Shots...Ouch!!

Carter turned 2 months old yesterday!!! It's crazy how fast the time has gone. Today he had his 2 month checkup and passed with flying colors. He now weighs 10 lb 15 oz (35%), is 23 in long (50%), and his head circumference is 40 cm (50%). I can't believe how big he's gotten!! He's really gained weight quickly since he was born and is catching up great! He's grown out of almost all his newborn outfits, but still doesn't quite fit into some of the 0-3 month ones. Unfortunately he also had to get his 2 month vaccines today and did not like them one bit. He was already cranky this morning and didn't sleep well last night, so of course the shots just made things much worse. He's either been sleeping or screaming all day (or vomiting this morning!). It hasn't been a fun day for any of us. I'm dreading going through this again in another 2 months but know how important vaccines are.

It's FINALLY cooled down here. I didn't write about it in my past posts, but it's been insanely hot here. In fact, the other day we had the hottest day in Seattle history at 103 degrees! And did I mention the humidity? We don't have A/C, and being on the top floor we were literally baking...so we're very grateful for the cool-down. Otherwise Tyler has been busy with work and Young Men's stuff (they've been going canoeing a lot lately in anticipation of High Adventure), and I finally got another job so I've been working on that while Carter naps. I took a few more pictures just for this post...I knew people would complain if I wrote and didn't add any pictures of Carter! So here are some for today:

Sleeping in his car seat after getting his shots.

Sleeping

Stretching...I was trying to wake him up but it didn't work.

Daddy came home and took a turn with him...and of course he was happy.

During the 5 minutes or so that he was happy

Playing with Daddy

Asleep again.

Rollin Rollin Rollin...

I've been scolded by many people for not posting blogs and pictures as often so...here is yet another post! Biggest news for this post: Carter rolled over! He rolled over for the first time yesterday (only 8 weeks old!) and Mom was soooo proud and SOOO upset she didn't have the camera with her! But there it is. I don't think he did it on purpose. I put him down for tummy time and he somehow got his opposite arm underneath him to suck on his fist (his favorite thing to do during tummy time). So anyways somehow in trying to get it at a better angle he rolled onto his side (which he has, by the way, done before), but then amazingly he kicked his way over onto his back! I was so impressed! I clapped and praised him and I'm sure for the life of him he couldn't have figured out what he had done to deserve such an honor. He's also started growing in some new hair! There's a semi-circle of little tiny baby hairs growing in around his forehead and right now they look pretty darn blonde. I guess we'll see if he keeps his red hair or not. Yesterday we also went outlet shopping after waiting all day for the cable guy to come and fix our cable (a rat chewed through the line...seriously?!). I decided it's much better to shop for a baby than to shop for myself, and bought him 4 onesies for $5 and 2 sunhats! I also discovered the $3.99 clearance section at the Carter's outlet but discovered it after they were already closed and I was the last person in the store...so I left and let the clearance rack wait for another day. I can't wait to go back! Tyler and I discussed how our baby will only ever be wearing clearance clothes, but that's basically all we wear too and I think we're pretty well dressed, just dressed on a bargain :) Anyways, here are some more baby boy pictures. Enjoy!

Trip to Utah

Carter and I just got back yesterday from our trip to Utah. We had a great time! Unfortunately Tyler had to stay home and work, and we missed him a lot. Carter's first vacation went really well, though. I was really nervous to fly with him but he did great on the plane, sleeping the whole time both ways! I was grateful for that. My mom met us out there to help out with Carter, and my grandma even came, too. I was so glad my grandma could meet Carter! We were pretty busy the entire time we were out there. I got to spend some time with a bunch of my old roommates...Noelle, Colleen, Kirsten, and Heidi. It's weird that we're all married now, 2 of us with kids and 2 with kids on the way! It was so great to reminisce and catch up. I also got to hang out with my friends Kyle and Mark. The main purpose of the trip was to see my friend Lindsay, who I have been best friends with since I was 7, get married. It was a great wedding and I was so glad to see her get sealed in the temple to a guy that is just perfect for her. Other than that we visited all the Provo food places that I have been craving since I left, and enjoyed staying in the basement of our old house. It brought back some good memories! We were so glad to come back to Utah and see Tyler again. It was the first time he's been away from Carter, and he was so glad to see his little boy again.
Carter is continuing to grow. I can hardly believe it, but he will be 8 weeks tomorrow! Where has the time gone?! He had a rough time sleeping in Utah and unfortunately has not gotten back into his habit of sleeping through the night yet, meaning he's got a very tired mommy. But he is getting more and more playful, which is fun. He loves to kick and coo and is smiling so much more now! It's fun to see him grow and get to more entertaining stages of his life. He is really starting to interact with us a lot!
Other than that we are just trying to survive the insane heat wave that has hit Washington. It is supposed to be 105 today, and we have no AC! Even though it was almost this hot in Utah, it was much easier to deal with because there was no humidity...this Washington heat is killer!

