A Few Milestones....

Goodness, life is nuts.

I had plans to post on Caroline turning a month old, but things got away from me. Anyway, it still happened, whether or not I posted about it. Here she is - all cute and lovable - on the one month anniversary of her birth:



She's all curled up, sleeping sweetly, and doing that adorable smile-while-you-sleep thing. Things I will remember about this first month include:

*Adjusting to no sleep for the first time in about 10 years
*Caroline always having to have her hands by her face
*Those beautiful blue eyes that can't totally decide to be blue or hazel or .. . . will they turn brown in the end? Who knows!
*The screaming... haha
*The lovable cuteness even when she's screaming
*The finger sucking... mine, not hers
*Spilling formula everywhere when she eats
*The drama that has been trying to nurse
*How TINY she is
*Her dainty little fingers that are so very girly
*Sucking her pacifier until she is almost asleep, then spitting it out, yelling, and falling asleep
*Her cute little nose
*Her huge feet that we like to call her flippers
*Spitting up everything and causing me to have to bathe her in the middle of the night
*Many doctor's visits
*Chicken legs
*Watching Soren and her....... they are ADORABLE together!

We headed off to the doctor again today for another weigh in. She has officially reached and surpassed her birth weight! Hurrah! She hit 6lbs 10oz today! We need to keep her on the super high calorie preemie formula until her 2 month appointment. Hopefully she will be able to transition back to nursing after that. That's what I'm hoping.

So, that's where we are at on the Caroline front. Now I really, really, really need to get Christmas together.

Well it's almost 10pm. And I'm ready for bed time! Hopefully we won't all freeze tonight - we had a storm on Sunday and another is supposed to come through tonight. Snow! Weeee!

I shall leave you with another picture of our princess:

Recap of Life in Bullet Points

Because my time is short:

• Caroline has gained weight, but still is not up to her birth weight. We are at 5lbs 15oz as of today. We are now on a preemie formula and I am pumping until further notice.
• Soren has something called Sever's Disease. Basically, his feet are growing too fast for his ligaments and muscles and tendons and all those funny body parts to keep up. The good news is that once his feet are done growing (they are the first thing to reach full growth apparently), it will go away. The bad news is that it will be rough for him to do a lot of physical activity until he slows down.
  
• Slows down? Ha! Soren has grown 1/2 an inch in the past 3 weeks. So I have one kid who won't stop growing and one who won't start!
• Caroline loves her hands and yells a lot when we try to tuck them into a blanket or hide them under little mittens. She must have them out - always!!
• I have been having a really hard time with nursing, so I am sort of grateful for the break I'll be getting. However, I really would like to see it work. However, there is concern that, even though I finally have my supply under control, that my milk doesn't have enough calories to get her to where she needs to be. Now my mom and I are joking that I only produce skim milk!
• We bought a new van. It's our Christmas/Birthday/Every Holiday for the next forever present. Our family just would not fit in our little car anymore - not when Soren has legs that go on forever and Alan has legs that go on forever and I am not short and car seats are big and bulky. So for the first time in 6 years we have a car payment. Yuck! But it's worth it - we love the van and are so happy for all the room it is giving us and the freedom I now have to go and do what I need to do without worrying how to get there.
• Soren gets to be the judge in a mock trial with his EXCEL class (also known as the highly capable program or 'gifted'). He is so excited and has loved the unit they are doing on debating. Maybe he'll be like his mommy and be in Speech and Debate! Woot!
• It's time to feed the princess, so I'm off!