Miles Away

dedication

2010-12-16T13:39:00.003-06:00

last night our small group had a christmas dinner and dedicated all our children to the Lord. two years ago, we were a group of 5 couples and 1 child. now we are a group of 5 couples and 7 children! it has been so great to walk together through life and encourage one another.

the verse we read for miles was 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

"I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way - in all your speaking and in all your knowledge- because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore we do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."

19 months old

2010-12-16T13:20:00.005-06:00

dear miles,

on monday you turned 19 months old. we are getting close to christmas, and as we think back to what you were like at this time last year, it is truly amazing to see how much you have grown in 1 year.

in the mornings, you eat breakfast and hang out with your dad until it's time to go to preschool. your teacher mrs becca always has great things to say about you, and you are learning a lot of things. every day you get to do crafts, sing songs, eat snacks, and play on the playground. your teacher says you have learned how to sit at circle time, but are still learning how to keep your food on your napkin while eating. i usually walk to come pick you up and you are always so happy to seem me and immediately start waving bye bye. you are so tired after school you make me carry you all the way home. when we get h

ome the first things you do are give minnie a big hug, sit on your truck, and ask for a snack! you have a starwars lunchbox and water bottle you take each day.

you are really talking a lot these days, even more so now that you are at preschool with some older kids. i will probably forget some, but here are words that you say in addition to yo

ur constant "chatter" : night night, bye bye, brady, minnie, car, truck, banana, snack, macaroni, book, ball, shoes, sock, mama, daddy, milk, belly button (be be!), hi, cracker, more. you know and use the signs for all finished, milk, and more - which you use to get whatever you want help with.

you love to sing songs and always perk up when i sing songs you also sing at school. you will often request that i sing certain songs as well. you know the wheels on the bus, itsy bitsy spider (eee bee), patty cake (paa paa), and if you're happy and you know it.

you love to put on your clothes and your shoes and socks. you will put your hands on your face and when someone says "Where's miles" you excitedly take your hands away and say "BOO!". you love to help feed the dogs, sweep, cook, vacuum, fold laundry, and other chores...hopefully this will last! you are a great little helper.

your #1 favorite thing right now is

to do gymnastics on daddy's and my bed or the couch. you will roll around and do head stands/somersaults foreeever and just giggle like crazy. you also go to the back door, move the blinds, and bang on the door yelling brady until he comes up to see you. you also can count...except you exclude one. you either say two two three, or just two three. so cute!

you are starting a bit of a whiny phase which i suppose is the beginning of the terrible twos, or it could be because your canines are coming in (counting them, you have 14 or so teeth). at your 18 month check up you weighed 23lb 12oz (20%) and were 32in long (40%). you love multigrain club crackers, danimo yogurt snacks, and macaroni and cheese.

your grandma and opa have hosted you overnight on several occasions, we went to san antonio for a spurs game (you loved the nachos, the dancers, and a large bubbly man sitting behind us who was kind enough to let you stare at him, and the spotlights, and when everyone clapped) and the zoo (super fun!), we spent thanksgiving in college station with the crew, and watched the aggies have a successful football season.

sometimes when you are playing you will all the sudden come up to me and give me a hug and then look at yourself hugging me in the mirror and shrug and smile.

YOU bring me more happiness than i have ever known before and i love you :)

a boy and his "boo"

2010-10-05T22:04:00.001-05:00

miles is happily obsessed with balloons right now. he tries to say "balloon" but it comes out as "boo". so fun!

16 months old

2010-09-19T19:52:00.005-05:00

update: i should say for the record that you have 10 teeth (4 on top, 4 on bottom, plus 2 top molars) and at your 15 month appt at 15.5months you weighed 22lbs 10z and were 32.5(??)in long.

dear miles,

last week you turned 16 months old. i never did write your 15month update so it will be obvious to everyone just how much you have changed in 2 short months. you are not a baby anymore, you have turned 100% into a toddler right before our eyes. here's what you are like right now:

-you are pretty independent. given free reign of the house, you will spend hours walking around, picking up things and just playing, playing, playing. it's so fun to watch you run around exploring. you've mastered climbing up onto the couch and love to crawl around with someone chasing you.

-you walk like a pro, even scoot sideways. you can bear crawl, put your head on the ground and look between your legs, and you often squat to look at something or play with toys.

-you sleep through the night, going to bed between 6.30-8.30pm and getting up around 8am when your babysitter arrives. you are really good about waking up happy and entertaining yourself until we come get you. one day last week your babysitter arrived to find you sitting in a corner of your crib, reading a book. on most days you will take one nap, usually 2-3hrs in the early afternoon. sometimes when you get tired, you will go in your room, get your blanket, and wait to go to bed.

some of your favorite things:

-your mega block legos. you bang them together with glee. you've also figured out how to put them together, take them apart, which you repeat indefinitely. you also love the dump truck they are stored in, you take them in and out and push the dump truck all over the house.

-books. you love to read. you've learned how to turn the books in your hands until they are facing the right way and then you "read" the book in a very animated way, turning the pages as you go. when you want me to read a book to you, you bring it to me and plop down in my lap, occasionally looking up at my lips while i'm reading. these are some of my favorite times. today you wanted me to read a book to you, but i was laying on the floor. you looked at me, confused, then came and sat down on my head!

-containers. bowls, cups, empty drink bottles. you like to screw the lids on empty bottles as well.

-your pets. the cat is your favorite, you get so excited when you see her and you have learned to pet her very gently. you also love your puppies. you play "fetch" with them and are always trying to share your toys, drinks, and snacks with them...such a nice little boy! if they are outside, you will walk over to the back door, lift the blinds out of the way, and bang on the door until they come up to it and stand there talking to them. it's so cute!

-my phone. you walk around with my phone to your "ear" (really its more like your neck) and blab away. you also flip it open and "text". you get really excited when i make a phone call on speaker phone and you actually get to talk to someone. the other day you brought me the phone and i kept giving it back to you. you kept bringing it back and then said your word for "auntie jen." so i got auntie jen on the line for you and you happily paced around the living room and kitchen for 15 minutes, chatting with your auntie.

-the broom. anytime we open the pantry you want to get the broom out. you push it around the floor, "sweeping."

-outlet covers. you have mastered the art of removing all the carefully placed outlet covers and carrying them around the house. needless to say your dad and i are going to have to make some adjustments to our childproofing strategy.

-cords. you love to go into the office and dig around in your dad's drawer of cords. you unplug the vacuum cord and try to plug it back in. the other day you carried a usb cord around very happily for almost an hour.

-your dad. anytime he is home, you are not far from him. you follow him around the house from room to room. sometimes you try to get him to chase you and he will crawl around all over the house, "chasing" you while you giggle so hard you sometimes lose your balance.

-cars. you love carrying your cars around and rolling them back and forth on the floor, making "the car" sound.

-balls. you LOVE balls. you carry them around everywhere and are quite good at throwing them (we have a lefty!). you also love to play fetch. you will come over to me, turn my hand over, and place a ball in it. i will throw it, and you will go get it. and repeat. many times. sometimes your dad gets a "double fetch" game going involving you, brady, and a tennis ball....hilarious!

things you say

ball

car

dad

brady

peyton

shoes

baby

cracker

quack quack quack

auntie jen (this one is a stretch, but he definitely makes this same sound everytime he sees her)

these are the words you say repeatedly. you have said lots of other words, but not consistently.

what we've been up to

-we've gone to the park (you are learning how to go down slides and climb up steps)

-we've gone to story time at the library. you loved all the songs and the toys they had there.

-you've moved up to the toddler room at church and really enjoy all the fun things they do

-your mom mom came and took care of you for 10 days in early august- she took you swimming at the ymca and all sorts of fun outings.

-we've had playdates with several friends from our small group. you love playing with the other kids!

-you went to work with me, and climbed in the lockers.

-we took you kayaking and you were a great sport, even though we went during your nap time.

-you went for several bike rides, sitting kangaroo style on my bike.

-we went to college station so you could meet your cousin and see family.

-we spent time with your grandma and opa

-we went swimming and hung out at auntie jen's apartment. we also took you to see some live music at a place across from jen's apartment complex and you absolutely loved it.

you play patty cake, wave goodbye (backwards), love fresh fruit but hate all meat except chicken nuggets, play peek a boo, and give the sweetest hugs. you are laid back, pleasant, and the sweetest little boy i've ever seen. we love you!

14 months old!

2010-07-20T14:41:00.002-05:00

Dear miles,

last week you turned 14 months old! You have changed so much the past few weeks, this might just be the month that you have changed the most. This is what you are like right now:

you are in 100% exploration mode. If you see an open door and a split second opportunity (Such as when dad is changing a dirty diaper) you make a break for the door, army crawling as fast as you can. Your favorite place to end up is the kitchen, playing with the dogs food and water bowl. Often you can find tasty remnants of your meals in there as well.

you can army crawl faster than anyone I know, slithering like a little snake. But you are starting to walk more and more! You started taking steps at the beginning of the month and have been getting more and more adept and adventurous. You can easily walk back and forth between two people (your fave game right now, walking back and forth between mom and dad) and have started walking short distances towards toys in your playroom. At first you would lose your balance a lot and fall over sideways, but you are able to keep your balance pretty well, at least enough to plop down on your bum if you need to switch to crawling or if you have arrived at your destination.

you are a good sleeper. You sleep from 7.30 or 9pm until about 7.30am. When you wake up you play in your crib for awhile. You occasionally sleep in on the weekends. You often will take a morning nap (1-2 hrs) and an afternoon nap (1-2 hrs) but you are flexible with these if we are out and about.

you love to talk! Most of what you are saying I have no idea what it means, but your words include “dad”, “car”, and “ball.” sometimes you say “bee” for book and also “brady.” (the dog). I am STILL waiting to hear mama! Sometimes you make the sound, but you do not consistently refer to me as mom....hurry up already!!!

some of your fave things are: balls, cars, water bottles, books, milk, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, mandarin oranges, mac n cheese, crackers, banging things together, straws, phones, laptops, music.
You dislike riding in the car, unfortunately. You also get frustrated when you can't do something and ball up your fists and growl or scream. You did this a LOT for the first part of this month and it has tapered off some, thankfully.
You learned how to sit up from laying down. This was the last piece of mobility that was really frustrating to you. But one day early this month you just sat up and have been moving around like a pro ever since.
Two of my favorite things that you do 1. you find books and open them and turn the pages and read them in a really sweet sing-songy voice. 2. if i'm laying on the floor you will cruise down to where my head is and get really excited and laugh and turn your head sideways to look right into my face.

what we did this month

auntie jen lived with us and you loved getting to spend so much time with her. We also helped her move into her new apartment here in town and I know you will get to spend time with her in the upcoming months as well!
Swim! It's hot and we tried to cool off by going swimming. You absolutely love the pool and splash pad at the ymca. You are quite the hit with the little ladies. We also went swimming at jen's apartment with your aunt bekkie and you went swimming at leah's house as well.
Maddie came over for a few play times. You guys get along really well and like to stare and touch each others faces for the first 10min or so when she arrives.
Aunt bekkie came to see us and you loved playing with her.
We went to college station to see family. You showed off your walking skills to everyone.
I started teaching summer school so you have been playing with leah and going over to luke and lila's house some days.

We cannot believe how grown up you are. Everytime I come home I feel like you've gotten older. You seem so much like a little boy instead of a baby. This makes us kind of sad, but also really excited for what's in store! I think I write this every month, but words cannot express how much I love being your mom. I love you!

13 months old

2010-06-15T13:49:00.005-05:00

dear miles,

yesterday you turned 13 months old. you are the sweetest boy i know! right now i'm excited to get to stay home with you all summer. here's a little bit about what you are like right now.

eat

you eat breakfast around 9am. some fave breakfasts are rice cereal mixed with baby food fruit or fresh bananas, blueberries, and a waffle. and of course milk, you love your milk! you usually drink organic HEB central market whole milk from a spill proof cup with a straw. you always push the cup out of your way onto the floor when you are through with it, though your auntie jen is trying very hard to teach you how to put it in the cupholder. for lunch you usually enjoy cheese and veggie crackers (colby jack is your favorite, you also like american and cheddar). you also love mandarin oranges and lil' crunchies. i usually offer you turkey as well but you are not so fond of meat. for dinner you sometimes eat lil' entrees or pasta pickups, or whatever we are eating. the other night i put some pasta we were having on your tray and you looked at me like there was no way you were going to eat that stuff. but then you gave it a try and loved it. depending on your nap schedule, you sometimes have a late afternoon snack as well. you still like drinking water, but we have been giving you lots more milk per your doctor, and you are not complaining about that one bit!

sleep

i'm not entirely sure what time you wake up to be honest. but you have a ball, blanket, bear, and a book in your crib. you entertain yourself with these things and looking at the shadows from the window blinds until i come to get you around 8am. occasionally you sleep (or fall back asleep?) until 10am!! you are usually good for a morning nap from 10.30-12 and an afternoon nap from 3-5. if you sleep in or miss your morning nap you will squeeze in two afternoon naps. we usually give you your bath and the rest of your bedtime routine between 7-8.30pm, depending on how things are going. you have started sleeping on your side, still sucking your fingers and holding onto your little blue blanket. you are a great sleeper!

words!

yes that's right, this month we can say that you have some words! there is no doubt of your favorite word..."ball". there is no doubt because you say it all. the. time. like a question. ball? baaaalll? ballll? until some says "ball" back and then you are so happy. you crawl around your playroom finding all the balls (there are lots!) and push them around with your hand and saying "ball."

another word is "da". you call your dad "da" and it is so cute. you also use "da" to refer to other people and even me sometimes. i'm still waiting to hear your sweet little voice say mama!

you also say "car" and can go find a toy car if we say "where's the car?"

earlier this month you would say "be de" for brady. but recently you have figured out the "r" sound and when you see him you very carefully say "brrrrrrre". so you have the "r" but then can't put it together with the "d" sound. on the bright side, you will have no trouble with your aunt bree's name!

you also have a word for book. i'm not sure how to describe it, it's something like "booa." but most often you affectionately refer to them as "be be".

what we did

after your birthday we had a second bday party for you in college station while we were there with family celebrating auntie jen's graduation from a&m. auntie jen is living with us this summer while she is working in austin, so you have had lots of great bonding time with her. we joined the ymca and you have gotten to go swimming there and use the splashpad, which you absolutely loved. we also have gone swimming a few times at a friends' apartment pool. your mom mom came and stayed for a week with you while i was recovering from having my wisdom teeth removed. you had so much fun with her, especially since she took you to the splashpad for the very first time. we also made a a day trip to cstat to meet your very first cousin! you didn't get to actually meet him but you stood on the door outside the nicu and talked very loudly to him.

things you love and do

-when you get excited you squeal and clap your hands together. it is absolutely adorable and i hope you never stop, though i'm sure you will.

-if i say "can you give me a kiss" you open your mouth wide and give a great kiss. sometimes. other times you laugh and laugh and start pushing my face away.

-you army crawl all over the place and can pull yourself up to standing if someone is sitting near you.

-you are cruisin' like crazy! you move up and down the futon in your playroom and can let go of one thing and reach for another. you can also bend down to pick things up while you are standing and holding onto something. however you don't seem very interested in standing alone. if i try to get you to stand, you just start giggling like CRAZY and fall over reaching for me.

-you love for me to read books to you. you climb up in my lap and turn the pages, occasionally looking up at me as i read. i LOVE reading books with you. you also read books to yourself, which i love to see you crawl over to them and flip through the pages "reading" them with funny baby sounds.

-you love fresh fruit, your puppies, the cat, your dad, your dad's ps3 controller, phones, laptops (in fact you have your own cell phone and laptop with the batteries removed because you love them so much), balls, cars, teeth, baths, swimming, other babies and young children, glasses (i had to go back to wearing contacts), and music ( you are still quite the dancer!)

i love you SO MUCH. i have so much fun playing and reading with you. i love to hear you laugh and see your sweet smile every day. you're the best!

miles goes swimming

2010-05-23T14:04:00.000-05:00

miles used some of his birthday money from his mawmaw to pick out a small wading pool and some pool toys. yesterday afternoon we set up the umbrella and the pool on the deck and miles changed into his swimming clothes. he also used his beach towel from his nana for the first time. he didn't mind the cool water at all and started playing with his new toys right away. i showed him how to splash the water and he enjoyed splashing as well, except when he got the water in his eyes. his puppies were very jealous of his new set up! i think this will be a great way to keep miles cool during the next few months.

miles' second first bday party

2010-05-23T14:02:00.000-05:00

coming soon!!!

miles' first bday party

2010-05-23T14:01:00.003-05:00

miles' first birthday was on a friday, so that night we had a big birthday bash for him at our house. he had a lazy morning with miss leah in his pj's, then ross, miles, and i went to go get his uncle jared from his golf tournament. miles played and laid down for a bit before we all headed to the grocery store to get everything for his party. ross grilled fajitas and jared made fruit kabobs and we picked up his cake from heb. everything was quite tasty! miles took a nap during the first part of his party before waking up to eat cake and open presents that all his friends brought for him. he had a pretty good time, but he was a little nervous that so many people were there. he is quite sensitive when people laugh loudly, especially when he is tired, so there were a few tears, but overall i think he really enjoyed himself. he definitely is enjoying all the wonderful toys and clothes from his friends, and it was so neat to see all the different people that have been apart of his life here in austin this year gathered together helping us celebrate such an awesome little man.

for all the grannies and other interested people, here are videos of miles enjoying the first cake of his life (just click each picture to see the videos)

beginning

middle

end!

