There is a major thunderstorm going on outside. Actually for the past three days we have had a ton of rain and storms but this storm seems to be the worst. The power has been out for quite a while this morning but luckily it just came back on. Apparently there have been some tornadoes in the area. I love thunderstorms and luckily I was raised in Nebraska so I know what to do if it gets bad. Thanks to family who checked in to make sure we were OK. Even Eric texted us so you know it must have been bad.
Anyway, back to the title of the post, there has been a lot of madness in the Fisher home this past month. Eric has been working like mad at his surgery rotation at the Bay Pines VA hospital. His first two weeks there he was working with the plastic surgeon and learning a lot. The past two weeks he has been working general surgery and has been working like crazy...14 hour days including weekends. I think Caitlyn forgot she had a dad for a little while. Madness I tell you! He did not love general surgery but he did well. He told me all of his video gaming days have paid off. I guess he impressed the surgeon during a gallbladder surgery by using his arthroscopic wands and dunking the removed gallbladder into the little sack before they pulled out. I am so glad that his hours of Call of Duty and Black Ops are finally paying off. This week he has been working with the orthopedic surgeon. He seriously loves orthopedics and said he totally impressed them his first day during a total knee replacement and they even offered him a job for when he graduates. He starts his ER rotation in a couple of weeks which will definitely be a continuation of the madness. Therefore, Caitlyn and I have decided to getaway from it all and go visit my parents in Nebraska for 3 weeks. We are going to miss Eric but I am so excited to spend some time with my family and catch with my friends that I haven't seen forever. We also get to take a long weekend trip to Utah so Caitlyn can meet all of her aunts, uncles and cousins there. However four-hour flights with a four-month old alone and multiple LONG car rides may be a completely different level of madness. She has actually had a few really bad meltdowns the past few weeks and unfortunately they have all been in public so wish me luck.
Other than an occasional meltdown Caitlyn is doing well and growing like a weed. She is 16 lbs and 26 inches long at 4 months. We love our chubby little girl! She started rolling over a few weeks ago and for a while you couldn't get her to stop. She was rolling over in her crib, in the bathtub, everywhere. As soon as you laid her down on her back she would roll over to her stomach. She has yet to learn to roll back over onto her back. Anyway, all of a sudden she just quit rolling. It has been a week now since she last rolled over. At first I was a little worried and thought she was regressing developmentally but then I read somewhere that sometimes they stop doing certain "tricks" while they focus on developing a new one. Lately she has been expressing herself more, making some pretty hilarious faces and playing with her mouth, chewing on her tongue, blowing bubbles, smacking her lips, etc. Anyway, this morning her rolling ability suddenly returned so I guess all is well.
The pediatrician recommended that we start Caitlyn on some cereal so she could practice eating normal food. I was a little hesitant because she is doing well on breast milk and her formula supplements and lets face it, the girl doesn't really need any extra empty calories. But for the past several weeks she would stare at the fork while I ate and not take her eyes off of it. Sometimes if I am eating an apple or banana and she is staring at it I will put the fruit up to her mouth and let her suck on the juice a little. She loves it. Anyway, I got some organic brown rice cereal and thought we would give it a shot. If anything I thought that Eric would want to be a part of this "milestone" and since we will be gone for a while we might as well get some practice in with him.
She did okay but she didn't love it. She was more interested in the spoon. I gave it to her a couple of times and she shoved it in her mouth and gagged on it so we still have to work on that some more.
Now, on to the craziest madness of all...NCAA basketball March Madness! Our brackets are pretty much pointless now but there have been some pretty awesome games. It was fun to watch the BYU/Florida game. That day I had sent some mild trash talking emails to my old coworkers. We had watched last year's tournament game at the office when BYU beat Florida in overtime and I was hoping for a repeat but I guess it wasn't meant to be.
