One month old

I can't believe Grace is already a month old. I want to soak in every moment with her...she is so sweet!  She is really a good baby, and is doing much better sleeping at night. I'm putting her to bed around 9:30 and she's sleeping until 2:00. After that feeding, it takes awhile to get her back down, but once I do, she will sleep until 6:00 or so.  She's starting to smile and really seems to be enchanted by her big brother. Jake loves to tickle her toes, and she responds with the sweetest smile for him. Its so amazing to see that they already have a connection. I have to admit I'm having a really great time dressing a little girl...the bows, headbands, and dresses are too fun. Here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

A great picture of her "after bath" hair

Boomer Sooner! Grace is all decked out to watch her first OU basketball game

I call this her "rocker chick" look

Bluebonnet Pictures

Last Wednesday the kids and I went on our first mini road trip with several friends. My friends Kelly and Brianna had organized a trip to Brenham to take pictures in the bluebonnets and then tour the Blue Bell factory. Even though I adamantly deny being a Texan (I'm fiercely loyal to Oklahoma), I can't resist a good bluebonnet picture. Springtime is my favorite time of year and the bluebonnets are too gorgeous to resist. Plus, to be fair, my kids are Texans...Brianna and Fallon brought their nice cameras and were so sweet to take pictures of everyone in the bluebonnets. I had wanted to bring an Easter basket to put Grace in for the pictures, but couldn't find one big enough for her to be comfortable in...I didn't want to squash my little princess :) It was such a beautiful day and we got some great shots of the kids.

After the photo shoot, we ate a quick lunch and went to visit Blue Bell, but apparently everyone else in Texas had the same idea and the tours were booked for the day. It worked out anyway though because they were giving out free ice cream to those who didn't get to do the tour and the kids were more than happy with that. Jake was so happy in fact that he had two cups of ice cream and ate them with a spoon in each hand. 

Grace did really well for the day and didn't really cry until the way home. She slept through pictures, and I fed her twice, and she was good to go most of the day. Here are several of the pictures from our fun day:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Two Weeks Old

Our sweet baby Grace was two weeks old yesterday. She had her 2 week check-up with Dr. Chandler and she's a little over her birth weight at 8 lbs. 15 oz. and has grown an inch so she's definitely eating well. She seems really long to me and has really long, slender fingers and toes. She's constantly kicking those feet so I've decided she'll either be a soccer player or a dancer or maybe both. Although, if dancing is genetic, she probably won't have that talent :)

Our little Grace also has really great lungs. She screamed the entire hour we were at the doctor yesterday. On the way out, Dr. Chandler told me that it looked like I had my work cut out for me about this one. She definitely cries more than Jake ever did and the first of this week I was becoming quite discouraged and mostly sleep deprived. For several nights, she had just slept about two hours each night. Ty went back to work on Monday so it was a little difficult since Jake gets up by 6:30 every morning right when Grace would finally fall into a good sleep. But, I honestly think God is looking out for me...well, I know he is :) Yesterday, after our really long doctor's visit, I decided I needed to be more pro-active and not let Grace be in control. After all, I am 32 and an adult, right? So, I pulled out the book The Baby Whisperer and started reading a bit. I had read it with Jake but never really had to put it into practice because he basically put himself on a schedule and was a laid-back baby.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone because it is helpful. It categorizes babies according to their habits, sleep patterns, etc...I now remember the reason I didn't really need this book the first time around is because Jake was what the author calls the "angel" baby--very low maintenance. I'm pretty sure Grace is the "touchy" baby..she is such a sweet little girl, but she doesn't like to be dirty or wet, but also doesn't like her diaper to be changed. She hates being naked (Ty says that's a good quality for a girl :) ). Also, the book said that the touchy baby needs to be swaddled to sleep better. Last night, I swaddled her tight, and what do you know? She slept 5 hours in a row, happy as could be. The week before she had a few nights of good sleeping and I had swaddled her then too, but had been not followed through with that routine. Jake didn't care to be swaddled so it didn't occur to me how important that could be. Hopefully, that was not a fluke and this will help us both get some sleep. I'm pretty sure she was exhausted as well as me which made her cry all the more.

Once we get this sleep thing down, I know we will do really well. Grace is nursing great and starting to smile a little too. She is a strong little girl, too. Yesterday I had her on her tummy on the floor and she kicked her legs so hard, she flipped herself over to her back. Maybe instead of a dancer, we have a gymnast on our hands :)

Jake is a super big brother. He constantly is giving her a pacifier and covering her with a blanket. He loves to rub her head and tickle her. I have a feeling he'll be protective of his baby sister. We just have to watch him because he also loves to run his cars over her head. I'm so thankful that God is letting me experience the joys of both a son and a daughter.

