The Absentee Blogger

Well, looks like I'm quite behind on this blog thing. I'd like to say that it was a new year's resolution to start this blog again, but I really just thought of it now. The past 8 months have been a whirlwind. It looks like I actually started a post in August and never finished it. So, let's catch up....

Quickly about me:
May 2011: I found out they were closing the DC office of my agency so I started job hunting. The alternative was to move to Vienna, VA with a 2 hour (each way) commute. That was not going to work.
June 2011: Interview, job offer and acceptance of the offer from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
July 2011: Started my new job and am very happy with the decision. I get to telework every Wednesday, so that should afford me more time to blog!

Chris:
Work, work, work, blah, blah, blah.
November/December: An inconvenient little surgery, but everything is fine.

Katelyn:
Sped through months 8-14. Crawling, standing, laughing, dancing, turning 1, walking, talking. She is so funny! Her 12 month checkup on Halloween she was 19.7 lbs, so she's still a peanut. Her vocabulary is increasing it seems every day and she definitely understands more complex instructions. She started walking in November, and is now off and running. She "talks" constantly and is always asking me very important questions. If only I knew what she was saying!

I will now dedicate the rest of this post to photo catch-up...

May

June

July

August

September (First Hair Cut!)

October (Happy 1st Birthday & Halloween)

November

December

January 2012

Ok, I think we're pretty much caught up. I will try to be better from now on!

A Warrior in the house (Oh, and a 7 month old)

I'm actually going to start this blog post off about myself, so you'll have to scroll down for Katelyn. Five months ago I did something foolish, and signed up for Warrior Dash Maryland. It's described as 12 obstacles from hell along a 3.11 mile course. Some friends of mine at work did it last year, and I thought it would be fun. Plus, since I signed up in December I had 5+ months to "train" and it would be good motivation to lose the baby weight. Well, life with a newborn and traveling husband didn't really lend itself to a lot of extra time that I felt the needed to be filled with exercise. Suddenly the race was 3 weeks away, then 2, then Sunday. I talked to my friend at work and she swore to me it wasn't that bad and I should still do it. So, I sucked it up and did it. I'm proud to say I finished, and wasn't even close to last. It was a grueling course with A LOT of mud. Half-way through I really didn't know if I could finish, but before I knew it I was jumping over fire and crawling under barbed wire at the finish. I felt surprisingly good afterward and definitely had a lot of fun. It's something that would normally be outside my comfort range, but is also something that helps you to know you're stronger than you think you are.


Now onto Katelyn. She's getting more and more personality every day. She is still a very happy baby and a good sleeper. She's trying so hard to crawl, but can't quite get it. Daddy even tries to help.

Instead she's learned she can just maneuver by rolling around. It seems to be working for her for right now. Everything around her interests her, especially Jethro. He sits next to us and she just smiles and reaches for him. He's being very patient with her so far. Hopefully that will continue. She's getting more and more involved with toys and loves to hit the buttons. We have to thank Willow for this wonderfully noisy toy. She loves it!

Eating also continues to be a favorite thing. The girl eats everything! Her dexterity is getting much better and she loves to pick up puffs off her highchair tray. Sometimes they don't make it in the mouth though!

We're still having some breathing issues stemming from the RSV in January. The doctors aren't too concerned, but they've set us up with a nebulizer and she's taking Singular at night. I haven't really noticed much of a difference, but it's hasn't even been a week. She's still positively perfect in every way.

Easter Cuteness

Katelyn's first Easter was egg-cellent. She got a nice basket of books and clothes from Grammie and was super-cute in her ruffled dress that was also provided by Grammie. Between great friends and Grammie we may never have to buy this girl clothes!

