And baby makes 4

35 weeks

2012-01-14T21:07:00.000-08:00

This post is a little late but better late than never right? So I was just comparing my 35 week pregnancy photo from this week, to my 35 pregnancy photo from my pregnancy with Carter and wow, not only am I bigger but I'm carrying her so much lower. Here's my photo from this week:

Carter and I were walking through the grocery store the other day and this lady walked by and said to me "Wow, you look like you're about ready to have twins". Nice huh? I mean it's true, yes, but still who says that to a random stranger?

This pregnancy started out much like Carter's, no morning sickness, I felt pretty good for the most part. The similarities continued until recently when I started feeling different aches and pains that I've never felt before. I'm sure it has to do with the fact that I'm bigger and this is my second pregnancy. I'm at that uncomfortable point now. It's uncomfortable to sleep, sit, stand and pretty much just move. Luckily Tuesday is my last day of work so I'll have a good 3 1/2 weeks to relax get ready.

We've been busy on the nursery. We had so much to do to get it ready for Olivia, and although we're not quite done yet, we don't have much more to do. It started with Grant adding two electrical outlets (the room only had two to begin with and that just wasn't enough). Then, because our house is so old and awesome and he had to tear out so much of the wall to install the outlets, he got to re-sheet rock parts of the wall, then tape and texture. Then we painted. Then Jack and Grant installed the lighted crown molding (so awesome! my favorite part of the nursery). Then Grant installed the trim around the door and closet. Then we (and by "we" I mean Jack and Grant) ripped up the carpet. We originally planned to just clean the floor and call it good like we did in Carter's room but the hardwood wasn't in great shape. So they rented a sander and sanded and finished the floor. That's about where we are now. So at this point we need to install the baseboards (which I believe are already painted and even cut to size) and paint the closet doors. And my wonderful Dad is installing the same closet insert that he did for Carter's nursery so after that's done we can hang the closet doors.

I'm just so much further behind this time than I was with Carter's room it feels like. The crib is due to be delivered on Tuesday. But I don't have any sheets or a crib skirt or anything. I don't even really know what I'm doing with those. I'm sure it'll come together before she comes though, I just hate waiting until the last minute. Anyways, without further ado here is the nursery....

Thanks to the good size window the room is nice and bright in the daytime

Here's the best picture I could get of the lighted crown molding at night. This picture does not do it justice.

So as you can see I went pretty bold with the colors. The walls are Valspar's Bayside. I'm using white furniture and bright pinks, light pinks, oranges, yellows and greens as accents. I'm hoping it'll all come together nicely. I'll definitely post pictures when it's done.

And next weekend is my baby shower so I'll make sure to post about that as well.

Carter is 2 years, 6 months and 2 weeks old
I am 35 weeks and 4 days pregnant with Olivia

Goodnight Wolf

2011-12-13T22:26:00.000-08:00

Carter had Grant and I cracking up tonight. He has this set from the Three Little Pigs and he was playing with the Wolf and Pig #1 (Pig #2 and Pig #3 are currently MIA). We're not sure how it all started because we didn't start watching/listening to him play until we heard the kissing noises. At that point we look over and Carter has Pig and Wolf standing on the end table looking each other in the eyes. Then the following took place:

Pig: "Time for bed Wolf."
{Wolf lays down}
Wolf: "Kiss"
{Pig kisses Wolf}
Wolf: "Hug"
{Pig hugs Wolf}
Pig: "Goodnight Wolf"
{exit Pig}

At this point Carter continues to say "Goodnight Wolf" as he's walking away with Pig. It was so hilarious to see Carter playing like this with his toys. And the funniest part was that this is pretty much exactly our nightly bedtime routine. Grant and I couldn't stop laughing. One of these days I'll get him on video playing with his toys. He has such an imagination!

Carter is 2 years, 5 months and 14 days old
and I am 31 weeks pregnant with Olivia

Pregnancy survey, 30 weeks

2011-12-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

When did you find out you were pregnant? June 03, 2011

Was it planned? Yes.

What was your first reaction? I was in shock. I knew that it was possible and I had been having a few symptoms but it was still early to test (3 weeks 3 days) and I really didn't expect to see that positive.

Who was with you when you found out? Grant and Carter were home

Who was the first person you told? I told Mona, Amy and Tonya about half an hour later because I had dinner plans with them. It worked perfectly.

How did your parents react? All of our parents were VERY excited to say the least.

What was your first symptom? The same day I tested I experienced dizzinesss, extreme heartburn and the kicker was that my feet were swollen.

How much weight have you gained? As of 2 days ago I've gained only 4 pounds. :)

Do you have stretch marks? Yes, same ones from Carter.

Natural or medicated birth? This one will be a scheduled c-section.

Who will be in the delivery room with you? Grant and hopefully someone taking pictures.

Will you breastfeed? I really hope so. Didn't work with Carter but I'm going to try everything I can this time.

Will you cry when you hold the baby for the first time? Probably.

What's the first thing you might say to him/her? "Hi Olivia, I'm mommy. I love you so much!"

Would you let someone videotape the birth? I wouldn't be opposed.

Are you excited about the birth, or scared? Mostly excited, a little nervous.

How much does your baby weigh right now? About 3 pounds.

What do you think she will look like? I think she's going to look like me and hopefully have as much hair as Carter.

What do you want to do that you couldn’t do throughout pregnancy? Drink wine!

What will you miss about pregnancy? Maternity clothes and feeling her move in my belly.

What will you not miss about pregnancy? The hip pain, waking up every night to pee, being out of breath when walking.

What is different about this pregnancy than your last? I'm bigger this time. That's about it.

What is the same as your last pregnancy? I feel the same. No morning sickness, I feel great.

Any cravings? Fruit.

Who do you think is next to get pregnant out of the people you know? Alexis or Rachael.

How many kids do you want? This will more than likely be our last.

What are you most excited about? Getting to meet Olivia and seeing what she looks like. I'm also really excited for Carter to meet her and see what he thinks of her and how he interacts with her.

What do you think your baby will weigh and measure at birth? 7 pounds 5 oz and 19½". Total random guess.

29 Weeks

2011-11-29T06:31:00.000-08:00

How far along?: 29 weeks
Total weight gain: Up 7 pounds at my last doctor's appointment a week and a half ago.

How much does baby weigh?: About 2 pounds

Maternity clothes?: Of course!

Stretch marks?: As far as I can tell I just have the same strech marks from Carter and no new ones.

Sleep?: Getting worse. Hip pain....lots of hip pain.
Best moment this week?: Thanksgiving, stretchy waist maternity pants....need I say more?
Movement?: Lots!

Food cravings?: Nothing really specific.

Labor signs?: None yet.

Belly button in or out?: It's pretty much a full fledged outtie.
What I miss: Being about to bend, walk, sleep, MOVE comfortably.
What I'm looking forward to: Starting the nursery.

Milestone: Third Trimester. Only 10½ more weeks to go!!

2011-11-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

How far along?: 25w2days
Total weight gain: Up about 6 pounds according to my doctors appointment a week and a half ago.
How much does baby weigh?: About 1½ pounds
Maternity clothes?: Of course!
Stretch marks?: As far as I can tell I just have the same strech marks from Carter and now new ones.
Sleep?: It's been pretty good actually.
Best moment this week?: All my friends and family getting the chance to feel/see Olivia move.
Movement?: Lots!
Food cravings?: Not really specific.
Labor signs?: None yet.
Belly button in or out?: The top half if out the bottom half if still kind of in.
What I miss: Walking comfortably.
What I'm looking forward to: Starting the nursery.
Milestone: Last week was viability. :)

21 weeks 3 days

2011-10-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

How far along? 21 weeks 3 days

Total weight gain/loss: Up about 3 pounds

Maternity clothes? Yep, that’s pretty much all I wear

Stretch marks? No new ones that I know of, but I have a ton from Carter

Sleep: Sleep is good, I’m just not getting enough of it because I’m working so much.

Best moment this week: Grant feeling Olivia kick for the first time.

Movement: Everyday at random times.

Food cravings: Not much, just random things that I see commercials for or people mention then I all the sudden have to have them.

Gender: It’s a girl!

Labor Signs: None.

Belly Button in or out? Half of it is poking out. The top half. Haha.

What I miss: Caffeinated coffee in the morning.

What I am looking forward to: Starting the nursery.

Weekly Wisdom: Enjoy every minute. This will likely be my last pregnancy so I’m really making sure I enjoy every bit of it.

Milestones: I’ve passed the half way mark. :)

15 weeks pregnant

2011-08-23T20:38:00.001-07:00

Hello all. Well, like always I suck at blogging. Sorry for the lack of updates. As I'm sure all of you have heard by now...I'm pregnant. Yay! We found out on June 3rd (at 3 weeks 3 days..super early). I'm due on Valentines Day (February 14th, 2012). Today I'm 15 weeks along and had a check up with the doctor and everything looks good. I got to to hear the heartbeat then the doctor sent me on my way. We scheduled our next appointment for Monday September 12th. We'll get the "big" ultrasound and as long as baby cooperates we'll get to find out the sex. I have a very strong feeling it's a boy. Although, for the record, I thought Carter was a girl.

So, here's what's up so far;

Yep, I'm HUGE. I was no where near this size at 15 weeks with Carter. Okay, I just looked back and it looks like I was about this size at 16w4d with Carter. Check it out, this picture is me at with Carter;

Oh boy.

How far along? 15 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: +1 pound from pre-pregnancy weight
Maternity clothes? About half the clothes I wear are maternity now. I can fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes but they're getting tight.
Stretch marks? No new ones (yet), just the ones from my first pregnancy.
Sleep: Great. I was having to get up at night to use the bathroom but I think that phase has passed for now.
Best moment this week: Getting to hear the heartbeat at today's doctor appointment
Movement: I'm feeling him (her?)
Food cravings: Not anything specific right now. My cravings have just been at random times when someone mentions a food that sounds good.
Gender: Not sure yet. 3 more weeks until we find out. I think it's a boy for the record.
Labor Signs: Nope, thank God.
Belly Button in or out? Still in
What I miss: Actually I've been wanting a glass of wine. Which is weird because I'm not a drinker.
What I am looking forward to: Finding out the sex and getting the nursery started (which we can't do until we find out the sex, haha)
Weekly Wisdom: Enjoy your pregnancy as much as possible because it goes by so fast. And this may be our last so I'm really trying to savor it.
Milestones: 2nd trimester :)

Today Carter is 2 years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 2 days old
and I'm 15 weeks pregnant

Preview of Carter's 2nd birthday party

2011-06-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had Carters birthday party. I can't believe our baby is 2!! It was a very successful party! I don't have all of the pictures yet but I keep getting hassled that I haven't updated my blog ~~in a really long time~~ recently so I thought I'd do a teaser post. Haha!

