October 16, 2007: Just some fall pictures...
Baptism
October 13, 2007: Today Casey was baptised at Resurrection church in Rye, NY. The same church that I was baptised in 29 years ago. Godparents Geoff Duval and Alyssa Murphy did a great job and Casey was happy throughout. Right now she has her first cold. It is not too bad, just a really stuffy nose. We have not gotten much sleep for the last 4 nights, when she lays down she just cannot breath well I guess. Casey has started to have solid poops because of the solid foods which has been a funny change. But they are much smellier than before so that is not too funny. Also, she pooped in the tub the other night for the first time which cracked us up. She is really wanting to move. She gets on her hands and knees and rocks a lot and sometimes lurches her legs forward but ends up face planting. My mom took all the pix from the baptism so I will add some as soon as I get them.
5 months old
October 9, 2007: The 5 month mark has come and gone for Casey. She celebrated it by watching her Dad compete in his first triathlon. The solid foods have been going pretty well. She likes the rice cereal and enjoyed the carrots. We tried her on peas this week and they did not go over quiet as well. She gags and makes funny faces-see pictures. The first night we tried them, most of what went in was spit back out, but we stuck with it and she has started to accept them more and more. Other than the food the major changes are just in her development and coordination. She has started to actually jump up and down when she is in her jumping seat, she is able to grab a lot of things and play with them more intently. She is able to get herself onto her hands and knees and hold that position and rock a little bit. She is more vocal and makes little high pitched singing noises. She is also doing a funny thing with her lips now. She loves riding in her forward facing stroller so she can see the world. Other big news is that we moved her into her own room a few nights ago. We just keep the doors open and do not use a monitor. It has been going well so far. She does not seem to notice, now I just need to get used to the idea. Casey is headed to Greenwich this weekend to get baptised. We'll update again after that.
Solid Food
September 25, 2007: Tonight we tried feeding Casey "solid" food for the first time. It is hard to call it solid as the first day it is supposed to be very thinned out. You are supposed to try solid foods somewhere between 4 and 6 months. Casey will turn 5 months this weekend and since we are still having terrible nights I thought we would test out the old wives theory. Casey wore just a diaper and a bib and we had her in this mini high chair since she is way too small for a real one. She seemed to like the food from the beginning and was always eager for the next bite. At least half of what we gave her ended up on her bib and not in her mouth, but as I make it thicker maybe that will improve. James and I certainly had fun during this milestone event and I am glad Casey took well to it. As for last night, she went to sleep at 7:30 pm, I fed her at 1:30am and she is still asleep now 8:00am. A fantastic night for us!! Fingers crossed that it is not just beginners luck! Here are some before, during, and afer shots from the event.
4 Month Check Up
September 10, 2007: Today Casey had her four month check up. Everything went well and she is very healthy. She is still long and lean. She weighed 11 pounds 15 ounces, which lands her in only the 8th percentile. She is 25 inches long which is the 70th %ile. The doctor had absolutly no concern about her weight. He said she is happy and healthy, and he likes long and lean. Casey had her second round of shots as well and she was much braver about them this time around. She only cried for about a minute as opposed to the 45 minutes last time. Today she is running a little fever which is a very common reaction to shots. I used the rectal thermometer on her today for the first time, what an experience! Besides her check up there is not too much new. She loves sitting up in her car seat and is always straining to get her head out to look around. Her play mat is of very little interest these days as she just rolls off of it. She likes her excersaucer and jumping chair much more. Lots of drool and hands in the mouth, but still no signs of any teeth. Casey is off on another trip to the Cape this weekend for two weddings.
Dr.Ferber
September 5, 2007: We've been enjoying the last few days of summer. Let me emphasize days, because the nights have not been great lately. The last few weeks have been very difficult with Casey, as she has been waking very often during the night, leaving us all very tired during the day. We have tried a little 'ferberizing' which is slowly yielding some results (knock on wood). Last night Casey ate at 7:30pm and was asleep by 8pm with no crying. She slept until 2am, I fed her and she went right back to sleep until 6am, at which point I fed her and she slept for maybe an hour more and was up for the day. She is on a fairly routine nap schedule. 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. Anyways, hopefully she will continue to stretch the time spent asleep. We went for a hike this weekend with our friends the Scotts and played mini golf. It has not been too hot, it is starting to feel like fall up here. Here are some cute pix of Casey from this week.