6 Months

Can you believe she's 6 months already? The aches and pains I still have tell me it's not been that long, but I can't believe the little person she's becoming. I love walking into her room in the morning (hopefully after 6:00) and saying good morning to her. She just looks at me and breaks into the biggest giggle! It has to be one of the sweetest things ever. Knock on wood, she's sleeping from around 7:15 pm to about 4:00 am. Even at 4 you can usually leave her in her crib and she'll talk herself back to sleep for a little while. The only issue is leaky diapers. Little Miss K has decided to be a stomach sleeper now that she can roll over and the 12 hour promise on the Pampers is not holding up. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.

We've been battling a month-long cold. We went back to the doctor on April 18th and they put her on Amoxicillin for 10 days. Her cough is a little better, but she's still really snotty. She's perfectly fine with it, so I guess we just have to let it run its course. We go back for the 6 month check-up on April 29th so we'll be able to check back in with the doctor again.

We're still waiting for the moment she can sit up unassisted. She's getting there, but still falls forward. She's starting to stick her little butt up in the air when she's on her stomach. Then she gets frustrated when she doesn't go anywhere. Just like her Mommy, always in a hurry. Eating is going extremely well. We've introduced 9 fruits/veggies so far and she's gobbled them all down. We're also practicing with sippy cups. She mostly just likes to chew on them because it feels good on her gums. No teeth yet, but they are coming soon.

We've also been going to a Mommy & Me swim class on Sunday's. Since I love the water I was hoping K would too. She's always done well with baths, so we thought we would give it a try. To my delight she loves it. She kicks her little feet like crazy. I can't wait for summer to take her everyday!

Other than baby K, life is moving along for the White's. Chris has been traveling. A LOT! We're getting through it, and hopefully things will start lightening up soon. Chris already been with this company for a year and is happy with the switch. Grammie has been wonderfully helpful and we are so thankful to have her close. I have some decisions to make regarding work. We found out Monday they will be closing our DC office in the next 12 to 18 months and consolidating us with the Vienna, VA headquarters. Unfortunately Vienna is 4 hours a day of commuting that I don't have. Two hours is already bad enough. The good news is that I'm not losing my job and if need be I can stay until I find a good fit. They are hopefully looking into some options such as telework that would make things easier. If only those lottery numbers would come through for us! I'm sure it will all work out somehow.

Bath time is especially fun because feet are much easier to nom on!


Exersaucer fun!


Sometimes dinner is tough!


Holding my own bottle!


Happy Daddy's Girl!

Surviving Month 5

Can you believe K is 5 months already? I feel like she changes everytime I look at her. Her personality is really developing and she is such a happy baby most of the time. Daddy is the best at getting big mouthy giggles. She just loves his silly faces. She is absolutely loving food and gets better at eating every day. She's so cute when she opens up her little mouth! Last weekend was a test for Mommy and Daddy. Mommy went away for the weekend and left K and Daddy alone for the first time. Both survived with flying colors. Grammie came over to help on Saturday and was much appreciated. She was even able to tame the wild beast.

K is also loving daycare thankfully. Ms. Willis has been great and K is all smiles when she sees her. She even did her fist art project. She wasn't excited about having paint on her hands, but it's still cute.

She is getting more and more interested with the world around her and loves her exersaucer.

And is mostly just good at being adorable!

Katelyn At 4 Months

Katelyn had her four month check-up on February 21st and is now 13.8 pounds and 24.75 inches long. Such a big girl! There were also more shots, but she was a trooper. She did get a mild fever this time around so we stayed home and cuddled. By mid-morning the fever was gone, but the cranky pants stayed put for a bit longer. Happily she is now back to her cheerful self. Every day seems to bring a little something new. She's rolled over a few times and can push herself up when on her belly. She's moved from blowing bubbles to full-on screaming. Great fun for her, but not so much for Mom and Dad. Hopefully this video will work....



Rest assured I picked her up right away. She's so funny when she falls over! She doesn't quite have the sitting up thing yet.