I promise to update as soon as I get more pictures.

Today Carter is 1 year, 11 months, 2 weeks and 5 days old

Terrible two's have hit a little early

2011-04-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

'They' weren't kidding about the terrible two's. This boy knows how to throw a tantrum!

Here's some of the things he's up to nowadays:

He likes to loudly sniff things, mostly our feet or Coco's paws, and say "Pew". Although it sounds more like Poo.
Climbs all over everything. He can climb on the couches and dinning room chairs.
He says all kinds of new words/phrases, like; I want that, I touch that, I fall, it broke, manana (banana), bye-bye, pa-pa, ma-da (pretty sure this means grandma). And today he said 'flower' clear as day. There's a lot of things he says but I can't quite understand, for example, I'm pretty sure he's been trying to say 'thank you'.
He's getting pretty good about telling us when he goes poo-poo. Now we just need to work on him telling us BEFORE he goes.
He points at any scrape or bruise he has and says "boo-boo"
He will throw a piece of food on the floor, point to it, look at Coco and make a clicking sound with his mouth to get him to come eat the food. Haha, it's hilarious!
He likes to tease Coco by dangling a piece of food in front of his nose but not letting him have it.
He like to undress himself. Sometimes we'll go in his room to get him from his nap and he's has his clothes off (sometimes even his diaper). He also tries to dress himself, but that's a little harder for him.

I'm sure there's more but that's all Grant and I can come up with at the moment. I can't believe I have a son who's almost 2!! I'm in the beginning stages of planning his birthday party. But on top of that I also have my birthday party in July (I don't usually have a birthday party but this year, since I'm turning the big 3-0, I'm having a huge party) and a baby shower I'm planning in June. Not to mention just about every other weekend until then is fully booked.

We've been doing some work on the house. We done some work recently to the wall with our fire-place.

Before

During

After

Munchkin on the loose

2011-03-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

Who needs a T.V.? Carter is so entertaining! And he loves his Coco.

Sometimes he's nice to Coco and gives him hugs

But sometimes he uses Coco as a stepping stool to see out the window

Carter really does love Coco though. And for the most part Coco loves Carter. Mostly because Carter feeds him. Sometimes Carter purposefully saves little pieces of his meal so after he gets out of his highchair he can run over to Coco and feed him. If Carter isn't in his highchair and gets any sort of food it goes to Coco. For this reason I have to give him two of everything; one for him, one for Coco.

Carter is also talking a lot more. His new word is poo-poo. He saying it while and after he does it. We're working on him telling us before he needs go poo-poo so we can start getting him on the potty for it. I think he's almost ready to being the potty training, not quite yet though. He has gone pee-pee in the potty once but I think that was a fluke. No rush though, he's not even two yet.

In other news Grant has his interview on Wednesday. Everyone pray or keep your finger crossed or whatever you do. This job would be a great thing for him.

I think that's about it. Carter is turning two in three and a half months. Then shortly after I'll be 30!! Ahhhh... I can't believe how quickly time is flying.

Things are different

2011-02-23T21:28:00.000-08:00

Well, if you haven't already heard, Grant got laid off last week. It came very unexpectedly to both of us. I really freaked out at first, thinking about all of our bills and the lack of income we're going to have but Grant has helped calm me down. I think it will be okay now. He'll get unemployment and we've already started drastically cutting our spending. Since he's staying home Carter won't have to go to day care and we won't have the huge gas bills from his work commute. I really think we'll be okay for a few months. Please keep your fingers crossed that he gets a job soon though.

On a brighter note, Carter is getting so big. I know I always say it but he's at such a fun age. He copies everything we do and he's starting to be able to communicate with us better. Aside from that though he's going through a I-will-throw-a fit-and-then-hit-you-if-I-don't-get-what-I-want stage. Fun times!

Here's a picture of Carter and his friend.

And here's a video from the other day. This is the first time Carter has seen/played with a piano. I thought he did pretty well.

I will try to update more. I'll see if I can even get Grant on board with maybe updating the blog with some posts in his spare time.

Hasta!

18 month check up

2011-01-21T09:12:00.000-08:00

Carter had his 18 month check up the other day and he's healthy and doing well!

Height: 31" (16th percentile)
Weight: 22 lbs 12 oz (15th percentile)
Head: 87th percentile (haha)

As you can see he's still small. But, this are some of the highest percentiles for weight and height he's ever had. And his head continues to be in the 80th percentile. The pediatrician said he's doing well. He's excelled at his gross motor skills; he can walk really well, run, jump with both feet off the ground (she said this usually isn't accomplished until 3 years old). So now it's time to really work with him on his fine motor skills. What we're doing with him is coloring, teaching him to use utensils, and playing with smaller blocks and toys.

She was really impressed with his language development. He says 20-30 words which is above that of the average 18 month old. Half the words a stranger wouldn't be able to understand, but I know what they mean. Lol

And so, now I'll leave you with some pictures;

He's growing up too quickly!

2010-12-20T22:41:00.001-08:00

I can't believe how fast time flies. I have a 18 month old!!

He's learning so much And he understands almost everything we say. I can ask him to look for things for me now and he does it. I couldn't find the remote earlier so I asked him and he ran around until he found it. It was cute.

And he can tell us if he's hurt now and where he's hurt. If he bumps his head or stubs his toe he'll show me where it hurts.

And he's cutting his incisors right now. These have been the worse teeth so far. He's never really been a bad teether though. He's just not sleeping that well, he's drooling a lot, sticking everything in his mouth, and whines while holding the side of his face to tell us it hurts. Poor guy.

That's about it for now. His 18 month appt is in a couple weeks so I'll update after that, if not sooner.

Have a merry Christmas everyone!!

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Hello? It's me again!

2010-12-13T18:37:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! It's been awhile so I thought it'd be time for an update.

Everyone here is doing great. Grant is working ALL THE TIME but he still finds time to be a great father and husband. And he's been doing a lot of studying for certification tests at work. He has another test to past tomorrow then it's on to the next cert. These certificates wood definitely look great on his resume.

I'm doing great also. I got a promotion at work so I'm doing a totally different job now. It's more difficult but this job suits me better. Plus I like a challenge. Overall work is going great. It's nice to have a job that you enjoy doing. And in my spare time I'm playing with Carter.

As for Carter he's doing great as well. He's learning so much it's so surprising. He's able to tell me when/where something huts, which is great, he's able to understand what I'm saying and even communicate back to me when he wants something. He's just so much fun.

Today Carter is 17 months and 13 days old.

Halloween

2010-10-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

What a fun Halloween we had. There's a church here in town that we've gone to a couple of times recently and today we worked at their Trunk or Treat festival. Carter had a lot of fun running around and eating way more candy than he should have. It rare that he gets candy so tonight was a big treat for him. Then we came home and went to a few houses in our neighborhood. Sorry these pictures are blurry, it was dark and I took them with my phone.

Here's a picture from Halloween last year for comparison.

Today Carter is 1 year and 4 months old

OMG I suck at blogging so here's an update

2010-10-07T20:31:00.000-07:00

So ya, are you seeing a pattern in my absence in this blog? It seems like I'm always apologizing for not posting more often. Here's a brief rundown of our schedule so you can get an idea why;

5:00 am I wake up (unless it's Friday, then it's 4:30) go to work and work from 6:30-3:00 (6:00-2:30 on Fridays). Meanwhile Grant gets up (about an hour after me), gets ready, wakes up Carter, gets Carter ready and takes him to daycare to get to work by 8:00. We both have a half hour commute to and from work. After work I pick Carter up from daycare and we go home and get some mommy-son time for about 2-3 hours everyday. On a good day Grant gets home at 6:00 pm, sometimes later. I usually have Carter fed and mostly worn out by the time Grant gets home but we make it a point to all play together as a family. Around 7-7:30 we start Carter's bedtime routine which includes a shower, PJ's, brushing his teeth and a bedtime story. He's usually in bed around 7:30-8:00. After I pick up the tornado of toys that Carter left behind and clean up the dishes that's when Grant and I get to spend time together, talk about our days and pay attention to Coco. We usually try to get to bed around 9:30 or so. Then lather, rinse and repeat. That's our day in a nutshell so you can see why I'm always running short on time. As busy as we are I wouldn't change a thing, I love our schedule and I think it works great for us.

Okay now for the real reason you read this blog...Carter. Carter is doing great and he's changing so much every day. To make it easier (easier for me, I'm not gonna lie) I'm going to use bullets to update you;

He's walking (obviously) and getting really good at it. It's weird not carrying him anymore. He walks to his bedroom for bedtime now.
It seems like every other day he learns a new word. Currently he says; Mama, Dada, what's that, right there, ya, down, duck, bird, moooooo, rawr, dog, more, tree. There's probably more, that's all I can think of.
He understands a lot of what I say. It's just so weird that I can ask him to do something and he knows what I'm saying, that doesn't mean he does it though. =)
He is such a ham!! When we're in public he totally flirts with all the ladies. He even blows them kisses, it's so cute!
He's starting to throw little tantrums. When we come in the house from being outside he'll jump up and down and cry. One thing that will ALWAYS cheer him up? Coco. If Carter is mad, hurt, grumpy or tired it doesn't matter if we call Coco over to him he's all better.

Carter had his 15 month check up last week and it went well. The pediatrician was very happy with his language development. She said she only expects a 15 month old to say about 3 simple words. She couldn't believe that Carter was saying two word phrases. She said his large motor skills are right on track so next she wants us to work on fine motor skills such as scribbling with a crayon/marker on a piece of paper.

Overall we're all doing great! Another post to come shortly about my favorite memories of Carter and for that one you'll be hearing from both Grant and I.

**UPDATE**
I see now (almost 2 years later) that I never posted Carter's stats. So here they are, although unfortunately I don't remember what percentile he was in:

Height: 29"
Weight: 20 lbs and 7 oz.

Camping

2010-08-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

We went camping this last weekend with some friends and had a fabulous time. We stayed at our friend's cabin which was SO nice. It was more like a house than a cabin and it was only about 1/4 mile from the lake. Carter LOVED it too. He's such an outdoor baby. Sunday morning he laid in the hammock for about an hour and hardly moved. It was funny because he was listening to the birds chirp/sing and he was talking back to them. Here's what he looked like;

We had so much fun and I can't wait to go back. We're going camping again Labor Day weekend but with a much larger group. Not sure where we're going yet, there's so many options. Here's the rest of the pictures;

In other news, Carter is cutting a molar. Part of it has already broken through. I didn't even know that he was teething again until I saw it had already started coming in. He currently has his two bottom middle teeth and his four top teeth. I guess he's going to skip a few and go straight to the molars.

Not much else to say. Carter is doing great and staying healthy.

