It's Christmas BABY!

We had another wonderful Christmas surrounded by family, friends, and our healthy baby Kate. God is good! Kate slept through most of it and we were dodging jerms left and right but we survived. Here are some pics...

Chunky Monkey * 2

Welcome Chunky Monkey #2! After you see Kate's picture from her Santa visit today you will understand where this is coming from. Six months ago, Petey became the original chunky monkey, name coined by his dermatologist (yes, my dog goes to a very EXPENSIVE dog dermatologist). Petey went from 7lbs to 9lbs in like 2 months time. He now is around 11lbs. When we bought him they said he would be around 6-7lbs. Whoops! We will blame it on the Roids he is taking for his allergies. As to Kate...It is crazy how you go from one extreme to another. A month ago I was worried about her gaining enough weight from me nursing her. Now I am concerned my crazy appetite lately has been the cause of this very sudden rapid weight gain. As you can tell, I am already experiencing what I guess people refer to as mother's guilt. If anything goes wrong with Kate from now on, it's my fault (or at least in my head it is). It's like she is my little project, no room for errors. Anyway, I think she is a "healthy" little girl right now. She just likes to snack way too often. And she likes to sleep ridiculously sound during the day and keep her mommy up all night. Last night I didn't go to bed for the first time until 2:30. Yes, this is absurd! Don't worry, my mom is already lecturing me on keeping her up from 6-10pm at night. I wish it was that easy. We will keep trying. We are going to pump her full tonight with a bottle so we can monitor what is going in. Good idea DON! :) Okay, I took a video of Kate's drama. Note her little, "I just want to hear myself", squeals.
Don and I took Kate to the orthopedic pediatrician today. I was nervous, we prayed about it, and everything turned out less of a "big deal" as I anticipated. The doc came in, explained that her sockets were a little shallow and that she would need to wear this harness for 3-6 weeks so that she does not experience arthritis in the hip later in life. She said there is no hip dislocation. Yay! We go back in 3 weeks and they will do an ultrasound and see the progress. The brace is this little canvas thing that is easy to put on and take off and really she can wear all of her normal clothes. The only thing for her to avoid is little gowns that bunch at the bottom. Easy enough! Here is Kate soundly sleeping in her new gear... Okay...here is the much anticipated Santa shot. Let me just say that she really isn't this big. I think Santa was holding her so that everything was pushed up. But our preemie is not such a preemie anymore! We love her dearly!

Christmas Spectcular/Rockettes

Okay, not sure why I felt compelled to take 100 pictures on Saturday when I went with my family to see the Rockettes for my grandmother's birthday. I guess it is obvious I have not been out much lately. :) Anyway, for those who have never seen the show or are bored at work, here are the pics from Saturday's Christmas Spectacular performance.

It was well worth the money. I felt like I was in NYC when they brought the bus out and it was spinning around as the High Definition TV in the back was showing actual scenes from the streets of NYC. I hope to go up there one year around Christmas time.

Also, here is a picture from church yesterday. Kate's future best friends:

Goodbye Level Head, Hello Unstable

Okay, I think I have always had a little of this in me but now that I am responsible for someone else's life, the craziness has multiplied. What I am referring to is my tendency to read into things and taking them to the worst possible scenario. I first was concerned about bobbling Kate's head a few times as I was placing her on my shoulder to burp her. Because she tries to hold her head up, I allowed her to do this and then 2 inches from my collar bone, she decides to let the head bobble. So I read into that and thought I have given her brain damage. The next episode was Thanksgiving morning when I noticed a flat spot on her forehead. I was sure that came from bobbling her head and I had dented her skull. Don and the pediatrician convinced me that I had not done that and it would round out with age. Then there was me thinking pressing against her on the couch might have caused internal bleeding and so on and so on. You get the point... I AM CRAZY!!!

Well our pediatrician called today and told me that Kate has a slight immature left hip. She had an ultrasound on her hips a week and a half ago because she was breech. They do this as a preventative measure. So I asked the doc, "what's next?" He told me that we would go see an orthopedic pediatrician and she would more than likely wear a harness. You know me, I immediately google it and read as many articles as I can get my hands on. Basically it looks like Kate will wear a Pavlik harness for about 6-12 weeks. Her progress will need to be checked on a regular basis which means going to the hospital. Her clothing will probably be altered as I am pretty sure this fits on the outside of her clothing. I feel like everything will be fine but it still makes me nervous. I hate that she has to deal with it but I am thankful it is nothing life threatening. Our appointment is on the 19th of this month. I will update you. Please continue to keep little Kate in your prayers (and my sanity).

