2+ months worth of pics & updates

I'm sure you can tell by my lack of posts that things have been crazy busy around here. Here are highlights from the last 2+ months:

- Carrigan & I went to my cousin Rachel's wedding on July 10th. It was such an awesome time for such an amazing couple. We hitched a ride to MD/PA with my parents and had quite a roadtrip. We stayed a B&B near Williamsport PA owned by friends of my Uncle Sam & Aunt Karen. We got to see my Aunt Denise, Uncle Pat & cousin Danielle in Hagerstown as well as visit with folks from my dad's side of the family in town for the wedding. Carrigan got to meet her Greatgrandma & Greatgrandpa Meroney. How special!
- The week after the wedding we ventured to Carolina Beach for 3 nights. My parents came down a day after we did. It was hectic & hot, but alot of fun. Carrigan decided to quit sleeping so well through the night, but she gradually got back to some semblence of a routine the week before I went back to work.
- Speaking of, I went back to work on July 26th. It was nice to see everyone from work, but let's just say a 12 week backlog of work was a shock to the system. My first week back was made easier by my mom staying with us. She watched Carrigan & cooked all of our meals. What a blessing. I have an awesome mom, and everyone knows it.
- Carrigan started rolling from her back to her tummy on Friday July 30th. We weren't expecting this milestone to come so soon. It scared mommy a bit at first, and we even had to get a dr's note so they could let her flip to her tummy and sleep that way at school. What a big girl!
- Carrigan's first day at daycare was August 2nd. She's attending a different school than Brady for right now. We had a few bumps in the road since I'm a Mamma Bear who wants everything perfect, but so far, so good.
- A wonderful summer cold (snicker inserted here) passed through our home & is still passing through. It started with Brady who had a cough for about 2 weeks, hit Carrigan with a stuffy nose and watery eyes, made it's way to Rocky who ended up on steroids & breathing treatments, and ended with me who just got a stuff nose & a small cough. Carrigan eye's were so watery her teacher thought she may have had pink eye. After an unsuccessful trip at 7 pm to Minute Clinic who failed to tell me on the phone when I called that patients must be atleast 18 months of age, we made our way to a Duke Urgent Care and finally got home around 9 pm. It reminds me yet again how thankful we need to be for our generally good health.
- Yesterday, Carrigan had her 4 month check-up, and Brady had his 3 year (sniffle sniffle) check-up. Brady weighed in at 37 lbs & is 38 inches tall. The nurse declared, "he's gonna be a tall one!". Carrigan weight in at 14 lbs 3 oz & 25 inches long. Funny thing is, I looked back at an online growth chart I keep for Brady, and at 4 months he was the exact same length & only 1 oz more than Carrigan. Somehow, I just don't remember him having the rolley polley belly and things like she has. Carrigan did great with her 2 vaccines & Brady was a champ with his finger stick, eye exam, and his first ever "pee in cup". 2 healthy kids makes for a very happy mommy & daddy. In the past week or two, Carrigan has also started scooting around combining multiple rolls with an inchworm motion to make her way around the bed or floor. So big!

So that's the long & the short of it. I want to get back to more regular blogging. Brady says funny & sweet things to me every day that I need to write down so I don't too soon forget. His latest is telling me every night while I'm tucking in him and rubbing his back that he thinks my hair is pretty. However, before today's nap, he said me liked my hair, my shirt, my necklace, but that he really liked my teeth more than my nose. :) It's been a fun albeit tiring past couple of months, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

3 Weeks Worth of Updates

The time just keeps flying by. Carrigan will be 2 months old next week! She seems to grow overnight sometimes. She's smiling alot lately which you'll see in the pics below. The one of her in the pink onesie is actually the first time I caught her giving me a "real smile" (versus the gas/sleep inducded kind) on camera. As far as her sleeping habits go, this past week she has been sleeping around 9 hours at night in 2 chunks. The first chunk has been around 6 hours, but Wednesday night she slept 7 hours + 2 more hours and last night she slept 7.5 hours straight (although it took her 2 hours to go back to sleep versus the usual routine of nursing and going right back to sleep)! Some days she seems to stick to a sort of schedule, especially in the earlier parts of the day where she'll be up about 1.5 hours followed by a 1.5 hour nap, but days like today she was up for 1 hour, slept for only 30 minutes, nursed, and wanted to nurse again only an hour after starting the last nursing session. Brady seemed to want to nurse constantly while I was on maternity leave, so I've been spoiled by Carrigan going every 3ish hours during the day. It's much easier to bathe, eat, etc when you're not a human pacifier! :) I know these harder days have been few & far between, and that she'll be Brady's age before I know it. I also know that once I go back to work I'll miss getting to nurse her during the day, so I really do try to keep it all in perspective.