He's almost walking

2010-07-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

Carter is SO close to walking. His auntie Jess, uncle Ryan and cousin Cole gave him a lion toy for his birthday that he can either walk behind or sit on and ride. Well until today we've always had it in the position so he could ride on it. Tonight though, I wanted to see if he could walk behind it. Well he caught on very quickly and in no time he was running around the house behind it. Here's a couple of videos that I got.

I know that he could walk without assistance if he'd just let go.That's okay though because I have a hard enough chasing him when he's crawling, I can't imagine how quick he'll be when he's walking.

2010-07-20T17:22:00.001-07:00

That's the word Carter said for the first time tonight..."more". I've been working on teaching him that word for a few days now and he said clear as day on his first try.

We're all doing great. Carter is so close to walking but he's just not ready to let go yet. He's been ear infection free now for a couple of weeks too and I'm hoping he stays that way.

I still have some blog posts I want to do, I just need time to do it. And I have some very exciting updates about the wedding planning business Alexis and I started.

For now though I will leave you with some photos:

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12 month pictures and updates

2010-07-09T16:29:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late on this but better late than never heh? So...my baby is ONE now. Yep, I'm freaking out just a little. =)

He had his 1 year well visit on Wednesday. The appointment was originally set for last week but he's had ear infection after ear infection so we just incorporated his well visit with a follow up to check his ears. He's had an ear infection off and on for like 2 months now. I don't like it! This last one was the worse, he had a fever for 3 days and he was so miserable.

Updates from the doctor;

I talked to her about tubes for Carter's ears because of all the infections and she said if he has 1-2 more infections in the near future then she will refer him to a ear nose and throat specialist. Tubes are not something we originally wanted to do but after going through what we've been through the last 2 months we're both considering it now.

She gave us the go ahead to start switching him over to whole milk. Several months ago she mentioned possibly keeping him on formula for a few months past 1 year old to get the extra calories but she's pleased with his growth and we've come to the conclusion that he's just a smaller than average child (just like Grant was).

Stats:

Weight; 18 pounds 11 ounces (4th percentile)

height; 29 1/4" (34th percentile)

Head; 80th percentile

While his weight was low it's actually pretty good considering he's been sick off and on for 2 months. I was real happy to see his height jump up so much because he's usually around the 15th percentile.

Carter is continuing to do well, even being sick. He's actually crawling now, which is funny. He started "scooting" around, more like an army crawl, at like 7 months or something but just recently realized that it's easier and faster to crawl on his hands and knees. It's so cute to watch him because I'm not used to seeing that. He wants to walk so bad. He will pull himself up onto anything (including a wall) and walk holding onto it. His favorite thing to do is to pull himself up on the TV stand, walk around the bookshelf, then walk all the way down the hall by scaling the wall. It's hilarious.

He's talking so much more now. He's not saying many words, it's more gibberish, but he thinks he's talking. He will carry on a conversation with himself for awhile.

We got Carter's one year pictures taken last weekend and they turned out so good. They actually turned out so good that instead of buying prints I spent way too much money and bought the CD of all the images with the full rights to them all. Haha. I'm not going to post them here until we have a chance to give them out to family and friends...but I will give you a little preview.

I have pictures from his party that I will be posting soon!

Today Carter is 1 year, 1 week and 2 days old.

Carter's first birthday party

2010-06-27T21:39:00.001-07:00

This is just a quick post to say that Carter's first birthday party far exceeded my expectations. It turned out perfect. I had so much fun planning it. I'll be posting more about it including lots of pictures as soon as I have a free moment, but in the mean time I'll leave you with a teaser picture.

Here's the cake. It turned out so much better than I expected. It was a hard cake to make (yes I made it).

Today Carter is 3 days away from turning 1 year old!!! :)

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Father's day!

2010-06-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

Father's day was great. I wanted to make this father day, Grant's first father's day, a very special one...so I bought him a motorcycle. You have no idea how much he wanted one. I don't like the idea of him riding it but he was going to get one no matter what so I thought I should just be the one to get it for him. He was so surprised/excited/shocked, he had NO idea he was getting it.

He loves it!

11 month photos...finally!

2010-06-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

I know you've all been sitting in front of your computer waiting for this moment, Carter's 11 month photos. I won't keep you waiting any longer, so here you go;

Here you can see his teeth. He has 5 in so far and the 6th one should be here soon.

Today Carter is 11 months and 3 weeks old

Wow, I should be fired from my own blog...

2010-06-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

Seriously...it's okay to fire me. I haven't posted for almost a month. You wanna hear something even worse than that? I haven't even taken Carter's 11 month pictures. Yep, that's right it's more than 2 weeks past the day he turned 11 months. Oops.

Updates;

*Carter is doing great. A few ear infections here and there but he's such a trooper. He had an ear infection in May, then took him in again June 5th because he had another one in his other ear, then during his follow up appointment a week later BOTH ears were infected, then today, at his second follow up appointment, only one ear has cleared up. Honestly though, you'd never even know he was sick. He's such a great baby.

*He's trying to walk unassisted. He cruises along ALL of the furniture and pulls up on anything and everything near him but won't let go yet. He's so funny, he pulls himself up on the TV stand, cruises along it to the bookshelf, then around the corner to the hallway and will walk all the way down the hallway scaling the wall.

*Carter's birthday is just around the corner. I'm so excited for his party. It's going to be so cute and fun. I've been having so much fun planning it.

Oh and I mentioned all those doctor appointments before? Well he gets weighed at all of them so here's his stats;
June 5th; 17 pounds 4 oz
June 11th; 18 pounds
June 17th; 18 pounds 9 oz

Yes, that's right in just 12 days he gained almost 1 and a half pounds. This is great because he needs to gain weight. He's now in the 4th percentile, go Carter. You wouldn't believe how much this kid eats though, it's ridiculous.

I can't even explain how cute he is...so I'll show you! =)

Today Carter is 11 months 2 weeks and 3 days old

Updates

2010-05-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

I see it's been a few weeks since I've posted anything. Well, everyone is doing great. Carter is growing too fast. He's not crawling on his hands and knees yet, and I don't think he will, but he sure does get around by scooting. He's showing a lot more interest in walking now too. He pulls himself up on anything and everything he can get his hands on and he loves to stand. Lately his new favorite thing is to stand in the crib and jump. It's really cute. The crib mattress is lowered all the way and the drop side is up so there's no way he could get out.

Carter LOVES daycare. He even has a little "girlfriend" there and they like to share toys and get in trouble together. I think Carter's best friend of all is Coco though. It's so cute, if Carter is upset or crying all we have to do is call Coco over and he's all better. It works wonders, lol.

There's not much else going on. His 1st birthday party is just a little over 5 weeks away, I can't wait.

Today Carter is 10 months, 2 weeks and 6 days old.

10 month pictures

2010-05-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

Yep it's that time again. Time for Carter's monthly pictures. Every month I say it but I can't believe it's been another month. His 1 year birthday is NEXT MONTH!!! I'm starting to do a little planning for his party and while I'm so shocked that my baby is going to be a year old I'm so exciting to be throwing him a birthday party.

Here are some pictures that were taken over the last couple of weeks.

Carter doesn't have another appointment until July 1st, his 1 year check up, so I won't have his official weight or length until then. But in the mean time I may get it myself.

Carter has been doing so good! I swear his is the BEST baby that I've ever met. He's learning so much, you can just see him take everything in that his little (well big, really) eyes are capable of. Here are some things that he's up to now a days;

* Clapping (if I say "yay" or "good job" he will clap)
* Pulling himself up to stand
* Plays Peek-a-boo
* Feeds himself finger foods
* Tries to walk while holding our hands
* Still not crawling on hands and knees but he can scoot really fast =)
* Recognizes words like; mama, dada, coco, grandpa, fan, no, Carter
* He knows the work"No!" really well. When I say no he immediately drops whatever he's doing/holding/trying to eat

I'm sure there's more but it's late and that's all I can think of.

A couple of weekends ago Grant and I took Carter up to his his great grandparents in Oregon. They live in a beautiful house just 2 blocks from the beach. We had a great time. Carter did so well on the 6 hour drive on the way there and back. Here are some pictures from that trip;

Well this post is already long enough and I'm pretty sure there's some kind of cap on how many pictures can be posted so I'll save my post about my newly-almost-completely-painted kitchen. It turned out really good!

Today Carter is 10 months and 4 days old

9 months old and some updates

2010-04-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

Time is just flying. I'm sure you've noticed my posts are few and far between and I apologize, I've just been so busy.

Carter has been doing pretty good. Last week Grant had to take a few days off work and took him to the doctor to find out he had two inner ear infections and bronchiolitis. We thought he maybe had a cold or allergies we had no idea he was that sick. You couldn't tell though he was pretty much his normal happy self. He ended up getting an antibiotic, steriods and a breathing treatment. On top of all of that he's teething too. But like I said, you'd never know.

I took a little peek in his mouth this afternoon and his top right tooth has partially broken the gums and I could feel it. The top left tooth won't be far behind. I think he'll look adorable with his two top and two bottom teeth.

And now for Carter's 9 month stats:
Length; 27" (12th percentile)
Weight; 16.2 pounds (2nd percentile)
Head; 70th percentile

He's still a small guy. I recently found out some very interesting information though. My mother-in-law looked through Grant's stats from when he was a baby and came across his stats from when he was 9.5 months old. Grant was 27.5" and 16 pounds. I couldn't believe that they are almost exactly the same size. That made me very happy that Carter is following in his daddy's footsteps.

And without further ado...Carter's 9 month photos;

Today Carter is 9 months, 1 week and 1 day old.

Finally.....8 month photos

2010-03-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

Grant and I took Carter to the park on Saturday and had a great time. He loved the swings.

A couple of weeks ago my Dad and step-mom came up to visit. Carter LOVED spending time with his grandparents. We went for a nice walk and my dad got to carry him. =)

The picture of his teeth was taken almost 2 weeks ago and since then the teeth have come out so much more. I'll try to get a picture soon.

Carter is doing great. He had a cold last week but nothing he couldn't handle. He eats ALL the time and he'll pretty much eat whatever we feed him. He still sleeping great. He's just such a happy baby. He's trying to crawl, he wants to do it so bad. Last night he did a little army crawl but I haven't seen it since. He's so determined to move that he'll extend his arms, grasp two handfuls of carpet (it's a shag rug) and pull himself several inches. It's really funny.

He's been talking lately too. First was Mama, about 2 weeks ago. Then a couple of days later was Baba. Now he's working on Dada but he's not quite there yet.

Today Carter is 8 months, 2 weeks and 2 days old.

Mama...

2010-03-09T20:58:00.001-08:00

Yep, Carters first word was "mama". He's been saying for about a week or two but last Saturday was when he started saying it more. And today he said his second word. It wasn't "dada" like I thought it would be, it was "baba". So today at the store he kept repeating "mama, baba". It was cute!

