynn!!


Elizabeth passed out on the bed!


Time with Nanabug
*Right before one of Kaitlynn's 45-minute naps!*


She's finally learning to keep the paci in her mouth
without anyone helping!


*Precious cousins*
Kaitlynn - 2.5 months
Elizabeth - almost 4 months


Kaitlynn's first baby doll from her Nanabug!

Kaitlynn's routine you ask?? It looks something like this on a daily basis.....

7:30/8:00am - wake up!
8:00 - 9:00am - meal time and back time -
very little stimulation to keep drowsy for morning nap
8:30/9:00am - Nap time for 1.5-2 hours!

After nap time, Kaitlynn usually will take 30-45 minute naps ever 1-1.5 hours of awake time. I spend my time watching for her signals such as yawning to start working on getting her drowsy. It's much more enjoyable to work on getting her into a nap before the fussiness starts!
During wake time we have lots of back time - on the couch, on the floor, in her play place solely because I have to hold her during her afternoon naps. She hasn't moved into a long, consecutive afternoon nap. If we are not doing back time, we're usually outside walking!!
Her routine is not based on a timed schedule - when she wakes up in the morning, that's when her routine starts. If she's up at 7:00am, her nap is usually around 8:00am..... If she wakes up at 8:00am, her nap is around 9:00am. I have noticed that she cannot handle much more than 1-1.5 hours of awake time before a nap is needed for rest. Otherwise she tends to get a little cranky :) What do I do on days that I have things planned you ask??
If I go out with Kaitlynn, I try to only mess up one of her naps! I usually am only gone for about 2 hours, maybe 3 at most to make sure she does sleep after we get home if she hasn't slept while we've been out of the house. If we're out, she usually can put herself to sleep in her car seat. If we're at a play date, I am able to put her to sleep myself once she's tired.
Our main priority during the day is to watch for sleepy signs to make sure she gets the rest she needs. Pretty simple routine if you ask me! Nothing strict or set in stone based on time, but very consistent in what we do!! Some days are definitely tough, but sticking with her routine and being consistent is worth it in the long run because we have a very happy baby girl. Of course there are always those days here and there that are just completely unexpected :) Every mom & dad know about those unexpected days!!

Kaitlynn has been doing lots of exciting new things lately!! One that I find very amusing - she doesn't only bring her hands to her mouth when she's hungry, but she does it ALL the time now. She actually tries to shove her hand, if not both hands, into her mouth at the same time. She loves to suck on them!! It's too cute to watch :)
She also has great control over her neck. Whenever I am holding her against my shoulder, she keeps her back straight and holds her head high! We are so proud of our growing baby girl.
One of her favorite things to do is to sit with her back against Kelly & I so she can look at everything around her. We're planning on getting her used to the baby carrier now since she has pretty good control over her neck. Hopefully that'll allow me to do a few things with her during the day while she's awake :) We'll see!!
She has also started her own version of laughing! It's absolutely precious. She does it mostly in the mornings after she has gotten up from her night time sleep, morning nap, or any short afternoon nap. She's always very happy after she rests!
The biggest news - the past week, Kaitlynn has eaten her dinner meal around 7:00/8:00pm and hasn't cried for a meal until 1:00/2:00am. Kaitlynn usually goes down for bed around 9:00pm, which gives her about 4-5 hours of rest before eating. She always seems to amaze us everyday with something new!!

I couldn't have asked for a better surprise from my husband - Kelly came home from work at lunch to let me take a break from my day and run on our treadmill. During his time home he told me that Wednesday was a bank holiday - he would be home!! As much as I enjoy my quality time with Kaitlynn & Willa during the work week, it's so much fun when our whole family is together. It's never complete until Kelly is home for the day! Wednesday was such a relaxing day for all of us. It was another gloomy, rainy day - but we enjoyed every minute of it. I was so thankful to have that time with him, our daughter, and our precious Willa Grace.
The day started off with a wonderful surprise from our daughter. She decided to take her 1.5 hour morning nap in her crib today!! Prior to nap time, I darkened her room like night time, turned on her humidifier for noise, and placed a few rolled towels in her crib to make the space seem smaller and a bit more cozy - thanks Jan for the idea!! She did a great job - took her morning nap from
8:30am - 10:00am!! During the time, Kelly headed out to get his hair cut, and came home with a surprise breakfast - a chocolate doughnut for me and a maple doughnut for himself! YUM! We ended up venturing out once the rain stopped for a Target trip, lunch at Willies, and Kaitlynn's first grocery store trip!


Kaitlynn finally passed out in Publix!
Had to get a picture of her first trip :)

Kaitlynn stayed awake for the majority of our time out today! She finally started to fall asleep in Publix and on our way home. We were able to get her into the crib but about 10 minutes before she woke and started crying. It was time for her to eat, so we ended up feeding her, and Kelly was able to put her down in the CRIB again for another nap!!
Kelly finally had a doctor's appointment today as well around 3:00pm. He headed out while Kaitlynn was still asleep. I was able to enjoy some quiet time this afternoon. Once Kelly came in, we were able to spend the rest of his day off relaxing at home! Such a great day in the middle of his work week.

A few things we have to look forward to......
**This Thursday - lunch with Angi & Janet!
**This Friday - finally, our first MOMS club meeting!
**This Saturday - my massage & facial?? Gotta check in with the hubby!
**This Sunday - more pictures with Jenny McNair
**This Monday - my mom comes into town for a visit!
**Saturday the 21st - Thanksgiving in Hayesville
**Thursday the 26th - Thanksgiving in Greenville

Bedtime Routine - CHECK!

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!!