casey 101

i probably should've started this blog right after casey was born, as kind of a continuation to the "belly book" that i kept little notes and stuff in when i was pregnant with her.......because i'm now realizing that there really is no an official rcord of all things casey for the first 3 and a half months of her life......maybe with kid #2 i'll be more on top of that......so in lieu of that, i've prepared a little summary of casey's 142 days on this earth before i started this blog......

lights......this kid loves lights......any kind of lights........ceiling fan lights, flashlights, tv lights, colored jumparoo lights......she just eats 'em up......well i guess technically that's not true - she really doesn't like sunlight in her eyes......that actually really pisses her off.....

sleeping......casey's slept through the night since she was about 7 weeks old......there's no "secret technique" we used......she just did it.......on her own.......crazy i know......people want to kill us i think when they hear that.....prior to her sleeping through the night we did 3 hour shifts - i have fond memories of my 10pm-1am & 4am-7am shifts.......waking up at 12:55 with her then again at 4:02 effectively skipping steve's 1am-4am shift......but really it was a pretty neat time.....and it was over before even we were ready for it to end i think......we did make a pretty pointed effort to keep her awake more during the day so she'd swap her days/nights faster - which seemed mean at first, but think definitely worked......

clothing.......this kid has more outfits than i do......really SO MANY people bought her clothes after she was born......it was out of control.......we had so many we actually started to get duplicate outfits from people......

feeding.......from the minute casey came into the world, she had the breastfeeding thing down......i had no idea what i was doing, but she did.......it was nut-so how easy it was for us to get into that routine.......only hard part was when my milk came in - very painful for about 2 days, but otherwise way easier than i expected.......i really can't thank steve enough for encouraging me to consider breastfeeding.......i pretty much had my mind made up i didn't want to, but he said it enough times that i considered it, and thought well we'll try it, and if it goes horribly or hurts too much i'll stop.......it's one of the best decisions we've made......pumping went fine and she took to the bottle fairly well......tried once to switch bottle types, which didn't go well, so we stuck with the first kind......she started off at about 3 oz, then went progressively up to 5 oz.......she's now at about 7 oz at 5 months old.......

dirty diapers.......you've never met a kid who's so cool with hanging out in a wet diaper......she completely could care less......we change her about every 4 hours......unless there's a poop.......speaking of, her poops used to be these tiny little deals......now (at 5 months) you can see her bear down, turn red, and hear all the stuff exit her butt........and if you wait longer than 5.3 seconds to change her, it'll seep out of the diaper, through her clothes, onto your clothes......fun times.......

crib.......two nights of casey sleeping in our room after we got home from the hospital was enough for us.......every time she breathed i was awake.......plus the pack & play was huge and really didn't fit in our bedroom right........so night #3 of being home she slept in her crib and has ever since.......definitely another great decision we made.......

swaddling.......yes, at 5 months old our kid still needs to be swaddled.......she'll claw at her face until she wakes herself up otherwise.......the swaddling thing i think was supposed to end around 2-3 months.......at this rate we'll be teaching her college roommate how to swaddle her......

positions........she used to love it when people held her in the cradle position.......gone are those days.......then she used to love it when people held her upright against their shoulder.......gone are those days.......every couple weeks she'll outgrow a position.......these days she's into being held facing out, or "standing".......she loves to "stand" and "walk".......thank grandpa paulie for that one......

tummy time........we gave casey a lot of tummy time right off the bat.......she held her head up and had control of her neck muscles pretty early on (from what the doctor told us) and i think it's because of that.......i have to thank joy for teaching me that tummy time is important......

i'm sure there are a lot more things i'm missing or forgetting, but that's a fairly good start......