Teething ALREADY?

That's right. Not even 4 months old and the boy is cutting 2 top teeth. Ever since this past Thursday Carter was just a little "off". Fighting sleep more, more fussy, and just having some rough days. He's also been drooling more and putting his hands in his mouth ALL.THE.TIME. However, I was thinking there's no way he's teething--that doesn't happen until 6+ months. WRONG. Thankfully my generation's answer to anything is google so when I googled "3 month teething" I came across message board after message board of Moms saying their 3 month old babies are teething, yielding the SAME symptoms as our little man. Carter has even gotten to the point where he wants his paci again--the poor guy just constantly wants something in his mouth. I felt his little gums yesterday and sure enough--2 little notches on the top. I lifted up his upper lip today and you betcha, 2 little pearly whites (well...I don't think I'd go that far yet--but definitely white tinted splotches were seen underneath the gums) are right up there which helps to explain the irritability/sleep fighting/fist eating-ness which has been a part of our life these past 5 days. Most of the teething toys are too big, so right now we're resorting to his hands, my hands (washed of course), pacis, and cold washcloths (did I mention how I love google?!).

Even though there have been some rough days, he definitely still has his moments of being SO much fun.  We took out the playmat and replaced it with the jumper as he's much more into seeing things on eye level vs looking up at the ceiling. The weather has been really nice so we've been spending more time outside and Mama even planted flowers--and is determined this year that they will live. We shall see.

Here's a video I took today...please pardon all the baby talk and my singing, I tried to edit it down to just the laughing part but I'm still figuring out the video camera technology.

First "Sick" Visit :(

Don't let the title make you feel sorry for our little man....he's his normal, happy, "I only cry when I'm hungry or tired" self. However, he's had this nasty cough for 3 days (no fever or other symptoms) so I decided to take him in and get it checked out. When I called the doctor's office they said "is this for a sick visit or well visit?", so my friends, at almost 4 months Carter had his first "sick" visit at the doctor. Of course he didnt cough while the doctor was in there, but since he's never had fever and the only symptom is the cough he was diagnosed with croup and a prescription to use the humidifer and put him in the bathroom with a steamy shower. So, that's what we'll do! I feel very blessed that he lasted almost 4 months--fingers crossed, we made it through flu/RSV season! :).

They did weigh him and with clothes on the boy is a hefty 15 lbs, 2 ounces. Our little chunker and we love it. Here are some iphone photos (remember the 3 pics/day rule) I just downloaded 648 iphone photos to the camera so these are just a select few :).

This was when he was 7 weeks or so, it just shows me how much he's grown because these overalls would now be capris and the shirt wouldn't button as a onesie!



Not sure why this is sideways, but lots of Max/Carter playing time going on these days!



Hanging out with Daddy after work!

You can really see the belly here :). He still LOVES the bath!

"Superman" arms--he always does this after his naps/in the morning when you undo the swaddle

3 months old and Daddy already has him working out!

Rockband with Uncle Stephen and Aunt Diana on one of the snow days!

LOVE this pic. Caleb coaching Carter before he got his first set of shots!

Big belly laugh. Haha.

Our little valentine

More Carter and Max playtime!

First run at the lake with Daddy (7 miles!)

Sporting his Daddy Boot Camp shirt :)

A pic of "modified tummy time" :)

Such a great age to run errands! Here we are playing while the car gets inspected!

Little talker in overalls

The Friday of my first week back to work Carter fell asleep on me. He NEVER does this so I had to document. I just let him sleep for 2 hours and loved every.minute.

Little Leprechaun

Whattup Mom, just chillin' in my bumbo.

Tummy time is getting a *little* better!

All 5 cousins together!

Happy baby!

Love his expressions.

Admiring the squirrels on St. Patrick's Day!

Loving this beautiful weather in the front yard with Daddy and Aunt Diana (we sent this picture to Uncle Stephen to make him jealous!)

He continues to love the play mat and really grabs at the toys now.

Lovin' lots of time with family!

The 4 boy cousins. I can't imagine what sort of adventures these boys will get into one of these days! They will have SO much fun together! I also loved how excited Harrison was to get to hold Carter...so sweet.





Talking to Aunt Emily

In Austin this past weekend we went with Sofia to an elementary school carnival. Caleb took her on this slide secretly hoping she would need help so he would "have" to slide down with her....nope, she's very independent :)

Carter chillin' in the carseat during the carnival

Not sure who had more fun at the carnival--Sofia or Caleb! I did make sure she did the cake walk--I LOVED those things growing up! I don't think she loved it like I did :)

Stephen and Diana's wedding shower!

LOVE this pic of Mamie and Grandaddy. They will both turn 80 this year and still so healthy and so in love :).

