10 Weeks! Pics from time with Pa and Abuelita (Eepa)

Caroline's 10th week was especially blessed because it began with a wonderful three days with her Pa and Abuelita (whom grandchild #1 has taken to calling Eepa, so that will likely be her grandparent name! But we'll stick with her chosen name a bit longer!) These are Kev's parents, btw, for those of you who don't know us as well and might have trouble keeping track! They came with the stated intention of babysitting for a night to give us a date. Saturday night we took them up on that. But we had a full day Saturday BEFORE the date. While I was at Weight Watchers, the rest of the fam went to B.R'Us in search of a play set for Caroline (one of those pads on which the baby lies with various toys, mirrors, etc that either hang over head or can be placed on the floor for tummy time) and to pick up a few other things as well. We grabbed some lunch en route to the park where Kev and I went for a hike/walk early in the third trimester- the profile pic for this blog was from that hike. It was a GORGEOUS day (and it has been a GORGEOUS week this 10th week of Caroline's life!) and so we wanted to take the walk around the lake that we took a few months ago. And walk we did. Here are a few pics from that walk. She slept peacefully the whole time as Pa pushed her around the lake. Abuelita and I got way ahead and had a good conversation as we walked.






So that last one is of a smile in sleep, which she has been doing since week one, but which we've never caught on film before. I was loving shooting pics in the natural light and was just snapping away when- shazam! I caught it!

I had been pumping diligently all week and we managed to get enough milk for three bottles, almost 10 ounces! We went out for a nice dinner and a movie. We got all dressed up, we looked pretty snazzy. No pics of that though. We checked in after dinner and all was calm at home. So to the movies we went. Caroline was sleeping soundly, and had been for a few hours, when we got home after 10. She had only had two of the bottles and woke up shortly after we got home ready to eat- and I was ready to feed her! It worked out perfectly! And what a gift! Thank you Pa and Abuelita for making a special night for mommy and daddy possible! What. a. gift.

Sunday, we all worshipped in both services. Caroline spent most of the morning pooping (we've been spending so much time waiting for and then celebrating poop these last 10 weeks!) But we did manage to make it through both services with occasional trips out to handle necessary business. Caroline sat with Pa and Abuelita while mommy and daddy sang with the choir in the second service, twice.

We returned home to a delicious pot roast (one of the Once A Month Cooking recipes- EVERY. SINGLE. RECIPE. HAS. BEEN. DELICIOUS!), but Caroline was inconsolable for most of the lunch time. She really needed to sleep. She was awake for most of the morning which is not normal for her. We think she was so upset because she was past tired. Kev's parents suggested that we might take her for a walk or go for a ride or something. As it was another beautiful day, we all got in the car and rode over to a park in the city. She fell asleep practically as we were getting her into the car. We took another lovely walk together and she slept through most of it. We had frozen yogurt for dinner, mmm... from our favorite shop! And then came back for cribbage.

All in all... a GREAT weekend.

The only downer from the weekend was that it felt like I wasn't getting any sleep. It felt like Caroline was eating a bit, falling asleep, waking up a bit later fussing, eating a bit more, falling asleep, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat... This is exhausting.

So I decided early this week to try a more intentional night time feeding plan. Basically, when Caroline wakes up I get out of bed and get her out of wherever she's sleeping (the co-sleeper or our bed) and I get into the glider and feed her for 10-15 minutes on one side. I listen to my iPod to keep track of time and keep me relaxed but awake. I then burp her and switch her to the other side for another 10-15 minutes. Then I put her in the co-sleeper, or our bed, and let Kev know her status. If she's not quite asleep, he'll be on baby duty, trying to get her to sleep either in our room or out in the livingroom if she's quite worked up. This worked really well the first night. But the second night (Juniper warned me about this on facebook!), well, the second night was confusing and I think we ended up missing a feeding to the distress of sweet Caroline. I think that maybe Kev woke up at 3 thinking she had just been fed, but in fact she hadn't been fed since 12. He spent the better part of the next three hours with an inconsolable little girl whom he ended up driving around for nearly an hour to get her to sleep some. When he woke me at 6 I was totally confused... And she was CRAZY hungry. So I rocked her and apologized profusely to her and she ate, and ate, and ate... I felt pretty good that day, but daddy and baby were wiped out.

We agreed after that that we needed some sort of plan to guarantee that we wouldn't get too confused in our exhaustion. The plan is simple really. When I am finished feeding Caroline I will tell him what time it is. And if she is inconsolable for 30 minutes or longer, he'll bring her to me to eat. Things have been fine ever since. But now I know how long my nursing is taking and how much this eats up a night. And wow. I am not getting nearly the sleep my body requires. That said, at least now I'm approximating full sleep cycles. And hopefully the stretches between feedings will stretch out little by little.

If I figure out how I may have some videos to post. Abuelita would sing with Caroline and get her to sing along. It was fabulous to watch! We've taken to trying this too! I think we have a video of Abuelita and Caroline singing together (though it wasn't one of her more involved singing times!) And we have some video of Caroline on her play mat! I wish we had a picture of her on that because it was a big part of this 10th week, but ah well... another time. She does quite well on there. It really seems she's trying to roll over in her tummy time. She is close! And she really looks at the baby in the mirror.

The last few days she has become quite a kicker, even when she's happy. It often seems like she's trying to swim away.

We get SO MANY more smiles these days, and she's "talking" more and more. Oh, we are so, so blessed.

A few more pics for good measure:

First with Abuelita! They had such special times together this past weekend!


Next with Pa and Abuelita. We delayed our photo shoot until late Sunday night. Caroline was too tired by then. So, no face shot, but a great one of them, no?


And isn't this the cutest thing ever? Caroline spent a lot of time on one or the other of us in the glider this week. And a lot of time sleeping on us this week. She's sleeping on me as I type this actually!