DeLeon Springs and Other Activities

Boy, I'm so far behind with my updates. I'll blame it on Calleigh's new sleeping schedule...

As I had mentioned, on Sabbath after church we headed up to DeLeon Springs Park for our picnic. Toni and Terry beat us there and found a nice spot with some tables. We made subs and had an assortment of other goodies. Calleigh crawled around a lot in the dirt which she really seems to enjoy! At one point, Elaine walked her around in her stroller and she took a brief nap thankfully. As you can surmise from the name of the park, there is a spring there that you can swim in and it was pretty crowded. Tangie took Braelyn into the water but I thought it was a little cold for Cal. All and all, we were there for about three and half hours and we had a very nice time. The trip home wasn't so pleasant. Cal did not want to go into her car seat and she cried for a good portion of the way home. I don't know what is wrong with her. She hasn't been that upset about being in a car seat in months. Thankfully she perked up once we got I-4 and was in a pleasant frame of mind for the rest of the day. By the way, in case you are wondering where Calleigh was for the picture at the top, it was taken while she was napping in her stroller.

When we got home from the park and we were pulling in, I saw this car sitting in front of our house. My heart jumped for a second. I thought maybe Shawn and Camille had decided to pop in for a surprise visit. If so, you can come out of hiding now!!

WARNING - if you have no interest in hearing about breastfeeding, you can skip this section. I made a decision on Saturday night that I was sick of pumping. Our routine since Calleigh was about four months old is that I would pump and give her a bottle every night before bed. I have no idea why I started doing that but once I did and Calleigh slept so well through the night, I was afraid to stop. I had been pumping three times a day and building up a large supply in my freezer of 200+ ounces. I had finally decreased to pumping only once a day which was before going to bed (while I wrote this blog). But that was so tiring. I could never go to bed early because I always needed to stay up to pump. And the pumping sessions were lasting like 20 - 25 minutes. I realized that I just did not want to have to haul my pump up with me to Boston so I made the big decision not to pump any more. I am now nursing her before bed. I was very concerned what to do with all my frozen milk that can only last 3 - 4 months in the freezer. I certainly didn't want to just discard it. But I've figured out that I can use all of it on her cereal. Anyway, the nursings have gone pretty well. She fell asleep nursing both Saturday and Sunday night but tonight she was very distracted. The unfortunate thing is that she has not slept the greatest the last few nights as you probably surmised from my post last night. Does it have any connection to this new routine? That is the question and I don't have the answer to it yet. At any rate, I feel so liberated. I can go to bed any time I want to now!!

Yesterday we had a busy day. The three of us went to First Watch and then afterwards we headed over to the Farmer's Market in Maitland. They have it every Sunday but we have never been there. It's in a park and there are a bunch of booths with locals selling things from produce to candles to lemonade to dog treats. We enjoyed walking around and I purchased some organic pasta or something like that. Calleigh loves her pasta! While I was walking around, I came to the conclusion that this would be the perfect spot to sell Uncle Bill's Homemade New England Applesauce. I could certainly see myself running a booth. It turns out you need an occupational license to have a booth. I have no idea what is involved to get that but I think I'll find out. And, of course, there is the little problem of transporting the applesauce down here. Hmmm...

Later in the day, we met up with Aunt Toni & Uncle Terry at a Food Fair they were having at Forest Lake Academy. The theme was the fifties and many people were dressed for the decade. They had a bunch of booths with food from around the world. They had a booth with balloon animals so we got one for Cal, of course. I think it was completely flat by the time we left. Anyway, we had a good time eating and taking part in fifties trivia although we didn't know any answers. How much did a new house cost in 1957? No clue. Calleigh got restless so I let her push her stroller around for a little bit. At one point she took her hands off and was just standing there but nobody saw it except me. I'm still waiting to get a picture when she does that. We got home around 6:30 and Cal fell asleep on the boob a short time later. As I said last night, she didn't eat too much at the Fair so I'm wondering if she woke up because she was hungry last night? Fortunately when I got her back to sleep around 11:45 last night, she slept the rest of the night without a peep.

Today I went over to Lauren's house so that we could have lunch and let the babies play. Calleigh loves playing with new toys. It was great to catch up with Lauren since I haven't seen her in almost a month between her going home to Alabama and then them being sick. We got to catch up on everything. Lauren is worried about Caroline because she took her to the pediatrician for Caroline's one year appointment and Caroline had fallen off the chart for her weight and height and the pediatrician said that she was a "failure to thrive." But to look at her, she looks perfectly healthy. The pediatrician says that babies should triple their birth weight by one year. I think that is crazy. That would mean Calleigh should weigh 24pounds - - which she will miss by a long shot. She's barely 20 pounds and she'll be one in less than three weeks. So much of the baseline data is based on babies that eat formula which results in bigger babies. We're going to talk to the lactation consultants tomorrow at the luncheon and I'm sure they will have some words of encouragement.

After having lunch, we took the girls to a nearby park. Calleigh had her first swing. She loved it! She spent much of the time looking at Caroline in the adjacent swing so it was hard to get a straight on picture. After the swing, the girls played on the slides and were very contented to just crawl all over the place. We left at about 2:30 and Cal fell asleep on the way home - - not surprising because she didn't take a nap this morning. Fortunately, she went back to sleep when I moved her to her crib when we got home. When she got up, she was crabby again like she has been in the afternoons for the last few days. We had to take a trip to Walmart to get a new nubby since the old one broke when she threw it on the floor. She did not want to be in her car seat. And she wasn't completely pleasant in Walmart either. Thankfully when we got home and she had supper, she was in very happy spirits especially when Ron and Elaine came over to play with her.

Tonight I went to my Bible study. There were only three of us there. We had a nice time veering off the lesson to talk about other religious aspects. When I got home, Duncan said Calleigh woke up right after I left and was awake for at least 30 minutes. So I feel bad about that. I sure hope this doesn't become a pattern. She has been such a good sleeper.

Whew!! I think we're all caught up. The next few days will be pretty busy ones as I get ready to head to Boston on Wednesday night. Can't wait!!