The "5 grands" with the 3 "great grands"--it's very rare for all of us to be together

Mamie and Grandaddy with all their babies--this is the "calendar cover" for 2012 :)

To give Stephen credit, Carter was crying when we handed him off!

Playing outside with Grandpa in beautiful Austin weather










3 Months!

Our little man is 3 months old and is developing quite the personality. We don't have a well check appointment this month, so here's my documenation of what's going on in Carter's little world...

EAT:
He had his bottle strike at about 2.5 months but after 3-4 days of working through it he's back on the bottle. To be honest, at times he still refuses the bottle and it takes him a good 2-3 minutes to figure it out, so right now we make sure he gets a minimum of 1 bottle/day. He takes about 4 ounces every ~3 hours during the day. We're still on level 1 nipples but I'm going to buy some level 2 this week (again, this is my personal journal and since 50% of my workday is consumed by infant feeding and different types of nipples you betcha I will document when we switch flow rates--it's a big deal in this household!). I limit his nursing time to ~7-9 minutes--I've figured out he can still go 3 hour intervals and spits up way less. If Carter had his way he would nurse >30 minutes at a time, and well...we just aren't gonna go there!

PLAY:
Oh my goodness, he is becoming quite the little character. He definitely coos and interacts so much more  now and I'm lovin' it. Just this morning I had him on his changing pad and we just had a little conversation for about 4 minutes of back and forth talking. LOVE it. He still is not a fan of "traditional" tummy time but one of the benefits of being a speech therapist is sharing an office and having lots of friends who are physical therapists. One of the first questions I got from my PT friends when returning to work was "how's he doing with tummy time?". Ouch--he screams and hates it but I make him do it? Well, Mommy friends, I learned through an article and talking with the PTs that "tummy time" is not just putting your baby on a blanket/mat on their tummy on the floor. Basically, anything that is not putting him on his back is considered tummy time. So, we now sit him up more, use the Bumbo more (can do it for about 30 minutes!), and hold him in "airplane" position on his tummy which he tolerates for 20-30 minutes.  I think he just likes to "see the world" as Caleb calls it and when he's stuck on his tummy on the floor he just gets bored....atleast that's what I'm telling myself :).  His little hands have opened up (before were always clenched up) and he's starting to grab at his blanket and burp cloth when it's on his lap. He has also discovered his hands and loves to put them in his mouth. He loves to look at himself in the mirror and will talk and smile at himself, completely unaware of me trying to get him to look at the camera (yes, I still take a minimum of 3 pictures and 1 video a day for Daddy). Unfortunately the big swing, our saving grace, broke a couple of weeks ago :(.  After a major melt down the other night Caleb and I both decided it was worth the $50 to buy a new motor...I was on the phone with Fisher Price when they opened and our new motor is in the mail!  He goes between the travel swing, the playmat, the bouncy, and blankets on the floor.....but most of all, the boy loves to be held and I can't complain about that. We spend hours each day with him on his back on my knees and he just looks around. He's still a little bobbly at times but I would say pretty much has developed head control. He's starting to bear a little weight on his legs....but it's inconsistent at this point. He rolled over once from his tummy to his back (on his 2 month birthday!) but hasn't done it since. However, he now prefers to sleep on his side and will roll to his side no problems. He continues to love movement and both Caleb and I have enjoyed taking him jogging in the Bob stroller--he just looks around and enjoys movement and the scenery!

SLEEP:
Well, if I would have written this on exactly his 3 month birthday I would have said he gives us a good 8 hour stretch each night, then goes about 4-5 hours until he wakes up. His routine got out of whack over our trip to Austin this past weekend, so he's still a little off. He now only sleeps in his crib (hallelujah!) for naps and bedtime. I think all 3 of us have developed a love/hate relationship with the swaddle. He still has to be swaddled to go to sleep so of course, we ALL love it when he's sleeping. However, he FIGHTS the swaddle and is getting so strong that no matter how tight we get it, the little houdini can break out of it if he fights hard enough....and can't go back to sleep. He will wail his arms and cry because he can't get comfortable....because he has to be swaddled. Grrr. He wakes himself up, which wakes up, and well....that's the love/hate swaddle relationship. He is awake for ~1.5 hours at a time during the day, then needs to go down for a nap and does the "eat, play, sleep" routine over again! He naps anywhere from 45 minutes-2 hours, about 5x/day--the boy needs his sleep, and he is SO much happier when he gets it! We've got our bath+bottle/nurse+bed routine going for bedtime and it's working GREAT!

