2012 is Almost Gone...

It is so crazy that 2012 is almost over! Last year, my family was in Tallahassee to ring in the new year with us. They were celebrating in our new house, Ellie was still puppy-sized, and the thought of having a baby was just an unfulfilled wish. This year we'll be ringing in the new year as a family of three (well, seven if you count the animals). We have lived in our house for over a year, Ellie is a full-grown lady, and we have a five week old baby. Crazy what a difference a year can make! So, I'm going to take a trip down memory lane and reminisce about an amazing year :)

The family last year around this time!

Champagne to help ring in 2012!

January || Josh's dad visited and we went to an Antique Car Museum in Tallahassee. My dad NEEDS to visit that place!

Elvis Rocking Out at the Car Museum!

February || We celebrated Valentines Day with some delicious takeout Thai food and split a bottle of wine. My last glass of wine until after I gave birth to Miss Caroline!

Valentine's Day Dinner!

March || We conquered our first painting project in the house, adding an accent wall to the living room. We still LOVE it. || We found out I was pregnant on St. Patrick's Day. I made the decision to wait to tell anyone until I could tell my parents in person! Hardest secret to keep EVER! || I got an amazing new camera, which was my early "push" gift from Joshua!

LOVE my camera!

This is me the day we found out we were pregnant!

Painting the accent wall. I suck at painting!

April || We had an amazing Easter Brunch at Chez Pierre. I had to order orange juice in lieu of a mimosa because, unknown to anyone but me and Josh, I was pregnant! || We went to Atlantic Beach to spend some quality time with my parents. This is when we told them that they were going to be grandparents. They were quite happy about this :)

Ready to go to Easter Brunch at Chez Pierre!

With my parents in Atlantic Beach!

May || I traveled back up north to Allison's UVA graduation! It was so much fun, as trips back home to see the family always are!

On The Lawn at UVA!

June || We finally announced the pregnancy to the world (as in, made the Facebook announcement!) || Later in the month we discovered we were having a baby girl! We were thrilled! || We took on our second painting project in the house: The Nursery!!

Gifts we bought Caroline after finding out she was a girl!

Paint for the Nursery!

July || We spent a week in St. Petersburg helping Josh's parents clean his grandparents' condo. We're going to miss the view in the picture below.

St. Petersburg, Florida!

August || We spent a weekend hanging out with Holly and Justin who were in town for a football game. Always good to see people from back home! || Josh spent a week in California and Las Vegas visiting his friend Doug. Meanwhile, I went crazy at home by myself for a week! || We celebrated our two year wedding anniversary! Soo crazy to think it has been that long. I like my husband :)

After lunch with Justin and Holly!

Souvenir from California!

September || We traveled to the Outerbanks to spend time with my parents and Josh's parents. It was so nice to get away from the "real world" for a while and see family! ||

30 Weeks Pregnant at the Beach!

October || Allison, Jessica, and Holly hosted an AMAZING baby shower for me in Virginia! It was perfect and I had SO much fun spending time with everyone. || We went to a pumpkin patch to get pumpkins, and then did some awesome carvings, all while drinking sparkling pumpkin cider. || We went to a Halloween party thrown by one of Josh's coworkers. Josh won best costume with his Office Space themed getup! 

Princesses at My Baby Shower!

Pumpkin Carving Fun!

Hybrid Halloween Costume!

November || I celebrated my twenty seventh (that's a big number) birthday. My awesome Joshua surprised me with an iPad!! || We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner! I cooked it while nearly 40 weeks pregnant; pretty impressive if I do say so myself! || My beautiful Caroline Quinn entered the world on November 25th. She is PERFECT!! || My mom came to Florida to help Josh and I around the house while we were introduced to the world of parenthood!!

Amazing Birthday Surprise!!

Thanksgiving Dinner!!

Only Minutes Old... My Little Caroline!

December || Josh's parents visited after my mom left and helped more with Miss Caroline! || We celebrated Caroline's first Christmas and it was so much fun! She had no clue what was going on, but it was still very special.

My Lady's First Christmas!

So, it was a wonderful year! The whole year seemed to lead up to the "grand finale": our baby Caroline! And she was well worth the wait :) I hope everyone else had an AMAZING year!! Have an awesome New Years, everyone!

Little Miss Healthy!