Lately we have been surrounded by excessive amounts of birds, insects and reptiles. And although we love all of God's creatures there are certainly some that we love a little less than others. For example, we have been invaded by these little mosquitos. Actually, I think they are a cross between a gnat and a mosquito because they are small and seem to fly in groups but are really good at biting you and buzzing in your ears while you are trying to sleep. I wake up in the mornings with bites on my legs and arms and of course the extremely hard to scratch part of my back. One night Eric and I were up all night because they kept buzzing in our ears and we couldn't think of any way to get rid of them. Unfortunately, Caitlyn is not immune from them either and has taken her fair share of bites as well. Each morning I find more dead ones anywhere where there is a light or heat source so I think we are over the worst of it. Here are just a few examples of what we have seen over the past several weeks.
This little guy decided to eat his breakfast in the parking lot right next to my car. Lovely.
Speaking of Eric teasing Caitlyn, a while ago he was studying and she was kind of whining next to him on the couch. He took a blanket and threw it over her head. Apparently, within two minutes she was sound asleep. I was a little annoyed at the time because I thought she couldn't breathe under there and that she probably just wanted a little attention from her dad. Well, I guess I was wrong because now I find her regularly using the same technique to put herself to sleep. What a funny girl!
Works like a charm.
My favorite :)
When the blanket isn't easily accessible, the arm fills in. The thumb helps out too.
I just got done feeding Caitlyn and putting her to bed for the night. While I was feeding her Eric was constantly trying to distract and tease her. He once told me that he only teases people that he loves...he must love us a lot :) We are so grateful for how hard Eric works to finish up his masters program. He is very busy these days with clinical rotations but he loves the experience and comes home every night to tell me about some cool surgery they performed that day. Even though Eric doesn't get to spend as much time with Caitlyn as I do he makes up for it by squeezing in as much fun as possible when he is home.
She definitely loves her daddy!
A few days old. Catching up on some zzzzz's.
Eric got home just as I was finishing giving Caitlyn a bath. I asked him to take her and get her dressed and when I went back into the bedroom 5 minutes later they were both out like a light.
A couple of weeks ago we got back from the beach and I asked Eric to change her diaper while I jumped in the shower. When I got out I found them both asleep on the living room floor and Eric had apparently decided he was cold so he stole Caitlyn's blanket from her. I love how she is giving him the wolverine claw in her sleep.
He must have been feeling a little guilty even in mid slumber because I came back out into the living room 5 minutes later and he had found another blanket for Caitlyn. She must have forgiven him as she lovingly slept with her hand up against him (without the claws this time).
Caitlyn turned 3 months on Friday. It is crazy how fast time is going by. We met up with some friends at the park that morning and hung out until Eric called to say he was getting out of surgery early. We headed home to pick him up and pack up a quick lunch before heading out the door for Fort Desoto. The weather was amazing and we all got a little sun...even Ms. Caitlyn. I know! I felt horrible when I got home and saw that her face was pink. What a horrible mother! She was in the shade or in her stroller covered up 99% of the time but that 1% was enough. I even had baby sunblock with me but didn't put it on because I thought you were supposed to wait until they were 6 months before you could put sunblock on a baby. Who knows where that came from. Anyway, lesson learned.
Caitlyn Grace Three Months in Review:
Caitlyn looks just like her dad. The only thing so far I can tell for sure that is mine are her ears :) But, as she gets chubbier I have been getting more comments that she looks like her mom...go figure (haha).
2 months
2 months
3 months (with her tan)
3 months
She loves to talk and sing. Her favorite songs are "When You're Happy and You Know It." (especially the shout hooray! verse) :) and the "Ahhaaha" song that Ariel sings when the octopus witch steals her voice.
She loves giving kisses to mom and dad but especially to her blanket/rattle Mr. Bear. Eric would say she is the cutest when she is asleep but I think she is the cutest when she wakes up. She usually hangs out in her crib talking to herself for a little while and when I go to get her she gives me the hugest smile every single morning. Her eyes always get big. Its as if she is discovering things all over again every morning. Since day one she has been able to hold her head up and she can support her own body weight while standing. When you hold her on your lap she prefers to be standing. She was addicted to her binky since before she left the hospital but around 2 months she found her thumb and doesn't take her binky much anymore. She is starting to play more with toys but her favorite toys are her hands. They are always in her mouth. She hates her carseat unless she is in her stroller and moving or in the car and moving. She likes her swing, bouncer and play mat.
