4 months old

Carter turned 4 month old yesterday, I can't believe how time is flying. Being a mother is the best thing in the world. I can't explain my love for this little boy. And he's such a great baby, always smiling. Grant and I are so lucky. And Grant is the best dad. I always knew he'd be a great dad but he's even better than I could ask for.

I need to take his four month picture but he's at his grandmas today. I was sick yesterday (throwing up all day, it was bad) and I didn't want Carter to possibly get sick from me so my mom took him. Luckily I'm feeling much better today.

In the meantime here's a pregnancy survey;

1. Were you married at the time? Yes.

2. What was your reaction when you found out you were pregnant? "OMG!!!" I think deep down I knew I was pregnant but I was in shock. You can read about it ­here

3. How old were you? 27

4. How did you find out you were pregnant? I had been extremely tired all weekend long so I decided to take a test.

5. Who did you tell first? Grant was there so he found out right away. Kaci was the first to know after that. She actually guessed it, which I still don't know how because she lives hundreds of miles away. Then we told my parents after our first appointment.

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes! We're way too impatient to wait. I wanted to have the nursery all decorated and clothes all bought and I'm not a big fan of gender neutral baby things.

7. Due date? July 4th, 2009.

8. Did you deliver early or late? 4 days early. I was induced on Monday and my water broke early Tuesday morning.

9. Did you have morning sickness? No, thank God. I was a little nauseated at the beginning but it really wasn't too bad. I got really lucky.

10. What did you crave? Red grapes, yogurt, burritos and jalapenos. Not all together, that would be weird, lol.

11. What irritated you the most? Not too much really. I would get irritated at random stupid things but nothing big.

12. What was your first child’s sex? Boy.

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? I think the final number was 15 pounds or something. I ended up losing it all within 2 weeks but my clothes still don't fit the same.

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Not really, unless you count having gestational diabetes. I was so lucky to have a really easy pregnancy. I LOVED being pregnant, it's such a blessing.

15. Where did you give birth? St. Elizabeth Hospital

16. How many hours were you in labor? 7 1/2 hours from my water breaking until the c-section.

17. Who drove you to the hospital? Grant. It was 2:00 in the morning with no traffic but he still ran stops signs and red lights. He's always wanted to do that, lol.

18 . Did you take medicine to ease the pain? No. I wanted an epidural so bad but they said I have to be at 4cm and I never got past 3cm.

19 . How much did your child weigh? 6lbs 15.5oz but they rounded up to 7 pounds.

20 . What did you name him/her? Carter Thomas.

21 . How old is your first born today? 4 months 1 day.

22. Who does your child look like? He looks like Grant but has my eyes, hands and feet. Weird combo I know.

23. Did you get mad at your husband during labor? Nope. I didn't talk or even open my eyes when I was in labor. It hurt to bad to move or think so I just kept to myself.

Daddy and Carter almost 4 months old

Still going strong

First of all I'd like to say Happy Birthday to grandma Ardith! I wish that we could come up and visit you guys!

I still can't believe how great Carter is sleeping now. Every night for the last 6 nights we've been able to put Carter to bed and he falls asleep on his own without us even having to go into his room. This is so great.

My mom bought Carter a bouncer the other day and Carter loves it. I need to get a picture of him in it.

He's doing great at day care. The day care owner, Melissa, LOVES him!
The job is going fantastic and the benefits are freaking awesome. I'm able to get me, Grant and Carter on a great medical, dental and vision plan for less than we were paying for just Carter and I for medical only. We're going to be saving close to $200 a month and the plan is twice as good as our old one.


That's just about it. Just wanted to give a little update.

Uncle Troy and Carter 3 1/2 months old

Carter is 3 months, 2 weeks and 5 days old today

6 minutes...

...is how long it took Carter to fall asleep tonight. No crying, no fussing, he just fell asleep. But better than that is the fact that last night he fell asleep at 7:30 and slept until Grant woke him up at 6:30 this morning. That's 11 hours. That's insane! I mean I've heard of other babies doing this but I never thought Carter would.

I'm loving this!








Today Carter is 3 months, 2 weeks and 2 days old

Night 5 of sleep training

Tonight is night 5 of sleep training and it's been going great. Last night and tonight went so much better then I ever expected. Both nights we put Carter to bed and he talked to himself and fussed a little but didn't cry....at all! Both nights he fell asleep within 15 minutes and we didn't have to go into his room once. I mean I knew that this would happen eventually, but on nights 4 and 5? That's awesome. I'm probably jumping the gun by posting this though, this may change at any moment. We'll see....I'll keep you posted.







Carter is 3 months 2 weeks and 1 day old today

3 1/2 months

Carter is already 3 1/2 months old! Time is flying. We had his pictures taken last week professional and they turned out so good. I get to pick up the prints on Friday but here's a preview;










In other news we started sleep training on Sunday. In the past Carter has had such a hard time falling asleep. We would have to rock him and he would cry for a good 30 minutes before he finally fell asleep. I've been doing a lot of research on sleep training and while I don't agree with letting a child CIO (cry it out) I do think that modified versions of sleep training can work great for some babies.

