Carson at FOUR Months!

Carson is now four months(+ a few days) and she brings more and more joy and love to our lives everyday! She has grown so much in this past month. She has been doing so well at daycare and they continue to tell us that she is a great baby! This definitely makes it easier to drop her off everyday.




We took her for her four month check-up earlier this week and the doctor says she is doing great- and we are so thankful for that. She weighed 15 pounds and 2 ounces(around the 85%) and was 24 and 1/4 inches long(around the 93%)!!! Growing is sure not a problem-we know this because she is quickly outgrowing lots of her clothes. She now wears mostly 6 month clothes!


As for her sleeping, she does GREAT in my book. On MOST nights of the week she will sleep from 7:30ish until around 6:30 or we wake her at 7-and this has really been happening for almost a month. I really don't think we can ask for any better! But she still has the occasional night where she wakes for a feeding too :) And for naps she will usually take a 1-2 hr nap somehwere in her day and then about 2 other 30min-1 hr naps and then her evening power nap of 30 mins too!-great for mom and dad to have time for dinner :) As for eating, she is now down to 5 "meals" a day. And as I said, an added one comes every once in a while in the middle of the night.


What she loves at 4 months...
-still enjoys her lamb swing for an early evening nap, and sometimes a longer daytime nap on the weekends :)
-LOVES her first 2 fingers of her Left hand. She sucks them all the time!
-bathtime! She now giggles at her rubber ducky and really enjoys splashing water with her legs everywhere! We always feel bad not letting her stay in the water longer.
-snuggling with mom and dad after eating :)
-having her picture taken-she is all smiles for the camera.
-going for walks in the Baby Bjorn facing out! She loves to take in all of her surroundings.
-story time before bed :) (on nights that she isn't too sleepy for it!)
-playing with her feet-and trying to eat her socks!
-still really enjoys tummy time, and now that she can roll tummy to back and vice versa(she enjoyed keeping this a secret from us and only doing this at daycare for a week or two!)-we tend to find her on her tummy more and more!!
-Still loves to put anything and everything straight into her mouth-don't anticipate this changing anytime soon!


What she doesn't love...
-her paci, she never really liked the paci much before, but in the past month she has really come to dislike it-when she is fussy or fighting sleep and you try to give her the paci she gets even more upset. Just makes for one less thing to make sure you leave the house with-she always has her fingers!
-this may be TMI, but, she doesn't really love breastfeeding anymore-I think she loves the instant gratification with bottles! But we aren't giving up yet :)
-naps in the crip on the weekend--about 50% of her naps go well there, otherwise we are usually out running errands or in the lamb swing :) We hope once naps are a little more scheduled the crib will be easier.

We cannot wait to take her for another trip to the beach! Hopefully she will have time to enjoy the pool this summer too :) As I have said before, we are absolutely loving being parents and fall more and more in love with Carson everyday! We don't want her to grow up toooo fast, but we know the future holds lots of fun and learning too!

Carson at 3 Months! ---A little, scratch that, LOT late :)

So, as the title says, I am ALOT late on Carson's 3 month update! But, we have had a lot of things going on at the start of this month. One major thing, I am now back to work full time! Needless to say, when I am at home all I want to do is play and cuddle with our sweet little girl! Second, Easter has come and gone and we took a nice long trip to the beach- Carson did great!



At three months Carson....

LOVES-
-playtime on her mat! She scoots around in circles and loves to roll from side to side!
-HER HANDS!!! It is truly hard to find her without her fingers in her mouth---she sometimes gags herself by shoving her fingers so far back!
-She is always full of smiles and daycare brags that she is the happiest baby! : )Daycare also brags to us on how laidback she is!
-She still naps well and is sleeping GREAT! Naps range from 30 mins to 3 hours!!! This is at daycare and in her crib at daycare! But total to be around 4-5 hours per day.
-She also LOVES to roll over from her tummy to her back!
-At night we range from 6-10 hour stretches which seems awesome to me! She now has a bedtime routine of bathtime(most nights), books and then night night! Her bedtime is between 7:30-8:30 depending on her afternoon/evening nap. Most recently- she sleeps from 8-5 pretty consistently and then goes back down until we wake her at 7am. I certainly can't complain!!!
-She still loves her toy -"Mr. Cow" we call it-and smiles all the time at him. There is also a clock hung in our living room and Carson smiles at it EVERYDAY when we get home!!! It is so funny.
-She also LOVES bathtime! She has really started splashing and kicking around!



