Watch me grow- 20 weeks

18 weeks old

12/10/11
20 weeks old
13.5 lbs
25 inches long

Catie Grace is growing up before our eyes! Our little one is now over 4 months old and continuing to get bigger! 

16 weeks old

During week 18, Catie had her 4 month check up at the Pediatrician office.  While there, they gave her another round of shots and checked up on her progress.  They charted her height and weight and told us that she is currently in the 50th percentile for her weight and 85th percentile for her height.  He predicted that she will be super tall like her daddy and slender.  Time will tell... :)

19 weeks

For the past several months, I have been growing out my hair, but during my birthday week I finally had it cut.  We took off about 9 inches and it feels SOoo much better!  It had gotten to a point where it would take close to 30 minutes to blow dry my hair in the morning and I wouldn't even bother trying to put hot rollers in because the weight would just weigh it down.  The shorter hair is taking some getting used to but it sure is more convenient and I can still pull in back into my trusty pony-tail.

Before

After

Around week 16, Catie found her toes.  She is now grabbing and pulling on her toes anytime she can find them without socks on.  Even when she has her socks on, she will drag her feet and kick them and try to rid her feet of her socks.  She is a 'free-piggy' kinds gal.  To counter this, we have had to start putting boots on her all the time, every day, or else we will find cold little toes being played with.

Now that basketball season is in full swing, Kelly and Catie don't ever miss a game! Catie is growing accustomed to the yelling and cheering that goes simultaneously with UK ball.  I have a feeling we are raising a little sports fanatic.

Watching Football on the TV and basketball on the laptop.  UK games of course

Playing in Grumpy's beard

17 weeks old

Knocked out

In the last video I posted, we were able to catch Catie doing one of her new favorite tricks to make us laugh.  She will make her squealing noises and then Kelly will proceed to do the 'Indian thing' over her mouth to make the sound fluctuate.  This has become a favorite pass time for the two of them and sure is a BIG smile maker.

Catie's First Fever and the Power of Breastmilk

 
Yesterday, at 4 1/2 months old, my baby got her first fever.

It started Monday night.  Catie slept very restlessly and stirred all through the night.  This was very unusual for her.  She usually sleeps soundly through the night and just wakes up a few times to nurse and she will then settle back down.  She was awake about every 45 mintues and could not be consoled with just nursing alone. 

Tuesday morning I took her to my mom's while I went to work.  When I am working, Mom usually gives Catie frozen breast milk that is about a month old.  Catie usually plays, laughs, drinks about 3 ounces of milk, and then crashes.  I usually arrive to mom's house after work while she is still sleeping.  But Tuesday was VERY different.  Catie did not want to be anywhere other than in someones lap, she didn't want to play and we couldn't get her to smile.  Mom checked her temp throughout the afternoon and she kept running a fever. 

To head to the pediatrician, the nurses really want you to wait till you get a really high fever before bringing her in for an appointment.  So Mom continued to comfort Catie and feed her till I was able to get home.  During that time, my little tall glass of water, who usually only eats 3 ounces while I am at work consumed 12 ounces!!  We pretty much knew that at that rate she would not dehydrate, but even with the extra milk and fluid, she was still running a fever and acting very sick.  She usually took LONG naps during the day too, but yesterday she only would take short 10 minutes naps and stirred through the nap.

After 5 hours with Mom, I finally got home and immediately nursed Catie.  She nursed for about 20 minutes and then fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.  While she slept, her fever broke.  She continued sleeping for about 45 minutes.  Soon there after, she woke up and immediately smiled and gave Mom and I a big ole grin.  We grabbed a few of her normal toys and she started laughing and giggling like our normal Catie Bug.  Shortly after, I fed her again and that lasted her through the rest of the evening where she laughed and played and squealed like her normal, bubbly self. 

This morning we woke, and the fever is still gone and she is 100% back to her normal routine and I have my happy baby back.  With that said, I am AMAZED at how my body produced the antibodies that Catie needed and it only took one feeding and about an hour to get through her system to eliminate the fever and destroy the virus.  The frozen milk that Mom was feeding her while I was gone was helping to sate her hunger but was not the antibodies that she needed.  She needed the living antibodies that weren't in the frozen milk, because I hadn't been exposed to this virus at that time.  Formula or frozen milk would not have provided the antibodies that my baby needed. Catie is now 20 weeks old and I can't imagine if I had chosen to quit breastfeeding by now. 

