Check out this adorable baby, she's on a roll!!

Check out this delicious apple that I picked up, it's the sweetest apple I've even seen, and pretty plump too :)

We have been having the hardest time with Colbie taking a bottle. She doesn't want to have anything at all to do with bottles. This means it's 24/7 mommy time, which I love but at the same time it'd be nice to get a little more freedom and allow Daddy to have some quality time feeding her as well.

Here are a few pictures of my silly girls together:

Colbie turned 6 months on the 26th of this month. 6 MONTHS!!! Personally, I am going crazy, I can't believe my little baby is already half a year old, someone please make time freeze. It's hard imagining that this is our last baby, our last of the firsts. So I really want her to slow down with growing up, but she just won't.

Colbie has been begrudgingly trying solid foods, but she really doesn't like them. She'd rather just babble and play, see:

Look at that sweet face! My 2 month old baby seems like she's growing like a weed. Her personality is coming out more and more every day, she's a good sleeper, a very happy baby, a morning babbler, and she loves checking out everything that's going on around her.

She's blowing bubbles and starting to lose her hair, very typical of a 2 month old. Avery's still loving having a baby sister and is so good with Colbie. I can't wait to watch them grow together more and more!

At her 2 month appointment you would have thought Joel and I were brand new parents, but Colbie's a different kid so we had a lot of questions. Our awesome pediatrician said she's doing great. She's weighing in at 11 lbs 12 ounces, and 22 3/4 inches long and her head measures 15 1/4 inches, so she's around the 50th to the 75th percentile for babies her age. I think she seems pretty big already, but we'll see as the months fly!

This is one Happy baby and her outfit says it all:

Our favorite family photographer Barbara Payne was able to take newborn shots (2 weeks) of little miss Colbie. Colbie was pretty awake when we arrived, so after many attempts to put her in a milk induced coma she finally fell asleep for some of the pictures. Barbara knows our family pretty well and is one of our good friends so she was super patient and got some great shots. Check them out:

Thanks for checking out our beautiful princess :)

Baby Acne Strikes Colbie Bullock!! Miss Avery never had baby acne so when Colbie got it I didn't know what to do. Of course I read up on it, asked all of my other experienced momma friends, and my pediatrician, and found out that it's perfectly normal, but boy did it annoy me!

I was told to just leave it alone, it would dry up and go away and it did....all the while Colbie was a happy girl, it didn't matter to her that her face was red and bumpy, that's my happy little peanut.

Little Miss Colbie is only 3 weeks old and already growing so much! I guess when they're this small every little bit makes a BIG difference, literally! She's been doing a wonderful job with sleep and eating. So far she's on a wonderful schedule and has been a pretty easy baby. She really only cries when she's hungry.

Colbie has made her jump from newborn diapers to size 1, a milestone that I don't really think I was ready for and since our next doctor's appointment isn't until May we have no exact clue what she'll weigh, maybe we should have a poll. I am noticing that she's growing from delicate and fragile to sturdy and getting the beginnings of sweet baby rolls on her legs and wrist. I love chubby babies and I really feel like this little peanut will be roly poly in no time.

Avery is absolutely in love with Colbie and it melts my heart. She is so gentle with her little sister and is always wanting to touch, kiss, and hold her. Avery says Colbie is very delicate and even says (to Colbie,) "it's okay sweetheart." Sooooo sweet, I can't even stand it! Here are a few pictures of the sisters:

Originally my obstetrician wanted to keep me in the hospital until Monday, but I was doing such a great job recovering that I convinced her to let us out (me and Colbie), a day early. So, just like when I had my c-section with Avery I was out of the hospital in 48 hours. I really was feeling pretty good, getting around much better than my first c-section so I was prepared to go home, although I really did love my nurses and the facilities at Presbyterian Huntersville.

For those of you who know me well you know I'm not really the type that likes to sit and be waited on. When I had Avery I put a lot of expectations on myself and with a 3 level townhouse at the time, overdid it between the stairs and just not resting enough. Rest is important for recovering from major surgery and I vowed to Joel, my family, friends and mostly myself that I would relax more this time and allow people to help.



So far friends and family have been awesome and have lined up meals and visits. Not having to cook for a couple of weeks is going to be heaven. My mom and sister came down to stay with us for a couple of days, mainly to take care of Avery but it was nice to see them the day before they had to head back to New York. They took Avery to Build-A-Bear to make a bear for her little sister and visited me while I was in the hospital, my mom even stayed with me for a few hours one night so Joel could get some rest. When I got home from the hospital, I saw signs and balloons adorning the front of our house and mailbox, it was a great welcome, what a sweet gesture! I was sad to see them go because I had not been able to spend much time with them, but hopefully they'll be down again this month.

Joel's parents also came down the first week in April to meet Baby Colbie and help us out too. Joel's mom was wonderful and made us a couple of delicious meals and I even let her clean up (again so not me,) but she washed dishes, cleaned the kitchen and even folded some of our washed laundry, I never thought I would enjoy someone else cleaning for us, but with recovering it was such a blessing! Joel's dad brought us a "new" riding lawnmower since Joel's electric mower died and we really needed one. He also helped us build a new gate because, well, when the guys measured over the phone, before his parents came to visit, there was some miscommunication and our current gate ended up being too small to fit the mower. Avery loved getting a ride with daddy with the "mower-cycle," as she called it.


