A new day

Well, I thought I might blog and fill you in on Callan's last minute appt. yesterday. I feel like a different person. We saw Dr. Hamilton yesterday morning about her crying while nursing and refusing to take the bottle and basically in the first 3 sentences he said we were going to start formula and solids because she wasn't big enough. We have already been doing cereal and it has helped her gain a little weight but now he thinks the solids will help even more. He told me that he thought I had skim milk instead of buttermilk (ha) so I am supposed to quit nursing. I am pumping a couple of times a day for a few days to ease my discomfort but other than that I am very excited about not having to fight my child nursing or pump all day long. She weighed 11 lbs. 3 oz. which is still not good for her age but at least she is growing. We also cut bigger holes in the nipples of her bottles to help her get it faster. After watching her take a bottle (which she wouldn't) and watching her eat cereal (which she ate like crazy), he called her a maniac barracuda and decided she wasn't getting it fast enough from the bottle which is why she loves the spoon. Hopefully these changes will really help her pack on the pounds. She's got so many clothes I hope she can hurry up and wear them before the weather changes.

So last night Jack, Kimberly, and Henry came over for dinner and afterwards me and Kimberly spent a couple of interesting hours in the kitchen making Callan's baby food. She had done it with Henry so I was excited to be learning from a professional. We blended apples, bananas, mangoes, pears, squash, zucchini, and peas, and I still have avocado to do. It was a lot of work but I am excited about the benefits. She said we had made enough food in just a couple of hours to last at least a month if not more. I am excited to try some of it out. I am going out of town though so I will be buying some food for our travels. I am not about to thaw out, warm up, etc. while on the road. Hopefully I can continue making the food for a while (until she is eating more than I can make). At one point in the night Kimberly decided to see how apples would look on the floor (the blender messed up) so a whole bag of cut up, blended apples ended up on my kitchen floor, cabinets, rug, and Kimberly's legs. I think it was God's way of telling me my floor needing cleaning and I was avoiding it until last night. It was a fun experience though and I look forward to saving a little money from doing it! Here are some pictures of my food after I blended it and poured it into the ice cube trays. Pretty colorful!

Thanks again for all the prayers, calls and emails about C. We are excited to hopefully put some weight on our child and I feel a huge relief from all my nursing issues.

All Small and a last minute vacation

Well here is the new picture of peanut sporting her "All Small" Dr. Suess onesie. I thought this outfit was appropriate for her tiny little figure (although it was a little big). We tried on a Newborn outfit that morning and took it off because it was too big! We go back to the Dr. at 11:15 Friday to talk about the nursing and bottle issues. She basically just doesn't consume near as much milk as she needs and doesn't consume it easily either. We battle during nursing but she won't take a bottle either. It is the most frustrating thing I have ever had to deal with and I'm tired of people making me feel like it is my fault or I'm doing something wrong. Maybe we'll figure something out tomorrow. The second picture I just thought was cute.




Now on to the second part of my story. Will came in today and asked me if I wanted to go to Tampa. I said of course thinking he meant in October when we are going to see Carley!! But he actually meant this weekend. He said I could leave as early as tomorrow or as late as Wednesday of next week. So Sunday me and Callan will be flying (by ourselves!!! Ahhhh!) to Tampa to see some of my favorite people in the whole world. The kids don't know we are coming so it will be extra fun to surprise them. We are staying until Thursday. I will miss Will terribly because this is definitely the longest we will have been apart since C was born but I am very much looking forward to some time with my sis-in-law and family. Scott hasn't even seen Callan before and the kids only have once. I'll give a little shout out to Amy now. We have an awesome relationship. She is one of my best friends and I tell her almost everything! I am lucky to be blessed with 2 wonderful sisters-in-law which I know that is hard to come by but I always look forward to spending time with Amy because she is so far away. We soak up every single minute together. We are awesome shopping partners which only makes our relationship even stronger! She is due in about 3 weeks so this will be a very special trip because it is our last hangout before Carley gets here! Will and I will either be flying (if we can find a cheap flight) or driving back sometime in October to see our new niece. We wanted to give her a little time to adjust and get the grandparents out of the way so we have plenty of baby holding time to ourselves! JK! It is mass chaos at their house with us and Will's parents there. That would make 11 people and a dog in the house! We wouldn't do that to her (again!) Anyway, I am super excited and will take tons of pictures to post about my trip when I get home. Please pray for me and C as we travel alone to the airport and for C's Dr.'s appt tomorrow. I will try to post about the appt. tomorrow!

Peanut grew

I just wanted to update everyone on Callan's doctor's appointment today. She had gained 7 ounces in 2 weeks and Dr. Huffman-Parker was pleased. She said to her that just meant that she needed the extra calories. We had a scale here at home that we had borrowed to keep an eye on her weight the last 2 weeks and I was panicking because it never showed her gaining even one ounce, but obviously it was wrong! Also, I think I have been having a problem with my milk supply being low so I'm going to take some medicine and an herbal supplement to help with that. Hopefully that will help her stop crying while nursing. If she still seems hungry after I feed her we are supposed to give her formula or pumped breastmilk to make sure she gets all that she wants. Hopefully if my milk supply increases I won't have to give the additional supplement for long. We are still going to continue with the cereal 3 times a day and she said we could start solids if we wanted to but we don't really see any rush for that since they don't really contain many calories and that is what she needs right now. Hopefully my child will be wearing some of that closet full of clothes pretty soon. I just expect her to really start putting the weight on now! She finally weighs as much as I did at 2 weeks!!!!!!! Anyway, thank you all SO much for the prayers. We are very pleased and I honestly feel like a new person today! I have been a little stressed out lately (no comment Will). It makes us feel so good to have so many people asking about her and praying for her. God has blessed us with such good friends and family! I will post pictures of my fat child later!!

Anniversary trip to Memphis

I'm sure I can't do the trip justice with just a blog but I wanted to update you on where Will took me for our surprise anniversary trip. Saturday we celebrated 5 years of marital bliss and he had planned an entire weekend of fun. We headed out Friday morning towards Memphis (I figured it out after a few minutes). Will had put together a notebook with our schedule in it and he gave it to me as soon as I got in the car. I still didn't know what we were doing, only the addresses of the places we were going. Once we got to Memphis I was in the backseat with C giving her a bottle and wasn't looking around so I missed about 10 signs telling me where we were going but it made it more fun. I finally looked up to see the last sign say we were at the Memphis Zoo and Aquarium. The zoo is one of my favorite places on Earth so I was super excited! It took us forever to load up the stroller with all the things we were going to need for the day but once we got in it was perfect. The weather was not nearly as warm as it had been, C loved being outside in the Baby Bjorn and the animals were hilarious. We watched the sea lion show which was a highlight of the trip. We kept walking trying to find something to eat for lunch and when we would decide on a place and get there, it would be closed. That was frustrating! So I finally fed C in a bathroom (Ugh!) and we ended up leaving and getting some Chinese food close by. We have discovered that C's favorite animal is the zebra so Will took her picture in front of the zebras!

A sweet little duck that wanted out!

After we left lunch, we headed toward our hotel which I just knew was the Peabody. He kept saying no it wasn't but he was driving straight towards it so I was getting really confused. Finally we rounded a corner and ended up at the new Westin which Will's uncle built along with his company. I was so excited because I knew it was an awesome hotel but being as nieve as I am I never even thought we might be staying there. Well, let's just say that Uncle Glenn gave us the hook up! I don't want to spend too much time on this subject since I don't have pictures but it was an unbelievable room! The sign on the wall said it was $2,500.00 a night and we got it for free!!! It was almost as big as our house with the most desirable bathroom (and half bath) that you could ever imagine! C even had her own crib!! We didn't take many pictures of the room but we did make a Cribs video that you can come over and see if you want to!

We left that night headed to the Memphis Redbirds game where we got the $5.00 tickets to sit on the bluff. It is just a grassy hillside out past left field where you take a blanket and sit and watch the game. Nachos are my favorite food in the whole world so this is one of the reasons we went. Will got the famous BBQ nachos but I stuck with the regular. The weather was amazing but the company was best. It was just so nice to lay out on the grass with no worries. Callan ended up taking a little snooze. We left the game and took a walk down Beale Street with our 4 month old and then headed back to the Westin for bed.

Will practicing his pitch!

This child can sleep anywhere!