We bought her an ExerSaucer a few weeks ago, but she couldn't touch the bottom and didn't seem to like all the gadgets. Now she can touch and is starting to look in wonderment at all the different colors. I think there is too much going on for her right now, but eventually I'm sure it will be huge fun. The nice thing is that once she's too big to sit in it, it converts to an activity table. Good job Evenflow on making something that they won't outgrow in 5 minutes! And, good job Dad for realizing it was the better purchase.

Next we're going to start working on cereal. We've tried it twice, but she's not really interested yet. I think we need to expose her a little more to our food and try again. I can't believe we're moving onto cereal already. I saw a 4-day old in CVS yesterday and struggled to believe my baby wasn't that small anymore. Crazy how fast it goes. Everyone tells you it does, but you still don't believe it.

Happy baby...


Sitting like a big girl...

January Roundup

Well, January was anything but dull for the White House. Katelyn spent one week at day care and ended up in the hospital the second week with RSV. While mostly precautionary, it was no less scary. She handled it like a champ and was really good. Everyone marveled once again at our blonde little baby. Blondes must really be few and far between.

She slept most of the time....
And looked so small in the big crib....
We've pretty much settled into a daily/nightly routine. So far our day care is working out very nicely. Our morning schedule changes day to day depending on Chris's schedule, but we're adapting. He's been traveling a lot which makes for some really long days for me. Luckily I'm able to work from home on occasion and Grammy comes over to provide relief. I love picking K up from day care and getting a big gummy smile. Chris and I also went out for a second time on our own. We had a very nice dinner at a friends house with a few other couples. Grammy was nice enough to babysit since I 1) don't know of any babysitters in our neighborhood, and 2) am not sure I'm ready to leave K with another stranger. I know I need to get over that, but I'll take advantage of free babysitting for as long as possible (love you Mom!). Not much else has been going on. Getting into a routine has been the biggest thing since I'm now back to work. It's nice to get out of the house, but the commute to DC is killing me. K still wakes up at least once and I'm not sleeping very well so that is adding to the fatigue. Add to that this really crappy winter and you have a cranky Mommy. Hopefully longer and warmer days are right around the corner. I'm excited to be able to take K out on walks and let her see the world. It is amazing how much she changes almost daily and she seems to be right on track with developing. We have her 4 month (yes, 4 already) checkup on 2/21 and I think she's right between 13 and 14 pounds. She's still on the little side, but it's nice because she's not outgrowing her clothes as fast. She's just realized she can make noise with her mouth. It is hysterical to watch. I tried to upload a video, but it won't work. You'll just have to believe me for now. I think she knows it will get her attention so she just keeps doing it and ends up covered in spit. No surprise that offspring of me and Chris would be a rascal. I know in the last post I promised to write more. Work has been crazy busy, but I'll try harder!

Now That I'm Back To Work, There Should Be More Time For Blogging

I know I've been really bad about blogging and there are a few of you not on Facebook that are probably a little peeved. I apologize. It's hard to find computer time with a new born, but now that I'm back to work I should have plenty of time. **Insert nasty comment about lazy Government workers here.**

So, what have we been up to? Well, mostly just the trials and tribulations of new parents. Luckily we haven't had to deal with anything major and Katelyn is a really easy baby. She's learning new things every day and I love watching her watch the world. Recently she learned about her thumb and that it's a good substitute until Mom can get a bottle in there.
The best thing so far, has to be the smiles and giggles. They never get old. Here is a little video, you be the judge.

She also quite enjoys bath time. So far she just sits and lets us wash her without issue. Given how much I love the water, I'm hoping this is a good omen that she will too. I can't wait to take her to the pool.


