Star of Mommy's Blog!

Well, I don't blog much these days, but when I do, we all know who the star of it is.  I would blog just as much about my girls too, if they would sit still and let me do daily photo shoots of them like Matthew does.  :D   Ha!!
Matthew would like to thank Auntie Ver for getting him this bib.  It has been coming in handy lately, since we've been trying cereal and applesauce!  And he is drooling like crazy!

My Sweet Baby Boy is 3 Months Old Already!

How did that happen already?! 

Matthew weighs about 13 pounds now.  He is starting to get a little chubby, which I think is precious!  He LOVES to smile!  And if I put him on my lap, he will just talk and talk and smile at me.  It's so cute!  He is such a happy baby all the time.  The only time he fusses is in the car.  He still is not a huge fan of riding in the car.

Mommy and Matthew

He has almost learned to turn himself over from back to front.  If he could just get his arm out from under himself.  I think it's so cute how he's pulling on the blanket with his other hand!

He loves his nap nanny.  As long as it's facing me, he's happy.  Or lately in the mornings, I've been turning on Mickey Mouse and he likes to face the TV and watch that for a few minutes.

He is wearing mostly 3-6 month clothes now.  He finally grew into his Trumpette socks I got him before he was born.  Adorable! 

He is even wearing some 6 month things now.  I'm about to start feeding him rice cereal and see how that goes.  He's sleeping much better at night now.  He usually will fall asleep in the living room with us around 11pm and then we take him to bed with us and he will usually stay asleep until around 4am, which has been great!  And then he will sometimes wake up around 6 or stay asleep until a little later.

He will bring his hands together and grasp them now, which looks so sweet.  He loves bath time too.  He is drinking the regular enfamil formula now and has been doing great on it.  He drinks almost 4 oz each time now.  He takes only a couple of naps during the day.  Usually one in the morning after he first gets up and eats.  Then, one in the afternoon around 1pm.  Sometimes he will take an evening one too around 7 or 8pm.  So, needless to say, most days I just rotate him between holding him, his nap nanny, and his toy mat.  He's pretty much outgrown his toy mat.  He gets his feet on it and pulls it down almost every time.  Ha!  He does great in his bouncy chair now, so that I can take a shower.  That's the only time I put him in it, that way he stays entertained and gives me a chance to get dressed for the day.

Just for fun, everyone is always asking who he looks like.  Here's Lily at 3 months old.  They really do look a lot alike, but you can definitely see her feminine features and that he definitely looks like a boy.  He is leaner and longer than the girls ever were too.  Look how chubby her little legs were!



I think it won't be long before he learns to sit up.  When I'm holding him, he can already pull himself up almost by doing a little baby crunch.  He's so strong!  He holds his head up great now when you're holding him.  I think I will get him a bumbo chair soon and see if he likes that. 

Happy 3 Months, Mr. Matthew!  We love you SO much!!!



2 Months!

I had been meaning to take Matthew's 2 month photos and then I found myself already a week behind, so when I had to change his clothes one day, I just put his white onesie on him, stuck his 2 month sticker on, and decided to see what I could get.

They ended up being some of the cutest pictures!  He was in a really good mood, talking and cooing, so these are so neat to see all of the different little expressions that he is starting to make.  They perfectly capture right where he is in this stage of his little life......his little personality is starting to come alive!

Who me?

That's funny Mom!

Yeah, I am pretty cute, I guess!

Awwww, you're making me blush ;-)

I didn't do it.....

The sweetest little boy ever! :)

Matthew - 2 Months!

Wow, seems like just the other day I was updating everyone on your 1 month post and here you are, already 2 months old!

Today was your 2 month checkup and you are growing and right on target! 

You weighed 11 lbs. 13 oz. and are 23 3/4 inches long!  Those are both in the 90's for percentiles.  So, since birth you have gained almost 4 1/2 lbs. and grown 3 inches!  That's a lot for just 2 months!



You've been doing a lot of fun things lately.  You will coo and talk to us now when we talk to you and smile the sweetest smiles.  You are getting so strong and like to push with your feet, so we have to make sure and keep an eye on you when you're on the couch.  Mommy gave you your first real bath right after Christmas and you just started laughing and giggling!  It was so funny!!  You seem to really love bath time.

You are outgrowing your 3 month clothes in length now.  You can wear size 3 months in other things, but your pj's and one-piece outfits are getting too small, so you are getting into size 3-6 mos. on those.  You drink about 3 ounces of formula every couple of hours still.  Some nights you wake up about every 2 hours and some nights you only wake up once or twice.  Last night though, you slept until 5am!  Most nights, you are sleeping between Mommy and Daddy now.  You're almost too long for your bassinet.