Some of my favorites at 3 months....
-putting his arms in "superman" position when we undo his swaddle
-putting his little fist over his eyes when he's nursing
-the biggest grins--kissing his feet, talking baby talk, and rapping--yes, the kid definitely prefers rapping to lullabies--not sure what this means for his future but you better believe during tummy time when he's screaming I break out some Kanye "that that that don't kill me, can only make me stronger" :)
-that last feeding of the night--having the "heartbeat" sound on the monitor, the mist of the humidifer going, and just rocking him and staring at him, praying and praising the Lord for blessing us with our little man
-his coos--he really thinks he's talking and telling me something and will just smile and coo back and forth
-watching Caleb baby talk--Carter and I both love it and smile so big :)
-getting home from work and just snuggling with my little guy. Working gives me a new appreciation for some good quality time and keeping priorities in line (maybe that's why my house hasn't been vacuumed in over a week?!)
-Carter going to bed at a decent hour (~7:30-8) so Caleb and I have quality time together at night
-being able to get up and go--I feel like the first 2 months it seemed like such an ordeal to get his diaper bag packed and everything ready to go run a short errand...not sure if it's I'm just more used to it now, but it's much easier

Woa, that's a lot. If you've made it this far, here are some 3 month pics. He wasn't too smiley, he's definitely more of a morning person and I took these after I got home from work Thursday afternoon:

love the wobbli-ness :)

Back to Work!

The 12 weeks of maternity leave ended and March 1st always seemed so far away.....until yesterday. Honestly, I think 12 weeks is too long. After 6 weeks I was completely recovered from a medical standpoint and emotionally and mentally was "ready" to go back but who could pass up 6 more weeks of vacation? Those 2nd 6 weeks definitely made me fall in love more with my little man and with the idea of being a stay at home Mom. Until about a week ago I was dreading leaving him and going back to work....then I had a work shower at my house, saw the people and realized I MISSED them. It would be nice to go back just for the interaction with the co-workers. Then on Friday I had to go to the hospital for my annual health check and realized I MISSED the job--the patients, the family, the complex medical issues. Then what really made me at peace was spending the day with Courtney and our little guys for a full day (her son Max is 7 weeks older than Carter, she's watching Carter while I'm working) and seeing what a wonderful Mom she is and how she loves Carter. I always knew Carter would be fine, but seeing the way Courtney interacted with Carter as she does little Max and putting the boys on the floor together and letting them "play" really gave me a peace. To top it all off, last Sunday at church the worship leader led us in a song that says "In my life, be lifted high. In our world, be lifted high. In our love, be lifted high" and asked us to really think about what's going on in our life, in our world. That's when I knew--I'm not going back to work just for the money or the adult interaction or the having to use my brain which I've missed (I joke that I only use my brain when I watch Jeopardy!). I am going back to work because the Lord has called me back for this season--I still get to be a Mom to Carter 7 days/week and I leave him for about 17 hours total (I'm working 2 8 hour shifts/week--Tues and Thurs) to go and be His hands and feet at Children's Medical Center. He has plans for me there, so I'm going. I try to deviate from His plan sometimes--even though I knew this, Monday night I was weary and told Caleb I didn't want to go back--we made a "deal" to push through work until tax day (April 15--6 weeks!) and then we would have a heart to heart. However, I woke up yesterday morning, did my morning routine then went and stood by Carter's bed as he peacefully slept and gave him a kiss goodbye. I can't say I wasn't a little sad or a little teary, but I walked down the stairs, kissed Caleb goodbye, got in my car and felt such a peace that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Went to work and it could not have been better....I even got to do a swallow study which I haven't been able to do in almost a year (pregnancy + radiation is not a good mix).  I jumped right back in and loved every minute. One thing that did kind of "hit" me unexpectedly was seeing a baby that had Carter's birthday, was 6.5 lbs, had never been able to eat, and had been in the hospital since birth. Working with that little girl 1) made my heart break in a way it never had before--I guess that's what mommyhood does and 2) gave me even more of a perspective of how blessed I am and daily take for granted what it means to have a healthy baby and be able to be at home and live a "normal" life. Of course I missed my little man, but Courtney sent me pictures and I went through the pics on my phone about 10 times during my pumping breaks--which is a new process, all in itself! I loved being able to come home and just love on Carter after a full day's work--and maybe I did rock him and stare at him while he slept for 45 minutes just because I knew in that moment there was nothing better--cooking, washing bottles, preparing milk, all those "to dos" could wait, where I would typically stick him in his crib and get right on that to do list. So, my friends, I get to be a speech pathologist, a Mommy to a healthy and happy baby boy, a wife to a very supportive husband and wonderful father, and most of all in all these roles a servant of the Lord and my life could not be better. Speaking of life being better--Carter also slept for 11 hours STRAIGHT last night. Yes, life could not be better. I am very blessed.

PS-Operation Bottle was a success! He is now taking bottles and nursing, no problems. Back to my little foodie of a guy--however it comes, he'll take it! Woo hoo!