Happy Halloween!

The end of October was pretty busy in the McCammon household. The weekend before Halloween, we spent Saturday afternoon at the New Orleans Art Market, which is held the last Saturday of every month at an uptown park. Cate got to show off some of her Halloween clothing and John and I got to check out some local artists and eat yummy Nutella and banana crepes.

John and Cate at the Art Market.

On my birthday, John, Cate, and I went over to James and Donna’s for dinner. Cate enjoyed seeing her cousins Jordan and Colin as well as Papa Mike. Jordan decorated a beautiful birthday cake and the whole evening was the perfect end to a wonderful birthday!

Cate helps me blow out the candles.

Colin and Papa Mike enjoy the cake.

As you may have heard by now, Cate was a peacock for Halloween. I tried to get as much mileage as possible out of the costume (although it was so big for her that she will probably still be able to wear it when she is 3!), so Cate wore her costume to playgroup on Tuesday and Gym Rompers on Wednesday. I think she ended up wearing it much longer on those two days than she did on Halloween!

Cate trying on her Halloween costume.

For Halloween, we dressed Cate up in her costume and walked up the street to our favorite sushi restaurant for dinner. Cate had skipped her afternoon nap and was consequently pretty fussy, so she only wore her costume for about ten minutes, but that was long enough to get lots of compliments!

Happy Halloween!

Cate hasn't quite mastered sitting up!

On the solid food front, we continue to make progress. Cate is now eating bananas, avocados, and oatmeal. The oatmeal seems to be much more palatable to her than the rice cereal, especially when it is mixed with bananas. However, as Cate has become more interested (aka excited) about solid foods, feeding her has become increasingly messy. Half the time, I just take all of her clothes off of her before she eats and put her in the tub afterwards. Fortunately, we have Ford around to help clean up.

Note, if you can't tell what's going on in this picture, Ford is licking the avocado off of Cate's bouncy seat.

Yum Yum!

We are pretty sure this is what Cate would say about rice cereal if (1) she could talk and (2) her verbal skills were sufficiently advanced that she had mastered sarcasm. Yes, much to Ford’s delight we recently started solid foods. Five months old was a little earlier than I had planned to start feeding her solids, but we have been looking for ways to get additional calories in our little munchkin. We followed the tradition of starting with rice cereal, but Cate does not seem pleased with the taste and/or texture. Fortunately, bananas and avocados have been much more successful!

Cate is suspicious of her first taste of rice cereal.

Bananas are much better!

Other notables since our last post include Cate’s first illness….it seems that Cate managed to pick up Fifth Disease (also known as Slapped Cheek), a common childhood virus. Her cheeks were bright red for about a week and while she wasn’t too sick, she was definitely out of sorts. Overall, it wasn’t too bad as far as first illnesses go, but it was pretty sad that Cate obviously didn’t feel so hot and there wasn’t much we could do about it.

Cate continues to roll over (still mostly front to back, with the occasional back to front roll) and her ability to grab objects has increased noticeably in the last month. John and I put her exersaucer together a few weeks ago and she has been busy mastering the various toys. Of course, the exersaucer, like most toys, isn’t really made for children in the fifth percentile for height, so her feet didn’t exactly touch the ground when we first starting using it….nothing a phone book couldn’t fix, though!

Cate enjoys playing in her exersaucer.

Too bad her feet don't touch!

At this point, Cate isn’t showing any signs of sitting up. Although she enjoys being on the ground and enjoys standing up (with assistance, of course), something about sitting seems to make her uncomfortable. If you try to make her sit, she makes her whole body straight as a board and puffs out her stomach. As you can imagine, this makes putting her in the car seat lots of fun!

Cate looks cool while spending a Saturday downtown.

My Awesome Husband

Today we found out that John passed the Louisiana bar exam! Cate and I are very proud of him. Our regular baby-sitter Sam was already schedule to come today, so I got to join John for a celebratory lunch downtown with some of his co-workers. Now that Cate is down for the night, we are continuing the celebration by sitting on the couch, drinking beer, and watching football...this is what counts as excitement when you have a five month old!

Rolling Over

In this picture, Cate is all ready for the Saints game with her Saints onesie and Saints socks. If you look closely, you can also see Ford pouting in the background!

At Cate's 3-month checkup (she was actually closer to 3 1/2 months), the pediatrician asked if Cate had shown any signs of rolling over. At the time, Cate was showing absolutely no interest in rolling over. After all, she is perfectly content to be on her back and when she is on her stomach, she is generally too hysterical to even consider rolling over (Cate HATES tummy time). However, Cate suddenly rolled over on Sunday morning!

We were having morning playtime on the floor and when I put Cate on her stomach, she immediately rolled to her back. I thought maybe I had just put her in a funny position, so I put her on her stomach again...and she immediately rolled over! After she did it one more time, I decided this was the real thing and woke John up. Of course, once John was up and watching, Cate wouldn't roll over again. However, she rolled over several more times on Monday morning and John caught the action this time.

