3 Months Old

I am a little late posting (partially due to

my blogger app messing up) but Caroline is now three months old. Ironically, most people say that the time flies by so fast but Kyle and I feel like these past three months have went by very slowly. 

At three months old, C is quite the growing girl. She weighs 13 pounds and 5 ounces. She is filling out all of her 3-6 month clothes pretty nicely already. She is the absolute queen of inconsistency. Some days she will drink 4 ounces of formula every 3 hours. Other days she will refuse to drink any after 2 ounces and she might not drink but 2 ounces every 4 hours. Some days she will nap in her swing for 3 hours around lunchtime and some days she will take 20-30 minute naps all day (which has happened the past couple of days.) She generally is not much of a daytime napper though. We have kept the same routine for night time with bath time at 7:30 and bottle/swaddling at 8. She has been sleeping anywhere from 6-9 hours at night, which is great. If she only sleeps 6 hours, we try to rock her back to sleep and she usually takes a while to fall back to sleep and if she actually does she will squirm for a couple of hours and not get into a good sleep. A week ago she regressed to waking up 3-4 times a night after we laid her down. Mama and daddy lost lots of sleep but we still love our baby girl and it's worth it. 

The nine months that I was pregnant I read so many baby blogs. Of course I want to be able to lay Caroline down and her be able to fall asleep on her own. Around three weeks old she started to really change as a baby so I started trying to lay her down for naps and at night for her to fall asleep on her own with not a lot of success. After a few weeks (and sleepless nights) we started rocking her to sleep and therefore here we are now with our nursery rocker moved to the living room. :)

New things we are doing at three months old are fun, though! C love love loves her play mat. She will lay her on back and look at herself in the mirror and kick the piano mat at her feet for at least thirty minutes. She yells and smiles quite frequently. She also LOVES the television…a whole lot. I know that right now she cannot understand what she is watching but I have already started the baby Einstein videos and kid's shows on Netflix. Nana has also bought us a TV for the car that helps keep C entertained during car rides. She loves to sit in her vibrating seat and listen to me take a shower and dry my hair. She has found her hands and tongue.. And loves to put her hands in her mouth. 

I have been back at work for two weeks now and taking call for surgery again, which is quite hard. The first weekend of May was my first weekend on call and of course nana spent the weekend with us to help daddy when I got called in for emergency surgery. Work isn't getting any easier and ten hour shifts on my feet after usually being up at night and not falling back to sleep easily has been very difficult. To be honest most days I am barely hanging by a thread and have learned to not judge anyone until you have walked a mile in their shoes! Never did I know that baby life was physically this difficult and I admire the mamas with several young children who make it look so easy. Or those mamas who always look like rock stars with their baby on their hip because that is definitely not me these days and thats okay with me. 

We have lots and lots of pictures from this month!

So tired of this already! 

C has changed so much already! Ready for her to start looking more like mama! 

Talking with Granny Martin before going to Uncle A's graduation. 

My brother's girlfriend is the best! We were actually friends before she was friends with my brother! And yeah I cut my hair off and saved myself 7-8 minutes of blowdrying! I feel like such a mom now. 

Went to church with nana and pop. Made it through the service wide awake.

😳

 

We visited Granny and Papa Martin's house after church. My mama is one of 8 so we have lots and lots of cousins and family on this side. Always makes for a fun time. Millie Kay loved giving Caroline kisses. Her daddy and I were buddies growing up and hopefully they will be, too.

 

Spending time with Uncle Bundy! 

  

Then we went to Aunt Pam's house to grill out and play with Cousin Molly Kate. She loves to hold her baby dolls and play "Caroline."

Visited mama at work a couple of times.. My co-workers used the recovery room glider to take turns rocking C! Thankful that they are so understanding of me being a new mama back at work. 

Daddy did so good bringing C to mama's work.. Even though he remembered the diaper bag, he forgot the bottle... And to change her out of her spit up clothes. But we will take him! ;) Thanks to the OB floor for lending us some formula. 

Nana brought her this day.. Wednesday's are the longest days ever and I have to be away from her a full ten hours. 

"Hi, mama!"

Libby loves Caroline very much.. So much that she follows her everywhere. 

We visited Big Daddy at his cabin he is building and C had a good time. In case you couldn't tell, she looks like her daddy and his daddy!

Visiting with Grandma Shelby.. She thinks  C is pretty special! 

Hanging out with daddy in her shades. Too cool to hang with mama. 

Evening strolls for that last nap of the day (before witching hour!) 

We met Polly, her mama Anna Beth, and Polly's Aunt Claire at the park and strolled for quite a while while catching up. Then these girls hung out watching the birds and the trees! So sweet. (C was 3 months old this day.)

We got brave on a Friday night and went with our friends Brooke & Ethan to eat in Fairview. Usually at this house we have a fussy britches on our hands but she stayed awake the entire time and was very content! She must have listened to me before we went it when I told her that mama wanted to enjoy her steak. :)

Then we took some silly snaps...

Yesterday for Memorial Day we went to Cousin Heath and Nicole's lake house. Although it was cloudy and rained most of the time, we still had fun. 

Most of the kids all playing together. It is so weird and awesome to think that their parents and I used to all play together and grew up together and now we are watching our kids do the same. 

 

C's first (and not last) river trip!

