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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Austin Scott 1-2 Months

I have to admit that this past month has been better than the first month. Really at about week four I was able to take a deep breath, look around, and say "Hey, we might be figuring this out. Yeah, we got this." Routine started to get a little easier. I was able to balance Lydia and Austin a little bit better - and in all honesty, I think that my hormones hadn't quite balanced out before that and I was finding it harder to cope than I had expected. But by month two, my body was feeling more like itself and we were all feeling more adjusted. We absolutely adore Austin and have since the moment we first met - but this month has just furthered our bonding and we've fallen even more in love with our handsome little man.
Although I love Austin more than he can possibly know, I'm definitely not as on top of things as I should be. My pediatrician didn't schedule a two month appointment at his two week appointment and I totally forgot to schedule it until he turned, well, two months. I still haven't actually called to schedule, but I'm hoping to go in the week after Thanksgiving. Also, we haven't blessed him yet and probably won't until the end of December.

I'll add in doctors stats later, but as far as other things go - he's solidly in 3 month clothes and size one diapers.

**Update: STATS. At exactly 2 months and nine days Austin weighed 11.3 pounds (13th percentile), was 23.25" long (44th percentile) and had a 39.1cm head circumference (35th percentile). He did not love getting his shots and was pretty miserable for the rest of the day. Every time he moved his legs he would start crying, and if you touched them to try to massage them for him it was even worse. It was so sad. But I'm happy to report that by the next day he was good as new. Thank goodness.

Some things we want to remember:

-He has to be swaddled up tight to sleep. He's quite the escape artist and can get his arms loose out of pretty much any swaddling blanket- no matter how tightly he is wrapped. However, I've recently discovered that if I wrap him in a receiving blanket (super tight) and then wrap him again in a stretchy blanket - right up to his chin - he has a harder time escaping and he sleeps better. He also sleeps better when he's laid up against a soft rolled up blanket in his bassinet. I don't think he likes all the open space.


-He's started smiling! It is melt your heart adorable and I love it so much. He is happiest in the morning, and that's usually when I get the most smiles. I've had a hard time capturing it on camera because when he's smiling I just can't pull myself away to go grab the camera - I just want to stay and enjoy the happiness. Sometimes he starts smiling while he's nursing, which is melt-my-heart sweet. It usually causes him to unlatch, but sometimes he will just keep eating while the little corners of his mouth are turned up in a smile.

-He's also started cooing. He's always been kind of loud and grunty, but the cooing is oh so sweet.

-I thought that he didn't like his swing, until David suggested trying to turn the base so he was swinging the other way and he loves it so much more! It's been a lifesaver. Also, that grey bear in the picture below- Lydia puts it in with him everytime he's in the swing if she can. She just wants to make sure that he has his bear so he can be happy in the swing. It's sweet.

-We both hate tummy time. The end.

-We are finally starting to figure out a semblance of a sleeping schedule. He usually goes down for the night just after we put Lydia to bed - around 7:30. Then he'll usually sleep until 12:30-1:30 (with a few times going up to put his pacifier back in). He'll eat again then, and I usually fall asleep in the chair nursing him. Around three-or-so, I stiffly wake up and put him back in his bed where he'll usually sleep for a half-hour (just enough time for me to fall asleep in my bed.)  Those are his best stretches because once we hit 4:30, we are usually up every hour until 7:30 when Lydia wakes up. However, he has slept from 7:30-4 on a couple of different occasions - so I can see hope for our sleeping future! Those nights I didn't actually get any more sleep than usual because I kept waking myself up and having to go in and check on him to make sure he was okay. One night I even made him wake up to eat because I was worried about him. It's hard to know exactly what he needs- and I'm worried about loosing my milk supply, especially if he stops eating much during the night. On a related note: I love love love the nursery chair that we bought. I usually sit sideways in it with my legs crossed/folded up so I can lean sideways against the back. I just switch which side I am sitting on depending on which side he needs to nurse on at the moment.

-We lost a half-package of newborn diapers, then found them and tried to squeeze him back into them so they didn't go to waste.  It was super tight and a little funny. We finally just put them in our baby-gift drawer to give to friends/family when they have a baby. (I'm sorry Austin! But I'm sure your several days in tiny newborn diapers saved us... a dollar or so. Thanks for understanding.) 

