She seems to be getting over the growth spurt now and is back on her 3 hour feeding schedule during the day and sleeping through the night (more of less). That makes me pretty excited to go through teething in a few months :)
Catie Grace has had TWO photo sessions that I haven't posted! We had newborn pictures with Witty Photography over a month ago (so so cute!) and my good friend Olivia came and spent hours taking Christmas pictures of Catie Grace! I am so in love with all of the pictures and will be posting them soon!
In other baby related news, there have been some developments that I was scared to talk about too soon because I didn't want to jinx it! At Catie Grace's one month appointment, her pediatrician suggested that I try to nurse her again since she was older and wouldn't just latch on and give up. I was pretty skeptical because I had heard that if your baby doesn't take to breastfeeding pretty soon after birth, you had missed the window of opportunity and would always have to use a bottle. The next day I tried to nurse her with a nipple shield (yeah, look that up!) to make the transition from the bottle easier. It worked! Of course the first time I did it, I fed her a bottle after because I wasn't sure how much she ate. The first time she ate a whole 3 ounce bottle which didn't make me feel like she ate very much at all. The next day I tried again and then gave her a bottle and she didn't eat any of the bottle! I started sneaking in a breastfeeding every few feedings and it seemed to be going well. Now I am primarily breastfeeding Catie Grace and pumping twice a day (just to stockpile milk for when I am not with her). It is unbelievable how much easier it is than dealing with pumping every three hours and all those bottles! I would like to wean her off the nipple shield but the few times I have tried, she wasn't receptive. For now, I am just so glad that I can just take 20-30 minutes to nurse her instead of 30-45 minutes pumping, plus the time it takes to store the milk in bottles and sterilize everything every single feeding! Hallelujah for this little girl being receptive to breastfeeding after a whole month. Oh- and since we have two freezer shelves full of frozen milk, Gerry can help me out sometimes with giving her bottles so I can have a break!
So for the BIG NEWS:
Most of you know that I have been working on my Master's degree in Elementary Education since fall of 2008. I was planning on student teaching in fall of 2010 but when we got the news of our little Catie Grace I knew I would have to put off student teaching. When I looked at the cost of child care and having just one income (gasp) I was afraid I would have to put off student teaching (and my Master's degree) indefinitely. Well, I am so happy to announce that I will be student teaching this spring semester! My first day is January 10th and I am so excited! I don't know what school or grades I will be teaching yet, but I am hoping to find out before Christmas. My mom has graciously offered to take care of Catie Grace so I can do this. It took a LOT of things falling together perfectly for this to happen for me. It wouldn't be possible without sacrifices from Gerry and my mom. Thank you both for being my biggest cheerleaders! Now I can student teach this spring, graduate in May, & get an actual teaching job in August!
Praise God for all of these blessings!
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