Leotards, Backpacks, and Zantac

On Monday, Cate turned 7 weeks.  Not much to report on her.  She's smiling a little more.  She's eating well and sleeping well.  We had to switch her bottles because the kind we were using were starting to make her fussy.  Who knows why!  She started Zantac last week for reflux too.  We went to Emma's 3 year check up (For the record, she weighed in at 29 pounds, was 37 1/2 inches tall and got a great report!) While were there I was telling the nurse about Cate's symptoms - lots of spitting up, fussiness during a feeding, frequent hiccups, a little cough without a cold, grunting, arching her back, etc. - and that I supected reflux.  She tried to suggest that perhaps I was feeding her too much which was confusing because 2 weeks ago, the doctor told me that she knows that she needs, feed her when she's hungry, let her take as much as she wants, you can't over feed a baby.  Blah blah blah ... When I explained that I was only feeding her when she was hungry and even sometimes didn't give her more when I suspected what was in her bottle wasn't enough and that Emma had reflux too (This isn't my first rodeo!), she told me to tell the doctor and that she thought he would probably prescribe Zantac.  So he did and she's doing much better!  In spite of her reflux, she's still an easy baby. 

Grandma Helen saw this bathing suit and couldn't resist.  Who could?

We did wear it to a friend's house for a pool day, but Cate did not like it when I dipped her toes in the water.

It's nice to have a healthy easy baby, but at this age, it doesn't allow for a lot of exciting blog posts.  Not that I would trade it for the world!

On Tuesday, I went to Parent Orientation Night at school.  How strange to be a parent instead of the teacher!  Emma's teachers are very sweet and her classroom is adorable.  As soon as I walked in, I saw a sand table (minus the sand) set up with a Smurf scene.  We took Emma to see the Smurfs movie before J left and she loved it! I couldn't wait until she saw the Smurfy cute set up at school!

On Wednesday, Emma started dance and gymnastics.  White ballet shoes, pink leotard, and her friend Teodora.  So cute!  Teodora's parents and I watched the class, laughing the whole time.  Teodora was quite serious, followed every word the teacher said and was in heaven!  Emma was hamming it up, watching her reflection in the mirror more than she was following along.  We were joking that she would be the first 3 year old asked to wear a blind fold in ballet class to keep her from looking at her reflection.  She even kissed the mirror at one point.  Her teachers were very patient, but I wouldn't be surprised if they wished we hadn't walked through their door!

Today was Emma's first day of school!  Oh how excited she was! She wore a pretty new dress, carried her special school bag that her teacher gave her, and could hardly even wait to walk into the classroom.   We even found out that one of the other girls in her ballet class is also in her class at school.  Ballet class might have been Teodora's heaven, but Mrs. Madden's classroom is certainly Emma's! I can't wait to see what this year brings for her at school.

Jeremy has been Diego for about a week now.  He hasn't been able to see much of the island as he is very busy learning the ropes.  Upon his arrival, he pinned on 'Commander' along with the guy who he relieved.  They celebrated with a traditional 'wetting down', but that was about the last bit of fun and relxacation he's had.  He's very busy and says he's a bit overwhelmed, but I'm hoping that once he settles in, he'll be able to enjoy himself a little more.  We miss him tremendously, of course. Emma is starting to realize that Daddy isn't coming back when she thought he might, but she still doesn't quite get it. At least 20 times a day, she tells anyone that will listen that when Daddy comes back he is going to take her to 'Africa'.  To her, Africa is the Animal Kingdom Lodge in Disney World, but we don't have plans to go to either Africa anytime soon.  I'm hoping that as she starts getting busier with school, dance and play dates, she will focus less on missing Dadddy and her travel plans.

So it's been a busy week, but we are all doing well!  Tomorrow we are headed to the Scottish Highland Games in Ligoneer if the weather cooperates.  Hopefully we'll have some great pictures to share.

A Year Starts Now

Yesterday (Monday), Jeremy left for Diego Garcia.  Dropping him off at the airport was surreal.  I can't really wrap my head around him really being gone for so long.  If I have this much trouble understanding it, I can't imagine how Emma feels.  Maybe that's good thing though. If she doesn't understand how far away he is and how long he'll be gone, maybe it will be easier for her to enjoy each day. If I don't think about it, I'm fine, so I'm just going to take one day at a time. So far so good! 

I miss him already.  He hasn't landed yet and doesn't have an international cell phone anyway, so I don't know when I will hear from him.  I don't like not knowing where he is.  I know his plane should land in Hong Kong soon though. Then he goes to Singapore and finally Diego.

