Let's see, our week has been pretty uneventful. We came home on Friday morning. We had visits that day from my mom (who also brought Kaitlyn home since it was a no school day), sister Christina who, along with my sister Samantha bought baby Samantha the perfect bassinet. Let me tell you, she loves the thing and if the vibrating part is on, she'll sleep so good in it, swaddled or not. Her fiance Brian was with her and we were also joined by Dusty's cousin Stephanie (who Kaitlyn lovingly refers to as Aunt) and her two little ones Hope and Beau and Dusty's cousins wife Alicia (who Kaitlyn also lovingly refers to as Aunt) and her little girl Lisa. The kids were awesome about not touching Samantha, and Kaitlyn was really glad to have her cousins there to play with.
Saturday was another lazy day. It's funny, when you are in the hospital and they are telling you to walk, walk, walk, all you want to do is scream "I just had major surgery" and want to rest, rest, rest. But, then when you get home, you take all the precautions they told you about, you know, not lifting anything, stay off your feet, no cleaning, only take care of baby, and you throw it all out the window. My idea of lazy is staying home and only doing what I feel are the necessities. Which happened to be laundry, dishes and some light dusting lol. Saturday my mom was by again, this time with lunch and my Aunt Beth to meet Samantha. We were visited again by my sister Christina (who also took Kaitlyn for a while to play with her nearly teenage, almost cousin Reid) and friend Leila with her two kids, who were also great about not touching Samantha, and later by friends Dorin and Nicole and their little ones Dominick and Isaiah, who were also fantastic about not touching baby.
By Saturday you should be able to kinda get my pattern. I'm thrilled to have kids over, not so thrilled about the possibility of spreading germs. I know it's terrible, but I am overly paranoid right now about her getting sick. Dusty is the same, so we've decided to avoid most public places (like malls, busy grocery stores and the like) and not let her have contact with kids like our pediatrician suggested until she is closer to 2 months.
Sunday we relaxed. Kaitlyn slept in, I was still going to bed around 9, getting up every 2 hours to feed, change, swaddle and get Samantha to sleep (which was taking about an hour) and doing that routine until about 7. We were visited by a friend Marilyn and soon after Auntie Christina came by to take Kaitlyn to Sunday dinner at my parents house. Kaitlyn was worried she would be left out if she didn't go, and I was too sore to think about wanting to get into the car.
Monday, it was our first time taking Kaitlyn to school with Samantha. Dusty hasn't ever experienced the drop off line, so I went too, in hopes of showing him the ropes. I got up at 6:30 so I could shower, get Kaitlyn showered and ready, get Samantha dressed and ready and then Archie surprised me by throwing up in our room and down the hall, and I got that cleaned up, dressed, make-up on and dishes done to be ready to leave by 8:15. I was pretty happy with myself. Dusty and I came home for about half an hour before it was time to take Miss Samantha to her doctor's appointment.
On the way home, Dusty waited in the car and I went into Super Walmart to pick up a few things and to get Kaitlyn's birthday presents. We ended up getting her the Barbie Video Girl, some new water colors (her favorite), 2 new painting booklets, a spiral picture maker and some money (her other favorite lol) all in a Tinkerbell bag with an iCarly card. On the way home we picked up some lunch and then I hurried and wrapped it so we could hide it.
Later that afternoon, Dusty picked up Kaitlyn and we waited for the cable guy to come fix our cable. I thought he was a jerk, but he and Dusty hit it off lol. In the end, our HD channels are working again and so is our DVR, so I can't really complain too much.
Tuesday was another relaxing day. Kaitlyn had school, Dusty took her himself, and we were able to just relax at home with the baby. I even got a nap in, which makes the 6 hours of interrupted sleep at night much easier to get through :) On Tuesday we also had to make the decision that Kaitlyn's outdoor Scooby-Doo party we had planned just wasn't going to happen because of all the nasty rain coming in. First time it has ever rained on her birthday party day! So, we decided to book the pizza place down the street and move it there!
Wednesday was Kaitlyn's birthday! Grandma was awesome and helped Kaitlyn make goody bags to pass out (Kaitlyn doesn't really care for cake, at all) and Kaitlyn was so excited. She said all the kids loved them and were so happy. Kaitlyn's teacher told us the next day that a few of the kids were so excited and kept saying "It's Kaitlyn's birthday but SHE gave US presents" in amazement! On our way to pick up Kaitlyn from school we stopped, paid the deposit on the pizza place and picked up everything we needed for her birthday dinner. She had decided to invite the family over and insisted we have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. This was a fine dinner option for me because it is so easy to do. After school, she told us all about her birthday march, singing happy birthday to her and how she got to do whatever she wanted all day because it was her birthday. My brother Scotty, his girlfriend (almost fiance since they've been together for nearly a decade...) Jamie, parents, Dusty's parents, Christina and her fiance Brian, Dusty's sister Christy and husband Dennis (who was also celebrating his birthday!) and their little girl Camaryn, all came over for dinner. Kaitlyn was THRILLED. She loved having happy birthday sang to her lol.
