"That's the Way it Goes...Ya Gotta Bend When the Wind Blows"

 The things parents do to protect their kids!  We had our first experience with that statement the past two days (what you normal people would call the weekend).  Saturday when Brian got home from work it was very hot in the house and he went to check on the air conditioner.  I had noticed it getting warm during the day, but truth be told I had just finished working out, so I thought it was just me.  Nevertheless, guess whose air conditioning wasn't working.  That's right, ours! Of course it stopped on a day that was 90 degrees!  Brian began calling around to see if we could get someone out here that evening to fix it.  But, we had no such luck on a weekend.  The earliest someone could get here was an estimated 1or 2am.  I have read extensively about how to protect your baby from this and that and one of the top correlatives with SIDS is when a baby gets too hot while sleeping.  With a house that was pushing 90 degrees inside, we weren't about to take that risk.  I called my parents in a panic and asked what they would do.  I am thankful for their honest opinion and they suggested with a two month old that we shouldn't stay in the house.  They said that the chances were high she would be just fine, but there is no point in putting her at risk.  Plus, they said I was just going to be sitting next to her crib all night and that was unproductive. They offered to get us a hotel but then our friends Kelly & Mitch bailed us out and told us we could crash at her place!  So at 11:30pm we drove over there to sleep (they were out and about and didn't get home until then).  Sunday morning we called again to get someone to come out and again, the attempt was unsuccessful.  So I called my parents up and asked to take them up on their offer!  Thanks, guys!  We stayed at the LOVELY Comfort Inn down the road from us in a Suite with a big king bed and a divider so Carly could have her own space as well.  We made a little "getaway" out of it and actually had a great time.  Carly was literally shocked when she woke up this morning (it was pretty funny, really...she had those BIG eyes on to check everything out then began to cry once she realized she was in a strange place).  Brian went off to work at Carly and I met the technician at our house at 11am this morning.  Our air is up and running after a $230 dollar relay box replacement.  The joys of owning...lol.

Yesterday turned out to be quite fun as we had our first family hotel stay and having spent the day in EPCOT, it felt like we were on vacation anyway.  My friend, Jen, was in town from NYC, so a bunch of us played in the parks all day.  Kelly's sister (Kelly...the one who we stayed with) and her kiddos joined us from Tampa, so Carly even had another baby friend to "play" with.  We ate at one of our favorite Disney restaurants,The Biergarten.  Carly was nursing when the polka-guys came out on stage and she unlatched and started squirming because she wanted to know what was going on and why here daddy was yelling, "Hoy, hoy, hoy!"  She put on those BIG eyes again as she checked out all the dancing, then told me she was ready to finish her dinner.  I love that I can tell what she is saying.  Her cries don't bother me as much because I know what they mean and how to give her what she wants.  The only time its really hard is when there are multiple things going on at once, but I have to solve them one at a time.  Yesterday, for example, Carly took ONE twenty minute nap in a SEVEN hour period.  Seriously, she is a social bug!  At two months old she was fighting taking a nap in order to see everything going on around her.  When I tried to turn her around in the Bjorn to put her to sleep she was SO mad.  So I explained to her that if I was going to let her stay up that she would need to be good and not have a meltdown.  I turned her back around to face out and she stayed happy for another 2 hours.  Crazy girl.  Sadly, the meltdown came as we were finishing up dinner.  I knew it would happen.  Mom is always right. ;)

Here is our best attempt at a family pic (The Flower and Garden Festival is going on at EPCOT right now):

Besides for our crazy weekend, I am thrilled to report that Carly has now been in her own bedroom for one whole week (minus the large hiccup we had the past two days)!  We were very nervous putting her in there, as the first attempt was unsuccessful.  She figured out that she was lonely and would call for us in the middle of the night.  So, we decided to give it another go last week and thought it might be an easier transition to roll her bassinet into her room rather than putting her straight into her crib.  I also decided to start topping her off with milk so that her belly is extra full!  I nurse her and then give her an extra 2 ounces.  Fortunately, When she does sleep through the night (8 hours or so) I am full to the brim in the mornings and am able to pump what I'll need for her at night when I'm running on "E" plus some to go in the freezer.  God has been faithful to provide me with the milk I need for her after a fairly rough start.  I pray everyday that He will continue to bless me with ample amounts as I go back to work this week.

