Two months old!

This past month has flown by and I cannot believe that I have been back to work for four weeks. It has gone really well, mostly thanks to my mom. We are so lucky to have her and it makes it much easier to leave knowing that Caroline is in good loving hands. Pumping is still going great, so our first major obstacle with breastfeeding has been conquered. This past month Caroline has gotten really good control of her head and she is much more vocal, cooing, laughing and squealing for us. We are so lucky that she is a pretty good sleeper. We put her down at night, drowsy but awake, turn her mobile on and she is out within a couple of minutes. She gets up once to eat between 1-3 a.m. and immediately goes back to sleep until our alarms go off. She is so sweet in the morning, all smiles and laughs. We are so thankful everyday that God gave us such a wonderful blessing!

She had her two month appointment on Friday and she was a trooper. She weighed 13 lbs, 2 oz and was 24 inches long. Last time she was in her head was small in the 10% range. When they charted it this time, it wasn't even on the map. So all the bad stuff starts going through my mind. They remeasure it, about the same. Go to recheck the charting and it had been done on 4 months instead of two months...phew! She is now in the 25% for head and the 95% for weight and length! We have a big growing girl! She had to get three shots and an oral immunization. She took the oral just fine, smiling at the nurses. When she got the shots, she was quiet for a second and then turned red and started screaming bloody murder. Big tears came pouring out, I got a little misty too! She cried for about a minute and then was better. She basically slept the next 24 hours, just getting up to eat and was not really awake for longer than 30 minutes until this evening. Now she is sitting in my lap and laughing and cooing and a little bit ago we read for books, so she seems to be doing better!

Going back to work

I went back to work on the 1st and it has been going really well. I cried a little the night before, but since then I haven't cried! I was extremely stressed about the whole situation-leaving Caroline, pumping at work, the fact that I have been off for two months and feeling rusty , but it has gone so smooth! I am on Family Medicine at OSU and everyone has been wonderful. I feel like everything medical has come back to me really fast and I haven't felt rusty at all. All the attendings and residents have been so understanding and encouraging about pumping during the day. They allowed me use of an empty office. So far it is going far better than I could imagine. Caroline is eating between 9-13 oz during the day while I am gone and I am pumping between 17-23 oz at work, so I have been able to freeze a bunch too. I had a pretty decent stash stocked up (about 60 oz), but we haven't had to touch it! She is doing great with my mom and we are so so so thankful she is staying with us. It has made the process so much easier to leave her with someone we trust and love and know has Caroline's best interests at heart. Plus I am on the rotation with Julie, one of my best friends, so that is so fun!

When we got back from Florida, our garden was in full bloom. Two years ago we made the garden and planted a bunch of plants that would come back and added a smaller garden for summer flowers the next year. The first year our easter lilies had about 9 flowers per plant and were maybe a foot and a half tall. Last year the biggest had around 50. This year the biggest has over 100 flowers on the plant and stand about waist high. It is really impressive and I will put pictures up for comparison.

Our little Caroline is growing fast! When I scientifically (NOT!) weighed her she is weighing about 11 pounds! She has her two month appt on the 26th, so we will see then. She has gained so much more head control and is smiling all the time now. She truly melts my heart when I go to get her out of her crib and she grins from ear to ear. She has been sleeping wonderfully too, only getting up once during the night to feed! This has been a huge help, especially since I had to go back to work. Mike's job is still going great and we feel like we have been blessed in everything that we have!

Florida

We left for Florida on May 23rd. It was a little bittersweet for me because it was my last week of maternity leave, but we had a fabulous time! We drove there in two days and made it back in one. Caroline was such a trooper. She would sleep for 2-3 hours and then wake up to feed and change her diaper and we tried to coordinate that with gas or food stops. We were planning on stopping in Memphis on the way back, but each time we got to a major city she was doing so well, we just kept on going! We got back around 11:00 p.m. on Sat and were so glad to have Sun to relax and unpack.

We had a horseshoe tournament that we had to dress up for and it was hilarious! Mike and I were Dog and Beth from Dog the bounty hunter, mom was a gangsta, alix was a cave girl, dad was mr. miss-match, tyler was a hillbilly and evan was a revolutionary soldier. Evan's costume was very impressive, but a little too hot for the florida heat! Mr. miss-match faced Dog in the finals and mr. miss-match came away with the win. It was so funny, especially when Dog "arrested" the hillbilly on the side of the road and the soldier and cave girl went for a walk. People probably thought we were crazy!

We all really enjoyed relaxing on the beach and balcony, fishing, swimming, playing poker and spending time together. Caroline loved being spoiled by everyone!

Alix graduation

Alix graduated high school (woo hoo!) on May 22nd. This was our first overnight outing, plus we were leaving for Florida the next day and I had no idea what to pack, so I packed it all! Luckily we have Mike's nice new truck with a wonderful bed topper so there was room for me to be an over-packer. Caroline did great at the graduation-she slept the whole way through it. Literally. Through the loud band, reading of speeches, ruckus around us-she did not make a peep. There were crying babies around us and she slept like an angel! She got to wear her fancy dress Alix had got her and looked beautiful!