Happy Halloween

Jayden wearing his Batman costume before his Preschool party.

Dylan as a knight in his parade.

One Month

Time is funny. One month seems like it has flown by. How could Austin already be one month old? And yet at the same time, hasn't he been here in our family for so much longer than just one month? It seems he has always been here.

Austin has been a pretty good baby so far. He isn't overly fussy. We do have our fussy days, but they aren't too common. For the most part he is happy, but that involves me holding him for much of the day. He loves to be swaddled tight, and I can usually sneak an hour or two at a time of putting him in the bouncy chair when he is alseep and swaddled. He seems like he will be a cuddler, he loves to be close to me. He has been spoiled a little, and sleeps frequently in our bed at night to nurse. I get so tired of sleeping in the rocking chair, so I will often lay down to nurse, and then when he is done, I move him up on my shoulder so I'm not worried about him. He sleeps wonderfully that way - sometimes sleeping for 4 hours or more. I sleep better with him not in the bed, but he only goes about 3 hours at a time that way, which really only gives me about 2 hours of sleep at a time once you figure in nursing. He has spoiled my good track record of a babies that enjoy the swing. He hates it. I keep hoping that he will start to like it, but no luck yet.

His brothers love him so much, and have begun to pay a lot more attention to him. Dylan is always coming over to him saying "Austin" in his cute own way of saying it (for those of you who know how he likes to say "Grandpa," imagine it the same way). He loves to hold him, and often asks to hold him when he knows I need some help. Jayden has taken it upon himself to bring Austin to me when he is crying, which makes me nervous. He does a good job of holding him carefully, but I still worry. I've never had a kid who would just pick up the baby and bring him to me. He is such a good brother, wanting to help like that. He also is good at patiently holding Austin's binky in his mouth to try and get Austin to take it when he is fussy. Ethan also loves to hold Austin, and holds his arms out when he asks. The funny thing about him is how he will just drop his arms when he is done, so I really have to be right next to him ready to catch Austin when he is done. Ethan loves to help with the binky as well, but hasn't connected the idea of him just needing it when he is fussy.

Kids say it like it is

Last night as we kneeled for family prayer, Jayden says "Mom, your tummy is getting fat again." Yeah, thanks Jay. Thanks for noticing that leftover baby belly fat. But really, its not getting bigger.

The Coaches Trophy

I think I'm a dork for even posting this - but I thought it was kind of random. When I was at the Smiths by my house on Friday the Coaches Trophy was on display. For those of you that don't know, this is the trophy the national NCAA Football Champions win. They had a huge display of Dr. Pepper, and were taking pictures of people with it and giving out coupons for free Dr. Pepper (Devon is happy). When Dylan saw the picture, he really wanted to go see it, but when we went it was already gone. He is still so disappointed! Random facts: The football is made of Waterford Crystal and is valued at $30,000.

Here come the smiles

I love the sleeping pictures. Nothing is more serene than a sleeping child. So precious.

Ethan shared these with Austin.

Today Austin is four weeks old.

Austin smiled the first time about a week ago. I forgot to write down the date, but I think it was last around Friday Oct. 16. I was sitting at the table with the boys, holding Austin. He was wide awake sucking on a binky, and I looked down and could tell he had a big smile on his face. I took the binky out so we could all see his fun smiles. I think he smiled 2 or 3 times. We hadn't really seen anymore smiles for about a week. Then this last Friday he gave Devon and me lots of good smiles. We laughed as he rotated between a big smile and a huge frown about 4 times. Let me tell you, this boy can pack a sad frown - with huge turned down corners of the mouth.

I took these shots today. They didn't come out great, and I only caught half smiles, but you get the idea. I was glad to at least catch them on camera.

Thumbs

I realized I don't have any pictures of Austin's eyes open, so here's a pretty good one.

Here's his GQ.

Big yawn!

I may have another thumb sucker! Austin finds his thumb a few times each day; the first time was while we were still in the delivery room. He won't be my first who preferred thumbs or fingers. Jayden still sucks his, and Ethan prefers two of his fingers. I think I would rather him use the binky, but thumbs are so convenient in the sense that it doesn't get lost in the crib in the middle of the night and he becomes more self reliant during those late night hours. But... you can't take the thumb away.

Feet

So here is a picture of my feet a few days before I had Austin. My feet were really swollen. To me the picture doesn't do justice of how terrible my feet were. I didn't wear shoes for the last 2 1/2 months of being pregnant. I couldn't walk in my house barefoot - it hurt too bad, so I wore flipflops in the house as well. I did foot baths, and they helped some, this was about as good as my feet got.


Contrast that to my feet today. Compared to my swollen feet, they almost look sickly to me. I think its funny the way the pictures came out. The "before" shot looks all pasty, and the "after" shot looks all tan. I didn't plan it that way! It must be the lighting, but I think its kind of funny because it reminds me of all those before/after commercials you see where the lady has no make up and isn't smiling in the first picture and her hair not done, and in the after picture she is smiling, hair done, make up on.
I just have to say I am happy to have my feet back! My shoes are still tight, but I am hoping that will go away soon.

