20 weeks old and a trip to Houston..

We had a busy weekend. I have lots of pictures to share so I'll just write about the weekend in the captions of the pictures.

Caroline's still getting used to her doorway jumper. I think this is definitely something she will be able to use for several more months.

Friday was my 27th birthday. Mario and Caroline made me a sign. We went to dinner with my family at the Texican. We went there for my birthday last year and that's where we told them I was pregnant. We then went back to our house and had cake. We celebrated on Thursday because we were heading to Houston on Friday.

Caroline dressed and ready for the trip to Houston.

In the car on the way. I don't know if I've talked about it before but the pink thing has a hole in the middle of it. It's supposed to take some of the pressure off of the back of the head and help prevent flatness.

We went to dinner on Friday with my grandparents, my great aunt and uncle, and my aunt and cousin. Only my grandparents had met Caroline before. Here she is with her Great Great Aunt Becky. Caroline was very well behaved as usual. She's a pro at going to restaurants. We do end up holding her most of the time because we want to keep her off of her head. I can't wait until she can sit in a high chair.

After dinner we went to my grandparent's house and had cake and ice cream.

Hanging out at the hotel.

Getting ready to head to the hotel pool.

I guess bathing suit season is almost over at Babies R Us. This is the only suit that was in Caroline's size. It's not the color I would have picked out but it worked.

The hotel pool was indoors..and freezing! She was in the water for less than 5 minutes. We were disappointed in the water temperature because we had planned on hanging out at the pool for a while.

The reason we were in Houston was for my college roommate's wedding reception. The dress I brought for Caroline to wear ended up being too small. I had to run to the mall to find something else. Mario stayed at the hotel with Caroline and started playing with the camera.

We went to lunch at Mario's Flying Pizza..we always pass by it when we go to Houston and Mario wanted to try it. We let Caroline gum a piece of crust for a few minutes. She didn't eat any of it but enjoyed gumming it.

I thought this was cute even though Caroline shouldn't be watching tv. There's not much to do at a hotel though.

I didn't take many pictures at the wedding reception becuase I was busy holding Caroline. I didn't even get any pictures of her in her dress. She ended up drooling all over it so we changed her into a onesie. She was very well behaved and laughed and smiled a lot.

On Sunday we decided to head down to Galveston to show Caroline the beach. We had originally just planned to walk down by the water and leave but at the last minute we decided to put on our swimsuits and get in the water.

Caroline loved the water. We took turns sitting with her right where the water comes in. She loved touching the sand and feeling the water on her legs.

I thought this was cute.

We stopped at a store on the way out of Galveston and bought this onesie. It says "Don't be a Litterbug, Keep Galveston Island Beautiful."

19 Weeks and Flat Head Update..

Caroline is 19 weeks old today. She has officially moved on from the Soothie pacifiers. She uses the clear Avent ones now and she's learned how to grab the handle and pull it out of her mouth. She tries to put it back in but usually ends up sucking on the side or back of it..it's cute. She has been drooling so much and there is always something in her mouth..either fingers or toys. She's really been going to town on Sophie lately. Her pedi said it could be teething or it could just be that she's exploring things with her mouth.

As you saw last week, she started solids. We did rice cereal for a few days and she was waking up screaming 1-2 times a night. I think she had bad gas. She just spits out gas drops so those don't help us. I called her pedi and she said to stop the solids for a week then start back and see how it goes. Yesterday was her second day without the cereal and she still woke up once. I know I shouldn't complain but it's really not like her to wake up in the middle of the night. Maybe she's going through the infamous 4 month wakeful.

We had Caroline's appointment with the craniofacial surgeon today. They said her case is purely a cosmetic issue and she doesn't have any facial assymetry. They said they want us to contine keeping her off of the back of her head as much as possible. We were basically told to pack away the swing (which she hasn't used in over a month anyway) and to leave the car seat in the car when we go places and just wear her (which we've also been doing). They don't recommend even doing a helmet (when it is needed) until 6 months. They said that Cranial Tech pushes so hard because they are making money off of the helmets and if they can get babies in helmets earlier there is a chance that they could get people to pay for more than one helmet treatment to get "even better" results. They said that Caroline's head can definitely correct itsself without a helmet and they want us to go back in 2 months to measure the progress. We feel much more comfortable in our decision to not do the helmet right now.

Now for some pictures from the week.

She likes to stick her hands out of the holes in the swaddle blanet. When she has been waking up at night I hear her grunting and struggling to get her arms out of the swaddle blanket...I wonder if we're nearing the end of swaddling.

Here she is attempting to put the pacifier back in her mouth.
You can see the flatness of her head in this picture.

Trying to figure out what the things on her feet are.

Sporting her shades.

My birthday gift. I have a feeling you're going to start seeing a lot of movies here now.

18 Weeks..

Caroline turned 18 weeks old on Tuesday and she had her 4 month well check that day. She's 15lbs 1oz and 25 inches long. She's in the 75th percentile for everything...she's been consistent from day one. She had to get an oral shot and one shot in each thigh. She did really well. She let out one cry and that was it. It's so hard watching that.

Her peditrician said that she is ready to start solids. She's showing all of the signs of being ready and they should help with her spitting up. We have done rice cereal once a day for the past two days. She hasn't taken more than two bites each time but we're not going to push it. She eats it and doesn't spit it out though.

We talked to her pediatrician about her flat head issues and her evaluation at Cranial Tech and she gave us a referral to a craniofacial surgeon for a second opinion. We're meeting with him on Tuesday. Her pediatrician doesn't think she needs a helmet but wants us to feel secure in whatever decision we make so she gave us the referral. I'll let you know how things go.

Here are some pictures from the past week.

With her cousin Leah

With Grandma Nana

She tried out cousin Diego's swing..we may have to get one soon

We bought her a doorway jumper because she loves jumping so much. If we stand her up on our laps she will jump and jump..it's so cute.

She loves grabbing her toes when she's in the Bumbo.

Visiting her other grandparents.

After her shots. She is constantly chewing on her hands now.

Trying to figure out what is in the bowl.

She looks a little aprehensive.

Not bad.

I think she likes it.

And here's Jake.