Bathtime with Caroline

quite possibly the cutest picture ever!!

Jason's Birthday weekend...

He turned the big 3-3! I guess his best birthday present was the Ole Miss/LSU game.

Here he is at Folk's Folly...

Happy Birthday Jason!! Hope it was a great one!

Caroline's Almost 8 weeks old...

and I can't believe it. Time truly does fly when you're having fun & I'm having the most fun of my life.

I took Caroline home to GA/FLA last week so she could meet all of my extended family & my friends. She got to spend a lovely week with her grandmother & great-grandmother & even got to meet a couple of her great-great aunts. It was so special.

She is becoming more alert by the day. She loves faces & has started smiling socially. Her mommy & daddy think that there is nothing more wonderful than seeing her smile!

I started back to work on Thursday full-time and that has been a bit difficult. I started back with the agreement that if it were too difficult, I would ease into it slowly but so far I'm making it. Caroline has been staying with her Grandma Barbie during the day which is working out well for everyone. Caroline has also been coming to work with me some as well...she hangs out in my office with me & then when I have a meeting, there is no shortage of people to babysit...my wonderful co-workers fuss over who gets to hold her!

Jason's birthday is this weekend...we are going out to Folk's Folly tonight. It's freezing here so that's about all we'll be doing....

Hope all is well...

love,

beth

PS. The last picture is of Caroline with her 2 great-great aunts. Her great-grandmother is holding her. The first picture is of Caroline with her Uncle Brad, who is my brother.

It's been a long time...

Hello to all out there! I wanted to check in with everyone and just say thank you for all of your emails and thoughtful gifts; they are so very much appreciated. Fall has FINALLY hit Memphis and we're up to our eyeballs (and so are the neighbors) in leaves from our trees. I'm working on a pile to jump into actually on Saturday. With the Rebels taking the weekend off I'll certainly have plenty of time.

Work has actually been picking up as this is typically our busy time of year and even despite the way the market has been this year, the end of the year is looking good. A lot of folks have asked me if my business has suffered but the reality is this: because of some other planners poor advice I've been able to capitalize on people looking to change/fire their current planner.

Caroline is wonderful! I've got all kinds of footage I want to post here so stay tuned; the video camera has been hard at work!

My love to you all.

Jason

Caroline's 1-month Update

Caroline had her 1-month pediatrician appointment yesterday & boy did she get a good report! She has gained 27 oz in 16 days!! For those of you that don't know, her pediatrician would've been excited for her to gain 16 oz in 16 days. She now weighs 9 lbs 2 oz. She is still in the 50th percentile as far as weight goes but she is in the 75th percentile for length...she has grown to 22 inches!

Breastfeeding has been one of the biggest joys of motherhood for me & as you can see, Caroline seems to be enjoying as well. She is exclusively breastfed & has been since the hour she was born.

Some interesting facts regarding breastmilk...

--it contains atleast 100 ingredients not found in cows milk.

--it's individualized for each infant. Raw materials are selected from Mom's bloodstream as needed, which alters the milks composition each day--sometimes each feeding--as the baby grows & changes.

--it's highly digestible because the proteins found in breastmilk are lower & more nutritious than cow's milk. The amount of fat in the two is similar, but the fat in mother's milk is more easily broken down & absorbed by baby. Breastfed babies are almost never constipated.

--They also rarely have diarrhea because breastmilk seems to destroy diarrhea-causing organisms.

--Breastmilk bowel-movements are less-likely to cause diaper rash. And as most everyone knows, they don't stink!

--Breastfed babies have lower risk of obesity as children and adults. In addition, they have lower cholesterol readings as adults.

--Although some babies may have an allergy to what Mom eats, virtually no baby is allergic to breastmilk.

--Due to the DHA breastmilk contains, breastfeeding appears to slightly increase a child's IQ atleast through age 15.

--Breastfed babies are less likely to get cavities in childhood.

--Breastmilk improves the immune response to immunizations.

--It's so cheap!!

--It lowers Mom's risk of osteoporosis, type-2 diabetes & uterine & pre-menopausal breast cancer later in life.

--the best benefit? the fact that I get Caroline all to myself atleast 8 times per day! :-)

I will be going back to work soon so I've already started pumping to build up a supply. Pumping is hard work though...it hurts & it's tedious. I'll pump for 15 minutes & get a whole 2 oz! It's not nearly as fun as nursing! We plan on exclusively breastfeeding her through month 6 at the very least & non-exclusively through her first year so it looks like I'm stuck with it for awhile.

Here's a picture of our butterball we took last night.

Love,

Beth

Caroline's Christening Gown

Thank you Barbie, for Caroline's beautiful gown! It is an antique--circa 19th century & it is from France. It's also hand-sewn...it's beautiful, the picture really does not do it justice. I put the bonnet on Caroline & she looked like something out of a vintage photograph.

She will be christened in the Lutheran church & dedicated in our church, most likely when she's around 6 months old.

Halloween 2008

Our Halloween was pretty low-key this year. No crazy Amy Winehouse costumes but we had fun anyway. Jason carved a pumpkin & we handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters. We also rented the original Amityville Horror because I'd never seen it. Can't believe Thanksgiving is right around the corner....