Chameleon

I think Carter is a chameleon. He has been extra fussy the last couple of days and has discovered a new type of crying. He lets out an awful scream and doesn't breathe. He'll take a small reloading breath and scream again. He turns almost purple in seconds. Usually I can calm him from this in a minute or two and a few seconds after this his color is back to normal. It's amazing how quickly he changes color.

Carter is having trouble "just chilling". If he's not sleeping, we're almost always having to hold him and be walking around so he's not crying (too much - he's still crying a lot of the time). He's also getting upset as soon as he's done eating, which is new. Generally he had been content for awhile while being burped and held upright. He's been like this for the last few days. I did reintroduce dairy into my diet almost a week ago with no change initially in his temperament. But maybe the dairy is the problem so I'm going to take it out again and see what happens.

But Carter did take 2 long naps today so I did have some time to get a few things done. My arms and back are getting stronger from holding him so much and bouncing him!

Some Pictures

Here are some pictures of Carter we took the last few days.

Carter chilling in his swing.


Sleeping with his pacifier barely staying in.


I like the one leg over the side of the sling. He always does this.


Carter looking content during bath time.


Carter bonding with his dad.

Go Pack

Carter got all dressed up for the PapaJohns.com Bowl today. All his NCSU clothes are still too big for him so it looks like he's wearing a dress!


Woohoo! State is winning ...


What do you mean our quarterback got hurt? The other two guys always throw lots of interceptions ...


NCSU ended up losing to Rutgers 29-23. At least we got a bowl game this year.

I had my 6 week postpartum appointment today. Everything looked good and I've been cleared to exercise. Now I can start my half-marathon training!

Smiles

Carter is starting to smile more and more. I haven't gotten a picture of him doing it yet because he's usually being held when he smiles and it's hard to take a picture of him while you're holding him. It's very cute though.

Carter's neck is getting stronger and stronger. He can somewhat hold his head up on his own, but you still have to be ready for it to flop back.

Carter's favorite sleeping spot is on someone's chest. Here's a picture of him taking a snooze on his grandma.


Carter isn't consistent with sleeping yet. For the last week and a half he has done one 4 to 6 hour session between feedings at night. (An hour of this is the actual time to feed, the 30 minutes of holding him upright afterwards, a diaper change if necessary, and the time to settle him down once he's mad about being put down in his playard.) Sometimes he'll go back to sleep easily for another 3 to 4 hours between feedings. Other times, he'll be wide awake and not want to sleep. He still doesn't like sleeping on his back in his playard. If we'd let him sleep on our chest at night, he'd probably sleep through the entire night. Carter isn't consistent during the day either. Some days Carter naps a lot during the day and other days not much at all. He's eating about every three hours. Some times he'll doze off right after eating, some times a little later, and some times not at all.

Brian and I are going to try to work on figuring out a schedule this week since he's taking another week off. We may also try to get Carter to sleep in his crib.

Aunts

Here are some pictures of Carter's aunts ...

Aunt Karey with him at Thanksgiving


And Aunt Shannon with him at Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!


Carter celebrated his first Christmas last night with us, my mom, Brian's parents, and his sister, Shannon. We had a nice dinner and opened tons of presents - mostly for Carter! He got a bunch of cool stuff - lots and lots of toys, books, and clothes.





Carter's Aunt Shannon is living in Melbourne so she got him lots of cool Australian stuff, including a book that is the Aussie version of "The Night Before Christmas" (which is really funny) and some Hawthorn Hawks apparel. They are the Australian rules football team that Shannon supports.

I'm Sick

Somehow I caught a cold. I haven't been out much this week so I'm not sure where I picked it up. We took Carter to his one month exam on Tuesday at the pediatrician's office, then Carter and I went to Lowe's, Old Navy, and Walmart on Wednesday, and Brian and I went to dinner and a few places to do some Christmas shopping Thursday night. I started feeling a little bad on Friday afternoon and it got bad last night - I had a lot of trouble sleeping. I wasn't sure what, if anything, I could take and still feed Carter. Brian called one of our friends who is a pharmacist to get some suggestions. What I'm taking is helping some but not as much as what I would normally take. But at least it's something!

Brian's parents and sister are coming in tonight to stay for a few days. Hopefully I don't get them sick!

Christmas Gifts

Carter has gotten some more really cool Christmas gifts. Brian's parents got him a cradle swing. It arrived a little early so we went ahead and put it together last night. Here's a picture of him in it for the first time ...


Carter seems to like it. He's in it right now and is fast asleep. So far he's liking the swing more than the cradle motion (supposedly newborns like the cradle motion better, but not Carter!). He's been fussy and extra hungry over the last 24 hours (we're thinking a growth spurt?) and it's been helping to calm him down.

Carter also got an Exersaucer from my mom for Christmas. It also got here a bit early, but Carter is still too little for it. He has used the playmat that it comes with a couple of times.


Carter got some really cute winter-wear from my grandma and aunt. I really like the hat - it makes Carter's eyes look a really deep blue.

Night Out

We left Carter for the first time last night. Brian's boss, his wife, and three kids came over last night to watch Carter while we went to dinner and did a little Christmas shopping. It was a little weird at first leaving him, and I was a little nervous having all the kids around him, but we both relaxed during dinner. I had my first beer and sushi since before I got pregnant and both were very good. We stayed out two and a half hours and were told that Carter did really good while we were gone. He got lots of attention and wasn't very fussy. Charlotte was really freaked out at first when everyone showed up, but I think she relaxed eventually as well and enjoyed getting some attention. So we all made it through Carter's first evening without us!

Carter is starting to smile now in response to things. He even let out a little coo while smiling at me yesterday.

Feeding Carter less seems to be helping some with his spitting up. There are still a few feedings a day when he's throwing up a lot, but it's getting even more manageable.

Carter is making up for his good night last night with a very fussy afternoon and evening so far. Hopefully he settles down enough to sleep some tonight!

$72 Worth of Diapers

In case you're wondering, this is what $72 worth, or 400, diapers looks like. We had a coupon for diapers.com so I ordered two jumbo packs of diapers. Hopefully these will last us awhile!


Our new permanent line for our cable got put in today. It rained all day so I'm not sure how much they tore up the yard because I haven't gotten a chance to check it out yet. Hopefully it isn't too bad. We had a really dry summer again, but now it's raining more days than not. I'm still getting the hang of taking Carter out to run errands when it's raining. He didn't get too wet today!