On Wednesday, Cate had her 4-month old checkup (she is actually about 4 1/2 months). The pediatrician said that although Cate remains on the petite side, she is doing great. Her stats this months are:

Height: 22.5 inches (5th percentile)
Weight: 11 lbs. (5th percentile)
Head Circumference: 39 cm (5th percentile)

Cate right before rolling over (we have yet to catch her rolling over on film).

Cate enjoys staring at herself in her mirror... notice the large stream of drool coming out of her mouth. So ladylike.

4 Months Old (Updated)

Cate is four months old today!

A day in the life of Cate...

Today, Cate woke up at 7 a.m. and started the day with a delicious bottle (we won't talk about the two times that she got up during the night at 2:30 am and 5:00 am). Then she played on the floor and in her bouncy seat while Allison and John ate breakfast and while Allison ironed a shirt for John to wear to work (what a wonderful wife!). About the time John left for work, Cate was ready to go down for her morning nap. She took a nap from 8:30 to 10. When Cate woke up, Allison and Cate got ready to go to playgroup at Children's Hospital. Allison and Cate went to playgroup from 10:30 to 12. The first thing Cate did ate playgroup was eat...she often wants to eat or sleep instead of playing! After playgroup, Allison and Cate ran a few errands. By the time they got home at 1:30, Cate was ready for a bottle and another nap. Cate's second nap lasted from 1:50 pm to 4:30 pm. When Cate woke up at 4:30 pm, she had another bottle (that was a long nap, after all!) and then Cate and Allison went to the dry cleaners on their way to the park. At the park, Cate and Allison walked for a while and then stopped to put a blanket down on the grass and play. When they got back from the park at 6:00, Cate had another bottle, followed by her nighttime bath. After her bath, Cate got a baby massage, was swaddled, and (yep, you guessed it) had another bottle. Cate was asleep by 7:00 pm.

Cate must have known that I was going to write about today because she was a wonderful, wonderful baby today! Most days don't go quite this smoothly, particularly in the nap department. Other things that were notable about today are that Cate weighed 10 lbs, 12 ounces and that she only wore one outfit today (reflux is still a problem...she went through five outfits yesterday!).

UPDATE: In celebration of being four months old, Cate slept through the night! She slept from 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.!!!! Let's hope this is going to become a regular thing!

Evacuation Plan in Action

Just wanted to give everyone an update on where we are....we left New Orleans at 3:30 am on Saturday morning and headed to Birmingham. Although it was tough to get up and leave that early, it didn't take us any longer than usual to get here, so it was definitely worth it. In contrast, friends of ours left New Orleans at 11:30am yesterday (Sunday) and it took them nearly 14 hours to get here (it is normally a 5.5 - 6 hour drive). So far, it looks like the damage to New Orleans isn't too bad, but we are not sure yet when we will be headed home. For now, we are hanging out in Birmingham!

Evacuation Plan

Although we are waiting until tomorrow to make a final decision on whether evacuation will be necessary, I wanted to go ahead and post our evacuation plan. We are fortunate to have good friends in Birmingham who have often opened their home to John, Mr. Biscuit, Ford and me, and they have been kind enough to make room for one more this time (Cate!). We will make a decision sometime tomorrow (Friday) and if evacuation is necessary, we will most likely evacuate either very early Saturday or very early Sunday. Hopefully we will not have any problems with our cell phones, but in the event that we do, John and I can always be contacted by email or by leaving a comment on the blog.

Growing, Growing, Growing

The last month and a half has been a very busy time for us. John sat for the Louisiana bar exam in late July, so Allison and Cate went to the beach with Cakki for a week in mid-July so that John could concentrate on studying. Unfortunately, Cate picked that week to go through a very cranky phase, and the only way to soothe her was to rock her in the hammock on the balcony. However, it was good to get the first "traveling with baby" experience over with!

When Allison and Cate returned from the beach, John's mom (Nana) had arrived for a visit. Nana was a tremendous help while John was taking the bar and kept all of us well-fed. Nana also helped us establish a successful bedtime routine for Cate that works almost every night. Between 7 and 8 p.m., Cate gets a bath, a swaddle, a song, and a bottle, and generally falls asleep quickly. One night, it worked too well and Cate fell asleep in the bath!

Cate had her first set of immunizations at about 2 1/2 months old....this might have been more traumatic for Allison than it was for Cate. Cate cried for a few minutes when she got the shots, but was quickly distracted by a bottle. She was fussy for a few days, but she has definitely been fussier lately, so it was hard to tell how much of the fussiness was actually due to the shots. As of July 31, Cate's statistics were:

Weight: 8 lbs, 15.5 oz (5th percentile)

Height: 21 inches (5th percentile)

Head Circumference: 36.5 cm (~5th percentile)

We took our second trip with Cate during the first weekend in August. We traveled to Montgomery for the wedding of our friends Andrea and Sam. Allison was a bridesmaid, so Cakki and Pepere came along to help John take care of Cate while Allison was busy fulfilling her bridesmaid duties. It was a beautiful wedding and we all had a good time. Being away from home seemed to wear Cate out, though, as she slept the entire ride home!