12 months old!

2010-05-23T14:00:00.001-05:00

coming soon.... ;)

park dates

2010-05-23T13:16:00.004-05:00

the past few weeks the weather has been pretty nice and not unbearably hot. miles has taken advantage of this a couple times by meeting up with his friend maddie at the park. they have enjoyed sitting on blankets in the shade playing with their toys, and here is a picture of them swinging.

11 months old

2010-04-21T16:48:00.004-05:00

dear miles,
last week you turned 11 months old. i can't believe that the next time i write an update it will be for your 1st birthday!!

eat
these days you are eating 3 meals plus 1-2 snacks. for breakfast you usually have yogurt "dots" and rice cereal mixed up with some sort of fruit. for lunch you often have crackers or bread plus turkey and cheese, lil' crunchies, and fruit. you're favorite snack is a strawberry-banana cereal bar. this month you tried out some organic smiley grain snacks which your really like and also some veggie crisps...it seems you really like crunchy things the best! for dinner you either eat what dad and i are having (your personal favorite...mac n cheese- you open your mouth extra wide for that!!) or you have a lil' entree (think chef boyardee made by gerber) meal such as chicken with mac & cheese & veggies, spaghetti rings, or turkey and vegetable stew. you have been nursing 1-3x per day.

sleep
since you've been nursing only 1-3x per day, do you know what this means?? yes!! you are sleeping through the night (happy happy dance). well most nights any way. but you just kind of dropped your last feeding on your own when you were about 10 1/2 months. the first night it happened i was so excited i couldn't believe it...imagine my excitement when you did it 5 nights in a row! you've been heading to bed around 7 or 8pm. in the mornings you usually wake up around 7.30am though somehow on the weekends you will often realize you should sleep in until 8 or 9.30am...you are awesome. for most of the month you were taking about 3 naps, an hour nap in the morning, an hour nap around lunchtime, and a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon, waking up around 5pm. recently it seems like you are getting ready to drop that nap in the morning time.

skills
you have perfected the army crawl, you look like such a little bug inching around on the floor, it's super cute! you have escaped the playroom twice on a mission to find something interesting and once when you were trying to keep up with peyton. your first love however is walking which you are still working on. you are getting more adept at cruising and LOVE to stand and hold on to things/people and look around.

you are talking so much and we like to pretend you are saying things! we do start to recognize some of the same sounds, especially something that sounds like a combination of "hi dad" and "hi there". it was really neat because you always say it to your dad when you see him (you also wave your arms around and open your mouth wide and do a dance of excitement...even if he left for 20 seconds), but then now you also say it to minnie our cat, and peyton and brady, or whatever person/animal has caught your interest. things you are really excited about such as brady, baths, and books you lovingly touch and say "Be"...of course all of these things start with "b" so i like to pretend you are saying them! i hear the occasional "nana" when you really want something but have yet to hear "mama"....get working on that!!

you will occasionally wave bye-bye, with your whole left arm. more often you will do the same motion when we see sometime, as if waving hi...especially when you see your dad...or brady. :)

we have a volleyball and you will roll it back and forth with me. you use your little toes to help you catch the ball. it's so fun!

this isn't really a skill, but i want to remember that you do it...everytime i park the car and come around to get you out of your carseat, as soon as i open the door you laugh and do a happy dance, as if we are at the most exciting place in the world or you have missed me SO much while i was in the front seat. sometimes i glance back and you are craning your neck backwards so you can look at me while i'm driving. <3

things you love
you still love mostly the same things, not too much new here.

books - the farm book is definitely first place here. a new book you've been interested in lately is a touch and feel baby animals book
baths
brady
minnie
dad
mom
cereal bars
eating whatever we are eating
drinking from my cup
your blanket square and comfort animals you sleep with each night
your orange laptop
your singing/magnetic farm animal barn
animal shaped easter eggs
rocks/sand at the park
swinging at the park
tennis balls/volleyball
laughing- you spontaneously laugh while you're eating, bathing, or if i look at you. you are so funny!
music! - anytime you hear music you stop what you're doing, "dance" until it stops, and then you continue on. it's sooooo funny. it doesn't even have to be actual music...if your dad or i start making a beat by drumming on something, you will start to bob your head like you're feeling the beat.

what we did
celebrated your first Easter with auntie jen and some of our friends from small group
hung out with aunt bekkie while mom and dad went to a rehearsal dinner/wedding
watched dad and mom and friends play tennis
went to the park, a lot!
went for walks in the stroller
started going to a friends house with the babysitter 2x per week
painted your playroom brown and mint green

i know i say it each time, but everytime i look at you i am amazed at how much i love you. i love feeling your fingers hold onto me so tight as you hold yourself up and explore what's going on around you. your laugh is the sweetest thing i have ever heard and i look forward to hearing it every day. i love you little man!

first easter

2010-04-11T21:35:00.004-05:00

last sunday was miles' first easter. we went to church on saturday night and then some of our friends from our small group at church came over for dinner. everyone made their own kabobs and ross grilled them. auntie jen was here and made caprese salad as an appetizer, and we also had deviled eggs, salad, and the most awesome cupcakes ever! we got to hang out and watch the final four and really had a great evening. unfortunately miles ate his dinner right when we came home from church and promptly went to bed so he missed out on the party.

this left easter sunday wide open! everyone, including miles, slept in and then i made easter brunch...ham, eggs, and toast. afterwards miles opened his easter basket (as shown in the video below) from his grandparents and aunt and uncle. his favorite things were these easter eggs that were shaped like little animals. he still is enjoying playing with them over a week later! what he doesn't know is that his daddy ate the candy out of them!!

we all just kind of hung around the house for awhile, then we sat on the deck and chatted and ross grilled up all the leftover kabobs. in the late afternoon we went to the park and auntie jen and miles took a walk and played together while ross and i played tennis. the weather was beautiful, the company was great, and i don't think miles could have had a better first easter!

on the move

2010-04-11T21:21:00.002-05:00

as i have mentioned previously, miles really wants to walk. he is beginning to pull himself up and cruise. he occasionally stands for a few seconds by himself. it is very frustrating to him that he can't get to where he wants to go. up until a few weeks ago, he would burst into tears if i laid him on his tummy...it's almost as if he finds the concept of crawling insulting! but just over two weeks ago on a friday night, he started scooching! it was so cool to see him basically army crawl to a toy that he wanted. ross and i were so proud! then aunt bekkie showed up and we all watched him and laughed. over the past two weeks he has been scooching more and more, and now is content to play on his tummy so that he can scoot around and play with toys that around him. however, his preferred method of movement is still trying to walk. below is a video (it is lengthy but after about 1 minute you will get the general idea) of him playing and scooching.

first haircut!

2010-03-24T14:26:00.005-05:00

on tuesday march 16, ross and i took miles to get his first haircut. his mad scientist hair following his bath times was getting a little OOC. and it just needed to be evened out some. so we took him to this place called floyds where ross gets his hair cut. miles was very interested and calm until ross had to hold his head still, when he promptly burst into tears. after charging us FIFTEEN DOLLARS, the lady gave miles a sucker. i let him suck on it for a few seconds then we tossed it in the trash. we are still disgruntled over the price, but agree the haircut turned out well. i did have a moment when i took him home when i became very distraught over how grown up he looked. but, it was needed and next time we'll just go to super cuts i guess!

before

during

after

10 months old

2010-03-18T12:24:00.007-05:00

dear miles,
you are 10 months old (and 4 days...i have been a slacker!) and loving life. here are some things about you right now -

let's move it!

you want to walk. badly. you refuse to crawl or anything that resembles crawling. but if i hold out two fingers to you, you will grab on and pull yourself up and walk around. at first you would only take a straight-legged step or two, but now you can walk all across the house and bend your knees as you step. you also have a big grin on your face and bounce up and down excitedly between steps. you can also stand up while holding onto the coffee table or couch, which also makes you very proud of yourself. you have taken one or two steps toward something while holding onto the table, so i'm quite sure by next month's update you will be cruising for sure, with walking not too far away either. this still makes me nervous! but i am excited for the new opportunities it will bring you.

eat
you are starting to eat more and more solid foods. you have 4 teeth now to help you( 2 on top, 2 on bottom)! though you are still nursing 4-5 times each day, you are starting to eat 3 meals plus a snack each day. for breakfast you usually eat yogurt melts (freeze dried yogurt & fruit) which we call "dots" and rice cereal mixed with apple or white grape juice. for lunchtime sometimes you have chicken & carrot sticks, turkey & veggie ravioli pickups, or cheese & crackers & chicken with some lil' crunchies. sometimes we go out to lunch with your daddy or friends and you are quickly learning that this is way fun! you love sitting in the high chair and eating your snack and trying whatever we are eating. you also like to order a kids water so you can drink from a straw and cup just like everyone else. in the afternoon you usually have a fruit & cereal bar or lil' crunchies for a snack. for dinner you often eat pasta & veggies, veggie soup, or whatever your dad and i are having for dinner. throughout the day and with meals you drink water from your no-spill cup with a straw, with the occasional cup of juice. the other night i was eating chicken and some macaroni and cheese while you were playing and you just HAD to have some. you absolutely loved it and couldn't get enough. you got another treat yesterday on our spring break road trip to mom mom's and big papi's house. we stopped at a sonic for lunch and you got to sit in the drivers seat with me and eat a grilled cheese and apple juice...you were the happiest little boy ever, you thought you were so big! you also got a tot baby and a balloon which you were very proud of.

sleep
you have become quite attached to a little blue blanket square that my friend mindy gave you when you were born. its silky on one side and soft on the other. as soon as i lay you in your crib for a nap or bedtime, you stick two fingers from your right hand into your mouth, and stick out your left hand to cuddle the blanket. when you wake up and i come in to get you, you almost always are playing with the blanket happily. you also have a blue bear (from your great aunt sara) and a brown bear (from your daddy) that you enjoy playing and sleeping with in your crib as well.

you have a bedtime routine that we start around 7-8pm of bath, pj's and lotion, 2 medicines (prevacid and iron drops), nursing, brushing teeth, reading good night moon, and then laying down in your crib. you've been sleeping really well, from about 8.30pm until 4am, waking up to nurse and then sleeping til 7.30am (8.30am now that daylight savings came!). on sunday night you slept from 8.30pm-8.30am and it was awesome. you woke up and cried once but you quickly fell back asleep. we have been doing some cry it out with you and are now down to just one nightly feeding which i'm hoping to phase out before your bday...i'm sure you will be thrilled.

you are still taking 2 morning naps and 2 afternoon naps, though occasionally you will combine two of them for a 2hr nap instead of your usual 1hr nap...i'm hoping this trend continues and becomes your norm.

things you enjoy
baths
straws
puppies
lift the flap books (we had our first flap casualty this week :( )
mirrors
your jumper
toy baskets
tags
teeth
your toes
climbing on your dad in the morning
giving me kisses :)
strings
looking at things sideways and/or upside down

things we did
surprised aunt bekkie for her birthday in college station
played with grandma and grandpa
helped daddy build a deck in our backyard
went to church and small group and played with the other babies
met daddy for lunch
swing at the park
went to see big papi, mom mom, aunt bekkie, uncle jared, and aunt rachel for spring break

i can't believe you are 10 months old, now i truly understand what people mean when they say it goes by so fast! thoughts of your first bday party are already forming in my head. yesterday in the car i just kept looking back at you, singing to yourself and sucking on your toes, and i was thinking wow i have the sweetest baby in the world. you bring me so much joy and i love you very much!!

happiest boy in town

2010-03-10T13:08:00.002-06:00

i keep resolving to blog more often about the little day to day things that miles does but the more i neglect it the harder it is to keep up with all that is going on...but i figured i would at least get in another update before miles turns TEN MONTHS on sunday.

for starters he went to his 9 month checkup on feb 16th. he was 28.5 inches and 19lbs 11oz. he had his blood drawn to check for lead and iron levels. i had to hold him while the lady drew his blood because she was the only tech working there that day...we all survived though! unfortunately miles' results came back that he has anemia so he has been taking iron drops each night to boost his levels. they will recheck when he goes back for his 12 month appointment after his birthday.

our little guy is still immobile, though the end is in sight. it seems that he is not going to crawl after all, but he has become quite interested in walking. he can hold himself up on the coffee table or bath tub, and loves to take little steps walking around while you hold his hands for him. he also will pull himself up to standing if you offer him your fingers. so once he gets his balance figured out, he will be taking off in no time!

on feb 18th my parents and rachel came to watch my last basketball game. we went to dinner afterwards and then on the 19th miles and i rode to college station with them to surprise bekah for her golden birthday. ross met us later for dinner and then we headed back home with him.

miles' grandma and grandpa are in town so he has had a couple opportunities to play with them, and his mom mom just came and spent a couple days with him this week as well. we stocked up on some summer clothes for him and he also got a new walker toy that he can push around as he gets more comfortable holding himself up.

he is settling in to a very predictable routine during the days and we are working on getting him to sleep through the night. he is doing better each night and currently we are down to one waking/feeding between 8pm and 7am. not too bad, and we will continue to work to eliminate that feeding hopefully very soon.

everywhere we go miles gives people smiles. the cashier, the tech who drew his bloood (AFTER she took his blood!!), friends, family...anyone we come in contact with miles will generally give out a smile. he is a laid back guy who seems to be loving his life so far!

9 months old

2010-02-14T22:11:00.004-06:00

dear miles,
today you are 9 months old AND you are celebrating your very first valentines day so it is an extra special day around here. evelyn was visiting us (you could not stop smiling at her!) and we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. you got a baby songs dvd, a musical key ring, and a container of lil' crunchies (your fave!) for your valentines gifts...sorry, no chocolate for you just yet!

this is what a sample day looks like for you...

7.15am - wake up. lay in crib and play with toes. sing. talk to the decorations on the walls.

8.00am - get up! you are always so happy to start your day with your mom, dad, or miss leah. i am "training" you to sleep until 8am mostly because this is what time leah arrives and because on the weekends when leah is not arriving, i would not like to get up before 8am. :)

8.15am - feed puppies breakfast. feed miles breakfast. this month you have been really into rice cereal with mixed fruit. we mix up the cereal with white grape, pear, or apple juice and you eat bowls of the stuff! sometimes you also have yogurt bites with your cereal. this month you also tried waffles and pancakes, and enjoyed both.

8.45am - jump in the jumper in your playroom.

9.00am - a nap in your crib. i am going to be really sad when you stop scrunching up into a tiny ball and sucking on your fingers to sleep. its adorable! you've been using a handmade afghan that a friend of mine knit for you as your blanket and you've been cuddling with a little puppy dog rattle/blanket thingie. if i watch for signs that you are getting sleepy (rubbing eyes, cranky, staring) and lay you down then, you usually will go right to sleep.

10.00am - wake up. play with blocks, musical train, etc in your playroom. you sit and reach for your toys. if something is out of reach you lean forward, folding yourself in half and stretch your arm out sideways to reach it. if you can't quite reach it, you either give up or start to get upset. you are still not seeming interested in crawling at all. we will enjoy it while it lasts i suppose.

11.00am - another nap in your crib.

12.00pm - breastfeed. hang out with mom and blab away. you love to hear the itsy bitsy spider and play peek-a-boo. if i put a blanket on my head or on your head then you will pull it off and grin when i say peek-a-boo. i also do patty cake with my hands and sometimes help you do it with your hands. you love just chillaxin with your mom.

12.30pm - play with toys in the playroom. maybe jump for a few. read some books. all month your two favorite books were your lift the flap books ...."little people farm book" and "toes, ears, and nose". though you still enjoy these books a bunch, this past week you found a new favorite book. it's a baby einstein book "mirror me" that i bought for you at half price books. it has a mirror on every other page for you to mimic what the character on the previous book is doing. you rarely look at the mirrors but you LOVE the pictures of the animals. you grin like crazy when we read this book. and when its over you slap your legs and get really excited because you can't wait for me to read it again. so i do. again. and again. the other day, after 8 times, i hid it under the couch. you strained and strained trying to find it and then burst into tears.

1.30pm - nap in your crib.

3.00pm - snack. usually lil' crunchies and water.

3.15pm - play with toys in the playroom. if the weather is nice we sometimes go to the neighborhood park. sometimes we go to the grocery store or run an errand.

4.00pm - breastfeed. then, a nap in your crib.

5.00pm - sit and play with the water bottles and pitchers in one of the kitchen cabinets while mom cooks dinner. try some of what mom is cooking for dinner...pasta, sweet potatoes, green beans, bread, chicken, cheese, etc.

6.00pm - nap in your crib.

7.00pm - play with dad. jump. play with toys.

8.00pm - bath time. you LOVE bath time! this past week you graduated to the big tub. you have already figured out how to drain the water. you love to feel the water coming out of the faucet and investigate the bubbles it causes.

8.30pm - breastfeed and a good nite story. we have been reading goodnight moon (another half price books find) each night the past few weeks. then to bed in your crib.