Here's the run down of November and December.
November
Thanksgiving was nice and quiet and we just had dinner at my parents house. Katelyn (which from now on I will abbreviate as K b/c I'm lazy) wore a cute dress that her Daddy picked out all on his own. Unfortunately she only wore it once before it was too small, but that's what happens with babies. December
Chris and I got to go out on our own to celebrate his 40th birthday. Yup, he's a cradle robber. Our wonderful friends Josh and Kristy came over and stayed with K for the night. We weren't gone long, but at least got some alone time and also enjoyed some great steaks. Our neighbor Steve bought K a snowsuit, so she got to go out in her first snow. We only got about an inch, but I'm counting it. She did not like the suit, but it's still cute.
Christmas came much more quickly than I was prepared for. This year K was too young to know what was going on, but we still had a nice time visiting friends and family. She even got her picture taken with Santa, and was awake!
I just realized I didn't take any pictures of her in her Christmas dress, so you'll have to believe me when I say it was cute. Grammie and Grandpa got her a bunch of books and a toy dog that teaches colors, body parts, etc. Jethro is much more interested in it at this point, but she'll get there. This is my first week back to work, and it is definitely an adjustment. K has decided for most days she'd like to be up by 4:00 am. I can't be mad because she's usually asleep between 7:30 and 8:30 pm and sleeps all night. Yes, I just knocked on wood. However, since the alarm is set for 5:00 am the early rising is making it difficult for Mom and Dad. I'm really hoping to get a good nap in this weekend, I'm exhausted! Day care is going well so far. I almost feel bad that I'm not more upset about leaving her. I definitely miss her, but I do enjoy having someone else change diapers. That about catches you up on the happenings in the White house. I promise to try and be better about posting!

I know, finally an update....

Well, here we are at the 2 week mark. So far we're surviving. There were a few rough days at first, but we've straightened them out for now. I'm actually getting a good amount of sleep most days/nights. Some of course are better than others. One day she sleeps a lot at night, and the next she sleeps all day. We're still having trouble fitting into most clothes, so sleepwear is pretty much 24/7. She's now too long for the preemie clothes, but still too small for most of the newborn or 0-3 month clothes. I can't wait to dress her in all the cute outfits, but she's swimming in them! Chris is settling in to fatherhood and loves his baby girl with all his heart. Too bad she can't talk, because he would give her the moon and stars if she asked.

Labor and delivery were very, very long (about 22 hours total), but mostly uneventful. There was an issue with the first epidural so they had to place a second one. My legs were so numb, no amount of concentration would let me move them. That I did not like, but there was some movement by delivery. Also, had I known how long I'd be "pushing" (3 hours!), I would have definitely done some bicep curls during pregnancy. I couldn't believe how sore my arms were for days after. She finally arrived 11 minutes after midnight on October 19th and is absolutely perfect. At least to us. At 2 weeks we've made it back and I think past birth weight so we're on the right track. She's already gotten to celebrate Halloween and participated in her first election. Quite the lady about town. We've even been out of the house a few times without Mom having a nervous breakdown while driving. That's about it to report. Newborns aren't very exciting apparently. Here's what you all really want....pictures!

Just after birth


Happy and swaddled


Sleeping angel


Break-dancer pose


A little smile


Happy Halloween!

As expected, the last week has been excruciatingly slow. I didn't knit any scarves, but I did knit a cool hat....
This morning we went to the hospital where they monitored me and the baby and applied a prostaglandin gel to help ready me for delivery. It did start contractions, but nothing that would indicate I'm ready, so they sent me home. Now it's just wait, wait, wait until around midnight when we'll leave for the hospital. The contractions are definitely not fun, but I have managed to get a little sleep. Tonight when we go back they will hook up the IV and start the pitocin to actually induce labor. Every time I think about this I start having heart palpitations.

The last few months seem to have gone by so slow given all the issues I've had, but looking back today makes it seem like I just peed on that stick. Chris keeps reminding me there is no turning back now, so I guess this is it! I'm still sticking by my, "one and done" mantra. I know the saying, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," but come on. It's been really rough both physically and emotionally and I give serious props to all of you that have done this more than once. I know deep down it is all worth it and I'm really looking forward to meeting my baby girl.

