Catching Up...

Geez...I'm behind in blogging, but in the spirit of starting the New Year caught up, here is what we've been up to since my last post.  

We took Lincoln to the Arboretum for his 6 month photo shoot about a week before he turned 6 months old.  I wanted to take the pictures before he received his helmet the next week.  He isn't quite able to sit up on his own in these photos, so we propped him up as best we could and stood VERY close by to catch him when he titled over.  Oh, the things I will do for cute photos.

Just after he turned 6 months old, Lincoln received his cranial remolding helmet.  He had a distinct flat spot on the right side of his head and refused to sleep in any other position except on that spot.  We learned more than we ever wanted to know about plagiocephaly (the technical term for "flat head").  Check it out here if you are curious.  

I'm happy to report that his sweet little head looks more symmetrical every day and we are hopeful that he will only have to wear the helmet for another few months.

Thanks to an ear infection that just wouldn't go away, we were unable to visit our family in Iowa for Thanksgiving.  Luckily, we were in town and very near Children's Medical Center ER on Thanksgiving morning when Lincoln experienced a side effect to one of the antibiotics for his ear infection.  As it turned out, it wasn't serious and for that we were VERY thankful!

 (note:  his jammies say, "who are you calling a turkey?)

Since we ended up being in town for Thanksgiving, we had an impromptu family day at the Dallas Arboretum over Thanksgiving weekend. 

I think John may have enjoyed playing in the leaves more than Lincoln!

And...because we just couldn't get that ear infection to clear up, our little guy got tubes the week before Christmas.  Here he is right after surgery.

I asked the nurse where my certificate of bravery was...apparently mommy's don't get one.  ;(

At 8 months old, Lincoln is doing new things every day!  He has started saying "mama", and while I LOVE this, I'm not feeling incredibly special, because he calls everything mama...the dog, his toys, the ceiling fan.  He has also started crawling on a very limited basis (limited to at school when mommy and daddy can't see), and just this morning I walked into his room to find him sitting up in bed.  He loves books and our dog Bailey and thinks that his Daddy is the funniest guy in the world!

We had a wonderful first Christmas with our sweet boy and family.  I can only imagine how much more fun it will be when Lincoln actually knows what is going on and is excited himself.  This is the main picture from our Christmas card this year, again taken at the Arboretum, one of our new favorite spots!

Christmas 2010 Video

And, because I took more photos of Christmas than I can possibly put up on the blog, here's a video of all of our Christmas festivities...enjoy!

Our First Parent/Teacher Conference and Lincoln's first visit to the voting booth

John and I had our first parent/teacher conference with Lincoln's teachers this week. His teachers have some very loft goals for him over the next few months:

1-Sit up on his own

2-Start eating cheerios and/or puffs (seriously, already...mommy is SO not ready for that!)

3-Hold his own bottle

4-Continue working on the signs for: milk, more, eat and all done

I'm so thankful for his wonderful teachers who take such great care of him during the day. He is having so much fun at "school"!

After his parent/teacher conference we took the opportunity to teach Lincoln all about the democratic process by taking him with us to vote! The election volunteers thought he was awfully cute!

Already 6 Months Old!

Can you believe that Lincoln is 6 months old? John and I feel like he has been a part of our lives forever, but at the same time, can't quite believe how he has turned from a little baby into a little boy so quickly! Here are a few of the photos we took before we got this nicely posed one!

Can I eat this?

No? Well, what about this pillow, it looks tasty.

Don't take the pillow away, it was helping me sit up!

Wonder if Mom will notice if I try to eat this piece of paper again.

Wondering what else the little (big) guy has been up to over the past few weeks?

Lincoln made his first trip to a pumpkin patch...

And picked out his very own pumpkin.

Daddy may have helped just a little...

I was excited about the photo op!

He received his helmet (cranial remolding orthosis...check out the pics of plagiocephay at www.starcranial.com to see why he needs it) and became a Rangers fan...antlers up!

Okay, I think that catches you up on the highlights.

First Day of School

I'm behind in my posts...I assume this will be the norm and you'll just have to expect that whatever I'm blogging about happened in the past. Life with baby keeps us VERY busy!

