Our Lil Punkin

Callie’s first Halloween was fun! Nana came to visit for the weekend and Nonna and Papa came on Sunday. We decided to take some pictures at my friend Edie’s house because she has a beautiful fall pumpkin arrangement in her yard. We were so excited to get some fun pictures of her in her adorable Halloween outfit.

Callie thought it was the best thing ever cruel and  unusual punishment for us to go out and take those pictures. Remember how I said my baby cries screams a lot? Well, she certainly let us know she did not enjoy taking these pictures. But, I had to post a few anyway! ;)

Well, in momma's arms...this is not so bad....

 Wait a second, you're gonna put me down?!?

I do not think putting me down is such a good idea....

 Nope, don't want you to put me down here either.

Nana and my paci can calm me down. Ahhhh

All you had to do was hold me.

Whew! That was hard work...take me home!

We got home and got her all settled down and we were able to take some pretty cute pictures of her in her Halloween outfit.

I even caught a smile.

(proving she doesn't hate us for putting her through that! ha!

That, or she was pooping...)

and a yawn.

Speaking of smiling. Now is the time. She should start to smile and giggle at us any day now. She actually does already, but it doesn’t seem to be regular enough for me to think it’s more than gas-induced. ;)

Hope your Halloween was happy too!



Going back to work.

It is quickly nearing time for me to return to work. I was able to take just 6 weeks off of work. I would love to have taken off much more..heck, I'd love to be able to stay at home with Callie. We waited 9 years to start our family and if I could have stayed at home, we would have started much much earlier. Because being a working mom is hard work. Being a mom at all is hard work. Let me just tell you how much I know that now! Whether you work or stay home, it's all hard.

I am very, very nervous about Monday morning. I'm nervous for many, many reasons. Of course, there is the obvious reason of being anxious about leaving our sweet girl with strangers. They will not be strangers for long...I know that, but right now, they are strangers. I mean, I've met them. I know that our daycare is great. I know they will take care of her. BUT. But, they are not mommy and daddy. I hate that. I want to keep her home with me forever.

Then there is the part that REALLY kills me. The part where I will miss Callie tremendously while I am working. Missing moments of snuggling during the day.

Oh my, I will miss these afternoon moments. I realize I can have these moments still on the evenings and weekends, but I love having these moments at 2 in the afternoon!

Another thing that makes me sad about returning to work is that I feel like I will miss Callie's happiest time of the day. She starts to get very fussy and cries quite a bit more after 5pm than she does at any of time of the day. Do the math--that is just about the time we will start our time with her each day. That makes me sad. I am hoping she outgrows that and starts to have calmer evenings.

I am also nervous about my lack of sleep. I get quite a bit of daytime sleep right now. In fact, I sleep when Callie sleeps each and every day until she wakes up for her 11am feeding. So, I really get a good amount of sleep, even if it is interrupted. That is all about to change!

But, the thing that gives me the most anxiety right now is how in the world will I ever get up and around and out of the house on time?!? How? I figure I will need 2 hours to get myself ready and to feed Callie. That means waking up at 4:45!! Yikes! And sometimes her night feeding takes place from 3:30-4:30 which means I would just need to stay awake after nursing her at that time! WHAT?! And the whole scheduling of it all just about makes my head hurt. What if she wakes up at 4am instead and then need to eat right in the middle of our drive to work? (Her daycare is near my work...our school district has a daycare for staff kids and so she will ride with me to work each day.) What then? I really hate for her to scream in the car. It hurts my heart just about worse than my head! So, then I think that I need to start giving her a morning bottle so my husband can give it to her...but I will still need to pump and I don't really know that I want her having one more bottle each day. Then I think it's silly that I worry about that part of it at all!

Not to mention all the things I need to pack for her each day! Whew! swaddle, bottles, MILK, extra clothes, clothes (if I take her in her pjs), diapers, wipes, diaper bag...and I'm sure there's more that I will undoubtedly forget on Monday morning! I know I'm being a bit dramatic here perhaps, but I really have a lot of anxiety over it.

I just really need Monday morning to get here and for it to pass! But, then again, I just really need Monday morning to never get here at all. That way I can enjoy daytime snuggles forever!

awwwwww.....
:)

a girl and her boys

Our dogs have really settled in nicely with Callie home. They've exceeded my expectations for how they would react. I wasn't really too worried, but I am very happy with how they've done.

You may [recall] that Braddock started to really sense that something was going on right when I first got pregnant. Well, he loves his Callie! He is definitely the most interested in her. If I would leave her bedroom door open, I think he would sleep in front of her crib.

 

They get a little on edge when she cries. Especially if I have loaded her up in the carseat and take her out of the house crying. They get downright upset by that. And they are always very happy when I get home with a quiet, sweet baby.

Although Braddock is most interested, Lambeau does his share of watching over her too.

Nothing like a girl and her boys...

And no worries, Callie was in no way harmed during this little photo session! Braddock flipped over and decided to snuggle up to her. ;) We quickly moved him to another position.

See?

I can't wait until she starts to get interested in them too.
:)

Firsts

first bottle

first time on her playmat

first bath

She hated it! But she loves baths now

first snuggle with all her boys

first walk

first OU game watch party

first date night for mommy and daddy

Callie stayed home with Nana (my mom)

first professional picture

first time on the football field, greeting daddy after the game

Go Hornets!

first time to sleep in her crib

Looking forward to many more firsts!!

One Month

Time officially flies by.

Callie is ONE MONTH OLD! I cannot believe how fast it's gone.

Here some info on our baby girl...

She wore size newborn diapers up until October 17th when I switched her to size 1. However, she can't fit all size 1's, only the Huggies. They are smaller than the Pampers 1's. Weird. She could still be in newborn, but we ran out and so I went ahead and made the switch since the Huggies are a little smaller.

She is 22 1/2 inches long and she is in the 9 lb range. Those are both estimates, not "official" measurements, because we haven't been to the doctor since she was 2 weeks old. Then she was 21 1/2 inches long and 8lb 9oz.  Our next doctor appt is at 2 months.

She had a VERY fussy/cranky spell a few weeks after she was born. She was quite content for the first 2 weeks of her life and then she started to have unexplained crying. All.the.time. If she wasn't eating and sleeping, she was crying screaming. It was actually quite a nightmare. I did my fair share of crying too! Then I called the doctor and he prescribed Zantac for reflux and I had a friend tell me about some otc stuff called Colic Calm and so we started that too. Let me just tell you...something worked because our Callie was instantly back to her old self. And momma was too! :) Boy, it was a rough time though. Very, very rough.

But, she is MUCH better now!!

Here are some fun recent pictures. Love this sweet girl!!

Growing girl...

Weekly pictures.

She's already growing so much!

1 week old, September 24

2 weeks old, October 1

3 weeks old, October 8

Welcoming little Callie

Here are just a few of Callie's first pictures after being born and some of her special visitors.

 Daddy and Callie's hands

 Callie and her daddy

 Our sweet, fabulous nurse

 first family picture

 Keysha with me and my girl

 My mom

Callie with her Nanna

 Callie with Phyllis

 Callie with her Nonna

 Becky and Taylan drove in from Houston to be with me.

 Courtney's mom

 already protecting her

I love this picture.

 Callie with her Cha Cha (Courtney's mom)

 Callie with her Grandpa (My dad)

 Our dear friends, drove a long way to visit Callie for the first time. Phyllis, Amy, and sweet Ava.

 Callie with Keysha

 After her first bath

 Courtney's dad

 Callie with her Papa