Overall, Cate continues to be a pretty good baby. We are working on getting her to sleep longer at night and take more consistent naps during the day, both of which seem to make a dramatic difference in her mood. However, it is amazing how quickly she sometimes goes from this:

To this!


A few more recent pictures of Cate:

Cate relaxing in the boppy.

Cate waking up from a nap.

Cate with Nana.

Cate tries out her new Bumbo seat...note, it was John's idea to prop up the bottle!

Cate Is One Month Old!

It's hard to believe, but Cate is one month old already. Where did the last month go, you might ask....well, other than eating, sleeping, and pooping, here are a few highlights of what Cate has been up to since the last post.

• John's sister Laura came to New Orleans for a wedding and got to spend a few days with Cate.

• Allison's college roommate Sarah stopped by with her husband Gene and their son Andres. Andres is about one and half months older than Cate, so he gave her lots of good advice on how to be a good baby.

• Cate's cousin Jordan turned four and Cate got to attend her first birthday party. She didn't get to eat any cake, but she did get to visit with lots of new and exciting people.

• Allison's sister Chelsea joined Allison's mom in New Orleans and has been a big help with Cate. Chelsea is already giving Cate tips on how to be the perfect Alabama sorority girl.

• John had his first Fathers Day and we all enjoyed dinner with Uncle James, Aunt Donna, cousins Jordan and Colin, and Papa Mike and Cindy.

• Last but not least, Cate attended her first church service. She was very well behaved during church and got lots of compliments on her outfit...not an easy feat since most clothes are still too big for her!

At Cate’s one-month check-up, the doctor was pleased with her impressive growth. By "impressive growth" we mean that Cate has developed such a large double chin that keeping the milk out of her neck folds has become a real challenge. Cate is actually on the height/weight growth charts now and has the following measurements:

Weight: 6 lbs, 8.5 oz (5^th percentile)

Height: 19.5 inches (10^th percentile)

Head Circumference: 33.5 cm

Cate's First Week

Cate had a very active first week. Cate and Allison stayed in the hospital until Tuesday and John stayed with them every night, even though it involved sleeping on a very uncomfortable fold out chair. Before she left the hospital, Cate had a number of visitors who were very excited to meet her. Allison's mom (Cakki) and dad (Papa Mike) met Cate, as did Uncle James and Aunt Donna. Aunt Donna came back again on Monday and Cate got to meet her cousins, Jordan and Colin.

We were all excited to go home on Tuesday, but as usual, Cate was on her own schedule and delayed our departure for a few hours by not being able to keep her temperature up. Fortunately, some extra swaddling did the trick and we were home shortly after lunch. Our next obstacle is that we didn't realize that Cate's tiny size meant that even preemie clothes were way too big for her. However, we did the best we could....until we realized that she is also too small for the carseat.

Cate's first outing was on Wednesday when Allison and John took her to the pediatrician's office. Because of her small size, the doctor wanted to make sure that Cate did not lose any additional weight (she had reached a low point of 3 pounds, 9 ounces on Monday). Allison and John were very pleased that Cate was back up to 4 pounds on Wednesday. According to the pediatrician, Cate is very small (less than the 5th percentile in both height and weight), but otherwise is in great shape.

Cakki and Allison took Cate to the doctor again on Thursday for an additional weight check. Cate continued her excellent progress by putting on an additional ounce. Later that day, Allison left the house for the first time without Cate so that she and John could go to Babies R Us and buy even more baby stuff.

On Friday, Cate had her first bath at home in anticipation of the arrival of Pepere (Allison's stepdad) and Aunt Laura. The bath went better than expected, but required both John and Allison to keep Cate from protesting too much. However, their efforts were definitely worth it as Cate was a clean, sweet-smelling baby when they were done!

A few extra pictures from this week....



Cate poses in her favorite hospital outfit.

Cate passes out after eating.









Ford pouts that he is no longer the "baby" of the family.











Cate rolls on to her stomach in an attempt to escape the bath.

Happy Birthday Cate!

Catherine Allison McCammon was born on Friday, May 16 at 12:56 pm. She weighed 4 pounds, 0.2 ounces and was 17.5 inches long. Cate came into the world screaming much louder than either John or Allison thought was possible for something so small, but since then has been a very good-natured baby. Because of her small size and because she was a few weeks early, the doctors were concerned about her ability to breathe, eat, and maintain her temperature. Fortunately, she did not have any trouble breathing (as evidenced by her screaming) and seems to be a good eater. She has had a little trouble maintaining her temperature, so our little girl spends most of her time double swaddled with at least one hat on...not an outfit you see very often in May in New Orleans!

Here are a few pictures from the 16th...

John shows off his scrubs.

Allison meets Baby Cate.

Cate is exhausted by all that screaming.

Cate shows off her "flying nun" outfit....yes, the sleeves on her newborn-sized shirt really are that long.