2 week check-up

Another busy week for our household. The picture I attached this time is Caitlyn in her crib with the doll that we bought for Amy when Caitlyn came home from hospital. The doll is bigger and heavier than Caitlyn!!

Monday was Caitlyn's 2 week check-up - she is doing just fine and had gained 1 lb (now 6lb 13oz), although this was with her diaper on and I had just fed her. So maybe she is a few ounces less. She needs to go back on the 7th November for her 1 month appointment and will get some vaccinations then. Tuesday was Amy's swimming lesson and she is doing so well. She certainly seems to be enjoying it more each week. On Wednesday the girls, Grandma Liz and Mummy went up to San Marcos to the outlet malls to buy Amy her winter wardrobe as she is outgrowing all the clothes she has. We certainly found a lot of bargains and in the process I was able to get both girls really cute matching red holiday dresses for our Christmas photos. Thursday I had a dental check-up in the morning and Friday I had a follow-up with Dr Washington. All is fine, he is happy with the healing of the incision, blood pressure is fine and I only have 3 lbs to lose to be back to pre-pregnancy weight (was already back in my jeans after 1 week!) Thank heavens for having little girls :-) I have to go back and see Dr Washington in about 4 weeks for another check-up and then that should be my doctor visits done. Saturday was of course Little Gym and then we all went down to the local park for Harvest Fest. Amy got to try on her Halloween costume for the first time and she looked so adorable. The festival itself was a bit of a disappointment but I think Amy enjoyed seeing the baby animals in the petting zoo they had set-up.

Settling in at home

On Monday Caitlyn will be 2 weeks old, time just flies by. Each day we are getting more settled at home and have somewhat of a routine. Amy is adjusting really well and is always wanting to give Caitlyn kisses and help mummy with diaper changes etc. She seems to really like being the big sister. Caitlyn is doing well and is feeding / sleeping well. Although she of course prefers to sleep in mummy's arms rather than her crib. But each night she is getting better at sleeping for longer periods in her crib.

On Thursday Jerad had a job to do in Fredericksburg so we all went for the drive up there, looked through some stores and had lunch before driving home. Today Amy is off to Little Gym (as we do every Saturday morning) and today we will take Caitlyn along too. Monday will be a busy day as I need to see Dr Washington for my 2 week foll0w-up appointment, then I need to take Caitlyn to the TNI building for her follow-pu newborn screening tests, then in the afternoon take Caitlyn to her pediatrician for her 2 week follow-up. Very much a Dr day on Monday. Not much else to report this week...........

Amy's officially a big sister!!

The last 2 weeks have gone by so quickly. I spent most of my time just doing last minute things for the baby's room and trying to get things finished up at work before I go on maternity leave. Jerad and I have also been trying to explain to Amy that her little brother or sister would be arriving soon. Grandma Liz arrived from Australia on the 4th October and is going to stay for 1 month to help us with Amy and the new baby. Amy certainly likes have Grandma Liz giving her full attention and doing whatever Amy wants to do each day! Somehow I don't think Grandma minds though :-)

Well the wait is over................on Monday night at 6:34 Amy's little sister arrived!! Caitlyn Taylor Clay was delivered by c-section and both mum and baby are doing fine. Caitlyn weighed 5lb 13oz and is 19" in length. We will be getting discharged today. I have attached 2 photos - one is of Amy kissing mummy's belly before we drove to the hospital. We'll see how excited Amy is to have Caitlyn at home vs just visiting her at the hospital. The other of course is Caitlyn. Will write more later :-)

Only 2 weeks to go.............

It's been a while since I updated this blog and September has been a busy month for us it seems. I guess the most "shocking" news is that Jerad had all of his hair cut-off!! He went out one afternoon after telling me he was getting a hair-cut (i.e. trim) and he comes home with his long hair all gone (13" pony tail). He's donating his hair to locks of love. I'll have to get a photo of him to post for everyone as I'm sure most people are only used to seeing his long pony tail.

In the last few weeks Amy has also started going to swimming lessons. There is a local gym near us that has the infant classes, so Jerad takes her on Tuesday afternoons. We thought it was a good idea to get her used to the water since a recent trick of hers in the bath tub is to try and put her nose/face in the water. The first lesson she was a bit unsure which makes sense with it all being new and it is noisy in those indoor pools. Her lessons last through the end of the year so I'm sure each week she'll get more comfortable with it.

I of course have continued to have follow-up doctor appointments. They did an ultrasound the other week and everything is going fine. I still measure small but not that small that they are concerned etc. I now go every week for an appointment until I deliver. I can't believe it's only 2 weeks away. It will be interesting to see how Amy reacts to having a new brother or sister. She cuddles and kisses my belly each night but i don't think realizes the belly will be gone soon and she'll have a little person to cuddle and kiss.

For the last couple of months I have had trouble uploading video - so I have included a test one here to see if it is working. It's not the clearest video but it is one of Amy taken this week "dancing" to one of kiddy shows on TV.