So the time is here.  The anticipation has been building.  We haven't wanted to get to this point, but we are happy to get started so we can get to the end.  On the other hand, we have a lot of great things to look forward to in between, so we're going to make the best of it.  A year starts .... now!

4 Weeks ... 1 Month ... 5 weeks

So I've been bad about keeping up with the blog.  We went away this past week and were packing for the trip before that.  Anyway, I missed a few milestones a long the way.  Since we hit the 6 week mark tomorrow, the same day Jeremy leaves, I'll just give a brief(-ish) summary in pictures.

Ok, when she was 3 1/2 weeks...

Emma got to really hold her for the first time ... with the help of the Boppy pillow, of course.  Emma is a super big sister and loves her sister SOOOOO much!  Later that day, she had her first trip to the zoo.

She also went a showcase of the new season of Pittsburgh Musical Theatre at the Overlook which over looks (imagine that) Downtown Pittsburgh.

Uncle Andrew went too!

By 4 weeks ...

She was so into the musical theatre performance at the Overlook that
she decided to give costumes and performing a try. 

Okay, really Emma (and maybe me) thought it was funny to put Woody's (from Toy Story) hat on Cate.

4 weeks and fresh out of a bath

 A few days later, when she turned 1 month, we went to the doctor.  Our little peanut weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz and was 21 1/4 inches long.  That's a gain of 2 lbs 1 oz and 1 inch since birth.  The amzing thing to me is that the day I was born, I weighed 9 lbs 4 oz and was 22 inches long.  I can't imagine having a baby that big at birth.  Cate seems so big to me these days.  Anyway, her legs aren't so baggy anymore.  Neither are her arms.  She's definitle filling out.  She's growing a little faster than Emma who was 9 lbs + around 6 weeks.  If you consider gestational age though, that's about the same as 1 month for Cate.  She is a pretty big eater, taking up to 6 1/2 ounces at some feedings.  She also is a great sleeper though and has slept through the night a few times - 10:00 to 5:00 being her longest stretch I think.  It's not consitent, but if we get the rest of the day right, we usually get at least a 5 hour stretch a night. 

Cate's hair seems to be getting longer. 
When her hair gets to oily (which is usually the day after a bath) we can style it in a mohawk!

One day we picked Emma up at Children's Corner, took a walk into town to pick up some lunch,
 and then went to the park for a picnic.

Trying to be a little bit artsy with pictures of my girls.
Everything looks more impressive in Black and White or Sepia.

Sweet sisters.

These were taken on August 18th.  Exactly one month old. 
The onsies are made by CoCo's Kids - a company run by two sisters that I've know forever.  A portion of their profits go to lymphoma research which their youngest sister was diagnosed with a few years ago.  Their mother sent me a set of these adorable shirts! Thank you, Mrs. Orsini!

We also took a road trip to Connecticut to visit Jeremy's side of the family.
Here's Grandma Helen with her girls! (More on this tip later this week)

 At 5 weeks ... while still on our road trip ...

The day she turned 5 weeks, we took a trip from CT to Dover to visit some friends.  At Joanna's house, we were able to catch one of her first smiles on camera!
She actually started smiling a few days earlier, but she was super smiley that day!



On our last day in CT, we tried out matching skirts on the girls.  So cute! We also went to Judd Farm that day to see Helen's sister Peggy and her husband Fred.  It was Emma and Cate's first time meeting the Judd's.  Emma loved the farm (where they run a summer camp), most especially, the horses and low ropes course.

So tomorrow is THE day.  Cate turns 6 weeks, I go to my post-partum check-up and Daddy heads out to Diego Garcia.  The mood is strange today.  We feel like we need to squeeze in as much family time as we can.  At the same time, it's hard to believe he's really leaving so it sort of just feels like a normal day.  I'm sure tonight it will be hard to go to sleep knowing that we have to be up and ready in the morning to take him to the airport. Not knowing when we will see him in person again.  Not knowing how old Cate will be the next time he sees her.  Not knowing exactly how to navigate this situation in order to keep him from missing out too much on major milestones and so that Cate knows exactly who Daddy is when he comes home again.  (sigh)  I'll worry about that tomorrow...



3 Weeks

So the other night it dawned on me ... I should still be pregnant.  Holy mackerel, I should still be pregnant!! Well, that is until today at least.  Today is my due date so theoretically I should be having a baby today.  It was only 3 weeks ago that I was still pregnant.  I'm sure if I'd stayed pregnant, it wouldn't seem that long, but I feel like Cate has been with us forever.  It's just really hard to imagine that I could or should still be pregnant.  Thank goodness I'm not!  So Happy Due Date/Happy 3 Week Birthday to Cate!

