Movin' And A Groovin'

Little man is growing and changing each and every day! He's gone from occasional grunts and coos to 'talking' all day long. He is so much more alert, following objects and faces with his eyes and is really seeming to respond to his surroundings. And last night, he rolled over from his stomach to his back for the first time! We didn't get it on video, but we pulled out our video camera and were able to capture him doing it a second time. I'm so proud but a little sad at the same time that he's growing up so fast!

Everything is looking up - we've reached the light at the end of the 'new parents' tunnel. Carter has been sleeping for a 5-6 hour stretch each night for the last two weeks! (It's amazing how long 5 hours feels after having a baby, haha) Breastfeeding is going sooo much better! It's still not completely pain free, but Carter is definitely getting the food he needs, I'm feeling much more confident, and our feeding sessions have shortened to 20-30 minutes - wahoo! At his last weigh-in, which has been almost two weeks ago now, Carter was 10 pounds 6 ounces. This was great news as he had put on an average of 1 1/2 oz per day! (A big improvement for our once, not so hungry baby). Some of you may know that some of Carter's newborn screenings came back with abnormal results so we had to take him to be tested again. And praise God, the second tests came back normal!

We introduced the bottle (of my milk) at 6 weeks. We had heard it is good to give a baby a bottle by the 6 week point so they don't reject it later but had also been warned to hold off giving him a bottle since he was having trouble with breastfeeding...But we've experienced nothing but success with it :) Nick gave him his first bottle (to prevent any confusion of me holding him but not feeding him as he was used to). We've done the bottle four times now - twice at home practicing and twice at a gym for volleyball.

I had my 6 week postpartum appointment and was given the go ahead by my doctor to start returning to my normal activities. I had my volleyball 'comeback' this week, and while it may not have been necessarily pretty or coordinated, my body felt fine! Hopefully I'll be able to ease myself back into the gym and get some sort of workout routine down...

Nick's sister came to visit this past week and we all had a great time together. Carter is at such a fun age - he's still got all of his newborn cuddleness and cuteness but is so much more alert and interactive. Laura seemed to have a good time with her nephew and just hanging around our house, playing games and lounging in the pool (we did manage to squeeze in a solid goodwill shopping trip though...)

Sorry my posts are few and far between...this mommy thing is really time consuming ;)

bonding with daddy

getting to know aunt laura

all dressed up for 'cow appreciation day' at chick-fil-a (carter scored a free kids meal!)

playtime with big brother

just hanging out