12.00am - breastfeed and go back to bed.

3.00am - wake up, cry.

3.15am - fall back asleep. mom refuses to wake up for less than a 4hr interval these days. :)

6.00am breastfeed and go back to bed.

and there ya have it. this is what you are up to. most days you spend from 8am to noon with miss leah. your dad is also starting to take care of you a lot more and you are really bonding with both of them.

you enjoy going to the nursery at church. yesterday when i went to pick you up i was a little embarrassed because you were having so much fun with the toys (they were pretty cool toys!) that you wouldn't even look up to see me! and when i did pick you up, instead of acting happy to see me, you just craned your neck down to try to get back to the toys that were on the floor.

you get very excited. you show this by breathing really fast, nodding your head, rocking your body, and slapping both arms on your legs repeatedly. you have also started making a clicking/smacking sound with your lips when you are happy.

you had a rough week this past week because you were teething. yesterday i felt that one of your top two front teeth has poked on through, giving you a grand total of 3 teeth, and the fourth is going to be here very shortly.

you love your puppies, especially brady. you watch their every move and love to try to pet them. you laugh and laugh if brady licks you and then reach out your hands to pet him.

we love you so much and think you are the most beautiful and sweet baby in the world! nothing makes me happier than seeing you smile. :)

google chat and a message from miles

2010-01-20T22:06:00.003-06:00

miles had the opportunity to video chat with his MomMom and big papi this afternoon. it was one sided as their web cam was not working, but they were able to see and hear miles playing and we were able to hear them. he seems to enjoy listening but was pretty mellow. he was happy to eat a mum mum and play with his blocks though. but he was most interested in typing on my laptop. he loves to type. instead of hitting at the keyboard in the office like he does most toys, he will put his little chubby fingers on the keys and move them like he is typing, staring at the screen (he has learned a lot from his bumbo time watching his daddy in the office!!) today was no different and he had a lot to type to his grandparents! thought you would enjoy this message from miles....

5:25 PM
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5:26 PM
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5:27 PM
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5:28 PM
gggf bv

m, nx cxx cxxfxvf
5:29 PM
CVVVVVVV
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5:30 PM
v.g kv , vkm.,., m n ';/ .6;0
5:31 PM
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5:32 PM
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5:33 PM
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5:34 PM
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8 months old!

2010-01-14T11:16:00.003-06:00

dear miles,
today you are 8 months old! this month has been super busy and i think this has been one of the months you have changed the most. i was also just thinking yesterday that no matter what is going on, whenever i look at your sweet face i can't help but smile. i am so glad to have you! here's a look at what you are up to these days.

sleep
you sleep in your crib on your tummy. 2 fingers from your right hand go into your mouth, your left hand you stick straight out behind you. just about all the time. sometimes you still scrunch up into a ball, bum up in the air, hands under your tummy, ankles crossed. so cute. you are doing a great job of falling asleep on your own when we place you in your crib. unless you are super tired or have just had a bath, you burst into tears when i lay you down, then abruptly stop, suck on your fingers, and fall asleep. sometimes you take awhile to fall asleep and we will hear you in there talking and wriggling around. you are rarely in the same place as where i left you when you wake up, but i find it so cute that as you inch around your crib, your blanket travels with you.

you wake up in the mornings usually around 8am and take a good morning nap or two short ones. in the afternoons when i am home with you, you usually are still napping every other hour for an hour, though sometimes you stretch it to every 2 hours. lately you've been taking a nap from 5.30 or 6pm to 7.30pm which i would like to remove and just move your bedtime earlier. but for right now you've been going to bed around 8.30-9.30pm. you still are waking up a couple times per night but go right back to sleep after i feed you.

you did struggle some this month with sleeping because you had a super nasty cold and because we were traveling. when we returned home we put a pillow under your mattress to elevate your head and that seemed to work well. i was pleased with how you settled back into your routines after two weeks of travel.

eat
you are nursing at 5.30am, noon, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, and 1am...or around those times most days. in the mornings you eat baby food and occasionally a bottle of formula. at lunch and dinner time i have been offering you baby food and snacks. your favorite baby foods are bananas, strawberries & bananas, and chicken noodle dinner. though recently you have been very interested in feeding yourself. once you mastered cheerios, you decided you don't really want me to feed you baby food (though your babysitter reports that you eat well for her). so i bought a variety of baby snacks from the grocery store so you wouldn't be eating only cheerios. you LOVE them and can't get enough of them. i was worried you would struggle to eat them, but you grab them up, some in each hand and chomp them. right now you are eating banana puffs, sweet potato puffs, mixed berry yogurt bites, mum mums, and veggie dip corn snacks. this month we are going to continue to try baby food, but also i am going to buy some frozen veggies for you to try and some diced fresh fruits. you also enjoyed chewing on celery and tangerines over the christmas break.

i offer you water while you are snacking. your favorite sippy cup is one that has a straw. recently you have wanted to drink out of anyone's cup who happens to be holding you and a cup! especially if the "cup" is a water bottle or gatorade bottle, etc with a crinkly wrapper. so this week you have been working on drinking a 20oz dasani water bottle through a straw. it is hilarious to watch! i think you think you are so big, feeding yourself and drinking from a water bottle. yesterday you got your first taste of apple juice...i think you are a fan.

skills
your biggest achievement this month was learning to sit up. it seemed to happen overnite while we were traveling for christmas, but you have definitely got it down. but now that you can sit, you don't really like to be on your tummy. you don't really seem interested in crawling, but i know it will come soon, whether we are ready or not!

you have been saying "dada" a lot, sometimes it seems like you are saying it right to your dad. you also have "baba" sound down and you seem to say "nehnehneh" in relation to food or in relation to me or just randomly, i'm not sure.

you have been blowing lots of raspberries this month.

you love to look at yourself and other people in the mirror and smile.

you have graduated to the last section of your infant bathtub. you've gone from the hammock, to reclined, and now you are in the sitting up section. you love baths just as much as ever. you have moved to splashing with your hands rather than your feet. you sit there and hit the water with both hands, splashing water everywhere, looking startled when it hits your face!

play time
we moved the office into the old guest room so that the back bedroom would be emptied out as a playroom for you. we moved the guest bed out and bought a futon to have in the playroom. we loaded up the cabinets with all your christmas toys and moved your jumper and other gear into the playroom. the plan is to paint the walls and do some decorating and baby-proofing so we will have a safe place in the house for you to explore and play with your toys. the closet doors in that room are mirrored and you love to jump and look at yourself in the mirror.

you also are pretty happy to lay in bed with us or on the couch and play with remote controls, cellphones, or laptops...anything with tiny buttons to stare at.

your aunt m and uncle m gave you a sailboat quilt that was hand made just for you for christmas. we usually spread that out on the floor and you sit on it and play with your toys. you take blocks in and out of buckets and chew on them and bang them together. you still love to read books. at the beginning of the month the touch and feel books were your favorites, but this past week i have noticed you are learning to like the lift-the-flap books more and more. the two books you are most interested in right now (though i think 'that's not my puppy' is still your overall fave) are called "Ears Nose & Toes" and a Little People Farm book...both are lift the flaps. you stretch forward and lift each flap after i do...i love it!

the weather has been really cold, but one day this week i was able to take you to the park (we also took you to the park in graham over the christmas break). you enjoyed the swings and watched the other kids running around playing. a 16month old girl came and was in the swing next to you, and you really stared at her while she laughed and talked.

what we did
you spent the mornings i was working with your babysitter. it's obvious you are getting to know and recognize her and enjoy your times with her. your dad and i both had 2 weeks off work and we spent them traveling to graham and missouri to celebrate christmas. auntie jen babysat you, you hung out with your dad while i had bball tournaments, we rang in the new year with friends, played in snow, went shopping, had a cold, got your first stomach bug, celebrated mawmaw's 80th birthday, and celebrated your first christmas!

i wonder if this time next month we will have a mobile miles??? scary thought!!!

christmas video

2010-01-04T16:30:00.002-06:00

i almost forgot! click on the video below to watch a slideshow of some of the christmas pictures.

Movies

two teeth & sitting like a pro

2010-01-04T15:29:00.002-06:00

it was on dec 17th that i first felt a little tooth poking thru miles' gums. over the 2wk christmas break, miles has grown two little teeth...the two front bottom teeth. he enjoys rubbing his tongue over them. they are quite sharp! and he also enjoys practicing his bite...so beware! he now enjoys chomping bites of mum mum rice cakes, gnawing on celery stalks, and most recently eating cheerios. the first time i gave him some cheerios he was struggling to pick them up and i needed to break them in half for him to eat. today i put him in his high chair and he was picking up handfuls of cheerios in each hand and stuffing them in his face...he's a fan. i like watching him practice picking up tiny things. and i like that they entertain him. today he also grabbed his cup with a straw and drank some water, without any help from me.

it seems like overnight on our christmas travels he could suddenly sit unassisted. it's way more fun for him to sit on a blanket and play with all his new toys. i just put his buckets of blocks on either side of him and he happily takes blocks in and out and bangs them around everywhere, it is so cute! he also likes to dump the entire box out...how does he learn this already? he also likes to sit next to his dad and "play playstation", though ross informed me yesterday he has already figured out which controller ross is using and only wants to play with that one, rather than the one that is turned off. again, how do they learn this stuff so soon?!?

perhaps the most significant thing about miles sitting so far is that today he and i were able to do a full week's worth of grocery shopping with him strapped in the cart! he had grown too big to ride in his sling while i shopped, but usually would get tired of sitting up before i was done shopping. but today i strapped him in and he happily sat the whole time and played with a packet of cheese, making it crinkle in his hands. he did great, even while checking out and loading the car. no less than 7 people mentioned how cute he was, and one lady told whoever she was o the phone that she had just seen the most beautiful baby in the world at the grocery store. i certainly don't disagree and i am blessed to be holding that baby right now! (yes, really right now...i have sacrificed my cell phone to him so i can have sole use of my laptop, even if it is just to type left-handed only).

ringing in the new year for the first time

2010-01-04T15:23:00.002-06:00

after being gone for a week, we returned home around 2pm on the 31st. miles was so glad to see his jumper and especially his crib. he took a long nap in it. i went to the grocery store and cooked dinner. brittany, brian, and jennifer- a friend i coach with at school- came over to celebrate new years eve with us. we ate dinner together (i made enchiladas using a recipe from friend), played an intense game of scattergories, and then played ticket to ride before ringing in the new year. miles hung out with us during dinner and then made an appearance during scattergories before going down for the night. maybe next year he stay up until midnite, who knows?

miles' first christmas

2010-01-04T14:50:00.003-06:00

this year miles celebrated his very first christmas...3 times! ross and i both had 2 weeks off work and we spent all but 4 days of that traveling with a baby, 2 dogs, and snow-covered roads. perhaps it was a little crazy, but we wanted our families to be able to spend this special time with miles.

christmas...graham style
after our last day of work on the 18th, we got up early the next morning and drove to graham just in time for mawmaw's 80th birthday party. All of my dad's family made the trip and it was no small affair! i was glad we could be a part of the special day, though i'm not sure anyone noticed us because they were so glad to meet miles! nana and delbert also joined us for the celebration, and they could not believe how much miles had grown since the last time they had seen him! on sunday miles went to the park with his cousins and nana and then celebrated christmas with my cousins. we had declared monday as "christmas day" in graham. we did our traditional stockings, breakfast, presents combo with my parents, mawmaw, and all of us siblings. my mom bought miles a huuuge stocking and he enjoyed holding each item i took out of it. he also loved to crinkle the wrapping paper and of course tried to eat it. he got some clothes (some for when he's older), lots of books...his fave, blocks, and lots of other little goodies. it was a lot of fun to be with the complete family.

christmas...austin style
we left the next day (22nd) and came back home. miles was perfect in the car (for the record, so were the dogs). we unpacked everything and relaxed. auntie jen came over on the 23rd and babysat miles while ross and i went to san antonio for a spurs game (our christmas present from my parents). i think we calculated it was the longest spurt i had been away from miles and i definitely missed him. we demanded jennifer keep texting us pics of him while we were at the game. we ate at saltgrass before the game and had a really great evening together. jennifer did a great job with miles, even though he was getting sick and was a super crankpot that day. christmas eve day auntie jen took care of miles allll day while i cleaned the house and ross took care of all the leaves in the yard and did some other work outside. then we went to church and afterwards ate brisket and had a game night with 2 new games ross had purchased as his christmas gift from mawmaw. we wanted to stay up all night playing but we had a busy day the next day. we were super glad jfer came and helped us out while she was cramming in as much miles time as she could before she left for her semester in wales. christmas morning we ate cinnamon rolls and packed up everything again, then we all headed out.

christmas...missouri style
we drove back to graham and spent the night with my parents there before heading up to missouri the next day. the roads were very icy and we saw more than 60 cars that had driven off the road between graham and wichita falls, but ross did a great job and 8hrs later eventually drove us safely to his parents house. ross' nephew, brother, and sister-in-law were also there. miles' grandma was so glad to see him again, the first time since he was more than a week old, and it was his grandpa's first time to get to meet him. right away he got to work opening more presents. already he seemed better at it. he started ripping at the paper right away and found a musical train and a set of shape blocks with a bucket which is turning out to be his favorite toy. miles had a great time receiving lots of love and playing with his new toys...he even got to play the piano! his uncle mike took lots of pictures of him that turned out so cute! one evening miles hung out with his grandma while ross and i went to see a movie and did some shopping at the mall...it was quite the treat for me, only the 2nd time we've gone out to the movies since miles was born. we also watched the a&m bowl game and some movies at the house. also, i read a book...a novel concept! i really enjoyed having so much help with miles. we left missouri on the 30th and made it to graham, once again spending the night there before finally heading home to austin on the 31st.

i think miles really enjoyed seeing all his family. out of nowhere, on the 19th, he decided he would smile and laugh at everyone...previously he had been very stoic when he was not at home. i was so glad that everyone got to see his personality and his beautiful smile. also, while were in missouri he started sitting up more for longer periods of time, and over the break he also began to eat cheerios he had gotten in his stocking. unfortunately he had a cold from the 23rd onward so he had a lot of difficulty sleeping, which made for a very tired ross and me. he did great riding in the car ( i think i calculated 1700+ miles), if he got bored i just rode in the back to talk to him, feed him baby food, or hand him toys/read him books. all in all, it was a great first christmas for our sweet baby boy!

7 months old!

2009-12-14T21:39:00.003-06:00

dear miles,
today you are 7 months old. yesterday i bought you your first pair of blue jeans to celebrate the occasion...they are super cute! but when i came home today and saw you wearing them i was super sad...they make you look so grown up! my little baby is starting to look like a little boy. i can't believe we are on the downhill march to your first birthday. i can still remember the first time i held you like it just happened yesterday.

eat
you are still nursing 4-7 times each day. you are eating stage 2 foods now, usually 1/2 jar to 1 whole jar in the mid-morning. i think i'm going to start feeding you 2 times a day now that you are 7 months old. your favorites are bananas, applesauce, and sweet potatoes. yesterday at the store i bought some mum mum rice cakes. i handed one to you and you knew exactly what to do with it! it dissolves in your mouth pretty much and it keeps you occupied in your high chair for a good 30min....at least it did until brady stole it right off your tray today and ate it...oops! you are beginning to enjoy drinking water from your cups...you have one sippy cup and one cup with a straw. you can pick them up and drink from them. it's super cute!

sleep
besides one week this month when you were on amoxicilin and you DID NOT NAP AT ALL, you are a pretty good sleeper. you sleep about 10-12hrs at night (though you wake up every 4hrs to eat still :( ) and take several naps during the day. you fall asleep pretty easily for naps if i lay you in your crib when you appear tired, but at night time you sometimes have a hard time settling down unless i give you a bath and read you a few books first. as long as we do those 2 things, you go right to sleep once i lay you down. if you are not tired when we lay you down, you roll right over to your back and chatter to yourself. you also do this when you wake up for the most part, it is so adorable! and definitely beats crying!!!

skills
1. rolling over...though we don't see you do much rolling from back to front. you usually just contort your body instead to reach whatever you are grasping for
2. drinking from a straw.
3. sitting with support. you are getting better every day. the other day you sat up with a straight back for 30seconds. but you are usually more interested in eating your toes or going after some toy.
4. grabbing EVERYTHING. you are in a stage that you want to take everything and put it in your mouth. as soon as something comes close to you, both your hands stretch out and you start trying to grab it. nothing is safe!
5. scooching. you have mastered the art of wiggling around in circles/turning yourself to reach slightly out of reach toys.
6. feed yourself a cracker.
7. babble. you are quite the talker!
8. laugh and giggle. you are the happiest baby i've ever seen. you love to laugh and give out big smiles...except when we are out in public. you then become very stoic, taking in all that is going on around you.

favorites
1. you still love baths
2. you are starting to enjoy playing with interesting "toys"...a spatula, playstation controller, wrapped granola bars...you love the crinkle!
3. you love your puppies
4. your daddy. you always have a huge smile ready whenever you see him. plus, you love to touch his beard.
5. drinking water from straws at restaurants
6. your jumper
7. sitting in the bumbo watching people
8. listening to music
9. being tickled...i love your giggles!
10. lips!!! you are very interested in lips right now. you stare at them, move your own lips...and sometimes try to grab them!

what we did
i was in basketball season so you came to school several times and met all the girls. you spent time with your daddy while i was at games and tournaments. we got to spend time with your mommom and auntie jen while your daddy was travelling for business. we celebrated thanksgiving in college station. we went christmas shopping. and most of all, we just enjoyed being with you! you are the coolest!

