2 Years

2 years ago today, Carl and I got married. We were lucky to have shared that wonderful day with our family and friends. There were some things I could have done without (like the Pastor ruining our rehearsal), but everything turned out like I had imagined. Thank you everyone who shared that day with us, who have been with us these past two years (and the years before), and who will be with us the many more years of our marriage.

I love you Carl. Here's to many more happy years!

As Promised

As promised the pictures from my camera (while little man is asleep on my shoulder).

Molly checking out Hunter

Some of the cousins

So sweet

My little old man

We had dinner at the Pruntys' and this is what we did for fun

This is Mr. P. He is Katie's cousin's son. So cute.

Daddy's Mini-Me

I love my little man

Erin and Mason

Carl took Hunter to visit Nina at work

As my anniversary gift, I went and got my hair done. Not the best picture of it, but it is lighter now.

This and That

*I typed this post yesterday, but am just now posting it, with a baby sleep laughing on my shoulder*

Hunter is 7 weeks today. I cannot believe how fast it is all going! He is really starting to get a little personality on him. :] Every morning after his feeding he is just wide awake. He talks, smiles, and laughs. It is the best thing to wake up to. This morning we were having our morning conversation and Daddy wanted to join in. Hunter just gave him this "get out of here, I'm only talking to Mommy right now" look. Carl even came back like 5 minutes later and he gave it to him again. It was too funny.

We have started him on a bottle and on formula during the day. Since I am going back to work in a few weeks, I needed to start adjusting him to that sort of schedule. When he first wakes up, he is breast fed, but after that until bath time he gets a bottle. We started "bottle boot camp" last week. The first day was rather rough (I started out by mixing breast milk and formula and slowly decreasing the amount of breast milk each day). The next few days went really well until the mixture was more formula than milk. That morning, after 20 minutes of screaming, I finally relented and breast fed him. But after that, he took the bottle. We had also been buying him the pre-mixed stuff because it is sweeter and he had refused the powdered stuff, but I am now happy to announce that he took a powdered mixture today. Hooray! We also tried a new bottle and he took to that one a lot better than the Nuk bottle. After bath, he refuses to take a bottle. He knows that he gets the good stuff.

He also has a really nice night-time routine going. We take a bath around 7:30; I dress him and clean his ears; we come out in the living room with the lights low and the TV (if it is on) volume real low and nurse. Between 8:30 and 9 he falls asleep; Carl takes him, changes him, swaddles him, and lays him in his crib. He then sleeps (I'm now going to jinx myself... pardon me while I knock on some wood) through the night, waking up between 5 and 6:30. I don't mind the 5 AM wake up call because that is what we will be doing come August 25th when I start work. I really love our video monitor we received from my boss and his family at The Little Gym. It is so nice to be able to roll over and see he is breathing and go right back to sleep. I also don't have to get out of bed to see if he is just making noises or if he is actually awake. Thank you again Randy, Eleanor, Betsy, and Ann!

He is still a very gassy little man. I had been buying the Similac for gassy and fussiness (even though he isn't fussy) thinking that it would help. He still was very uncomfortable with the gas (even with Mylicon drops) so we switched him to soy formula and he is a whole new guy. He still farts a lot, but he isn't uncomfortable. The only problem is that they really stink now. I mean, they are like man farts. His farts have always sounded like they could come from a man, but now they actually smell like it too. Crazy kid. My house is just full of gas; I have Hunter's gas, Carl's gas, and Koal's gas. I think I need some more estrogen in this house!

Hunter also has his first cold. :/ It isn't too bad, but the first night was a little rough (not sleeping wise). He has lots of clear, runny snot. The first night it kept draining down his throat and making him cough and gag. It has gotten a little better, and he occasionally sounds congested. He has learned pretty quickly what the nasal aspirator is and he is not a fan. I really want one of those battery operated ones, but I am not spending $40 on it. Hopefully it will clear up within the next few days so his poor nose will feel better.

We went and had lunch at my sister's this weekend. We had a great time. Ryleigh and Molly just loved on Hunter the whole time we were there. Ryleigh just couldn't hold him enough. If anyone else was holding him she would ask for him. Molly enjoyed helping me burp him and rubbing his back. You can check out more pictures here.

While at my sister's, I walked past a photo of Molly when she was Hunter's age. I wanted to just see if they looked alike, and sure enough. I think Mel and Carl have some explaining to do, haha. Hunter and Molly have the same nose, so we know it runs on our side of the family somewhere.

