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This is something we haven't been seeing much of around here!

As much as we love this sweet baby girl and are happy to have her in our family, we sure wish she would do some sleeping {and I don't just mean at night}! As I mentioned in a previous post, I think she is colicky...and boy did it rear its ugly head yesterday.

Around 10 last night, Nick made the comment that he didn't think she'd been asleep since he got home--which was around 5! I suppose that would be manageable if she were awake and content, but she is usually fussing when she is awake. Nick volunteered to get her settled down for sleep after I fed her at 10:30 so that I could go to sleep. However, around 1:00am, I heard her fussing downstairs, so I got up to go down there to feed her. Nick said she'd been fussing off and on since I went up to sleep...and she had only slept for about 10 minutes. {after she ate, she did sleep from 1:30 to 5:30...hooray for sleep--for both of us!}

Nick keeps telling me that Carter was fussy too, but I don't remember his being this fussy. When he was little, I remember asking my friend Jennifer how people say they forget this part...she said it isn't so much that you forget but that you just think, "ok, it wasn't that bad; I could do it again." That made sense to me. But, now I am beginning to wonder... have I become THAT mom? The one who forgot the early fussy, sleepless, painful days with her first child?

I suppose it is possible. It is possible that the 23 delightful months that followed the early sleepless, fussy days have managed to erase {or at least greatly fade} those memories. And it goes by so quickly that sometimes I can't believe Carter's actually two. So, although it is painful now...and these sweet, sleepy moments aren't something we experience with Callen all that often, I need to remind myself that it is just one of the many phases that I don't want to wish away. They will be gone all too soon as it is.

This is what it looks like...

...when your heart is snuggled up on your couch.

One Month!

This precious little girl is ONE MONTH today! Where does the time go? In aggregate, it seems to go pretty fast, but the weeks seem to drag out. Funny how that works, isn't it? We are loving having her in our family. She is generally a sweetheart, but she does have a bit of a fussy streak. In fact, with all of my extensive medical expertise, ha, ha I am beginning to resign myself to the fact that she has colic. We go to the doctor next Thursday, so I will be interested to see what she says. It isn't that she is super-fussy ALL the time, but three to four days a week, she just has days that are really tough for her and for me. Ah, this too shall pass, right?

Callen in her Gameday gear

This little guy, who insisted on having his picture taken with his sippy cup this morning {?}, is an amazing big brother! He is really getting his own little personality, and Nick and I are really enjoying all of the fun, funny, sweet {and sometimes even infuriating} things that his is doing these days!

This picture really showcases what a good big brother Carter is to Callen. Anyone who knows Carter knows how much he LOVES his Lamby. Lamby is normally at school, but comes home on the weekend for a "bath," and always travels with us when we take trips. Carter would carry Lamby with him everywhere if we would let him. This morning when I came downstairs after a morning nap {read: from 7-8:30}, this is what I saw:

Lamby in the swing with Callen, and Carter saying "I such a good big brother!" I concur.

Pizza Party (kind of)

Yesterday afternoon, despite the yucky weather Nick played in a golf tournament at Highland. Fortunately, so did Pat. So, when Deanna and I talked yesterday afternoon, we decided it would be a good time for us to get together and have dinner with our boys and Callen. Since it was raining and I was too chicken to brave going to a restaurant with both kiddos in the rain by myself, we asked D and Connor if they would come over to our house for pizza. They accepted, and we were thrilled! D and I just lamented the fact that we didn't think about her bringing PJs for Connor so they could have played longer and we could have gotten them ready for bath/bedtime together!

My two precious children

I thought some of these were too cute not to post. I love how much Carter loves Callen and wants to be near her, kiss her, and, of course, be included in any attention she receives!

Worn Out

We're still here; I'm just really tired! I know I don't have a corner on the "I've-got-a-newborn-and-I'm-exhausted" market, but it is true nonetheless. I am one of those people who needs my 8 hours of sleep a night, so this phase of parenthood really wears on me. It is totally worth it, but I feel like I am existing most days in some sort of sleepy haze with a few days here and there that feel normal whatever that is.