What she DOESN't LOVE-
-Getting in her carseat if hse is in the middle of playing or kicking around! WE don;t like it either because then for about 10 mins in the car she is NO fun and makes me feel bad :(
-hmmmmm...sounds kinda funny, but I can't really think of much else she doesn't like....

Overall, she continues to be a great baby! We love her more and more everyday!!! We have also recently been getting really cute giggles out of her and I can't wait for them to be more frequent!!



As for the beach trip---we had an amazing time with family- and Carson showed off her new skill at rolling over front to back! She is a pro at this now! We can't wait for many more back trip in the future!!! The weather was great over Easter and we really had fun taking Carson onto the sand and by the ocean. I can envision the future with her crawling around and getting sand ALL over her-it's going to be sooo much fun!

Carson at TWO months!

My baby is getting so big! We had her 2 month doctor's appointment earlier this week and got her first set of shots :( She was such a trooper! She didn't seem phased one bit by the first shot, but by the time the nurse finished the third one-yes third-she was beet red! Poor thing, but she was all smiles after Daddy and I picked her up and cuddled with her :)



Her stats at 2 months: 13 lbs 4 ozs and 23 inches long!!



At TWO months Carson....

-still LOVES her morning nap in the lamb swing-she sleeps for 2 hours in the swing! This is the best time of day for me to get things done around the house!
-continues to eat every 3 hours(give or take) during the day.
-has become a pro at taking a bottle from daddy!
-had her first night with Grandma and Papaw! Mommy and daddy went for a nice dinner out just the two of us and then to a party with friends-it was wonderful and Carson was a perfect baby :)
-smiles all the time for mommy and daddy and loves to follow our voices around the room. She sometimes follows my voice all the way into the kitchen and continues to look around for me- too cute! I love it!
-Starting to somewhat like the paci, otherwise she LOVES to suck on her pointer finger on either hand! I think this is sooo cute-but not during the middle of the night through the monitor. haha
-has become a pro at tracking her toys from side to side and up and down!
-And...we cannot get enough of her "baby talk" I love pretending to have a conversation with her.
-she is most active and playful after her 2 hour morning nap-this is when we play on her mat, read books, and play with toys. She still LOVES the changing table for play time too!



What we are working on...
-still working with nighttime routines-she nurses for the last time anywhere from 8-10 and then goes down in her crib and will USUALLY sleep for about 4 and a half to 6 hours, then she nurses again and then goes right back to sleep for another 4 hour stretch. I can totally handle this schedule! We will see how things adjust once I go back to work next week :(

Update since I began this post---my little girl decided to be a big girl and sleep 10 hours straight last night, needless to say mommy and dadddy checked on her a gazillion times haha! I am sure it was a fluke, but we will see tonight and in the weeks to come!

Getting BIG!

So, as I posted last blog update, Carson is doing great with the whole gaining weight thing- which makes me a happy mommy, BUT she has now officially outgrown all of her newborn clothes!!! And she has moved up to size 1 diapers-after staining lots of outfits I might add! So, my little girl is growing up. I am very interested to see how much she weighs at her 2 month check up!

Carson is almost 6 weeks old! Time is flying by! Some of you may know, I have been worried that she sleeps too much, I know a funny thing to worry about. Most friends that I have that are already moms have responded to my concerns with responses like-"Take advantage of it" "Enjoy it while it lasts" and "You're so lucky she is such a great sleeper". I've been going back and forth about whether to let her sleep when she wants to sleep or to wake her up to eat and play etc. And of course, as I am learning new stuff all the time, and as you know newborns change from day to day-and so of course when I think I have worried enough and I decide to stop worrying- it was like a light switch-she just woke up!!- haha- the past few days she has been so much more alert and playful- smiling more and really enjoying her playmat! She also loves to stare at lights and ceiling fans-Jason says she can't see the fans but I swear she is staring at them! :)



As for schedules, we are still working on a schedule- I am now trying to start her Day around 7 or 7:30 with a feeding and then some playtime and then naptime and repeating this every 3 hours or so. She still naps well-best naps are also still in the morning. The afternoon and evening naps are much shorter.

And still, our biggest battle is the bottle! I am hoping the more I call it a battle, the better she will get with it! So far I think it's working. Ever since I started saying we were struggling with it, she seems to be doing better! So far, 3 nights in a row! We did also switch from Avent bottles to Playtex drop-ins. I am now contemplating switching back to Avent soon since we have so many of those and we only have one Playtex?!? Oh the joys of motherhood!