Lincoln started "school" the first week of September. To say that we all LOVE it would be an understatement. Lincoln loves his teachers and greets them with a huge smile every morning. He grins at all of the other kids in his classroom and I can tell he really studies them and tries to figure out what they are doing. He's the baby of his class for the moment, so all of his new friends are doing cool things like sitting up and walking!

Rice Rice Baby

John and I made the impromptu decision to start Lincoln on rice cereal this week. I say impromptu, because we had decided to wait a few more weeks as he didn't seem to be overly hungry after finishing his bottles and we weren't quite prepared with all of the baby paraphenelia that you "need" to actually feed him solid foods...BUT...several nights in a row of his typical 7 am wakeup getting earlier and earlier made us (me) a bit desperate.

So, we used his swing as a high chair and dug the spoons we received as a baby gift out of the closet (thanks Gable!).

We were pretty sure that the majority of the cereal ended up on his bib (and our theory was confirmed when he woke up at 4am, argh), but he was SO cute trying to eat it up!

You'd actually think that for a baby who spends his entire day trying to put everything his little hands can reach in his mouth that he'd have had a little more success keeping the cereal inside his mouth...but apparently, that whole swallowing thing is hard!

SO...if you need to find me this week, I'll be out looking for high chairs (preferably one that matches my decor...ah, you modern folks have it SO much easier when it comes to finding attractive baby "stuff"...I've yet to find a fab french country inspired high chair) :)

Where did 4 months go?

Our little man turned 4 months old this week. You'll have to forgive his sour expression in the above photo...mommy knows better than to try to take a picture right before bedtime! This was the best of the lot, but I found the tired photos pretty cute too (actually, I'm not sure I've ever taken a photo of Linc that I didn't find adorable).

Linc....did you just read that? Part of the reason I loved the name Lincoln was that I thought the nickname "Linc" was cute...however, prior to Lincoln's arrival, John vetoed the use of said nickname. Once he came home, he quickly became "buddy"...which neither of us liked, but it just sort of came out naturally. I argued that Linc was a much better nickname than buddy, but to no avail. Just this week, John decided that his nickname for Lincoln is "16" (though I'm curious as to how long he's been secretly referring to him that way in his own head). It took me a while to make the connection...but I'm sure you'll figure it out faster than I did. Of course, it is also appropriate that he was born on the 16th. So, for daddy...it's 16 and for mommy it's Linc (because I of course argued that if John can call him 16, then I can call him Linc)...ya! I can't wait to shout, "Go Linc" at a football game.

But, if he's playing football, then he's all grown up and I'm trying to just sit back and enjoy this time while he is "small". We look at him on a daily basis and can't believe that he is the same little boy that wouldn't gain weight when we came home from the hospital. His new 6-9 month sleepers have skid proof feet, I take this as a sign that some little ones are WALKING by the time they wear this size.

One of my favorite things he has started to do this month is "talk". He wakes us up every morning just chatting with his mobile animals. He'll go for a good hour before he starts to fuss and wants up...which we let him do if the chatting starts at anytime that begins with the number 5. I've included a link to a video of our little alarm clock below.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=650318733#!/video/video.php?v=423809783733&ref=mf

Other highlights of this month included meeting his Guild cousins, Julia and Ethan, plus his Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jay. Another swimming adventure at Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Rick's house and a really fun playdate (i.e. he was actually awake and somewhat interacted with the other babies as opposed to sleeping thru the entire event) and finally being tall enough to play with the Baby Einstein toy at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Ethan and Lincoln checking each other out!

Julia taking very good care of Lincoln

Pool time...gotta always have that paci!

Playdate fun with Cole!

So fun!

Staycation...Dallas

Doesn't it seem that with your best of friends, it doesn't matter how much time has passed since you saw them last...you pick up right where you left off? I hope Lincoln is blessed to have friendships like that when he grows up.

We had the pleasure of having my college roommate, Jamie, and her family visit us from Fayetteville this week. Our little boys are 9 months apart...aren't they cute in their matching pj's? Parker loved Lincoln! I hope they will continue to be good buddies so that we can vacation with the Wetsell's for many years to come!

