Sweetness

I bet you've already seen this, since it's just so amazing! I swear I cry at anything touching these days, but this...this is pure sweetness.

He's 8 months old and hearing his mommy's voice for the 1st time with the help of a cochlear implant, in case you didn't read the title haha...

4 Big Ones

Our baby is growing way too fast! Austin just had his 4mo check up yesterday. I was so proud of him with the shots...he cried pretty bad for about 10 seconds (most of it was holding his breath at the beginning of the cry before he let out the sad sad sobs...you know what I mean) then stopped and just cuddled his mommy and daddy for comfort!

Stats:
-14lb 15oz (about 50%) the exact same weight as his best friend Logan! I knew they were good buddies haha
-25inches (about 50%)
-head: whopping 90%....are we surprised?

Austin loves his Snoopy friend. Snoopy sits on top of a dresser we have with other "friends" and Austin talks to them all the time lol.

Tummy time (this pic was at about 3months). Sometimes when he's on his tummy he'll get so close to rolling over, it's so funny to watch. He makes sounds like he's working out at the gym!

He likes to suck on the beak of this hen. I call it "sucking face" haha.

Little guy got blessed this month! It was such a great day! We went over to my mom's afterwards for delicious pork tacos, yummy desserts, and some good family time. I cannot believe I didn't get a picture of him with my mom (sad...sorry mom!) but here he is with me and Jake's mom.

Austin seems to like to copy his mommy and daddy. First was blowing bubbles with his lips, and now in the middle of playing, he'll stop cooing...get a concentrated look on his face...and slooowly raise his arms straight up above his head (like Ricky Bobby on Taladega Nights when he's being interviewed by the news reporter and he's like 'I don't know what to do with my hands'). Then he'll hold them there for a good 4 or 5 seconds...it's hilarious! Oh and yes those pants are unbuttoned...he had just eaten and his belly was a little 'inflated'!

He goes crazy when he chews on things. He likes this spatula (my favorite one!..oh well) He'll just chew and chew and chew.

Happy 4 month little guy!!

Some other fun things:

-He is very ticklish! On his ribs, on his back, on his thighs, you name it!! And his laugh is so boyish, like not squeaky or high pitched...it's deep and grunty (but cute grunty haha). I love it!

-He loves it when I read to him..his favorites at the moment are Brown Bear Brown Bear, a Color book, and a touch and feel farm animal book. Oh and Goodnight Moon (at bedtime ofcourse). We also read the Book of Mormon before bed..I'm sure that one's REALLY entertaining for him lol!

-Austin is very interested in feeling things. Put anything in front of his face and he'll touch/grab/hold it. And ofcourse it goes straight to his mouth if he can get a hold of it.

Eating: still loves to eat! The Dr said we could try cereal now so I am super excited to see Austin's reaction! I honestly don't think he's ready yet because I've held one of his spoons up to his mouth and he doesn't even care. But it will be fun to try here and there!

Sleeping: I'm trying uliminate "sleep cruches" so he can start falling asleep on his own. I recently got rid of the binky (which he spit out or I pulled out anyway before putting him in his crib). And now I am working on laying him in his crib when he is still sleepy but awake. He's a good sleeper and I don't want to screw that up! He still goes to bed between 9 and 10 and wakes up between 7 and 8. He takes 4 naps a day, usually one long one (1-2 hrs) and then the rest are 30-45 min.

Mom and Dad: yes there is a mom and dad section! We are loving being parents! Guess what, we have yet to go out without Austin haha so that is my goal very soon. I've left him with my mom a few times when I have Dr appointments but Jake and I are due for a date for sure!

It's so fun to watch Austin and see us both in him. We have so much fun playing with him, and taking care of him together. Parenthood is soooo crazy but honestly the biggest blessing! I recently went up to Utah State to speak on a panel of "new parents" for my sister's Marriage and Families class. At the end, one student commented "so...having a baby sounds like a lot of work and responsibility, and after today's conversation it sounds kinda sucky. Are there any pros to having a child?"

REALLY!!? Dude, who is this kid!? I thought about his question from that point on, for the next 24 hours. I wish I could have told him: "Yes, it IS a lot of work and responsibility. I mean hello, you're taking care of a helpless little tiny human being who can't do anything for themselves. What do you expect? But it makes you the happiest you've ever been, and brings joy like non other because you HAVE to be completely selfless to take care of your baby. They are your first priority. And being selfless brings pure happiness and fulfillment. You are finally giving your all to this little creature and your needs come last. THAT is happiness." and then I would have added "so there. you're obviously not read for a baby so you better not go out and get someone pregnant because life is gonna hit you hard when that baby comes and well since you're not ready for that it's gonna be tough shiz!" hahaha really I wouldn't have said that but I wanted to!
Anyways I love being a mom and watching Jake be dad. It's the most exciting thing to watch Austin learn and grow. This is random but I can't wait for when he's in Kindergarten haha, but that's so far away! I love that age though!