Not quite 3 weeks in this picture.  This was taken on Friday wearing a special new outfit for Daddy.

Instead of having a baby today, Jeremy and I took both of our babies to Build-A-Bear Workshop to build some very special cuddly friends for the girls.  If you haven't been to Build-A-Bear,you make your own stuffed animal.  We went because you can add a recorded message inside the animal.  Jeremy recorded a message for each of the girls so that they can hear his voice whenever they want while he's away.

You start by choosing an unstuffed stuffed animal.  Then you pick a heart, kiss it, wish on it, and put it on your heart to give it a little extra love. 

Giving some love to the hearts she chose for each of their new friends.

The heart is then put inside the animal, after which the child pushes a pedal while the BAB employee controls the nozzle to stuff the bear.  If you choose to add a sound box, it is also added to the animal.  Once the child has given it a hug to make sure it feels just the right amount of cuddly, it's sewn up. 

Giving her bunny a heart

Adding the stuffing

Off you go to give your new buddy a 'bath' and pick out clothes.

Giving her bunny and Cate's bear a bath

Introducing Emma's new bunny 'Phillipe'.  (Yes, Emma picked the name.)
Not sure if you can really tell, but he's wearing a naval officers uniform.

We also picked another outfit for Phillipe that resembles something Daddy would wear.

Emma made Cate a teddy bear that she names 'Bearink' (Huh???? Yeah, I have no idea where the name came from either.) It's a girl bear and she is dressed in a pink onesie, a little baby beanie and some bunny slippers.  A baby bear for the baby girl.  Cate was VERY excited about her visit to Build-A-Bear! (Note the sarcasm.)

It's really a pretty ingenious store.  Not only to they manage to collect a pretty penny from Mommy and Daddy's wallet without you realizing until it's too late, they provide a very cool experience for the little ones.  We even made 'birth certificates' and put our new animals in a 'house'.  So cute! 

Taking Phillipe home in his 'house'.

So I guess in away we did welcome a new baby - or two - into our family today!

4:15 AM

It's 4:15 in the morning.  I should be asleep, but I just fed Cate and I'm kinda of wide awake.  Okay maybe not WIDE awake, but I'm not falling asleep sitting up like I often am during one of Cate's late night/early morning feedings.  I just finished watching last night's episode of Big Brother, Cate and Emma are both asleep, and, eventhough I should be taking advantage of my time to sleep, I can't help wanting a little time to do what I want since it's hard to do during the day.  It's my constant struggle - sleep or catch up on computer/TV.

Anyway, I don't have a lot to say tonight ... er, this morning.   I did take some cute pictures of my little ones so I thought I'd share.  I'm trying to be better at documenting Cate's life - for her to look back on in the future and for the family and friends who are far away and don't get to see her. So here you go ...


The first batch are from the hospital.  They have professional photographers - Bella Baby Photography - that come in your room for a newborn photoshoot and then you can buy what you want.  We chose to buy the CD so we could have printing rights for all the pictures.  I feel bad that we didn't have these with Emma.

The rest are just ones I took at home ... obviously.

Starting to be more alert and awake

Okay ... so this one isn't Cate, but I just had to show it off.  Emma wrote her name ALL BY HERSELF!!  So the A is sideways and the E has a few too many horizontal lines, but she's barely 3! She wrote this with her left hand though.  How does a righty teach a lefty to write?

Big girl, little girl

Baby kisses

Prima ballerinas?

Cate's first real outfit ...  well,first seperates anyway.  This outfit is 'Newborn' and the waist is still huge! I think they are supposed to be leggings too, but they are a little baggy.  So cute though!
 She's been eating like a little piggy, so I'm happy to see she isn't growing TOO fast.

Enjoying the Boppy chair 'al fresco'.
You can see her thighs are filling out a little, but they still have a bit of a sharpay look. 
Still wearing Newborn size diapers too.

Hope you enjoyed!

2 Weeks!

Time keeps going faster.  Cate is now 2 weeks (and 1 day by the time I post this) old.  It seems like just yesterday that she was born, but at the same time, since I waited so long to bring Emma home, I can't believe I've had her home for so long.  It's still weird to think that she has only been with us for 15 days!  Okay, now I'm confusing myself about whether it seems like a long time or a short time.  Maybe it's the sleep deprivation.