Miss Caroline had a doctor's visit today and she is very healthy :) She is gaining weight just like she should, which makes me very happy!! We just need to start making sure she lays with her head pointed to the left sometimes; she only likes laying with it pointed to the right and that side of her head is getting a wee bit flat. Silly baby.

This was the first appointment Josh had been able to come to, and I think he really enjoyed it. He was carrying her around with such pride; he loves showing off his little baby girl!

YAY for having a healthy baby - that's what every parent wants :) Ours just happens to be super cute, too!

Caroline's First Christmas!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! Ours was awesome and very special, even if the little lady that made it special was super high maintenance and hungry all day long ;)

My Christmas started with me trying to get Caroline to go back to sleep after her 11pm feeding. The last time I looked at the clock it was around midnight, so that's how my holiday started ;) She then woke me again at 2:30am for another feeding, and again at 5:30am for yet another! Silly, hungry lady! I woke up around 8am and stuffed Josh's stocking, started the coffee, got the Christmas tunes going on my iPhone, and waited for my two sleepy heads in the back bedroom to wake up!

 

Opening gifts was delayed since she was yet again hungry (she truly is my daughter). We all sat on the floor to open gifts together (on the comfy rug from my mom; so much nicer than sitting on the wood floors!). Miss Caroline decided sitting in her high chair on the floor was lame, that sitting in her swing was lame, and that her dad's lap was the ideal location. This meant he held her almost the entire time, so I had to open all of the gifts. This means opening gifts took about twice as long as it should have. Silly Caroline :) We got some great stuff this Christmas - very spoiled!! Caroline got some great gifts, too. Such a loved baby <3 We finally got to eat the breakfast casserole after gifts were opened and diapers were changed. And, most importantly, I got to drink champagne! My first drink of champagne in a year and it was wonderful. I didn't even mix the orange juice in because I wanted the real thing!

After breakfast, we video chatted with my family in Virginia! My grandma got to meet her newest great grandchild - her fourth one!! :) After we talked to my family, we got on webcam with Josh's family. Technology makes Florida holidays so much better! Traveling with a one-month-old wasn't really an option this year!

We spent the day taking care of a needy baby, relaxing around the house (unfortunately, it was raining, so a walk wasn't an option), and playing with our gifts! I kind of didn't realize how late it had gotten and how long dinner would take, so we didn't eat dinner until about 8pm! It was delicious, though. Ham (from my office), sweet potatoes (my Aunt Linda's recipe that Josh LOVES), green bean casserole, and rolls. I also made cherry cheesecake for dessert, which was delicious! We just kind of collapsed on the couch for the rest of the night and enjoyed the silence since Caroline had FINALLY decided she wanted to take a nap :)

We miss everyone so so much and hope you all had a great holiday. Thank you everyone for the gifts and the Christmas cards; it helps us not feel quite so far away :) Love y'all! Now I'm excited for Allison to visit us next week!!! WOOHOO!

A Rare Outing.

We are trying to avoid taking miss Caroline out in public as much as we can (flu season is the culprit), but sometimes the outings are inevitable. This week's necessary outing: the post office. Josh is so busy at work that he doesn't have time to go to the post office, so it was an outing Caroline and I had to take on. Oh, dear.

The task was simple. Mail two boxes: one to my parents and one to his parents. We couldn't afford to get them much this year, but we did get them a little something. This task took three attempts.

Attempt One: Caroline and I show up at the post office at 1:31pm. Apparently they close from 1:30pm-2:30pm for lunch. Lovely. There's a line of people inside but we are locked out. We went home.

Attempt Two: Caroline and I show up again at 3:00pm. The line is outside the door. I drop most of my packages trying to balance them in her (lesson learned: use stroller next time). The second we walk in she starts screaming bloody murder and everyone stares at us. I then see my packages don't fit in any flat rate boxes and I'm too cheap to buy their boxes. Nope, nope, we went home. 

Attempt Three: We show up around 9:30am. We use the stroller. Line is nearly outside the door but we squeeze in. My boxes (reused Amazon boxes from my house) are already packed. We're in line for nearly an hour, but we got them mailed... SUCCESS! And every old lady in the place (it was mostly old ladies) loved Caroline because she had the hiccups which echoed through the quiet post office. They didn't try to peak at her, thankfully. She was shielded from everyone's germs. Attempt three was a success, YAY!

