Kaitlyn's 1st Christmas

We flew up to Lodi to spend Christmas with our families. We did a ton of running back and forth between houses, but in the end we were able to spend time with both our immediate families as well as my extended family on both my mom and dad's side. Here's a bunch of pictures of Kaitlyn from our trip.


Our family together on Christmas Day

Cousin Mark with Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn getting hugs from her 2nd cousin Brayden while being held by aunt Linda

Kaitlyn with her dad

It looks like Kaitlyn is the only one who knew to look at the camera!

Grandma Harper with Kaitlyn and Gideon

Kaitlyn with her cousins on Christmas Eve

Me and Debbie with our little ones

Kaitlyn and Sam

Kaitlyn with her Aunt Kate

Kaitlyn with her Aunt Heidi

Kaitlyn hanging out under our tree

A family Christmas photo.....sorry, didn't get the cards out this year!

Babysitter update

Kaitlyn was great for the babysitter and slept the whole time except for when she was woken up to eat. Pretty easy cash for the babysitter and a relaxing, enjoyable night out for us.

Babysitter

Well it was bound to happen sooner than later, we hired a babysitter. Team Lodi (Heidi, April, and Charise) is throwing a Christmas party at their house Friday night. We were planning on bringing her along with us and just putting her on Heidi's bed to go to sleep for the night. Today we decided that it would just be easier to hire a babysitter to come to our place and let her sleep in her crib as she normally does. Heidi has done lots of babysitting for us so far, but nobody outside of family has watched her. Hopefully all goes well and it frees us up to relax and enjoy some holiday cheer.

My new do

I saw my friend Eileen the other day and she noted that my hair looked really long. I replied, "yes it is, because when you have a baby it's rather impossible to get your hair cut." She totally understood what I was talking about and let me know that she had not gotten her hair cut since Justin was born (7 months)! A few days later we came to the agreement to watch each other's kids so that we could get our hair done for the holidays. Monday was my appointment. I wanted to go short because Kaitlyn is at the age where she grabs my hair then subsequently gets her fingers tangled up in my mop. I also wanted bangs since I was already being 'daring' going short, I might as well go all the way and get bangs. I know it's not too daring to most, but to me I feel like it's a big change. Overall, I like it. Hopefully it will grow out nicely because I'm not sure when the next time I'll have a chance to get it cut again!

These aren't your mom's cloth diapers

.....but I still could not handle them for more than a day. My friend, Natalie, loaned me her set of Bum Genius brand cloth diapers. She used them with their daughter and liked them. She said she did not have a problem with blow-outs or leaks and it saved her a lot of money. The thought of free diapers sounded appealing, however I was skeptical about them holding in the goods. I figured I'd give it a try.

I will say that, to my surprise, they did not leak and held a good sized poo. However I could not handle the idea of taking off a dirty diaper and saving it for later. What I also did not like was that it was a hassle to get the liner inserts inside the cover and I also didn't like how they looked bulky under Kaitlyn's clothes. She's big as it is so adding a bulky diaper did not help the issue of her clothes already fitting tight.

I'm probably just a bit too lazy to do the whole cloth diaper thing, so I washed them all last night and I will be giving them back to Natalie ASAP!

The stats are in

I took Kaitlyn to the doctor today for her well baby 4 month check up. Her doctor told us that she is the size of a 6 month old! I guess there's something good in her milk. Here are the stats:

Weight 15 lb 12.5oz (95%)
Length 26.5" (97+%)
Head 16" (50%)

playing on the bed

Now that Becky has gone back to work, I get the luxury of playing full time parent Friday through Sunday. In our playtime I found that Kaitlyn loves the queen size bed, and gets excited when we play games on it. The best part about the games shown on the video is seeing Kaitlyn's anticipation of getting tickled by daddy!

Check out the video.

Little bundle of joy

I'm pretty sure I've fallen more in love with my little daughter this week. I can't put my finger on it, but it sure feels great.

*This picture is in appreciation for our new zoo passes and my hands-down favorite animals there.

Goodby swaddle, hello PJ's

We decided that we were overdue to wean Kaitlyn out of her swaddling wrap. We been either using a blanket or a swaddling wrap with velcro (or both at once!) pretty much ever since birth. She has slept so well this way that we've been hesitant to have her sleep without being swaddled. She has outgrown the wrap and her coordination with her hands is better now so she won't accidentally swat herself with her hands. Thus, to both her grandmother's delight, we've done away with the swaddle starting 2 nights ago. It turns out that Sam and I may have been more attached to the swaddle than Kaitlyn. We've had 2 straight nights of continuous sleep (9 hours), the same as she slept with the wrap. The only difference we see is that during her daytime naps, she seems unable to put herself back to sleep after waking during the middle of the nap. This has led to a challenge of getting her through her nap without waking up our whole building.

After a short time away....