Brady is doing great & has made serious strides in potty training. We started giving him one M&M every time he peed in the potty over the weekend. Brady, being the smart young man that he is, decided he should then try to pee a little every few minutes. Hmm. We had to help him understand that it's better not to strain, but rather to go when he feels he needs to go. He's had a few days this week with no accidents in his big boy undies all day at school. The Marvel comic & Disney Pixar undies have been a big hit with Brady & he's excited to get to wear them. As to be expected, there have been accidents (read- pee in the chair at the kitchen table, at school, in his playroom & often in the bathroom on the way to the potty), but we keep encouraging him. He's also really enjoying the summer. Every Wednesday they have Splash Day at his daycare where the kids can run through sprinklers, use watering cans, and splash around. They also have Bike Rally Day on Thursdays (which they do all year) & he's also been a big fan of getting in the pool be it at Grammie & Papa's or in our neighborhood. We are planning a trip for some time in July, most likely to the beach. It's hard to plan a trip now with 2 kids in the summer since we have to be careful keeping the kids out of the crazy hot heat. We can't really cram into a hotel room since there's no point of us all waking each other up due to our variety of sleep schedules. I think we'll end up renting a condo for a few nights. Even though it's been since last May, Brady saw his bucket & shovel in the garage last week and said, "Daddy, we got that for me at the beach." What a good memory he has! He has since been asking about going to the beach and playing in the sand. I hope we get to go because there is nothing I love more than seeing my kids smiling and having a great time.

3 weeks ago, we went to High Point and Carrigan got to meet her Uncle Bobby, Auntie Shaunda and cousin Tanner. One of the pics below if of the three cousins together. So cute! I'm sure they'll have many good times together in the future. Nothing else new to report from the last couple of weeks. We're just continuing to enjoy being a family of four although it definitely has many challenging, stressful, and sleep deprived moments. It's been awesome seeing Rocky with a newborn again & he continues to impress me every day with how good he is with the kids. It's all a balancing act now, and we know it will get easier over time.

1 Month Come & Gone & 5 Years of Love

I can't believe Carrigan is 1 month old today. She went for her check-up and all is well. Her weight is now 9 lbs 10 ounces & she's 21.75 inches long. In the dr's words "she's perfect" and told me to keep doing what I've been doing. Brady gained 11 ounces the first month of life & she's gained 18 ounces, so I'm hoping that means I have a better milk supply this time. Rocky & I are so happy that she's doing well. What more could we ask for? The pics of her are from the last week and the last two are of her today. I think in the one of her & me she's thinking- quit taking my picture mom! Brady is also doing great. We're hoping his interest in going potty will pick up soon, and he really enjoyed wearing his big-boy undies for an hour last night. He was going potty fairly consistently right before Carrigan was born, but has regressed which is to be expected. He continues to try a few times a day at school, and we ask him often at home about going. He seems excited to wear undies, and he'll tell us that he's already gone potty, but we want him to tell us before he goes and then the undies are all his! The pictures of him below are from Memorial Day. Rocky had bought him a slip-n-slide pool. Brady wasn't so sure about it at first. He'd slide down & hop out but after a few minutes he was very excited about it. I'm sure we'll get alot of use out of it this summer & I'm pretty sure it will be worth more fun that the wopping $25 it cost.
We're planning on going to visit my parents in High Point this weekend as they'll be returning from Jamaica tomorrow. Auntie Shaunda, Uncle Bobby & Tanner will also get to meet Carrigan for the first time. Brady will likely get some pool time & I'm looking forward to seeing the family and enjoying what is sure to be a tasty meal of some sort. I'll have some pics to share next week.

Last for certainly not least- Rocky & I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary last Friday. Wow! I cannot believe half a decade has gone by since we said "I do." We spent most of the day in Fayetteville where we went to pick up my new car. I am now the happy owner of a 2011 Toyota Camry. We got an awesome deal on it making the trip to Fayetteville worth it. Carrigan was a trooper and was agreeable most of the 6.5 hour it took to go there, get the car, and come back. Brady's been asking where mommy's other car is & I explain to him that we got a new car to give us more room. I couldn't get the stroller in & out of the Saturn, and I could barely fit my hand behind Carrigan's carseat making it very difficult to get the seat out. While it's not so fun to have a second car payment, we managed to put about half down on the Camry & Rocky has since re-financed the Highlander to over 1% interest rate lower. Nice one hunny! Now if I could only get a raise at work so I could bring home more than $100 after paying for daycare. I won't hold my breath.