3 months going on 4

We just love our little boy! As usual, it is sad that he is growing up so fast, but it is so dang fun to watch him learn and change! So he'll be 4 months in just a couple weeks, but I felt like I needed to do a post now because I think I'm falling behind.

Austin is so much fun, he makes us laugh everyday. His little personality is starting to show and it makes us so excited. He seriously LOVES Jake. He goes wild when he sees him. He'll stare at him, then smile, then laugh and talk talk talk to his daddy. They are cute best pals and I know in the future Austin will want to do everything Jake does.

Christmas morning. We got him a Rudolph stocking because we think he looks like Rudolph (the big dark eyes)! He was quite excited about his teething toy lol.

My Aunt made him this beanie and blanket, he was so silly when we put it on him..

He absolutely loves to stand and jump so ofcourse he loves to be in his saucer. It's so fun to watch him play in it.

See he looks like Rudolph, right!?

Jake decided to make him look like a "bully" so he rolled his sleeves. Looks pretty dangerous if you ask me ;-)

I put him in the rocker for a minute while I put on some music, and I thought he looked so cute just sitting there looking up at me. And tell me, what's with those jammies? They are the only pair that don't snap completely shut over the diaper..so weird!

I went to get him from his nap the other day and somehow he'd gotten the fuzzy blanket off, broke his feet through his swaddle, and got his socks off. How funny..

The "dangerous" television! He gets sucked in if we're not careful! He just stares at it. He's currently watching The Bachelor in this pic. But only for a minute...He doesn't need that rubbish haha. And wow his arm looks to be quite large in this pic!

Just loves to sit with daddy..

Austin is such a happy little guy. I am so excited that he is awake more and can play with me. I love being home with him and helping him learn and grow! It's fun to have a little buddy to take on errands too. I cannot wait for the weather to warm up, because it will be so fun to play outside, plus he'll be even older so he'll enjoy exploring outside with me! We still go on runs in the jogger but let's be honest it'll be more enjoyable when he's not bundled up!

What's New:

-Well let's talk reflux first. All I can say is it's been a pain the butt for poor little Austin. He's been on medication since his 2nd day of life! A few weeks ago we switched to Prevacid (from Zantac) and it really hurt his tummy. He stopped eating like usual. So I took him off it, and it took him a good week to get his appetite back. Good thing he had some extra "padding" to keep warm haha. But now, he's been off ALL reflux meds for 2 weeks and he seems to be doing really well! I hope it keeps up. The Dr said babies start to outgrow it by 3 months so let's hope he is!!

-Austin is a great eater now, but also gets sidetracked after about 10-15 minutes. He squirms and talks and smiles and looks around. I'm trying to get him to eat faster so I switched to a new bottle and it's working...except when he's really side tracked! Oh well at least he eats! He'll eat anywhere from 3-80z in a feeding.

-He's doing great at sleeping at night..He goes to bed between 9-10 and wakes up at 7 so I LOVE that!!! Hopefully he keeps it up :-)

-We're starting to slowly get on a good schedule. It all depends on when he wakes up though. But he definitely has the same bedtime each night because he get super grumpy and really jittery if he's up late!

-It's so fun to watch him play. He can focus on his toys and grap them and pull them up to his mouth..He really likes to suck on the toys. It's so cute to watch him grab things, it's got to be so frustrating getting those little hands to cooperate!

-Lately he's been doing the cutest thing. A while ago, Jake started blowing raspberries at Austin (just blowing air through his lips) and just 2 days ago, Austin started doing it back to us!! We'll do it back and forth..and he just does it by himself too. It's seriously so funny. He does it alllll day long, even when he wakes up in the morning, he just lays there in his crib and blows raspberries. I go through so many bibs now, because the slobber is out of control haha.

-He loves to stand with our help ofcourse, and also does "sit-ups" now whenever he's in a reclined position. I guess he just wants to be a big boy and sit!

He's been such a joy in our life, and we can't wait to continue to watch him grow!

On a side note...to whoever watches The Bachelor...ummm Michelle is C-R-A-Z-Y!!!!! She is giving Utah chicks a bad rep!! Jake says every show needs a villain even reality shows...And she totally is!

Finally

January 8th. The day I finally went for a run. Time? 8ish in the morning. Weather? Incredibly smoggy. Temperature? Pretty dang cold. But that's ok because running in the cold is one of my favorites. I don't care if my lungs were polluted. It felt grrreat!


