Uncle Keagan and Aunt Laura

Uncle Keagan and Aunt Laura came and paid a visit to our little one this past weekend! We had a blast with them here. Check out Hannah's new hat!

Working on her smile:

Gettin' some lovin':

Group Shot!

Pose with Granddaddy:

All ready for Halloween/Thanksgiving with her little pumpkin outfit:

Family Shot:

Exercising her muscles:

We will get to see Keagan and Laura again for Thanksgiving. Hannah will probably look so much different, and it's only a few weeks away! I take her back to the doctor for her 2-month visit on November 10th. Then, the doctor and I will talk about vaccines and how we want to do all that (I think giving a small baby 5 shots in one day is a ridiculous idea). I am back into my pre-pregnancy jeans. Except that my butt is a different shape, so they're a little harder to get into. But that's okay. Now the only thing we have to wait for is my tummy skin to tighten back up. How long does that take? I've been walking/running around the little circle that we live on--a little over a mile each time I go--so that's really helped with feeling even more normal than I was feeling before. It's all a process!

Hike with Granddad

Dad and I took a trip down to Crabtree Falls today and it was beautiful!!! (as you can see above) Below are a few more pictures we took while on our little nature extravaganza. Enjoy!

Just about everyone we passed on the trail were enamored with Hannah. :)

Preeettttttyyyy.....

OOOoooooooooo:

Keagan and Laura will be here Saturday morning! Yay! We'll have more pictures to post from that. And to finish, here's a cute picture of Ms. Hannah. Hopefully we'll catch her smile soon!

Cute Video

Here's a cute video of Hannah napping. Enjoy all the facial expressions!

Growth Spurts

All I have to say about this past week, as far as Hannah's progress is concerned, is that it's OVEERRRRRRRR. As you can most likely surmise, she went through a growth spurt this past week (which is normal around week 6), and we were miserable. Boo. She was squirmy and cranky, couldn't sleep well, wanted to eat every hour and a half (including at night), wasn't digesting her food well, was gassy, uncomfortable, ...... on and on we could go. So, she made life miserable for me as well. The worst night was Wednesday night, on into Thursday. Rough. But! Hallelujah, it's over. :) She's been so happy and pleasant the past day or two that it's been amazing that she is the same baby!

Today I started back at cfa. It was so nice to be back! Hannah did beautifully during the services--I had Daniel show up to church with her about 15 minutes before the first service started, and then they headed out after worship in the second service. That way she wouldn't be there all day long. And I had a few "designated baby holders" that were a huge help during both services, so thanks Dan & Robin and Rachel! I'll be back at cfa in the office this week, and Hannah and I will be takin' care of bidniss.

Welp, here's a cute picture to end this with. I would write more (Daniel's parents and his aunt and uncle came to visit yesterday), but Daniel wants me to take her from him. So, more later :)

Apple Picking!

Well, the Garrett family made their way to Carter Mountain Orchard today with our friends Luke and Rachel. We had a great time picking some Granny Smith apples and eating apple cider donuts, which I highly recommend! Then we came home and I (Calie) made an apple cinnamon cake while Rachel and Luke made an apple pie and chicken and dumplings. MMMMmmmmmmmmmm.

Here's the easterly view from the top of the mountain:

Calie and Rachel (Hannah's buried in the sling somewhere)!

Daniel and Luke...
(don't ask... but do ask about the other incriminating pictures we have)

This was from a lazy Sunday afternoon where I was attempting to multi-task by holding Hannah and playing on the computer at the same time:

So, one day this past week was 80's day at Daniel's school. Here was his outfit. To say the least, he is now one of the most popular teachers among the students. :)

Hannah sporting the mullet, rocking out:

Hannah is now 5 weeks old! Can't believe it. Tomorrow is my last Sunday on maternity leave. It's exciting and sad at the same time. I've really enjoyed being able to sleep in and not have any responsibilities on Sunday morning, but at the same time, I'm itching to get back to work. Hannah's been going a little bit longer between feedings, which has been nice. So, that'll be a luxury until we hit a growth spurt. :) I'm trying to think if there's anything else to share... I don't think so. Have a great day!