Today Carter is 8 months 1 week and 2 days old

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Teething again

2010-03-04T21:39:00.001-08:00

So far teething isn't as bad this time. Last time it took him a little longer to fall asleep at night and he was pretty cranky for a couple of days. This time he's still getting his usual sleep (7:00 pm to 6:30 am when Grant wakes him up) and he's not as cranky. He's just chewing on everything he can get his hands on and drooling like crazy.

His next appointment isn't until he's nine months old so I'm going to have to weigh him and measure him for his eight months stats. And soon because he's already eight months old.

Today Carter is 8 months and 6 days old

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

While Carter naps

2010-02-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I went into the nursery to get Carter up from his nap and this is what I walk into;

Yep, that's my boy!

Today Carter is 7 months, 2 weeks and 3 days old

Finally, Carter's 7 month pictures

2010-02-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

And just a reminder of how much he's grown in the last 6 months;

Superbowl Sunday

2010-02-07T21:49:00.001-08:00

Apparently Carter didn't get the memo that the 49er's weren't in the superbowl;

It was still a great game though. I'm glad that the Saints won, they played a great game.

Carter got to try prunes for the first time yesterday. I thought for sure he wouldn't like them but he actually really enjoyed them. Of course he loves to make a mess while he eats and of course before I cleaned him up I had to take a picture; so here you go

I also got another picture of his teeth but you still can't see them really well;

Both teeth have broke through now. They're so cute! The one on the left came up first so it's further out.

Today Carter is 7 months and 1 week old

Carter's 7 month appointment

2010-02-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

Last Monday we had Carter's 7 month appointment. It went well, here are his stats'

Weight: 14 lbs 14 oz (up 8 oz from 6 months)
Height: 25 3/4" (up 1/2" from 6 months)
Head: 60th percentile

Carter is doing great. He's getting his second tooth in now. Soon he'll have his two middle bottom teeth, that will look so cute. I'll try and get a picture. I also need to take his 7 month pictures. Wow, I'm behind.

That's about all of an update I have for you now. I'll post some more pictures as soon as I can.

Today Carter is 7 months and 1 week old

I see a tooth coming in

2010-01-26T21:01:00.000-08:00

I just spotted it tonight...a white spot on his lower gums. I'm 99% sure that it's a tooth coming. What else could it be? I figured it was about time, I mean he's almost 7 months.

Grant took Carter to the doctor yesterday because he had a bad cough and since he's had pneumonia before we just wanted to make extra sure he wasn't getting it again. That and he woke up with his eye red, swollen and covered in gunk. It looked like he had pink eye. Luckily, it's not pneumonia, just a cold, and it's not pink eye. But while he was there they weighed him and they weren't too happy with his weight gain. He only gained 6 oz in almost a month. And he was already in the 5th percentile to begin with. So we were told to stop all foods and just feed him formula. And lots of it. He's been on the Zantac for almost a month now and we've noticed a huge difference. He hardly spits up anymore, I can't figure out why he's no gaining weight.

On another note, Carter just LOVES his bouncy. I mean he can bounce for days. I captured several videos of him bouncing. Here's one of them;

Carter has his next appointment on Monday so I'll have more updates (along with his 7 month pictures) then.

Today Carter is 6 months and 4 weeks old

Carter's first 6 months

2010-01-10T21:35:00.001-08:00

Today Carter is 6 months, 1 week and 4 days old.

My sweet baby boy

2010-01-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

My Mom got Carter the cutest little stuffed car for Christmas. It's made for him to sit in and there's a little mirror, a horn that honks, colored lights that light up and play a tune and a key that you can turn and make the sound of a starting car. I put him in it last night and he was having a ball.

He's getting so big! Yesterday when I went to pick him up from day care I swear it looked like he gained a couple of pounds. His face just looked chubbier. And even today I was thinking the same thing. Only 3 1/2 more weeks until his next appt and I can see how much he weighs.

The last few days he's been sleeping great. He's going to bed between 6:45-7:30 and sleeping until it's time for him to get up. He's also been going to sleep quicker. I think he's going through a growing spurt.

Today Carter is 6 months 1 week and 1 day old

6 months old

2010-01-03T11:44:00.001-08:00

Carter turned 6 months old on Thursday (new years eve). I can't believe he's getting so big. Here's his stats from his 6 month appt.;

Weight: 14 lbs 6 oz (5th %tile)
Height: 25 1/2" (18 %tile)
Head: 80th %tile

He gained 1 pound and grew 1 inch in a month. His pedi is happy about his height but still a little concerned about his weight. He was closer to the 20 %tile before he had pneumonia about 3 months ago. He still spits up a lot so the pedi (along with the babysitter and I) think that may be contributing to his lack of weight gain. The pedi prescribed an antacid to hopefully help keep his food down. We'll try it out for a month to see if it helps. She said at most he'd have to stay on it for 3 months or so. I'm going to pick up the prescription today.

Carter is at such a fun age. I love the age he's at right now, it's my favorite of them all so far. He's so playful and curious. He's always learning something new and always making Grant and I laugh.

Carter is 6 months and 3 days old

Christmas

2010-01-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

We had such a wonderful Christmas! Carter got SO much stuff. We started out at Grant's sister's house on Christmas eve.

Then the next day we headed over to my Dad's house in Chico.

Lastly, on Saturday, we headed to my mom's house.

Carter had an excellent first Christmas!

First taste of food

2010-01-03T10:42:00.001-08:00

At 5 months old Grant and I decided to start Carter on rice cereal. Here's how it went;

He wasn't so sure about it at first but he warmed up to it pretty quickly. I tried carrots last week and he was digging them. I think I'm going to try green beans next.

I got a Magic Bullet for Christmas so I'll be making my own baby food. The carrots turned out great and they were so easy to make. It's much cheaper to make the food myself but I'll probably also buy some for when were on the go.

5 months old

2010-01-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry, apparently I've been so busy not only have I not been able to read any blogs but I haven't been able to update my own. Even though he turned 5 months old over a month ago I'm going to give you the stats;

Weight: 13 lbs 6 oz (5th percentile)
Height: 24 1/2" (10th percentile)
Head: 60th percentile

Not too bad. He gained 2 pounds and grew 3/4" in a month. The pedi was impressed. Carter started grabbing at his feet a lot at this age and began trying to sit up. Here's some pictures of him at 5 months;

Have I mentioned lately

2009-11-17T20:57:00.000-08:00

how cute my little man is? I just can't get enough of him.

He looks just like his daddy in this picture;

Isn't he adorable?;

today Carter is 4 months, 2 weeks and 3 days old today.

I can't get enough of him

2009-11-05T21:23:00.000-08:00

Random thoughts for the day.

Seriously, I never thought I could love someone this much. Carter is one of the best things to ever happen to me. I miss him when he's sleeping, not to mention when I'm at work all day.

He's such a great baby. He's been sleeping through the night (not every night, but most of the time) and in the mornings I go into his room and walk up to his crib and he's just full of smiles. I then take him to go wake up Grant and he smiles some more. It melts my heart every time.

When I go to pick him up after I get of work and he sees me, he smiles and my heart melts some more. And the way he looks and Grant and I is just so precious.

He's sleeping right now and I miss him. Is it weird to miss someone who is in the other room? Because I do it often. I just wanna wake him up so I can see his cute little smile and hear is adorable little giggle some more. But I won't, he needs to sleep. lol.

I love this little boy more than anything in the world.

My new look

2009-11-01T15:44:00.000-08:00

Did you see that my blog looks a little different? It's not perfect yet but I just wanted to play around in Photoshop and see if I could even do it. I'll spend more time on it one of these days to make it how I want it.

Carter likes to try and hold his bottle. He's actually been doing this since he was about 2 months old but he's getting much better now. And as you can see in this picture his eyes are still blue. There's a little chunk of brown in his right eye, I thought for sure they'd be brown by now. Grant's eyes are a lighter bluish-gray and my eyes are dark brown. We'll see what his turns out to be. I'm hoping he gets Grant's eye color.

Carter has been sleeping great. He sleeps through the night about half the time, the other times he'll sleep until 5:00 or 5:30 which is right before we have to get up so it's not bad. And he's going to sleep like a champ. We still have no problems, he's able to fall asleep on his own ever night without a problem. We have such a great baby.

I love you Carter!

Carter is 4 months 2 days old

4 month appointment

2009-11-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

Carter had his 4 month appointment on Friday and here are his stats;

length: 23 3/4" (up 2 1/4" from month 2)
Weight: 11 lbs 5 ozs (up only 1 oz from month 3)
Head: 41cm I think (whatever it was it was perfect the pedi said)

So as you can see from the above Carter has not gained enough weight. The pedi said it's probably because the pneumonia that he got at about 3 months. She said that the fact that he grew in length is a good sign. She wants to see him back in a month instead of two like usual to check his weight.

His head has grown great though. If you may remember from his two month appointment his head was bigger than average and she said that as long as it grows consistently it's fine. And it did so that's good. And his length is growing consistently also.

Because he needs to catch up on his weight the pedi said she'd like us to wait until he's 5 or 6 months old to start solids. I'm more than fine with this. Solids are not for nutrition, they're really just to introduce babies to different tastes. There's no reason to rush solids so I'll keep him on 100% formula until he's at least 5 months.

And I'll leave you with some pictures;

I love this outfit. My mom bought it for him yesterday.

Carter is 4 months and 2 days old

4 months old

2009-10-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

Carter turned 4 month old yesterday, I can't believe how time is flying. Being a mother is the best thing in the world. I can't explain my love for this little boy. And he's such a great baby, always smiling. Grant and I are so lucky. And Grant is the best dad. I always knew he'd be a great dad but he's even better than I could ask for.

I need to take his four month picture but he's at his grandmas today. I was sick yesterday (throwing up all day, it was bad) and I didn't want Carter to possibly get sick from me so my mom took him. Luckily I'm feeling much better today.

In the meantime here's a pregnancy survey;

1. Were you married at the time? Yes.

2. What was your reaction when you found out you were pregnant? "OMG!!!" I think deep down I knew I was pregnant but I was in shock. You can read about it here

3. How old were you? 27

4. How did you find out you were pregnant? I had been extremely tired all weekend long so I decided to take a test.

5. Who did you tell first? Grant was there so he found out right away. Kaci was the first to know after that. She actually guessed it, which I still don't know how because she lives hundreds of miles away. Then we told my parents after our first appointment.

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes! We're way too impatient to wait. I wanted to have the nursery all decorated and clothes all bought and I'm not a big fan of gender neutral baby things.

