The Wilbourns

Mike and Trinity Wilbourn and their sweet little ducklings lost everything in a house fire on Sunday afternoon. Praise be to God that the family was safely away at church when it happened. However, the loss that did occur is huge. Buddy, their dog, is gone along with most all their material possessions. Trinity is due in a little over a week with their 4th baby - can you even imagine what is going on in her head right now?? Her sister-in-law, Brett, has a helpful post on her blog.

I'm amazed at the army of people who want to help within our community. The body of Christ really is huge. But again, the need is great at this time and cannot to underestimated. The best way to help is prayer - pray for the Peace that passes all understanding to rest upon Mike and Trinity and their 4 little children during this time. But if you are urged to do more, gift cards or money might be the best, most tangible way to help. Michael is collecting our Portico communities' donations and working with a contact from MAG to keep tabs on what is happening on the "stuff" front. Mike and Trinity are long-time friends of ours and are a part of our weekly Community Group through our church. They are such humble people with servants' hearts - in spite of all this, Trinity already said that they "don't need much stuff since there are much needier familes," but still - there are definitely essentials that they will need to replace.

Leave a message or contact us or Brett or anyone you know who is organizing if you want to help out. We totally have an opportunity to love on them!

Hoo Baby and Sleep Talk

She loved UVA. Michael took her for a stroll around grounds and then went to Mincers to buy her a little UVA outfit. Daddy said she was so happy. Uncle Preston (my younger brother) just submitted his application to UVA last night so now we're praying that he gets in to the college. Say a prayer for his acceptance too if you think about it. We're a growing Cavalier family!

Carmen is doing so, so well! She is eating perfectly and growing steadily. Each new day she begins to talk to me more and respond with lots of smiles. She did get her first cold last week. Thankfully it wasn't horrible, just a lot of snot stuck in her nose that I had to suction out regularly. It effected her sleep but didn't effect her happiness - she's such a sweet girl. Speaking of sleep, there's a lot of it happening under our roof considering how busy and mobile we've been. I almost feel ashamed for talking about how well she sleeps (similar to talking about how lovely and sickness-free my pregnancy was), like I'm going to offend the mothers who's children don't sleep solidly through the night - but I need to get over it. We've worked hard at teaching our baby good sleep habits and it's quickly paying off. Carmen is transitioning into the 10 hour sleep stretch from 9pm to 7am. Occasionally I'll feed her later in the night, especially with this cold, but for the most part she is passed out and will not wake up - no matter how much I try -after her nighttime feeding.

We've followed the principles of Babywise and it's clear that they have worked for us in this season. Our first 3 nights at home with her were hard - she had her days and nights mixed up. So for about a week we tried to teach her the difference and reverse her sleep patterns. She quickly made the switch and with the combination of feeding her every 2.5-3 hours, she fell into a regular pattern of sleep, eat, wake cycles. She learned not to stay awake after nighttime feedings and after two weeks, I was able to let her sleep for 5 hour stretches at a time during the night. That brings us up to the 7 week mark where she started to sleep longer and longer at night. Like I said, we're almost to sleeping through the night. She always wakes up happy and from her nighttime sleep and her naps. I love going in to get her! She's still in her bassinet in our room at night and during the day she's mostly in her crib. My current goal is getting her used to her crib and laying her down awake in hopes that she falls asleep on her own (Marta, I repeat your words in my head daily) She's doing really well with it. Sometimes her naps are only 25 minutes but she's learning and we're OK with that! Carmen is my joy and I just can't get over how darn precious she is!

Sometimes I catch her staring at the video camera for the monitor, like this:

Snuggle baby.

Too cute not to share

Carmen was all decked out in hot pink for Rebecca's wedding. The wedding colors were Hot Pink, Platinum, Black and Sparkle so she had to match as an honorary flower girl. She was too cute!

Thoughts for the Moment

My reality with a new baby is a lot different than I thought it would be. I thought things would be so drastically abnormal but they're not. And at the same time they are.

I am still me and Michael is still Michael. Our family and friends are the same. Our home is the same. My sense of humor, preferences, talents, likes and dislikes are the same. Just now there's a baby! I had this weird, un-thought out idea that somehow life as I knew it would be no more- in a twilight zone sort of way. But it's not!

What IS entirely different is what my individual hours in the day look like. Things that happen: I feed the baby, change and dress the baby, bathe the baby, hold the baby, play with the baby, put the baby to sleep, watch the baby sleep, and do it all over again. Things that rarely ever happen: shower, getting dressed, laundry, deep cleaning, washing dishes, completing an email or two, blogging (today is a lucky day), remembering what it was I walked up or downstairs to do, folding laundry, tidying up the house, getting the mail, going to the grocery store, getting wedding work done (scary one!), buying gifts for weddings, showers and birthdays, going to the bathroom (TOTAL change from 6 weeks ago when I lived on the toilet), writing thank you notes, cooking, uploading pictures on the computer. It just doesn't happen. And I think this is all part of Carmen still being so little and new. It's got to become possible to do simple tasks again right??

Though I'd like to shower and clean up the house, those things just aren't as necessary as feeding a new baby. And paying so much attention to my little darling is absolutely worth it!

This morning at 7:30am:

No title

What's wrong with me??? I can't get a blog post done to save my life. Oh wait, I have a new baby and a busy October full of weddings. I cannot wait to be done with them! This weekend marks the end of my 2011 clients. It could not come fast enough. We also traveled to Rhode Island this past weekend for one of my best friend's weddings. It was gorgeous and so so fun. Road tripping took a little toll on us though. (Speaking of tolls, it cost about $75 in tolls to get there and back...says my dad. Ridiculous!) I had one bag packed for myself and 5 bags for the baby. How is that possible?! I'll post more pics of that later on. Maybe in November.

Funny pic: Carmen and Walker Campbell. Look at Walker's eyes! He looks terrified that I was taking a picture of the two of them together.

Hats and Headbands

She's all girl!

We love her owl hat. Irresistible.

All dressed up for her first wedding:

It's Not September Anymore

That was the fastest September I can ever remember. I miss it already. But life has been good.

As each week passes, I can sense life getting easier and more predictable again. Carmen is SUCH a good baby but she's a new baby - and that takes some time getting used to no matter how prepared you are ahead of time. We have started to venture out more. Well, more like we were forced to venture out with my client's wedding this past weekend. We packed up our bags and headed to Charlottesville for a long weekend. I found it pretty stressful to travel and move into suitcases with a 4 week old, but special things like a cozy home at the Uhls' and friends like Amanda and Brett to love on Carmen when I couldn't, made the trip easier. I would love a nap just thinking about it all.

Baby girl has a wonderful nighttime schedule for her age and our days are making a little more sense now. She still loves to be held and talked to and really doesn't like to be without her pacifier after her play time is over. She was like that from day 4, apparently I was the same way as a baby. Carmen's facial expressions and smiles are coming to life. Michael and I love it and laugh at her cute faces all the time.

I need to take bath time photos because she loves it and so incredibly cute in her little tub. If you're ever having a bad day just come over and we can give Carmen a bath together, you won't feel anything but happiness.