Highlights of our staycation included storytime at the library, a trip to the Dallas World Aquarium and a pool day at Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Rick's house. Ah...how your vacations change when kiddos are involved (not that we would have it any other way). Unfortunately, Lincoln's daddy had to work all week :(....no rest for the weary attorneys!

Ryan, Parker, Lincoln and I at the Aquarium.
Parker loved all of the animals and when Lincoln decided to wake up from his nap, he thought the plants and waterfalls were too cool!

Parker has this whole pool thing down. I think he would have stayed in his float all day if his mommy and daddy let him!

This is Lincon's first trip to the pool! Before you make fun of his sungear...it was almost 100 degrees...yikes!

Stay tuned for more updates on Lincoln's Log...his mommy is very behind in her posts and has lots of fun things to share!

What A Week!

Lincoln turned two months old this week! Can you believe it? I can't really...but then again, it certainly seems like he has always been a part of our lives, so in some ways, I feel like he should be much older than that too. In the picture above, he is wearing a 3-6 month sleeper. There is a small part of my type-a personality that is bothered by the fact that his age and his clothes size don't match up correctly, but as with a lot of things, I'm learning to let it go. :) (FYI...the pillows in his crib are for the photo only, they don't stay there on a regular basis!)

I think it is safe to say that we no longer need to be worried about whether or not he is gaining enough weight. At his 2-month checkup he was a whopping 11 pounds, 10 ounces which puts him in the 71st perecentile for weight and 24 inches long, which is the 94th percentile for height. Everyone says that he looks just like his daddy (well, except for my mom who claims he looks just like me), but he certainly got his height from my side of the family (you are probably reading this thinking, "Heather isn't very tall", but I'm the short one in the bunch...my "little" brother is 6'4"). In fact, he is so tall that we are having trouble keeping him in sleepers, his legs outgrow them long before they are too small everywhere else.

Turning 2 months old brought his first set of shots. Our pediatrician recommended we keep him away from large crowds of people and children until he received this first set of shots, so I have been eagerly anticipating this day as the day when I could breathe a bit easier about taking him out in public. It's amazing how you can hear a cough or sneeze across a crowded room whenever you have a new baby. I have actually had to stop myself from reminding complete strangers to cover their mouths when they cough! Unfortunately, the shots made him awfully cranky and gave him his first fever. Poor guy! He is such a good little boy though, even when he was cranky he was happy once one of us cuddled with him a bit. I think in all reality, it was much harder on mommy and daddy than it was on Lincoln. Once his fever came down around 10pm, he slept the rest of the night...but we checked on him all night long. Thankfully, my mom came over the next day and watched the little guy so that I could get some rest.

Lincoln celebrated Father's Day with his first trip to church! He was such a good boy. When I was pregnant with him, he LOVED the organ music at church and would kick the entire time the organ played, so I was interested to see how he responded. He slept thru most of the music portion of the service, but woke up when everyone started clapping after the soloist. Once awake, he was fascinated by all of the lights in the sanctuary. After church he went on a nap boycott...I'm inclined to believe that he fell asleep and woke up in a new and interesting place and was afraid to go to sleep and miss anything else. He is definitely a curious little boy!

Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Rick came over to join us in our Father's Day celebration and cookout. Lincoln decided to give up on his nap boycott for a very small amount of time while Grandpa Rick was holding him. Look at how his head is turned to the left in the picture above! Yeah! Have I mentioned that we had to take Lincoln to the neurologist earlier this month? Okay, "had" may be a strong word. At about 2 weeks old we noticed that Lincoln "jumped/twitched" in his sleep. It was a bit frightening, he'd be asleep and his arms and legs would jerk. We took a video of him doing this to our pediatrician who thought it was a bit odd and said that if it didn't resolve we "could" take him to a pediatric neurologist. Well, that was really all I needed to hear, we scheduled an appointment with the neurologist. Long story short, Lincoln is perfectly fine...(praise God!) but his nervous system is a bit immature during sleep which causes him to exhibit hypnic myoclonus (fancy words for jumping in his sleep). The jumping is something that he will grow out of, and indeed, we have already noticed that he does this less and less. The neurologist was much more "concerned" about his poor little flat spot and he encouraged us to try to get him to sleep on the other side of his head as much as possible...not an easy task for a little one who has an opinion about how he likes to sleep. John and I have constantly been turning Lincoln's head to the left while he sleeps to help the flat spot on his head resolve sans helmet, it looks like he is finally getting the idea, look how that little head is turned! Fingers crossed that our hard work is paying off and he won't need a helmet.
At two months old, he is starting to look like a little boy. Look at that sweet face. He is smiling and "talking" all the time (he also gets that from me!), and we are looking forward to the day when he laughs for us...it is right around the corner, I can feel it!