Due to traveling and then coming back to work a ton, blogging has taken a side seat....but I'm back! Sam, Kaitlyn, and I went up to San Jose for the weekend to attend a wedding. Since Sam was the best man, I mostly had Kaitlyn duty all to myself. This turned into a bigger challenge that I would have thought. She was out of her routine and we were crammed into a hotel room. Needless to say, I forgot the camera (as well as some other essential items) in the hotel room for the wedding....no pictures :( We got back to San Diego and I worked all week except had Thanksgiving Day off. We had family in town all week as well as hosting both of our families for Thanksgiving dinner. Add that to having Kaitlyn waking up 4 times on Saturday night (very uncommon for her....teething maybe....or maybe just a bad night...) and you have yourself one tired mom. Here are a few pictures we got from Thanksgiving Day.

I think this is our first family photo since the hospital room.

The Marks family

Kaitlyn with her great grandma Frazier and her cousin Gideon

My sister, Kaitlyn, mom and me

Back to work

I started back to work on Friday. Everybody keeps asking me how it was and how I feel about it. My feelings are mixed. I feel stir crazy staying home all day and find myself bored often. In that case, going back to work provides me an outlet for my brain and body. On the other hand, going back to work.....is work. Also, I am having to deal with the never ending pumping that has to happen for me to keep up my milk supply. I had to pump 4 times at work on Friday alone! Friday was hard (11 hours), Saturday was easier (8 hours), and Sunday felt like a breeze (5 hours). All in all, it was OK and I'm actually looking forward to this Friday..but just a little! Here is a look at our fridge now that pumping is in full force at work.

Here's Kaitlyn chillin' in her Fall Dress

Let the baking season begin

Ok, so to prove that this blog is not totally about Kaitlyn (but I'll admit, it is about 95% about her) here is a post unrelated to our little tot. In my last day as a stay at home mom, I decided to make some cookies. The fall is a great time to bake, especially with some canned pumpkin. I tried out a recipe from my sister-in-law's blog. You can find the recipe here: http://larissamarks.com. I made some small changes from what was posted. First, I made 1&1/2 of the recipe because I didn't want the excess pumpkin to go to waste. I also used vegetable oil instead of canola oil. I used wax paper to line my cookie sheets instead of parchment paper (is there a difference?) I've never lined my cookie sheets before, but I thought I'd give it a try since it sounded like easy clean-up. I found that the wax paper left a stubborn scum on my cookie sheets that was much more difficult to clean than cleaning them normally. This may be because I used wax paper instead of parchment paper, I don't know???? They turned out ok. If they were less cakey and more sweet, I think I'd like them better. Overall, not a bad turnout for my first (and possibly last) baking session of the fall.

Kaitlyn meets Lodi

Sam, Kaitllyn, and I headed up to No.Cal on Thursday afternoon. We stopped for the night at my aunt and uncle's house in Fresno. There I was able to see my uncle, cousin (Jen) and her family. We were able to play with her adorable sons, however Kaitlyn thought she would introduce herself to them by crying at the top of her lungs. Jen promptly rocked her to sleep. The next morning we headed up to Modesto where we met up with our friends Josh and Edena. Josh and Sam headed over to the bay area for a bachelor party while Edena and I drove to Lodi to visit family and friends. We went to a baby shower and had a BBQ at my parents house. Kaitlyn met all of my dad's side of the family as well as my mom's parents. She met 3 great-grandparents in one weekend! Kaitlyn learned how to play the piano.....(can bat her hands on keys that light up and play music). This was the first time I've seen her touch something on purpose, so we all got very excited. Overall it was a great weekend. Here are some pictures from our time.

Kaitlyn with her mom and 2 grandmas at the baby shower

Great grandparents and grandparents

Who's that masked man?

Liz and Kaitlyn

Great Grandpa Marks

Kaitlyn can now play the piano

Grandma Harper, Edena, and Kaitlyn

Happy Birthday to ME!

I turned 28 on Friday so Sam and I celebrated that milestone with one great date the next day. We headed up to LA in the morning and dropped off Kaitlyn with her aunt and uncle, Paul and Debbie, for the day. We had tickets to Wicked waiting for us in will call at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. We sat in so much traffic on the way to the theater that I pretty much knew that there was no possible way that we would make it in time. The show started at 2 and by 1:30 we had not even gotten to downtown, let alone find a place to park, pick up our tickets, or eat lunch. Somehow we sat in our seats (with a full belly and after finding free street parking) 30 seconds before the play started. A miracle! I went in with high expectations after hearing great reviews from everyone who has seen the musical. I was not disappointed. The music, acting, costumes, set, special effects, etc. all came together beautifully to keep my attention for the whole 2hr45min production.
After the play we picked up Kaitlyn and headed back to San Diego where my sister, Heidi, was waiting at our condo to watch her for the night. We went to Bucca de Beppo for a nice dinner with great service (Thanks April!) and then headed to The Sofia Hotel. We won the room at a silent auction fundraiser a few months back and decided that this would be the perfect night to use it. Sam slipped in that it was my birthday when he checked us in so we were upgraded to a suite and found a complimentary bottle of champagne chilled in ice when we arrived! I guess it never hurts to ask! This was one of the nicest hotels I've stayed at. It's a boutique hotel so it has little details of charm that made the stay wonderful. It also probably helped that we didn't have a crying newborn to worry about!
To top off my birthday extravaganza, when we arrived back home the next morning, Kaitlyn greeted me with a huge smile and laugh. It was probably the happiest I've ever seen her, and it made me feel GREAT!

