Getting the house ready to show

We met with a "stager" yesterday. Apparently these folks are interior designers who are subcontracted by Realtors to help people put their houses in showroom condition. DH spent most of the visit with her while Miss C and I took care of other issues like feeding and diapers. The house looks a bit different now and DH is putting together a checklist (primarily for me) for when we get requests to show the house. One of the caveats we put out about having people come over is they must call first unless its an open house. We have to put Sammy in her carrier and out in the garage (its just safer and we worry a lot less about her getting out of the house, getting lost, hurt or whatever). We also have to put up our personal stuff (even toothbrushes!) ans everything we keep out downstairs for Miss C. Our mantra has become "if it will sell the house."
Other than house stuff we've been staying busy with Miss C. As you can see by the photos, she's doing great, getting bigger, filling out and exploring the world with me. We already met with the day care folks (they absolutely adore her, but then again, who doesn't?) and yesterday we even went to the grocery store. Miss C seems to be sleeping better for certain periods at night. For example, she generally eats at 8 or 830 pm and sleeps until 12 or 1230am. Then she's up for 30 minutes or so to eat, get burped and get a new diaper. Then she's asleep again until 3 or 330am when we repeat our last and she's back in bed until 6 or 630am. She still grunts and groans in her sleep (normal bm stuff, I am assured) but we're definitely getting more sleep. The trick will be working her schedule out so we can leave here with a full tummy by 7 am once I have to go back to work.
Speaking of work, we're getting closer to the end of fiscal year and I still have 23 days of leave I MUST take or I lose it. I refuse to lose leave. I also have 10 days of house hunting leave to take when we close on the new place. I am going to talk with my office and see about taking leave when DH is out of town. I will still have to pay 50% of our daycare costs to keep her seat but. heck, I have to take the leave. I can't take it immediately following my maternity leave though, I have to go back at some point.
Well, I need to put Miss C down for a nap. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Our first video post!

Ok folks, we are trying something new today! We are attempting to post our first video. As with most new parents, we invested in a neat little handy camcorder and are now working our way towards building our Miss C film library. As you can imagine, its hard to decide where to start. We chose a rather simple video, tummy time.

On another note, if you want to comment on this or any of the other posts, you just have to go to google.com and set up a log in. Your log in can be another email address, no big deal, we just don't do anonymous comments. I looked into switching to Haloscan but don't want to lose the comments we already have so... Just thought I would mention it. As you can imagine, we're still quite busy. Miss C's schedule isn't really solid and, oh yea, we're working on the whole sell this house thing so... please understand if we are less on the phone than before. We love hearing from everyone, just not every day.
Well, Miss C is growing at an incredible rate and we think she is well into her second growth spurt. She eats like a race horse and is amazingly aware of what is going on. As you will see in the video, she is just awesome. I am sitting here watching her figure out her hands. She is trying to suck on her thumb but hasn't quite figured that out yet. Its awesome!

2 week check up

Ok, we had our two week check up today and it went smashingly! Catie now has the following specs: weight: 8lb 13 oz (75th percentile), length 21 1/4 inches (75th percentile), head circumference 35.5 cm (50th percentile and boy was I thrilled about that when she was born). Ok, so can anyone tell me why I should care about these percentiles?

Other than that, Catie is coming along very well. She lifts her head any chance she can get. We do loads of tummy time (I taped one today but need more time before I can get it on you tube. I will let ya'll know when it's there) and she is almost rolling over. Its crazy! She even plays with us. I know, sounds mad but its true. She tries to latch on to Greg's neck when she's hungry so he does it back and she grunts (we read this as "stop it!") and does it back to him! She has already started to let us know when she has a full diaper (its a horrid cry but Catie is definitely communicating.).

As you can see by the attached photo, we had another bath and this time the towel was a much happier place. I love this picture! I posted a few more to the flickr account so check that out when you get time.

That's pretty much it. Catie is sleeping better (when she's not growing 3/4 of an inch in two weeks!) and we can get 3 hours straight at night most nights. During the day she tends to eat, fall asleep, sleep for an hour or so, wake up to play and get rid of the last meal. She eats about every 2 to 3 hours during the day still , more if she fills up more diapers.

In all, Catie is doing great. A very happy, well adjusted two week old baby who continually surprises her parents. I don't know how we got so lucky but I am ecstatic.

Tummy time!