She barely fits in her swing these days and the poor batteries really struggle to get the smallest little movement :) We call her diva because even though she is a pretty happy baby and can be independent and play by herself she has her moments when she must be the center of attention. You can be holding her and talking with her and the moment you look away to read something or type an email or answer the phone she starts whining until you look back at her and then she will give you a big cheesy grin. Total diva.
When Caitlyn was first born she ate just like her dad. Eric eats and eats and eats and doesn't gain any weight. He has an amazing metabolism. Caitlyn was the same way. She was eating and eating and not gaining weight. If only I were that lucky! Eric even gets up in the night to eat because he has what he calls hunger pains and can't sleep. I wake up in the morning to find empty glasses of instant breakfast or crumbs from midnight sandwiches. He is just like a newborn! Well, now Ms. Caitlyn is gaining weight like crazy. When she was born she weighed 8 lbs 9.6 oz. When she left the hospital she was 8lbs and by the time she had her first appointment with the pediatrician at 4 days old she was 7 lbs 12oz. A week later she was 8lbs and another week later she was still at 8lbs. She was so tall and skinny!
Eric calls this her Holocaust Survivor photo.
She was a pretty happy baby but I was afraid she wasn't getting enough to eat. I started pumping like crazy and supplementing between feedings with pumped milk in a bottle but it wasn't until I started supplementing with formula that she started gaining weight. I cried when Eric gave her that first bottle of formula around 3.5 weeks. I felt like a horrible mom. That was one of my most important jobs and I couldn't do it. Well, she started gaining weight instantly. She was only getting between 4-8 oz total of formula everyday but that was all she needed. I had to tell myself that she got her meals by nursing and the formula was more like vitamins :) Well, at 1 month she weighed 9 lbs. They like babies to regain their birth weight by one week and it took her one month. At 2 months she weighed a whopping 12 lbs and was 24 inches (3 inches taller than when she was born). She was in the 91 percentile for height and 76 percentile for weight.
Wearing her newborn outfit. Not cool mom.
I am guessing at three months she is almost 26 inches and almost 14 lbs. A big baby! She should be eating a total of about 35 ounces every day and 6 oz of that is formula. She spits up a lot and has to take lots of breaks while feeding to burp. She is still eating about every 2 hours but at 2 months she surprised us by sleeping through the night and has every night since. She was going to bed around 10ish and waking up around 7ish but we are working on getting her to bed earlier. Last night she went down at 8 and slept until 6:30. She ate and went back to sleep for another hour. She normally has another nap in the morning for an hour or two and another in the afternoon for an hour or two. But she still has her days with 5 half hour naps throughout the day and not going to sleep until 11 and waking up at 5:30 but not very often. She loves taking baths. She splashes too much to go into her baby bath so we just throw into the bathtub with a couple of inches of water and let her splash away. She is as happy as can be until you take her out. Fortunately, we have found the trick to calm her down. No matter how upset she gets we just have to take her into the bathroom and plop her in front of the mirror and she instantly smiles and laughs with the baby in the mirror. Aside from the ceiling fan, Mr. Bear (and Mom and Dad of course) the mirror baby is her best friend.
She still hasn't rolled over but gets closer and closer everyday. She can roll onto her sides and scoot herself counterclockwise.
She is such a good girl and we are lucky to see her grow and learn new things everyday.
Last Friday our friends Karlie and Zanin invited us to go to the aquarium in Tampa. We had a great time and Caitlyn loved seeing all of the fish and other animals.
Zanin flirting with the mermaid.
Caitlyn loved watching the different fish swim around. It was funny watching her try to follow them with her eyes. Sometimes they were a little too fast for her.
Occasionally the flap on the front pack would flip up. Who knows how long it had been that way. Poor girl!