A pic from the "Orchid Suite":

These are a few of my favorite things

Here is a list of the most useful baby things I've found so far (in no particular order) and why I like them so much:

- Sling (Hotslings): Kaitlyn ALYAYS without fail will go to sleep in it within 5 minutes. This makes it easy to take her places during her nap time (or bedtime).
- Baby monitor (Sony Baby Call): It shows when the baby is making noise by lighting up lights. The more lights lit, the louder she is crying. This is great for the shower when you can't hear it and can only see it.
-Swaddling blanket (Swaddle Designs Ultimate Receiving Blanket): This is no ordinary blanket that you just wrap your baby in. It is large and lightweight so that you can get a tight wrap that our little Houdini can't work her way out of at night. Would never have thought to buy this pricey blanket, but we've used it every night since we received it as a gift from Sam's office.
-Sleep sack (Kiddopotamus): We use this under the swaddling blanket for extra protection from a middle of the night escape.
-Breast Pump (Medela Pump in Style Advanced): This double electric pump works on both sides and works fast. I can now pump a whole feeding in less than 10 minutes. Since I used it about 7 times a day for the first 2 months of Kaitlyn's life I've gotten my money's worth already. I know it will come in handy for me as well when I go back to work in a few weeks.
-Quick Clean MicroSteam bags (Medela): You can put all of your pumping equipment as well as bottles and nipples into the bag and pop it in the microwave for 1 & 1/2 minutes. Everything is disinfected without having to scrub or run the dishwasher. Good for traveling too. My sister in law turned me onto these (Thanks Deb!).
- Baby 411: This has been my go-to book for all q's relating to babies. From sleeping and eating to growth and developmental milestones....this book has it all.

Photoshop Fun

Sam played a bit with Photoshop yesterday and this is what he made:

BVH Tennis

Kaitlyn and I headed down to Chula Vista yesterday to watch Bonita Vista play Otay in Tennis. My sister, Heidi, is the coach. Kaitlyn wore her #1 Fan outfit to the match that Heidi had custom made for her. On the front it says BVH Tennis and the back says #1 Fan. This was an important match for Heidi's team since Otay is a good team. They beat Otay earlier in the season and ended up beating them again yesterday. We'll probably be heading down again on Friday when they play the Catholic school (who beat them in a close match earlier in the season...they're the "team to beat"). GO BARRONS!

Breastfeeding breakthrough

Many of you know that Kaitlyn has had a difficult time breastfeeding ever since birth.  We have been supplementing with a bottle of breastmilk after every feeding since she has never been able to get a full feeding on her own.  I've been going to a breastfeeding class 1-2 times per week.  At the class I can weigh her before and after breastfeeding to see exactly how much she's eating.  The scale is very sensitive and measures in ml.  She was stuck eating 2 1/2 ounces for a while (normal feeding size would be 4 oz).  Last week she made some progress and ate 3 oz (now a typical feeding should be 4-6 oz).  Today I took her in and she ate 5 oz!!!!  That's a full feeding.  This will now allow me to stop giving a bottle after she eats and also frees me up from pumping as much (I had been pumping 7 times a day for a while).  I feel like all the hard work we've put into getting her to eat normally has finally paid off.  It's taken her 9 weeks to get it, but better late than never.

More pictures

A gift from grandma

Grandma now has her hands full

Grandma came to visit

One of Kaitlyn's first smiles (around 5 weeks old)

Having fun with her cousin Gideon. They are only 4 weeks apart! (7 weeks old)

Marks family vacation to Dana Point

On our way to church in her new dress (8 weeks old)

It's taken me 8 1/2 weeks....

Well it's now here.....a blog for our family....but in all honesty, it's mainly to post Kaitlyn updates and pictures! My brother and sis in law just announced that they are pregnant and already have a blog going (check it out here www.familymarks.net), so that's what really made me realize my procrastination.

Here is a quick recap:
Birthday: 8/9/08
Weight: 8 lb 15 oz
Height: tall (I forget the exact lenght)

At 2 weeks she was 1 lb under birth weight, diagnosed with acid reflux (prescribed Zantac), and we started supplementing her feedings with a bottle.
At 4 weeks she got cradle cap pretty bad and it caused her to go partially bald in spots.
At 5 weeks, hematoma on head went away, colic-like behavior ended, reflux seemed to improve, and she started smiling. Week 5 was GREAT!
Favorite song: If you're happy and you know it....

2 month checkup:
Got 1st set of shots
Weight: 11 lb 11 oz (55%) (gaining weight well now, but still using bottle every feeding)
Height: tall (again...I forget the exact length, but 95%)

Ok, enough with that stuff....here's some pics:

Happy because I have my epidural in (one of the best decisions I've made in my life)

Our new baby (with our doctor)

3 generations

She slept A LOT at the beginning

Still in womb possition