Corinne

After the baby shower we looked through all the gifts we received and I was convinced that we had everything we needed from birth thru 2 years old. The thing is… the gifts never stopped coming. People brought gifts to the hospital, the first time they visited us at home, packages arrived in the mail from family, friends, co-workers, and even a few strangers. There have already been a couple of occasions that we thought “oh, we should get one of those” but we realized that we had already gotten it as a gift. Cynde went shopping in Corinne’s closet last week and pulled out a bunch of great stuff. Cynde is determined to get quality use out of every gift we received to show how much we appreciate everyone’s thoughtfulness and generosity. We did our best to send out thank you notes but if we missed anyone out there please let this serve as a thank you.    

Easter weekend was the first time Corinne has been to the Jersey shore where both Cynde and my family live. Corinne met her Great Grandmother, the last of my sisters that hadn’t yet seen her, and several of me and Cynde’s aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was the longest car ride she had been on and easily the most people that she had seen in one day but she was really good all day including the car ride there and back. Corinne actually had two outfits for Easter, day and evening wear.

I haven’t had a chance to post anything this week but I had to put this picture up because it’s so darn cute. I love this picture almost as much as Corinne loves this little bee toy.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Corinne had lost some of the hair that she was born with and so lately we have been wondering when it will grow back and what color it will be. Last weekend when Corinne’s aunt and two cousins were over they helped us get a sneak peak at what Corinne would look like as a blonde, brunette, and redhead…

For the last several days Cynde has been trying to get the baby on a more regular eating and sleeping schedule. Our neighbors who have a baby boy about 2 months older than Corinne loaned us a book that guides you through the process. We are already having some success and getting a bit more sleep at night. Corinne seems to be happier too. If you don’t believe me just look at this smiling face…

I really had no idea how much a baby costs but we got a bill from the hospital last week and it turns out that it’s about $42,000. There is no doubt that Corinne is worth every penny but since my health insurance pays for the majority of the bill we got her for the bargain basement price of $240 which was my co-pay.   

…well more like shots really since there were 3 of them containing 7 different vaccines and then she got one orally for a total of 8. Thursday was Corinne’s 8 week check up. This week when they weighed her I joked with the nurse as I was putting the baby on the scale that she was going to be 9 pounds 11 ounces. She was 8 pounds 11 ounces 1 week ago so I thought it was unlikely that she would gain a full pound. But she actually did gain exactly one pound. This now puts her at the 25^th percentile for weight which might not seem like a big deal but it means that instead of coming to the doctor’s office every week we now don’t need to come back for 2 months. Besides the weigh in she also got the first big round of vaccines. I guess I knew that she wasn’t going to like getting injections but I had no idea just how bad it was going to be. After the first injection she let out the loudest scream she ever has and then she stopped breathing and turned bright red and even got a little blue around her mouth before she resumed screaming. The nurse gave all 3 injections in less than a minute and about a minute later Corinne calmed down and even fell asleep a few minutes later. I was relieved but once we got home she woke up and was fussy on and off for most of the night. She has been better today but her thighs are still a little red. I hope by next time her thighs are little more chubby so it won’t hurt so bad.       

Yesterday a stranger tried to submit a comment to Corinne’s blog saying that they found it on a google search and that they enjoy reading it. I think it was probably some sort of auto generated comment but it got me thinking, would her blog show up on a google search? I searched for “Corinne blog” and her site didn’t come up at all in the first 100+ results. So I tried searching for “Corinne blog zoo” and it comes up as the 5^th result. Next I tried “Corinne blog poo” and it came up as the 3^rd result (I guess I talk about poo more than her visit to the zoo). Then I tried “Corinne blog Cynde” and then it came up as the first result. It might not be that great of a feat but I got such a kick out of it. So if you ever forget the URL to this website you can always google “Corinne blog Cynde” or “Corinne blog poo” will also work.

Saturday night we went out and did a little shopping for some baby clothes. Corinne stayed asleep the whole time so we decided to press our luck and go out for dinner. I was so afraid that she was going to wake up and freak out that I wolfed down my food as soon as it came in case we had to leave in a hurry. I should have just enjoyed myself because she slept the whole time we were at the restaurant and didn’t even wake up until after we got home. I guess the next big step would be for us to get a babysitter and go out by ourselves. I am away from the baby all day when I am at work but Cynde hasn’t really been apart from the baby since we left the hospital. I’m sure whoever the unfortunate soul is that babysits for us the first time will get quite a few phone calls.

Corinne had yet another doctors appointment this week to check her weight. She gained 9 ounces in the past week which now puts her in the 13^th percentile for weight at 8 pounds 11 ounces. She has to go back next week for some immunizations but after that I think they might let us come back a little less frequently. Each week she gets a little more alert and playful. She smiles at us a lot now and makes a few little sounds other than crying. Since she has been gaining weight we have been letting her sleep longer (or maybe she is letting us sleep longer). Her personal best is about 7 hours straight, from 1 AM until 8 AM which is a pretty big improvement over those first few weeks.