Hope you enjoyed reading about our stressful few days (3 beds in 3 nights...sheesh) and about our crazy little girl who has a mind of her own.  We love it!

"Palm Trees are Growin' and a Warm Breezes a Blowing...I"

"...I picture myself right there.  On some beach, somewhere."

Brian, Carly and I had a wonderful weekend together!  We love spending time as a family and it's much easier to take adventures with two parents rather than one.  So Carly and I look forward to Daddy being home each weekend so we can do more than just take a walk around the neighborhood (although the older she gets the easier it is for me to take her places).  Now, so that there isn't confusion, when I refer to our weekend, I am referring to Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  So really, it's the middle of the week for most of you!

The weekend started with me sleeping in while Brian had some Daddy-Carly quality time.  If babies can have a love language preference, Carly's is certainly quality time!  I am a night owl and Brian has become a morning lark, so each of us can get a sufficient amount of sleep on the weekends.  I miss not going to bed and waking up at the same time together, but it's just a season.  Anyway, after some sleeping in, I got up to feed Carly again and Brian was in the kitchen making pancakes from scratch!  Yum!  Then Carly took a nap and we were able to have some alone time.  It's so wonderful being able to set her down for naps...and wonderful that when she wakes up from them she can entertain herself for 15 minutes or so.  I think I will start taking advantage of our visitors and leaving Carly with them so Brian and I can have some dates!  I had no idea just how important that would be.  We've pretty much decided that we each year we need to get away just the two of us for at least a weekend.  Anyone interested in flying to Florida to babysit? ;)

Next up was out to lunch at our favorite Mexican place in Florida, Abuelos.  Not super authentic, but it will do.  The last time we ate there was actually with my Mom, 3 days before Carly arrived!  After lunch we headed to Babies R Us to buy some goodies.  We really needed another car seat base, some wipes and some diapers!  She is still in newborn size and the only place we've found that sells a box of NBs is B'R'Us.  We also spent some gift cards on plates, bowls, spoons, sippy cups and snack cups.  In just 3 months she will begin eating real food!  I know that's over twice her lifetime, but it will probably come quickly, so it's good to be prepared.

After B'R'Us we stopped in Celebration to take a walk around their lovely lake.  We stopped at Starbucks for a Caramel Mocha and enjoyed the fabulous weather on their patio!  At dusk we came home, ate dinner and lounged on the couch watching TV.  I don't know what we will do once she is old enough to start noticing the TV.  Oh wait, we'll just put her to bed! :)

Wednesday morning (aka, a normal person's Sunday) Brian got up early to head out to the golf course while Carly and I had our normal morning playtime in our bed.  It's probably weird to you that the photos and pictures I post are generally taken in our bed, but that's because I read to change up her scenery throughout the day.  So, mornings are spent in our bedroom, we play in her room in the afternoons and play in the living room in the evenings.  She seems to enjoy it.

That afternoon we had her 2-month check up.  She checked out "perfectly" (I love our pediatrician!), weighing 9 and half pounds and measuring 23 inches in length.  That's another inch from her 6 week check up!  She remains consistently in the 20 percentile for weight and 80 percentile for height.  I like that she is so dainty.  Plus, breastfed babes are often skinnier than formula fed babes.  We've enjoyed watching little rolls form on her thighs. :)  Unfortunately for our Carly, she had to have 3 shots while we were there.  She was right in the middle of falling asleep when I had to lay her down and wake her up to get stuck by a needle!  She was NOT happy.  We heard a new cry that day...I guess she had never been in pain like that before.  Poor girl.  Her legs have been sore ever since and if we touch the bruise she cries a little.  She has wanted to nurse extra long the last few days and has run a slight fever.  All normal things...not looking forward to her 4 month shots.

After shots we decided to take a walk around the Boardwalk.  It was again, a gorgeous day and Carly got her first taste of laying out on the beach.  Here's a pic of her first "beach" experience:

 
Brian and I treated ourselves to a slushie and as we were walking back to the car Carly started to get a bit fussy.  I so wanted to offer her a little taste of our treat as she was making a noise that told us she felt left out.  As soon as she can start eating foods I'm sure we will always give her a taste!  How fun!

That concludes a productive and fun weekend filled with family time.  Now Daddy is back to work which means I'm back to work as well.  Devoting each and everyday, all day, to a baby is hard work for sure!  I go back to Downtown Disney work May 6th...only one more week of fully being home.  That went by TOO fast!

