Happy Birthday to Me!

Another busy but fabulous weekend. Friday after Peter came home I went grocery shopping by myself. It's more fun with Peter there with me (and I always appreciate help lugging the bags) but it's nice to get out of the house for a little bit too.

Saturday we all slept in a little. My parents stopped by and my mom stayed overnight while my dad went to my gram's overnight to try to fix some sink leaks for her. Peter and I went to see "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" while my mom babysat. It was really nice to get out for an actual date (popcorn and all!) but we both missed Carina and I couldn't help but worry about her a little. She was sound asleep when we got home and mom said she had been a bit fussy but overall just fine. She took her bottle like a champ and even gave mom time to make my birthday cake.

Yesterday was my birthday (25 w00t!) and my dad's family reunion. We had a really nice time and good food and Carina was a little angel all day. We gave her a bottle at the restaurant and she did great with it. She'll have to get used to that before I go back to work in a month. For my birthday present Carina slept 9 hours but then later in the day pooped all over me so I'll take the good with the not so good, haha.

Speaking of... sounds like somebody is waking up! (the burp cloth on the head in the pic below was mom's idea, haha - trying to keep the wind out of her ears)

Weekend: Part II

Sunday wasn't quite as fantastic as Saturday, haha. Carina was fussy as soon as we got to church so I spent much of Sunday school alone in the parenting room with a screaming little girl. Needless to say, we didn't stay for church. We had a nice lazy afternoon at home. My parents came to visit and we ate pizza and passed Carina around. We had a small group meeting in the evening and Carina slept through most of it but woke up cranky again so we left a few minutes early. We've come to expect this now that we have a newborn feeding schedule to contend with, haha.

Still, as our evenings continue to be consistently fussy, our nights tend to be amazingly quiet. Last night Carina ate at 10, was in bed by 10:15 and was just barely starting to wake up at 7 this morning. This kid is seriously amazing. I don't know how we got so lucky.

I had my 6 week post-partum check up on Monday. Peter and Carina tagged along but again - little miss decided to be fussy so they hung out in the car a bit. Everything looks good! I'm back to what I weighed at my very first pregnancy appt at 8 weeks along. I would like to shape and tone it up a bit but I'm very happy in my own skin. Sadly I didn't get to see the midwife who delivered Carina but I did leave her a birth announcement and we did swing by the hospital to drop one off for my main nurse too. She was pleased to see me and Carina. Who doesn't love to see a baby?!

Not much else going on this week. Tuesday we went to Coldstone for my free birthday icecream (sign up for your free birthday icecream on their website!). I couldn't resist buying a 6 pack of chocolate icecream cupcakes as well. I've been craving them since Valentine's Day and never got any! They were more than worth the wait.

Carina and I ventured to Target yesterday. Couldn't resist buying her a onesie "Sweet as Can Be" that was on clearance. We plan to put her in it for my Dad's family reunion this Sunday. She has outgrown the Gerber brand newborn onesies but this onesie I bought from Target yesterday is newborn size and huge. It's funny how every brand is so different. I have her in a Carter's size small (whatever that means) right now just to see if it fits and it's really big on her. We started using size 1 diapers this week too. They look huge on her but the newborn diapers just weren't cutting it anymore - especially for 9 hours overnight, haha.

I've been reading "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" to Carina for the past few days. I want to re-read the entire book before seeing the movie. My mom is spending the night Saturday so we're hoping to get out and see it while we have built-in babysitting. Can't wait! It'll be our first date post-Carina.

Grillin'!

What a great weekend and it's not even over yet! Yesterday we started the day by going grocery shopping. Carina slept, we shopped. After we got home I made a chocolate cheesecake. I've always wanted to make one but don't own a springform pan. Luckily it came up in conversation with my neighbor and she said I was welcome to borrow her pan anytime. So - yay for chocolate cheesecake! Now I just need to pack some up to share with our neighbors as a thank you.