You are really starting to notice more things and really study our faces when we talk to you.  You like to lay on your toy mat that you got for Christmas and sometimes, you'll actually get ahold of the rings that hang from it with your hands.  You love to stare at ceiling fans, especially if they are on.  Ha!  You seem to like your pacifier more now.  Sometimes, it seems you want to just eat and eat, so Mommy tried the pacifier and that seemed to comfort you so that you don't eat too much and make your tummy hurt.  During the day, you usually only take short 30 minute naps, so Mommy spends alot of time just holding you.  :)

I can tell you're going to be a very active little boy.  I think if you could, you would just run around and play with your sisters!  Most days, if you aren't eating or taking a short nap, Mommy is holding you or sometimes you will lay on your toy mat or swing for a short while.  We changed you back to your original newborn formula because the other kinds we tried didn't seem to help.  You're getting better though about not being so fussy because of your tummy, so I think your little digestive system is getting it all figured out.

We just all love you so much!  The time is already going by so fast and you are growing and getting chubbier and I just love that!  You're getting better head control already and I know before long, you'll be learning to sit up.  I'm excited for that because I know you are going to love being able to play more.  I just know that we are all going to spoil you rotten and I don't think there's a thing wrong with that!  :D



Matthew - One Month!

Wow, this month sure has flown by!!  I can't believe you are a month old already, Matthew!

Here's what you are up to this month:

You weigh 10 lbs. now!  You have gained 2.5 pounds already!
You eat about 3-4 ounces every 2-3 hours.
You like to wake up every 2 hours at night, but have been sleeping a little longer the past few days.
You finally lost your umbilical cord this weekend, but you had what they call a granuloma that did not fall off, so the doctor put silver nitrate on it today to help it dry up and it should fall off on its own.
You like to sleep in your swing, which helps Mommy a lot! :)
You do not like your carseat very much.  Well, you are fine until Mommy buckles you and then you cry.
You are starting to outgrow your newborn and some of your 0-3 mos. clothing and moving into size 3 mos.
You are so long that a lot of the smaller sizes are too short.
You can also pick your head up and turn it from side to side when we are holding you.  You're so strong already!

You seem to like your nap nanny that Mommy bought you.  It works great for naps and for a place to sit when Mommy needs to do something real quick.

Mommy loves you so much!  We all do!  You are so sweet and snuggly.  It's been a challenge for Mommy to get used to these sleepless nights and we are still working on getting your formula right, as you've been a little fussy with your tummy lately.  But, as each day goes by, we are getting more into a routine and it's getting easier to go places too. 

Now, stop growing up so fast!  :D

Sibling Love!

I haven't been blogging lately because my new laptop will not let me put my pictures on it.  I have no idea why, only that it's out of space already, and if I can't blog from it, it makes it pretty useless to me since that's all I really do on it.  Ugh!  So, I'm using my old laptop again.  My old laptop cord is broken and if you don't plug it in just right, the battery goes dead, but it's charged for now.  What's really frustrating is I just paid a lot of money to install mozy backup on my new laptop that I can't even use! 

Anyhow, I finally got around to using my "brand new" sticker for Matthew, even if he was already 11 days old here.  :)

I liked this picture of his little face/fingers.  So sweet!

The girls and Matthew!

They love holding him!

I just love Lily's expression in this picture.  She's so excited!

Look at Matthew.......LOL!!  Cracks me up!

I just haven't had much time to get all the girls and Matthew together for good pics.  We had a great Thanksgiving though and I got a few good ones, which I'll share later.  Gotta try and figure out what to do about my other laptop.  I guess I'll just have to remove all the older pics from it.  So frustrating!  Makes it really hard to be a blogger when you don't have access to all of your pictures.  And I am so paranoid about moving and deleting pictures.  I would die if something happened to them! 

Going Home!

Monday morning, Morgan had to get all the girls ready for school by himself.  :D  I think he even helped Madison use the flat iron on her hair.  Ha!  Kaylee actually didn't go to school that day because she had a cold and later that day he took her to get her arm x-rayed to make sure it was okay.  We also skipped dance that night too, just to make it easy!

After he dropped the girls off at school, he came up to the hospital so that we could go home!  We had to wait for the doctor to come by and check out Matthew and then we were released.  I was so glad to be able to go home!  I think the worst part of my recovery was the soreness from that awful, hard bed!  LOL!

Riding in the car, going home!!

The girls love holding him!  I have more pics of the girls with him.....I just need to put them on my computer.  Lily really loves holding him too and hasn't seemed to be jealous at all, which I'm thankful for!  She even started sleeping in her bed all night long as soon as we came home, without us even saying a word to her about that!  Usually, she would always end up in our bed in the middle of the night, but since we've been home, she has been sleeping in her bed all night long. 