First Wedding
August 29, 2007: This past weekend Casey took her second airplane ride to Duluth, MN for Angie's wedding. Once again she was a very good baby on the flights. On Saturday she had her second ever bottle and was quiet enough that James could keep her in the church for the ceremony. She fell asleep at the reception during dinner and slept thru the whole thing. She would wake up ocassionally if there was a lot of loud noise but would go right back to sleep. That night she also slept thru until 6:30am. I only wish that was the norm. We are still trying to put her to bed around 8pm but she wakes very often at night to eat and sometimes she wakes between feedings and just cries for no apparent reason. It is very tiring for me and James. Besides the night times she is still very fun. She is very vocal, loves her toys, and puts everything imaginable into her mouth. She drools like crazy. Recently her eyes have begun to change colors. From the middle they are starting to turn brown and very slowly creeping outwards. We are back at school and James has started faculty meetings. The students arrive back on campus next week and class begins the 10th. Yesterday we took Casey down to the river and she watched us jump off the rope swing. Besides the night time sleep aspect the hardest thing about Casey is keeping her nails short. They grow like weeds and she is always scratching herself. She is getting big but I don't know how much she weighs. Her 4 month check up is September 10th. I am dreading the second round of shots!
Moving
August 21, 2007: Casey is a crazy baby! She is on the move all the time. She rolls over and back, and is now scooting around on her stomach some times. We can no longer swaddle her at night because she will roll over onto her face while swaddled and then she can't fall asleep like that. Her newest thing is yelling. When we hold her in a standing position she loves to scream with delight. It is pretty funny. As she is developing she is more interested and capable of playing with other toys. We have tried the bouncy seat (see picture), and she loves all the rattles and things that hang from her car seat or play mat. She still enjoys the bath and we just got her a rubber ducky. We read a few books every night before bed. The negative of this stage is that her sleep pattern is getting worse. She used to sleep from 11pm to 5am. Now we put her to bed at 10pm and she wakes anywhere from 1:45 (last night) to 3am. I'll feed her, she go back to sleep until 5 or 6 then feed her and back to sleep again hopefully until 8 or 9. I talked to Jordan today who said I should move her bedtime earlier so we are going to work towards a 7:30 bedtime. Anyways, if any moms out there have advice for me on how to get Casey's sleep going in the right direction again I am all ears. She seems to also be gravitating towards two naps a day instead of one nap every three hours. Sometimes she goes down easily in her bassinet, but other times I have to use the swing. I'm so terrified of creating bad habts that all the books warn you about but sometimes you just do what you can to get by. She has her hands in her mouth all day long and drools so much. Maybe teeth are on their way? Her hair is still falling out but much more slowly. Anyhow, we had a nice week in Greenwich. Casey spent lots of quality time with LaLa and Eddie. We went into NYC one night for dinner and she had her first train ride. We visited Baba and Pop and just saw Meme too. On Friday morning we head to Duluth for Angie's wedding and Casey is coming with us. I love the last picture on here...this is real parenting, trying to quickly eat dinner with a fussy baby on the couch. Holding the paci in with one hand and eating Mac n' cheese straight from the pot with the other. How glamorous!
Holiday Road
August 6, 2007: We just got back from Italy and Casey was so easy to travel with. She had no problems on the plane rides and slept a lot. When we arrived in Rome, we managed to sightsee the first day and stay up in order to adjust. I was so worried she would wake up in the middle of the night leaving me feeling awful. Instead she slept all night until almost 9am, her longest straight sleep ever! Casey went to many famous sights in Rome and visited many beautiful towns in Tuscany in the weeks that followed. She convinced people all over Italy to let us cut lines which was great. We were zipped right thru security in Boston's airport, they let us cut the whole line to get into the Vatican museum, and on the way home we were brought to the front of the line in Rome's airport. She seems to change and develop every day. She loves chomping on her hand and can fit her entire fist into her mouth. She has found her feet for sure and is constantly grabbing onto them with her hands. She even sucks on her big toe from time to time. She rolls over all the time now. She will hardly play on her play mat any more without doing a few barrel rolls first.We'll often find her rolled right off of it. She smiles when we sing songs or make certain faces at her. Her smiles turn into giggles sometimes which is so cute. She became more comfortable with other people holding her during the trip which is good. She still gets startled from time to time for no apparent reason. All in all she was just so well behaved and a dream baby on the trip. We are home now and things have changed. Her internal clock must be all screwed up from the time change because it's like having a newborn all over again. I have been up for large portions of the night trying to get her to settle down and sleep, and when she does get to sleep it is for much shorter periods than she used to do. I am exhausted and hoping she gets back on track soon. Big congrats to Celluch and Craig on the birth of their son Rhys while we were away.