Enjoying the long weekend

You have to love long weekends - so yay for Labor Day weekend. I had another trip to Boston this week for a meeting on Wednesday. Once again we were delayed on the trip up there but fortunately while stuck on the plane I sat next to a nice gentleman (Jeff) who is a VP of Mergers & Acquisitions with Johnson & Johnson. He has a grand daughter who just turned 1 so we spoke a lot about Amy and his grand daughter Mackenzie! It was good to get home though and know that it would be my last trip before I go out on maternity leave.

School went back this week in San Antonio and Amy was supposed to start at Mother's Day Out. Unfortunately on Thursday we found out that there had been an error made and the class she was enrolled in was overbooked. So she didn't get to start there. Jerad and I will keep looking to see if there is a similar program at another church nearby. Amy did however start in the Beast class at The Little Gym. It's the next class up which includes children 19 months to 3 years. The class is much bigger than her Birdies class but she still seemed to have fun and does know some of the other kiddies already.

I spent yesterday putting together the crib, change table and chest of drawers for baby #2 - so the room is coming together. I also am in the process of sorting through Amy's old clothes she wore as a newborn and getting some of those ready too. Amy and I had a big shopping day yesterday too. After Little Gym we went to Best Buy to pick up Daddy's birthday present (TomTom - GPS navigation for his car). We thought he would appreciate it when he has all those deliveries to do out to the middle of nowhere. After that we stopped in at La Cantera and using some of Mummy's birthday money from Grandpa Jeffrey we bought some Clinique cosmetics. Then on Sunday morning Jerad went to play golf so Amy and Mummy went out for breakfast before we did the grocery shopping. Amy enjoyed her raisin toast and cup of milk while Mummy essentially had the works! The funniest thing happened after grocery shopping as we were loading up the car though. There were 4 teenage boys collecting all of the grocery carts - Amy thought she would be cute and wave to them. They were all smiling at her and waving back until a group of teenage girls came by - I guess it wasn't too cool then to be waving and cooing at a baby.

Well not much else happening - just catching up on jobs around the house and will be enjoying the day off tomorrow. On Tuesday I have my next follow-up with Dr Washington and have another ultrasound then.

18 months old

Our little girl turned 18 months old this week!! She therefore had another visit with her doctor and another vaccination. She wasn't too happy about that part of the visit! She has now broken the 20lb mark and is 21lb 8oz / 31.5 in tall. So she is average height for her age and in the 10th percentile for weight.

Mummy also had another doctor check-up this week and things are going well. I did pass the 3 hour glucose test (in fact all 4 samples were within normal range). Dr Washington is still wanting me to gain more weight (well the baby really - I am measuring a little bit small). At the next visit they will do another ultrasound so I guess we'll have some more measurements from that.

This week I ordered the new crib, change table and chest of drawers. I was going to get cherry colored but decided to get white (mainly because we have the plantation shutters in the room and they are white - so this will be a better match). The furniture should arrive in 7-10 days. We also all went this morning to have some photos taken since Miss Amy is now 18 months old and also had some updated family pictures taken. We didn't get as many shots as we would like since Amy was not too impressed today with posing for the camera (very unusual for her :-)) But we'll get more photos taken later in the year when the new baby arrives and hopefully she'll be more into it then. Other than that it has been a quiet week - Jerad had a few long distance deliveries to do so Mummy stayed up and watched the Olympics during the week. It was fun last night seeing some of the swimming finals and see Australia win the women's relay. Also very impressive seeing Michael Phelps win 8 gold at 1 Olympics. Of course I say all this while I eat my bowl of chocolate frozen yogurt on the couch!!

Bikini Babe

The weeks seem to be flying by. I had an uneventful trip to Boston (well actually Framingham) in the middle of the week. There were some delays on the trip up so I had an extra 5 hours to kill. I ended up buying a book and so far am really enjoying it - The memory keeper's daughter. I probably won't get to finish it until my next trip to Boston in 3 weeks time.

While I was away the new stroller arrived so we put it together on Thursday night. Amy seemed to really enjoy riding around the kitchen and living room in it. Hopefully she'll enjoy it just as much when there is a second little person in there with her.

Well the weather is still very hot here in San Antonio and not expected to change any time soon. So yesterday I went and bought myself a maternity bikini so I could go for a swim with Amy. Don't you love the picture of her in her little swim suit scrunching her face up for the camera! My mum had sent me a birthday card with a picture of me at about the same age in my pink bikini and I guess she is right - we look similar. Amy and I also went shopping yesterday and found her the perfect little pair of red shoes to go with her dress I bought for next week when she has her 18 month photos done. I'm sure we'll see a big difference between her 12 and 18 month pictures. She also has her 18 month doctor appointment this week too. So we'll have to see how much she has grown. Nothing much else happening the rest of the week - Jerad and I are just enjoying watching the Olympics on the big screen TV. I have to say it is pretty awesome and there are so many channels to choose from here to watch the games that it is hard to decide sometimes what to be watching.