To sum up this post, this past months as been really fun and really hard. It is so easy for social media to portray our lives as "perfect" as if everything is peachy twenty-four seven, but I have had some issues going on and I am so thankful for a husband and mom who pushes me to get out and enjoy this time with Caroline. We can't wait to see what she will be doing at 4 months! 

Need. Sleep.

Too busy to do a long post... But this week has been super hard. One of the hardest weeks of my life. Caroline has regressed to waking up sometimes four times a night and not wanting to go back to sleep. I have went to work twice on 1-2 hours of sleep, including today. Working with (demanding) surgeons at 0730 on an hour of sleep and taking care of a newborn doesn't make for a good day. Needless to say, mama and daddy are not in good spirits this week. Fully relying on God to pull us through. But here is a picture that makes me smile. 

Praying to make it through another week. :(

Mother's Day 2015

Yesterday was Mother's Day and we dedicated Caroline to the Lord at our church alongside our friends Tyler and Amber Kelly and their baby girl Maggie. It was a sweet time for us as we vowed to raise our girls in a home that fears and trusts God and our families promised to do the same. I don't think C and Maggie could have been any different though. Maggie slept through the entire dedication and of course my little energizer bunny was wide awake and staring at the crowd the whole time. We had to poke the paci in halfway through but she ended up doing fine. 

 

We celebrated lunch at Cracker Barrell with our families and C changed into her sweet little VB bubble... I just love her in it. 

We got home and she passed out in the swing from around 5:30 to 8... I ended up unswaddling her to get her to wake up for bath time and she was passed out! Poor baby.

To be completely honest, motherhood has been the biggest challenge I have ever faced. It has not been easy and I have struggled very much so. To tell you that we have the perfect life now with a precious baby girl would be a lie. But I can't imagine life without Caroline now and I ask God continually to carry me through each day and night and to give me patience. And he has carried our family this far. We love our chunky little doll so much and every tear I have cried has been completely worth it. I am so proud to be her mama. 

Weekend Fun

Mother's Day 2015 has a new special meaning to me since it's my first one with my daughter. I am so proud to be her mother and so thankful God entrusted me with her. I can't imagine life any other way now. 

The past few days have been fun. Thursday after I got off work we went to visit daddy at the fire station. Caroline was so happy to see her dad! 

Sitting up like a big girl in the back of my car.

Thursday night Uncle A spent the night with us since daddy was at work. He is literally the best uncle ever.. I'm pretty sure he takes after my mother with his love for kids (especially his niece.) He helped give C a bath and watched her while I got ready for work Friday morning. He also helped me get Bruce back in the house after he got out and was in the street! 

Saturday we went to the Cody Renfroe Rod Run. Our family (Dusty Darnell) puts this event on every spring to honor Cody (a firefighter who was killed in a house fire) and we had a good time looking at cars and bikes. It was right up Daddy's ally. C got dolled up for a warm day outside. 

Passed out listening to the music in the sunshine! 

Today is Caroline's baby dedication at church and I can't wait to share my post from it. The weekends almost over but has been great already! 

Workin' Mama

Well my first week back to work is in the books and I am so glad the weekend is here! Luckily my first few days back we got finished with our surgeries early and I was home by lunch and boy was I happy to get out the door. I missed my little C so much! Whew. The tears definitely came every morning on the way to work. Next week probably won't be any easier, but I'm glad that her daddy got some practice keeping her and some bonding time. Here are phone snaps from this week. 

This picture cracks me up! She is such a little sassy girl. 

This picture looks so much like my baby pictures! Unfortunately she has started to scratch her face when she gets sleepy so we have accumulated a few scratches. 

Sweet sleepy girl in the car with her adorable cheeks and lips.

Before our (very long) Cinco de Mayo celebration at Rosie's!

Daddy and C having a talk in the car. 

Family picture! 

Visiting daddy at work on a pretty sunny day. 

Pink fire truck for my pretty in pink girl! 

 

Uncle A spent the night with us while daddy was at work and helped out so much. These two will be the best of friends. 

Well that wraps up week number one of being a working mama. I wish I didn't have to work and could stay at home but that's not the case. I'm just trying to deal with what I can and enjoy every minute with my girl. 

Wedding Fun

This is my official last day of maternity leave before I return to work tomorrow. I am actually taking it a lot better than I thought I would.. But tomorrow morning hasn't actually arrived yet. So thankful I wear a scrub hat and masks everyday... I might be hiding tears for a few days. 

Yesterday we traveled to Rainsville for my good friend Emily's wedding. We drove up to my parents a few hours before so we could spend some time with them, Andrew, and Victoria. Our original plan was for C to go to the wedding with us and then return to my parents after the ceremony for barbecue and wings, but nana convinced us to leave C with her and head on to the reception. It didn't take much convincing considering nana and C are best friends. Emily and Jared's wedding was spectacular and the reception was phenomenal... So beautiful. The band and the food were such a hit! 

My high school friends.. Meg, Leah, & Hannah. 

Bad photo quality but BEAUTIFUL bride... Seriously stunning. 

So glad I got to catch up with these girls. Photo creds to my date who didn't want to be in the pictures but thoroughly enjoyed the bride and groom's cake! :)

And of course I have to throw in some silly shots of Caroline! 

Funny girl! Anyways.. I hope my posting doesnt slow down too much when I get back to working all week. Prayers needed for this mama tomorrow and all week!