Curve Ball
July 18, 2007: Just after I bragged about figuring Casey out and having a great routine it all went kaput. She has been waking up at 3am now instead of 5:30 and not napping well at all during the day which makes her so cranky and fussy. Just keeping us on our toes I guess. We are off to Italy tonight for 2 1/2 weeks. We'll spend two days in Rome then two weeks in a villa in Tuscany with James' entire family. Casey's first air plane ride should be interesting. Our fingers are crossed that her ears are ok we don't have a plane full of passengers wanting to kill us for having a screaming baby up all night. Ciao for now.
2 Month Check Up
July 12, 2007: We are back in NH after a long trip. Apologies to all 3 loyal readers of the blog for any delays in updating it. Today Casey had her 2 month check up. She is in perfect health. She weighed in at 10 pounds 14 ounces which puts her in the 36th percentile. She is 23 inches long which is 60th percentile. Still tall and lean. After all the good stuff at the appointment came the bad part, her shots. She had to get 3 shots in her thighs for routine vaccinations. She turned purple and wailed so hard when the first one went in. It took us about 30 minutes to get her to stop crying and she fell asleep and kept sobbing for quite some time. We gave her baby Tylenol for the first time. It was a rough experience for her, but even rougher on her mother! Besides that Casey has developed and changed so much recently it is just amazing. I feel as though I have figured her out a lot more and that makes things much easier instead of trying to guess why she is crying all of the time. We have established somewhat of a routine and when I can head off any crankiness by anticipating what she needs it seems to make for a much happier, calmer baby. Usually the days go like this: she eats, plays happily for about an hour or so, then takes a nap for an hour or so, then plays until it is time to eat again. The rotation takes about 3 hours. We do this all day until bed time. In general she goes to sleep around 11 or 11:30pm and has started sleeping until 5, 6, or even once, 7am! It is fantastic when she sleeps this much. She is rolling around on her play mat and has rolled over and back several times now. She lisfts her legs into the air and loves looking at her feet. She sucks on all of her fingers and often sticks her whole fist in her mouth. She is so responsive to us and we can play little games or sing songs that make her smile and laugh. It is hard to believe how big she is and how much she changes every single day.
East Coast Adventures
We took Casey on her first real road trip to visit a few cities and friends along the East Coast. We were in Delaware to visit Casey's Great Grandmother and her Great Uncle George. We went to the beach and Casey got her first fishing pole! We also visited Washington DC and Philadelphia. We saw all of the major sites. The highlight in Philly was running up the museum steps that Rocky ran up (see Casey in pic). In DC the highlight was seeing the Marine Corps marching band and silent drill team perform at the sunset parade. Casey was great the entire trip. On the 4th of July she was playing on her play mat and rolled over onto her stomach and then rolled back. On the way home we stopped in NJ to see Paul Giblin and his new son Paul IV. It was a great trip but we are happy to be back in NH.
First Swim
June 28, 2007: Today Casey went for her first swim in La La and Eddie's pool. James and I thought she would only last about 10 seconds before crying, but she seemed to be relaxed and enjoy it. We're off shortly on our first real trip. Heading to Delaware to introduce Casey to her great grandmother.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
June 25, 2007: Almost since birth Casey has been sleeping very well. On most nights I feed her around 10:30 or 11pm and she goes to sleep until about 5 am. This week however, she has regressed. She woke up at 4:30, then 4:00, then 3:00, then 2:50am. It stinks. She has also been a lot crankier during the days, with more bouts of crying. People keep saying, 'maybe it's a growth spurt'. Maybe. Anyway, she is still a wonderful baby all in all. We took her for her first hike today. We drove to Waterville and did a 4.5 mile loop which takes you to two peaks, Mt. Welch and Mt. Dickey. Both peaks are around 2700 feet with beautiful views of the White Mountains. I carried Casey up in the baby bjorn. Getting back into shape is challenging and keeping her little white body out of the sun is too- but we managed.
7 Weeks Old
June 18, 2007: Here are a few shots from today. The outfit Casey is wearing was mine 29 summers ago. Casey continues to change and develop every day. She is smiling at us more and more and makes lots of little cooing noises. It is so fun to play little games and sing songs to her and have her react to us with big smiles and laughs. Her baby acne has cleared up, she is not constipated anymore, and she is no longer throwing up. Her hair has started to fall out slowly so we'll see if she is going to be blond like I was or not. We are all getting used to eachother and it is getting easier day by day. I know Casey's signals and what she needs most of the time so thats helps alot. We put her feet in Newfound Lake yesterday and she did not like it because it was so cold.
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