Our family photo

Beale Street at night

The next morning after some apple juice and muffins, we headed to my next surprise. We walked down a few blocks and ended up at the Peabody hotel where I am still confused. We finally ended up at a desk where I had to tell a lady my name and she said, "Oh you're here for your pedicure" and I said, "I don't know". Well I was there for a pedicure. Will had made me an appointment for a Fiji spa pedicure. He and Callan turned and went back to the hotel while I was getting that done. I walked back after my pedicure which was unbelievable by the way and we packed up and took the trolley down to the Arcade restaurant. It is the oldest restaurant in Memphis and the location for several famous movie scenes. Not the greatest food but fun to go there anyway. We then headed to the Memphis Farmer's Market where I got a cool t-shirt and then on to the Bigfoot Lodge for the most delicious dessert ever. It was a huge chocolate chip cookie cooked in a castiron skillet and served with ice cream. Amazing! After our extremely fun weekend together we headed home. When we got here we walked out on the back porch and there was an Amish swing hanging from the ceiling. He had surprised me one last time with a new swing! It is awesome! We have sat out there several times already. The trip was so nice because we really needed some time away as a family with no distractions (we didn't even take our computer!). Will made our anniversary so special and I am so thankful for him! I can't wait to see what he does next year! HA!

Us at the Arcade restaurant

Peanut

Well after the appointment today I am changing her nickname to peanut. She didn't have as good of a report as I wanted her to. She weighs 10 pounds 5 ounces and is 23 3/4 inches long. Her height has dropped from the 75 to the 25% and her weight has dropped from the 10 to the 3%. That isn't what we hoped for! The doctor suggested a few things to hopefully get her weight up but she has to go back in 2 weeks to have a weight check. Dr Huffman-Parker told us to start her on rice cereal 3 times a day....3 TIMES A DAY! Apparently that is a lot just for starting out but I assume she is just overdoing it so that we can see if she has gained anything in 2 weeks. We gave her the first little bit this afternoon and after a few practice times of her not opening her mouth she really seemed to enjoy it. Of course we video taped it and took pictures. You can't miss a Kodak moment. She wore her first bib today and looked so cute but I had a hard time when she actually got something on the bib. Anyway, we are going to try the cereal and hope she is bigger in 2 weeks. I'll keep you posted!

Just so you know, I was quite the opposite from a small child. I was 8 pounds 12 ounces when I was born and by 2 weeks I weighed 10 pounds 10 ounces which she still doesn't weigh at 4 months. Just for kicks, I have attached a picture of me at 4 months and Callan at 4 more. We are quite opposites. Will calls me the Michelin baby! It is an awful sight but it is such a funny picture that I have to share it.

A fun week ahead!

This week is going to be a good one for me and Will (I hope). We started the week off with an awesome night of Refuel at Creekside Church. Tomorrow is Callan's 4 month appt. and I can't wait to see how much weight she has gained and how long she is. She seems to be tall and skinny which I'm sure she won't mind but she is outgrowing some clothes so I know she is gaining a little weight at least. I'll update you later about her growth!

After her appt. we are driving to Huntsville to meet my dad, stepmom, brother, sister-in-law, and 2 nieces for lunch. My dad doesn't know yet so hopefully he won't read this until after lunch. I love to surprise him so hopefully we can pull it off! Will has to visit Huntsville Hospital for work so me and Callan are riding over with him and enjoying some family time while we are there.

Tomorrow night Will has a basketball game and I have Bunco. It is always nice to get away for a little while!

Then nothing extremely special the rest of the week until Friday. Some of you may already know from reading Will's blog but he has planned a surprise trip for our 5th anniversary which is Saturday. All I know is what to pack and what time we are leaving. I love surprises and I can't wait to find out what it is. He is so good to do special things for me on special days. I can't believe that we have already been married 5 years. I have an awesome husband. He is so good to me and such a good father to Callan. Don't get me wrong, sometimes we have "discussions" and things aren't the greatest but the best part of our relationship is knowing that the other person isn't going anywhere. I have never doubted Will's loyalty to me and I hope I haven't given him any reason to doubt mine. One of our biggest family goals is to try to have a positive outlook on things and not focus on the negative side of things. I am also trying very hard to be a better wife to him and to have a better attitude. We have shared a lot of tears but more than that a lot of happiness. I hope that we have many many more years together. I'm sure we will have a great time on our trip and I'll let you know where we go!