The most recent breastfeeding statistics show that 3/5 women start out breastfeeding in the hospital, when they have the assistance from a lactation consultant.  When the infant is 3 months old, those stats drop to 1/5 women are continuing to breastfeed, and at 6 months it drops to 1/10 women are still breastfeeding their infant.  I know it is a personal decision and there are other factors that weigh in, but after seeing the first hand effect that continuing to breastfeed has had for my baby is such a great motivator.  There have been a dozen times when I was emotionally 'OVER' breastfeeding because of the time and effort it consumes, but I am so thankful for the resources and family that I've been blessed with who continued to encourage me and now I have seen the benefits of continuing to provide this blessing for my baby. 

At most recent pediatrician checkup at 4 months, our doctor told us to continue exclusively breastfeeding and these past few days have defiantly been motivation enough to do that! 

I am still AMAZED at how He made the woman's body to grow a baby in our womb and then provides the means to feed and sustain life for our baby for months and months on end once they enter this world! AMAZING!!!

Catie's First Gobble-Gobble weekend :)

This was Catie's first Thanksgiving and it was a very special one.  For starters, we spent Wednesday through Monday house sitting for some dear friends.  

On Thursday, we headed out to Campbellsville to visit with my family.  We started out at my Grandmother's on my Mom's side then we headed to our big meal on my Dad's side. 

I LOVE my family and I couldn't recap the day's activities even if I tried!  Needless to say, it was full of great conversation, laughs, and unbelievable food!! 

On Friday, we traveled to enjoy lunch with Kelly's family out in Frankfort.  It was another opportunity to catch up with family and enjoy the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

Here are just a few of the pictures taken and I'll let them do the talking.

This train used to be Andrew's.  We got this for him for his first birthday and now Andrew is excited to share the train with Catie.

Granny Dee and Catie are used to being the center of attention :)

Daddy or Uncle?

This is the new thing for Catie.  She loves being upside down and then pull up and does a crunch

Kelly talking about Catie's ab muscles lol

Bed Time Shananagians

This is the typical nightly routine of play before bedtime.  I don't know who has more fun- Kelly or Catie Grace. 

Watch me grow- 15 weeks

10/29/11
15 weeks old
13.2 lbs
24 1/2 inches long

WOW! I can't even begin to start this blog without looking at this 14 week photo of Catie Grace looking at those LONG legs! I guess its no secret who she got those from. :)

Well first off, Catie is now ROLLING OVER!!! We truly are starting to have a big girl on our hands.  For a long time, she wanted to be placed on her side when sleeping and she would then occasionally roll over onto her belly from the side position, but she has now figured out how to roll from her back to her side to her belly.  The process of rolling from her back to her side is actually pretty amusing.  Catie does this 'air guitar' move where she slings her arm from her side, over the top of her head, and back down her belly, as if she is playing an air guitar.  After making her signature move, she will sling the same side leg over her body to give herself momentum.  Usually after about 3 attempts, she will be up on her side. 



Another developmental step we took around week 14 was that Catie started to really purposefully reach out for objects and to grasp hold of them.  Once she get a hold of whatever she is reaching for, whether that be your finger, her ladybug toy, or a stuffed animal, she will then proceed to carry on a full length conversation with it. (I'm going to post a video in the next blog that caught her carrying on a conversation with the ladybug).

13 weeks

14 weeks

15 weeks

Another trend we are starting to see more of is Catie sucking on her whole fist or her thumb.  She will usually just suck on her whole fist because it is much easier to navigate to her face.  When she does achieve getting just her thumb in her mouth, then she usually ends up poking herself in the face with her other four fingers.  It was just more recently that she figured out that if she left her hand open while sucking on her thumb, then she would avoid gouging out her eyes and scratching her face.