Hunter got to meet Mason and Mark tonight. We went to visit them and Erin. Mason was showing off for us. He was very cute with Hunter. He even gave Hunter some of his toys. I think he would have cleaned out his room if Mark and Erin didn't stop him. He told me that he would teach Hunter to crawl. Too cute. :]

Hunter will be home with Daddy all day on Thursday. I have work orientation and then I'm going to go shopping with Kelly to get some work clothes. This will be the longest period of me being away from Hunter. My biggest outing alone in the past 7 weeks has been to Babies R Us for about an hour.

I promise I have better pictures to post. Our wireless internet isn't working and I don't usually have time to sit down at our desktop to do things. Hopefully I will get a chance sometime this week to post them.

Smile

Hopefully the sound will actually work on this, but you don't need the sound to see his smiles. :]

5 Weeks

So, I'm late... again... he was 5 weeks on Tuesday. Daddy is entertaining him this morning so I have two free hands.

Hunter is smiling a lot in the mornings and during bath time. He has a pretty long period when he is awake in the morning. All we have to do is talk to him and as long as he is looking at us, he smiles. Of course, as soon as we get our phones to take a picture, he stops. If Carl wouldn't kill me I would secretly record him singing to Hunter so you could see Hunter talking and smiling. One day I will get proof of him smiling.

He has lost his hair on the top of his head, but it is starting to grow back. Now we just tell him he will have a mullet. I think he will bring it back in style.

He is noticing a lot more. I can sit him up on the Boppie under his jungle gym and he looks around at the hanging toys. He follows people when they move about the room. If he hears my voice, he looks for me.

Bath time is still a whole lot of fun for all of us. It is a shock for him when he first gets in, but then he just lays back and relaxes. He loves when we pour water on his head (when I say pour, I mean I take a wash cloth and squeeze the water on his head). His new thing is to slide down all the way into the water. I can't wait for him to have better head control so we can remove the little hammock thing.

I didn't know how else to cover his "area"

I have finally found a bottle he will take. He likes the Nuk bottles (but not the Nuk nipples that you get in the hospital... he would take prune juice from those, but not breast milk). He will take prune juice from it right away and breast milk. So now I have all these Dr. Brown's bottles, but I have found a home for them. :] He refuses to take formula. We have started to mix a quarter of an ounce of formula in with 1 ounce of breast milk. I'm going to try to up that amount today. I'm still not sure how much he is eating in one sitting, I'm thinking about 3-4 oz. Although yesterday he literally ate from 1pm-6:30pm with a few 5-10 min. cat naps. Then we took a bath around 7:15 and after bath he ate until 9. Then he ate again at 10 after we changed his diaper (that is our typical routine, although it is usually a little earlier around 9/9:30).

He is sleeping pretty good. We get a good 5 hour stretch, he eats for 30-45 min., then sleeps for another 2-3 hours. I am getting better at not waking up every 1-2 hours to check on him. I actually didn't wake up last night until he woke up. He is still really gassy at night, and I think that is what really wakes him up, then he just realizes he is hungry. Today I am going to finish setting up the Angel Care monitor and the video monitor so we can transition him to his crib tonight. Wish us luck!

Carl weighed himself and then him with Hunter and our scale said Hunter was 12 pounds 2 ounces. I'm not sure how accurate that scale is, but we will find out how much he really weighs Sept. 1st. And when I measured him a few weeks ago he was a little over 23 inches long.

Hi!

All my fellow speechies will appreciate this. I just think it's cute. Listen to him after I say, "Say hi!"

I think it sounds like 'hi'. Now, I know he didn't actually produce a word, it's just funny. :]

One Month Old

I believe Hunter turned a month on Tuesday since he was 4 weeks old. My sister says that today is Hunter's 1 month birthday since it is the 22nd. So using her logic, I'm posting this today, not because I didn't have time on Tuesday.

Hunter is starting to smile at us. It is nothing consistent and he wasn't smiling because of gas. He smiled at Carl first and I got one the next day. It was awesome.

He is still loving bath time. Last night I put him in and he stretched out his little legs and relaxed. If only he had put his hands behind his head. :]

Cradle Crap... I mean Cap. Ugh. Poor guy has it in his head, eye brows, and his eye lids. I've been gently scrubbing with a wet wash cloth at night. Tonight I'm going to try baby oil on his head and his soft brush to help loosen the stuff as suggested by my sister.

We have been working on his head control. He is getting pretty good, but is no where near full control. He is staying awake more during the day. I send Daddy pictures and videos every day so he can feel like he is here. We are still doing prune juice in the morning and at night and it seems to help, although it makes his poops smell a little.

My goal the next couple of weeks is to start giving him breast milk from a bottle during the hours I will be at work so it isn't a shock the first day. I also need to start visiting more people so that he can not be so Mommy needy.

So I have no idea if these videos will work. It is showing an error when I try to play them.