Time Flies

Wow- time flies when you've got a newborn in the house. I can't believe Carrigan will be a month old next week. She's doing great so far. She's slow to gain weight, but Brady was exactly the same way & he's turned out to be quite the sturdy 2 year old so I'm not so worried. At her 1 week visit on 5/11 she weighed 7 lbs 14 ounces which was only 1 ounce gained from 4 days prior. However, right before her weigh in while I was stripped her down to her birthday suit she had quite the poopy. As I was taking her diaper off, I heard some tuties going on so I held off for a second until it sounded like she was done. However, once I'd removed the diaper, she proceeded to commence pooping which shot all over my right arm, up her leg, on her arm, and all over the exam table. Whew! I can't tell you the last time I laughed that hard. Rocky & my mom were there and got a good chuckle out of it too. So realistically, she may have peed & pooped out 3 ounces so her 4 day weight gain wasn't so bad. They still suggested I bring her back 3 days later for another weight check. The NP we saw that day is also a lactation consultant. She said it may be possible that Carrigan wasn't emptying my boobies enough so I could pump after a feed to see if she's leaving too much. I could also try pumping before a feed to remove some foremilk (watery milk for hydration) forcing Carrigan to get to the hindmilk (fattening milk) before she quits her feed, and this hindmilk will help her gain weight. I pumped after a feed later that day, and there was only .25 ounces total left so I think she usually empties them pretty well. What I do now is after a midday feed, I wait 2 hours and pump for about 10 minutes. This gives about another hour before her next feed and has allowed me to freeze milk for her to have once I go back to work to supplement what I pump at work if need be. Friday 5/14 she weighed 8 lbs even so she had gained 2 ounces in 3 days. The nurse practioner recommened another follow-up in 1 week, but I decided just to monitor her weight at home using our scale. She goes back for her 1 month check-up on June 3rd, so we''ll see what her official weight is then. Brady only gained 11 ounces the first month, and the pediatrician wasn't concerned and didn't suggest supplementing with formula so I'm thinking all will be well even if she's just over 9 lbs.
As far as nursing goes, she's definitely alot more laid back than Brady. He would nurse vigorously for about 45 minutes total every time he nursed at this age. Other than her first 2 feedings of the day which are more spaced out, she pretty much wants to only nurse about 5-10 minutes on each side before dosing off. I have to really keep her agitated to make sure she doesn't fall asleep before atleast 15 minutes on the first side. The longer she nurses the more hindmilk she gets which was another thing the NP/LC suggested. Her first 2 feedings of the day I try to get her to nurse 20 minutes per side. The other feedings of the day (about 5 more feedings most days), I try to get her to do atleast 15 minutes on the first side and atleast 10 minutes on the second side but of course she can nurse longer if she likes.
I think overall, Brady has always been a great sleeper. As a newborn, he just wouldn't nap well during the day. Once we were up for the day, we were up. Carrigan has managed to sleep better than him at this age so I'm much better rested as well. For example- her routine is roughly asleep at 10:30, up to nurse at 3:30, back to sleep from 4:30-8:00, nurse & back to sleep by 9:00, and asleep again until 11-12. Crazy I know! I get 8.5-10 hours of sleep each night in about 3 chunks which has been awesome. During the day, I try to make sure she doesn't sleep too much but I also don't want her to get overtired by not napping. I've been keeping a sleep log which helps me know if she's slept too much early in the day so I can try to keep her up more in the afternoon. She's usually up about 10 hours a day which apparently is still more than the average 6-8 hours I've read that most newborns are awake. She's not a fussy baby so I'm thinking she's sleeping as much as she needs. Who knows if she'll continue to be as good of a sleeper as Brady (he was sleeping 10-5 by 7 weeks), but I'm definitely feeling pretty well rested so I can't complain.
Brady continues to excel as being a big brother. He wants to touch her & kiss her and talk to her alot. The first time I brought Carrigan to his school, naturally the other children were curious. They approached her car seat and Brady had alot to say about that "No touching. She's my baby sister. You can't have her!" Wow! Protective big brother for sure. We talked about sharing and how they are interested in babies. 2 kids in his class have siblings on the way, so we talked about how they're excited to learn about babies to get ready for them. I feel that overall he's adjusted pretty well. I've taken him & Carrigan to Chick-fila the past 2 Tuesdays which was part of our routine while I was pregnant. I've also taken them both to Barnes & Noble a few times which Brady really enjoys. Rocky gets Brady ready for school on his own since I'm usually sleeping or feeding Carrigan, and he also takes care of him on the weekend mornings while I sleep. Bathtime for Brady is usually left to Rocky as well since I'm generally feeding baby girl then. Overall, I think Brady is doing great, and I can't wait to see them be able to play together once she gets older.

Here are some pics from the past few weeks. She's been able to meet Rocky's dad and stepmom and a few of my friends as well. I also included a picture of her first bath at home along with some cute pics of her & Brady. You can see how much he loves her & it was so sweet to see him "reading to her".