Eight Glorious Hours!!!

The princess let me sleep for eight glorious hours last night!!!

Okay, so it wasn't eight hours straight. It was four hours, and then a hour and half of rocking and soothing, and then four more hours, but it adds up to eight hours!!

Of course, who know when it will happen again, but for today, I'm feeling great!!

Steffan was off of work today, so I took the opportunity to have a bubble bath. I LOVE hot bubble baths and haven't had one in waaaaay too long. It was fantastic!!

Routine

So, the princess and I are settling into a routine quite nicely. This morning, she even let Steffan & me eat breakfast together before he had to go to work. She's waking up on her own to eat now, which is great!! There's something really unnerving about setting your alarm for 2:30 in the morning, and then, as you blearily stumble back to bed at 3:15, setting it again for 5:30. So, now, we're alarm free, well, not really alarm free, just instead of a mechanical beeping, it's more of a grunting and groaning that escalates to wailing if not answered in time!

We're still going for walks every day. Yesterday, we went to the grocery store on our walk, and she slept through the whole thing! I've decided it's time to roll all the coins in our spare change jar. This should be a fairly simple thing to do. I have the change, all I need is the rollers. Well, yesterday, we went to the dollar store, the pharmacy, the post office, and the grocery store, and nobody had them. So, that means I get to postpone that job for a little while longer.

Tomorrow, my girlfriend is bringing over her 6 month old son. That should be a fun day. I haven't seen her in a couple of months. Her son is going to make our little princess look sooo tiny!

Monday, I went to the registry to order Caitlyn's birth certificate. I walked up to the counter and said, "Hi, I need to order a birth certificate." The helpful lady said, "Is it for yourself?". to which I replied, "No, it's for my daughter...holy cow, I have a daughter!!". In some ways it still doesn't seem real. It's like we're babysitting and waiting for someone to come pick her up. I wonder when it'll really sink in that this is our life now.

Monday evening, I drove a friend home, and came back to find this:
Somehow, the sleep deprivation is all worth it!

Day 1

Steffan went back to work yesterday, so Caitlyn and I were on our own for the first time.

I think we did pretty well. I didn't nap, but we went out for a walk. I'd like to try to get out for a walk with her everyday. I think it's important for us both to get some fresh air, and it's definitely important for me to get out of the house. I definitely don't have the stamina I had before I got pregnant, so the walk yesterday was fairly short, but at least I got out there. I also made dinner and cleaned up the kitchen. I think for a first day it went really well.

Today, I went back to bed after feeding her at 8:30 and slept til her 11:30 feeding, so I'm feeling good about that.

With all the excitement having her early, I totally forgot about a book club that I'm in. We're meeting to discuss Northanger Abbey on Saturday. I finally started the book yesterday, so I have a lot of reading to do over the next couple of days.

One Week Ago

The beautiful Caitlyn Alyzabeth was born a week ago today.

I was induced early because my kidneys were acting up. They started the induction at 12:30pm on Saturday, and our little princess was born at 3:59 Sunday morning. I was released from the hospital at 9:00 Sunday night. Since she was so tiny (4 lbs 13 oz at birth) she had to stay in the NICU until Thursday afternoon. Leaving her in the NICU those four nights was hard, ut it let me get some sleep which I really think has helped me to recover faster. The nurses in the NICU were absolutely amazing, they took such good care of our little girl.

It's amazing to think that she's a week old already. It doesn't even really feel like she's ours.

Tomorrow's our first doctor's appointment, hopefully she's back up over her birth weight.

Since she's a preemie, I have to wake her every 2 1/2 hours during the day and every 3 hours at night to feed her. Mommy & daddy are both starting to feel a little sleep deprived.

I feel like there's so much to say, but I don't even know where to start...