10 things i only do because i'm a mom

2009-12-07T21:15:00.001-06:00

1. wake up before noon on saturdays. 7am to be precise.
2. sing the national anthem opera style in an attempt to keep a 2ft tall person entertained while he is sitting in his bouncer watching me cook dinner
3. take 30min to get ready to leave the house to run 1 errand
4. avoid places without a drivethrough - subway, chipotle, 7-11 ( i miss you slurpees!), other convenience stores, etc
5. come into contact with someone else's nasty bodily fluids...vomit, snot, poo - you name it.
6. work part-time.
7. wake up at midnite and 3am to give someone a snack...every nite for the past 7 months.
8. get annoyed at people who park in the "customer with child" reserved parking spots when, in fact, they do not have a child accompanying them
9. read the same book 5x in a row...in 5 minutes
10. sneak in and watch someone sleep because they are the most adorable little dude in the world!

sleepless in austin

2009-12-07T20:50:00.003-06:00

i'm not sure why it happened, but yesterday miles decided he no longer needs very much sleep. my sweet boy who took 4-5 naps per day and wakes up every 3-4hrs to eat at night but is excused because he sleeps up to 12hrs at night, falling asleep right after his snacks are over...this sweet boy has hardly slept in 2 days. yesterday i came home from volunteering at church and was surprised to learn miles had been awake the entire time i was gone, but didn't think much of it...i figured he would take a really long afternoon nap. not so much. it's not that he wasn't tired- eye rubbing, yawning, laying his head down...but as soon as i put him in his crib he would flip over and have a party. i tried all afternoon to get him to nap to no avail. finally at 6pm he fell asleep until 9pm. i fed him and tried to put him back in bed as he had fallen asleep exhausted i'm sure...and he laid in his crib talking to himself (not fussing, not playing with toys - just talking) until 11pm when he finally went to sleep again until 7am (with one snack at 3.30am).

i figured he would catch up on his sleep today. again, not so much. he only slept 30min all morning for his babysitter and was still awake at 2pm!! at this point he took a whopping 30min nap. he did take a hour nap later this afternoon and has just now fallen asleep after his bath and stories around 8.30pm. he partied in his crib for about 20min and is now finally asleep for what i hope is a really really really long time. because that's what i want to do...sleep!!!!

first thanksgiving and more

2009-12-05T15:29:00.002-06:00

oops! i have really slacked off this month in posting. a lot has happened the past 3 weeks, most notably thanksgiving. we went to my aunt & uncle's house as usual and played our backyard football game and ross and i attended the aggie game while my mom (and some helpers!) watched miles. miles was very interested to see everyone, so excited he hardly slept the whole time we were there. i was fading in and out of sleep after a 1am feeding only to realize it was 2.30am and miles was still having a party in his pack n play with his stuffed bear. he and i both took a four hour nap when we got home on friday and he continued to catch up on his sleep on saturday once we were back at our house and things were less exciting/interesting!

miles has also been struggling with a cold for the past 2 weeks which has been quite frustrating. he is currently taking antibiotics for a possible sinus infection so hopefully it will kick in during the next few days and we can all return to a happier, more restful state.

he is getting closer and closer to sitting. the other day he sat up with a straight back for 15 seconds unassisted. usually though he just folds himself in half to eat a toy or his toes, it is too funny, he is very flexible! he has much more interesting things to do than sit up. when we go out i always put him in a highchair or cart and he is happy to do so for a few minutes, but then wants to get out after about 5 min. last night we went out to dinner and after his stint in the high chair, he sat with me and was quite content to crinkle a package of crackers and drink sips of water from the end of a straw.

i will try to do a better job of keeping you updated during the upcoming weeks!

1/2 birthday - 6 months old

2009-11-14T10:53:00.003-06:00

dear miles,
i cannot believe that my sweet little boy is 1/2 year old today. i am excited we have all made it this far. it is amazing how much you have changed in the past 6 months. you have packed on almost 12 pounds and grown 8 inches! at your 6month checkup this past wednesday you weighed 17lbs 7oz and were 27in long with a head circumference of 17.5 inches. your weight is 80th percentile (a far cry from the 3rd percentile you started in!!) and your length and head are 90th percentile...this means you are a big baby! you are also the sweetest baby i have ever known, giving out lots of smiles and rarely crying.

eat
you are still breastfeeding but this month we also started you on some solid foods! we started with rice cereal which you thought was ok, then moved to sweet potatoes which you grew to enjoy, and then bananas which have been your absolute favorite so far. next came green beans which you do not seem to care for just yet. you usually eat around 3am, 6am, and then drink a bottle while i am at work, then eat several times throughout the afternoon/evening. i usually try to give you solid foods around 7pm so we can just drop you right in the bath afterwards.

sleep
you generally go to sleep for the night sometime between 7.30-8.30pm. you are still waking up one or two times at night around midnite and/or 4am, and waking up for the day around 7-8am. i am annoyed by the time change because this used to be 8-9am, which is preferable to 7am! the doctor says you are ok for a couple more weeks but then we will need to start working on getting you to sleep through the night with no snacking. when you are ready to go to sleep we just lay you in your bed, you scrunch up and fall asleep. sometimes you talk to yourself for awhile. we play your noise machine on rainfall and sometimes turn on your boats or seahorse so you can listen to the music as you fall asleep. if you are not wanting to go to sleep just yet, you roll over to your back and giggle. if i roll you back, you just keep flipping over until i give up or you get so tired you decide it will be ok to go to sleep. you still take 1-2 morning naps and 2-3 afternoon naps as well, usually about 1hr each, with an hour play time in between.

9 things about you this month
1. you have started using your hands to grab things. you love to touch faces, especially when daddy has a beard. you also love to hold your toys, but you are so uncoordinated...sometimes you start crying out of frustration
2. you love to suck on your fingers. occasionally your thumb, but usually your middle and ring finger together are your fingers of choice. sometimes all 4 fingers make it in there. if you get upset you will usually soothe yourself by popping those 2 fingers in your mouth and looking around.
3. you looove your jumper. you go crazy jumping around in that thing.
4. you are so intrigued by your puppies and cat...anytime they are in the room walking around, your head swivels around watching them intently wherever they are going.
5. you like for me to read books to you. you enjoy looking at the pictures and listening to my voice. your favorite book right now is called "thats not my puppy" and it's a touch and feel book. whenever i pick it up your hand immediately pop up and your fingers start feeling the hairy dog on the cover. if i set the book down, you will crane your neck down to continue staring at the bright red cover.
6. you are really into squealing or screeching or some terrible noise that you have learned you can make. we are hoping this is a fad that will fade soon. sometimes you make it when you are upset but often you make it just to make it.
7. some of your favorite things are still your faves...the boat mobile and baths topping the list.
8. this month you went to a volleyball game and to gattiland with my team, watched your daddy play tennis, went to a pumpkin patch with your aunties, went hiking at turkey creek, went to college station to see family, dressed up as a ghostie for halloween, got your first cold, found a new doctor, and almost got to see pete sampras play tennis but instead got completely soaked in a rainstorm.
9. you are kind of shy. at home you laugh, giggle, smile, and tell us what is on your mind. but when we are around other people you mostly just stare intently at them with your big blue eyes and poker face.

From sweetberry 1

solid food

2009-11-03T22:19:00.002-06:00

miles is not quite 6 months old but he seems to be very hungry, can sit and hold his head up well, and is obsessed with people eating food. seriously, if he's crying i can just start eating something and he will stop and stare. most recently, i was sitting in the recliner with miles, my laptop, and a sandwich. he was just chillaxin with me and all the sudden as i brought the sandwich up towards my mouth, two tiny hands reached up and grabbed the sandwich and tried to bring it towards a tiny mouth!

considering all this plus the rumor that solid food can help babies with reflux to sleep longer periods of time, i was anxious to let miles try out some solid food. on monday oct 26 when ross got home from work we decided to let miles try out some rice cereal. he seemed fairly interested and very willing to open his mouth and swallow. on tuesday he also seemed interested. on wednesday he got a cold and so i held off giving him any. on thursday i gave him room temperature rice cereal and he totally freaked out! he absolutely hated it and would not eat it or even close his mouth. i haven't given him any since because of his cold, i felt like he had enough going on his body that i didn't want him to have to worry about the cereal. now he's starting to feel better though and i have my eye on the sweet potatoes i bought for him! i will be sure to warm them up though.

here is how miles felt for the first bites of rice cereal....

and here is how miles feels about room temperature rice cereal!!

a very aunt-y weekend

2009-10-26T16:07:00.003-05:00

aunt bekkie had planned to come visit us this weekend and at the last minute auntie jen decided to tag along and we had ourselves one super fun weekend! the girls arrived friday evening and we went to the neighborhood park. bekah and i went for a short run while jen walked with miles and then let him swing for a little bit. we came home and enjoyed some chili i had made before hanging out for the rest of the evening.

saturday morning we were up and at them early because we had an adventure to sweetberry farms in marble falls. the weather was awesome and we took pictures with the pumpkins before tackling the texas maze.

we almost gave up several times but eventually found all the signs for the 11 texas lakes that were featured this year.

miles slept the whole time in his stroller!

we earned a free drink at the end for completing the maze.

we took the tractor/hay ride back over to the other side of the farm and were shocked to see how many people had appeared while we were in the maze. we definitely beat the crowd and were happy about that! we stopped at chili's in marble falls for lunch before heading back home. after church, we made dinner and played a fascinating game of uno. :)

sunday morning we were up early again, this time for a trip to turkey creek...a nature trail we had gone to last weekend where the dogs can be off their leashes. the aunties watched miles while i volunteered at church and then they went back to school right after lunch.

we had a blast this weekend and miles enjoyed cuddling with his aunties. we are so glad they came to visit!

we have a jumper!

2009-10-20T16:32:00.002-05:00

miles has grown to love his jumper. when we first got it, he would sit around in it and occasionally bounce some. now, he has quite the party! see for yourself...the video is pretty cute!

swinging at the park

2009-10-17T21:37:00.003-05:00

friday afternoon the weather was beautiful so i took miles to one of our neighborhood parks. i wanted to see if he was big enough to swing! this is what he did when i first put him in ...

but then i fixed him and he sat there for about 12 minutes.
i couldn't tell if he liked it or not. the sun was really bright so he kept his eyes closed mostly. but if i stopped the swing he would fuss until i pushed the swing again, so i think he found it interesting at least. can't wait to try again!

tickle me miles

2009-10-17T21:33:00.002-05:00

ticklish! this always makes me laugh, and it wears him out. right after i took this video, i laid him in his crib and he took a long nap. :)

5 months old!

2009-10-14T16:18:00.006-05:00

dear miles,
today you are 5 months old. it is unreal how fast you are growing up; yet i also can barely remember what my life was like before you showed up! i can't believe how much i have grown to love someone who has only been around for 5 months. :) you are absolutely adorable and here is what you have been up to the past few weeks.

eat
you are still drinking breastmilk, though we did buy a highchair, rice cereal, and spoons in hopes of starting you on food after your appointment with the GI doctor. you are very interested in our food! you will stopy crying just to stare at anyone eating something, or pretending to eat something for that matter. you also do an awesome job of chewing up and swallowing your medicine in solutab form so i know you will do great once we get started. that is if you like how it tastes! you have been refusing to drink formula. you drink your 4oz bottle each morning no problem, but if we put formula in that bottle you know right away and start screaming! mr. picky.

i think you are still eating about 7-8 times every 24hours. you eat 2x at night, 1x in the morning (from a bottle), and 4 or 5 times throughought the afternoon/evening. you are easily distracted. i used to catch up on my phone calls while you were eating, but now if i say one word you stop eating and stare at me.

sleep
you still sleep quite a lot! i think you get this from me. you often have difficulty falling asleep. this i think you get from your dad! i try to give you a bath, a massage, and a snack starting around 8ish pm and this sets you up with bedtime around 9-9.30pm. you have been waking up fairly consistently for a snack at 1am and 5am but go right back to sleep while/after eating. you wake up for the day usually around 8 or 9am (of course last nite you didn't do this...you slept from 9pm-7.30am only waking up at 2.30am so we might be headed towards a new schedule soon). you generally take one nap in the morning, though sometimes you are a sleepyhead and sleep the majority of the morning. you almost always begin a nap at 1pm. most afternoons you sleep for an hour and then play for an hour and repeat until bedtime. though sometimes you sleep for several hours during your 1pm nap, which is nice for both of us.

you take your naps and sleep in your crib on your tummy. sometimes you fall asleep while i'm rocking you but we usually try to lay you in your crib. you protest some but usually can put yourself to sleep within 5-10minutes. if you are having a particular difficult time falling asleep we will offer your pacifer and turn on your musical seahorse.

what we did

we got into a pretty steady routine this month since i'm at work and coaching volleyball. you have met the 7th and 8th grade girl athletes that i work with and they absolutely adored you. you stared at them. your auntie jen and mommom both came for 24hr visits to help take care of you. you went to small group and the nursery at church. you and i made a quick overnite trip to college station to see my family when they were there for a football game. we went shopping and on some walks. you spent most mornings with your babysitter and enjoyed hanging out with me in the afternoons, and cuddling with your dad and me on the weekends.

skills
you are rapidly adding skills to your repertoire. it's fun to see you interact with us more.

1. smile! you have the cutest smiles and you are very generous with them.
2. laugh. you laugh a lot and it always makes me laugh. you are very ticklish and i can usually get you belly laughing pretty good, almost to tears with a good tickle. if my hair brushes across your face, you find this to be quite hilarious as well.
3. observe what's going on around you. you still love your sailboat mobile. you listen to conversations, turning and staring at whoever is talking. you are fascinated by your puppies and cat.
4. roll over. you roll from tummy to back frequently and occasionally from back to front.
5. throw a tantrum. this threw me by surprise the first time it happened but somehow you have learned to scream. it's a very angry, almost scary sounding shriek that you give when you are NOT pleased. its almost funny that you are capable of being so ticked off.
6. listen to books. you just now, as in the last day or 2, are interested in books. i have loved reading to you so far and look forward to reading many more books with you.
7. watch tv. you are very interested in tv and i enjoy cuddling with you on the weekends, letting you climb on me and watching football together.
8. kick in the bath. you still are a HUGE fan of baths. i think bath time is your favorite time of day.
9. put toys in your mouth. you still don't use your hands a whole lot, but you will occasionally grab a toy and try to put it in your mouth. you are not very coordinated just yet and that makes you frustrated. your favorite toy right now is an orange teething star. your butterfly rattle is a close second.
10. jump! you are starting to jump more in your jumper. we put the batteries in so it plays music and lights up. you seem to really enjoy this, more and more each day as you grow.
11. sit while propped up. you are showing more interest in sitting up these days. you are not too coordinated at doing so by yourself, but love sitting with assistance.
12. give kisses! this is my absolute favorite! if we give you several kisses on the cheek with loud muuwaaa's then you will often open your mouth and plant a very slobbery kiss on our cheek and smile. love it! and love you! i love being your mom more than i ever imagined i would and can't wait to see what's in store for us this month.

a day in the life of baby miles

2009-10-02T20:50:00.003-05:00

today baby miles and i have the entire day to spend with each other, and there is nothing we HAVE to do. so we are going to hang out and enjoy each other and also try to get a lot of things done around the house...we will see how it goes! i thought you might enjoy seeing what a day in miles' life is like right now at about 4 1/2 months. i am updating this post in real time as i go thru the day. some of the pictures are videos, so be sure to click on them!

last nite miles fell asleep in my arms around 9pm while we were all watching the office after i got home from coaching. i put him in his crib and came to feed him at 1am and 5am. he fell right back asleep so i put him in his crib each time and then we both slept until a glorious 9.30am. he does this frequently but i usely head out after the 5am feeding so i miss out on this wonderful event. i think it must be genetic. and so our day begins.

9.30am- miles has produced more than his diaper can handle since 5am. i take off his clothes and clean him up. he is happpy to see me.

9.32am - miles eats a leisurely breakfast while grinning and talking to me.

9.45am - miles plays on his blanket with some toys while i eat breakfast.

9.55am - miles suddenly becomes very upset. i pick him up and he had a huge burp. he is kind of fussy so we sit in the rocking chair and play
and talk a little

10.15am - miles is working on a dirty diaper.

10.18am - i decide now would be a great time to give miles the bath he missed last nite.

10.35am - i dry miles off and get him dressed. he talks to me the entire time

10.37am - miles really wants a snack. everyone knows swimming makes you hungry so i let him have one. he is getting sleepy; his eyes are closed while he is eating

10.45am - miles is very sleepy. i rock him for a few minutes. he smells so good! i love the baby smell.

