Caroline's first Christmas was great! It was so much fun to wake up with her on Christmas morning and open gifts. Having a little one around just makes the holiday so much more special.

Christmas pictures

Pop

Nana

Christmas pictures

Christmas pictures

Wearing my bracelet from Janice

We gave her a bell ornament with her monogram

Christmas pictures

Sportin' my new socks from Aunt Helen

Where's Waldo?

Christmas Pics

All dressed up

Ready to go see Santa

I believe in Santa Claus and my shirt says so

Christmas Eve

A Tribute to Mamo

It has been a busy couple of weeks for us. Caroline lost her great grandmother Blanche Layne Turner or "Mamo", on December 18th. Mamo lived a very long and happy 93 years and thoroughly enjoyed her 2 children, 5 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. Caroline is the 7th great grandchild and is named after Mamo (Caroline's middle name is Layne). Caroline got to meet Mamo back in October for the first time and then again at Thanksgiving at Nana and Pop's house. Mamo kept telling Caroline how pretty she was and called her "blue eyes".

I am sad that Caroline won't have memories of Mamo, but I know that she will hear a lot about her. Mamo was a true example of committment, dedication and love for her family. Our family will keep Mamo's memory alive and her spirit will always be with us.

I love my birdie!

Daddy brought this birdie back from a trip to Dallas-- she loves it!

Playing on my tummy (15 weeks)

How long will a diaper last?

I found out the hard way. Two nights ago, I changed Caroline's diaper and put her to bed around 8:00. She woke up to nurse at 2:00 am and 6:45 am and promptly fell right back to sleep, so I didn't see the point in waking her up with a diaper change. After, the 6:45 feeding, she slept until 10:00 am, which she has never done before. When I went in to get her, the front of her PJ's was soaking wet and I first thought she was sweating. But then I realized that, no, I had left her in the same diaper for 14 hours and she was sleeping in her own pee. Lovely. The great thing is, it didn't bother her at all. She woke up smiling. Oops.

Roly Poly

It's official-- Caroline is rolling from her back to her tummy now. Last night, I had her on the play gym mat and she just rolled over to the left and kept on going right to her tummy. I started videoing her while she was still on her tummy and then she rolled to her back and then back again to her tummy. As I mentioned before, she has been doing it in her sleep for a few days, but this was the first witnessed rollover.

Speaking of sleep-- we are FREE AT LAST! Free of the swaddle blankets, that is. We didn't swaddle her for the first time last night. I put her in her PJ's and fed her and then she just quietly drifted off sucking her paci as I rocked her. She went in her crib about 10:00 and didn't make a peep until 5:30. She now immediately rolls to her tummy when I put her down. But, we stick to the recommendation of putting her on her back and letting her roll over if she wants to.

Holding her bottle and feet pics

Holding her bottle for the first time

Got my feet!!!!

Hands and Feet

Caroline is a short napper. Thus, the reason I have not posted in a week or so. She now takes four to five 30 to 45 minute naps per day. Usually, the naps are 30 minutes-- almost to the minute. I am super excited if she sleeps longer but it's rare. The thing is, she seems to do fine with frequent short naps, rather than fewer long naps, which is what most other babies her age seem to do.

She is sleeping at night much better too. She is usually down for the night between 6 and 8 pm(closer to 8 for the most part) and sleeps until between 7:30 and 9 am, with 2 feedings in between around midnight and 6 am. We both are much happier on the mornings that she sleeps later--especially her.

Caroline held her bottle herself for the first time last week. Chris was feeding her and she just reached up and took it on her own. She needed a little bit of help at times, but she really surprised us by doing that. And she is also sucking on her hands and fingers all the time. She does suck her thumb a little, but mostly its her fists or a couple of fingers.

She has also discovered her feet. She has started rolling over onto her right side on her play gym mat and reaches down to grab her feet. Sometimes, she can reach them when she is lying on her back on the changing table.

And another new trick-- rolling from her back to her tummy when she's in her crib. She surprised me with that a few mornings ago when I went in to get her, and there she was on her tummy. We haven't actually seen her do it , but I suspect she is throwing her legs over to the side to roll herself. Since we swaddle her, she can't use her arms.

Caroline is just growing like a weed. She is somewhere around 14 lbs now and is outgrowing most of her 0-3 month clothes.

More pictures

Aunt Helen is funny!

She loves her swing mobile

Thanksgiving pictures

Papa

Great Grandmother (G.G.)

Great Uncle Jim

Great Aunt Clarisa

Caroline has redeemed herself from the car ride home from Florida. We went to Tullahoma for Thanksgiving and she did great in the car. Granted, it's only and hour and 15 minutes or so but it is still progress. Both of our Thanksgiving gatherings were fun and Caroline got to meet lots of new family members.

Chris was reading the paper today and on the inside of the front page was a story about the song "Sweet Caroline". I found a link to it on the comcast homepage as well. Just a little more trivia for fun.
http://www6.comcast.net/entertainment/articles/2007/11/20/People.Neil.Diamond/

Incidentally, our Caroline (before she was named Caroline) was given a book of poetry compiled by Caroline Kennedy as a baby shower gift from a former coach and mentor of mine from Baylor.

Chris's dad (Papa) came to visit yesterday. Caroline was kind enough to wake up for about 30 mintes while he was here. Long enough for her to get to sit in his lap and show off how she can sit up and hold up her head. We also got a chance to take a few pictures.

Caroline seems to have fallen into a little bit of a "schedule" on her own over the past few days. More consistent with wake-up times, lengths of naps and bed time. We'll see how long it lasts but it has been kind of nice. Today, we went for a really nice walk in the jog stroller-- about and hour and a half.

We are going to Tullahoma tomorrow to visit with Chris's mom's side of the family. Then we will have Turkey Day with my family on Saturday. Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 3 month birthday Caroline!!!

Now for a real update.
Caroline is 3 months old today! Where has the time gone?
She is a big girl now and sitting in her Bebe POD like a champ. These were shots from yesterday.
She must be going through a growth spurt becasue she is sleeping a lot lately. Last night, she went to sleep about 7:30, woke up at 11:00 to nurse, went back to sleep, woke up at 4:45 am to nurse, went back to sleep, woke up at 8:30 am to nurse, stayed up until 9:15 am and she's still alseep now at 11:15. Good for baby and mom!