Here are some pictures from July 3rd when Jamie, Patrick, and Connor came to visit us. Carter is 1 month old here:

Connor can roll over...all Carter can do is sleep!

Aunt Jamie & Cousin Connor

Connor is about to attempt to grab Carter's face...

Cousins Connor (5 1/2 mos) & Carter (1 mo)

Brother & Sister and 1st sons

These next pictures are from our trip to Utah. I didn't take too many but here they are. Carter is 7 weeks in them.

Carter doesn't particularly like riding in the car in his carseat, but in Utah we did a LOT of driving. This is driving up to the reception after Lindsay's sealing.

Me & Lindsay. She looked so beautiful!!!

Lindsay & Max

Carter always gets into positions like this when he's sleeping! It's like he's posing.

Carter's playtime

Trying to talk

Waving his arms around like a wild man!

He always has this wide-eyed/stunned look on his face when he's concentrating on something

When we got home to Washington it was HOT and our apartment was deathly. We did our best to not move a muscle and keep poor little Carter as cool as possible. If we weren't so scared of being peed on (or worse!) we'd have completely stripped him down!

Daddy & Carter trying to keep cool

I'm still waiting on all those pictures my mom took when she was up here, but once I get them I will do a mega-picture post.

Just the 3 of Us Again

Sorry for the long delay in blog posts. My only excuse is that we've been bombarded with family being in town lately! It's been fantastic!!! We've been so excited to show off our amazing little boy to everyone who will pay any attention. After my sister-in-law Kim left, my dad came into town, shortly thereafter followed by my brother James and his wife Alie. It was so much fun having them here. Unfortunately Carter and I weren't up to going along on a lot of their sightseeing, but we had fun at home with them playing games and enjoying a cute baby. We also recently found out that Alie is having a little girl in December and are so excited for the 1st girl in the family to come along! We also got to see Tyler's sister Jamie, her husband Patrick, and our nephew Connor for a day. It was so great to see them and meet our nephew for the first time! We loved getting Carter together with his cousin...he looked so tiny next to him!

The next day was the 4th of July, and Tyler and I celebrated by leaving Carter with his grandparents and going out to eat and to a movie. It was great because everyone else was watching the fireworks! The food ended up being bad, and the movie was bad too, but it was so nice being able to get out on our own. I don't know when we'll be able to have another date! Next to arrive was Tyler's parents. We had a blast with them and they had a great time getting to know their new grandson.

On July 12th Carter got blessed. Tyler did a great job and so did Carter! Carter didn't cry at all but just sat there awake through it all. After the blessing we had a big luncheon and got to visit with all the family that came. There were around 40 people there for the occasion! On my side, we had my parents, James & Alie, my Aunt Shirley, my Aunt Millie & Uncle Terry, my Aunt Sherie & Uncle Dave, and my cousin Jenny and her entire family. Then on Tyler's side we had his parents, his Grandma and Grandpa Andrus, his Uncle Mark and his entire family, his Uncle John and most of his family, and his Uncle Mike and his entire family. So many people to celebrate and see one tiny baby. It was amazing! We had such a great time visiting with everyone, and they had a great time passing the baby around. What an incredible day! A few days after the blessing Tyler's parents left and we became just the 3 of us again. I admit, I miss all the help!!! It was great to get a little extra sleep and have extra hands to hold the baby.
Hopefully we'll continue to get visitors more often since we have a cute baby for everyone to see.

Carter is doing fantastic otherwise! He is now weighing in at around 9 pounds!! We can hardly believe how quickly he has grown. He looks like a completely different person now than when he was born! He has started to outgrow most of his newborn sized clothes although most of the 0-3 mos still look big on him. He is also starting to sleep through the night. Last night he slept for 7 straight hours! I don't know how we got so lucky to get such a perfect child that will sleep through the night before he's even 7 weeks old! We hope it lasts! He's also so happy all the time. He has started to smile and coo and interact a lot more. Here is a video of him playing in his bouncer. It would have been longer but my memory card filled up and there was no more room!



