Fussy Fussy

The last week Autumn has been FUSSY. I'm chopping it up to be teething since she has all the symptoms. I also don't think her anti acid medicine is working, I'm going to give it one more week. We've been feeding her rice cereal two times a day and she's doing pretty well with it. Autumn has also tried bananas, which she loved. I'm giving her the Gerber 1st foods, I'm not into making my own baby food. I was going to try but I just don't have the time between caring for Autumn, trying to learn how to cook better (b/c I'm sooo bad at cooking but Matt is wonderful at it), and making sure everything is super clean! I know a clean house is very important to me, I clean almost daily. I mean top to bottom cleaning, but I enjoy it so much.

We have my mom's sister Liz and her husband Jim with their oldest daughter Nicole and her husband Chris and their 4 children (ages 13, 12, 9, and 7) and then their other daughter's son (age 5) in town for the weekend (all the way from Florida). We had dinner Friday night at my mom's other sister's house and boy was it fun! The kids are so full of energy :) I was 10 when Maddie the oldest (age 13) was born and can remember holding her and just loved playing with her. All the kids of course wanted to hold Autumn and seeing them all so big made me fell OLD. I know I'm not old by any means but it's funny how life turns full circle lol. I believe Maddie is going to come stay the summer with us. I use to stay the summers with all of them, so it only seems right :) We're going to have breakfast in the morning before they leave.

4 month doc appt and more

Today Autumn went for her 4 month shots. She got 2 in the thigh and 1 oral med (she loves the oral meds). She weighed 12.6 lbs (10th percentile), 25 inches long (75th percentile), and her head is 15 inches around (10th percentile). She's still so tiny compared to other babies her size is what the doctor said. She's not worried though b/c I'm pretty small. Autumn is developing very well she says far as putting weight on her legs, pushing up when on her tummy, etc. She gave us the go ahead to start baby foods!!!! Since Autumn has been taking rice cereal in her formula since 6 weeks old, the doc doesn't think she'll have any food allergies (I hope not). I'm looking forward to the new food options for her (even though it'll be messy).

On another note, Matt and I have done some house reorganizing, we have moved our dinning table from the dinning room to the breakfast nook and the dinning room is now a play room!!!!! It's going to be a great place to block Autumn in when she is on the move lol. It will also be great to have the highchair where the tile is for an easy clean up! :) I'm going to be watching my best friend's little boy Jack when he comes in the beginning of July, so that'll be a good place for him to play too.

We have been trying to look at the next stage car seats for Autumn too. We've found a great deal on the brand Britax. We got a stoller that can become a double stoller, when we have more, and infant car seat, and 2 convertible car seats for 400.00 :). We didn't need a new infant car seat but it came with the deal, so it'll be nice to have one for each car since we only had one base for the infant car seat we already had. I can't wait till they come in the mail!!!! Should be here some time next week.

Sleep Training........not fun

Autumn is going to be 4 months on the 12th, so we are starting to get her use to sleeping ALL night in her crib like she does in her bassinet. We are also not swaddling her anymore because the doctor finds it to be unsafe once infants reach the 4 month mark. So we put her crib in our room for now until she sleeps through the night again. Our first night trying this was last night. We are trying a version like the cry it out. We lay her in the crib tired/sleepy but still awake. If she cries, we let her cry for 5 minutes (which we decided to do instead of 15, it's less stressful for Autumn) then I go to the side of the crib put her paci back in and pat/rub her back/butt until she calms down or closes her eyes. The first night went better than I expected. She fussed from 11pm to 1230am off and on, then she slept from 1230am to 530am without a cry and not swaddled. Matt had slept through it since he had to be up at 330am to go to a meeting at work at 5am. When she cried at 530am I just laid her in bed with me until her 8am bottle. I'm debating if we should take the bumpers off the crib rails so I can see her at night and see how she is positioned. The reason I'm thinking about that is because she moves all around her crib (I don't know how lol) but then again I think I should leave them up because she does move around her crib and I don't want her to bump her head. All in all I'm very proud of Autumn for being such a big girl :) We shall see how the next couple of nights go!

Busy Busy Busy

The past few weeks have been BUSY. We've been running around going to the grocery store and visiting with Grandma (who is now back to part time). Autumn is beginning to hate her car seat, which drives me nuts. She is also starting to talk a lot more! I've been working on mama and dada, and I'm sure she'll say those words in her own time lol.
I've started to clip coupons, which is very addictive for some reason. We've also been getting our groceries delivered (which saves a lot of money because we're not getting everything that looks good lol).
We finally picked Autumn's Godparents and waiting for a call back from the church where we want to have the service at, but it won't till summer.
Tomorrow we're meeting up with my cousin and her husband so they can have some time with Autumn. They live out of town so they don't get to see her much. Matt also has Saturday and Sunday off :). We have being lazy on the to do list :).
I have been saving my huggies reward points for a tether called Sophie and I finally reached it today and placed my ordered, now all I have to do is wait 8-10 weeks to get it in the mail.