And incase I haven't mentioned this before- I must say that my husband, Jason, is the best daddy ever! He truly has stepped up to the plate and Carson has him wrapped around her little finger already :) And I LOVE it! I can just imagine what it is going to be like as she gets older! There is something truly special about a daddy and his little girl!!!

Carson at ONE month!

Here is a late Valentine's Day Picture :)


One Month!


I cannot believe our little girl is one month old already! Like everyone tells you-time really does fly by!! Carson seems to be growing so much and we fall in love a little more everyday-especially when she gives you one of her adorable grins :)

At one month Carson...
-LOVES her lamb swing-she takes a morning nap in this everyday! (wonder if I need to break that habit?) :)
-Sleeps ALL night in her crib! That is, before and after her feedings. She has had one long stretch of 5 hours of sleep, otherwise she has one long stretch of about 4 hours on most nights. But there are still nights when she likes to remind us she is in her room every couple of hours too! :)
-Her favorite time of day is early afternoon/evening-right about the time when Daddy gets home from work!
-She really enjoys bath time! I can't wait for her to start splashing around :)
-Just this week she has really started smiling at her Daddy and I! It is the BEST thing ever! I just wish I could catch it on camera! (I'll keep trying!)
-She is starting to really love staring at her swings mobile/mirror and her play mat toys! It is so much fun seeing her learn things so quickly!

Things we are working on at one month:
-Introducing her to the bottle-this is somewhat of a challenge because she doesn't seem to like anything artificial-she doesn't like pacifiers either! But, she will get the hang of it soon-she enjoys the bonding with daddy!
-Sleeping longer at night-I know this will come with time!


ONE month stats: We happened to go to the doctor around her one month and she weighs 11 pounds 7 ounces! BIG girl :) And, mommy is going to get some great biceps! haha :)




We are certainly enjoying this warm weather and cannot wait for more of it! Bring on SPRING!! And we are anxiously looking forward to our first beach trip at Easter!

Lots of LOVE all around!!!

My how time flies! Our sweet baby girl is almost a month old!!! These first few weeks have been great, especially now that I have been able to get out of the house a bit. I think we are starting to get into some sort of routine-the type of routine that is dictated by when Carson is hungry :) But, I am loving every minute of it!

Below are a couple pictures from our first few weeks--
One Week-



2 Weeks-(our 2 week photo didn't work out so well-the focus was messed up!)


We had some fun visitors too!





We had a wonderful Valentine's Day and truly feel blessed by our newest LOVE! We just can't cuddle, hug or kiss her enough :)
Valentines pics to follow soon....

SHE'S HERE!!!!!

So, I have officially fallen behind on blogging. I will get better!!!





The last 3 weeks of my pregnancy were great, just filled with waiting, waiting and more waiting. At my 38 week appointment my blood pressure was slightly elevated, so the OB decided to go ahead and schedule an induction for a few days before my due date. And I also had a couple extra MD visits to check my BP-which was normal at every other visit.

So the day came- January 21st, 2011. Carson's Birthday! The day was amazing!! I was blessed with an easy delivery to go along with a smooth pregnancy.


We arrived at the hospital at around 8 am and got settled into my room, still filled with anticipation on what was about to happen. I was then started on Pitocin (a medicine that initiates contractions) around 10am. The OB told me to be patient because with inductions sometimes it can take a while-SO I just relaxed and enjoyed time with my family and ate popsicles!

The OB returned around 2:30pm and decided to break my water! After that, things went very quickly~! I got to 10 centimeters and was ready to push in about an hour and then pushed for about 40 minutes and Carson Elizabeth Gossett made her entrance into the world at 5:34 pm, weighing in at 9 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long!!! There are truly no words to explain the experience. Carson is perfect. She makes me smile 24 hours a day! I cannot wait to spent the next 10 weeks at home with her!

Ready to head home from the hospital:




The first week of her life was filled with many trips to the Pediatrician-unfortunately Carson got a mild-moderate case of Jaundice and we had to keep her in a bilirubin bed at home for 2 days-she HATED it and so did we!!! She had to lay naked under UV lights around the clock and could only come out for feedings. Very sad for her dad and I because we couldn't sit and cuddle with our new little girl. But, the jaundice is completely resolved, and now we can hold, kiss and cuddle as much as we like! :) We also had lots of visitors and family in town to help with meals, etc. ALL was greatly appreciated!

As for sleep, I think Jason and I are getting a good amount. We feed Carson every 2 hours during the day and every 2-3 hours at night. But, we are sleeping well in between feedings. And Carson is a very happy baby-I can't say it enough how blessed we are! She is absolutely perfect.