Well, we've made it through 11 days and each day is more amazing than the last. I know its said that babies can't smile, but we replicated the smile above multiple times through silly actions so we are sure Miss C can and does smile! She is also starting to enjoy her tummy time! Every time we get a chance to lay her down on her belly, Miss C does everything she can to lift up her head and even tries to crawl (pesky arms aren't working!).

We've also discovered that DH purchased what we now call the "poopy chair." Allow me to explain. As with most babies, Miss C's digestive system is quite immature and as a nursing child, she has a tremendous amount of poop and other bodily functions to work out. Sometimes it seems like she hasn't taken a poop in a while so we put her in her little swing and let her go. She grunts and groans and eventually you hear her success. In fact, she has been known to smile vastly upon completion. Yep, I am a certified Mommy now, just reading the above entry, all that poop talk.... Forgive me! ;-)

We have Miss C's two week check up on Friday so we'll let ya'll know how her weight's going, though, based on the photos posted, we can all pretty much agree she has gained back some of the weight she lost in the hospital. Oh, and for those who argue that you can't have caffine and be pregnant or breast feed, WHATEVA! Miss C sleeps like an angel when she wants to, caffine or not. Speaking of which, Miss C is calling for me "Oh Breakfast Lady, I'm ready!" Got to get for now!

Happy Father's Day!

To DH, SNG and all of the other wonderful fathers out there, Happy Father's Day. As this is our first experience with this holiday on our level, its a neat one! As you can see from the photos, Miss C is already getting bigger and Sammy is less skittish around her. That is not to say she is at all comfortable around her, just that she is willing to sit near myself or DH while we have Miss C in our arms. We are still having an interesting time introducing the two!

I would love to tell you that Miss C's schedule is getting stable and we are all sleeping well, but you all know if I said that I was either delusional or full or it. In either case, we're doing well not because her schedule is squared away but because we share responsibilities as we can. DH is great about staying up with Miss C if she is fussy so I can get a nap in before the next feeding and I take Miss C out of the room if she gets overly fussy and DH is just catching up on some sleep. We are quite happy with the results of this!

Well, aside from all that, not much else to report. DH's folks can't get away from work and all that until early next month, but we look forward to their visit whenever it comes. My little brother, W, and his new wife, L, are trying to make a day trip out here. DH and I are just waiting to hear when they have time clear on their schedules so we can work something out here. We're still planning on putting the house on the market by the end of the month so showings are bound to get interesting. Wish us luck with a quick and early sale for the most we can pull out of our equity!

Again, Happy Father's Day! Hope everyone has a terrific day!

Home with Miss C

Well, we've officially been home 48 hours and haven't completely lost our minds. Miss C is taking her changing surroundings in well and continues to make us stare in wonderment at every turn. We each make sure to get some time with her so she knows how it feels when Daddy holds her and when Mommy holds her. We just can't get enough of Miss C!

We're working through those pesky issues like, gee, the Pack 'n play is quite huge for her, can we come up with a better solution? And that kind of thing. As you can see by the photo above, she finds sleeping on a changing table pad quite comfortable. She's just too much, ya know?

I am not falling over (yet!) and DH makes sure I get naps in when I can, if only I napped half as much as he wants me to. I am updating the flickr pictures regularly so if you hopped on earlier this week, there will be new ones from today. Just letting ya'll know.

We're hoping DH's parents get out here sooner rather than later since Miss C has already changed so much since we met her a mere 5 days ago. Gosh, its only been five whole days. Holy cow!

Off to take a nap. Keep thinking wonderful thoughts. If you want to visit, give a hollar, DH will work out the details! This is just so cool!

***Updated to include: check out the flickr sets for the new house! The framing is nearly complete and you can see the land etc! Its all in the flickr badge!***

A long awaited entry!

Well, its been over a week since we last posted and HURRAH! Little Miss C arrived! We went to the hospital Friday evening the 8th of June and early the morning of the 9th were the proud parents of a 7 lbs 4 oz, 20 1/2 long little girl we love dearly. See the first photos! We also uploaded to our FLICKR so check out the badge to the right on the blog.

We apologize if we were unable to contact everyone after we had the baby, it was a bit hectic. To make a long story short, Miss C had a high Bili Ruben count accompanied by a high hematocrit so we just got released from the hospital this after noon. We have a follow up appointment at the pediatrician tomorrow afternoon.