Jake dressed himself here in his cowboy boots and one of Ty's hard hats from work. He wouldn't let me put his pants back on after changing his diaper. Mr. Independent.

Daddy with the two kids

Grace's Visitors

Here's Grace with some of the family that came to visit her first week.

This is Grace with my mom, her Gigi, who is her namesake. My mom's name is Marie which is Grace's middle name.Grace and my dad, her PoppyGrace and Ty's mom, her JoJo. Jonesa came the day after Grace was born because she was helping Destin in Ft. Worth with baby Nash. Nash was born on February 19th so he and Grace are 5 days apart. She had a really exciting week with two grand babies in seven days! We can't wait to meet Nash, too. We'll see him in about a month at Ty's other sister, Casey's wedding. Here's a picture of our adorable little nephew below:

Ty's dad, Pops, and Grace. He and Donna (Nonnie) came up Friday to meet Grace.

On Sunday, Ty's two brothers, Eric and Jason along with Jill and Jolie and our niece, Elsie Jane came to meet Grace. Elsie Jane is almost three and fell in love with Grace. She wanted to hold her the whole time they were here and was quite insulted when anyone else took her.

Uncle Eric and Aunt Jill with baby Grace

Grace Marie McCathran

Grace arrived last Tuesday, the 24th...we are very much in love with our new baby girl! I was induced about 7:00 in the morning on Tuesday and she arrived at 4:06 that afternoon. My parents had come in the night before so my dad stayed home to take care of Jake and my mom came with Ty and I to the hospital. Things moved slowly at first, but by around 10:00, I started having really strong contractions. I definitely wanted an epidural, but I didn't get one until 1:00 because there were several emergency c-sections that morning. When I got the epidural, I was dilated to a 5 and then 30 minutes later was at a 10 so the labor progressed quickly! My mom and Ty were both in the room with me and our wonderful nurse, Jennifer. Jennifer was actually the nurse that delivered Jake as well and she stayed three hours past her shift when Jake was born and was just amazing. We were so excited to have her again. With both Jake and Grace, Jennifer and I discovered we were doing the same Beth Moore Bible study so we got to discuss the Esther study I'm doing between contractions. What a blessing to have a Christian nurse! The delivery process took about an hour and a half this time, and Dr. Turner got there just in time for Grace to arrive. She had been delivering another baby right before coming to our room. Grace's shoulders did get stuck on the way out so that was a bit scary. As soon as she did come out, they called the NICU to come down and make sure she hadn't broken her collarbone. She checked out great and was very healthy. What I remember most from the delivery is after Grace was delivered, the nurses in the room kept saying, "she's big...really big...and she has lots of hair!" She was 8 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20 and 3/4 inches long so she is a big girl! I really thought she would be smaller than Jake who was 8 lbs. 7 oz. so apparently I just have big babies. Our friend Daphne had picked up Jake from my dad to take care of him the rest of the day so my dad got to see Grace right away too.

Dan and Daphne brought Jake up to the hospital later that evening so he could meet his baby sister. He did really well...he wanted to pat her and kiss her and then was ready to go play. He went back to our house with my parents who kept him the next day while Ty and I were still at the hospital.

Mom and Dad stayed until yesterday and were such an incredible help...I'm already homesick for them, but we'll see them again in a month or so. We're settling in as a family of four now--Ty took off this week and is being such a tremendous help. He's giving Jake special attention since feeding Grace takes up so much time right now as we get the whole nursing process down. Grace definitely still has her nights and days mixed up, but we're working on that. I think God gives new moms extra energy somehow. Under normal circumstances, I can't function with less than 8 hours of sleep, but somehow I'm doing just fine with a whole lot less right now.

We are a blessed family and excited for the new adventures for our family of four! Here are some of my favorite pictures we've taken of Grace so far...

Grace arrives at 4:06 p.m. at 8 lbs. and 13 oz.


Daddy and his baby girl (one of the nurses made her a hat with a bow on it--let the bows begin!) Our new family of four
Jake gets to hold his baby sister--he's very proud! She already loves the binky Grace and Mommy right before we came home from the hospital

Sleeping Beauty

My friend JoDee sent her this newborn tutu which I adore! This was my amateur attempt at her first photo shoot :)