10.55am - i put miles in his crib, even though i just want to sit and hold him

10.56am - i feed the dogs breakfast, then fold and put away 2 loads of laundry, put in more laundry, pick up the den, vacuum the floor and couch, dust and clean the coffee tables

12.19pm - i hear miles talking so i know he's awake. he is on his side and then rolls to his back.

12.24pm - miles eats his lunch while i browse the internet

12.27pm - miles was more interested in me than his lunch so i change his diaper instead.

12.32pm - miles plays in his jumper while i heat up some lunch for me

12.44pm - miles has tummy time on his blanket while i'm eating lunch

12.50pm - miles gets upset so tummy time ends. he is very interested in finishing his lunch

12.55pm - miles is fussy. i rock him and sing to him.

1.05pm - miles is very still so i lay him in his crib to fall asleep

1.10pm - miles is having trouble falling asleep so i turn on his musical seahorse and give him his pacifier

1.24pm - turns out miles wasn't sleepy, just gassy. once he worked that out, he rolled to his back and is laying in his crib happily talking to himself.

1.29pm - i turn on his sailboat mobile in his crib and he is moving his head around in a circle watching the boats. he loves his boats!

1.34pm - miles and i go into my room for a change of scenery. we hang out on the bed so he can climb on me and watch the fan.

1.51pm - miles is fussy so i offer him a snack

1.53pm - i change miles' 3rd poopy diaper of the day

1.56pm - miles practices sitting up

2.04pm - miles is fussy which generally means sleepy so i take him to his room and put him in his crib.

2.05pm - miles is not pleased. i give him his pacifier and turn on the musical seahorse. i wonder if he's teething because he is chewing vigorously on his pacifier rather than sucking on it. i pat his back for a few minutes until he is calm enough to fall asleep.

2.10pm - miles is asleep. i decide to hang up the load of laundry and throw another load in

2.45pm - i hear noises on the baby monitor. miles is awake, has rolled onto his back and is talking to himself in his crib.

2.55pm - miles and i head to the heb. i decide to just carry him. he was no problem, just snuggled the whole time. turns out i underestimated the difficulty of pushing the cart with one hand. won't be doing that again.

3.37pm- miles watches his sailboat mobile while i unload groceries

3.39pm - miles watches me put away groceries in the kitchen while sitting in his bouncy chair

3.50pm - miles and i both have a quick snack in his nursery

3.55pm - miles and i sit in the rocking chair and i make him laugh by making faces and funny noises

4.00pm - miles plays in his jumper

4.08pm - miles gets tired of the jumper so we go to the den and he plays on his floor mat

4.15pm - miles is fussy so we go to his room to change his diaper

4.20pm - miles is still not happy so i rock him and sing to him.

4.30pm - miles is asleep so i lay him in his crib. i spend a few minutes reading my Bible and a few pages in a book about infant sleep. then i hang up the clothes that were in the dryer.

5.02pm - miles is crying but his eyes are still closed. i give him his pacifier and pat his back. again he is chewing it and still crying. i try rocking him but he still seems upset

5.08pm - miles eats some dinner. this seemes to be exactly what he wanted

5.15pm - miles is finished eating but seems uncomfortable. so we just snuggle in the rocking chair for a few minutes

5.25pm - miles perks up a bit so he plays on his floormat in the den while i put away clothes and put a load of baby laundry in the washer before i play with miles for awhile

5.45pm - miles sits in his bouncy seat in the kitchen while i put dinner in the oven, clean the dining and breakfast tables and take out the kitchen trash. ross called and chatted for a few minutes. i had forgotten he was going to a movie tonite with some friends from work, so it's just miles and me for the evening as well.

6.12pm - miles has had about as much of his bouncy seat as he can handle. i've been keeping him entertained by talking to him, making loud noises, and singing. but enough is enough. we go to his nursery to hang out for awhile.

6.18pm - miles plays in his crib while i feed the dogs and check on dinner

6.25pm - miles and i hang out in my room. i eat dinner and we watch tv and the fan and play.

6.58pm - miles and i go for a walk. the weather is pleasant but mosquitos are out in force and miles is not really in the mood so we stick with a short stroll through the neighborhood including a stop at the mailbox.

7.17pm - i change miles' diaper and give him his medicine

7.22pm - miles wants to eat. he seems sleepy. he has his eyes closed while eating

7.28pm - miles is finished eating and has fallen asleep

7.33pm - i put miles in his crib. it's possible he's down for the nite, but i'm not making too many plans. sometimes when he goes to bed kind of early like this he will wake up again around 8pm before going to bed for real around 9 or 10pm. i decide to pay the bills and eat some ice cream

8.10pm - miles is awake and not happy. when i pick him up, he burps. i'm going to see if he will sit with me while i finish paying bills.

8.24pm - finished! we play together on the couch...miles is fussy so i cuddle him and sing to him

8.38pm - miles seems sleepy but is very uncomfortable. he is squirming around and kicking his legs so i put him in his crib to try to fall asleep.

8.42pm - miles in not comfy. he has his eyes closed but is screaming and kicking around everywhere. i give him his pacifier and this soothes him so he is able to fall asleep in his crib.

and there ya have it. a full 24hr cycle of baby miles' life. a pretty typical day for him except normally he spends the mornings with his babysitter and i generally will join him for one of his afternoon naps. 6 diaper changes (3 poopy!), lots of eating (more times than his normal...he wasn't eating well today so i was trying to give him lots of opportunities...i was wondering if the short eating spells and fussiness are possibly teething related) and lots of playing.

now it is "me" time. i will probably take care of the last load of laundry and then download pictures off the camera while i wait for ross to get home.

i was so glad to spend a full day with my little man and hope you feel like you did too! :)

miles playing with his toys

2009-10-01T09:41:00.002-05:00

miles' babysitter is home sick for the next couple days, so i am staying home with him. this is what we did this morning :) (sorry for my loud breathing!)

i've got a feelin...

2009-09-25T13:38:00.003-05:00

the latest thing i've noticed miles doing is being very interested in feeling things with his fingers. if he's sitting in his car seat, he will move each finger up and down, feeling his car seat harness. when he is laying down trying to fall asleep he will kind of scrape the sheets with his fingers. and he loves to feel the different textures of the shirt of whoever is holding him. so cute!

he rolled from back to front again today 2x, with his auntie jen as an eyewitness. she was here to watch him all day yesterday while i was at a meeting/volleyball game and then she also watched him this morning while i was at work. i think they were cuddle buddies in the rainy cool weather. the three of us went to lunch today before she left town and all the ladies there were going crazy over how cute he was. he seemed super happy all day yesterday which means his auntie jen must have done a great job!

4 month well-check-up

2009-09-23T19:57:00.006-05:00

miles went to his 4month well-check on friday with dr. g. he was at his new clinic and it was quite terrible...we were there for 2hrs before we got to see the doctor! but the good news is miles is doing awesome. he weighed 14lbs 14oz. he was 25 in long. and his head circumference was 16.5 inches. the doctor thought everything looked good...miles laughed and laughed while he looked in his mouth, put the stethoscope on his chest, and felt his tummy. miles put on quite the giggle and wiggle show. the doctor says miles should start reaching for and grabbing toys anytime now and that we should give him plenty of opportunities to do this. he gave us a referral to a GI doctor to look into the continuing reflux issues.

miles is starting to pay more attention to what's going on around him. he acts very interested in conversations and will generally turn to look at whoever is talking. sometimes he gets upset if i leave the room and then gets excited and happy as soon as i return.

on saturday i had a volleyball tournament so miles and ross hung out for their longest stretch yet...from 7.30am until 5.30pm!! miles slept in until after 10am and then ross was able to bring him to see me so i could feed him a couple times during the day. other than that, they just hung out and ross even managed to do some housework for me at the same time! also ross left miles on his back watching his mobile, and returned to find him on his tummy sleeping. this is the first time he rolled from back to front. he has yet to repeat this but i'm sure we'll catch him in the act any day now. i have another volleyball tournament this weekend so i hope it goes just as well.

after my tournament, miles and i made a quick overnite trip to college station. he was passed around many loving relatives and had 2 small cousins who just loved to play with him! miles was so tired when we came back sunday nite from all that attention! he and i took a nap together from 6-8pm, then he had a quick snack and then slept until i woke him at 5am monday morning!

it's been 132 days but as of today i have officially lost all the baby weight! now i am off to work on my own weight! actually, i was eating a piece of pie and now miles just woke up...but it's the thought of the gym that counts, right?

4 months old :)

2009-09-14T21:50:00.004-05:00

dear baby miles,
it's true what they say...time flies when you are having fun! and we are certainly having fun together, this is a very fun age for you to be. you can follow us with your eyes and seem interested in what we are saying. you also smile ALL the time and laugh and laugh while watching the fan and kicking your legs.

i'm not sure exactly how much you weigh...your 4month doctor appt is on friday so i'll be sure to give an update on height and weight. a couple weeks ago you were 14lbs so i'm sure you're still packing on the pounds!

this month has brought some changes...i went back to teaching part time and so you spend the mornings with your babysitter here at the house. i think things are going well for everyone. but i absolutely love coming home to hang out with you in the afternoons...i wouldn't trade it for the world!

eat & sleep
ahh finally we are in a groove as far as your eating goes. it's just now not uncomfortable for me and some other issues have worked themselves out, and i'm glad we've stuck with it! you are too. you get up with me around 5am to eat an early breakfast, then you have a bottle from your dad or the babysitter, and then generally wait to eat again until i'm home around noon. other than that you eat every 3-4 hours now. unfortunately your spit up issues remain.

you go to sleep sometime between 7-9pm, occasionally sleeping all the way until 5am, but usually needing a snack somewhere in there. you are pretty good about sleeping in until 8 or 9am, and usually take 3-4 naps throughout the day. such a sleepyhead!

skills
1. rolling from tummy to back! you are doing this allll the time now! you wake up and roll right over. or roll right over and wake up. it's still exciting for us to see.
2. suck on your fists. you traded in the thumb in favor of sucking on BOTH fists. you do this alot, it is too funny!
3. blow spit bubbles. you drool everywhere. and you make bubbles with it. such a boy!
4. the army scoot/crawl. one nite when we were visiting your grandpa in corpus we woke up to you banging your head against the wall. we couldn't believe it, but you are becoming mobile. if i set you in one end of the crib, you can quite quickly make your way to the other end...booty up in the air wiggling around to help you out. too funny! i can't believe you will be crawling around everywhere soon.
5. kick your toys. you are beginning to enjoy your jumper and your floor mat quite a bit. but rather than hit the toys with your hand, your curl your body all the way up into a little ball and kick the toys vigorously over and over.
6. water aerobics. you love your bath and can splash water all the way out of your tub and the main tub onto me! you go crazy! anytime you are fussy in the evening, i stick you right in the bath and you are happy as can be.
7. watch tv. that's right, it has begun. you enjoy watching tv. this month you watched a lot of tennis with your daddy. this past weekend it was rainy and you and i laid around and watched lots of football.
8. coo and babble. you are talking more and more! it makes me laugh.
9. laugh. i heart the way you laugh. you make yourself laugh. you laugh at me. you laugh at your puppies and the fan. it makes me so happy to see you so happy.

adventures this month
this month you stayed with your babysitter in the mornings, hung out with your daddy, made a road trip to corpus christi to see your grandpa, hung out with your mom mom and nana, went to home depot, saw the ocean for the first time, shopped at academy, watched the rain, and loved living life! and we loved living it with you. can't wait to see what's in store next month.

bath time....or water aerobics, not sure!

2009-09-03T23:47:00.003-05:00

this is actually also a pretty good visual of what it felt like to be pregnant with miles.

1st week of school

2009-09-01T12:07:00.005-05:00

school is in session
well school has officially been in session for 1 week now. last monday was our final teach prep day. ross stayed home with miles in the morning and then i came home and picked miles up and took him to work with me. it was so fun! he just hung out in his sling while i took care of a few things...it made me want to take him every day! tuesday morning was the first day of school. ross stayed home with miles until i got home around 11.30am. that night was miles' first time to stay with someone who was not a member of our family! i had an athletic parents meeting so our friends dave and julie came over and did us a huge favor by hanging out with miles until ross could make it home from work.

miles' schedule
on wednesday morning, miles had his first day with his babysitter! so far everything is going pretty well. here's how things have been working so far:

miles gets a bath (unless he falls asleep too early) and goes to bed sometime between 6-9pm.

between 10.30-11pm i wake miles up and feed him and give him his medicine right before i go to bed. he sometimes stays up for 30min or so before going back to sleep and other times he just pretty much stays asleep. then i put him in his bed...in his very own crib in his very own room! i turn on his lamp or night light and he falls asleep.

he wakes up sometime between 4-5am. if he's not awake by 5am i go ahead and wake him up so i can feed him before i go in to work. after i feed him, he and i play and hang out together. this is one of my favorite times of the day even though i am so sleepy! he is super happy in the mornings though and i love getting to see his smiles. at 6am i put him in his crib and he goes back to sleep.

i leave for work at 6.30am and ross takes over. so far miles has been great and is sleeping at least until 8am when our babysitter arrives...i was hoping things would work out this way! so far, so good. ross heads to work when the babysitter arrives at 8am.

side note: i never knew so many things could happen before 8am. just saying.

miles is still settling into a schedule with his babysitter. he wakes up anytime from 8 to 10. he eats one bottle while i'm gone and usually takes 1-2 naps. he is always ready to wake up and eat when i get home around 11.30-11.45am!

after he eats lunch, he usually wants to take a 1-2 hr nap in the afternoon. then he will wake up and play for awhile before taking another nap. then he's awake for a bit, then we start it all over again!

how things are going
its really hard for me to leave in the mornings, but i could not be happier with our babysitter setup. miles gets one on one attention at our house and i only am gone for about 5 hrs, and it will be even less once volleyball and basketball seasons are over in february. i am still adjusting to getting up early and figuring out how to manage my time in the afternoons and evenings, but i know i will settle in soon enough. miles seems to be handling everything ok, though a few days he has been slightly cranky and he is always quite happy to see me when i return.

rough weekend
on friday miles didn't seem to be feeling well at all. he'd been spitting up even more than usual and he was just not quite right. i will spare you all the symptoms/details. we tried to get him in to our doctor who moved his private practice to a clinic, but we're told he was booked for 2wks and that since miles had been sleeping so much (he was sleeping insane amounts!) we should just take him to the ER at dell childrens hospital. so miles and i spent friday from 2pm-8pm and then were told to go back for a re-check on sunday and were there from 8am-2pm. basically they did a lot of testing and decided he might have had a cold and stomach bug or he might have just been suffering from more severe reflux. they ruled out a LOT of things that miles did NOT have, which was all good news, but certainly this made for a very long weekend. after a super cranky day yesterday, he seems to be back to more of his normal self.

sleep!
i couldn't be as happy as i wanted to about it since i was concerned he wasn't feeling good, BUT miles is starting to sleep in his crib and for longer periods of time. i'm about ready to take down the pack n play that is set up in our room because he is sleeping so well. on thursday night he slept from 8pm-5am without waking up at all. his new record was set on saturday night when he slept from 9.30pm-7.11am in his crib. i nearly had a heart attack when i woke up and realized what time it was! i went (read: Ran!) into his room and he was just hanging out in there sucking on his fist. in fact a lot of the times when he wakes up from naps instead of crying he just lays in there and plays. when he gets bored he starts yelling out to me until i go get him. as long as i don't delay too long, he doesn't even start crying! i love sleep! and i love this kid! can't get over him :)

btw, he weighed 14lbs at the hospital this weekend!

caught in the act!

2009-08-24T21:59:00.003-05:00

yesterday morning i finally caught miles rolling over on video! enjoy...

100 days!

2009-08-22T22:51:00.004-05:00

miles is 100 days old today, so happy 100th day of life mr. miles! i have enjoyed each of the past 100 days because i have spent every single one of them with my precious little man. i can't believe how much he has grown! he used to have skinny legs and now they are quite chunky!

then:

now:

more inservice

2009-08-22T22:32:00.005-05:00

my mom returned on sunday afternoon to help us with my 2nd week of inservice. and following right behind her...nana! these two fabulous ladies pampered miles while ross and i were at work. i was still able to take extended lunches each day so i could come home and feed miles and also eat lunch out with my friends on a couple of the days. we made it all week with zero bottles of formula! this was a very trying and tiring week and i'm so glad we had such awesome babysitters!

we got to celebrate my mom's birthday at pappadeaux...miles slept the whole time! we also watched movies and went shopping and played games and a lot of just hanging out. miles got a jumper! he's a bit too short for it so we let him jump on top of some computer programming books. he was fascinated by it while ross was putting it together and seems to enjoy it so far. i think he will absolutely love it as he grows a bit older. he's quite the jumper/kicker/wiggler!

bekah came and took over on friday, a definite lifesaver! lucky for her she got to take part in a photo shoot...we went with a photographer friend to a nearby greenbelt and he took pictures of miles. can't wait til they are processed!! also am so glad that next week i start my part time schedule.