Sorry if we are short on details right now, but we know you all understand how exhausted we are. I will try to update again tomorrow to fill in any holes, ask away! Sammy is a little afraid of Miss C right now and has avoided the pack 'n play for the most part. I'm going on a week with about 2 hours of sleep per day so forgive us if some of this rambles!

Anyway, thanks again for teh wonderful phone calls and posts. We will catch up (in about 18 years?) and get back with you. Call again, we're home now! This is just the coolest...

Another day, another doctor's appointment

Well, at least I didn't have to go to work too.
We got today off because we changed bosses (I can give the long explanation if you want it, just ask) on Friday. Lucky me, I also had a doctor's appointment. 39 weeks! Wow!
DH went with. He's a regular at the doc's lately. Just in case and all that. Nothing new to report. Very little in the way of dilation. Still early. Trying to be patient.
The one thing the doc did emphasize is "walk, walk, walk, walk.." Not that we don't normally do quite a bit of that, but since he said it might get us to where we want sooner, we took the advice to heart. I did anyway. We walked twice already since we got home. Will walk again before I try to sleep.
Am getting nuttier by the minute. DH keeps laughing at how easy it is for me to get distracted and I am not helping the situation one bit. We were sitting out back, reading, enjoying the weather and decided to go inside for a bite to eat. We ate out earlier in the day so neither of us were very hungry. As I was teasing DH about his choice of dinner (mac 'n cheese and rolls with peanut butter) I opened the fridge and said (I swear on a stack of bibles this is true) "Oooohhhh cherrrrieeess." Yep. I did it again. DH hasn't stopped laughing yet. I am convinced i am going to eventually go into laughter induced labor! If only it were that easy!

39 weeks and counting!

Just when you thought she couldn't drop any lower! Holy cow! Check out that belly!

We're keeping our fingers crossed that we meet Little Miss C soon but she's not quite overdue yet... I did have DH post an eviction notice. She has only so many days then its time to leave! We're like little kids we're so excited. Have been talking to lots of family this weekend. Everyone is asking "have you had her yet?" I promise DH will call. I swear. We will actually posting pictures when we can afterwards to the blog so if you don't get a call, please be patient.

Well, DH is making me tacos! Yummy. Hopefully we'll be posting other pics soon.

OOOhhhh.... Flowwwweeerrrrs

Yep, you thought I was done with that, huh? Me too! Ok, how to explain?
A couple of days ago DH and I received an email from our realtor up north. If you have checked our flickr site lately, you will notice that the builder is completing the framing for the downstairs part of the new house and wanted us to pick our colors for outside. Easy, right? Maybe if you're not pregnant. Allow me to continue.
So, yesterday after DH got home from work he asks me, so very sweetly, "how about we go over to Lowes and see about house paint?" I said, sure. Let's do that. I got on my shoes. Wait. No. I slipped on my flip flops (that's a carry over from Hawaii, not a preggers thing!) and I was rearing to go. We drive the 1.2 miles (just across the way from the grocery store) and we were there!
We pulled into the parking lot and started in. Now, if you've ever done any home improvement or anything, you understand that these places have loads of items out front. Yesterday there were grills and, yep, really pretty flowers out front. As we neared the entrance I made a ninety degree turn to the left and started looking at the flowers. I swear I said "Oh, look at the pretty flowers..." NO kidding! We have no where for these things and I know we were there to pick our paint but did that help, NO! DH looked at me, laughed and said "Flllooooowwwwweeeeeeeeeeersss." Then he took my arm and said "Paint, love, we're here for paint."
At that point my focus was broken and we walked in the store. From that point, it was quite simple. We asked the paint guy which was indoor and which was outdoor paint. We quickly agreed that Stone Grey (Olympic paint) is great for the outside and Brie (Olympic paint again, very versatile stuff!) is good for the inside. DH wants to wait to see if he will paint Miss C's nursery once we get there or if its going to be mainly my decorating. Either way, it took all of 10 minutes to figure out what we wanted, grab two of the cards for each (one to mail north, one to keep so we have a copy of what we sent). I am sure I heard a sigh of relief when we got back to the car. Until...
Well, I offered to run into the grocery store if DH stopped by on the way home. I didn't even have the list, I just thought i remembered what was on it. DH said, "well, do you really need anything right now?" I conceded that, no, I didn't need anything. He then said, "I'll go later then, love. Let's get you home for a nap."
The moral of the story is this. Next time a woman you love gets distracted, don't try to scare her. Its like sleep walking. Just help her break the spell!Oooohhh....flowwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrssss.