Katelyn, Conner and Caleb! » November 2004 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Tue, Nov 30, 2004 6:49 PM
I'm not feeling so well right now. Aches, fever, upset tummy, and I'm exhausted. Eric heated up some TV dinner for me this evening so I wouldn't have to do anything.

Thanksgiving went well. We ended up turning a 4 hour drive into 12 hours though. We combined traffic with a big snowstorm and a nursing baby and it just went slow. Both kids handled it amazingly well. But when we left, we decided to travel during the night so that we didn't need to stop as often. We made it home in record time but both of us were exhausted.

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Mon, Nov 15, 2004 9:36 AM
Katelyn got a ride back to her "Sunday School" (aka the nursery) yesterday on her Great Grandma's lap. As soon as she got there, she went right in and then motioned for Grandma Shields to come in too. :D Made her grandma's and great grandma's day to see that.

My Aunt and Uncle finally got to meet Conner. I really enjoyed letting them hold him. They just became Grandparents 6 months ago so they're really enjoying babies right now. And my Uncle has always enjoyed babies. It was really nice chatting with them after Church. I really get along with them both.

Conner has suddenly become a lot more alert these last couple of days. He still sleeps a lot but when he's awake, he's looking all around. He's taking after his big sis that way.

We decided to go ahead and introduce a pacifier to Conner. I hate doing that because of the way that Katelyn became addicted to hers and started to prefer it to eating. But I also really hate hearing Conner cry in the car when we go places. He does eventually fall asleep most times but I'd rather he was able to fall asleep right away without crying. I finally decided to use the pacifier when I realized that with Katelyn, I was still riding in the back seat with her at this point. So I could give her a pacifier or let her suck on my finger. I can't fit back there with two car seats. So my options are to let him cry (Ugg!) or to let him have a pacifier. The pacifier is definitely the best of those two options. We also started to use it at bedtime. He gets himself so worked up because he is so tired. He won't nurse, and he likes to be rocked, shushed, held tight and patted all at once along with sucking on a finger or pacifier to fall asleep. After nights of trying to figure out how to calm him, I finally realized that I simply do not have enough hands to do it all. So we tried a pacifier. He fell asleep instantly. I don't let him keep it in bed and I'm not using it during the day (depsite Katelyn's best efforts to give it to him whenever she can) so I think this will work out.

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Sun, Nov 14, 2004 6:14 AM
Ok... an update as to why I haven't be updating here this week and why I haven't even responded to all posts "to me" on the forums or lists this last week...

Eric has been out of town. Yep... I was managing the home with a toddler and a 3 week old without him here. It was... interesting. But it went better then I expected. Katelyn learned to go to bed by herself. I'd help her into her pj's, get her water, pray with her and stuff like that but then I'd give her a kiss and say good night and let her read in bed until she fell asleep. If she hadn't taken to this as well as she did, my week would have been miserable. As it was, it wasn't the easiest because I got to stay up nursing Conner and trying to get him to sleep while I waited for Katelyn to fall asleep so I could turn out her light but at least I wasn't trying to hold and nurse Conner while I also was trying to keep Katelyn in bed and lying down so that she'd fall asleep.

The great thing about this is that it's bled over to nap time also. I can put her down for her nap and she (for the most part) will stay there while she falls asleep. Naps, I don't mind if she doesn't sleep if she stays on her bed. She really needs the sleep though so she does eventually fall asleep and wakes up in a much better mood.

It was a little funny to watch Eric this morning though. I'm exhausted (what do you expect after last week?) so I stayed home. I might go to church for Sunday School but for now I'm home with Conner (who is asleep). Somehow last week, I managed to get Katelyn, Conner and myself to church in time for the 1st service, just about on time, dressed well, hair done and everything all by myself. I even got a shower in for both Katelyn and myself.

Today, Eric got himself around, got Katelyn showered and fed. I dressed her, prepared the diaper bag and did her hair. Interesting that he couldn't do it alone. I might have been able to sleep in longer.

Conner just woke up...

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Mon, Nov 8, 2004 6:23 PM
I can share my secret now... my sister is expecting her second child and is due next spring! She's just starting to show. Congratulate her if you are reading this and live in town!

Conner went to church for the first time yesterday. It was a lot of fun. There were actually people who hadn't heard how he was born... can you belive it? (Said tongue in cheek since Eric tells everybody he possibly can...) But one of the more fun things was when people would ask me how big he was and I'd calmly reply, "Oh, only 9 pounds." I got the strangest looks when thay realized that I considered him small compared to Katelyn.

My Mom and sisters say that he looks a lot chubbier then he was last week when they saw him last. Since those pictures I just put up are a week old, imagine him with some chubbier cheeks. He sure is growing. No fears there. It explains why he wants to eat all the time though.

Katelyn has been very nice to me these last couple of days. I have bedtime duties this week and so I decided to work on getting Katelyn to go to bed on her own. Prior to this, we would snuggle her to sleep... she'd get a story, we'd pray and then we'd lay down with her, hold her there and both Katelyn and whichever parent was there would eventually fall asleep. This worked but it was frustrating. Eric was becoming convinced that she'd never learn to fall asleep on her own and didn't like giving up part of his evening like that even though he really enjoyed the snuggle time. So last night I decided to just put her in bed with a book and a sippy. We prayed and then I kissed her and told her that I needed to go feed Conner. I left a little light on for her and stepped out of the room. I came back in a little later and she was curled up in bed, the book on the floor. I told her how good she was being, kissed her again and then walked back out. She cried a little later and I when I went in, she was trying to get out of her pj's so that her diaper could be changed. She did get up once to see what I was doing but found me in bed feeding Conner. I scooped her up, put her back in bed, tucked her in and she stayed there after that. Two hours later she finally fell asleep. Not too bad for a first time.

Tonight, I did pretty much the same thing... pj's, prayer, book and sippy in bed, light on and she was on her own. It only took half an hour this time for her to fall asleep. When I peeked in on her before she fell asleep, she was on her back carefully reading about Harold and the Purple Crayon.

I'm going to try keeping this same routine this week and see if it'll become habit for her.

Katelyn is such an actor... she was sitting on her bed while we played with Conner and suddenly fell backwards off it. I set Conner down and went to get her right away to make sure she was OK. She cried a bit and then wanted down. I went out to switch laundry and when I came back, she was sitting on her bed in the same place... she scooched off the bed and laid down where she'd fallen and started pretending to cry. I giggled but picked her up and comforted her. She wanted down again and ran over to the spot where she'd fallen, laid down and started to "cry" again. I had to laugh so hard. She did the reinactment a total of 3 times. I think we're going to have to take her to audition at the Civic when she's older. :D

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Mon, Nov 1, 2004 2:24 PM
I must be making buttermilk this time around! Conner had his 2 week appointment today. This is the appointment where they're looking to see if the baby is back up to their birth weight or not. Conner was.... 10,6! Nearly a pound and a half above his birth weight and over 2 pounds gained from his lowest weight. I knew he was doing well but didn't realize how well!
His birth height was 20.25 and his length this appt was 21.5.

I have to laugh about the poor nurse though. She asked how often Conner eats. I told her anywhere between 1/2 and 3 hours. She looked a little odd and then asked if I could narrow it down for daytime. I couldn't and then gave a little laugh and said, "He just eats whenever he's hungry." I know she wanted something like, "Every 2 hours," or something more consistent like that. But this boy doesn't believe in consistency between feeds right now. Unless of course, it's the consistency of always being hungry.

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