Friday, June 5, 2009

Follow me

I have merged the two blogs and you can find all of your Bradford family updates at:

http://bradford0131.blogspot.com

Thursday, February 19, 2009

6 Month Check Up

Today (well, Thursday really) was Caitlyn's six month check up.  She's actually 6.5 months but it's just how the appointments worked out!  The Dr. said she's doing really well developmentally.  She's right on target where she should be and maybe a bit ahead with her word-forming and independence with feeding.  She is one HUGE baby and I don't really mean she's fat.  Here's her stats from today:
Weight:  20lbs 3.5oz (96th percentile)
Height:  28.4 inches (98th percentile)
Head Circum.:  17.5 inches (96th percentile)

That means that only 4% of other babies her age are heavier and have bigger heads and 2% are taller than her!  We had to order a bigger car seat that is convertible and can hold a baby up to 33 pounds rear-facing and 60 pounds forward-facing.  This is very important for safety concerns!!!  I was able to order it through the military website for much cheaper than most other sites/stores plus it was tax free, free shipping and I had a 20% discount code!  I'm buying clothing in larger sizes on clearance when I can and I happened to get some cute Valentine's Day shirts at Wal Mart for $1 and they don't say "Valentine" or have the year or anything on them.  I'm hoping she starts to even out and level off with her growth but we'll just buy as we go if we need to!  I'm still trying to find some PJ's, I just haven't had the chance to go anywhere other than Wal Mart lately!  

Caitlyn is now eating Peas in addition to her previously noted solid foods and she seems to really like pretty much everything!  The Dr. is happy with what she's been eating and told me that I shouldn't feel obligated to introduce juice to her, which makes me happy because I had no intentions of doing so anytime soon.  I would much rather prefer her to get a taste for water and milk than juice!  I'm sure the joke will be on me when she's 4 and decides to stop liking everything she has all her life like I did.... but in the meantime, I'll keep on keepin' on!  :)

Those Promised Videos!

I think I still have a few on my camera but I figured I would go ahead and post what I could get off of the memory card!

I put Jon on speaker so he could talk to her:


She gets incredibly happy on the changing table:


Don't mind our mess or my giggling... the bouncing, laughing baby is the real star!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Heart Day and More!


Checking out the outside world!

Playing the "tambourine"!

Nekkid!!!

Cool girly!


She still has a thing for her feet!

She looked like this after a car ride with Grandma and Grandpa... "HOLD ON for your life... Eeeeek!!!"   ;)

Loving on her Valentine's Day gift from Grammy and Grampa Clarke

Happy Heart Day, Baby Girl!

Loving on her present from Mommy and Daddy!

My fun baby girl can always crack a smile!

Special conversations with Daddy!

Playing with one of her Valentine's Day gifts from Nonna and P-Paw!

Mommy is kind of mean to make me work for my toys...

Kitty!

Naptime!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

No Pics...

No pictures for this post, sorry!  I just wanted to jot down a few things about Caitlyn so I would remember them in the future.  Right now her favorite songs for me to sing to her are "Love Story" by Taylor Swift just for fun, "Clean Up" from Barney after she eats (she cries if I wipe her down without singing it!) and The ABC's when I'm trying to get her to sleep.  So far she's eaten a brown rice cereal, oatmeal, butternut squash, green beans and bananas (in that order) and LOVED them all!  She's not made a bad face or spit anything back out so far.  I'm praying she doesn't get the picky eater genes like her parents have.  I want her to be different and not constantly be stuck in the "which way should I cook my chicken tonight" food rut.  She's incredibly noisy while she's eating, though.  She makes all kinds of grunts and groans like she's frustrated or it just can't get to her mouth fast enough.  She loves playing in it and grabbing the spoon from me.  I let her but am very careful that she doesn't gag herself with it as she likes very much to do.  She's not very interested in floor time anymore but I still make her do it.  Sometimes she just lays there and cries, even if I try to distract her.  She's figured out how to roll onto her belly really well but gets angry when she cannot go anywhere or get back.  She is now using this as a technique to keep herself awake at night and I've found her sleeping on her belly a few times now.

Her current eating schedule:
Morning bottle: 8oz bottle
Second feeding: 1/2 jar of stage 1 baby food and a 6oz bottle
Third feeding: 8oz bottle
Final feeding: 2oz formula mixed w/ cereal and a 6oz bottle

Before I started introducing solids she was eating 40oz of formula a day!  Sometimes she wakes up early for the fifth feeding but it's usually just when she's going through a big growth spurt.  She generally eats every 4-5 hours but I'm not obsessed with a schedule.  I just like to make sure she's not missing feedings so I know she's eating sufficiently (to help prevent a 5am feeding!).  She should also be able to go at least 3 hours without eating and I haven't had an issue with this for a very long time.  Caitlyn is just a good baby all around.  She's cut two teeth and barely fussed for any of it.  The only issue we have is nap time.  She just does not want to let go and miss anything!  Some days are very easy and I can rock her to sleep in 2 minutes in my arms and lay her down and then other days I will try everything for an hour with her screaming bloody murder and she finally gives up.  Different things work and she's not particularly attached to one method right now.

I cannot believe my BABY is almost in toddler sized clothing!  She's wearing 9-12 month size and some things need to be 12 month size!  I only have two or three outfits larger than 12 months and zero PJ's bigger than 9 months, so we will be shopping for more clothing soon!!!  I am hoping she starts to even out in size and slow down on her growth a little bit soon.  Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll be in 12 or 18 month size clothes longer.  We are looking into purchasing a larger car seat since she's outgrown the one she has!!!  I didn't realize how quickly 23 pounds could get here!  We go for a check up and shots on the 19th and I'll find out her exact measurements but I know she's at least 20 pounds!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Dada

Well, Caitlyn has been saying "Mama" for a month or so now, more so when she's mad and certainly not knowing that I am Mama.  But TODAY she started babbling and said "Dada!"  This is the closest re-creation to it that I could manage to capture on video tonight.  I immediately showed her Jon's picture and repeated "Dada" over and over again.  She may think he's two-dimensional and 8x10inches but it's better than not knowing him at all.  =)


Monday, February 9, 2009

Now it's a Video Frenzy!

I've been busy preserving what I can to share with Jonathan.  I realized when I went to visit Colin that I didn't think I'd taken a good video of her crying when she was a newborn and now I don't even remember what it sounded like!  So, here's to the preservation of some memories...



She had the hiccups in this one, which really cracks me up!