We are all settling in to a new normal and I'm trying to remind myself that it's okay if I can't do it all just yet!  Matthew is such a good baby; it's just that he doesn't sleep much longer than 2 hours at a time, so I was just feeling exhausted.  But, last night he slept a lot better.  Morgan has been such a huge help, staying up late with him so I can get a few good hours of sleep, too!  Before I know it, he will be all grown up and I'll be missing these newborn baby days!



Sunday in the Hospital!

Like I said before, I would have gotten to go home on Sunday, had it not been for me carrying the Group B Strep bacteria and not getting my antibiotics because my labor went so fast.  So, we knew I would have to stay until Monday morning.  They were waiting on a culture that takes 48 hours and it wouldn't be finished until midnight that night.  They went ahead and discharged me Sunday night, but let me stay in my room.  They call it "nesting" and it just meant they could no longer offer care for me, but I could stay there until the next morning when Matthew was to be released.

The neonatologist that saw him was really nice and very informative.  We kind of laughed because he went into great detail about GBS and jaundice, as if we didn't have 3 kids already.  But, I appreciated him making sure we understood everything.  I even know the chemistry of jaundice now and how that all works.  Ha!  Matthew never showed any signs of contracting GBS and his culture came back clear.  He did have a little bit of jaundice, but nothing significant.
Here was my view from my room.  I was starting to get a little stir crazy in there!

Sweet baby fingers :)

Morgan and the girls came to visit again and I just happened to be looking out the window when they drove up and took this picture of them.  LOL!

Precious peaceful baby.....

Since we knew we'd be staying longer, my OB said he would come back on Sunday to do Matthew's circumcision.  They took him to the nursery to do it and then brought him back.  Right after Morgan and the girls arrived, Matthew needed a diaper change.  That was the first time I had changed him and saw him after the circumcision.  Right about that time, my MIL and FIL walked in to visit.  Well, as soon as I opened his diaper, I had my first breakdown right then and there.  I was not expecting it to look so traumatic and it broke my heart!  I thought, what have I done to my poor baby?!!  And to make it worse, he kind of whimpered as if it hurt and I thought my heart was going to break in two.  I just picked him up and just started crying.  I felt so bad too because Morgan's Mom and Stepdad decided to go ahead and take the girls to their house and then after they left, I saw the most beautiful flowers that they had brought me and I didn't even say Thank You.

Thankfully, right after that, my friends from church, Liz and Amy, came to visit.  I told them about it and Liz is a baby nurse, so she took a look at it and said it looked completely normal so that put my mind at ease.  The timing of that was a blessing.  And all of the nurses and doctors and his pediatrician since then have said what a great job the doctor did, so I am so thankful for that.  I have prayed and prayed about that!  And it is finally healed and this Mommy feels much better.  :)  Morgan joked with me and said I was going to be way more protective with Matthew than I ever was with the girls.  :D

Almost everyone who visited us in the hospital were from our church.  What a blessing to have that church family!  It really brightened my days and made it not seem like such a long stay to have people come and visit us.  They also organized meals for the entire first week of us being home, which was so amazingly thoughtful and helpful not to have to worry about what we were going to eat.  And it was fun to have some more visitors too :)  All of the facebook wishes were so much fun too.  Facebook just makes it so easy to share things like this!  I appreciated so much each and every single one of them and tried to reply to them all, but it was hard to keep up at times.  Another huge help was that my MIL picked up the girls from school and took them to dance all of that first week for me.  I could not have survived without her!  All of these things just made me feel so loved and so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives!

Well, tomorrow is my 3 year blogiversary!  Can you believe it?!  Who knew three years ago that we would have a sweet little boy in our family now?  God is so good!





Matthew's First Day!

Friday night, before Morgan left to drop off Madison and Kaylee at their dance lock-in, I told them that we may have their brother that night.  That was one answered prayer, that he was born on a Friday and that the girls were somewhere safe and I didn't have to worry about them.  Friday was perfect because we didn't have to worry about school or dance or Morgan having school.  I was praying that the timing would be perfect and the Lord worked it out perfectly!  When Morgan left, I told him not to take too long because I was thinking we would be heading to the hospital soon.  Even the timing of him being able to drop them off and get back in time, considering how fast it all happened, was totally a God thing.  When he got back, I told him that he and Lily should eat fast so we could go.  That always was one of my biggest fears, the timing of it all and where would I be and where would he and the girls be, and I was so grateful that it all went so well!

So, after he was born so fast, I really hadn't had a chance to give anyone a heads up that it was happening, other than posting on FB that we were hoping it was the real thing.  I tried calling Madison on her phone at dance, but she didn't answer, so I texted her dance teacher and asked her to please call me because I just had their baby brother!  :)  She called back and I was able to talk to her and text her a photo of him.  She and Kaylee were SO excited and they went around showing everyone.