3 months old :)

2009-08-14T23:00:00.001-05:00

dear miles,
today you are 3 months old! you are growing up so fast already, it's hard to believe!

eat
you still love to eat. i'm not exactly sure how much you weigh but one week ago you were 24inches long and 12lb 2 oz. you are starting to go longer stretches without eating. you last 2-4 hours during the day. i started back to work this week so you've been drinking more bottles that i pumped for you. you are fine if its just one or two bottles, but on the third bottle feeding in a row you become quite cranky! we survived this week with only 2 formula bottles, so i think that's not too shabby. you still spit up allll the time and in large volumes. however, your prevacid prescription helps you not be as uncomfortable, which is nice for everyone involved.

sleep

within the past 2 weeks you have started sleeping a 5-6hr stretch at night. once, you slept 7hrs! on most nights you are only waking up once while i am still sleeping, and i can certainly handle that! you still sleep on your tummy and you still do a good job of putting yourself to sleep. you have decided you like to suck your thumb/fist rather than the pacifier now that you are more coordinated to do that. sometimes if you are really tired we use the pacifier because you get frustrated when you can't find your hands. you still take several naps in your crib during the day between every feeding. at night you've been sleeping in your pack n play in our room mostly so i can keep an eye on you! i guess i should move you to your room soon...

skills
you are building up quite the repertoire of skills! you can:
1. roll from your tummy to your back
2. turn towards sounds
3. track people and objects with your eyes
4. smile
5. coo and chuckle
6. hold your head up
7. suck your thumb

things you love
1. bath time. you love to kick and splash. and just chill in the warm water.
2. diaper changing time. you love to watch your sailboat mobile and smile at whoever is changing your diaper
3. sitting up/standing. you like to practice sitting and standing when someone is holding you
4. the morning! weird, i know. when you wake up in the morning, i feed you and then you lay on your back and look at the fan, kick, coo, laugh, and otherwise entertain yourself until you get sleepy again. i then just turn you over onto your tummy, you suck your thumb and then fall back to sleep for a few hours! it is so cute and one of my absolute favorite times of day because you are so smiley!

things you did
we had a very busy/eventful 3rd month of your life! the month started off with a trip to the hospital ER and a quick visit from your grandpa. after a few weeks on your medicine, you became a much happier boy again and we were all so glad for you. your daddy was traveling for work near the end of the month so we got to take a trip up to big papi's and grandma's house. while we were there we took a quick road trip so you could meet your aunt bree (and her dad! hiii val!!) who was here from london. after that we took your first airplane ride up to portland, oregon to visit friends for a few days. when we came back i had to start back to work, but your grandma and 3 of your aunts all came to take care of you and you had an absolute blast with them. phew! that's quite a month for such a little guy!

you are the sweetest little baby. most of the time you are awake you are handing out tons of smiles to whoever is looking. i love holding you and "talking" with you. when you sleep your long stretch at night i sometimes miss you and i'm so glad when you wake up so i can hold and cuddle you! i can't wait to see all the things you are going to do this month!

back to work

2009-08-13T21:23:00.003-05:00

after spending 3 weeks on bedrest and then the past 12 weeks enjoying miles, monday arrived. i had to go back to work. it was my choice to return and i am very blessed to have what i anticipate will be an incredible part time opportunity....but it was still hard to walk out that door without my baby monday morning!

i had to bring in reinforcements! my mom, jennifer, and rachel came down sunday evening to take care of miles all week. its easier to leave him when i know he is in familiar and competent hands. bekah joined in the party on wednesday. miles has lots of babysitters this week! this week and next week i am having to work all day long for meetings and preparation for the start of school. so i figure if i can survive the next 10 days or so, my actual part time days at school won't seem so bad! so far i've had a really relaxed schedule and have come home for long lunches to feed and cuddle miles. starting tomorrow, all the teachers return and the actual inservice meetings start (this week was just coaching stuff and a few meetings), so i have to hang tough all day long.

we've had a good time with our babysitters! we've played some tennis and volleyball, played ps3, watched movies, gone shopping, walked the dogs, gone out to lunch, and cooked dinner each night.

miles is being a great sport and he has been doing really well (at least that's what they tell me and they are standing by it). sometimes he does get a little tired of bottle feeding, but it really won't be too much of an issue after next week (i'm hoping) so i'm not too worried about it. i can't believe how much i miss him even when i'm just gone a few short hours. i come right home and cuddle him! i am very blessed that i will be able to spend my afternoons with him AND do something that i enjoy in the mornings!

voting time!

2009-08-07T17:47:00.002-05:00

i'm going to try to have a weekly poll to see your opinions on certain topics. this week's topic: rap music. last night on the way home from small group, miles was crying in his car seat. as i flipped through the radio channels, he stopped crying when there was a rap song on. we listened to the rest of the song, and then he fell asleep. so, this weeks' question is would you listen to rap music in the car if it kept YOUR (possibly hypothetical) baby from crying? be sure to cast your vote in the poll on the right hand side of the page! you can add comments to this posting if you would like to explain your vote or lobby for a certain answer!

2month shots...ouch!

2009-08-07T17:33:00.004-05:00

yesterday miles got his 2 months shots...finally! he is almost 3months old by now! but his prior appointment fell right after his hospital stay so we had to delay until his esophagus was healed up and we were sure he was 100% healthy. in fact, the medicine seems to be working wonderfully! miles is a happy little boy and he smiles a lot! he is starting to sleep longer too, usually 4-6hrs at night. miles still spits up all the time, so the dr is planning to continue giving him the medicine until he is 6months old or until he stops spitting up.

the nurses were parading him around the office saying he looked like a baby model and had the softest skin. the doctor seemed so happy that miles was feeling better, he thought he looked great, was holding his head up well, and was developing a personality. he is 24 inches long now...we have a 2ft long baby!! and he weighed 12 lbs 2 oz. he is right on the growth curve, about the 30th percentile...a far cry from the 2nd percentile he started out in!

miles did really well drinking the oral vaccine, then the nurse gave him 3 quick shots in his little thighs and gave him army camouflage band-aids. he cried a really sad cry that i've never heard before while she was poking him. but right when she handed him to me, i gave him his pacifier and held him close and he quieted right down. yesterday he seemed a little sad, whimpering occasionally, but otherwise seemed just fine. i never did give him any tylenol or anything because he seemed to be feeling okay. vaccinated...check!

miles rides an airplane!

2009-08-07T17:03:00.003-05:00

ross was STILL out of town for work, so next i took miles up to portland to show him off to all my friends there. also i got to have one last fun adventure before i head back to work on monday :(
miles was an awesome traveler and i had a great, refreshing trip. here's some things i learned...

1. while you don't have to pay for a "lap child" you do need a flight coupon for your infant. if their name isn't showing up on your travel reservation, DO call the airline the day before and wait on hold for 20min so they will add him. i'm not sure if it would have caused problems the day of the flight, but it was certainly easier to have his coupons print off with mine then trying to get them added while checking in.

2. while you apparently have to pay $20 to check a stinking suit case now, you do NOT have to pay to check the car seat, they will do this for you free of charge. and rightly so. by the way, this fee means even more people than before try to bring carry on luggage that is obviously too large.

3. the people aren't staring at you because you have suddenly grown a second head. they are looking at the baby! or trying to figure out what i have in that sling...its a baby people!

4. put your baby in a sling! this allowed me to strap the diaper bag handle onto the suitcase and roll that with the arm i have my purse around, and still leaves you a free hand to hold the car seat with, baby comfortably perched in the middle. once you've checked your bags, it makes it easier to walk around the airport with free hands. also, i call mine the magic sleep sack, because anytime miles is in there he just sleeps! all the way to portland!

5. buy really good diapers. i'm still using free diapers people gave to us (yay!), but for the trip i went ahead and bought a pack of pampers swaddlers. why? because i have never experienced a leak or blowout with them! i'm glad i did this, especially when on the first leg of our return trip miles had a major poop fest about an hour and 20min into our 2hr flight. the diaper held its own until we landed. i didn't have the courage to change the diaper on the plane, but next time i would definitely put a diaper and wipes into my purse, since i put the diaper bag in the overhead bin and didn't want to have to drag it out. the lady with the toddler in front of me couldn't do the same, swaddler diaper or not.....toddler poo reeks!

6. bring lots of baby clothes. normally i keep one spare outfit in the diaper bag. for the trip, to avoid even more baggage costs i stuffed all of miles' clothes into his diaper bag. on our way up to portland, miles spit up in huge volumes everytime i changed his diaper. we were on outfit #3 before we ever made it to portland!

7. planning to breastfeed? rest assured you will ALWAYS be sitting next to a man, never a woman! just use a blanket and don't worry about it too much. surely they prefer that you feed your child over him crying! in fact, during my trip i breastfed in a lot of public places. not a fan, but you do what you've got to do. and it sure is easier than "declaring" all your liquid bottles at security checkpoints. the best part was when i found an open area at the phoenix airport with about 100 empty seats and i started breastfeeding miles in a deserted corner. a young teenaged boy came and sat right across from me. at first i found it strange but then decided he (hopefully) didn't realize what i was doing. if he did...creepy! at one point miles pooped really really loudly and the teenager gave me a terrified look. i thought about saying "uh that was the BABY" but didn't think i could convince him such a loud noise came from someone so small.

8. enjoy the moments! one of my friends i was visiting had a 15month old boy. i spent most of my time staring at miles wondering how he would go from his current self to THAT talking, walking, food eating cutie in one short year.

9. the plane rides go much faster when you are holding an infant (i imagine they seem twice as long once the child can walk or is otherwise desiring to be mobile). i got to sit and stare at my precious little sleeping boy for hours and they just flew by as we flew to/from portland. i'm glad i got to take such a fun trip with my little man!

over the river and thru the woods...

2009-08-07T16:48:00.002-05:00

to miles' grandparents house we went! last week ross was traveling for work so i took miles, peyton, and brady up to my parents house for a few days. this was quite the endeavor! i underestimated the amount of work it would take just to load up baby, dog, and mom stuff...without even mentioning the actual 4hr drive each way!

on saturday (the 25th), miles woke up and ate from 6-6.30am. i got right up and spent the next few hours loading the car (i had already packed), for a 9am departure. i drove up to DFW for a quick stop at some friends' house. miles slept the ENTIRE way, close to 3hrs!! i could have enjoyed it even more if i hadn't ben so worried that he would wake up any second. we spent almost 2 hrs with my friends. it was so good to see her new baby! i was also able to feed miles and change his diaper.

refreshed, we began the last 1.5hr leg of our trip. miles was not too thrilled to be back in the car. i stopped about an hour out of graham and pulled into a sonic, because miles was screaming. i got him out of his seat and fed him a small bottle snack and i ordered a drink. miles was so happy to be out of his seat he couldn't even drink his bottle...he just kept smiling at me. sadly, he had to go back in the seat. he cried for awhile longer, until he fell asleep about 30min outside graham. all in all, i thought it went well. the dogs did great, except for being super hyper at my friends' house!

when we got there, we got to hang out with big papi for awhile and then my mom and bekah and jared and rachel got home. we stayed until wednesday morning. miles did great sleeping in his pack n play, he was starting to feel better from his medicine and he gave away lots of smiles! it was so nice having so many helpers...i definitely felt like i was on vacation! big papi grilled out for us 2x and we all walked the dogs every day. there was clouds and some rain most of the time so it kept things slightly cooler than the triple digit heat we've had just about the entire summer.

wednesday morning we drove straight through, without the stop in DFW. about 2 hrs out of graham, miles woke up and so i pulled over at a mcdonalds and fed him. he then slept the rest of the way. well, almost. about 16 miles from my front door, he woke up...hungry of course. i figured this was a point of no return, preferring to just go ahead and press on and feed him in the comfort of home and with the dogs in the backyard, not the back of the car. as miles made his way into full scream mode, i began to regret my decision, but at that point i was so close i REALLY didn't want to stop. when we did get home, miles wanted me to hold him the rest of the day! he was not too happy about the long ride in his car seat. but he WAS happy about his first trip up to this grandparents house! such fun :)

miles smiles

2009-07-31T09:07:00.002-05:00

click the video to see miles' happy time smiles. somehow ross and i have a child who is really happy in the morning when he wakes up. no idea where he gets that from.

follow-up dr visit

2009-07-22T23:04:00.002-05:00

yesterday afternoon i took miles to our doctor to follow up from his ER visit. he said he knew it wasn't a fun experience but it sounded like it was definitely a good idea that we went. he said based on his observations of miles and what we have told him over the past few months, he thinks its highly likely the blood was coming from miles' esophagus greatly irritated by his spit up. he didn't think it was the dairy, so he said he wouldn't really even worry about limiting my diet. he said this was also backed up by the fact the bleeding stopped once miles started the antacids, whereas it would probably take longer than that for dairy to leave my system. so he is going to see miles back in 2wks to see if the meds are doing their job and then monitor him on a monthly basis after that. we had to delay miles' 2 month vaccinations because of this. hopefully he will be able to get them in 2wks if all goes well.

we haven't seen a whole lot of behavioral changes in miles yet. he has been sleeping for longer periods of time. we are not sure if this is because of the meds or because he is getting older, but we are happy for it either way. he is still spitting up all the time, but the doctor said we should actually expect that. the meds he is on will not prevent the spit up, they will just neutralize the acid in it. he still would like to refrain from prescribing meds that would prevent the spit up unless miles stops gaining weight or develops breathing problems. he is still being rather fussy, in fact he showed this off at the dr's office. the dr says he is probably in a lot of pain still but that given time, the meds should help with that. everyone seemed to really care about miles and the dr said we could call him day or night if we were concerned about anything for miles.

o yeah. i made grilled cheeses for dinner in celebration. :)

miles goes to the hospital

2009-07-20T12:30:00.004-05:00

warning: this post does deal with miles' poop so if that's TMI for you, skip this post.

it all started friday around lunch time. i had been working around the house as we were expecting company and had just sat down and fed miles. when i changed his diaper, i was shocked to see lots of black specks/streaks in his dirty diaper. so naturally i called my mom, hoping she would reassure me this was quite normal. she did not. she suggested calling the doctor to be safe. now, if i would have just done this, i could have taken him in and maybe saved us some trouble. but i was hesitant to call since i'd already taken miles to see the doctor this week. i didn't want to seem like crazy psycho mom.

i decided to wait it out and see if the next dirty diaper was normal (if you can honestly call yellow poop normal, but whatever). but it wasn't. it was the same as earlier. my heart sank. when i realized it was now friday at 6:30pm my heart sank more. so this time i called my aunt. she has two young boys and i thought surely she could reassure me that this was normal. but she didn't either. we discussed a few internet theories, then she suggested calling the lactation consultant and/or the doctor. the LC didn't answer the phone, so i .....woke up a napping ross and made him call the doctor!

you can page the doctor through the answering service, and what do you know he answered his phone right away, we didn't even have to leave a message and wait for him to call back. ross discussed the situation with him, but when he started asking a lot of questions i ended up having to talk to him (but at least i didn't have to call him!). he said the concern was that it would be blood from his upper GI tract, and with miles' history he wanted us to take him to the children's hospital.

as we were on the phone with the doctor, ross' dad and becca showed up as they had come into town to spend the weekend with us. figuring it would probably be a boring ER wait only to be reassured everything was ok, i told ross to stay with them and drove down to the children's hospital with miles.

we checked in and tried to sit as far away from people as possible, as instructed since miles hasn't had his 2month vaccinations yet. the times are kind of fuzzy in my head, but lets say we arrived around 7.45pm and saw the initial nurse around 8.30pm. she had us go to a different waiting room with less people. awhile later, somewhere close to 9pm, our friend brooke poked her head in the waiting room. she is a nurse at the children's hospital and she "just happened" to be working and saw miles' name. she took us with her back to her area. it was so nice to see a friendly face!

she checked miles out and then they took one of miles' diapers that we had brought with us (gross!) to test it. it tested positive for blood. the doctor finally came around 10pm and said he wanted to admit miles to the hospital overnite. i remember feeling surprised and a little worried. brooke and a friend of hers put an IV in miles' arm...this was really sad to watch, but they did a good job and miles was fairly content to suck on a pacifier dipped in sugar water. they put his arm on a splint so that it would stay in. throughout our stay, the poor guy kept whacking himself with it, though we tried to keep it wrapped in a blanket. the thing was he wanted to suck that thumb sooo bad. he had just recently taught himself how to do it and it was killing him that he couldn't reach it, it was so sad! i'm not sure why he wouldn't suck his left thumb, because he sucks on either one at home.

ross came about 11pm while we were waiting for a hospital room. they pumped pepcid in through miles' IV to help with any stomach acid that was making him uncomfortable. he was mostly sleeping during this time, as he had all day long (another thing that prompted me to be concerned enough to call the doctor). they brought ross and i powerade and a little lunch that they had available. it was a sandwich, apple, teddy grahams, and apple juice. i must have been really hungry (i hadn't eaten dinner before i had come), because i kept telling ross, wow this is sooo good!

we finally got to our room around 1am. the night was mostly a blur, though miles slept through all of it, only eating one time between 10pm and 9am. normally i would be ecstatic for this kind of sleep, but instead it was worrisome. several doctors and nurses came in and out through the night and next morning. there was the resident, the attending, the senior, the GI doctor, and finally the chief pediatrician...all coming in to examine miles, ask questions, and give explanations. i got so tired of talking about miles' poop, telling the same story over and over! they put him on IV fluids to help him stay hydrated since he wasn't eating well, but at the same time this made him full and not want to eat!

since he was so sleepy and not eating much, they had us stay at the hospital all the way until saturday evening. ross called jfer and asked her to drive over so that he could spend time with his dad for a few hours and yet not leave me alone at the hospital. she was all too happy to come over and hold baby miles for a few hours. this gave me a needed break and i enjoyed chatting with her. ross came back in the afternoon to finish out the wait with us. finally about 6pm miles woke up and acted hungry (they took him off the fluids around 1pm so they could see if he was eating and making diapers well) and then he stayed awake for awhile and smiled at us...the first time he had done so in about 48hrs. we were glad to see him back to his normal miles' self! finally we got to go home!

they never diagnosed exactly where the bleeding was coming from. they said it could be an allergy to cows milk protein. they said i should eliminate obvious dairy items from my diet. i have since been mourning the loss of cheese. :(

the other more likely possibility is that his acid reflux was irritating the lining of his stomach and esophagus and causing bleeding. so they put him on two medicines for the next couple weeks...prevacid and pepcid.

so we have already got our first ER visit as parents under our belts. it didn't really hit me until i was driving home. when we got home i just wanted to sit and hold him and look at him. i'm glad he seems to be doing well, out of all the things they mentioned it could be, i think we got a pretty good deal. we were thankful for brooke and jfer and all the other friends and family that called us and that prayed for us. and we are certainly thankful to be home with our little man!

on a roll!