" "Ah-goo," "Ah-goo," to You & You & You-oo..."

Carly has had many new developments this week.  She is SO much older than she was when we were in Iowa!  I don't say that to make you sad that you aren't seeing her...I say that out of pure astonishment at how much she changes each week.  The bummer for those who visit often is that she likely wont react the same way to something that worked the last time you saw her.  BUT... I will try to keep you in the loop so whenever you do see her you can be an expert at her language. :)  Carly is starting to see really far.  The three of us were on a walk this weekend and she was hanging out in her stroller (a new thing...she is actually enjoying it now).  She got a bit fussy so a started walking next to her rather than behind her (she was facing forward...imagine that...my daughter has an opinion about what direction she'd like to face on a walk...which, of course, is out).  Two weeks ago I would have had to lean down to talk to her, but she made eye contact with me standing straight up.  Cool!  And, she stopped fussing.  I think she just wanted to know that she wasn't alone.  Because she can see better and better, we've been exposing her to more and more things to look at and watch.  I had been noticing that when she would get bored in the evenings that Brian would walk her over and look in the mirror.  So I decided to try it and oh my did we have fun!  She really enjoys looking at the baby in the mirror!  She would purse out her lips, stick out her tongue, smile at herself, then look up and smile at me.  We must have had at least ten good minutes of fun while looking in the mirror!  Another night Brian looked sleepy, so I told him to go to bed.  Then I realized I hadn't done anything to prepare for bedtime so I took her into our bathroom to brush my teeth.  I set her on her Boppy on the floor and then got down on my knees and brushed my teeth in front of her face.  She may have thought that was the funniest thing she had ever seen!  Why would mama ever have a stick going in and out of her mouth so fast?!  She also reacts the same way to the spoon in my mouth when I eat my morning bowl of cereal.

Oh this is getting long but there is still so much to tell!  The biggest, I think, is how much she is talking!  She loves to converse with us and her little voice couldn't be more precious to listen to!  Since she was about 3 weeks old, we have been saying "Ah-goo" to her.  She smiles every time we say it and this week she said it back! I'm not joking, I said "Ah-goo" and she repeated the exact same thing!  I've read that it's very beneficial for language development to have a mixture of both "baby talk" (coos and babbles) and "adult talk."  I talk to her all day long, usually explaining what I'm doing as we walk around the house, or telling her what the plans for the day are or re-capping them at night.  But I also throw in some babbles to encourage her, since those are the only sounds she can make.  Very fun and very exciting!

Carly's awake time is really starting to stretch.  She can go 2 hours now without being fussy.  She is so fun to hang out with when she is just a happy little thing.  Sometimes she is still ready for a nap after an hour and a half, but by 3 months old (only 3 weeks away...yikes!) she should be taking 3, 2-hour naps throughout the day rather than having to sleep every hour and a half.

Her interest in toys has certainly grown this week.  She just loves to look at her spider.  She even started batting at it and would grab hold of the rings (accidentally, of course).  I've read that I should continue to dangle items over her and applaud her when she bats at it to improve her confidence.  These photos show just how much she loves Spider:

 I wanted to know what was so darn interesting about spider, so I decided to take a look from her vantage point.  Don't you think it's pretty cool?

 Another thing I've really noticed this week is her desire to sit up (as you see in the above pics).  Most babies like to play on their backs, with an adult cooing over them.  Not Carly.  She wants to sit up and be played with that way.  So I pulled out the Bumbo this week to see if she would enjoy watching me make dinner.  She sure did!  Now...that doesn't mean she let me cook the entire meal, her attention span is still only about 10 minutes, but it did allow me to get a few things done in the kitchen.  We also have been sitting her up on the couch in between us and she seems to enjoy being just like us.  She will sit there for quite a while just looking around before she asks one of us to pick her up.  I think that's why she now enjoys the stroller, because she gets to sit up and look around...plus she just adores being outside!  I am so grateful that she is starting to become more independent.  I loved having her depend on me every second, but 2 months was sufficient for that.  I've been able to jog with her in the stroller, and one day this week I was able to get 3 miles in before she was ready to be taken out of the stroller (she was sleeping for part of it).  It's been a blessing to exercise and I've finally started to lose some weight.  I still have 10-15 pounds to take off before I will actually begin to feel "good" about myself, but I'll get there.  Each time I look in the mirror I just cringe.  But, I shouldn't have gained freaking 65 pounds while I was pregnant!  I know that my body will carry how it wants to carry (aka...extra weight from the massive amount of water retention), but I also had my fair share of sweets.  It was like, once I got to 32 weeks and was just a whale, I stopped caring.  Next time I will need to eat healthy foods, high in protein, low in fat and complex carbs plus fruits and veggies....rather than whatever I want.  Nevertheless, it's exciting to watch her become more independent and have preferences.