Hippo Hunter!

This past Saturday was our first official outing as a family. Sure, we've gone places since Lincoln was born (the doctor's office, Grandma and Grandpas, Babies 'R Us)...but Saturday was the first day that we didn't HAVE to go anywhere or DO anything in particular. Daddy didn't have to go into the office, the laundry was done and we had the whole day to spend at our leisure. Lincoln was all dressed up for the occassion in his camouflage hippo outfit. It had a sunhat, so it wasn't just cute, it was practical too (or at least this is what I told John).

So, what does one do on a leisurely day in the middle of the summer in Dallas, TX with a newborn? We were stumped! Our criteria for the perfect "outing" included staying out of the heat (it was 101 degrees here on Saturday), spending a minimal amount of moola and access to restrooms/rest areas where little one could take a bottle. So many things to consider!

We ended up heading to the Mall (ok, so this didn't exactly meet requirement #2, but it satisfied the others), making a stop at Half Price Books (I think since the books are a bargain, this meets all of the requirements), and then driving thru neighborhoods looking for our next perfect house (one of our FAVORITE pastimes, and while it's free at the moment, I'm sure this will cost us later)!

After all of this shopping, food was in order. So...where does one go to eat on a Saturday night in Dallas with a newborn? Nothing to hip, or too fancy, or too loud or too crowded...decisions, decisions! We went out to eat early (I'm talking...your grandma and grandpa eat this early, early) hoping to avoid the date night crowd and also hoping Lincoln would sleep thru our meal. He slept thru us ordering the meal, but luckily the restaurant we chose had Lincoln's trifecta of "cool" things at their disposal: windows, lights on the ceiling and music...so he was a happy camper once we rescued him from his carseat (I mean hunter...he was looking for hippos all day afterall!).

Lincoln ended his fun-filled day as all good days should end, with a warm bath, a good book and a bit of cuddle time.

John and I ended our fun-filled day exhausted, but armed with the knowledge that with a little more planning and effort, we can go out and do "normal" things!

Tomorrow I will be bigger...

(wearing his sailor suit in honor of the Jimmy Buffet concert that the rest of the family attended)

I've discovered that motherhood is different than I thought it would be! In some respects, it comes easily (how can you not love on this sweet boy!)...and in others the job of being a mommy (sterilizing bottles, doing laundry) is much more time consuming and demanding than I anticipated. Nor did I anticipate the internal struggle that comes along with always striving to do what is best for your baby (should I let him cry it out for a bit or does he need to be held?)...these kind of decisions seem easy until you are faced with actually making and implementing them.

Being the type A person that I am, we decided to implement the "BABYWISE" system at our house. For those unfamiliar, Babywise is based around the premise that baby eats, plays, sleeps on a routine basis in order to get their bodyclock and metabolism on a schedule, this in theory promotes healthy eating and sleeping habits and helps them sleep thru the night. I am a fan of the routine this system provides and John was on board with anything that helped baby (and thus us) sleep thru the night!

So far we have been pleased with how well Lincoln has acclimated to his daily routine. He is always ready to eat right on schedule and we have seen glimpses of how wonderful a full nights sleep is going to be with the little one sleeping 8 hours at a stretch a couple of nights this week. His weight gain is back on track and he is working hard to grow into his big hands and big feet...already at a whopping 10 pounds! In the last week we have packed up all of his newborn clothes and transitioned to a bigger diaper! (I may or may not have shed a tear over packing these things away...isn't it funny how you can want your children to grow and be healthy and yet at the same time be a little nostalgic about how fast they are growing?)