Ahh, sleep.  Something Cate has a lot of and I have little of.  It could be worse really.  She eats every 4 hours and I know many babies eat much more frequently, but she likes to sleep all day.  I mean ALL DAY! We went to a birthday party for one of Emma's friends the other day.  I think we were there for about 3 or 4 hours.  No one saw her awake the whole time!  Anyway, she does have a wakeful period or two each day, but often it's at night, like last night.  We were up from 1:45 to 4.  Fun times!  She doesn't seem to understand that I can't sleep all day like she can.  I am grateful for the fact that Emma sleeps really well and I can get both girls to nap at the same time in the afternoon.  What to do with that 2 or 3 hours though?  I should sleep, right?  Except, I also don't have any other time of the day that is just mine.  So I usually catch up on chores, reading, e-mail, TV.  By the end of the nap time, everyone has napped but me.  Oh well, I think mother's were built to run on very little sleep.

Can you tell who is who?  Both pictures are taken at 2 weeks ... Emma thought they were both Cate!

Emma at 2 weeks

Cate at 2 weeks

We are settling in a routine sort of.  Since Cate is so portable, it's pretty easy.  She either sleeps in her Boppy chair, or her car seat, or my arms, or her pack n play. Pretty much wherever I need her to.  As long as I have clean diapers and a bottle, we're set.  Of course, having Grandama and Grandpa around to watch her when I run Emma down the hill to camp or when I think I might cry and just really need to go to Starbucks ... ALONE, is more than a blessing.  It makes my life much easier.

 Cate taking one of her MANY naps
My swaddling has much improved since Emma was a baby.  Cate taking one of her MANY naps

Thankfully, I am feeling great! Okay, this is my moment to brag ... I lost all the baby weight already! At 12 days post partum, I was at my pre-pregnancy weight and wearing regular jeans!  I still have work to do to get my body in shape, but I'm pretty pleased with myself.  I wouldn't normally brag, but weight loss is one of my biggest struggles.  I didn't really lose all the baby weight after Emma until this past Fall.  Just in time to get pregnant again.  This is one time in my life that I am happy with my weight ( at least, considering this circumstances.) Okay, bragging over.  I really do feel a million times better though.  I don't think I realized how awful I felt.  I sort of wondered if maybe I always felt slightly crappy and that not much would change once I was no longer pregnant.  Not the case though!  My family members have all noticed how much better I feel and have also told me I look much better than I did a few weeks ago! Thank goodness for that!  It's so nice when people ask me how I'm feeling and I can honestly say, 'I feel great!'

The last photo of me pregnant ... 36 weeks maybe?

This was about 12 days post partum ... still a little tummy, but not much! (Plus some of it is just me, not pregnancy related.)

Emma is doing very well as a big sister!  She wants to do everything with and for Cate.  Sometimes that is a challenge for me, but I'd much rather have it that way than have her mad at Cate for existing.  She is challenging me a little bit, but I think that is to be expected and I think it has more to do with being 3 than it does with Cate's arrival.

Enjoying some Cate-free time with Mommy

We are all excited that Jeremy arrives back in town on Friday and will spend the rest of the month with us! I can't wait to see if he thinks Cate has changed.  I feel bad that I haven't done a better job of posting or sending him new pictures of her over the last 10 days or so. I've fallen in that trap though that I've heard so many second time parents fall into.  You take 1,000 pictures in the first weeks of your first child, but with the second child, you are so wrapped up in the day to day duties of life and caring for your children, that you can't sit and adore them all day like you did with the first.  Consequently, not nearly as many pictures are taken of #2. Anyway,  Jeremy's trip home is bittersweet.  We can't wait to have him here, but it also means that we are that much closer to his real departure.  At least for the last few months, he's been able to come home on weekends frequently.  We have been able to talk to him several times a day if we wanted to and we've known when we will see him next.  This will be different. When he leaves, we won't know when we'll see him again.  We won't know how often we can talk to him.  We won't know if we can even Skype.  I know we'll all be fine, but I won't be wishing this month away at all.  I am so grateful that I delivered Cate early so that the 4 of us can do lots of fun stuff together instead of me spending the time recovering from child birth.

I'm curious to see what this week will bring for us and how Cate will change!

One Week!

Trying out her crib for the first time.  She hasn't slept in it, but I did put her in it for a few minutes the other day.  She really loves to stretch her legs and often has them sticking straight out like this. It explains a lot of the uncomfortable kicks and jabs in utero.