So, lessons learned:

Stroller is your friend.

Pacifier is your friend.

Preparedness is your friend.

Making sure baby has full belly is key!

Now we are back home safe from the obnoxious, germy outside world. And, hopefully, our family's packages will get to them by Christmas!

Random Thoughts Blog.

Random thoughts blog on this lovely Sunday morning!

• Last night Josh and I experienced our first baby blowout. I think he described it best on his Facebook:

"It finally happened, that thing every parent gets at some point-- a blow out. It's that moment when your baby, who has been constipated for days, finally lets her bowels go. The entire front of the diaper and back of the diaper is consumed by the foul matter before it starts exploding out of the top of the diaper and all around the legs.  

Nothing was safe. The onesie and pants were absolutely covered. I should have been a surgeon. The skills I used to get all of the clothing off of Caroline without making her more uncomfortable was mind-blowing.  

On the bright side, I found out that Caroline likes semi-bath showers."

• I have truly enjoyed having my non-pregnant body back. This morning, Josh went to the store and brought back donuts and I could successfully do my "Kaitlin happy dance," which consists of twisting my body around... something that was impossible with a baby in the belly! It feels good that my shirts are once again long enough and my pants once again fully button. Some pants I couldn't get up past my expanding thighs now fit with no problem - score! I have lost 25 pounds since she was born, but still have more to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm not stressing over it; what's the rush? At least I'm no longer craving donuts. That should help the cause ;) I would like my wedding rings to fit again, please. Shrink, fingers, shrink!

• I think she has outgrown her first outfit. The one pictured below. It's newborn size and her little legs are now too long for it. Either it shrank or she grew, but it will be the first outfit to be removed from her closet and placed in a tub to be packed away (I'm planning to save all of her clothes in case future baby #2 is also a lady (or a boy who's very fond of pink)).

First outfit to be outgrown!

• Wine is just as amazing as I remembered it to be. I'm not exactly chugging it, since I'm breastfeeding. But, the small glass I can have every night is amazing! I have to drink it right after I feed her so the booze can leave my system; don't want a drunken baby! Beer hasn't really struck my fancy, but wine... amazing!

• We're still trying to figure out who she looks like. It's pretty hard to tell at 3 weeks old. She definitely got Josh's dark brown eyes. Apparently her eyes were blue when she was born, but quickly turned color. We think she got her nose, but it's hard to tell because she still has "baby nose." Her hair on her head is brown in some lighting and blonde in other lighting (just like mine), but her eyelashes are super light colored and her eyebrows are ridiculously blonde - she may have gotten the Rose blondness :) She got her dad's toes, as I knew she would. And she is a lanky little thing, just like both of us. I was never a chubby baby, and I don't think she will be either. 

• She has finally reached her birthweight! I have been supplementing her with formula to get her there, and she gained about half a pound in two days because of it! I don't mind supplementing with the formula, as long as she's getting some of the good stuff from me, as well! It's nice because Josh can help feed her with the formula after I feed her. She has her next doctor's visit on December 27th, so we'll see how much more weight she has gained soon!

• Buying Christmas gifts for a newborn is difficult. I want to fill her stocking, but everyone has been so generous and given us so many things, I don't even know what to put in there! Josh and I aren't really giving each other gifts this year since I'm on unpaid maternity leave (come on Christmas bonus! We need you!) so I'm not sure how eventful Christmas morning will be. We haven't taken her to see Santa Claus this year because flu season is so bad and she's so tiny and fragile, it's just not worth the risk. Next year we'll start taking her to see Santa, going to see Christmas lights, and filling her stocking with amazing things. This year, I don't think she really has a clue what's going on :)

• It was so nice having our families here to help us out! They also helped make our home feel more like a home :) My mom bought us an amazing area rug for the living room, bought us two new awesome pans, and helped us get our Christmas tree! Josh's parents got us some great lamps for the living room, set up a dimmer light for the living room because ours was SO bright, and fixed the wiring for our TV so we didn't have to get an electrician. They also all fixed us some great meals, which provided us with leftovers until Thursday! I guess I'll actually have to start cooking now ;) Next visitor is my sister, Allison, YAY!!! She's visiting in January and then going to Disney World for the first time - wish we could go with her, but a newborn in Disney World sounds a wee bit stressful.

