Andrea's photos

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/aw4kd7CB

Photo update

This picture was taken over Christmas break by one of my long-time friends, Andrea Roberts and comes from her blog andrearobertsphotography.blogspot.com. After the disaster with the professional photographer and newborn photos, I was really hoping to get some really excellent, professional photos of Kate. Andrea did SUCH a wonderful job at our session. She was patient, creative, and you could tell she enjoyed what she was doing. I've only had a "sneak preview" of the photos so far, but man oh man did this one turn out fantastic!! I can't wait to see them all!! Way to go Andrea:)

Shots

Kate goes in today for her 4 month shots :( poor babyness. They say it is harder on the parents than on the baby. Loren is taking her today. We do really like our doctor, so that helps, but Kate screams a scream that she only does when she is in pain and it is so hard to hear.

Loren leaves this weekend to go to IA to defend his dissertation. He has his presentation all ready to go, but his advisor hasn't even seen it! Hopefully his committee will be kind! Speaking of committees, I need to put my committee together. I got some mixed news that I don't have to take a statistics class this semester, but that I do have to take it next spring. I'm hoping that by next spring I'll be more adjusted to my schedule and potentially will have a little more time to commit to this killer class. I'm pretty disappointed that I have to take it at all, though. I'm pretty protective of my time and this one takes two half days per week, plus the home assignments. Ugh and YUCK! Not to mention the perfectionist in me has a VERY difficult time not giving 100+% to something...but I'm trying to work on that ;)

Bump

So there are bound to be bumps in the road...and I'm on a long road. Yesterday Kate refused to eat from the bottle. Since we'd been on vacation for 2 weeks, she had only been eating from me. I was a little worried about her taking hte bottle again, but since she had never had problems in the past, I didn't worry too much. I was pretty worried until we discovered that much of the frozen milk I had stored up (gallons...) was bad. We smelled and taste-tested bag after bag of bad milk (talk about fun, no wonder Kate cried!). So hopefully the reason Kate wasn't eating was because we kept trying to feed her rotten milk. Hey- I'd cry, too if someone kept shoving that nasty milk into my mouth.

Then is the sleeping...she had been so good at the 5 hour stretch, but it has apparently disappeared and been replaced by waking up every hour or so all night long. Today Kate woke up at 5:00am and was wide awake. This is a new thing, so hopefully it was just today.

I got all of the mortgage papers in order for the investment property we've put an offer on today, so it looks like that is going to go through. I think it will be a good project for Loren in addition to his part-time USGS job.

I'm trying so hard to have a good attitude, but it is so difficult to leave my little girl. She is so happy and smiley and has such a sweet personality. She is almost always in a good mood. The only time she cries is when she needs something. She is such a cuddler at night, too. She snuggles up next to me all night long. I put her in the middle of the bed to start out, but by the time she is ready to nurse again, she is right there in position. I love how she smells and her soft baby skin. As much as I don't like waking up all night long, I do love having her there with me.

Happy Anniversary

3 years. I can hardly believe Loren and I have been married for 3 whole years now. I never would have thought I'd be living in NC, in a perio residency, with a house and a 4 month old baby 3 years later. Goes to show that you can't predict your future. No matter how much you plan, no matter how much you worry, you just don't know what is going to happen. There is a plan bigger than the one I can worry out in my head at 4am.

So here is the realization of my New Year's resolution. I don't want another 3 years to speed by without keeping track of all of the little moments of our lives, so I'm going to do a blog. As much for myself as for anyone else. I'd like to keep up with our day-to-day lives. It seems that all of the little things pass so quickly and I don't want to forget. Our precious little girl is now almost 4 months old. I can't believe how fast she is growing and learning about the world around her. She reaches for things now and can grasp with both hands. She drools like crazy all over herself. We have to put a bib on her just to keep her clothes dry! She loved watching Uncle Alex dance and sing for her when we were home over Christmas break.

I guess I'm feeling a bit sentimental today--we moved the pack-n-play into Kate's own room. It has been in our room, but we decided to give it a try in her own room. Our anniversary and the new year seemed like maybe the time to try for a better night's sleep and some adult snuggle time. I wake up so easily with every deep breath she takes, I need to try to sleep a little better. Plus, Loren and I love to lay in bed and talk and Kate in the room kind of squashes that. Since about week 2 we've been putting her to bed in the pack-n-play bassinet, she sleeps for up to 5 hours and when she wakes up, I bring her into our bed to nurse and sleep the rest of the night. So we'll see. See if I make it the 5 hours without my baby...I mean, see if she makes it the 5 hours without her mommy...well, one of the two. I'll bring her in when she wakes up in the middle of the night tonight. I've got the monitor cranked way up. We'll see if I sleep better with her in the other room...or not...