Last thing for today is that we have started dancing.  She is just a pro at holding her head up, so holding her tush and back we can swoop around the living room to music.  She likes the spinning most of all...too bad I get dizzy! ;)

"I Should Be Sleepin' Instead of Dreamin' About You!"

The past two weeks have been mainly filled with exhaustion, but fortunately this weekend we put an end to that!  I got really tired toward the end of our trip to Iowa, so I was looking forward to just relaxing during the day and snuggling with Carly during her naps.  But...then she got a cold so sleeping through the night was no longer.  After she got over her cold we decided that it was best to put her in her own room.  This is something we would have done at 6 weeks, but because we were in Iowa it had to be postponed.  So then we were going to move her the night we got back but instead kept her in our room to tend to and monitor her runny nose and cough.  So...8 weeks old and into her very own room she went.  After 5 nights of being up with her much of the night (she decided to start sleeping 2-4 hour stretches rather than 8...Ugh), Brian suggested we bring her back into our room just to see if that was the problem.  Lo and behold...9 hours later Carly woke up.   I know Carly wakes up at least twice every single night because I hear her playing in her bassinet.  I think when she is in our room, can hear us and smell us, she feels secure and puts herself back to sleep.  BUT, when she was waking up in her own room she felt lonely and therefore called for us.  Then she would get herself all worked up and not be able to go back to sleep.  So now she's been in our room the past 5 nights and tomorrow night we will try putting her in her own room again.  We just felt like we needed to get her sleeping through the night again before setting a precedent that it was okay to call for us after only 4 hours of sleep. We are going to attempt putting her in her bassinet in her room rather than her crib like last time.  We put her straight in her crib hoping for only one transition, but apparently we have to take "baby steps," if you will.

Other than that Carly continues to amaze me with her maturity.  She is such a different person than she was 2 months ago!  Even though I loved the gentle snuggles of having an infant, I'm really enjoying her these days!  She started to bat at her spider this week, found her precious little feet, now prefers bright colors rather than black and white patterns, is having very alert awake time, which, for the most part, is filled with joy, and best of all, she is becoming quite the pro at entertaining herself!  She has been gracious when we've put her down for naps (her first 8 weeks she literally wailed EVERY time we put her down for a nap) and even if she wakes up from the jostle of being put down, she can generally soothe herself back to sleep.  What an obedient little girl!  Sometimes, she will even wake up after only 15-20 minutes of sleep and just sit in her swing looking around for 20-30 minutes, then decide she is still tired and close her eyes again for another 20 minutes or so.  CRAZY!  I'd like to thank our wonderful parenting and schedule for that, but Lord knows she's just mature for her age (aka a good baby). ;)  She's becoming easier and easier to take care of which is helping my confidence about leaving her with a sitter in the next few weeks when I head back to work.  I think the Lord has blessed us with a level-headed and rational young lady.  I sure hope that continues. :)

If you think of it...you can be praying that we find a babysitter for Carly every Sunday and every Monday for 2-3 hours in the afternoon.  We are having a bit more trouble than we thought getting someone to commit to every week.  We must have it figured out by May 20th.

I'll leave you with one of her two month pictures I took this week:

Adventures in Iowa!

The day before Carly turned 6 weeks old, she flew up into the sky on her very first airplane.  She loved it!  This was honestly the first time we experienced Carly's angel-like characteristics.  She ate on the way up, played with us for an hour, decided she was tired and gracefully put her head on my shoulder to go to sleep (first time that had ever happened!) and then ate on the way down and was ready to be greeted by her Grandpa and Nana when we arrived in Iowa.  We were fairly stressed going into the adventure, but we completely underestimated her mature ability. 

We had a glorious time in our homeland for ten days as we spent time with family and gallivanted around central Iowa introducing Carly to some of our favorite people.  I really should have taken a photo with each person she met, but then I would have had to buy a new camera card!  I will recap the trip briefly.