I purchased ­Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber and have been following a modified version of his sleep training methods. The idea is to have Carter fall asleep in his crib on his own. He should fall asleep in the same conditions as it would be if he was to wake up in the middle of the night. This will teach him how to soothe himself to sleep so he won't depend on Grant or I to make him fall asleep. This will help for when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he won't need to cry out to us for help falling back asleep, he will be able to fall back asleep on his own.

The way the training works is we start by following a bedtime schedule every night to get him into a routine. Usually it's bath, pajamas, read a book, bottle, bed. When we put him to sleep we tell him goodnight and that we love him then turn off the lights (he has a nightlight) and leave the room. If he starts crying then we wait 3 minutes and go in to reassure him that we are there. If he just fusses then we let him be. If we do go in we stay for 1 or 2 minutes then leave the room. When we go in we don't pick him up, we just pat him, stroke his hair and let him know that mommy and daddy are there for him. We then leave the room. If he starts crying again then we will wait 5 minutes before we return to his room. Each time the waiting will get progressively longer, but no more than 10 minutes.

I will admit that it is difficult to hear him cry, but I know that this is the best for him and it's definitely the right thing for us to do. I in NO way think that what we are doing is wrong or bad parenting. The first night we had to go in his room 4 times and he fell asleep within an hour of us putting him in his crib (obviously he did not cry that entire time). The second night he fell asleep within 30 minutes of us putting him in his crib and we only had to go in 2 times. Tonight, night 3, he fell asleep within 10 minutes of putting him in his crib and we didn't have to go in his room at all. Do you realize what an accomplishment this is? We were able to put him in his crib and he fell asleep on his own. Grant and I are so happy. And to see these results in just 3 days is amazing. I know that tomorrow might totally change, he may not fall asleep so easily but I would like to relish in the glory while I can. :)

To help the sleep training, Carter started day care yesterday and my day care lady kind of follows the same rules for nap time. So far she said that he has done amazing for all his naps and he puts himself to sleep every time. All in all sleep training is definitely a success with us.

That's pretty much what we've been up to lately. Life is great, I couldn't ask for anything more. I started my new job yesterday and it's great so far. I'll make a separate post about that someday.















Carter is 3 months, 1 week and 6 days old today

Carter giggles!

SO CUTE!!!

Long time, no post!

I've been totally slacking on updating so this will probably be a pretty long blog entry. I'm going to break it down in bullets;

• Three weeks ago I noticed Carter wasn't feeling well and he felt hot so I took his temp and it was a whopping 104 degrees. I rushed him to the doctor and they said to give him Tylenol and Motrin and come back in 24 hours. They tested him for the the flu and the swine flu but that was about all they could do (luckily they were both negative). So the next morning before I go his appointment I notice he had a little cough. I mention it to the doctor and he ordered chest x-rays. Carter had slight pneumonia. Poor baby. Luckily we caught it super early so a round of antibiotics did the trick and he got all better.
  

• Now though, he has a cold. Obviously it's not as bad as pneumonia but it still sucks. He HATES the nasal aspirator so he's not a happy camper right now.
  

• The good news is he's been sleeping better. There was a couple of weeks during and after he was sick that his sleep was horrible but the last couple of days it's been fantastic! Saturday night he slept from 8:30 pm to 4:00 am, ate, then slept from 5:00 am to 8:30 am. 12 hours with one bottle in between. Then last night he followed almost the same route. I could definitely get used to this.
  

• I have a three month old! I can't believe how fast time has gone. He's getting so big. He's learning so many new things. When he's sitting on my lap he loves to stare at his toes. He is already putting everything in his mouth. If anything is near his hands he will try to navigate it to his mouth. When I get him dressed and I'm putting his arm in the sleeve he will shove the sleeve in his mouth.

• I'm still not back to work yet. I've been so lucky to be able to spend 3 glorious months with my munchkin but my time has come to an end. On Monday I will be returning back to work. But it's not my previous job, I'm starting a new one. It's going to be weird but exciting. The pay isn't as good but the benefits are AWESOME, they have flex time so I can go into work anytime between 6:30 am and 9:00 am, and after a year I get to work from home full time. The con to this is I have to put Carter in day care.
  

• I found a great day care for Carter. Grant and I know the lady personally and we both completely trust her. She follows the same practices that I believe in such as very limited T.V shows (and not until they're older), no pacifiers or bottles past 1 year old, and having the child on a schedule (Carter is a little too young for this, but soon). I think that Carter will have a great time there and he will learn to interact with other children, which is harder to teach when he's home alone with me all day.

• Carter is becoming so much more happy. He's crying less, really only when he's tired or hungry and smiling a lot more. He's starting to kind of giggle, but he's not laughing yet. I'll try to post a video of him trying to laugh in another post. Here's my happy baby;
  

• And here's Carter break dancing in his crib;
  

Carter is 3 months and 5 days old