I had my first experience of being a single parent of two this week as Nick traveled to Alabama for a funeral. It was indeed an experience. The first day/night, Callen decided to exercise her lungs and cry more in a 24 hour period than I've heard her do previously. The next day, she seemed to be much more even-keeled, but Carter had lots of little bumps on his tongue that were causing him pain, so he fussed all afternoon/evening. Nick got home late last night (or, rather early this morning) and things seemed to be much better when we all woke up this morning! Whew. Thank goodness.

We introduced Callen to tummy time this weekend for a little bit, and she didn't totally hate it. In fact, she was moving her head from side to side, so I thought that was pretty good for the few minutes she was down there.

Carter is becoming more interested in her "toys" {the swing, the play mat, the bouncy seat}, but usually it is to play with it in some unintended way. He likes to throw a ball into the swing {as if it is a basketball goal} don't worrry, he doesn't do it when Callen is in the swing, and he likes to dive on to the play mat, under the bars that hold the toys. However, he has decided that the bouncy seat is a pretty comfy place to watch TV. Too funny!

Bump in the Night

Well, there is never a dull moment around here. Two nights ago, at 2:30 in the morning, I hear a loud THUD, followed {as I expected} by my son's crying. Yep, Carter had fallen out of the bed. Luckily, the bed isn't too far off the ground. Unfortunately, we have hardwood floors, so it makes for a harder fall. Of course, while all this was happening, I was in Callen's room feeding her.

So, here it is, 2:30am, and all four of us are up. Nick goes in to check on Carter, and I take Callen to see how he is. There is blood...not a lot, but blood, nonetheless. So, we all head into the bathroom and fortunately, it is just a busted lip. Poor little guy was pitiful! He had to have someone sleep with him the rest of the night, but last night he went to bed {thankfully} with no problem.

It doesn't appear to have slowed him down any at all. We were going to let him stay at home and eat breakfast and then head to school late yesterday, but as Nick was walking out the door, Carter was saying "Go to school." So, we quickly changed his clothes and got him ready to go. He played all day as if nothing were wrong. Such a trooper!

Here are a few pictures of the busted lip.

A picture of my silly boy with his swollen lip (look on his right upper lip--sorry about the food on his face!)

a close up

Silly boy asking to have his picture taken, saying "smile again, Mama!"

The End of Summer

Labor Day...the unofficial end of summer is always a little sad for this southern girl. As much as I enjoy college football season though it is much easier to enjoy when you are close enough to go to more than one or two games a season!, I am really not a fan of fall. I LOVE warm weather, and I am always a little disappointed when Labor Day rolls around and the pool closes.

This year I am particularly sad. Perhaps it is because we haven't really had all that many REALLY warm {90 degree +} days this summer. Perhaps it is because I could already feel the chill in the air this afternoon. Or perhaps, most likely, it is because I have grown accustomed to watching Carter revel in the outdoors. He loves to play outside, and he truly loves the pool. It has been such a joy to watch him go from throwing all the pool toys into the baby pool to jumping off the diving board and asking Daddy to dunk him under the water!

I know that next summer will hold many fun adventures, as Callen will probably be crawling and will definitely be experiencing the water for the first time, and I expect Carter will be thrilled to be able to get back in the pool. It is just that I know there is a long time and, even worse, perhaps a lot of snow between now and then.

All of that said, we, of course, had to go to the pool on closing day. Carter went directly to the diving board, and then he and Daddy swam, shot hoops, and played in the water while Callen slept and I took pictures.

So until next summer...