Thursday was a busy day! It was a day I waited all week for. We had scheduled newborn and sister pictures with Cari Lyn Photography. I woke up early, so did Samantha. I gave her a sponge bath, washed her pretty hair (which is already looking lighter in color) ironed some clothes, got a bag together with beanies, blankets, shirts and what not and then got Kaitlyn showered, hair blow dried, and tried to wake Dusty up to drive us to El Dorado Hills. He had been having cold symptoms and took some nyquil and even though he tried, he just couldn't get up.
So, I drove for the first time since I had surgery. It really wasn't that bad. I got everyone and everything loaded up and we hit the road. We got there like 2 minutes late, but I wasn't expected construction and traffic, so I was impressed with myself.
Cari was amazing, Samantha did so good at staying asleep (with the help of lots of nursing!) and Kaitlyn was wonderful too. That night I got a couple of sneak peeks and I cannot tell you how excited I am to see and order these pictures. I'm going to hold off on finishing my announcements until I do. If you ever have the opportunity, I highly suggest booking a session with her.
Check out Miss Samantha and Miss Kaitlyn. Let me tell you, after seeing those two pictures, it has me constantly checking my email in anticipation of the rest. I am just so in love with them!
Once we got home, we had enough time to sit for a little bit and eat lunch before it was time for Kaitlyn's parent/teacher conference. I always look forward to Kaitlyn's parent teacher conferences, I know that I think she is incredibly smart, but I like to hear it from a third party. I also love that Dusty goes because I think it helps keep him involved if he's hearing it from the horse's mouth.
Kaitlyn is really advanced in reading, I'm not surprised since I hear her read and I also hear her tell me how bored she is during reading time. Her teacher this year was her reading teacher last year. She said that to be where she needs to be right now, she needs to read at a level 9. So, since she knew how smart Kaitlyn is, she started testing her at a level 17. She passed, with flying colors and a perfect score. Then, she did a level 18, again she passed and even got a comprehension question right that most adults don't get right. Then she ran out of time before she could see how far Kaitlyn could really go. Based on those tests, she is reading at a 2nd grade level, but we all suspect she is reading above that.
Her teacher kept commenting on how easy it is to forget that Kaitlyn is by far the youngest in the class. Not just by her reading skills or math skills, but also by her maturity, ability to sit and by attention, and how well she self motivates and keeps herself on task. Being that it is a large class and there is only one teacher and many of the kids are incredibly disruptive and just need so much more attention, it's an important skill to have.
She also commented that Kaitlyn is one of the most popular kids in the class. Kids argue over who is going to be her partner, sit next to her at lunch, stand in line next to her, be in her birthday march, play with her at recess, sit next to her on the rug and basically who is going to be the closest to her during the day. Another great skill to have ;)
Then we discussed math. Kaitlyn's official grade is "proficient" she thinks Kaitlyn is advanced but on their timed tests, she made 2 careless mistakes and to get advanced you have to get 100%. It was obvious that Kaitlyn knew the right answer because she wrote the right answer down next to the math problems, but she circled the wrong answer. When I asked her the same math problem, she told me the right answer. So, one of Kaitlyn's mini goals is to not rush to the finish and to double check her work. Which she promised me she would do.
Overall she said Kaitlyn is an absolute delight to have in class, she's cheerful, generous, eager to help and just all around great. She said she wishes Kaitlyn would raise her hand more, so we asked Kaitlyn why she doesn't raise her hand to answer the questions and she said "because if I already had a turn to answer it wouldn't be fair to the other kids to raise it again." She is pretty thoughtful lol. She also said that when she saw Kaitlyn's name on the roster for her class she was so excited to have her come in from surgery, she counted down the days waiting. And the class really feels it when Kaitlyn is out sick.
What a great Thursday! To celebrate we let Kaitlyn have spaghetti O's for dinner :)
Friday marked one week at home. Kaitlyn was off school last Thursday and Friday for Veteran's day and a furlough day. This Thursday and Friday they were off for parent teacher conferences. So, we were able to have a really lazy morning. And after how Thursday was, I needed it! Dusty needed to go and help his dad put the racks on his new truck, so Kaitlyn, Samantha and I decided we would go to. We visited with Dusty's mom while Dusty worked on the truck, in the pouring rain, poor guy.
Kaitlyn went to bed around 9:30, after watching the new episode of iCarly, and Samantha and I went to bed shortly after. It was Samantha's best night of sleeping ever!! She only got up at 1:30 am, and went back to sleep easily after being changed and nursed (so 3 1/2 hours!) and then didn't get up until 4:30 (another 3 hours) and slept until 7:30 (which makes for 3, 3 hour stretches!) Yay!
Today is Kaitlyn's birthday party day, which she is so excited for and every few minutes she asks me how many hours until we get to go. Dusty and I are planning on keeping Samantha in her car seat/stroller the entire time to prevent her from being held. While we want to share her with the world, we also want to be responsible and not allow her to get sick if we can prevent it at all. So, if anyone would like to hold her, please feel free to head to our house after. And be sure to be on the look out for pictures, I'm sure there will be plenty!
As far as my healing goes, it's been good. 11 days later and I take 1 motrin a day, can fit into all pre-maternity clothes (but can't wear them because of the incision, boo!) and I'm getting my energy back :)
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2 comments:
Samantha is just beautiful!
congrats on having a good week. your little girl is so very precious! <3
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