7. Due date? July 4th, 2009.

8. Did you deliver early or late? 4 days early. I was induced on Monday and my water broke early Tuesday morning.

9. Did you have morning sickness? No, thank God. I was a little nauseated at the beginning but it really wasn't too bad. I got really lucky.

10. What did you crave? Red grapes, yogurt, burritos and jalapenos. Not all together, that would be weird, lol.

11. What irritated you the most? Not too much really. I would get irritated at random stupid things but nothing big.

12. What was your first child’s sex? Boy.

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? I think the final number was 15 pounds or something. I ended up losing it all within 2 weeks but my clothes still don't fit the same.

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Not really, unless you count having gestational diabetes. I was so lucky to have a really easy pregnancy. I LOVED being pregnant, it's such a blessing.

15. Where did you give birth? St. Elizabeth Hospital

16. How many hours were you in labor? 7 1/2 hours from my water breaking until the c-section.

17. Who drove you to the hospital? Grant. It was 2:00 in the morning with no traffic but he still ran stops signs and red lights. He's always wanted to do that, lol.

18 . Did you take medicine to ease the pain? No. I wanted an epidural so bad but they said I have to be at 4cm and I never got past 3cm.

19 . How much did your child weigh? 6lbs 15.5oz but they rounded up to 7 pounds.

20 . What did you name him/her? Carter Thomas.

21 . How old is your first born today? 4 months 1 day.

22. Who does your child look like? He looks like Grant but has my eyes, hands and feet. Weird combo I know.

23. Did you get mad at your husband during labor? Nope. I didn't talk or even open my eyes when I was in labor. It hurt to bad to move or think so I just kept to myself.

Daddy and Carter almost 4 months old

Still going strong

2009-10-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

First of all I'd like to say Happy Birthday to grandma Ardith! I wish that we could come up and visit you guys!

I still can't believe how great Carter is sleeping now. Every night for the last 6 nights we've been able to put Carter to bed and he falls asleep on his own without us even having to go into his room. This is so great.

My mom bought Carter a bouncer the other day and Carter loves it. I need to get a picture of him in it.

He's doing great at day care. The day care owner, Melissa, LOVES him!
The job is going fantastic and the benefits are freaking awesome. I'm able to get me, Grant and Carter on a great medical, dental and vision plan for less than we were paying for just Carter and I for medical only. We're going to be saving close to $200 a month and the plan is twice as good as our old one.

That's just about it. Just wanted to give a little update.

Uncle Troy and Carter 3 1/2 months old

Carter is 3 months, 2 weeks and 5 days old today

6 minutes...

2009-10-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

...is how long it took Carter to fall asleep tonight. No crying, no fussing, he just fell asleep. But better than that is the fact that last night he fell asleep at 7:30 and slept until Grant woke him up at 6:30 this morning. That's 11 hours. That's insane! I mean I've heard of other babies doing this but I never thought Carter would.

I'm loving this!

Today Carter is 3 months, 2 weeks and 2 days old

Night 5 of sleep training

2009-10-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

Tonight is night 5 of sleep training and it's been going great. Last night and tonight went so much better then I ever expected. Both nights we put Carter to bed and he talked to himself and fussed a little but didn't cry....at all! Both nights he fell asleep within 15 minutes and we didn't have to go into his room once. I mean I knew that this would happen eventually, but on nights 4 and 5? That's awesome. I'm probably jumping the gun by posting this though, this may change at any moment. We'll see....I'll keep you posted.

Carter is 3 months 2 weeks and 1 day old today

3 1/2 months

2009-10-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

Carter is already 3 1/2 months old! Time is flying. We had his pictures taken last week professional and they turned out so good. I get to pick up the prints on Friday but here's a preview;

In other news we started sleep training on Sunday. In the past Carter has had such a hard time falling asleep. We would have to rock him and he would cry for a good 30 minutes before he finally fell asleep. I've been doing a lot of research on sleep training and while I don't agree with letting a child CIO (cry it out) I do think that modified versions of sleep training can work great for some babies.

I purchased Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber and have been following a modified version of his sleep training methods. The idea is to have Carter fall asleep in his crib on his own. He should fall asleep in the same conditions as it would be if he was to wake up in the middle of the night. This will teach him how to soothe himself to sleep so he won't depend on Grant or I to make him fall asleep. This will help for when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he won't need to cry out to us for help falling back asleep, he will be able to fall back asleep on his own.

The way the training works is we start by following a bedtime schedule every night to get him into a routine. Usually it's bath, pajamas, read a book, bottle, bed. When we put him to sleep we tell him goodnight and that we love him then turn off the lights (he has a nightlight) and leave the room. If he starts crying then we wait 3 minutes and go in to reassure him that we are there. If he just fusses then we let him be. If we do go in we stay for 1 or 2 minutes then leave the room. When we go in we don't pick him up, we just pat him, stroke his hair and let him know that mommy and daddy are there for him. We then leave the room. If he starts crying again then we will wait 5 minutes before we return to his room. Each time the waiting will get progressively longer, but no more than 10 minutes.

I will admit that it is difficult to hear him cry, but I know that this is the best for him and it's definitely the right thing for us to do. I in NO way think that what we are doing is wrong or bad parenting. The first night we had to go in his room 4 times and he fell asleep within an hour of us putting him in his crib (obviously he did not cry that entire time). The second night he fell asleep within 30 minutes of us putting him in his crib and we only had to go in 2 times. Tonight, night 3, he fell asleep within 10 minutes of putting him in his crib and we didn't have to go in his room at all. Do you realize what an accomplishment this is? We were able to put him in his crib and he fell asleep on his own. Grant and I are so happy. And to see these results in just 3 days is amazing. I know that tomorrow might totally change, he may not fall asleep so easily but I would like to relish in the glory while I can. :)

To help the sleep training, Carter started day care yesterday and my day care lady kind of follows the same rules for nap time. So far she said that he has done amazing for all his naps and he puts himself to sleep every time. All in all sleep training is definitely a success with us.

That's pretty much what we've been up to lately. Life is great, I couldn't ask for anything more. I started my new job yesterday and it's great so far. I'll make a separate post about that someday.

Carter is 3 months, 1 week and 6 days old today

Carter giggles!

2009-10-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

SO CUTE!!!

Long time, no post!

2009-10-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

I've been totally slacking on updating so this will probably be a pretty long blog entry. I'm going to break it down in bullets;

Three weeks ago I noticed Carter wasn't feeling well and he felt hot so I took his temp and it was a whopping 104 degrees. I rushed him to the doctor and they said to give him Tylenol and Motrin and come back in 24 hours. They tested him for the the flu and the swine flu but that was about all they could do (luckily they were both negative). So the next morning before I go his appointment I notice he had a little cough. I mention it to the doctor and he ordered chest x-rays. Carter had slight pneumonia. Poor baby. Luckily we caught it super early so a round of antibiotics did the trick and he got all better.

Now though, he has a cold. Obviously it's not as bad as pneumonia but it still sucks. He HATES the nasal aspirator so he's not a happy camper right now.

The good news is he's been sleeping better. There was a couple of weeks during and after he was sick that his sleep was horrible but the last couple of days it's been fantastic! Saturday night he slept from 8:30 pm to 4:00 am, ate, then slept from 5:00 am to 8:30 am. 12 hours with one bottle in between. Then last night he followed almost the same route. I could definitely get used to this.

I have a three month old! I can't believe how fast time has gone. He's getting so big. He's learning so many new things. When he's sitting on my lap he loves to stare at his toes. He is already putting everything in his mouth. If anything is near his hands he will try to navigate it to his mouth. When I get him dressed and I'm putting his arm in the sleeve he will shove the sleeve in his mouth.

I'm still not back to work yet. I've been so lucky to be able to spend 3 glorious months with my munchkin but my time has come to an end. On Monday I will be returning back to work. But it's not my previous job, I'm starting a new one. It's going to be weird but exciting. The pay isn't as good but the benefits are AWESOME, they have flex time so I can go into work anytime between 6:30 am and 9:00 am, and after a year I get to work from home full time. The con to this is I have to put Carter in day care.

I found a great day care for Carter. Grant and I know the lady personally and we both completely trust her. She follows the same practices that I believe in such as very limited T.V shows (and not until they're older), no pacifiers or bottles past 1 year old, and having the child on a schedule (Carter is a little too young for this, but soon). I think that Carter will have a great time there and he will learn to interact with other children, which is harder to teach when he's home alone with me all day.

Carter is becoming so much more happy. He's crying less, really only when he's tired or hungry and smiling a lot more. He's starting to kind of giggle, but he's not laughing yet. I'll try to post a video of him trying to laugh in another post. Here's my happy baby;

And here's Carter break dancing in his crib;

Carter is 3 months and 5 days old

2 Months old

2009-09-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

My adorable little man

I think he's trying to tell me something. This isn't the first time he's flipped off the camera, he did it for his one month pictures too.

Carter with his cousin

Carter had his two month check up yesterday. Here's his stats;

Weight: 10 pounds 2 ounces
Length: 21 1/2 inches
Head circumference: Huge

The peditrician said his head is bigger than average for a baby his size but there's nothing to worry about as long as it continues growing at the same rate. I'm not really surprised because I think Grant's head is a little larger than average too. Lol. She was very impressed with his head control. She said that he has better head control than most 2 month olds and add a big head to that it makes it even that much more impressive.

I think he's on the smaller side for a two month old but the pediatrician said that she was very impressed with his weight gain and he gained more than she thought he would.

He also got his shots. That wasn't so fun for either of us. After the shots he slept for about an hour then was up until about 9:30 pm fussing and crying. He's been pretty fussy today too. At least we don't have to go through that for another 2 months.

Everything is going great. He's more alert everyday. I love my son so much!

Carter is 2 months and 2 days old

Who does Carter look more like...

2009-08-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

you be the judge. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger. And in case you're wondering that IS my newborn picture. I was a big baby weighing in at 9 1/2 pounds when I was born. In my defense I was 3 weeks late. Lol! Grant was 6 pounds 12 oz and was 2 weeks early.

Grant

Sorry it's been awhile

2009-08-26T21:35:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you can imagine how busy I've been. :o) Here's some updates;

~Carter laughed at me yesterday. He hasn't done it since, I don't know if it was a fluke but it was definitely a laugh. And it was so cute!

~Carter has great neck control, I'm impressed. And he doesn't really like laying down, he'd much rather sit up. So because of this I've started putting him in his Bumbo. Can I just say that I love the Bumbo?!

~Carter got his first haircut last weekend. I know, I know he's not even 2 months old yet but it was getting long! He was asleep almost the entire time so he had no idea what was going on.

During the hair cut

After the hair cut. I love it!