More Pictures

One week old (Sunday)

11 days old (today)

Brothers

All the boys have been good helpers with Austin. They don't pay him too much attention, but if he is crying all of them want to help by putting the binky in. Jayden actually calls it the pinky. I finally got a few pictures of him near Austin. I love how his sweetness shows in these pictures.

Ethan hasn't really wanted to hold Austin either, but I did get this quick picture of him the other day. He especially loves to help with the binky, and often is trying to give it to him when he doesn't need it - like when he is sound asleep, which then wakes Austin up. That's when its the thought that counts, right?! He hasn't seemed too bothered at all by having Austin here - he's taken it all in stride, which has been such a blessing for me. He also has come out of a lot of the things he was doing the last month or so, which is nice. He has decided that when I nurse, that is the time to bring books and toys to me so I can read them to him, or play with him. One really cute thing he has been doing is sharing his toys with Austin. The most significant thing to me has been when he puts his favorite stuffed dog by Austin to share. To me this is huge, because he loves that dog, and isn't usually so apt to share it.

Dylan has been pretty cute about Austin, even though at the same time his interest level hasn't been what it was with Jayden and Ethan. He has been wanting to hold him a little bit more the last few days. Yesterday he wanted to hold Austin for me while I went to get some pajamas for him, since Austin was crying. Austin actually calmed right down once Dylan was holding him. Dylan has also said a few cute things these last few weeks. On the day Austin was born he kept telling Grandma "I just don't understand why a baby would be born on a Sunday." I guess he understands enough of keeping the Sabbath day holy that to him it just didn't make sense. The other day he also said to me "Mom are you milking Austin?" I thought that was pretty funny, but I tried not to laugh because I didn't want him to feel bad.

Jaundice and First Bath

All of my babies have had to have light treatment for jaundice in the hospital. I have come to expect it with each baby Dylan and Jayden had to go back to the hospital around 5 days old. Ethan was in the NICU, so they treated him while he was there. Austin had light treatment for day before we left the hospital. I am so glad we didn't have to take him back!! We did use this bili bed for the first night at home, but he didn't need it after that. That was one long night! I would feed him for about 30 minutes. Put him in the bed. He would last about 30-45 minutes before getting so mad that I would have to pick him up. The point of the bed is to have him on it as much as possible to break down the bilirubin in his skin to help the jaundice go away, so I would nurse him again, so he would go back to sleep for another 30-45 minutes. That went on all night. Luckily that did enough of the job we didn't have to use it after that.
Here is my favorite picture from his first bath. He enjoyed it except for getting his head wet.

Austin

Our sweet little boy is finally here! He was born Sunday at 5:39 pm, weighing 7 lbs 6 oz, and 19 1/2 inches long. It was kind of a suprise to us. We had planned on him coming Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how things went. I woke up Sunday morning with an ache that was all in the right side, a little like back labor, but only on the right side, and it extended all the way around my hip and to the middle of my front. I thought that was kind of wierd, and of course there was the hope it was something, but I figured it was nothing. So we went to church, and nothing really changed until near the end of church, then it started to bother me more. Devon was supposed to have a meeting after church. I was a little worried it may be something, so I told Devon I was going to use his cell phone quick to call the doctor and let him know that I may be going in to the hospital in a few hours, and because I knew he was headed to church right about then, I wanted to make sure I would be able to get a hold of him if that were the case. He wasn't on call that day, but he had said he would deliver me if he was available when I had the baby. I wasn't sure if he normally took his cell phone to church if he wasn't on call, so I figured I'd better get a hold of him before he left. It took a little bit to get a hold of him. In the meantime, I took the boys home and started to get lunch for them, but the pains were getting pretty bad, and becoming more like hard contractions, but still only on the one side. I hurried and called Devon to tell him I was just going to come get him now, because we may need to just go to the hospital. I finally got a hold of the doctor as I picked Devon up, and he said I should go get checked, since I had been a 4 and 90%. Of course, once Devon's mom came over and we were ready to go, the pains had lessened a lot. I was feeling like they would probably just send us home, but we figured we'd still go get checked. I felt a little silly going in and not in any bad pain, but we did it. The contractions weren't regular at all, but still there a little. However, I was at a 5, so they said they weren't going to send me home. I am so glad they let me stay, because I really think we may have been heading back over that night, had they sent us home. Having a baby in the afternoon is much better than the evening, so it worked out great for us. They gave me an epidural and broke my water at around 3:15, and by about 5:15 I could tell it was time. It didn't take long after that and Austin was born. I love to see my little boys for the first time. I love having them put him on my chest as they clean him up. What a sweet time it is. Devon had a new experience as the doctor let him help guide him out and catch him.

Since it was early enough in the day, Devon's parents came over with the boys, and my parents and Ben came over to see him. The boys were not really interested in their new brother. They did love that they were given their own drinks and crackers. We tried and tried to get the boys to come over to see the baby to get some fun family pictures, but they wouldn't. The next day Dylan and Ethan cooperated a little bit, but Jayden did not care to get close to Austin.