Thanksgiving at home

Uncle Doug, his fiance Sara and Aunt Kristine were here for Thankgiving. Camille loved visiting with them after returning from Carthage. Kristine was here all summer, so she and Camille know each other well. This was the first time the Smiths met Sara. Sara is so sweet and fits right in with our bunch, though maybe more normal than the rest of us:) Camille especially loved hanging out with Uncle Doug this visit. She liked towering over the rest of us and being able to touch the top of the doorways when held by Doug.--Stephanie

A few more Thanksgiving photos

Camille watched several Disney videos at Nana and Papa's house Thanksgiving week. Here you can see Camille with her Sterling bear and Joli the dog all cuddled up together.

It's cute to see the kids lined up in their little chairs at Thanksgiving outside in Carthage. The weather was beautiful and warm.--Stephanie

Thanksgiving in Carthage

You can see Camille's new haircut in the first picture with Matt's aunt Carolyn. I took Camille to a children's salon, and she really got pampered. Camille loved it. She even got her hair washed there and a manicure as part of it. It was expensive, so we'll be doing that only as a special treat. Her hair turned out very cute, though.

Matt went to Carthage on Thanksgiving and spent the day with his family, and then he brought Camille home on Friday. Camille had a blast with Matt's cousins' children (I think that makes them Camille's 2nd cousins?). Camille couldn't stop talking about the swings at Granny and Granddaddy's house. --Stephanie

Lily and Mommy

This is a picture from last Wednesday the 22nd. I'll try to take more pics soon because Lily's cheeks have really filled out since then. --Stephanie

More Lily

Here are some photos from out little photo session tonight. --Stephanie

Lily and the music box

Lily likes brief tummy time with my childhood music box turning around. Her eye contact is improving and she's looking for Mommy when she hears my voice. She focuses in on things more often now.

Tonight Lily was fussy and seemed hungry though I was out of milk. I warmed up 1 ounce of breastmilk from the refrigerator, and she eagerly enjoyed every last drop from the bottle. It was a noisy feeding because she couldn't get her mouth sealed well around the bottle nipple. In fact, she really wanted more, but I decided that ought to be enough to tide her over until the next feeding.

Lily is a growing girl. She gained 10 ounces in the past 8 days! Today at her 2 weeks old doctor visit she weighed 7 lbs 8 1/2 ounces. I guess I am doing my job well. I accidentally left the doctor's office without waiting for the nurse to come in to do a PKU heel prick blood test. We had to go back later for that. Lily really only cried a little bit, seemingly more in annoyance for interrupting her nap than any pain.

Camille is in Kingwood this week until Thanksgiving with Carol and Jamey. It's quiet around here without her. It's a nice break, but I'll be glad to have her back.--Stephanie

Camille and Daddy outings

Over the weekend Matt took Camille to a small nearby museum about the InterUrban railroad that ran from Waco to Dallas years ago. His grandparents traveled on these trains. Camille had a short attention span for the museum but liked the park and playground outside. In the photo in front of the old train, Camille is jumping and has both feet off the ground.

Also on the weekend Matt tried to take Camille to the Bass Pro Shop, but it wasn't open yet. Matt and Camille ended up at Tuesday Morning (a store many men loathe) and bought umbrellas. Camille thought it was great.--Stephanie

Smith bassinet

Here are pictures of Lily in the Smith family bassinet on the day she came home from the hospital. I'm running several days behind posting photos.--Stephanie

First week with Lily at home

The whole family has been adjusting well to the first week with Lily at home. Lily is a
good dispositioned baby and is only occasionally fussy. Two nights ago was probably the
most fussy she's been, but she had a slight fever. She is all better today.

Lily found her thumb the other night and sucked it for 5-10 minutes. She takes a pacifier occasionally, and when she does it's very soothing. Mostly Lily is very content and sleeps easily. The worst part about her thumb-sucking episode was that she repeatedly tried to poked herself in the eye.

I love to see her wrinkle up her brow. It's so cute when she stretches. Lily has ridges in
her skull from skull plates overlapping, looking like a Klingon head on Star Trek.

Camille LOVES her new baby sister. Her teacher says that she loves to talk about Lily at
school. Camille has been whining a lot this week, seeking attention, dispite all the
individual attention she's been intentionally given by us. We've been giving in a lot with her,
but the whining has been getting worse. We're trying to stop some of that. My mom is at my
house most of the day to help with Camille and with the baby while Camille is at preschool.
We want to be consistant with Camille. Mom and I made a plan for discipline so that Camille won't run all over us, playing one against the other. It's hard to know when to give in to avoid a fight, and when to stand your ground. Yesterday Camille had some tears from putting a stop to some of her behaviors but recovered easily and is already seeming to respond better. Though Camille often tries to push the boundaries and the rules, I can tell she thrives with them.

I'll try to take some more pictures of Lily soon. These pictures are from a few days ago.
Lily's cheeks are starting to fill out more, as is her second chin. She eats like a champ.--Stephanie

Narrative finally!

Well, I'm finally getting around to writing the narrative to go with all of the initial pictures. As you've probably now figured out, the baby is here! Lily Carol Smith was born on Nov 7, 2006 at 8:54am weighing 6 lbs, 13 ounces. She was 19 1/2 inches long. She is a whole pound heavier than Camille was. I had a scheduled C-section because Lily was breech. I'm happy to say that Lily has been the most easy-going baby I could imagine. She hardly ever cries, and she eats and sleeps well. When we left the hospital she weighed 6 lbs, 8 ounces. Today at the doctor she weighed 6 lbs, 13 ounces again (regaining her birthweight remarkably quickly) and her jaundice measured below the charts for concern.