2009-07-15T18:04:00.004-05:00

i wasn't sure i believed the doctor when he said miles might roll over any day. but sure enough, yesterday, at exactly 2 months old to the day, miles rolled from his tummy to his back!

he was taking a nap in his crib on his tummy. i had placed him laying across the short side of the crib and covered him with a light blanket. i then seized the opportunity to take a shower! i heard him start to fuss on the monitor, but i went ahead and finished my shower and got dressed before going in to get him. when i did, i sure was surprised! he had kicked the blanket off and turned himself to lay the long side of the crib....and was on his back! he didn't seem to thrilled about this as he much prefers his tummy. i was so proud. :)

i wanted to see him do it! i laid him on our bed and sat down next to him. he immediately flipped to his back, but i suspected my weight had assisted him, haha. so i put him in his pack n play and turned on the video camera. and took 8 minutes of video until our camera memory card was full. he fussed but did not roll over. o well.

lest you think this was a mere accident, you do need to know that miles repeated his new skill today. again he was laying on his tummy in his crib and taking a nap. when he woke up i didn't go get him immediately, hoping he would fall back asleep. but no. so i went to get him and again he had shed his blanket, turned himself 90 degrees to the left, and....flipped to his back.

i can't wait to catch him in the act! if i can catch it on video, i will certainly share it with you as well.

commenting

2009-07-15T13:27:00.000-05:00

to my poor grannies and others who are having difficulty commenting:

i changed it a little bit. you can try again and select name/url. put your name like "sharon" or whatever you want and leave url blank. this should work for you. or you can choose anonymous. if i have to change it back because of spam comments, i will show you how to use one of the other profiles. hope this helps.

2 months!

2009-07-14T12:05:00.005-05:00

dear miles,
today you are 2 months old...i can hardly believe it!

eat
you are turning into quite the fattie :0 yesterday at the doctor you weighed 10lbs 5oz. you still like to eat every 2-3hrs though every once in awhile you give me a 3 1/2hr break. i think 4hrs is your current record. you still spit up all the time, which is gross, but hopefully you will get over it soon.

sleep
you love to sleep. especially on your tummy. if we lay you on your back, you thrash around like an upside down turtle! but if we lay you down on your tummy, you scrunch your legs up so your booty is in the air and suck away on your pacifier until you fall asleep. for the 1st 2 weeks of this month we had slipped into the habit of you sleeping most of the night in our bed or with me holding you, because you no longer liked your bouncy chair for sleeping. this was not what we wanted, so we worked on getting you to sleep in your pack n play. it took a few nights of half and half, and i moved your pack n play right next to my side of the bed so i don't have to get up to help you out....but for the last 2 weeks you have been sleeping in your pack n play at night. during the day you mostly take naps in your crib, or you and i take a nap on the couch together. your sound machine is in your room so when i put you down for a nap, i usually turn it on to the ocean and this helps you fall asleep. sometimes i pat your back for a little bit, but mostly you put yourself to sleep all by yourself.

"schedule"
you generally wake up between 5-6am to eat, then are awake for an hour or two. i don't like to be awake at this time so mostly i just hold you and you bop around while i fade in and out of consciousness until time for you to eat again around 8am. we usually both fall back asleep on the couch until 10am or so and then we hang out until noon. sometimes you fall asleep...you are a very sleepy little man! sometimes in the afternoon you will take a 2-3hr nap and you almost always sleep from 7-10pm, but pretty much we just follow the same 2hr routine of eat, about 30min awake time, then you fall asleep until you are hungry again. after you eat around 10pm you usually stay awake for awhile, then we go to bed sometime around midnite, right after you eat. you sleep in your pack n play, waking up at 2 or 3, then up for the morning at 5 or 6. thats a lot of sleep! i wish it would come in longer stretches, but i know it will come with time. i love the faces you make when you are sleeping and stretching. you have started wiggling around while you are asleep, you sometimes turn 90 or 180 degrees!

skills
you really would like to be able to suck your thumb. you work really hard at in and when you are successful you seem so pleased, until you accidentally yank it out of your mouth. sometimes you end up with your pointer finger instead, but this seems just as tasty to you. you don't really root around as much as you did last month, but i can tell when you are hungry because you bop around saying "eh eh" and eat your fists, alternating each one and bopping your head around. its almost as cute as rooting! and all this shows you are gaining control of your hands.

you are starting to pay attention to things around you and follow them with your eyes. i especially like when i can tell you are looking at me.

and you smile! sometimes. its becoming more and more frequent every day. about 1-2 times a day now you will look at me and give a big ol' grin...love it! you almost always smile at your sailboat mobile when i turn it on while i am changing your diaper. you also like looking at the blinds, fans. and the decorations in your nursery! when your daddy carries you, you pull your head back and stare up at his face, it is too funny! i think you like the sound of his voice.

i am enjoying spending all day with you and just chilling out enjoying each other. this month on mondays we've gone to watch daddy play tennis, we've also met him for lunch a few times. we went to dallas to meet nana, delbert, and papa. your auntie jen came to visit and she babysat you. we also took you to see a movie. we went to the lake for july 4th. your grandma k, aunt rachel, and aunt bekah came to visit and help while your daddy was out of town and we went out to eat, shopped at target, and dressed you up as a cow to get free food from chick-fil-a! we've gone to the park several times, and you've watched daddy and me play tennis sometimes. you go with me to the grocery store...you still love riding around in your sling!

the doctor says you are very active ....doctors have been saying this about you even before you were born, sometimes it worries me a little bit! he also thinks you have great spinal control and may start rolling over any day now. watch out world!

"sick" dr visit

2009-07-13T23:59:00.002-05:00

miles will be 2 months old tomorrow, but his 2month checkup isn't until next week. i did break down and take him to the doctor today. he was uncharacteristically fussy last week and this morning was more of the same. his nose seems stopped up, he is spitting up all the time, and he is screaaaaaming between feedings. the doctor believes he has some issues with reflux, but not to the point where he would like to give medicine. this is mostly because miles is gaining weight so well. he is 10lbs 5oz today! this brings him up from the 2nd percentile at birth, to the 19th percentile. the doctor did say it is ok for miles to sleep on his stomach since this helps him feel better. i have been doing this for a couple weeks but was feeling slightly guilty about it as it is not the currently recommended practice.

naturally while we were at the doctor, miles seemed happy as could be. no sign of fussiness or spit up anywhere. he did get some mild hiccups but thats about it. i told the doctor he must have cured miles! he said yes, that's what we do with our stethoscopes!

so i was sort of frustrated. i'm glad that miles does not need medicine and that he's gaining weight so well. but what to do with this unhappy baby!?!?! fortunately, miles gave me a break this afternoon. he fell asleep on the way home from the doctor around 4.30pm and has essentially been asleep ever since (its now midnite) waking only to eat and for about a 30min stretch at 10.30pm. does this mean he will be awake all night? here's hoping not! but i took a nap too just in case. also, only one little spit up episode in all this time...could he really be better?!?!!??!?!?!?!?!?!?

cow appreciation day

2009-07-12T13:53:00.004-05:00

ross was scheduled to leave town last monday for work, so i had planned to load up the dogs and miles and head up to my parents for a few days. everything was going great until someone ran into ross' car the night before we were both leaving. i canceled my trip, but my mom and sister rachel were nice enough to come spend the week with me to help out. my dad and jared drove over and dropped them off before heading home from the lake...thanks :)

this made for a super easy week for me. especially because bekah had planned a visit beginning on thursday. so by the end of the week i had 3 babysitters! i was able to get "lots" of sleep while they were here helping. miles chose this week to be his first ever fussy week, so i was especially grateful for the help.

we mostly just hung out with miles. we went out to lunch a couple times and made several shopping trips to target. our main excitement was cow appreciation day at chick-fil-a. thursday evening we made cow costumes so we could get free food from chick-fil-a. friday we went there and got free lunch! everyone thought miles was super cute and they asked if he could take his picture with the cow, which we did. it was so much fun we went to a different chick-fil-a for dinner :)

you should vote for miles in the chick-fil-a photo contest!

miles goes to the movie

2009-07-10T15:29:00.003-05:00

on the afternoon of july 4th, jfer and i decided to go to the movies with miles. we went to see the proposal at the mall...i figure if you are watching a movie at the mall you are not expecting some high class experience and should not be too disappointed if your experience is interrupted by unruly teenagers or crying babies. we settled in on the 2 end seats of the very back row, armed with a burp rag, a pacifier, a bottle, and....slurpees! i put miles in his sling and except for a few grunts, he was quiet and asleep the entire movie, not even waking up to drink his bottle. it was a good experience, though i hate to get my confidence all up and then experience total disaster next time. so i am still wary of the movie going experience. i think miles enjoyed it except it was so LOUD and that we made him go see a chick flick as his first cinema experience.

4th of july

2009-07-10T15:23:00.003-05:00

we spent the 4th of july weekend with my fam at lake lbj. jfer, miles, and i drove over friday morning and arrived just in time for lunch. we hung out while everyone enjoyed miles and watching wimbledon on tv. later that nite we had brisket for dinner and ross came over to join us. early saturday morning we took the boat out and some people went tubing and had a blast. miles didn't go on the boat because he didn't have a life jacket but i bet we will get him out there next time. saturday afternoon we drove home and that nite jfer babysat miles while ross and i played tennis with fireworks going on nearby.

a postpartum date!

2009-07-04T22:53:00.005-05:00

my sister jfer was in town on wednesday night and volunteered to babysit miles if ross and i wanted to go out. she didn't have to ask us twice! we decided to go over to our neighborhood tennis courts and play tennis and then went to sonic. jfer did a great job watching miles and we were so glad to have time to hang out!

she also came to visit us this weekend. she came on thursday night and we hung out while she loved on miles. friday and saturday we went to lake lbj with the fam (more on that in another post) and then saturday night she offered to babysit again! we hit up the tennis courts at the high school. we each hit a few buckets of balls from the ball machine then played some tennis. hmm we could get used to this! :)

5 generations!

2009-07-04T22:48:00.002-05:00

last weekend we braved a 3hr trip to the dfw area to introduce miles to his great-grandparents and his great-great-grandpa. i drove on the way up there and ross handled miles duty. we stopped once to change a diaper, but other than that we just drove straight through and made it to nana's just in time for lunch. shortly thereafter my papa and my parents showed up for a wonderful lunch nana made for us. we chatted and took pictures and ross and i made the most of the occasion by taking a much needed nap! we also made a trip after dinner to see my papa, mildred, and miles' great-great-great-aunt grace over at my papa's place. we spent the night, then hung out the next morning before heading home. ross drove and i handled miles duty and he again did awesome in the car. it was a great trip and we were so glad to get to go!

got milk?

2009-06-26T14:38:00.003-05:00

apparently we have lots of milk at our house!

warning: this is about milk and miles' gas. if that is TMI for you, then skip this post!

yesterday miles and i went to the hospital to visit a lactation consultant to help us out. specifically to help me out as i was miserable! miles eats so often and so...enthusiastically?...that i was about to die. she asked me if he had been weighed recently, which he hadn't been weighed in about 10 days, since his 1 month checkup. so she weighed him and he was a whopping 8lbs 13oz...an entire pound heavier than at his checkup. insane! though she did say that she thought miles was a beautiful baby, well proportioned but just can't tell anymore that he was a tiny little 3wks early baby. i just say he's a little fattie.

after doing her lactation consultant thing, she decided we have 2 issues. the 1st is that i have tons of milk! apparently miles is having to drink milk from a water hose turned on full blast. she gave me some tips to help us out and some of them are already working...i think our experience is headed to a more positive place. she did keep making comments like "some women take sudafed and are dismayed that their milk supply lessens...of course that wouldn't be...well, it wouldn't be devasting to you now would it?" and she also mentioned that i could donate milk to the milk bank if i was interested...who knew there was even such a thing!

then 2nd issue we are having is miles is dealing with reflux. the things i am doing for my milk supply issue should help out some, as will time...as he gets a more mature digestive system. in the meantime she suggested 2 over the counter meds that might help, and also notified my doctor that a prescription med might end up being necessary so that miles is more comfortable and we don't all go crazy while waiting for his digestive system to mature. she watched him for over an hour after he ate, and i think it drove her crazy! so you can imagine how we feel when he eats about 10-12 times per day. i was pleased he was in full spit-up mode as i wanted her to get a clear picture of what we are dealing with.

i went to cvs last night and picked up both meds. i had read about them online and was curious to try them, but was hesitant to just give him randonm stuff without some sort of permission from a medical professional caring for miles. when she recommended them, i jumped at the chance! we tried the mylicon drops first (the other is called gripe water) and....well, i don't want to jinx anything here...but so far.....AWESOME. he liked the taste so he immediately stopped crying. and then... he was happy. we were watching a movie and he was just looking around. then he fell asleep.

in fact, this morning, he stayed awake for over 2 hours...the entire time between 2 feedings. he still spit up several times, but he seemed content. he just layed and looked around...no grunting and turning red and starting to scream at random times and suddenly stopping. unfortunately, these 2+ hours occured from 4.45am until just past 7am...somehow i will have to teach him that early rising is just plain unacceptable in this household.

i didn't give him anymore this morning (you can give them to him after every feeding), but after he ate this afternoon he was showing signs of being uncomfortable, even after spitting up several times and me putting him in the sling. within 2 minutes of the mylicon drops touching his lips...he was sleeping peacefully. and has been for awhile now.

therefore this post was made possible by...mylicon drops. my current best friend. along with the lactation consultant (which is free by the way. well unless you consider the cost of delivering the baby at that hospital. i would venture to say the cost is "built in")

happy fathers day

2009-06-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

fathers day

o no you didn't....

2009-06-20T22:41:00.003-05:00

well you had to know it wasn't a good sign when pallets of shingles appeared with no warning in our front yard on friday afternoon. it was hard to be too upset about it since this whole 'get a new roof because the old one was damaged by hail' process has been going on for 3 months...no lie...3 months!

the day seemed further doomed from the start when i was still awake at 2am, reading a book and rocking miles. he then decided he would like to eat nonstop from 2.30-4.30...ouch! what can i say, the poor guy has some "catching up" growing to do. unfortunately he then took another hour to fall asleep due to some gas pains. finally, at 5.30 we both passed out.

and then it happened. at 7.30am the house began shaking and rumbling. our new roof was coming, with no warning or knock on the door even. we got up and moped around until we could take the banging and hammering and stomping no more. at 10.30am we headed out the door to just go away somewhere.

now we actually had plenty of errands that we could have run and been very productive. unfortunately ross and i were so exhausted we couldn't process that idea and i'm really surprised we actually made it anywhere at all. we headed to academy as i had a birthday giftcard there! on the way there, miles was fussy. this is rather unusual as he is quite fond of his car seat.

when we arrived to academy, i got his sling ready and ross got him out of the car seat. and it was then that we discovered the cause of poor miles' angst.

yes, he had his first blow out diaper. up the back, on the clothes, all over the car seat, nasty diaper. hmm. so i busted out the diaper changing pad and began damage control. all went fairly well except that i had previously used an emergency outfit so the only one i had left was a longsleeve nightshirt but on it went. i shall be more diligent about properly stocking backup clothes in the future.

naturally miles was much happier after this episode. he slept while we shopped in academy. then i fed him in the car as we sat dazed and confused, trying to figure out where we could go next. we considered a movie but decided we would never make it out awake. ross was looking at apps on his phone, in particular a coupon app that declared chick-fil-a was giving away free milkshakes today to fathers if they had their child present. cool!

so we went to chick-fil-a for lunch and ross got his free milkshake, and then we dropped by to see charles & cynthia. finally we decided to just go back home as we could not fathom dragging ourselves to any more shopping establishments. the banging continued. i was rocking miles in his nursery but he kept jumping awake when there were loud noises. we moved to an area of the house that seemed to have already been completed and both passed out for about one hour. it was only an hour but it made a world of difference.

a new roof, no sleep, a free shake as ross' first daddy perk, and one nasty diaper...though at some point it ceases to just be a dirty "diaper" as it has escaped those confines. it becomes sort of just a dirty mess. kind of like today...