I was so grateful to have my iphone this time around!  It was SO handy to have, to take pics, and to post on FB and text.  That was my lifesaver, since we had to stay 3 nights in the hospital!

I didn't have Morgan stay the night with me at the hospital.  There was just no reason for him to sleep up there, uncomfortable, so he left that night and picked up Lily and went home.  Then, Saturday, he picked up the girls from their dance thing, they ate breakfast, and then came to visit. 

It just worked out that both of them were wearing yellow.  :)

Lovely hospital attire.  :D 

Grandma came to visit and take the girls to her house for the day.  Kaylee had ended up hurting her arm at dance and she was getting sick too.  I also got a horrible sore throat that day and am still trying to get over that!  Morgan got sick too and is still recovering.  LOL!  We were all falling apart.  We ended up having to take Kaylee to get her arm x-rayed and then had to go back to get her good arm x-rayed to compare to the other one.  The consensus was that it's okay and just really badly bruised, but she still cannot extend it all the way.

Matthew and Grandma (Morgan's Mom)

I loved this picture of Madison and Matthew!





Another neat thing is that right after the girls and Morgan arrived, the photographer came by to take photos.  They did such a great job and got the cutest photos!  He was wearing his little hat that Veronica made and it was adorable!   Once I order them, I'll be able to post them on here.  I did take this one with my camera.  I was so glad that everyone was there for that!  They took one of Morgan holding Matthew in his hands and it looked exactly like the one they took of him holding Lily like that when she was born.  I think he will end up looking like her.



When I would get bored, I'd start taking pics with my phone.  LOL!  I somehow managed to capture this one......my very favorite one so far of Matthew and I.  :)



Another answered prayer was that my hospital stay was so pleasant.  I haven't had the best luck with that hospital in the past, but the staff and everyone was so wonderful.  They even had movies on the TV you could watch, although I never really did.  You could order your food off the TV and choose exactly what you wanted.  They were just really great to me and I couldn't have asked for better, especially since I had to stay so long.

Another thing I've always hated is all the medical intervention that they do when you give birth in the hospital.  I hate being strapped to the baby monitor, having to tote the IV pole around, etc.  Since my labor went to fast though, I didn't have to have any of that stuff, so it was so much more natural and my recovery was so awesome too.  It was just such an answered prayer that I didn't feel weak and I didn't have any trauma from the birth.  And an answered prayer that I was able to have him naturally, not induced, and that I didn't have to choose whether or not to have the epidural, which I was really stressing about.....that choice was made for me!  Ha!

Those are just a few of the ways that God worked everything out so perfectly for me.  I am extremely afraid of hospitals too, but I didn't feel any anxiety the whole time I was there.  Everything went so well!  I was also in amazement that when I weighed myself after getting home, I'd already lost all my baby weight!  I am now 7 1/2 pounds less than what I started as at the beginning of my pregnancy.  I guess all those Chick-Fil-A salads I craved the whole time really paid off!  I seriously prayed at the beginning of my pregnancy that I would not gain a ton of weight, since I gained 50 lbs with each of the girls.  I prayed I wouldn't crave junk food and all I craved were salads the whole time.  I ate one almost every day.  LOL! 

I know this is such a long post, but I just don't want to forget anything so I'm trying to post and record everything while I still remember! :)  I'll be back later to share more!



First Doctor's Appointment

Yesterday, Matthew had his first doctor's appointment.  He was supposed to have it on Friday, but they had to cancel because the doctor got sick.  He was 10 days old yesterday and now weighs 7 lbs. 9 oz.  Everything looked great and then since we were already at the hospital, we went ahead and took him to the lab for his 2nd PKU test.  I really hate that test!  It's the one where they prick their foot.  Luckily, Morgan was with me and he took him back there to do it, since they would only let one of us go back with him.



The most traumatic thing for him was when we put him back in his carseat after his appointment.  He is not a huge fan of it yet!  I'm hoping he will get used to it.

I have so much to catch up on with blogging.  I have so many pictures to share and want to post about my hospital stay.  I just can't seem to find the time to sit down and think about it all.  I will get to it eventually!

Matthew is doing great.  He can already hold his head up to turn it from side to side when you're holding him, or when he's laying down he can turn it from side to side.  He does not like a wet diaper at all!  Today, he started crying while I was waiting to pick up the girls and so after I got them, we pulled over in the parking lot and I changed him and fed him.  He doesn't really cry, except when he is wet or hungry, and sometimes when he's getting his clothes changed.

He sleeps good at night, meaning as soon as you feed and change him, he goes right back to sleep.  It's just that he isn't eating a whole lot at one time, so he is waking up every 2 hours.  During the day, sometimes he will sleep up to 3 hours, but it always seems like it's during a time when getting a nap isn't possible.  We will get some sort of schedule going eventually though.  :)