Yesterday afternoon we babysat our friends' 7 month old daughter. What an experience! Gave us an idea of what we have to look forward to. After both girls fell asleep - Peter and I did too for a few minutes. Kids are hard work!

Once we were back down to only one baby in the house, Peter fired up the grill and I prepped some kabobs. Steak, potato and tomato ranch kabobs - yum! Throw in some corn on the cob and we had ourselves a very nice summer meal. Peter did great on the grill too! We took turns carrying Carina in my baby wearer. A little girly but it looks good on Peter :)

Carina has been up once overnight for the past 2 nights so we haven't exactly had the full night's sleep we were getting those few days last week but we're still getting plenty of rest. Everybody keeps telling us that we are VERY lucky to have a breastfed baby sleeping as well as she does. What can we say - she's perfect!

We Love Sleep

What a good little sleeper we have! After 8 hours Tuesday night Carina gave us 7 straight hours Wednesday night and then 6 straight hours last night. I think we can say she's sleeping through the night pretty regularly! It's awesome.

Not much else to report. We saw some real smiles this week and Carina played with a wrist rattle and her activity gym/mat for the first time this week. We're slowly moving from newborn to stage 1 diapers. I think she'll soon fit into them pretty well. Our little girl is growing up!

So Big!

Carina is 6 weeks old today. I can't believe it! We had her to the pediatrician for her one month check up on Friday. She was so happy and content despite her raging hiccups. She weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce (until she peed all over the scale anyway - then maybe a few ounces less) and measured 19 inches. That puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and below the charts for length, haha. The Dr. said she's a little peanut. Because her weight gain was so spectacular we've decided to let her go as long as she wants between feedings overnight. She slept one 7 hour stretch over the weekend but her diaper didn't last as long as she did unfortunately.

We had friends from Pittsburgh and their nearly 3 year old daughter stay with us over the weekend. We hadn't seen them since last Fall so it was really nice to visit with them. We had a family picnic Saturday and they had a wedding so we didn't see a whole lot of them but it was still neat to have them around. Our family picnic went well. Carina does great in the car (it was about an hour away) and she was good about being passed around to everyone. We got a little break so that was nice too.

Sunday we took Carina to church for the first time. She slept through most of Sunday school and church and didn't even need to be fed till we got home. What a convenient kid! Our Sunday school girls were very excited to meet her.

Yesterday I took Carina to visit Peter at work. His co-workers have been dying to see her. We plan to take her to visit my co-workers next week. Last night I went to a Pampered Chef party and left Peter on daddy duty. Unfortunately Carina was pretty fussy before I even left so it was a frustrating evening for everyone involved. Still - everybody survived and Carina even slept 8 hours last night. She would have slept longer but we were worried about another leaky diaper so we woke her, fed her and now she's sleeping again.

So all in all we're doing alright! She's growing so fast and we're loving every minute of it.

Happy 4th!

Only 4 days late. We had a long, busy weekend. Peter's parents stayed with us Thursday through Sunday. Saturday we had my parents here too for a picnic! We broke in the new grill and made some burgers. The rest of the menu included pasta salad, corn souffle, deviled eggs, chips, grape pie, cherry pie and peanut butter striped delight. I had a fun time planning the picnic and hopefully Peter learned a thing or two about grilling from our dads. I can't wait for Peter to make kabobs some night.

Carina is now one month old! I really can't believe it. She's exactly 5 weeks old today. She's growing so fast - it's amazing. She loves to look around and take everything in. We still have her on a fairly strict schedule. Feedings every 3 hours during the day and then overnight she sleeps one 5 hour stretch, eats and then sleeps another 4 hour stretch. It's heavenly to get so much sleep and we really are blessed to have a baby that likes to follow a schedule, haha. She must be mine. We have a pedi appt Friday and at that time if we are told that she no longer needs to keep to a schedule and can eat on demand (meaning less often) then we'll do that. Should be interesting!