I had an idea once. To run a relay race this summer. Over zealous? Probably! I remember a couple years ago I was "going to run a half." Then I got sick of waking up at 4am and running 7miles. Then there were those Saturday 10mile runs. I just didn't like running anymore. And that scared me. So I did not do the half but I kept running a ton. And I was once again in love with it. I feel like a rebellious teenager, who will do things at their own pace and because they want to...but the minute they HAVE to do something, then they hate it. I am weird!

Anyway I truly truly LOVE running. It's one of those things that is hard but extremely rewarding and the more you do it, the easier it gets...but then once you get to that easy point that means it's time to push yourself harder haha. I am very very excited to start that pushing once again. My first run was awesome and my body smiled the entire time.


On to my other love...my family! Austin is going to be 3months this Saturday. Wow! Poor guy is going bald and getting chubbier I swear daily. I told Jake Austin reminds me of George Castanza. He wasn't so happy about that comment! His baby hair is on his crib sheets, it's so sad! But his new 'big boy' hair is already growing in so that's good. He is just getting so big. I swear it's because I have to formula feed him in addition to breastmilk. It really bothers me he has to drink formula. I've read that formula fed babies eat more because the signal in their brain that tells them they are full doesn't work that well compared to exclusively breast fed babies. What are ya gonna do? Hopefully my silly body will make enough milk for the next baby!

First day in his Bumbo. He was in awe...looking at the world from a whole new perspective! My mom said "where are his pants!?" But don't worry mom he usually wears pants..Our home is nice and toasty though so "no pants day" happens occasionally. Look at those long legs..just like daddy!

Headed out to run some weekend errands! It's fun to watch Jake and Austin. Lately, Jake will come home or be going to work while Austin is eating. He will come over and talk to Austin while he's eating. Austin forgets to eat and just smiles and gets all excited he gets to talk to daddy. Then when Jake walks away Austin gets upset and starts yelling and looking around for dad to come back! So funny! I get impatient though because I just want him to eat (he's a slow eater to begin with) but who am I kidding it's pretty dang cute he loves his daddy so much!

NB

I shed a tear (or two) today. I am boxing up all of Austin's clothes that he has grown out of.

And I realized I will NOT be seeing "NB" on the tag of his clothes anymore. Nor "0-3mo." I really miss him being a little tiny newborn (well, tiny to ME...to all of you who have itty bittys). I miss:

-his newborn, swollen face
-his tiny-ness
-holding him on my lap as I burped him, and how he was all hunched over
-letting him sleep on my chest for as many naps as I wanted (we're working on 'good sleep habits' now)
-his newborn diapers

The bottom 2 were my favorites. The top was Jake's. I guess we'll just have to have another one some day!

BUT the great thing is, he is getting SO SO fun! His little personality is coming out. I love that he can:

-totally recognize daddy and mommy and likes to be picked up/cuddles by us
-focus and look at us and everything else
-I love his laughs, attempts at communicating (aka cooing), and smiles...he smiles with his whole body! He just gets so excited his whole body shows it.
-sleep more and more through the night (almost haha)
-grasp things
-suck on his fists
-hold his head up for a good amount of time now
-stand on his legs while I hold him under his arms.......and lots of other things but I've gotta go!

Babies are so fun! Being a mom is a blast, and the BEST job ever!!

Two Months

As all parents say, time has flown by and Austin is already 2 months. So weird to think one year ago I was just finishing recovery from a D&C, realllllly wanting to be pregnant again. Life happens as it should, am I correct?

So I have a love/hate relationship with well child check-ups. I LOVE hearing the stats and talking to the pediatrician but HATE the shots!! Poor Austin, he cried so hard like "why did you let them do that to me mom!!?" for a few minutes then just wimpered for like 5.

Here are his stats:
Weight: 12lb 12oz, 75%
Height: 23", 50%
Head: I can't remember but 75%

The pic below is I think about 2 or 3 weeks...

We made a Christmas card for someone (I can't say who because they read this blog and it's a surprise). It was pretty funny seeing Austin with a pencil in his hand!

Monday we went downtown to see the temple lights. I couldn't believe how many people were there. It was like New York City. But it was so fun to spend some time out with Jake and Austin!

Jake..nice face!

I wish Austin would have woken up, he loves to stare at lights so he would have been in heaven looking at the christmas lights!

My favorite part..the pink ones!

WOW.

Seriously I really turning into a whacko!! I just did a NEW post for MY blog, but accidently did it on our GROUP blog! And I don't have time to do it again! So...if you want to hear a weird strange mommy story (i'm hoping I'm not the only one that has done that in my sleep) then go to: theoctrules.blogspot.com OR click on The Octagon on my friends list....