-I said at the beginning of this post that we are starting to get things figured out, and it's true. I feel so much more in control of things than I did the first month. I think that it's important to admit - I did almost NO blogging the entire first month. For someone going through our blog book and reading everything - it might look like I obviously had it together enough to blog often. But the only posts I actually wrote were "Introducing...", "Austin's Birth Story", and "David's 30th Birthday". Every single other post was blogged later and then back-posted into the correct time-frame. I did that because I like to be able to look through my books and find something that I'm looking for and it's hard when it's not posted in the right month - but I do feel it's a little deceiving sometimes. In fact, as I write this post, it's actually November 30th - however, I will back-post it to November 23rd because that's where I would look for it if I ever wanted to reference something from Austin's second month. 

-Lydia loves Austin. If I ask her about it, she'll say "I love Austin and you love Daddy." This statement then evolved into "I love Austin the most and you love Daddy the most. And Daddy loves you the most and Austin loves ME the most!" I'm so glad that she loves him so much, because I just know that it's made the transition easier - but I just hope that Austin can continue to survive all of her love. She kisses him and practically lays on him to give him a hug. She puts his pacifier back in, which consists of her shoving it in his mouth and pushing it against his face until he takes it. She wants to sit right by him, and occasionally ends up sitting on top of him. She's never tried to hit him or poke his eye or anything like that, she just loves him SO much (too much sometimes). She always involves him in what we are doing and always wants us to take him on a trip. "Can we take Baby-Aus-sin on a trip to the moo-sum today?" He is certainly loved by all of our family, but none more than Lydia.   

-He's a good eater with a great latch, but he doesn't eat for very long. I'm always surprised when he acts like he doesn't want any more. I have a fairly baby-led feeding attitude and feed him whenever he wants to eat, letting him pick his schedule. But sometimes I'll try to feed him and he just won't be interested. Nursing is hard because you never actually know how much they are getting, like is he just a really efficient nurser- and it doesn't take him that long? Or is he not getting enough. He seems to be filling out and gaining weight so I try not to worry too much - but I do worry about keeping my milk supply up for him. I really love nursing. I love it for so many reasons and I'm so grateful that I've been able to nurse so well with Austin again. (I know that it can be so much more difficult.) I was actually kind of worried about nursing a boy because I thought it would be - different? But it's not. I just am really glad to be able to nurse, even if I'm constantly worried about supply.  

 -His first month he would get the hiccups at least once a day. He doesn't get them as often now, but he still gets the hiccups a couple of times a week. They don't seem to bother him much, and usually go away if he can start nursing or sucking on his pacifier.

-With Lydia I always felt like she was getting so big. But with Austin, I still feel like he's so little. Then sometimes I look at pictures and I am surprised at how much bigger he looks than I thought! It's wonderful to see him growing, while still being able to soak up his little-ness 

-He's starting to be able to focus a little bit better, and although his arm movements are still pretty jerky - we like watching him bat at the hanging toys on his play mat. (Funny story, we borrowed an identical playmat from a friend for Lydia - then before I even got pregnant I saw this one pop up on a yard-sale page and immediately went and got it. I'm so glad that I did, because I love it so much!)


 -Austin has a love-hate relationship with his carseat. He doesn't love initially getting strapped in, but he is usually pretty content in the car as long as it's moving. AND, miracle that it is, he has even slept all the way through church in his carseat twice. Through all three hours and all the crazy primary noise! It's amazing. (Here he was sad - but I had to take a picture because Lydia was kneeling at the bottom of the carseat saying "It's okay. I'm here. It's okay.")

 -We are seriously pushing the pacifier thing. He's taking it so well, and it's been wonderful for our sleep routine. I'm afraid that one day he'll wake up and decide that he doesn't want it anymore - so we are trying to stay diligent about using it and hoping that he'll stick with it. We feel that it's worth the difficulty of taking it away in a couple of years for the usefulness it has now.


We sure love this little guy. He is such a blessing in our lives.  

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Wednesday

This morning I had all sorts of things that I wanted to write about and decided that today I would write a "Wednesday" post full of all of my random little thoughts. However, as I am sitting down to write this post I can't think of a single thing that I wanted to write about. I still feel the need to write (for my sanity more than anything) so who knows what this post will actually be about.

This morning Lydia and I had a painting party while Austin napped. I worked on some crafts that have been waiting patiently and I let Lydia paint a big blank canvas that I had laying around. I plan to hang it up in her room. It was nice, and I felt happy to be doing something productive and fun with my girl.  I only half-finished several projects, *sigh*, but it's progress. Her canvas ended up being perfect. Messy and full of mixed colors and obviously painted by a two year old, but I think it will be fun to hang in her room. I've hit a wall with Austin's nursery and instead I've turned my creative energy to Lydia's room. We hung bookshelves and it's gotten me antsy to hang things on the wall and make it a fun big-girl-room for Lyd. I made a puff-ball garland and hung it above her bed and we just finished hanging some beautiful white-ruffled curtains over her windows. I love the way it's turning out.