~Last weekend my family and I went to the hospital to visit my grandfather. If you remember a couple of posts ago I posted some pictures of Carter and my grandpa. Well in the two weeks since his health has greatly deteriorated. He has dementia and is in the hospital until they can find a home for him. Even though he doesn't really know what's going on and usually forgets who people are (even family) he LOVES seeing Carter. His eyes lit up when we brought Carter in the room. Here's a picture of the two;

~We've discovered that Carter has reflux. It's not fun. He spits up a lot. I don't mean the normal amount of baby spit up, I mean the "don't get in his path after he's eaten because it will shoot 2 feet from his mouth and nail you" kind of spit up. He's on Zantac. His 2 month appointment is Monday (I can't believe he'll be 2 months old on Sunday!!) and the pediatrician will follow up with how that's working for him.

~He's sleeping much better. He usually goes to sleep around 9:00 or 10:00 and will sleep until 4:00 or 5:00, then eat, then go back to sleep for another few hours. I'm liking it!

~A couple of weeks ago Carter got to meet his 3rd cousin (my cousin's daughter). They are so cute next to each other. She's two weeks younger but is bigger than him.

Here's a random cute picture of Carter that Grant took on his cell phone the other day. He's just full of smiles.

All in all things are great. The first 6 weeks were a little rough because he cried a lot and needed to be held all the time. I contribute a lot of that to the reflux. Now he loves laying on his play mat and kicking his fit and waving his arms. He'll do that for a good 10-20 minutes. And I can almost always get a smile out of him when I'm changing his diaper.

8 weeks 1 day

Mommy is funny...

2009-08-13T07:50:00.001-07:00

when she makes faces at me!

6 weeks 2 days

Carter pictures

2009-08-12T19:18:00.001-07:00

All is going great! I've been super busy, hence the lack of posts.

Friday Carter and I are heading to a nearby town to have lunch with my Mom and Grant and meet up with my cousin who had her baby girl two weeks after Carter was born. We're going to be doing some shopping, I can't wait. I really need to buy some clothes that fit. My pre-pregnancy clothes are a little tight but I don't have much of those anyways so it's time for a shopping spree.

I can already tell that Carter is a morning person. He goes to bed at 9-10, wakes up once to eat usually around 3-5 then is up for the day by about 6-7. That doesn't leave much time for me to sleep. I'm getting used to it though.

It's funny how you can miss someone that is right next to you. If he's taking a nap I miss him so much. It's weird.

He's smiling now! I need to get a picture of it. It's so cute. There's a certain face I can make that he always get him to smile. It usually works best after he has a full belly. The first time he smiled was for Grant last week. It was when he was exactly 5 weeks old. I'm getting more and more smiles everyday. So cute!

Here's some recent pictures;

My grandma and grandpa holding Carter *5 weeks 4 days old*

Carter loves looking at his monkey mobile hanging above his crib. *5 weeks 3 days old*

I had to take a picture of this. He's sometimes a messy eater so I had to take a picture of what I like to call his "Formula Face". Lol!

*1 month old*

6 weeks 1 day old

I just woke up

2009-08-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

it's 11:00 am, my mom watched Carter last night. I slept for 11 hours straight. I really needed to sleep!

Carter is 4 weeks and 4 days old

Carter is 1 month old

2009-07-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

and he's getting so big.

He didn't like the monkey one bit and I'm pretty sure he's flipping me off. Lol!

Carter updates

2009-07-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted, it's been busy in the Watkins' household.

Carter had kind of made his own sleep schedule and I'm not really liking it. He falls asleep at night at about 9-10 pm, wakes up about 3:00 am to eat (which takes about 45 minutes to an hour), then wakes up again about 5:30 am to eat again. Then he's pretty much up for the day. I try and try to get him back to sleep again but he just doesn't want to. He's not even napping in the morning. He's pretty much awake from 5:30 am until his afternoon nap at 2:00 pm. Then he'll sleep for 3-4 hours and be awake until 9-10 pm for bedtime. And the cycle continues. I mean it could be worse but I'm just not getting much sleep. Luckily I'm learning to live off of little sleep. I'm hoping he gets on a better schedule before I have to return back to work.

On another note, Carter is growing so fast and is as cute as ever. He constantly has to have something in his mouth whether it be a pacifier, a bottle or his hands. The problem is he's not always able to keep the pacifier in his mouth so I'm constantly having to put it back in. And he hasn't realized that his hands are his. They'll find his mouth and he'll be happy, then all the sudden they go away and he's mad. It's cute.

This last weekend we took a little trip up to Oregon to attend Grant's cousin's wedding. The trip took about 2 1/2 hours and Carter did really well. We had a great time at the wedding and everyone loved him. I'm so glad we were able to go because a lot of Grant's family got to meet Carter where as they probably wouldn't have been able to for a long time.

Here's some pictures;

Grant, Carter and I at the wedding

All of Grant's family that was able to attend the wedding

Carter's great grandma Ardith and great grandpa Earl

And here are a few pictures of Carter after I gave him a bath. His hair is curly when it's wet. It looks really light in these photos but it's still dark.

This is what happens.....

2009-07-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

when you wake Carter up. He gets pissed.....

Carter is 3 weeks and 1 day old

Carter's new closet

2009-07-21T13:25:00.001-07:00

My Dad came on Saturday and installed the closet insert and I love it!

There's still more I want to do on the nursery but here are some updated pictures;

Carter is doing great, he's getting bigger and bigger each day. I love him so much and I am enjoying spending all day at home with him. Grant is such a great father and I love seeing him with Carter.

My Dad and stepmom watched Carter for about 45 minutes while Grant and I ran some errands on Sunday. They were very excited that they were the first people to babysit.

Carter is 3 weeks old

Carter's first bath

2009-07-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

Grant and I gave Carter his first bath tonight and he LOVED it. Here are some pics:

Nice and clean after his bath

Here are some other pictures I took today

And here's the face he makes when he's pooping (just in case you were wondering)

2 weeks and 2 days old

Carter's 2 week check up

2009-07-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

Carter is doing great. He had his two week check up today and I'm happy to report that he's back up to his birth weight. I honestly didn't think it would happen so soon but I'm very glad it did. Here's his stats:

Weight: 6 pounds 15 ounces (it actually flashed between this and 7 pounds)
Length: 19 1/2"

The pediatrician looked at his circumcision and said that he has "grown" since she did it so the bell wasn't going to fall off on it's own so she had to take it off. Poor Carter wasn't too happy. But this means that I get to give him baths now so I'm happy.

Haley came over on Saturday and took some pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

Carter's one week pediatrician appointment

2009-07-10T22:06:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday (I know, sorry for the late post) Carter had his first pediatrician appointment. Everything went great. His weight dropped to 6 pounds 3 ounces but the pediatrician didn't seen concerned. She looked him over and said everything looks good.

Breastfeeding on the other hand isn't going so well. In fact it isn't going at all. My milk didn't come in until Saturday which was way late so we had already started him on formula. I figured we'd just switch to breast milk once it came in. Well I barely had any milk come in. I pumped from both breasts several times and I couldn't get more than .5 ounces from BOTH breasts. Sooo we ended up doing just formula. I'm a little bummed but happy to know that at least he's getting fed enough.

In other news Carter's belly button feel off yesterday. The circumcision is still healing though so no baths yet.

Carter is doing great. He was really gassy this morning so he was crying a lot but he's doing better now. Grant and I went out tonight and got him some Mylicon so hopefully that will help next time. Any other suggestions? I've heard from some people that Mylicon is great but I've also heard from others that it doesn't work.

All now I'll leave you with some pictures of my cute little man;

Carter is 11 days old

Carter's Birth Story

2009-07-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

As you know I was induced on Tuesday then sent home because I had made no progress. They decided not to check me before then sent me home because my contractions had stopped so they figured I'd need another round of meds to induce on Wednesday. The thing is I was still having contractions but their monitor wasn't picking them up when I was laying on my sides, which is what I was doing the last half of the day.

So we got home that night and I was still having contractions but went for a small walk to try to get things started. I went to bed that night (on the couch so I wouldn't disturb Grant) and was still feeling some contractions but they weren't bad. Until I woke up at 1:30 am in pain, went to the bathroom and my water broke. Then all hell broke loose. We got to the hospital at 2:00 am and I was checked and was still only 1 cm dilated. They checked me an hour later though and I was 3cm. By that time I was ready for an epidural. I was going to try to go naturally but between not having slept in 3 days and being in THAT much pain I was begging for it.

They told me I had to wait until I got to 4 cm though. Okay, I got to 3 quickly so that shouldn't be too hard right? NOT! I was checked over and over again and I was still at a 3. Finally the doctor came in at 8:00 am (so I've been laboring for 6 horrible hours at the hospital) and said that the baby's head has moved up and that's not why I'm dilating anymore and it's likely that I won't. Also there was meconium in the fluid (which I knew, because it wasn't clear when my water broke) so they wanted to do a c-section. I had no problems with it at that point because I was in so much pain and I couldn't see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The c-section was a breeze. It sounds weird but I almost enjoyed it. I was shaking the entire time I was in labor but once I got the spinal I was numb and warm and it felt so good I kept falling asleep.

Carter Thomas W. was born at 9:23 am Tuesday June 30th weighing 7 pounds and 19" long. And as you can see he has a full head of hair. We're not sure where all that hair came from because neither DH nor I had a lot of hair when we were born.

Recovery hasn't been too bad. Grant had the rest of the week off work so we are able to enjoy Carter together. We're both just so in love with our little boy and I can't believe how amazing Grant is with him.

We're home!

2009-07-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

Thank you Kaci for updating my blog.

I just wanted to leave you with a few more pictures, I'll write a birth story later.

Kaci here again...

2009-07-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure Grant and Kory will never speak to me again...but....but...but...

I have a picture damn it!

Ain't he cute!!??! I think he looks totally like my Korndizzle!

He's here!

2009-06-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

Kaci: You're killing me... 1:30pmEST
Grant: Baby Carter is 7lbs 19in born at 9:23am...2:12pm EST
Kaci: Yeeeea send pics Daddy.
Grant: As soon as he's done breastfeeding.

Tap...tap...tap...

Update

2009-06-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Grant: Having a c-section in about an hour.

Kaci: Awhhh bummer...stay strong Daddy.

Grant: Strong is my middle name.

Kaci: Surrre :)

Grant: Going now, getting prepped. 11:35 EST

Update from Kaci

2009-06-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! A baby is coming, a baby is coming!! WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!

From the hubby:
She has been in labor since two. Three cm dialated. No epideral yet. But screaming for it. Please update myspace, etc. Thanks love.

Will keep you guys updated!
Kaci

Update

2009-06-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

This whole pregnancy I had yet to have a contraction, until last night when I was trying to sleep. Haha. I didn't know for sure if they were contractions but I was pretty sure. Well I went in at 8:00 this morning and my contractions were 4 minutes apart but I couldn't feel them at that point.