Autumn's first time meeting Uncle Tom and Kara

Matt's brother, Tom, is in the Air Force so he travels and lives all over the place. When Autumn was born he was over seas and just got back at the end of January. So Uncle Tom and Kara (his lovely girlfriend) finally got to come for a visit and meet Autumn for the very first time!!!! Autumn of course loves them :) . Kara loves Autumn and just says how cute she is. Tom is a natural at holding babies and was so happy to see and meet her. They leave Monday, which we always hate seeing them leave, so we are getting to the most out of their time here. So far we've gotten to have dinner Thursday at Apple bee's and Friday at Matt's sister's house for dinner. Kara came over this morning while the boys went o work out at the gym. She was such a wonderful help (and doesn't even know it). Kara played, held, and fed Autumn while I was able to hold laundry, wash Autumn's bottles, clean the kitchen, and take out the trash! It was so nice to have help so those things didn't take up the whole day. And of course we talked the whole time :) . We plan to have breakfast with them Monday morning before they leave to go home.
Autumn, as of this week, has started to eat 4 ounces every 2 or 3 hours (finally). Her spit up has gotten a little better. I'm hoping it goes away soon because I have all these cute outfits for her but they're always covered up with bibs :( . Since this week has been so nice weather wise, we've been able to get out of the house more (which is great for Mommy lol). We have had a very exciting week, next week should be a little more relaxing!

A little about us

We are a family of 4! Matthew, my husband of 3 yrs in March , me - the wife, Autumn, our first child 3 months old, and April, our furry child 2 yrs old. We are your normal family, my husband works full time and I stay at home with Autumn and April. We are doing great at being first time parents. Having Autumn here is easier than being pregnant with her. Most of our family and close friends know how hard it was to get Autumn here safely. A little about the pregnancy, I had morning/day/night sickness everyday (even the morning she was born). I went on bed rest July 18th do to stress at work and high blood pressure. Everything was going good with being on bed rest until September 29th when I went into preterm labor. So at that point I went on FULL bed rest (meaning in bed or the couch 24 hrs a day except to use the restroom and get food). Finally Autumn arrived Nov 12th. Labor was so easy, yes I said easy. I woke up with contractions very close together at 3am. We got admitted at 5am. By 8am all contractions just stopped, but I was at 4cm and 90% effaced. So at 11am my doctor broke my water hoping to get the contractions started again (didn't work). At 1pm they gave me pitocin, by 1:15pm I was getting my epidural (I had wanted to go w/out one) because my contractions were every 30 seconds lasting 90 seconds each. They were causing me to have issues breathing so I knew I had to get an epidural so I could relax. I was all smiles the whole time. At 5pm we called all the family members to let them know we were in labor (my mom, step dad and Matt's sister Christy were already there) and that we'd have a baby in about 3 hrs (said the nurse, I was at 6cm and 95% effaced). About 30 minutes later I called the nurse in to let her know I was feeling a lot of pressure, she checked me and I was 10cm and 100% effaced. She said "Matt go eat now! We have to get the room ready now because this baby is coming very soon". My first words were " but we told the family it's be 3 to 4 hours from now". At 6pm the nurse and doctor (the on call doctor because my doctor had left for the day and was going to make it in time) went over how to push with Matt and I (which I wasn't paying attention, all I could think was I really don't think I can do this). At 6:15pm I started to push, Matt was such a great coach. At 6:25pm Autumn was born, 5 pounds 10 ounces and 19 inches long! I cried the minute I saw her, she was so tiny and beautiful. About 15 minutes later I looked at Matt and said "That was so easy, I'd much rather give birth than be pregnant lol", the doctor and nurse thought I was crazy. That night the family got to see her and hold her. We stayed at the hospital 2 days, which was great because Autumn was a preemie (she never had to go to the NICU and was very healthy just tiny). Matt was able to stay home for 2 weeks after she was born! Autumn has had spit up issues since 3 weeks old, so she is on a formula with rice cereal mixed in. Everything was going perfectly in our lives until Dec. 26th 2010 when my father passed away (we were all shocked because it was very unexpected). It's been hard for my emotions, I've happy because Autumn brings so much joy to our lives, but I'm also very sad with his passing.

To bring up to date: Autumn is 3 months old . She is rolling over from tummy to back, smiling, laughing, and she makes tons of sounds. She just now started to enjoy tummy time. When she wants to eat it's like I'm not making the bottle fast enough for her lol. She has her first tooth coming in already (very early). We got her ears pierced 2 weeks ago (they look so cute). She sleeps about 8 to 12 hrs at night (has since 3 weeks old).
Well that's it for now, follow us with more blogs to come.