The C-section itself was harder on me than I expected. I was very uncomfortable and shaking constantly. It made me miserable and was exhausting during the process. Everyone was trying to be nice and Matt couldn't have been more wonderful, knowing when to be with me and when to back off. I couldn't have been less interested in the baby at first because I was really preoccupied with the discomfort of putting me back together. Matt said Lily came out feet first and started crying before they even got her head out of me. The doctors and nurses quickly got Lily wrapped up and handed off to Matt. He was holding and bouncing the crying baby in one arm, while stooping over to hold my hand and give me words of encouragement. He tried to distract me with the baby, but I wasn't being very cooperative. After the surgery was over and I finally got some medication to get the shaking and pain better under control, I could finally start to meet and enjoy Lily. My recovery is coming along very well.

The first night in the hospital was very noisy, not Lily so much, but beeps and alarms from all the machines in the room. They had these boots they strapped onto my feet that would alternately squeeze my feet like a bloodpressure cuff to keep the circulation moving and prevent blood clots. In addition to the noise with inflation, for some reason these chirped intermittantly due to various error messages. My IV monitor often needed tending to. My blood oxygen monitor would start beeping every time it dipped down to 90 which ended up being every minute or so. I had to take a deep breath to get it to stop beeping. I finally got them to turn it off close to morning. The nice thing about that monitor was that it had a little red light on the end of my finger (I called it my ET finger), and I could use it as a nightlight to see the baby without turning on the room light!

Camille has been wonderful with Lily. She was very excited to finally have her baby sister here. She got to wear her new "I'm the big sister" shirt, and we gave her a new doll complete with Moses basket, diaper bag, and feeding accessories. Camille can tend to her baby doll (named Priscilla after the nice nurse at the hospital) while I feed Lily. Camille is very into pretend these days. She wants to pretend to diaper the baby. She will put pretend diaper cream on her finger and then want me to help her take off the baby's clothes because she can't do it with her index finger stuck up in the air (trying not to wipe the diaper cream on the clothes). I keep telling her to take the clothes and diaper off the baby before getting the diaper cream on her finger. It's funny. She likes the disappearing milk bottle.

You can see the picture of Lily passing her newborn hearing screening.

Lily was born on Tuesday and we came home on Friday. I am glad that I stayed the 3rd day because it gave me the extra time to increase my mobility and taper down my pain medication. I'm doing well at home, taking things slowly and having lots of help with daily chores. Matt gave Camille lots of special time together this weekend, and that gave me time to take some naps. Camille loves Lily and is really a big helper. She brings her stool up to the changing table and hands me diapers and wipes when I change Lily. She loves to fetch whatever I need. Camille is now an expert in breast feeding and even pumping milk. My milk came in full flood, so I already have 7 bottles (4oz) in the freezer from just pumping off enough milk to not be miserable. That will be nice for later on.

I have a bunch more pictures to post, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.--Stephanie

Pictures finally!

I'm going to post all the pictures I want first and then add narrative when I have time.--Stephanie

Tricycle Fun

Matt and I took Camille out to an outdoor hockey rink the neighborhood park and let her ride her tricycle this weekend. Matt had this good idea, and it really let her be able to focus on continuous pedaling and not have to be as exact with steering. She gets easily frustrated on the sidewalk because she quickly goes off onto the grass. We were impressed by how well she did with pedaling, despite her lack of confidence. She even managed to topple the trike a couple of times when she would turn one way while looking the other way. I guess that shifted off her balance. No harm done. She quickly tired of this activity and wanted to go over to the playground. Unfortunately some rude other people apparently poured a sticky substance down all the slides, and Camille was disappointed that we coudn't use them. The dirty slides were all Camille could talk about for the next hour.

In the late evenings we've been walking with Camille in the stroller around the neighborhood. Camille loves to look for Halloween decorations. I think Camille will like to stroll around on warm winter evenings to look at Christmas lights.--Stephanie

Halloween Pictures

Camille had a fun time trick-or-treating at our church carnival on Halloween. There were booths set up around the classrooms with games and candy prizes. Camille loves the games even more than the candy. Camille dressed up as Baby Bop from the Barney videos. She wouldn't leave the hat on for long.

Often when I post pictures to the blog, they get jumbled into a random order. The first picture is of Camille very happy to have gotten a pink kitty balloon made by a clown at the carnival (after waiting patiently in a long line). The last picture is of Camille at home after the balloon spontaneously popped, and Pink Kitty was gone forever. Camille got the saddest, most pitiful look on her face when it happened and started to cry. That is a very rare reaction from her. She was crying out of heartbreak and not anger. That was the end of the evening. The next day she was showing some sorrow saying that she was "really sorry" that she broke Pink Kitty. I assured her that she didn't pop the balloon. Then she looked right at me and said "No, you did it." Whoa, I had to quickly correct her that the balloon just popped on its own. I'm pleased to report that Camille has not suffered long-term sadness from the untimely loss of Pink Kitty. 3 year olds recover quickly.--Stephanie