They monitored me all day and sent me home at 7:00 pm. I've been having contractions ever since then. They feel like bad period cramps, nothing I can't handle yet. They want me to go back in Wednesday unless I have the baby before then. I think I'll be having him tomorrow because these contractions haven't let up yet. I've always read birth stories where the mom times the contractions but seriously it's hard to tell where one ends and the next begins so I'm having to kind of guess. I think they're about 2 minutes apart, give or take.

I'm going to try to get some sleep now.

39w2d

We're off to the hospital

2009-06-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

I just called to make sure they have a bed available and they do so we're getting ready to go. I'm nervous. I was having contractions last night while trying to sleep so hopefully I'm a little more dilated than last week. I had the worse night sleep last night between being anxious, the contractions and my hips. I ended up sleeping upright on the couch most the night because I couldn't stand the hip pain anymore.

Anyway, today could be my last day pregnant. It's unlikely, but you never know. I feel so blessed to have been able to experience the miracle of having a baby grow inside me. I think that it's the most wonderful experience of my life and I have cherished every moment of it.

I also feel blessed that I have been so lucky as to have a fairly easy pregnancy with little complications. Aside from the mild gestational diabetes and my hips hurting the last several weeks all has been great.

I have enjoyed every second of being pregnant, I can honestly say that I have loved it.

39w2d

The baby in my belly

2009-06-28T14:36:00.000-07:00

39w1d

More maternity pictures

2009-06-27T22:35:00.001-07:00

All our photos were done by one of my best friends at Lark Photography. As you can see here, she does great work and we had so much fun.

39 weeks

This sucks!

2009-06-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

I have food poisoning. :(

I HATE throwing up. Seriously, hate it.

And I just HAD to eat at the new Lucky Chinese restaurant down the road last night. I'm thinking now that that place isn't too lucky. I don't think I'll be eating there for a long time if ever again.

38w6

A few pics from yesterday

2009-06-25T10:51:00.001-07:00

38w5d

Just got back

2009-06-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

from a nice long walk. My friend Haley and I drove to Redding and walked around in the mall for about 45 minutes then we went to the Sundial Bridge and she took some pictures of me. We did lots of walking so I'm hoping he's moving down and getting ready.

I should be able to post the pictures tomorrow. I can't wait to see them, she's such a great photographer.

38w4d

The doctor just called

2009-06-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

and woke my ass up! Haha!

So I had my appt yesterday and the doctor had an emergency c-section to do so I didn't get to talk to him. I had the midwife check me and I'm a fingertip dilated (so not even 1 cm) and 30% effaced. She said she'll have the doctor call me back in the morning.

So he just called and said that they would like me to come in bright and early Monday morning to start the induction. They'll insert a pill vaginally, monitor my contractions for awhile then most likely they'll send me home. That should get contractions going for awhile and hopefully I'll start to dilate. They warned me that I might be uncomfortable for awhile though. Then they'll probably have me go back in in a couple of days after that to start the pitocin (the IV drug that will start the hard core contractions). They don't want to start the pitocin until my cervix is somewhat ready, which is why I have to go in on Monday for the pill.

But until then I'll be trying to get this baby out on it's own which means lots of walking and sex. Grant will also be using pressure points and I've been sitting on my birthing ball a lot to get him to drop. I'd love to labor naturally as apposed to being induced.

Wish me luck!

38w4d

I'm still here, and still pregnant

2009-06-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

I really thought that being on maternity leave I'd have all this time to do stuff, like blog. Not so much. In the last three "work" days I've been to DMV twice, smog'd the new car, lots of grocery shopping, a doctors appointment, went to my work (hour drive each way) to pick up the car seat that was delivered, did lots of laundry (none of Carter's clothes yet unfortunately) and cleaned the house (although it's managed to get messy again). I've also been getting up early with Grant to make his lunch and hang out with him before he has to go to work. I usually end up going back to sleep after that though because I can't live off 4-5 hours of sleep, which is what I've been getting at night. I guess I'm in for a big surprise once Carter comes though. lol.

I'm off to my appt. I should find out lots of information so I'll update later. Here's some pictures to leave you with though.

All of Carter's clothes. This is just his onesies and shirts. I have bags of sleepers, shorts and pants.

Carter's new car seat. I love it!

New belly pic. It's getting hard to fit my whole belly in the picture.

38w3d

Doctor appointment updates

2009-06-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

Carter is doing great. He's measuring right on track at just under 7 pounds. My amniotic fluid level is on the low side though so between that, the diabetes and the fact that EVERY time I go in there my ankles are huge the doctor said he wants me to stop working and stay home. He said I need to stay home with my feet up and drink lots of fluids. I'm okay with that. So today is my last day at work.

Well I guess that's just about it. Expect a lot more blogs between now and when I give birth though. Just a heads up, I know I'm going to be extremely bored at home!

37w4d

New baby purchase

2009-06-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

I'm in love and it's all mine. I definitely feel ready for Carter to come now.

Growth scan this afternoon at 4:00. I'll update tomorrow (or maybe tonight if you're lucky) with results. Stay tuned!

37w3d

More updates

2009-06-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

I had my weekly doctor appointment Tuesday and everything went great. Carter passed his test within 5 minutes like usual and I was measuring on track. Oh and I found out I'm GBS (group B strep) negative which is great. If I tested positive for it it basically just means that if my water was to break I'd have to go into the hospital right away to get on antibiotics. Since I'm negative for GBS, if my water actually does break (I'm doubtful) then I can labor at home instead of in the hospital. This is what I'd like to do, although I highly doubt any of this will happen. I'd have to go into labor on my own before 39 weeks which is unlikely.

How far along?: 36 weeks 5 days
Total weight gain: 13 pounds
How much does baby weigh?: About 6 pounds
Maternity clothes?: Yep. All my pants & most tops.
Stretch marks?: Same ones as before but they're growing
Sleep?: I can't sleep more than 45 minutes at a time now because my hips hurt all night long. But last night I took some Tylenol PM before bed and I actually slept for 3 hours in a row. It was so nice.
Best moment this week?: Finding out I'm GBS negative.
Movement?: Yep, he still moves a lot. It's not so much kicks anymore it's more rolls now and sometimes they're uncomfortable because he's so big.
Food cravings?: Red grapes still
Labor signs?: None yet, still not having ANY contractions as far as I know.
Belly button in or out?: It's back to an outtie. :)
What I miss: Sleep and being comfortable
What I'm looking forward to: My next baby shower this weekend
Milestone: If I was to go into labor now they wouldn't stop me because he's just about ready as it is.

If I do actually go into labor on my own, or when I'm in the hospital laboring I will be texting or calling Kaci so she can keep you updated. I hope you don't mind Kaci! :)

Holy cow I really don't feel this big. I'm HUGE!

36w5d

I just don't have the energy

2009-06-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

Remember that post last week with the list of things that I need to do this last weekend? Well it went something like this;

Pack hospital bag
Fill out birth plan
Finish painting the dresser and nightstand
Paint the closet door (currently one's painted and one's not)
Hang the curtains
Laundry
Clean out guest bedroom
Clean out office

This is how it looks now;
Pack hospital bag
~~Fill out birth plan~~
~~Finish painting the dresser and nightstand~~
~~Paint the closet door (currently one's painted and one's not)~~
Hang the curtains
~~Laundry~~
Clean out guest bedroom
Clean out office

I only got it half done. I'm not used to this. Usually I make a list and complete everything on it. Between the lack of energy, swollen feet (although they were a lot better this weekend), and my back/hip pain it's hard to move around like I used to be able to.

In my defense though I did attempt to hang the curtains but the battery on the drill was dead so I had to charge that, then by the time it was done charging we had to go out of town for our romantic dinner. And I did pack some stuff in the hospital bag, annnd I was going to clean the office but most of the stuff in there is either Grant's or is too heavy to move so I need his help. Oh, annnnnnnd Grant wasn't out of town like I thought he was going to be so there. That's why I only got half my list done.

36w2d

Going great!

2009-06-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

How far along?: 35 weeks 4 days
Total weight gain: 12 pounds
How much does baby weigh?: About 5½ pounds
Maternity clothes?: Yep. All my pants & most tops.
Stretch marks?: Same ones as before but they're growing
Sleep?: Yes please! I want some sleep. I can't sleep for more than an hour at a time. I'm uncomfortable all night.
Best moment this week?: The baby shower.
Movement?: He's slowed down now. I'm sure it's because of the position he's in and there's not much room for him to move.
Food cravings?: Red grapes
Labor signs?: None yet
Belly button in or out?: It went back to flat. Weird huh? I think it's because of his position.
What I miss: Sleep and being comfortable
What I'm looking forward to: My next baby shower
Milestone: Carter is officially head down and in position. I've been waiting for this. Yay!

Our first baby shower 5.30.09

2009-06-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

The day of the baby shower was perfect. First Grant and I got up at 7:00 and did some cleaning and prep work in the nursery. Then my mom showed up at 10:00 and I was kicked out of the house while her, Grant and Haley set up. I wasn't to come back until 3:00, when the baby shower started. So my BFF Tonya and I went to Redding (where there's actually some shopping) and had a fabulous lunch at Olive Garden then hit up the mall for some shopping. While there I got a pedicure, bought a dress to wear for the shower and bought a cute little sign for the nursery that says "Monkey see, monkey do".

When we arrived back at the house most of the guests were already there and the house was all decorated and set up. When I left that morning the nursery was completely empty but when I got back it was all set up (minus the dresser, we still need to paint that and the nightstand).

Notice the booties in the crib? I love them! Thanks Ellen Show!

The color between the pictures look totally different but the first picture is more accurate.

Then the shower began.
First we started off the shower with a relay race. Two teams of 3 guys.

Getting ready for the races to begin

The first guy on each team had to dress a baby doll, strap it in the stroller and run it to the next guy.Our friend Steve and my brother Troy dressing the dolls

Then the next guys had to take off the clothes, change the diaper (it was filled with chocolate pudding), redress the doll, then take it in the stroller to the last guy

Here's Grant and Ben changing the dolls

The last guys had to put the doll in pajamas and tie on a bib, strap it back in the stroller and run it to the finish line.

Jorge and Jack dressing the dolls

Grant's team won!

Then we had the beer chugging competition. Except they had to chug the beer out of a baby bottle. Freakin' hilarious!

Ben, Jack, Jorge, Troy, Steve and Grant

Grant totally beat everyone. The other guys kept drinking after Grant was done but none of them could finish so they gave up and took off the tops and drank it.

Grant kickin' ass and taking names

My brother trying as hard as he could to finish. They tried for several minutes after Grant was done.

Then it was the girls turn. We used punch because none of them wanted to chug beer.

Amy, Sonja, Haley and I. Haley's punch was spiked so she choked a little.

