Caroline Update - 3 months

so sorry for the hiatus. i've slacked on my home improvement projects as well. so i promise i'm not just neglecting my blog. i'm neglecting everything except my family. :)

little Miss Caroline is amazing. she's such a good, happy baby. we've been using the BabyWise book as our general guide, and we've had great results. it's helped get her on a schedule of feedings and sleeping. that's saved us alot of headaches trying to figure out what's causing her to cry (which is usually not that often at all).

in the past month, she's really coming into her own. she's smiling ALL THE TIME. after eating, we usually will take her to her changing pad and talk to her. she will try her best to talk back to us, but all it sounds like right now are babbles and high-pitched squeals. :) but she will talk up a storm. after talking for a while, we usually put her under a play yard on the floor where she can watch and play with some toys. she has been reaching with her LEFT hand! Baba is so excited (a fellow lefty).

she's recently found herself in the mirror, and she'll just smile and make faces at herself.

we went to visit my mom's parents in Fort Deposit a few weeks back. we got a 4 generation picture while we were there.



Caroline loves cheering for Alabama in her jersey that Aunt Laura gave her!



Daddy is so silly! i think Caroline was a little scared here. :)



okay, when i said Caroline loves football, i wasn't joking. she'll lay on her stomach or on her side watching football just like this every Saturday. and it's mainly just football. she's not really a big TV person otherwise. here she is, watching Bama put a whoopin' on Florida! Daddy would have been in the picture, but he was at the game live! :)



i took this picture of her today while Mommy took a nap. isn't she just the sweetest little girl ever???? :)

Caroline - 2 months highlights

in case you can't see all of the embedded video, you can click here.

you must watch this video....

like it says on the YouTube page, if you don't cry a little after watching this, you have no soul. :)

Click here.

I don't believe in jinxes, but i think i might....

just when we get excited about how things are going, we post about it on Facebook or here on the blog, and poof, it backfires. :)

it's not big things, but just little things. like, the first time we let her sleep until she woke up in the morning, she slept like 5-6 hours. we bragged on her on Facebook, and the very next night......i think we may have each gotten about an hour and a half.

then, we get excited about how well she's doing on a schedule....eating and sleeping like she should during the day, then boom! she starts refusing to eat on time, and she gets her sleep/wake cycles off during the day.

on Sunday, an older gentleman at church asked if Caroline had been sick yet. we replied, "not yet!", to which she promptly developed a cold that night. so we've been fighting that all week. we think she's finally getting over most of it.

so that might explain why we're pretty lax at updating on here and on Facebook. :) i really don't think that saying, "we're doing great.....think we'll be sleeping through the night in no time!" will make Caroline freak out at us and purposely rebel. but it seems like that's happening more and more.

okay, enough whining. i am so proud of how Brooke is doing with Caroline. she has done amazing! she takes such good care of Caroline all day and all night. i've told her this many times, but one of the reasons i fell in love with Brooke is because i knew she'd be such a good mom. that being said, she has exceeded my expectations!

here are a few of our favorite pics so far:

VIDEO: Caroline - Napping

VIDEO: Caroline - Coming Home

Picture Time

Caroline's first 2 weeks

we can't believe that Caroline is already 2 weeks old! our new life with Caroline has been interesting so far:

1. Sleeping - so far so good. she's sleeping well at night overall. we let her get good and full from the last feeding of the day, then wrap her up in a double-swaddle, and put her in her swing. most nights, she'll go 4 hours before we have to wake her up to eat! then, after her overnight feeding, she'll usually go right back to sleep until morning. we've also found that she prefers to sleep on her stomach, but we don't let her do that overnight. we'll let her sleep on our chest during some daily naps, and she sacks out!

2. Eating - so far so good again. Brooke has done a great job with nursing Caroline. she'll eat every 3 hours during the day on the clock.

3. Diapers - also pretty good. a few times, we think she's been a little constipated. it's so funny how excited we get about poopie diapers now! ah, the life of a parent! Caroline isn't the biggest fan of getting her diaper changed. she's not really fussy from dirty diapers, but doesn't like getting changed.

4. Baths - not a fan at all! she's bad enough when we have to strip her down to change her. she's even worse when she's totally stripped down and getting a sponge bath! her cord hasn't fallen off yet, so we can't get her fully wet just yet. maybe she'll get into it more when she can splash around some.

5. Smiling - getting better every day. she hasn't smiled at anything we've said or done yet, but she will smile on her own after feedings. it just makes that dimple on her left cheek jump out! plus, she does giggle some when she's dreaming. we can't wait until we can make her laugh!

6. Outings - awesome! we took Caroline out to church on Sunday (July 11th) for both services, and she did wonderful! we fed her right before we left, and she just sleeps in her carseat (which she seems to like so far). we even got to go out and eat with our church friends after church Sunday night, and she just hung out! she also got to go to her first VBS last night at Shades Mountain!

7. Visitors - Brooke's mom (Baba) stayed with us for most of the past 2 weeks as we got acclimated at home. she was SUCH a BIG HELP!!! she would hold Caroline, sing to her, help get her to sleep, let us sleep, let Brooke get a shower, and be a HUGE encouragement to us. thank you, Baba! we also have had so many visitors from church come see us! so many have brought food and gifts! we are so blessed to have so many good friends and family!

8. Hiccups - most every day. she had them alot in the womb as well. and it has carried over to outside the womb. it seems like it would bother her, but she seems fine....just annoyed. maybe she'll outgrow those soon. :)

i'm sure i've left off something, but hope it gives you an update on our new life! we've been so blessed with such a sweet, contended little girl, and we thank God everyday for letting us raise her!

stay tuned. i promise we'll post as much as we can.

More pictures of Caroline

more pictures are on our Facebook pages. she continues to be just a super-good baby! eating well, sleeping well, and even a smile every now and then (from a full belly). we couldn't be happier!

Caroline Taylor

she's here! 7 lb 4 oz. 20 inches long. mom and daughter are doing great!