1 month: what i like about you

2009-06-18T23:03:00.010-05:00

dear miles,
on sunday june 14 you were officially one month old! in some ways i can hardly believe it and in other ways it seems like you've been here forever (read: i honestly have difficulty remembering the last time i slept through the night). you had your checkup with the doctor on tuesday. you weighed a whopping 7lbs 13oz (fattie!) and had grown 1.5 inches, putting you at 20.5 inches. you are starting to look like a little boy now!

here are the things you can do:
eat
and you have become quite the little piggie...you like to eat allllll the time. you pretty much want to eat every 2-3hours, but some days you go on an eating marathon and want to eat every 1.5 hours. i don't like those days very much. you also spit up all the time! maybe 4-5 times between each feeding. grossss.

sleep
we swaddle you in the nighttime and put you in your bouncy seat to sleep. you really like how it vibrates, but you are starting to dislike the swaddle....you wriggle and squirm until your hands pop out so that you can have them near your face, just how you like it. but then your startle reflex wakes you up. sigh. what are we going to do? we bought a noise machine for you to try out. i think the heartbeat noise will be your favorite. your favorite place to sleep is in your sling, attached to me. i usually put you in there during the afternoons and you will sleep for several hours. you will sleep even if i vacuum or do the dishes. and sometimes i even accidentally drip water on you, but you don't seem to mind. you also like to sleep on my chest. i think it helps your tummy to feel better. i like it too. :)

poop
you do this quite frequently. you also burp and toot like a full grown man!

these are the things i love about you:
-the way you look up at my face when i am holding you
-when you reach up to touch my face
-when you try really hard to suck your thumb. sometimes you end up picking your nose instead. this makes you really mad, but you are the one doing it and i don't think you realize it!
- the smacking noises you make when you are sucking your pacifier or thumb
-when you hold the pacifier in your mouth
-your dark blue eyes
- the way you put your arm in front of your mouth when you are done eating
- the faces you make! you are so expressive when you are eating, pooping, and sleeping
-when i'm holding you in your sling and i feel your fingers reaching out to touch me
- the way you open your mouth like a little bird and swing your head frantically back and forth when you are hungry.
- the way your root around like a little piglet when you are hungry. you are getting more forceful with your head bobbing, and sometimes you get a nice clavicle or chin to your forehead on accident!
-your tiny fingers and toes! your little feet are starting to get fat!
-when you turn to your side when i lay you down because you can't stand laying on your back
- when you make O's with your mouth....usually followed by spitting up everywhere. its disarmingly and distractingly cute
- your hair! its so cute. it always gets frizzy and crazy after your bath. i call it your mad scientist hair
-the way your whole head and body turn bright red and you try to stand up with your feet whenever you are struggling a lil bit :)
-you love to ride in your carseat and listen to music. you do NOT like when we stop at red lights. sometimes you fuss until we get going again
-the way you hold your face with your hands
-the little noises you make while you are sleeping
-how you use your hands and arms as pillows for your cheeks
- the way you scoot yourself around when you are laying on my chest so that your head can be right over my heart...just where you belong!

road trip to c stat

2009-06-15T16:12:00.004-05:00

on saturday june 6th, miles went on his first roadtrip. it was an impromptu visit to the thriving metropolis of college station, home of the fightin texas aggies. what better place for a first road trip?? o yeah. its also the home of a lot of family and a second home to my family, which is why we went there! my parents were in c stat to pick up my little brother and i had mistakenly told my mom that i was thinking of coming to visit "this weekend", really meaning the following weekend when they would be back in town. when she called on saturday to see when we would be coming, i knew this was a grandma who could not be disappointed! ross was playing tennis at the high school so we drove over there to see if he would like to make the trip. he DID want to come along, so we decided to spend saturday night in c stat since we would be getting a late start.

the goal was to leave town at 3pm and return the following day. but after booking a hotel online, making sure the pets had food and water, feeding miles, and loading up our stuff and all the baby stuff...it was 4pm. miles loves to ride in his car seat and this day was no different. he went right to sleep. when we were about 10min away from c stat (which is 100miles/ 2hrs away from home), miles woke up and was ready to eat! i went ahead and pulled over so ross could hop in the backseat and feed miles a bottle before we arrived. this way he would be ready to see people when we arrived.

everyone was so glad to see us....i mean, miles. everyone took turns holding him..his mawmaw, his grandparents, his auntie jen, and his great aunt and uncle. LJ and PJ were intrigued with baby miles, particularly his pacifier. we had a great cookout and chatted. jfer came with us to our hotel and held miles and fed him before heading to her house.

miles did great at the hotel. we had brought his bouncy seat that he sleeps in and so he had no problems. he woke up early on sunday so i drove him over to say goodbye to my parents at the J's house. then M and i chatted and she held miles for most of the morning. then we all went geocaching! we found one cache in a nice shaded park. the second cache was in a nice poison ivy field so we decided to leave it there.

then we decided it was time to head back to austin. miles again did awesome in the car, and we decided the road trip was a definite success. we were so glad to go and see everyone.

so glad in fact that i decided to return the following week by myself! my family was back down for bekah's new student conference. thursday the 11th was my birthday, but i ended up being too tired to make the trip that day, after a rough night with miles. its a good thing too, because we ended up with a huge storm complete with a tornado that evening! on friday miles woke up at 5.45 am and i decided to make the trip.

we got on the road about 7am and miles slept. when i got about 30min away, i could hear him stirring. i decided to pull over to a mcdonalds parking lot and fed him a bottle. at this point it had been about 3hrs since he had last ate and i knew he wouldn't last much longer! he usually eats every 2-3 hrs so he had already held out for quite awhile. i just left him in the car seat to feed him the bottle because i didn't feel like going through the whole process and risking him not being pleased when i put him back in. he was then content to ride the rest of the way. we spent the day just relaxing and visiting with family. we all went out to dinner at a mexican restaurant to celebrate my birthday. i wore miles in my sling and he contentdly slept the whole time we were there. we further celebrated my birthday with ice cream cake, and then sadly it was time for miles and i to head back home.

we left about 8.30pm and miles proceeded to scream and cry for the next 20min. i have never heard him cry so much! it was so sad, but short of turning around and spending the night in c stat i didn't have many options. i knew he wasn't hungry and i didn't really get so desperate as to pull over into a gas station to try to comfort him. so i let him cry and it made me want to cry! but eventually he fell asleep and stayed that way until we were about 10min from home and he started right back where he had left off. i was so glad to hold him when we got home! i felt bad he had woken back up and still had not been comforted. so i laid on the couch and he fell asleep on my chest for several hours before we got up and went to bed.

i am so glad we were able to see everyone and i know miles enjoyed it too! we have our sights on a road trip to the dfw area soon, which is greater than 1 feeding cycle span so we will see how that goes..

2009-06-13T23:14:00.001-05:00

it happened on our way to his appointment with the pediatrician to receive his 2nd PKU testing. he was one day shy of being 2 weeks old. miles cried in the car. it was heart wrenching, especially because he cries so rarely my heart wasn't quite used to the idea just yet. i felt hopelessly far from him; i in the front seat and he in the distant back seat. i couldn't even see his face!

i tried to console him, "its ok miles, its ok...we are almost there". i derived great motherly satisfaction in that my voice alone halted his crying almost immediately. i began to talk to him about anything i could think of. and then he began to cry again.

desperate, i tried something my mom had done while she was staying with us the week before - i sang. to be precise, i sang "this little light of mine" because it was what my mom had sung to him and the only song that could come into my mind. again, the screaming paused. i sang the same words over and over. i think this is why childrens songs are so repetitive. your brain is so exhausted from sleep deprivation and taxed by the crying you cannot be expected to remember anything other than one or two phrases. this worked temporarily and then the screams turned to a whimper and eventually faded as he fell asleep. just as we arrived at the doctor.

happy birthday miles

2009-06-13T23:09:00.000-05:00

on tuesday may 12th, i went to an appointment with the specialist who had done our 2 major ultrasounds earlier in my pregnancy. this was an extra visit due to my gestational hypertension. my doctor had ordered an NST, blood pressure check, and a complete growth scan on miles. miles did great on the NST, my blood pressure was elevated but not much more than it had been the previous week. the tech doing the scan told me that miles was pretty small. his head measured in the 8th percentile, his stomach measured in the 5th percentile, and his femur measured in the 8th percentile. anything less than the 10th percentile is considered Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR), which i was aware of from reading online so i kind of had a feeling of what was coming next. the specialist came in and redid some measurements and then let me know that she was going to recommend to my dr. that miles be induced as he would be 37wks the next day. probably he was not growing well because of my hypertension and leaving him inside would greatly increase his risk of complications and stillbirth. this was particularly true since he was not uniformly small, as his stomach was much smaller than the rest of him, which raised alarm flags even higher. it was about this point i started freaking out! not in a bad way, but in a wow, this is coming in a few days way.

i went out to the car and called ross who also started freaking out and then called my mom. i picked up a sandwich on my way home and then started thinking of all the things i needed/wanted to do before miles came. this made me very tired and so i took a nap! when i woke up i called my doctor to get the game plan. he went over the same information the specialist had gone over with me and then said he would like me to meet him at the hospital wednesday at 5pm to have this baby! i then called a bunch of people to let them know the baby was on his way, since i knew i wasn't going to be calling anyone right after he was born and i wanted to have the fun of telling people as well.

ross took off work on wednesday and we slept in a little before we started doing some last minute cleaning around the house all morning. his mom and sister arrived around noon, and then ross and i went out on some last minute errands. all this was particularly fun for me since i had been on bedrest for the past 2 weeks, but i was feeling very emotional and nervous about having this baby! ross and i both got haircuts and then went to get a few things at the mall and at target. then we came home, packed up our bags, and drove to the hospital!

we got checked into our room and they immediately hooked me up to the blood pressure machine and the fetal heartrate and contractions monitors. they called my doctor and he showed up a few minutes later and talked with ross and me for about an hour, telling us what to expect and answering questions. he left at 7pm and told us to enjoy dinner by 8pm because after that i would not be able to eat or drink anything until miles came, mostly because of the risk of needing to do a c-section. so ross left to pick up some things. he came back with some games and puzzles and charles came with taco cabana and then he and ross wrestled with our car seat. about 11pm, the nurse came and started my IV and then gave me some medicine (cervadil) that would take about 12hrs to get my body ready for labor. i must say that we had many shifts of nurses and all of them (except 1 really, but even she wasn't that bad) were just exceptionally friendly and helpful. we couldn't have been happier with the hospital, except ross wasn't impressed with the food or pull-out couch. but certainly things could have been way worse!

we then settled in for the night, though i was too excited/nervous to sleep at all, plus i was in some pain from the medicine. the nurse came in every few hours to check my blood pressure and the fetal heartrate monitor. she was also monitoring it via a computer at the nurse's station for the whole night. after a long, sleepless night, my doctor came in at 10am on thursday to check things out and get things going with an IV drip of pitocin. things had progressed a little bit through the night, but there was still a long ways to go. the doctor predicted a baby sometime around 7-11pm. the doctor came back for another check at noon, and then at 2pm when he checked me he also broke my water and declared i could have an epidural at anytime i liked. there was no turning back at this point, miles was definitely coming today!

up to that point i had been experiencing some pain, mostly cramping and lower back pain. the pain increased at this point and i began to feel very nauseous. about 4pm i asked for the anesthesiologist to come and do the epidural as i was rather miserable and nervous about throwing up everywhere. he came right away and it was not as bad as i had imagined it to be. he did about 75% strength and promised to come back if i would like him to make it stronger. about 5min later things seemed so much better! i was able to smile and chat with ross and the nurse.

the pediatrician oncall at the hospital came by and talked to us about the almost certainty that miles would need to spend some time in the Level II nursery. she also talked about the probability that he would not stay with us overnight and that he may even have to stay in the hospital for 1-2 weeks. she discussed the challenges he would most likely face and the things they were looking for. this probably should have freaked me out more than it did, but i was pretty medicated and sleep deprived so i was having some difficulty wrapping my mind around what she was saying.

we continued to increase the pitocin every 15-30min but the doctor seemed concerned. as my contractions began to increase, miles' heartrate was decelerating and i was not progressing very quickly. he frequently came in with a notebook and recorded information and told ross and i that this was make or break time and that things weren't looking particularly good for a vaginal delivery. about 5pm he turned off the pitocin and put me on oxygen. he also put an internal contraction monitor and a fetal heartrate monitor on miles' head so he could have a clear picture of what was going on.

this lasted for about 15 minutes and then suddenly i was in a great deal of pain. i tried pushing the button to see if that would help but that did nothing for me. the nurse was about to call the anesthesiologist back but then she was like oh, i know what's happening...your baby is probably dropping! sure enough she was right on, miles was on his way! my doctor checked in and thought miles was doing pretty good without the pitocin and with the oxygen and thought we were good to go.

we started the pushing process and my nurse was a very good coach and ross was a great help as well. about 5:50pm
the nurse pushed a button and called for a delivery table...stat! suddenly the room filled with about 5-7 nurses, all very excited. "you surprised us!" they said, as everyone was not expecting things to happen before the shift change at 7pm. the doctor came and about 15 minutes later out came miles. as soon as his head came out he started gurgling, even before the rest of him did. when he was fully out he started screaming and the doctor held him up and said "look here's your baby!" they asked ross to cut the cord. the first time he cut, it didn't go all the way through. after he cut through the second time, the doctor held up the cord and it squirted blood all over ross' face! both of them looked mortified but everyone got a huge laugh.

the nurses whisked miles away to the incubator that was right in our room and checked him out while the doctor finished up everything with me. they gave the doctor a hard time saying that he must have been sucking in his tummy on the ultrasound because he wasn't quite as skinny as they had thought and he was far more healthy than anyone expected. he beat the level II nursery weight limits by about 100 grams...or a bottle of aspirin as the doctor said. he had apgar scores of 9 and 9 and seemed to be doing awesome. they said he could stay in our room! one of the nurses brought him to me so he could eat. this nurse turned out to be our personal pediatrician's wife and she was really great. he had some trouble having the cheek strength to eat very well, but this was the last hurdle he would need to get over in order to go home with us (his temperature and breathing and blood sugars were good).

ross held miles for a few minutes and then i did as well before we ordered something to eat from the hospital room service. miles was then under the heat lamp warming up for quite awhile and one of the nurse's gave him a bath. no one could believe how great he looked and how healthy he was. he arrived at 6.17pm according to ross, but the hospital recorded it at as 6.20pm on may 14, 2009. he was 5lb 12oz and 19in long. his head circumference was 13cm.

ross' mom and sister had been in the waiting room and they came back to see him for a few minutes and then they left and ross, miles, and i settled in for our first night as a family! the nurses came in frequently and i had to wake up miles a few times to try to eat. we couldn't believe how tiny he was!

we relaxed all friday morning and then ross' mom and sister came to visit and also our friend grady came around lunchtime. and then my parents came to see miles in the afternoon. a lactation consultant came by to help us out with a supplementary nursing system to ensure miles was getting enough to eat since he didn't have much sucking strength. they also had me use a breast pump to make sure i would get a milk supply. ross was a big help with all of this as you would need about 8 hands to try to do all this by yourself. even during the night he was a trooper and got up to help me out. the doctor came by and thought things were looking good. my parents brought us dinner and we all ate together. some of my friends from school came by and then the rodelas and washingtons also came by that evening. we enjoyed showing him off! no one could believe how tiny he was!

we had a pretty good night friday but we were getting ready to be home! since miles was under 6lbs he needed to stay for monitoring for 48 hours before going home. on saturday morning my parents came back by and also the johnsons and ross' mom and sister came as well. the hospital pediatrician came by in the afternoon and signed miles off to go home. my doctor came back by and said i was good to go as well and started the discharge process. our pediatrician's wife came back and talked to us about caring for miles and then gave us a bunch of goodies and let us out the door! my mom came with us and we stopped for sonic drinks on the way home from the hospital. once we got home my mom made us dinner and got miles a birthday cake and a balloon with flowers for his homecoming. we couldn't believe he was here to stay!

ross and i had gotten in an "argument" on tuesday night about who was tougher and during the delivery process he conceded to me that i was perhaps tougher, though i imagine he was just trying to make me feel good. though i must say the doctor and nurses concurred that i was indeed tough. i will say the whole process had me very freaked out but in the end it was not as difficult or terrible as i had built it up to be in my head. though i don't think i would care to endure it without the epidural or the vicodin afterwards.

everyone had been telling me that childbirth is extremely painful but the result is well worth it. i found the pain to be less than i had thought and the reward to be far sweeter than i could have imagined.

new blog

2009-06-13T22:09:00.003-05:00

unfortunately the site we were hosting hytnenhype.com on went down and deleted our account on 2 separate occasions. so we are moving on. or back. when in doubt, go with google products (blogger). at least for the time being. we are on the lookout for a new host to bring back the full site, but for now this blog should keep you updated on all things miles. i'm also bringing over some posts from the old site in case you want to re-live some of those moments.