Caught that thumb

During week 14, Catie Grace went through a fairly large growth spurt.  We had a few days where she wanted to nurse just about every three hours, day and night.  It was during this time that I was reminded how grateful I was that we were choosing to co-sleep because we would not have been able to get through the days if we had to stay up and nurse her in the nursery, let alone if we had to actually get up and fix a bottle every time she started to cry.  But I also went through a learning curve myself during that week.  Kelly and I prayed and decided that the best method of family planning for the next few months was going to be for me to start on an OCP.  I did research and found that a Progestin-only OCP is the only one that  MIGHT be effective for me to use while still nursing, but I soon regretted that.  The very first day I stated on the pill, we stated to see changes in Catie and her behavior.  She wanted to nurse for longer periods of time and much more often.  She would also show signs of being very frustrated and mad after she got done eating.  These behaviors were ones that were very similar to ones we see if I would time my pumping badly and end up needing to nurse Catie Grace right after I had finished pumping.  Because there wouldn't be as much milk for her to consume due to the pumping, Catie will get frustrated after nursing because she is still hungry and we would have to wait for my body to produce more to satisfy her.  These were the same behaviors we were seeing that first day of taking the OCP.  I also noticed that when I would pump, I was not getting anything close to the normal amount.  So, you would think I would put two and two together to equal four right? NOPE! So we proceeded on with days 2, 3, and 4.  Each day getting continually worse and also during this time, Catie had not had a single dirty diaper.  We were going on four days of having a fussy baby, who was constantly hungry, and had not filled a dirty diaper in over 4 days.   It was at that point that we decided we needed to start eliminating possibilities that would create this much of a change in our daughter, and PTL the first thing we did was eliminate the OCP.  After 12 hours of no OCP, I saw a HUGE change in my production and Catie had her first dirty diaper in 5 days.  After 24 hours, Catie Grace was back to being satisfied after every feeding and my pumping numbers were back to where they should be.  Now now, I know what you are thinking, and no you will not be hearing another announcement in the next few months.  Even though this method of family planning didn't work, we are still pursuing other methods.  Our desire is to have a large family, but with about two years between each child.  We know we serve a Sovereign God and HE could change everything in a moments time, but for now we are enjoying Catie and planning for the future, but with a more natural approach.

Falling asleep on Daddy

Overall, it's been an extremely busy and active past three weeks and these are just the big highlights.  But in these hectic weeks, we have watched our daughter developmentally and physically grow leaps and bounds!

First Halloween

Yesterday was Catie Grace's first Halloween and she was the cutest lamb we have ever seen!!

October 31 has never really been a day that my family has seen as Halloween, but rather, it was my Papa Melton's birthday.  We would usually take a trip down on Halloween or the weekend close to it and celebrate my Papa's birthday, but this year was going to be a little bit different.  My Papa received his heavenly promotion this past January and this was going to be our first Halloween without him.  So instead of breaking the tradition, Kelly and I decided that we would still make the trip down to Campbellsville and we would take Catie trick-or-treating with my little cousin Andrew.  And what a fun and memorible trip it was!! :)

Andrew was making sure Catie was ready for the pictures

The Scarecrow and his little Lamb

Making sure her hands were warm

 We left Lexington around 2:30 and arrived in Campbellsville around 4pm.  Catie slept the whole way down, so we woke her up and fed her before changing her into her costume.  Andrew was a scarecrow and Catie Grace was his little lamb down on the farm. 

After getting dressed and snapping a few photos,we hit Taylor County Elementary school for our first stop.  The school sets up tables in the gym sponsored by different groups in the town and provides an opportunity to quickly rack up the candy by following the train of kids and parents. 

Waiting in line at the school

Holding her bucket while waiting in line

Kelly and Andrew

Out cold

Catie (little lamb) with the Black sheep and white sheep.

Through our whole trip in and out of the school, Catie slept.  After we made it through the school we headed out to hit three trunk-or-treats.  After her short catnap, she woke back up and enjoyed people watching.  While trick-or-treating, we couldn't walk 15 feet any direction without hearing, "Look at the cute lamb", "Oh how sweet", "Look at the baby sheep". 

Walking from one church's trunk-or-treat to the next

We walked and gathered candy till it got dark around 7pm and then headed back to my Granny's.  Catie got a clean diaper and a top-off feeding and then we drove down the road to visit my cousins Steven and Vanessa. 

Vanessa with little Catie Grace

Kelly being goofy

After more visiting and family time, we returned to Granny's for some birthday cake for Kelly.

Time with Granny

Laughing at Aunt Sharon

We stayed WAY later than expected and had TONS more fun than I ever dreamed of!  I am SOOoo very thankful for family and for the one we have been blessed with! Catie Grace will never know her Great-Papa but his legacy lives on in the family he left behind.