• The dogs and cats have been great with Caroline! Ellie is by far the most interested in her; she makes a great big sister :) She loves to rest her head on Caroline while she's in her swing and just watch her. It's absolutely adorable. The rest of the pets sort of observe her from afar, but Ellie is a hands, er, paws-on friend to her.

I can't think of any more random things at the moment! Caroline is in her swing right now and it sounds like she may be pooping - LOVELY! :) Oh well, as long as it's not a blowout like last night, we're happy!

Miss Caroline Quinn

Well, my last entry was three weeks ago and titled "39 Weeks." Two weeks ago would have been "40 Weeks" but, as most readers know, I didn't make it that far. Miss Caroline made her arrival one day before her due date... at 1:59pm on November 25, 2012.

Josh and I joked that I had to wait until after the FSU v UF game to go into labor. The game was on Saturday, November 24th. I went into labor about 3 hours after the game ended. Such a good wife :) I had felt odd all night, so when we went to bed around 10:30pm, we put a towel down and opened the shower curtain just in case my water broke. After only about 5 minutes in bed I had a strange feeling, leapt out of bed, ran into the bathtub, and immediately my water broke. I am as blind as a bat without my glasses on, so I had to ask Josh what was happening, haha. He said, "we're having a baby!" We got everything ready to go and were out the door and headed to the hospital by 11:30pm. 

We were in triage for.so.long. Apparently there were two girls ahead of me: one with twins and another that was only 30 weeks along. Both had emergency c-sections, so I was not a priority. We finally got a delivery room early in the morning on Sunday. Miss Caroline was facing the wrong position, so I was having back labor, which was horrific. I felt like my back was going to explode. Once they took my vitals, I went straight into the jacuzzi tub for some slight relief. Then, it was just surviving the contractions until it was time for the epidural. Josh was a great coach and helped me through each contraction.

The epidural was rough considering my back was in so much pain and they had to find my spine. This wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't have scoliosis. The lady said she had done hundreds of epidurals on women with scoliosis and only had issues with one of them. Well, apparently I was lucky number two. The epidural only worked on one side of my body. My right side went completely numb since it was getting tons of medication. My left side was feeling everything. They fixed it somewhat by replacing the needle, but it never fully worked. Lovely!

Josh and I waited and waited and waited until the time to push. We "napped" (he actually slept; I didn't since I was still feeling contractions). The epidural pretty much stopped my contractions and they had to use Pitocin to start them up again. Sunday afternoon arrived and it was finally time to push! The pushing was super easy; not a scream fest like in the movies. Unfortunately, little Caroline was stuck and her heart rate was changing, so they suctioned the poor baby out. For the past two weeks she has had a battle scar in the form of an enormous lump on her head; yesterday, it disappeared!

The feeling of having them put that little baby (well, 8 pounds 4 ounce baby) on my chest was surreal. I couldn't believe that tiny human had just come out of me, that she was the little thing that had been wiggling and hiccuping inside of me, and that I was holding a baby for the first time and that baby was mine. I was so distracted and probably in shock that I have no clue what was going on "downstairs" as the doctor fixed me up.

We were in the hospital for two days following her birth. She did amazing and did great on every test  - healthy baby!! We had no privacy in the hospital and I learned there's no room for modesty there. They just look at whatever body part they want whenever they want, haha! It was... interesting :) I didn't sleep at all for those three days - nursing her and all the visitors kept me from sleeping. 

Our parents have been helping us over the past two weeks. My mom helped us the first week and Josh's parents were here for the second week. They were all so helpful. Not only did they help with Caroline, but they helped fix up our house and it feels so much more like a home now - it looks amazing :) We loved having them all here to help. Next helper: ALLISON! Hurry up, January!

So, Miss Caroline. She's amazing! She's beautiful and is seriously so sweet. She just wants love all the time (which can be exhausting, but it's super sweet). She is healthy but not gaining weight as quickly as they want, so we're having to supplement her with formula after I feed her. She's going to fatten up a bit, I hope :) But she is absolutely perfect. All I wanted was a healthy baby, and I got one. She just happens to be pretty awesome, as well!!

I will update this blog more, of course! The past two weeks have just been very busy for obvious reasons :) Right now I am having "Kaitlin Time" - a bath and a glass of wine! I waited nine long months for this moment!

Perfect baby <3