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

We definitely slept in heavenly peace last night! Hannah slept for 4 hours! WOOOoooohoo that felt good. :) I actually woke up at 2:30 waiting to hear her cry, cuz that should've been about the time that she would wake up. But I fell back asleep and didn't hear her cry until 4. So I got up and fed her, and then she slept from 5 - 8 this morning. So I got a total of 7 hours of sleep last night. Awesome.

And THEN, to top it all off, when I went in her room at 8 this morning to feed her, she half-smiled at me when I picked her up. Yay! So cute. :)

Anyway, that is all. Hopefully today will continue in this manner!

Pictures!

Sleepy baby :) She sleeps with her mouth open, just like her daddy.

Photo shoot with Grandma Broussard:

RAT TAIL! Yikes. We need to cut that off...

Visit from Uncle Matt and Aunt Becky:

Uncle David and Aunt Abigail:

Ava! Hannah's first cousin:

Cute cousin picture:

We've found a bath method that works!

"Hmm.... let me think about that one..."

"Umm.... you're weird." This really looks like a Calie face:

Hannah will be officially one month old tomorrow! Woohoo! Enjoy these pictures :)

Major Update

Wow! Sorry for being so bad at updating this last week and a half. I haven't really been motivated to update because we can't get any pictures off our camera. So, updating isn't quite as exciting wtihout pictures. :)

Okay, so Daniel's mom came up this past Saturday and stayed until Tuesday. She was such a huge help around the house--cooking, doing laundry, keeping things organized, watching Hannah so I could get out and do a few things. I really appreciated having her here. Also, Daniel's sister and her husband and 18-month old came and visited on Saturday. It was very neat to see them! Ava is growing so fast! We have some cute pictures of her, so maybe when our picture-uploading capabilities are fixed I can post some.

Hannah went for her one-month appointment today. I can't believe it's been 4 weeks already!! She is now 6 lbs, 5 oz., and 19 1/8 inches long. So she's grown almost a half inch and has gained almost 1 1/2 pounds from her lowest weight measurement. She's still very petite, but doing well! Nights have been interesting. Either we have good nights where she is willing to go right back to sleep after eating, or we have terrible nights (like last night) where it's 3am and she isn't interested in going back to sleep at all. So last night I was up with her downstairs to keep her from waking Daniel up. Not fun. But, we're working on it. Thankfully we don't have that problem every night.

I also went for my post-partum check-up today. I only need to lose 6 more pounds to be at my pre-pregnancy weight. Woohoo! Although, my doctor was like, "You know, I'd like to see you down to 125 pounds." My response? "Umm......... I haven't been that weight since I was in the eighth grade!" HAH!!! Very funny. But, I guess it's something worth shooting for. I really think the only way I could lose more than about 10 pounds would be running--and I HATE running. But I'm seriously thinking about it. We'll see. I'll also be starting this special birth control for breast-feeding moms. It's called POPs. It's only got progestin in it, as opposed to normal hormonal birth control pills. I'm kind of bummed, though, because I was on the NuvaRing before, which was awesome (cuz I didn't have to remember to take a pill at the same time every day). You just pop it in one day, take it out three weeks later, and then pop a new one in the next week. Easy. I'm not so good at taking medicine, so we'll see how this goes. My doctor said that my ability to remember to take the pills will depend on how badly I don't want to get pregnant. :) True, I guess.

Anything else? In breastfeeding progress, Hannah can now latch onto the left side without the shield, which is great! She still fights with the right side, so that'll probably take a bit longer, but that's okay. She doesn't always cooperate with the left side, but at least I know that she's more than capable.

Alrighty, you guys take care. Hopefully I'll have pictures soon!