Day 1:

Carly met her cousin, Cora, her Uncle Aaron and her Aunt Kelly.  It was so precious to see the meeting of two girls who will be life-long friends.  Cora was extremely excited to hold Carly and was a natural if I do say so myself!

Carly also got to meet one of my best friends, Lindsay, her husband, Ted, and her son, Eli.  I expect Eli and Carly to be very good friends and see some family vacations in our future as Ted and Brian also enjoy each others company, especially on the golf course (they were ISU intramural golf champs at one point...lol).  I had a best guy friend growing up who was exactly 8 months older than me.  Funny thing that Eli is 8 months older than Carly!  Lindsay was the first to know we were pregnant and was there for me more than anyone else throughout my pregnancy having just been through it herself!  I will be forever grateful for her genuine care for me and my baby.

Lindsay and I enjoyed lunch together and then we spent the evening hanging out with the Weiss crew.

Day 2:

Carly's Baptism (see yesterday's post)

Day 3:

Carly's Grandma took the day off and we had fun exploring Ames with Grandma, Aaron, Kelly and Cora.  Carly had her first trip to the Flying Burrito and her first walk on the beautiful Iowa State Campus.  Why we didn't get a picture of that I just do not know!  We also introduced her to many of the women I worked with when I was working in the Office of Admissions at ISU.

We then went back to Grandpa and Grandma's house and laid under the crab apple tree in the front yard on Brian's childhood bed spread.  It was a beautiful April day in Iowa!

Uncle Nathan and Grandpa joined us for dinner and we spent time relaxing on the back porch.  Oh what a wonderful day!

Day 4:

Aaron, Kel and Cora took off, Brian and his Dad went golfing and Carly and I jumped in the car to meet friends all over Ames.  We had lunch with Mimi, and had a very fun play date with the ladies from my college Bible Study.  Carly got to meet all of their kiddos: Stacy's sons: Jacoby (2) and Kayden (1), Libby's daughter: Linley (1) and Baby #2 in tummy, Jen's son: Brayton (9 months) and Lindsey's Baby #1 in tummy.  When we take our next trip to Iowa in September hopefully we can meet both Libby and Lindsey's babes!

We went back to Grandpa and Grandma's house for dinner and as per usual, had a wonderful time.

Day 5:

Got up and headed out the door only to experience Carly's first projectile vomit!  She tossed EVERYTHING she had eaten that morning and made me fairly nervous.  She then needed food every two hours all day long! Poor thing!  That meant we were going to have a very chill day, just resting at Grandpa and Nana's house (my parents).

After some rest we decided to go visit the Loeckes, a family I have been babysitting for since 2007.  Jessica and her three kids, Eliza (7), Zachary (3) and Mae (1), are very dear to me and we see them every time we are home. Here is our best attempt at a picture (Mae had wondered off at this point)!

That evening two of the women I have known since I was very young, Shana and Allison, threw Carly and I a church shower.  It was wonderful to see so many women from church as I love E.Free very, very much. 

Day 6:

Another relaxing day.  I went for a 5 mile run/walk with Carley Hoben and left Carly to be babysat by Grandpa and Nana for the first time.  I was only gone 2 hours...but still...a big step for me!  Then we played with G&N, Uncle Trey and Aunt Tiff.

Day 7:

The day was filled with little walks...Carly just loves being outside!  Renee came over and played for a while then Lydia joined the party as well.  Later in the day Carly got to meet her Auntie Anna for the first time.

That evening we went out to Olde Main Brewing Co. with our Bible Study from when we were first married.  We always see the Brenners, Fabers and Gerbers when we are in Iowa.  We hadn't taken a group shot in at least 2 years, so here it is:

Day 8:

We woke up and headed to Altoona where I was having a family shower.  My Aunt Danielle, Cousin Megan and Aunt Sherry threw me a wonderful shower.  Brian's family, my Grandpa's side of the family and my Grandma's side of the family were all in attendance.  Very special as many of them I hadn't seen since our wedding 3 years ago!

One of the very special moments of the day was that Carly got to meet her 96-year-old, great-great-grandmother.  We took this lovely 5-generations picture.  It's very rare that someone is blessed with 5 generations living at one time.  My dad can say that he has a Grandma and a Granddaughter!

We also took a great 3-generation picture with my Mom, me and Carly!