Waiting for Daddy to put him on the diving board

The approach

Swimming to the ladder

Climbing up the ladder

Playing with Daddy in the pool

A snoozing Callen

On our own

Well, we said goodbye to the last of our visitors yesterday as Debbie left us to head back to Decatur. We are so appreciative of her traveling up here to help with Callen, Carter and our home/family. We ate some yummy meals and enjoyed her company. Somehow, during her trip, the only picture that I managed to take of her with Callen was when she was bathing her clearly, the sleeplessness is catching up with me, and I promised I wouldn't put that one on the blog. We'll have to take some good pictures when we go to visit.

Nick did take some cute pictures of Debbie and Carter giving Raf-Raf {Carter's giraffe lovey} "stitches." Wrigley likes to take off with our children's toys/blankets/etc and chew them up. Raf-Raf had a few boo-boos that distressed Carter, so Debbie agreed to help us fix him up.

We are plugging along. Still not a lot of "normal" sleep going on in our house--at least as far as Callen is concerned. When she wakes up to eat at night, she does not go back down easily, so that means generally means less sleep for us. She is beginning to wake up a little more during the day now, though, so maybe that will help us turn the corner a bit. We'll see. I am trying not to be too hopeful.

Snoozing in the swing

Also, I wanted to thank those of you who responded to my last post and/or said a prayer {or prayers} for us. Because I was concerned, I made an appointment with the lactation consultant to see if there was anything else I could be doing to help her gain weight. Almost immediately after I got there, I felt better. First of all, the lactation consultant told me that her discharge weight {which they hadn't told me at discharge} was 6lb, 3.3oz, so 6lb, 4oz was at least above that. Then, she mentioned that different scales will give you different readings {duh, but I didn't think about that}, i.e. the scale at the ped's office is probably different from the hospital scale. Finally, she weighed Callen on the same scale that they'd weighed her at discharge and she weighed 6lb, 9oz! Yay! That was 6oz in 6 days since discharge, which is pretty darn good. Whew, I am feeling much better on the feeding front, and Callen seems to be staying awake a little better during the feedings.

On top of all that, college football kicked off this weekend! Carter was excited for the Tide game and got ready by watching College Gameday! Nothing like a Tide victory to kick off the season!

Watching Gameday

I am looking forward to having Nick at home tomorrow for Labor Day before settling into what will become our new routine unfortunately, I can't have help at our house forever! I hope that you and your family have/had a great Labor Day weekend!

Week One

Well, it is hard to believe, but we have made it to the one week mark. It sure has gone by quickly {for me, at least}. We have had an incredibly busy week, so I thought I'd show you a little bit of what we've been doing since you know it hasn't been sleeping.

Popsy and Gigi came up to meet Callen.

They also brought a wonderful birthday present for Carter--a "big boy" divided plate and mug. Can you tell he loved them? He has been asking to eat out of them, but they do have to take a break to be washed.

Callen had her first sponge bath on the kitchen counter. I thought she would hate it, but much to my surprise, she didn't fuss. It actually seemed to relax her quite a bit.

Bamma headed back home after spending a week with us and providing so much help! We miss having her here, but are thankful for the time she spent with us!

Uncle Steve came to visit us, and in addition to providing help around the house and with the new baby, he has been Mr. Entertainer with Carter. We even ventured to the pool this afternoon, so Carter could show off his diving board skills to Uncle Steve.

This is what Callen did at the pool. I guess we'll have to wait until next summer for her to experience the water. Let's hope she loves it as much as her big brother does.

We also had our one week pediatrician appointment today. In general, the doctor was pleased with our sweet little one. She said Callen's color was good, everything looks and feels "right," she had grown about 3/4 of an inch, BUT she was only 6 lbs, 4 oz! {that's down 8 oz from her birth weight} So, we have another weight check next week to make sure the little one is beefing up. She seems to nurse okay, but she pulls off/on, and tends to fall asleep {or not wake up hardly at all} much more so than Carter did at this stage. All of that to say...if any of you other moms out there have any suggestions for keeping her awake, making sure she is nursing long enough, keeping her on instead of pulling off/on, PLEASE let me know. And...any prayers you want to send our way would be much appreciated!