Unfortunately since my memory card was full I also don't currently have any of the pictures from everyone being here and from the blessing! But rest assured, my mom, sister-in-law, and Tyler's step-mom took lots so I will get them all from them and post them soon. Be prepared for a post filled with TONS of pictures...my mom alone took hundreds! And no, that's not an exaggeration.

And the Family Starts to Pour In!

Sorry we've been neglecting our blog lately! The past couple of weeks we have started to get visitors coming in town to see little Carter, and are expecting many more over the next few weeks as well! My mom came into town a little over a week ago, just in time for Tyler to go back to work. We miss him while he is at work, and he misses spending time with Carter. My sister-in-law Kim also came to visit this past week. It was great having her here and being able to spend some time with her and letting her see her new nephew! Carter has been doing great! He had his 3 week pediatrician appointment last week and the doctor said he's doing fantastic! He weighed in at 7 lb 6 oz, which meant he's been growing really well. He's still only in the 10th percentile for weight, but his height is 50% and his head is 65%. I wish his head were at that percentile when he was born...instead he was at 95% and tore his mommy to pieces! But we were really excited to hear that our baby is growing right and doing really well. We can see him filling out every day...he looks so different to us than when he was born! It's crazy to think that he is already 3 1/2 weeks old. I just want him to stay little forever.

Carter has almost switched completely to formula. A little more weaning and I'll be all done with pumping, which I'm really excited about! He's done great with the switch. His system has handled formula really well and he eats it just as heartily as breast milk. He's been sleeping pretty well, too, but we've been grateful for his grandma being here and taking him in the morning so we can get some extra sleep. He's also started peeing on his mommy when she changes his diaper, but doesn't do it to anyone else! I don't think that's very fair, but I think he thinks it's funny. We love interacting with him when he's awake and watching him smile in his sleep. We are so in love with our little boy and are loving parenthood!

Here are a few pictures from a little over a week ago. We haven't been taking many recently because his grandma has been camera crazy, so I'll post some of those later when we get them.

Poor Little Guy Got Circumcised

I haven't been that good at posting lately, so figured I'd better update everyone! Carter is doing great and we are getting a little more used to parenting. Yesterday was a traumatic day for us, though. Carter got circumcised, then slept and wouldn't eat for 8 hours! That freaked me out a lot, and then when we changed his diaper a little later he had quite a bit of blood in it. We called the after-hours pediatrician and they said to bring him to the ER, so we spent the evening bringing our baby to the ER for the first time. Luckily, everything turned out fine and the bleeding stopped, but both Carter and I were quite traumatized for the day. Fortunately, Carter slept pretty well and let himself be comforted by his mommy. We also started feeding Carter a little bit of formula today, which is going well so far. Hopefully in a week or 2 we can get him completely switched over so I can go back on my heart medication. Otherwise we're just trying to function on little sleep. Tyler goes back to work next week which I'm not too excited about, but family is also starting to come into town next week so it should work out fine. We're excited to see everyone that will be coming by!

Here is a video of us unwrapping Carter. He's so funny...he stretches a ton and makes these funny expressions. This isn't the best example, but we figured someone would appreciate it.

Life Goes On

I've recently discovered that even with a new baby, life goes on! The other night Tyler asked me if I wanted to play a game and my response was, "Can we still do that?!" And we did! We played our favorite game Carcassonne (Tyler won). I think with a new baby I was just thinking that our world would revolve completely around him! While it does for the most part, Tyler informed me that we can still do all the old things we used to do, we just have to take care of him first and of course cart him along with us. Seemed like a novel concept to me. So after that discovery, we've been pretty busy with life. On Wednesday Carter had his first pediatrician appointment and passed with flying colors. He weighed in at 6 lb 6 oz, and we have recently realized that he is starting to plump up a little bit in his face and limbs. It's great to see him growing and doing so well! Thursday I had a cardiologist appointment which also went well. Then on Friday we decided to bite the bullet and go out! We were getting a little stir crazy, so we took a short trip to JCPenney to make a return and then got burgers on our way home. Carter did great! He's really easy to bring out...just gotta remember to feed him immediately before we leave and he sleeps the whole time. It felt good to get out. Today Carter got to meet his great-grandpa for the first time (my grandpa). It was great to see him and show off Carter. He's the 2nd great-grandchild in the family! Tyler and I are also doing well. I have my ups and downs with both pain and energy, but every day things get a little better and I'm looking forward to feeling like myself again. The doctors said this tear will be a 6 week long recovery, very similar to a C-section, so I'm counting down...1 week down, 5 to go! Seems like a long time to me, but he's so worth it :)

Sucking his thumb...he loves having his hands on his face

Carter and his great-grandpa