I was the first one done by far. Alexis came in second place and she was still a few minutes behind me. The other girls couldn't finish so they took off the nipples to finish.

Here I am telling Haley how to do it. Sonja is trying to get some pointers too.

Seriously, Grant and I must be naturals. It's just funny how we beat everyone out of the water.

Next they had two groups of 3 girls get together and they had 5 minutes to cut out different baby body parts out of magazines to put together a Carter. Here's what they came up with

This one is scary to me. The eyes look nothing like what I think Carter's eyes will look like and what is up with the mouth?!? LOL!

While this one is still a little scary looking I think it's a little less scary. This was the winner based on the eyes nose and mouth. Check out his hair though, haha.

The delicious cake

All the yummy food. We're still eating the leftovers

Grant and I

Like I said before, we had a perfect shower. :)

35w3d

My to do list for this weekend

2009-06-01T10:49:00.000-07:00

Pack hospital bag
Fill out birth plan
Finish painting the dresser and nightstand
Paint the closet door (currently one's painted and one's not)
Hang the curtains
Laundry
Clean out guest bedroom
Clean out office

Think I can do it all? I think Grant will be out of town this weekend which means I'll get a lot more done than if he was home.

I'll be posting about the baby shower later. I'm waiting on pictures. It was great though, we had SO much fun!

35w2d

Here it is.....

2009-05-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

the crib!

Grant stayed up late last night (long after I went to bed) putting the crib together. He's such a sweetie. I can't wait to get home from work and put the bedding on it.

34w5d

Another package in the mail

2009-05-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

And it's the Zoonie hat. It's cute, probably not something I would buy but it's cute. It's very fuzzy and warm so it will be good in the winter.

If anyone is interested you can order this hat in many different sizes and colors at www.zooniwear.com

Pregnancy updates

2009-05-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

How far along?: 34 weeks 4 days
Total weight gain: 10 pounds
How much does baby weigh?: Almost 5 pounds
Maternity clothes?: Yep. All my pants & most tops.
Stretch marks?: Same ones as before, but they're getting a little bigger.
Sleep?: Horrible! The bad nights of sleep started this last weekend and they haven't gotten better. My hips and back hurt all night long.
Best moment this week?: Getting the crib and finishing the wainscoting on the walls
Movement?: Yep, more and more everyday
Food cravings?: Still frozen yogurt.
Labor signs?: None yet
Belly button in or out?: Out. Especially at night after dinner :)
What I miss: Sleep
What I'm looking forward to: My first baby shower this weekend
Milestone: I'd say 34 weeks is a good milestone. If I was to deliver Carter's chances of survival are excellent.

And my huge belly

No wonder my back hurts....lol!

Got the crib

2009-05-27T10:40:00.001-07:00

The crib came yesterday and luckily I was able to fit it into my car.

We didn't have time to set it up last night because Grant worked late and my mom and I were busy sanding and painting the dresser and nightstand. Here's the nightstand;

After the first coat of brown.

I also got the $67 Ambajam blanket in the mail

Oh, and Coco wanted to say Hi

34w4d

Nursery progress

2009-05-26T09:13:00.001-07:00

I'm loving the nursery so far. We worked our asses off on Saturday, went out of town on Sunday, then back to work on it again Monday.

Saturday we had our good friends Jack & Alexis and Ben & Sonja over to help. Jack came over at 7:30 am to help and everyone else was there around 5:00 pm or so. Here's what we got done;

The guys attached the tops of the squares on the wall first

Jack attaching the sides and bottoms of the squares

One of the walls complete with squares

Then on Monday my mom and I started the day with priming the wainscoting. Haley joined in after a while and we got done in about 2½ hours. Then my mom and I finished up with the coat of white paint.

The painted wainscoting

Grant was having fun trimming off the closet and trying to figure out the closet doors. Seriously, those directions were jacked up. I don't even know how anyone could follow them.

Grant having a hard time with the closet door. Notice the door handle I installed? Isn't it a beauty?

The closet doors didn't get done but that's okay, it's the painting that I really wanted finished first. We got a little nightstand for free from Grant's mom's neighbor so we're going to repaint that and the dresser. We'll start that little project tonight.

Here's the dresser we're going to paint dark brown. Hopefully it matched the crib somewhat.

What we have left to do:
Hang the new blinds (we did end up getting new ones)
Clean the hardwood floors
Cut down and and install outlet covers
Repaint dresser and nightstand
Hang closet doors
Hang curtains
Install closet shelving (to be done by my Dad)
Clean windows

The crib is on the UPS truck here in Chico as I type. I knew it was supposed to be here today and I thought about bringing the truck to work but I decided not to. Maybe it will fit in the back of my car? We'll see. I can't wait to get it set up.

34w3d

Christmas in May

2009-05-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

Isn't this onesie just so cute? Well it's actually just a white onesie with a regular sticker on it. How cool is that? Ya, I had to buy the stickers! It comes with 1 month - 12 months. Check them out at www.pickysticky.com. I love buying baby things. Even better is when I get home and they're waiting for me there. I have so many things coming to my work and home it's like Christmas!

33w6d

Cankles.....

2009-05-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

because it isn't hard enough to walk around with what feels like a tire around your waist!

Fun times!

33w5d

My NST

2009-05-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday at my doctors appointment I had another NST (non-stress test). It wasn't as quick as the last one but Carter did good. I just love sitting there with my feet up watching his heart rate on the monitor. I have them every Tuesday and Friday from now on.

33w4d

Birthing Classes

2009-05-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Last Friday and Saturday Grant and I had the pleasure of attending birthing classes. Parts of it were funny, some of it was ridiculous, but for the most part we had a little bit of fun and learned a few new things. My favorite part was the massaging.

I was very impressed with Grant during the classes. He was actually paying attention (I think more so than anyone else there) and was the first to answer several questions that were asked by the instructor. He learned how to swaddle and calm a baby and he even practiced diapering with a doll. We got a tour of the hospital and watched a lot of movies. The class was only held Friday 6-9 pm and Saturday 9am-1pm but I think that's more than enough.

It's so cute because now Grant keeps quizzing our friends on if they know how to do this or do that if the baby is fussy. He even showed our friend Jack how to swaddle using a shim from the door and a rag from painting.

All in all we had a good experience. He was reluctant to enjoy himself at first but overall he admits that it wasn't too bad and he learned a few things.

Then on Sunday it was back to work on the nursery. Alexis, Jack, Haley, Tonya and my mom were there to help. The guys installed the nursery door,some trim around the closet and a few other things while the girls removed the remainder of the nails and staples from the hardwood, cleaned (some of the) hardwood and painted the molding and door.

Alexis and I painting the door

More nursery pics

2009-05-15T12:00:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to take a lot of pictures of the progress of the nursery so I'll be posting them as I take them.

Here's a picture of the fan that Grant installed.

This shows the sheets of MDF that will be going on the wall then painted white for the wainscoting.

32w6d

Pregnant Women Are Smug

2009-05-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

32w5d

Updates

2009-05-13T08:26:00.001-07:00

My doctor's appointment went well yesterday. I had my first NST (non-stress test) and it went great. The doctor said that they will test for anywhere from 5-30 minutes depending on how the baby cooperates. Carter was moving around so much during the test, which apparently is a good thing, and I was done in 5 minutes. The doctor said that he's happy in there. He also mentioned that he wants to induce by 39 weeks. Holy cow! That's like 6 weeks away. And that means I'll have a baby NEXT MONTH! Crazy!

My next appointment is on Tuesday the 19th and I'll have another NST, then the following week I start going twice a week for NST's. Lots of appointments for me. That's what happens when you're considered high risk. Oh well, it was actually fun to sit there and listen to his heartbeat for 5 minutes yesterday.

How far along?: 32 weeks 4 days
Total weight gain: 6 pounds
How much does baby weigh?: Just over 4 pounds
Maternity clothes?: Yep. All my pants & most tops.
Stretch marks?: Same ones as before, but they're getting a little bigger.
Sleep?: Not too bad, but not great. I know it's going to get worse though so I'm not complaining too much.
Best moment this week?: I'm going to say going to the Ellen Show, even though that was last week.
Movement?: Lots. This last week he has gotten SO much more active.
Food cravings?: Frozen yogurt and I can't get enough red grapes. I was never a big fan of grapes before but OMG they're so good.
Labor signs?: None yet, thank you very much.
Belly button in or out?: It's pretty much an outtie now. It doesn't stick out a lot but it's not flat anymore.
What I miss: Energy
What I'm looking forward to: My baby showers
Milestone: I'm almost 33 weeks, doctor said he wants to induce by 39 weeks which means I have about 6 weeks left. OMG!

Here's a pic of the goodies I got to take home from The Ellen show. We took home the diaper bag, bottles, monitor, bedding, Baby Bjorn, a pack of diapers, the tub of baby products, digital camera, shutterfly gift card and the Ellen onesie. The rest of it was given in gift cards/coupons.

Here's the Ellen onesie she gave away. It's so cute. My cousin and I are going to get together after the babies are born and take a picture of them together with this onesies, hats and booties on then send the picture to Ellen. People did that last year and she showed it on this years Mother's Day Special.

Here's today's belly picture. I'm huge!

Back from LA with lots of cool stuff

2009-05-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

OMG we had so much fun. The trip was prefect, it seemed like everything went our way. Leah and I are so bad ass that we managed to get tickets 1 and 2. It was so awesome. Even with tickets 1 and 2 though there was a lot of waiting around to do to get into the Ellen studio. The VIP get seated before us so we weren't the first to be seated but we got pretty good seats. We were seated in the right hand section (from Ellen's view) and we were the third row back.
There was a lot of dancing, clapping and yelling involved. By the end we couldn't talk, we were tired and our hands hurt. Ellen had a table of food set up in the bathroom though, it was so funny. There were Hostess cupcakes (yum), pickles, licorice, Oreos, gum, you name it. The whole experience was fantastic.

And I bet you're wondering what we got? OMG I'm still in shock over all the cool stuff we got.

Stroller worth $670

Carseat worth $180

Baby hat worth $37

Baby booties worth $33

Baby blanket wroth $67

Dishwasher worth $650

Crib with mattress worth $295

Baby Bjorn worth $80

Necklace woth $150

Diaper bag worth $70

6 months of diapers worth $288

Mrs. Meyers baby products worth $100

Baby monitor worth $99

Prince Lionheat bottles worth $38

Crib bedding worth $395

Digital camera worth $200

Shutterfly gift card worth $100

Ellen onesie worth $21

We took some of the smaller stuff home, the rest we have to go online and order with a coupon, that way we get to pick which color we want. I went online yesterday and tool a lot of things off my registry since we don't need it now that we got it from Ellen.

The trip was awesome and I'm so grateful that I won tickets.

32w2d