I know I will say this a million times in the next year or so, but ... I can't believe it's been a week! On the one hand, it seems like it was just yesterday that Cate was born.  One week ago at this time, they were just about to start pitocin. Cate still seems so new.  I'm still getting to know her.  On the other hand, so much has happened in a week.  Cate was born.  Jeremy made a mad dash from Virginia to Pittsburgh.  We spent two days in the hospital.  We brought her home and got used to caring for her and for Emma at the same time.  We've had visitors.  Jeremy went back to Virginia. It's been kind of a whirlwind week.  And as new as she is, and I know this is cliche, it's hard to imagine life without her. Not impossible since it was just last week that I had only one beautiful daughter instead of two, but difficult.  She seems like she fits in with us, like she's meant to be there.  I don't know if I feel that we're complete, but having two feels right.

Tiny girl. Giant binky.

Speaking of feeling complete, during the majority of my pregnancy, I jokingly (only not really jokingly) said that I really hoped Jeremy was happy with this one because I was not doing the pregnancy thing again.  I don't know if you remember as well as I do, but I was pretty miserable through the majority of my pregnancy.  Did I complain a lot?  I probably did. I think I had about 3 weeks that I felt half way normal.  So here I am, one week post partum, and I MIGHT be rethinking that joking-but-not-really statement.  It really hit me a few days ago.  I'm not saying I'm ready to think about another one, obviously. I've barely gotten used to having two.  I am saying that I'm already sad that the birth is over.  I love having her here, but when I see a picture of a mom meeting her new baby for the first time and some rediculously sappy Pampers ad, I think, 'How sad.  I might not ever do that again.'  Now I know that some of that feeling is because, though I am not so good at the pregnancy thing, I'm pretty good at the birthing part.  I've had two fairly easy labors, the second of which was what I would consider the perfect labor and delivery (minus Daddy missing it).  I'm not sure how an easy 4 1/2 hour labor resulting it one beautiful, perfect baby can erase 8 1/2 months of misery in the blink of an eye, but it did. She's already growing and changing, and while I love it, I know she'll never be as new and tiny as she is right now.  So, it makes me think ... maybe.  Maybe I'll do it again.  We'll see.  I guess it's really whatever God has planned for us.

Catherine at 6 days old - more alert everday.
(By the way, that spot near her for foot is a shadow not a leaky diaper.)

Another amazing thing that I noticed recently is that having a second baby somehow changes your first.  I'm not talking about changing their behavior or personality, although it does that too.  Emma is not jealous of Cate, but she sure is putting up a lot of fights!  What I really mean though is that physically Emma is different.  When I went to the doctor last week, Emma was a new 3 year old.  Tiny for her age, at least, in the weight category. She was definitely maturing, but she still seemed so small and had a few ounces of baby left. Well, Cate's arrival has changed her.  She's still tiny for her age, but she feels so much heavier and more solid.  She has always been tall for her age, but she seems like she grew in the 2 nights I spent away from her. Those few ounces of baby she left?  Totally gone.  Her skin is soft, but not nearly as soft as her sister's. It's so weird.  Even her binky doesn't give me that, 'Oh, she is still a little bit baby' feeling.  Last night, I put her to bed for the first time since Cate was born.  Emma still sleeps in a diaper at night 'just in case' eventhough she is almost always dry in the morning.  I felt like I was putting a diaper on a 6 year old.  Her size 4 diapers (which really aren't very big for a 3 year old) seemed humorously large compared to Cate's Newborn Pampers.  It just felt strange. I can't believe that she was ever as tiny as Cate.  I can't believe that in 3 years, Cate will have grown that much!  Seriously, childbirth is a truly amazing, miraclous, and, honestly, really kind of weird event. 

My sweet Emma Bean passed out on the floor.  I have only ever witnessed this happening ONE other time in her life.  Emma sleeps in her bed or car seat and nowhere else.  She's had such a crazy week, she fell asleep on the living room floor while my aunt, uncle and cousin were visiting yesterday.  Doesn't she look giant though now that we have Cate to compare her to?

My littlest is waking from her slumber in order to chow down.  She's a great sleeper and a great eater!  Knock on wood ... I dare to say she's an easy baby!  I'll sign off now though before she starts her whimpering and crying (which really is pretty cute!), so I can get a bottle ready for her.  Can't wait to see what new insights this next week allows me.  It will be my first week as a single parent of two. Yes, I know I'm not really a single parent and never will be, but Jeremy is at school for the next two weeks, so we'll see how that goes.  I may have to move into Starbucks for an IV drip of caffeine.