So...I guess that is it for now. The next post should be announcement of our little Katelyn's (or Caitlin's or Caitlyn's) arrival. Yeah, we're still working on the spelling. We'll see what the birth certificate says. Here is a picture from this morning at 39 weeks and 2 days. Love you all!

The End Is Near

Well unless she decides to make it out on her own, baby White should be making her debut on Monday, October 18th. We'll be going in Sunday morning for a check-up, and pre-induction work. Then we'll report back at 12:45 a.m. Monday. If you can call that Monday. Hopefully there will be plenty of time to nap on Sunday since I haven't stayed up after 9:30 p.m. for months. Now I just have to figure out how to get through the next 5 days without going crazy since I can't physically do ANYTHING. I have a million things in my head that I want to do, but walking upstairs to the bathroom is about all I can manage right now. I guess everyone can expect hand-knitted scarves for Christmas! That will keep me busy.

I'll post again this weekend before we head to the hospital with some pictures.

34 Weeks

In the few days since that picture was taken, I feel like my stomach has rapidly expanded. It may be in my head, but I did notice this weekend some of my shirts aren't quite covering the whole belly. I had a doctor's appointment last Thursday and they are still happy with how everything is progressing. It was a little startling when they scheduled the remainder of my prenatal appointments and there were only 4! My guess is that at the October 8th appointment we will make a plan for (or actually schedule) the induction. So if I'm correct, baby White could be here the week of October 11th. Chris and I had birth class this weekend and I guess now we're as prepared as you can be. We at least got to tour the hospital which was the most unknown to us. At least we know where to go and some of what to expect. Plus the french fries in the cafeteria looked yummy!

Below is a link to pictures from my belly session with the amazing Kathy DeLorenzo from Le Conteur Photography. I'm super lucky that she is one of my best friends, but also an amazing photographer. Anyone who knows me knows I hate having my picture taken so the fact that I'm posting them on the internets means they must be good.

Baby Girl At 32+ Weeks

We just got back from our sonogram and everything is fabulous. What a relief! For as crappy as I feel most days, at least I know I'm baking a good little bun. She weighs 3 lbs., 15 oz. at this moment. That is small, but still within normal range. Considering how she might be coming out, I'm perfectly fine with small. We got to see her heartbeat and they even saw her practicing breathing. That is a good sign and if she is born early she should be in good shape. I didn't really suspect anything was wrong given the way she's been carrying on in there, but it feels so good to see and hear that she is fine. Now we just have to get her out safely when the time is right and we'll be a family of three!

What Would I Do Without Friends and Family?

It's been a whirlwind since my last post. Time is flying by so quickly that we're down to just about 6 weeks! My wonderful friends threw me the best baby shower! I really can't say in words how thankful I am for everything and everyone. I got to see so many people from college and other friends/family I hadn't seen in a while. I wish I could have spent more time with everyone, but it went by so fast! I can't thank Willow enough for throwing the shower at her house and everyone else for everything they put into it. Not to mention the over-generous gifts. Having a baby is one of those times in life when the outpouring of kindness is too overwhelming. Thanks to the generosity, baby girls' room is pretty much complete. Yesterday I was able to put away all the clothes (her dresser is completely full already thanks to gifts and donations from friends), and put some personal finishing touches on. Here are some pics:

The Bambi wall hanging was cross-stitched by my Godmother for me when I was born. I'm so happy to have it to now hang in my girls room.

I've been holding onto these for years wondering what I would do with them. Yesterday inspiration struck. I think Chris and I were both about 5 years old when we did these. Now we just need to add the baby's.




Everything else is coming along. I think we have pretty much everything we need, except her. I'll post tomorrow after we have our sonogram. I'm so excited to see her again since I didn't think we would get to. They just want to double check her size due to my thyroid issues. They have no concerns, it's just precautionary. If her kicks and punches are any indication, she's just fine!