At Three Months Old, Callie is:

*Smiling more frequently and readily

*Rolling from her tummy to her back (she's been able to roll from her back to her side for a while): Video to come


*Talking baby talk

*Laughing

*Still sleeping through the night (I don't know how I would student teach otherwise). She frequently ends up upside down, sideways, and with her covers thrown off.

*Eating a TON

*Trying to sit up (when she's laying on her back, she tries to sit up by lifting her head sometimes accompanied by grunting and a look on her face of trying with all her might)

*Sucking on her fingers (no particular one, she just shoves whichever fingers she can into her mouth)

*Starting to use her hands to grab things (my hair, my shirt, my arm, her toys, her clothes, etc.)

*Bringing great joy to her mommy and daddy!

One Month Old

Callie is now one month old! I can't believe how quickly time is going. During Callie's first few weeks, my parents, sister Andrea, and Andrea's two kids visited. My mom stayed with us for almost a month--she was such a great help to us as we adjusted to having a baby. I loved spending time with my sister. I don't get to see my sisters often enough so that was a special treat.

My recovery has been more difficult and...complicated than I had anticipated. The first 3 weeks were especially hard, but after many tears, seeing 3 different doctors (4 visits total), and taking 6 different medications, I am on the mend and am feeling much better.

Callie is doing wonderful. For the most part, she sleeps great at night. She's been going to bed around 8:00 or 9:00 and only wakes up once or twice during the night. I love being home with her all day.

Here are some things she enjoys:
-sleeping (especially in anyone's arms, but she does well in her crib too)
-eating
-tummy time (but it usually doesn't last long)
-her pacifier
-her swing
-car rides

Here are some things she doesn't enjoy:
-baths
-being naked
-having her diaper changed
-being put in or taken out of her car seat (although she loves being in it while the car is moving or while daddy swings it)

I've posted a lot of pictures on my facebook, but here are some recent pictures of her as well as a video. The video is for Grandma Black (too big to e-mail).

Callie is finally here!!

Callie arrived on July 10 at 12:11pm weighing 6 lbs 10 oz and measuring 19 inches tall. Here's her birth story:

Everything was ready. Bags packed, house cleaned, laundry done and put away, room set up, both grandmas in town, and all I had left to do was wait. Callie's due date was July 6, but she wasn't ready to come yet. I had a doctor's appointment that day and the doctor said I was maybe dilated to 1+ (I was at a 1 the week before). I had been having contractions the week before and they progressively got stronger as the days went by. By Friday morning my contractions woke me up and were getting painful. My mom and I went about our day doing various things and that evening I started keeping track of my contractions. They were 5-9 minutes apart for 3 hours straight and were getting stronger so we decided it was time to go to the hospital.

When we arrived I was at 3cm, but I did not progress over the course of an hour. The nurse thought we'd be sent home but called the doctor to let him know my stats. He was concerned that my blood pressure was high initially so he wanted me to stay the night and take some tests to make sure things were looking good and then send me home or keep me depending on if things progressed.

They discovered that I had a bladder infection, so they decided to put me on an IV and get some antibiotics into my system. I continued to have very painful contractions a few minutes apart during the night. I was in so much pain (augmented by the infection), but they didn't seem to think I was really ready to have the baby. They gave me some strong pain medication, but it mostly just made me so loopy I didn't really know what was going on. By the second dose, it wasn't even doing that for me. At some point I progressed to 5cm and then my water broke so they finally decided to give me an epidural (it was way past time in my opinion).

The epidural was wonderful! I was finally able to rest and not feel the pain. Within an hour I was dilated to 10cm. The nurse was pretty shocked. She had to check a few times just to be sure, and then I began to push. In our prenatal class they told us to plan to push for 2 hours and then if it was less we would be pleasantly surprised. Well, after almost 3 hours of pushing, the doctor asked if I wanted him to use forceps to help her out. By that point I was completely exhausted and in a lot of pain in my lower back (we found out later that the mattresses on the bed had separated so I had a nice chunk of metal digging into my back), so I gladly obliged and it wasn't too long after that that Callie was delivered.

The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice and she gulped some amniotic fluid before coming out, but it wasn't long before she was okay and breathing fine. I can't even describe the incredible feeling of relief, excitement, and amazement when I saw my sweet baby girl for the first time. Suddenly I forgot about all of that pain and how tired I was. The only thing in the world that mattered was that beautiful little girl. She is so sweet and doesn't cry much (yet). She has mostly slept through her first 22 hours of life. Jason and I are so excited to finally have her here!

Day 1 of Freedom!

Today as been my first non-holiday, non-sick weekday without school or work in a long time!! I must say I am thoroughly enjoying it. Finals ended on Thursday, and Friday was my last day working.

We go to Jason's parents' house on Sundays for dinner and usually stay late. On Sunday nights, I typically start feeling stressed about school the next day, the studying I should have done over the weekend, and the need to get to bed at a decent hour. Last night I felt so relaxed and carefree. I didn't have anything to stress about because Monday was coming, and it really didn't matter what time I went to sleep. It was awesome. Jason, on the other hand, plays basketball at 5:00am and then works all day, so this time he was the one pushing me out the door. Now I get to stay at home and nest until Callie comes!

2nd Anniversary

Jason and I celebrated our second anniversary on Saturday!

I had to take my Praxis exam that morning (part of teacher certification), but I came home to a clean house (including candles and music) and my sweet husband, ready to spend the day with me. We didn't do anything elaborate, but we had a wonderful day just spending time together, playing basketball and games together, watching a movie, and we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner (one of our favorite restaurants). We thought it was pretty funny that when we got married it was about 107 degrees outside, but two years later in Utah it was in the high 50's. For our anniversary, Jason had one of our engagement pictures printed on a 12x12 canvas to hang in our room. I'm so excited to see it!

36 Weeks

Baby things and Us things

Over the past number of weeks, more like months, Jason and I have been very involved in preparing and planning for Callie's arrival. As each weekend approaches and we think about what we want to do together, our plans usually involve doing "baby things." This past weekend I asked Jason if he wanted to do more "baby things" on Friday night and he responded that he wanted to do some "us things" instead, so I surprised him after work with a picnic in the park and a short game of catch (part of his on-going attempt to teach me how to throw and catch a baseball. Even though my parents joke that I was raised on a softball field, I never really mastered the catch and throw myself). We had a great time together!

My pregnancy is still going well and is coming to a close! We're down to weekly doctor's appointments now (no progress yet toward labor). I feel like I'm carrying around a basketball of a tummy, and I think it's getting pretty squished in there because of the smaller amount of food that fits in my stomach at one time, the shortness of breath, the difficulty in bending over and getting up, etc. I'll have to post a picture soon.