I don't like drama. I can occasionally be kind of dramatic, but real drama makes my stomach twist and makes me want to cry. Our neighborhood facebook page has been kind of dramatic lately and I can't get it out of my head. When people are mean or upset, it makes my heart hurt - especially because I just don't know how to change anything. Along with this - I've slowly started shying away from any TV shows with much drama in them. I can't handle the stress. Instead I have been convincing David to watch things like HGTV, Shark Tank, or Chopped. Shows without much storyline and a conclusion to every episode. I can't handle the suspense.

I don't want to leave my house today. I just want to stay home and not have to do anything. But I just submitted a photo order to Walgreens and they called me to say that it was finished but they accidentally printed the biggest photo on a canvas paper instead of a photo paper (which is a more expensive print) and asked me to come in and see if I'm happy with the canvas or if I want them to reprint it. I'm sure I'll keep the canvas, even if it is going in a frame - but I really don't want to leave and wish that I could just stay home. My manners tell me that I should go today, but my brain says that it will be just fine to wait until I'm already out tomorrow.

Lydia has been in love with looking at pictures of her when she was a baby, or pictures of David and I when we were babies. She has recently started asking to "Watch when I was a baby?" Which means that she wants to watch the video that I made of her first year. I love the video and comply pretty much anytime she asks. We then started watching the video of her second year, because the music is even more upbeat and the videos of her are so cute. I've loved watching them with her and remembering how darling she was. It makes me so excited to have Austin grow and learn and start doing some of the same things. There is one clip in the 1-2 year video that shows Lydia in the pantry where she had made a mess playing with the pancake mix. I love the video and laugh every time it comes on. However, today I found Lydia re-enacting that scene. She had been at the computer watching the video and two seconds later she was in the pantry with pancake mix all over the floor. Ah! As soon as I heard her in there I knew what was happening and as I stood in the doorway I didn't know what to do. I was torn between getting the camera and taking another picture to put up next to the first one and angrily telling her that it wasn't funny for her to make messes and that she was a big girl now. (I'm not having the greatest or most patient of days. In retrospect, it is kind of funny - but at the moment I was not amused.)  I maintained my calm and helped clean her up while asking her about why she was playing in the pancake mix. We then talked about how she was trying to do the same thing as in the movie, but that we really shouldn't play in the pancake mix because then there won't be enough for us to eat pancakes and pancake mix doesn't belong on the floor. I'm grateful that I stayed calm and didn't show my frustration, because I know that she is so tender and that she wasn't trying to make a mess. She was trying to be cute and fun (she was playing with the mix in her hands the same way as in the clip and had even put it on her face just like she had in the movie - you could tell she was just trying to recreate it and she had actually done a good job). I think that we'll stop watching those videos for a while now though.

This post of full of nothing. And actually a bit complainy. *sigh*

But - I am excited for this weekend! We are going to my parents house for Thanksgiving on Saturday. (Bless them and their sweet compromising selves for being willing to host Thanksgiving a week early so we can do Thanksgiving with both families.) I can't wait to see my siblings and spend some quality family time with everyone. Then just two days of work and David is off for the rest of the week! Some more Thanksgiving, some black friday shopping, and maybe even a visit with Santa to tell him what we want for Christmas. (Lydia wants roller-skates.) Then putting up the tree and getting ready for Christmas and all of the magic that comes with the holidays. Only a few more days and then fun-fun-fun! I am so excited to celebrate this year with Austin and Lydia. We are just so blessed.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Insta-Tuesday {11.11.14}

{10.29.14}
Cousins make the best friends. #peadenfamilyforever #hunterpark

{10.31.14}
Two of my favorite super heroes! #superlydia #shewantedacape #halloweenisthebestholiday

{10.31.14}
I didn't get a picture of both Lydia and Austin in their hero costumes (lame) and I'm picking through and eating the best candy from Lydia's haul. #parentingfail #imdoingmybest #iswear #itwasagreatdayanyway

{11.1.14}
My amazing dad made these bookshelves for me then came and installed them in Lydia's room today. #ihavethegreatestdad #handyman #welovebooks #blessed

{11.4.14}
Bath time with our diy boat from craft time today. #sheaskedmetomakeheraboat #imadeitup #takethatpinterest #but #whoknewacrylicpaintwouldpeel #messybath #ohwell

{11.7.14}
Making the most of the few park days we have left. #autumn #lydiaelise

{11.11.14}
It's okay to feel sad sometimes. #littlebylittleyoullfeelbetteragain #lifelessonsfromdanieltiger #lydiaissingingtoaustin