Dr Updates

The girls went the doctor this week for their 2 year/2 month checkups!  Both girls are looking good!  Here are the stats!

Abigail

Weight:  21lbs 1oz (1%)

Height:  35.5 inches (93%)

Height (1 yr to 2 yr)

Weight [1 yr to 2 yr...they wouldn't accept 3lbs 3oz as the birth weight :) ]

And yes...her weight cracks me up.  21 lbs???  She should still be facing backwards in her carseat!  This little bean of energy eats A LOT...and the dr. is actually happy with her weight gain.  2 whole pounds???  It's just her genetic makeup...and looks like Caitlin may follow in her footsteps!

Caitlin

Weight:  8lbs 12 oz (8%)

Height:  23 inches (83%)

Weight (birth-2 month)

Height (birth-2 months)

*Good thing I got a sewing machine for Xmas...once I learn to use it, I think I'm going to be hemming (or unhemming) a lot of pants for the girls...who makes clothes for such tall and skinny girls?

Also, Caitlin had her dr app't with the pediatric gastroentonologist at Children's Memorial this week.  The dr seems concerned with the same things we are concerned about (gagging when eating, congestion in chest, crying, etc).  He thinks it's related to how she's eating and isn't reflux. In fact, he said we could take her off her meds, but we will wait till our follow-up appt with him to do that. 

Caitlin is scheduled to see a feeding specialist next week to have a feeding evaluation (who even knew this job existed?).  He is hoping she'll notice something in the way that Caitlin eats which is causing her colic.  If not, then the next step would be to have x-rays to see if everything is going where it's supposed to go once she swallows it.  I am really hoping this feeding specialist will notice something easy to help Caitlin.  But we can't seem to every do things easy...between Abigail in the NICU, my high-risk pregnancy, and now this...wouldn't it be great to just be boring??  I like when the nurses give me directions around the hospital cause if it's there, I've probably been there! 

In GREAT news, Caitlin's crying has gotten so so so much better.  This week she seems to be a much happier girl who will lay and look around..which is something she never did till this week...if she was awake, she was crying.  It was funny though yesterday because the girls had their new babysitter who watches them when I work and she called me really concerned because Caitlin wouldn't stop crying.  She was so worried she had done something wrong...Poor Sitter.  And yes, I gave her a nice tip for the crying!!!

However, yesterday evening was wonderful.  The girls got bathes and they were both so happy and it was a wonderful family moment!  We can't wait for more of those...and for Caitlin's smile!!!!  We are so grateful that Caitlin seems to be more comfortable and hope this dr next week can get to the bottom of it!

On the potty-training front...we are having less success than hoped for.  We are going to stick with it..but our washing machine sure is getting tested!!!!  She really could care less...unless a toy is involved.  Yesterday after about 10 accidents, I put a My Little Pony up high and told her if she wanted it, she had to use the potty.  She used it like 5 minutes later, got the pony, and went back to having accidents.  That little stinker..she knows how to use it..now it's just a power struggle!  Luckily, a friend of mine from my mom's group is doing it this week too so we can talk about it...and may be having wine together soon to help our sanity!!!  We'll keep you posted!!!

Abigail's Bee-Day Party

We had a small birthday gathering for Abigail's 2nd birthday!  We decided to have a Bee Theme since Abigail has a slight obsession with bee's..and it was just cute!  Thank you to everyone who came!  I was so busy that I forgot to take pictures of all the guests, but we are so grateful for those who decided to spend their Saturday evening celebrating with Abigail!!!!

Her Bee Cupcake Cake

The family eating

This moment made the whole party worth it.  Abigail was in AWE as everyone sang Happy Birthday to her.  She just kept looking around..not sure what was going on.  It was so cute!  Since we had to cancel her 1st birthday, I'm so happy she got to have her big party!

Our family picture...yep, that's about right!  (And we have great news about Caitlin that involves less crying...more of that to come next post).

Abigail and Aunt Julie (Julie and Joe gave her the bday tiara and sash!)

Abigail with Grandma

Opening presents...between 2 days of birthday and 2 days of Xmas, she really is an expert now!  Thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful toys...most of which were opened and used by Rob's aunts before the end of the night!!!  We have some great ideas for Rob's aunts for Xmas...like a shopping cart!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Abigail!  We hope you had a great day!!!!  We love you!

Potty Party!

It's a Potty Party in our house!  That's right, we are in the midst of potty training.  I received a copy of the 3-Day Potty Training book.  Yesterday while out shopping, Abigail got some new undies and decided she wanted to wear them. So out of the blue, at 4pm yesterday we started the potty training.  We went through all 9 pairs of undies by 7pm! But this morning, she woke us up at 6am and told me she had to go to the potty...it's now 8am and she has gone on the potty 5 times (update, 6th time while typing) with no accidents.  Now, I know this isn't going to last all day and I'm sure there will be some accidents once she gets playing, but so far, we are off to a great start!  By Thursday, I hope we can go out in public without diapers!!!

Her new princess chair she got for her bday from Auntie MoMo and Uncle B is vinyl...makes for a perfect potty-training chair!!!  Lots of water in involved in potty training!

It's like the 80's revisited in our house!  Leg Warmers!!!  Since Abigail's in them...Caitlin joined the party!   Abigail insists on holding hands during pics!  So cute!