(Lincoln loves his rainforest mat...but isn't a huge fan of tummy time)

Our downfall in this whole eat/play/sleep routine is the nap! Lincoln has decided that napping is excellent cuddle time (and he is right!), but when mommy uses nap time to take care of everything else (laundry, dishes, work...or maybe even (gasp!) a shower, his preference for being held while napping becomes a bit of a challenge...and the internal debate over how to properly handle this begins!

(Napping with his daddy in mommy's favorite pirate sleeper!)

Most of the time I am a stickler for following our house napping rules: baby naps IN his crib when MOMMY decides that it is nap time. But as with all rules, there are exceptions! So, on days like today, when every bottle in our house is dirty, there are loads and loads of laundry to be done, I haven't made it out of my pj's by noon, and Lincoln decides that the ONLY way he will nap is if he is being held...I remind myself that our sweet little boy will only be this small today. Tomorrow he will get bigger and learn or discover something new, so I let myself off the hook on the laundry, on the dishes, on the napping rules, and on worrying whether or not I am spoiling him by giving in...and just enjoy the cuddle time.

Wow...where did a month go?

So, I had every intention of blogging about Lincoln's birthday, but between feeding the little one every 2 hours for a week straight and generally just trying to keep our heads above water, I didn't get around to it, so here is a quick recap for those of you who haven't heard the story yet.

John and I went into the doctor for our regularly scheduled appointment on Friday morning, 4/16. I was pretty sure I was in labor and that we were coming home with a baby...John was trying to keep me from getting my hopes up and was generally playing the voice or reason - as he often does! Regardless, our bags were packed when we left for the doctor's office. :) As it turns out, I was having contractions and the doctor determined that we should head to maternity observation for a little while. We hadn't been there very long when Lincoln's heart rate dropped, setting off the alarms and causing the nurses and doctors to rush into our cubicle. It was INCREDIBLY scary! I was given a shot to stop my contractions and his heart rate returned to normal. As a result of that little scare, I was hooked up to monitors for the remainder of our time in labor and delivery which wasn't quite what we had envisioned. Lincoln was born at 9:15 that evening...exactly 12 hours after our scheduled doctor's appointment. Afterwards, we found out that his umbilical cord was too short, thus causing the dropped heartrate. Luckily, our little guy was just fine once he met the outside world!

(Brand new and getting his first diaper)

We brought Lincoln home the following Sunday evening, even though he was a little jaundice.

(Daddy getting Lincoln all dressed to go home from the hospital)

We really wish we had stayed in the hospital one more night, because he needed a bilibed and biliblanket for his jaundice after we got home...which frightened mommy and wore mommy, daddy and grandma out!

(It's amazing what a little light therapy can do!)

And then after that...little guy just wasn't gaining enough weight, so for a whole week he ate EVERY 2 hours...this also left us all exhausted! Luckily for all of us, Lincoln is a very good sleeper. Check out that sweet little hand under his chin...such a thinking man's pose!

By week three, we were finally starting to get into the swing of things. Lincoln started gaining weight (finally made it back to his birthweight) and had a visit from his Grandma Cheryl.

(Loving his present from Grandma Cheryl)

Week 4, we celebrated Mother's Day with my mom and John's mom and then on Monday, daddy went back to work full time, all of the grandmas went home and mommy and Lincoln tried to get into a daily routine...

(Mother's Day 2010)

And a 9:19 this evening, I snuck into the nursery and took a picture of our sweet baby boy...as he was exactly one month and 4 minutes old (so I completely meant to take the picture at 9:15...refer to what I said earlier about time flying when you have a baby around the house!)

My favorite storybook to read to Lincoln is called "On The Day You Were Born"...the last few lines read,

"On the day you were born...you slipped out of the dark quiet where suddenly you could hear a cirlce of people singing with voices familiar and clear. Welcome to the spinning world, the people sang as they washed your new, tiny hands. Welcome to the green Earth, the people sang as they wrapped your wet, slippery body. And as they held you close, they whispered into your open curving ear, we are so glad you've come!"

We are so glad he has come to be a part of our lives!