So far we're enjoying being home, Colbie has been sleeping a lot just like in the hospital, but has a few awake moments. Avery is getting adjusted to our normal schedule and mommy and daddy are learning our own parenting schedule between our two beautiful girls. Home Sweet Home!

on a stormy night. Okay just kidding, that's not really how the story of Colbie's birth went, but it sounds a lot more dramatic. Here's what really happened, if you're up for the full read.

Because Avery was an "emergency" or unplanned c-section, health reasons, timing, and many other factors Joel and I had decided that a scheduled c-section was the best option to deliver Colbie. Some of my mom friends said they had to wait until it was the same month as their due date to even talk about the date, but luckily our practitioner let us schedule a couple of months in advance. Of course with scheduling the c-section they want the baby to "bake" as long as possible so they scheduled me at 39 weeks and 1 day.

Now if you know me at all you know I was incredibly relieved because I am such a planner, of course my child's welfare comes first but it really helped to know when we would welcome our newest little girl into the world so we could make sure Avery was well taken care of and we had everything in order. My one worry though was that Colbie would make her appearance earlier than the scheduled date, especially since I had heard from a few mommas who had scheduled c-sections that their children just couldn't wait.

Lucky for us Colbie decided that she would wait on us. After a long week of getting the house cleaned and organized, (so we would have little to do when we got home) and having our friend Noele come over the night before to watch Avery the day of surgery we were ready for baby!

BIRTH-DAY
Having a scheduled c-section is sort of like Christmas Eve, it's the night before you get an amazing present and it's so hard to even think about sleeping. I went to bed around 11:pm and woke up at least 5 times and checked in on Avery, hoping and praying we were making the right decision, although at that point it would have been a little late to go backwards.

I finally got dressed and ready at 5:00 am, got Joel up, and since I couldn't eat we grabbed the hospital bags and headed to the hospital. Joel had mentioned how seldom the two of us rode together alone and I was thinking how we'd be coming back home with another little one.

We arrived at the hospital and checked in with the maternity ward, got everything settled in my room, and then the nurses attempted to hook me up to monitoring. As usual, little Miss Colbie, who has never liked the ultrasounds or sonogram machines, was giving the nurses a hard time and moving around so much it was difficult to get her heartbeat but I felt her moving around a ton so I knew she was just fine. I think her due date really is going to be reflective of her personality, little miss April Fools.

After hooking me up we filled out paperwork, met the very dry and sort of scary anesthesiologist,  and finally got poked at least 5 times trying to get an IV in me, but was told "You're doing so well sweetie," I made sure that nurse told all the other nurses what a good patient I was. :)

I went to the bathroom and when I came out Dr. Vuong was super excited to see me and have a brief talk about the surgery with me, this really helped because I was a little nervous, being that last c-section I was in pain and the medication was a relief, and this time I was feeling just fine and wasn't sure about needles etc.

Hubby suited up, and looked oh so handsome ;) and I got my beautiful cap on and we were ready to become parents, again.

After walking into the OR I got my spinal (pain medication), definitely jumped a little but if you ask me I did pretty well considering. I remember how it seemed like there were a million different things going on all at once. After getting the medicine and laying down on the table, being prepped, Joel finally was allowed in and the operation began. This time around my teeth did NOT chatter from the anesthesia, which I was hoping for. I did have a few moments where it was hard to breathe, when they were pushing to get to Colbie but other than that the surgery went pretty well.

My favorite moment and a moment I had really fought for was when the doctors held Colbie over the drape to show her to me. Of course writing this now is making me teary, but it was amazing, my first glimpse of my new baby girl. For some reason, non-health related, the doctors in Virginia did not show Avery to me right away and after watching countless baby shows on TLC I felt like I was being cheated, so I made sure Joel, the nurses, and the doctors knew I wanted to see Colbie. Here she is making her debut, hello world!


After that things were somewhat a blur, either because my eyes were teary, I was sleepy from the drugs, or because so much was going on. But I did get to hear her weight and see from the corner of my eye Colbie getting cleaned up. I just kept staring at Joel saying how much I loved him and was truly happy. Our family of 4 was now complete.

Overall this second time around has been easier to recover and being a mommy to a newborn again. I'm sure part of it has to do with my previous experience, but also we had really great care at the hospital and all of the nurses were great, some were amazing, but there wasn't one that I didn't like. The facilities were outstanding as well.

Colbie was an easy baby, loved her hair being washed, and we enjoyed lots of family and friends who came to visit. Luckily my mom and sister were able to come and stay with Avery and keep her company while we were in the hospital, I don't know what I would have done without them.



Avery loved meeting her little sister for the first time ever and called her, "My Colbie." When I saw them together all my fears of Avery getting jealous or feeling left out totally went out the window. My heart melted because Avery gave such gentle care and was wholeheartedly excited and in love with Colbie, again making me a little teary as I write. I can't wait to see their relationship flourish!



Here are a couple more pictures from our stay at the hospital.