I had a wonderful time with family and it was very special to introduce my daughter to my extended family.  I am grateful for their unconditional support!

Day 9:

Happy Easter!  Or as they say at our church in Florida: Happy Resurrection Day!  After attending the Easter service at E.Free, we hopped in the car and down to Altoona we went yet again.  Carly did great!  Actually...she was an angel during most car rides...something I am very grateful for!  She just hated them her first month of life.  Just another way she is growing cognitively everyday.  Before eating the wonderful meal prepared by my Grandma, Carly's Mimi, we took some family photos.  We haven't all been in the same room since Grandpa's funeral in 2009.  Shayla had just gotten home with her new daughter, Zola, so it was both Zola and Carly's first Easters.  What a special memory!  Here is the Stubbs family picture (Stubbs, Vanderploeg, Weiss & Hood):

And all the granddaughters...how precious that Emmie and Ella are holding the babes

The "smaller" Stubbs and Weiss family:

And finally, our little family of three. :)

We had our annual Easter egg hunt (aka...tons of candy spread all over the yard) and great fellowship.  I cried as the day came to a close, making Grandma promise she would come to Florida sometime this summer.  Living so far away is hard much of the time, but we also love our life in Florida.  God is great and incredibly faithful, and I look forward to see what He provides for us in the future. 

We headed back to Ames so Carly could say goodbye to her Grandpa and Grandma, then spent the rest of the night with Grandpa, Nana, Uncle Trey and Aunt Tiff.

I'd say Carly's very first Easter was a memorable one...and she was tuckered out from all the excitement!

Day 10:

Back to Florida we went...Carly enjoyed her second airplane ride. :)

"Jesus Loves the Little Children"

I love singing this song to Carly. We sing it nearly every time we bounce on the ball (which is at least 5 times per day). Besides for that, however, it was also the theme of this year's Palm Sunday as Carly was baptized! It was an incredibly special day and we felt so loved as many of our friends and family gathered to celebrate with us. Carly is very loved and we are grateful for that!

Carly was an angel during her baptism.  She woke up that morning at 6:15am, which was nearly a perfect set up with her sleeping right before the service and waking up just in time to experience her baptism.  She was still sleeping when we walked up during the service, so I gave her a little nudge, propped her upright and there were her big beautiful eyes.  She was happy and awake throughout the baptism and then gracefully ate the rest of the service, ready to have some play time while we took pictures at the conclusion of the service.  Seriously, perfect timing all morning long! Here are the photos we took of our little family, us with Carly's Godparents, Chris and Nikki Voss, and Carly with us and her grandparents. 

After the service we all went to Rich and Rhonda's for a delightful brunch and fellowship.  After meeting over 30 people and being passed from arms to arms, we got a great family photo of the Weiss family!

Carly did great throughout the entire day...I'm so thankful that she's become quite the social bug.  There were a couple weeks in there that she really didn't want to be in anyone's arms but mine, which gave me some anxiety about going to Iowa.  Fortunately, as she matures each day she seems to realize that having other faces to look at is interesting and fun.  Let's hope that stranger anxiety doesn't creep in right before I have to go back to work.  Thinking about Carly crying is almost worse than listening to it!  But that's tomorrows worries...I'm just grateful for a special day with family and friends and ultimately grateful that Jesus loves my child even more than I do. :)

Reflections of the First Month

Coming home from the hospital was exciting and overwhelming.  It was a realization that all of a sudden Brian and I were completely responsible for this life.  I sat in the back seat next to Carly with tears streaming down my face nearly the entire ride home.  It was her first time being outside and her first car ride.  Her first time in her car seat, the first time on an interstate, the first time pulling into our driveway and the first time being carried into our home.  Then we walked her to her bedroom for the first time.  Sounds like a big day to me...full for firsts!

I wish someone would have told me that the first few weeks are REALLY hard.  Had I not had my Mom with us, I think I would have had a minor breakdown.  I thought Carly was just going to sleep all the time.  I didn't realize that babies are fussy and I certainly didn't realize I wouldn't know why the heck she was crying!  I was so thankful that when I was just staring at her wondering what was wrong that my Mom would swoop her up and calm her down.  I also didn't realize feeding her would be SO hard.  It took my milk a good week to come in, so after 5 days of only getting colostrum, Carly was ready to have some milk.  She got pretty fussy waiting for her tummy to get full.  My nipples hurt, I was incredibly emotional and I had much anxiety that it would never come in.  I had wanted to nurse my entire life and was heart broken thinking it might not happen.  I wanted to give up as she would just fight with me...working herself up to the point that she wouldn't be able to latch.  It was so stressful.  My Mom made me promise I'd give it two weeks, and had I not had her to encourage me on an hourly basis I just might have switched to formula.  But, my milk did come in and EVERYDAY she got better at eating it. :)  By the time she was one month old she was doing great!