A New Weapon

Can I just say that my dog is ridiculously smart?!? A while back Don taught Petey to flip the roman shade on the door when he needs to go out. The other night Petey flipped the shade and Don went to open the door and Petey ran off to the laundry room where his food and water was. Don followed him and Petey stopped in front of his water bowl and looked up. His water bowl was empty. What a smartie! Also the other day, Petey disappeared. I couldn't find him anywhere and he was not responding to my bribes of chewies to come out of hiding. This was very unusal because he is normally attached to my hip. I went in Kate's room and looked under her crib. There he laid at the very back against the wall with his ears back. I was trying to figure out why he was acting traumatized then I remembered I was filing Kate's nails. He must be traumatized by that one nail-clipping session I had with him in the past. Every since then I have taken him to the vet to get his nails clipped. Well worth $12. What a funny dog! So now when we want him to behave, we show him the baby fingernail file. I told Don that I was going to buy baby outfits with pockets so we can put the fingernail file in her pocket so that he will stay away from her. HA!






We now have a 8 and 1/2 + pounder on our hands. Don and I took Kate to the Pedatrician on Tuesday of last week and that is what she weighed. She measured 20 and 1/2 inches long. The doc said that was in the 75% percantile based on her 11/24 due date but 5-10% based on her birthday date. I weighed her this morning and the scale said 10lbs but I am pretty sure that was with a wet diaper, but hey, this girl ain't so little bitty anymore. Yay! :)

Kate went shopping with her Mamey and Mommy on Friday. I know now why mothers with small children never leave their home. You leave your comfort zone and everything seems so jermy. You also leave your controlled enviroment. We managed to make it to Babies-R-Us, Tria Market (lunch), Pottery Barn, and Wolf Camera. I fed her once and 1 change in diaper (almost too late).

Kate also went to church on Sunday. This was HUGE because we have a small church and when a new babe arrives, everyone knows. She did great! I did have to feed her halfway through. I was nervous about that but we muddled through. I look forward to getting the routine down so we can go out to eat afterwards with our good friends from church.





Christmas seems to be approaching crazy fast. Pictures of the tree coming soon!

Kate's Sweet Visitors:

Vitamin D

I never have to worry about Petey's Vitamin D supply...


I am so glad I got a guard dog. He sits on "his throne" all day long sleeping/barking at leaves that blow by in the yard. Too bad someone can make it to our front door and Petey not know until they knock/ring the door bell. He fails the guard dog category but wins in CUTE! Hey, that's what matters, right?

Returning to My Roots

Let me just say, I LOVE LOVE Thanksgiving. I haven't always felt that way about Thanksgiving because I didn't used to care too much for the food and it just seemed like a tease. I have since changed my mind. It represents the start of the holiday season, lots of love and giving. People seem so happy around this time. Thanksgiving has been at my parent's house for as long as I can remember. I used to hate this because mom would get so worked up over the house and having everything just right which meant me having to thoroughly clean my room and the upstairs bathroom. Plus cleaning things that I didn't even think mattered. I used to ask my mom, "why can't someone else have this at their house?" Mom would respond, "think of all the wonderful memories our family will have at this house". I guess that would shut me up. :) I now appreciate my parents having it at their house so much. My family lives "in the sticks" which is the perfect background for what you expect of a true Thanksgiving setting. My dad (the boy scout) loves having fires around the house. Sometimes one inside and one outside. My aunts, uncles, and cousins seem to love gathering around the fire and sharing stories. My mom has 4 sisters so there is always something on their minds. I also love when they share stories about their childhood and how mean the 2 older twins were to the rest of the girls. I would try to tell a few but believe me, I wouldn't do them justice. All the girls have a real cute personality. This was Kate's first Thanksgiving. Some of the family got to see her for the first time. She slept most of it. Hopefully by Christmas, we will be passing her around and not too afraid of kooties!

This week looks like: Christmas decorations, finish writing thank yous and sending out (top priority), 2 doctors' appointments on Tuesday for Kate (1 involving immunizations, tramatic event!, the other a hip xray which is standard for breach babies), shopping with the mom one night while Don keeps our cup-Kate, and the SEC championship game this weekend, RTR!




Roll Tide!