Working, Working, Working

I hate when I take on work and promise it by a certain date without realizing just how much effort it's going to take. I've been up to almost 1am the last two nights working and will probably be up just as late tonight. That wouldn't have been such a big deal in the past, but when Carter gets up to eat once during the night and then is up early, it doesn't leave me with much time to sleep.

It was really nice today. Carter and I went for a long walk with Sarah and Meredith and their kids after Baby Bookworms. Then we spent a little time out in the yard this afternoon. Here's a picture of Carter playing with one of the toys my mom got him. He thinks he can fit anything in his mouth!


The grass is finally growing and turning green. It's time to get the mower out. Hopefully it'll be drier this weekend. My first soccer game of the season got rained out last weekend. I'm really hoping for dry and warm weather the following weekend though because that's when I'll be running the half-marathon. The last time I ran it it was in the 20s.

Grandma's Here

Carter has been getting LOTS of extra attention the last few days because my mom has been here visiting. And he got lots of presents - new toys, books, and summer clothes. He's going to be one styling little man this summer with all the cute stuff he got!

I love that it's staying light later, but Carter hasn't really adjusted to daylight savings time all that well. We tried slowly moving his bedtime up so that it's at the same time as before daylight savings time started. Now it's taking a lot longer to get him to settle down enough to fall asleep. And I'm still letting him fall asleep on me after eating before putting him in his crib (since he needs to stay upright for 20 minutes I can't really prevent it) and lately he's waking up as soon as I put him down and getting really upset. Once we do get him down and asleep, he's waking up a few times in the next couple of hours screaming. Sometimes we pick him up and sometimes we let him get himself back to sleep on his own. I think we need to change our bedtime routine some in order to make it take less time to get him down and also figure out if we're going to go to him or let him "cry it out" and then be consistent.

However, once Carter's gotten to sleep, he's slept AWESOME the last two nights. He didn't get up to feed either night. He got up at 6am Sunday morning and 5am this morning. And this morning he went back to sleep after eating until 8am.

We got a little further on getting the office together this weekend - we added 2 bookcases. Now we just need either a desk or console table to go between the bookcases and we'll be set on furniture for that room.

Go UT!

Here's a picture of Carter showing his love for UT!


UT is playing in the SEC Championship game today. We had season tickets for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Our seats were getting worse and worse though because we don't donate and since they would require us to buy a third seat for Carter if we ever brought him along, we decided to not get tickets this year. Maybe next year we'll get tickets again.

4 Month Checkup

Carter had his 4 month appointment today. Here are his measurements:

Weight: 13 lbs, 13 oz - 34th percentile (13 oz gain since Feb 17th)
Height: 23.75 inches - 17th percentile (0.5 in gain since Feb 17th)

His head measured 42.5 cm which the doctor mentioned was around the 75th percentile. Even though Carter's dropping some with the weight and height percentiles, the doctor said that all his measurements were fine.

Carter got all the same vaccines that he'd gotten at 2 months. He of course screamed and turned purple while he was getting the shots, but he calmed down quickly once I held him.

Because Carter has such good head and trunk control, the doctor said we can start introducing some solids now. So we may try some rice cereal in a week or two.

We saw a different doctor today (Dr. Stanley). We liked him because he gave us a lot of information as he was examining Carter - stuff the other doctors hadn't mentioned before. Basically though he looked healthy and is hitting all the developmental milestones on time or early.

Charlotte's Vet Visit

We took Charlotte to the vet on Tuesday afternoon for her rabies shot. I met Brian there with Carter and Charlotte because I wasn't sure I could handle the two of them on my own. Charlotte has always been scared at the vet's office. Her hind legs shake and she often "cries" the entire time in the waiting room - she usually tries to hide under one of the benches. Once in the exam room, she'll shut down which at least makes it easy for the vet to exam her. And since she slipped out of her harness last year in the parking lot and got hit, she is even more scared of the parking lot. She actually pulls me to go into the building but still is really scared once in the office.

And since I can't rely on Carter to be chill, I didn't want to have to be trying to handle Charlotte and calm him down at the same time.

Carter cried the entire way to the vet and Charlotte whined along with him since he was crying. I think I hit every stoplight because it took almost 20 minutes to get there. It seemed even longer with the two of them making so much noise though.

We love our vet. She's really, really nice and loves Charlotte. We always hear her before she comes into the exam room once she realizes she's going to be seeing Charlotte telling everyone how much she loves her. She also doesn't charge us for a lot of stuff which is nice since Charlotte seems to go to the vet way too much.

We haven't been giving Charlotte the same amount of exercise that she used to get. I used to take her running all the time before I got pregnant. She's up to 36.6 lbs - she used to be around 33-34 lbs. It's time to start running her again!

Butterflies are Yummy

This is Carter's favorite toy right now. He loves to chew on it.

Carter's Habits

Carter's feeding schedule has become very routine the last few weeks. He'll eat five times during the day and once during the middle of the night. During the day, he eats about every 3 hours. I'll stretch or shorten the time between feedings a little depending on what time he gets up so I can do his last feeding at the same time every night so that he has a pretty consistent bedtime. Carter never has been great at giving us hunger cues or defining a hunger cry so just going by the clock has been working the best for us. He usually gets a diaper change before every feeding during the day so we're down to about five diapers a day.

Carter naps for 20-30 minutes between each feeding. I STILL can't get him to take a longer nap. And he still only naps in his swing, bouncer, and, occasionally, carseat. I've gotten him to nap in his crib maybe twice.


It's so nice here today. It was warm this weekend too, but overcast most of the time. Today is sunny and very warm. I need to find some more sunhats for Carter!

And, by the way, I am SO SORE after soccer practice and my long run yesterday! My knees and lower back are especially sore which may be due to the extra weight I still have and my joints / ligaments being loose still from being pregnant.

Family Room

We got a rug for the family room yesterday. I got some picture frames for the mantle too, and I just need to get photos printed. Now we just need a new coffee table that matches the room better than the old one we're using now and the room will be finished.


The office is the next room we're trying to finish up. We need to figure out the rest of the furniture we want and then hang stuff on the walls.

Neighbors

We FINALLY met our next door neighbors today. They had their first child (a boy) four weeks ago. Right now there is a big difference between their son and Carter, but the 12 week difference will eventually not be such a big deal. It'll be nice if the boys can play together some day. Rachel and Matt are also from North Carolina and seem to be about the same age as us.

I got my long run in today. I did 8.2 miles in 85 minutes, 35 seconds. Not that fast, but I have been running for only 10 weeks.

Carter started using his feet today to play with the toys on his activity bar. He even managed to pull one of the toys hard enough to make it play a song!

Soccer Practice

I finally made it to soccer practice today. I figured that since games start next weekend I had better go. This was the first not freezing or raining Saturday we've had since practice started. Considering I haven't played since the Fall 2007 season (I was pregnant for all three 2008 sessions), I wasn't as bad as I expected. And it seems that I'm not as slow as I had thought I would be. I guess my slow half-marathon training is paying off. I'm not too sore yet, but tomorrow's long run may be more painful than normal.

I play on a co-ed team with the men being 30+ and women 18+ with no more than six men on the field at a time. There are 4 divisions (A, B, C, and D, which is the least competitive) and we play in the C division. Our team used to lose more games than we won, but we've been picking up some more competitive players the last few years and have been finishing in the top half. I've played left back since starting with this team and occasionally play in the goal when we don't have a keeper.