My Dad arrived a week after she was born and both him and Mom helped out a lot with Carly.  They would keep her up late while I went to bed then I would get up with her all night (she knew her days and nights right away but would wake up a lot...sometimes every hour) and they would take her again in the morning.  After they left we had 9 days just the three of us.  I was hoping to get her on this perfect schedule that I had been reading would work and was frustrated when it didn't!  I wanted her to eat, play, sleep on a 3 hour schedule around the clock.  It just wasn't working and I was very hard on myself.  Then a friend told me I needed to focus on one thing at a time.  It was great advice!  I just needed to focus on getting full feedings.  It didn't matter when she slept and played, but each time she ate I needed to make sure her belly was full.  I could do that...it was manageable.

After two weeks I thought things were going great.  My mother was correct in that it gets much easier after two weeks.  I was beginning to learn the difference in Carly's cries, and was becoming quite the pro at soothing her. She was latching wonderfully and would get herself in a great rhythm.  However, we had her two week check-up and she had gone from 7 pounds 12 ounces to 6 pounds 14 ounces.  I began to cry as we left the doctor's office and sat down in the car.  I was failing.  My milk was failing.  Carly wasn't gaining weight.  That week was extremely stressful but thanks to a great doctor I didn't feel the need to supplement with formula quite yet.  Once you start to supplement with formula, it's hard to stop because your baby is relying on that and not forcing her mother's milk to give her what she needs.  The doctor recommended I start a VERY strict feeding schedule.  So that's what I did.  She nursed every 2 and a half hours all day long.  It didn't matter if she was in a deep sleep, I needed to wake her up and put calories in her.  Our appointment was on a Thursday and I went to a lactation consultant the following Monday.  We weighed her before she ate and after to see how much she was pulling out.  Sadly, the pre-weigh she still weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces; which meant that she had not gained any weight the past 4 days.  But, at least she wasn't losing anymore!  Post-feeding she had pulled out 2.5 ounces.  The nurses said that was exactly how much she was suppose to be getting and encouraged me to stay with it!  When we went back to the doctor three days later she had gone from 6-14 to 7-6!  She had gained half a pound in 3 weeks!! The stress was immediately lifted and I knew we could keep gaining if I kept her on the schedule!  It was a lot of work.  She fed for an hour, played for 30-45 minutes and slept for 45 minutes.  Sometimes she would play longer and only get 20 minutes of nap in before I was tickling her toes to wake her up again!  Sometimes I just wanted to let her sleep, but couldn't bare the thought of more weight loss. 

Week three Brian's folks and brother arrived to meet their second granddaughter.  We took Carly to EPCOT for the second time and she, of, course, loved it. ;)  At the end of their trip, they literally handed her off to my Dad, who had returned with my Grandma, brother and sister (along with me Uncle's family), before heading to the airport.  So that meant I got 5 more days of visitors.  Fortunately they stayed at a resort, so we didn't have to have back to back people in the house.  Don't get me wrong, I love it when people come and visit, but that doesn't mean it's not stressful.  Even having our own parents in the house is chaotic merely because it takes away from our normal life.  When we have people here Brian and I sometimes go days without having a real conversation.  I was so happy to see our families so much her first month of life, but I was ready for everyone to be gone so I could have some alone time with my baby before heading to Iowa just 10 days later.  In Carly's first 7 weeks of life, I got a total of 7 days alone with her, just me an her! 

That about covers the first month!  I didn't focus much on the details...like the first time she grabbed my finger (5 days old), the day her cord fell out (9 days old), her first smile (4 weeks old) or the first time she rolled over (yes...she actually rolled over at one month old...she was on a pillow having some tummy time and then just flipped! I was shocked...but have a video to prove it).  I'll leave you with a photo of her second smile and the second time she rolled over!  Fortunately I had the camera close because she had her "seconds" shortly after her "firsts." :)