Miss Caitlin being a good sport with all the trips to the bathroom!

(Updates on Abigail's 2nd birthday party, the girl's dr app'ts, a trip to Monkey Joe's and Abigail's new name for me to come soon)

2 Months Old!

Time sure has flown by...2 months already!  It's really hard to remember what life was like without Caitlin (although I think I had smaller bags under my eyes)!  I think it's fair to say that Caitlin has had a rough 2 months of life.  She has what her pediatrician is calling an "abnormal" case of colic and reflux.  Basically it's "abnormal" because she cries all the time, where normal colic is usually 3 hours at the same time of day...and if you spent a day in our house, you'd understand why we'd do anything for 3 hours of crying...we are more like 8-12 hours of crying a day.  We feel terrible for her and are doing everything we can to help her.  She has seen her pediatrician so much that she actually gave us her home number so we can just call her directly!  We have tried different types of medicine, but don't seem to be finding the right combo.  The good news is the dr. doesn't think it's anything serious because Caitlin has been sleeping very good for us...she usually goes to sleep around 11 and gets up only 2-3 times during the night.  The dr said if it was more serious, she'd cry all night too!  However, in the last 2 weeks, Caitlin has not gained any weight at all (she lost 1 ounce and weights 8lbs 6 oz) so we have to figure this out soon. We are seeing a pediatric gastroentologist at Central Dupage next week and hoping he'll have some answers, or at least some suggestions to help.  The good news is colic usually disappears around 3 months (from the due date) so we technically only have 6 more weeks (maybe less) of this!

Caitlin is the sweetest baby!  She has the most beautiful big blue eyes (and yes, we think they will become brown like Abigail...but the pictures show the beauty of them) that light up our lives!  While we aren't getting smiles all the time, every once in a while, she'll give us a little mouth-open smile that makes our hearts melt...we can't wait till she feels better and the smiles come more and more!  She is our cuddle bug and loves to be close to us!  She's become my little buddy and I know I'm going to look back one day and miss the time when the only thing that made her happy was me holding her!  :)   Caitlin loves her paci, but what's so cute is if she doesn't have her paci, she sucks her middle fingers.  It's really cute, but we want to keep giving her the paci so she doesn't become a thumb sucker.  We hear it's much easier to break a kid of a paci than of sucking her thumb! But it's really cute to see her sucking her fingers!

We just love her more than anything and are so happy to have 2 amazing, sometimes loud, but wonderful months with her!

2 months

Blue Eyes

Our little snuggle bug

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Comparison Pics

Newborn in her seat

2 months in her seat

Newborn with her lamb

2 months with her lamb

We love you Caitlin!!!!!!!

New Year's Eve

2009 was an amazing year for us!  It began with our heartbreak of losing our pregnancy and I couldn't even imagine what the year would be like.  However, we never could have imagined it would end with such a beautiful gift....Caitlin Elizabeth!  And a lot happened in between, including Abigail learning to walk and talk!  We are so grateful for all our gifts of 2009; Rob's job doing great, Abigail really growing up before our eyes, a great family vacation, and most importantly a healthy family, especially for Rob's grandma!!!!!!

We brought in 2010 with our closest friends!!!  We had a wonderful night with a fancy dinner (we even used the China for only the 2nd time in over 5 years), great drinks, some dancing, and lots of laughs!!!  I could think of a better way to start what we know will be a wonderful year with lots of surprises, and 2 new additions to this group!!!!

Dinner

Holy Cow..how many years have we celebrated a new year???  At least 17, if not more!

Oh man...this is when the drinks really kicked in!

Caitlin was up with us the whole night...this is how we all felt the next day!!!!!

We can't even imagine what 2010 holds for us!!!!

The only words needed for this post: Time. Out!

Yes, that's our bed...and Kramer eating in it.  Abigail's new favorite game is to move Kramer's food into our bed!  2 days now, 2 sets of new sheets!  Ugh!  I hope her timeout today did the trick and this game is over!

Christmas Day

After a wonderful Xmas Eve, we continued to have such a wonderful Xmas Day!  We woke up to find out that Santa had visited and we were very good this year!  Some of the favorites from Santa include an easel, a sled, and a tea set. 

 

Daddy opening up his remote control helicopter he's been asking for for years.

Abigail with all the evidence of a great Christmas!

After we did Christmas at our house, we headed over to Nana and Papa's house for Round 2!  It was a great morning that included breakfast casserole, mimosas and bloody marys, and lots more presents!  The highlight was Abigail opening her 1st kitchen!  Thank you Nana and Papa for all the presents!

Wow!!!!  My 1st Kitchen!

Our Xmas present this year under the tree!!!  Isn't she so cute?

Caitlin had a rough morning of opening presents!

After gifts at Nana and Papa's, we headed home so Abigail could rest up for Christmas Round 3!  After some rest, we all headed over to Rob's grandparents' house for a wonderful Xmas dinner, lots of laughter, and yes...more presents!

The "Host" with her 2 great-granddaughters

Auntie Brina and Uncle Tom with the girls

Abigail spent a lot of time with Auntie Stina...who even let her help open her presents!

The Wennerstroms...3 generations!

As you can see, we had a wonderful Christmas!  The girls were treated so well by all our family and friends....and we were treated even better by our girls.  Watching Abigail open up her presents and be so excited about the presents made this Christmas the best one yet!!!!!