Best Baby in the WORLD!

Last night Austin officially slept ALL NIGHT LONG!!! That's right people- 4 weeks and 3 days and he's sleeping throught the night! I could not be happier (and feel more rested!). We went to bed at 11am and he slept until 7am, we woke up and I fed him for a short time and then we went back to bed for another hour!

Best baby in the world.

Our photos are ((finally)) up!

They will only be on her gallery for 7 days so hurry up and take a peek!

Baby Bean Website

Go to the "proofing" link and the password is: austin

1 Month Old!

Thanksgiving day marked 1 month since Austin's birth!

It is hard to believe that it's only been a month, but at the same time, it feels like he's always been with me. With us. Been a part of this family. It seemed appropriate that he marked his 1 month birthday on Thanksgiving, because we have never been more thankful. He is the best thing that has ever happened to us and we look forward to raising him in a loving, happy home. We have so many dreams for him, but mostly, I just hope that he grows up knowing how much we love him and that he becomes anything that he wants to be. I hope that he leads a happy and healthy life. Maybe he'll look back on this blog someday and realize that truly every ounce of my being loves him more than he could ever know. Maybe he'll realize that one day, but right now, as Ryan would say, he is just working on his "Freudian id".

Austin seems to change daily. Ryan will come home after work each and says that he has changed in some way. He really was an alert/aware baby from the very beginning, but this last week has been incredible as far as growth and changes in his development. He now focuses long and hard on people, shapes, colors and lights. He responds to my voice from across the room and loves to be held. Sometimes he wil cry just to be held/comforted. He has always stared into my eyes, but now he seems to recognize and do it on purpose. He will also move his head in the direction of sounds. We like to make funny faces to each other and spend most of our days doing that now.

We saw our friends Eric and Nikkell today and Nikkell commented on how strong he is. Actually, everyone who holds him makes this comment. He will push himself up from your chest just to look at you. He will also hold his head up for a period of time.

Austin is also now smiling voluntarily. It melts my heart to see him smile. :)

Thanksgiving marked the first night that Austin only woke me up once during the night and then the same last night too! Hopefully this pattern continues and maybe, just maybe, maybe he'll be sleeping through the night by the time I go back to work....that'd be nice.

Alright! I'll post pics from Thanks giving shortly, but in the meantime, here's our family pic on Austin's 1 month birthday!

hmmm....

My computer shows the video I posted below... does yours???

Playtime!

Yep.

You've officially reached "mommy-hood" when you don't think twice about picking your kid's nose and don't think it's gross either.

This picture cracks me up.

And I don't know why!

Maybe it's because Austin looks so deep in thought. Or like a "little man" as I like to call him (the back of his shirt says "ladies man", which I think is funny too). Maybe it's because instead of calling him "little man" the day that he wore this, I refered to him as "wolf man".

Maybe it's that chin!

Or maybe it's because he's wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a wolf and and Ryan seems to think that people in CO apparently all wear T-shirts with wolves on them!? He said Austin will fit right in with this t-shirt. Here's an example of a T-shirt that all Coloradans are proud owners of, according to Ryan:

Just a couple of random thoughts...

I think my baby has really long eyelashes. It's hard to tell, because how long are baby lashes supposed to be!?? I don't really have anything to compare his to, but I think that they are long and beautiful and this makes me really happy for some reason!

I'm trying to be more organized with our dinners and plan ahead for the week. I know if I get good at this now, It'll make my life SO much easier once I go back to work. I got this idea from one of my cousin's posts on her blog and started uploading my recipes and other recipes I find online into this online organizer. Ryan said something funny to me the other day and he hit the nail on the head- it's amazing how I can be so very organized in some aspects of my life and other aspects are chaotic and completely unorganized! That's how I've always been, but I am really trying to organize this household! Ryan said he learned patience when he met me and that's the truth!

Next up is uploading my addresses in an address organizer where I can print labels!

I have started doing my grocery shopping at Target (except for produce and meats) and we are saving a TON! It's amazing how much cheaper it is to shop there! Ryan and I have learned some very hard lessons about money in the past year and I really feel like we are so conscious now of every penny we spend and as well as every penny we save. It's nice to know that the lessons we've learned have really sunk in.

Next lesson...Eating jalapenos= one FUSSY and UNHAPPY baby! We battled that ALL DAY LONG yesterday. I really paid for my delicious dinner the night before. We had Grill Ancho Pork with tomato and jalapeno salsa fom the Real Simple magazine and it was so easy and amazing. yum! here's the recipe if you're interested: Grilled Ancho Pork

My friend Sandi dropped off a bunch of magazines for me to read while on maternity and I'm obsessed with the magazine Real Simple. Have you read it!? I think that I'm officially a grown up since I'd rather read a magazine about organizing your house, food and making life easier over a Cosmo. Wow.

Which leads me to my last random thought.. I never knew what a life saver this baby sling would be:

I got this sling for free when I signed up for one of my pregnancy websites months ago. I didn't know if I'd ever use it, but it was the ONLY thing that calmed Austin down yesterday! You can imagine my delight when, after hours of screaming, I threw him in the sling and was then able to do laundry, do the dishes, clean up the house and cook dinner! Now, I'm sitting at the computer and he's just "slingin' it" while I blog. Amazing!

Okay, off to go get Austin's birth certificate so he's officially official!

More Introductions!

Austin got to meet the Hoherd side of the family this past weekend! I think that this kid may already have his USC college application filled out... what do you think?

Ryan's cousin Andrew also got to meet our little man. We're hoping that Andrew will teach Austin how to play piano some day since he has the longest piano playing fingers! So sweet...

Just Cause...

I like this photo.

AND I think it is our first family photo outside of the hospital. :)

Check these off the list!

First Bath (and despite the look on his face, he LOVES baths!)

First walk to the beach

Austin meets Nandy and Papa!

Austin told me he was very excited to meet his great grandparents, but unfortunately, the excitement must have got to him and he slept through the whole introduction! Oh well- they'll have plenty of time to love on him in the future!

Nana and Gramp's Visit

I've been meaning to post these forever.

As you know, my mom was able to make it out for Austin's birth. We are so grateful she was able to be there! Two days later, my dad made it out and was able to meet his grandson. We did a lot of lounging and changing diapers (don't get me started on projectile poop!!), while my dad cooked us some great breakfasts every morning and mom took care of dinners. Ryan and I were sad to see them leave.

Luckily, we'll be flying out to CO for Christmas and I'll be spending an entire week out there! I cannot wait to introduce him to my grandparents, my brother, Aunt and Uncle and of course all of my friends back home!

Gramp meeting Austin

He is not happy about something!

Proud Grandparents!

Austin loves his daddy

Now this melts my heart....

Pediatrician's Visit

Austin had his 2 week pediatrician's visit this week and he has gained all of his birth weight back plus 1 oz so he was exactly 9lbs! Dr. K commented on how pink he was and how alert/aware he was as well. When she started poking and prading him, he didn't cry at all (that's our baby- calm as can be!) and she said that he seemed to be just a very happy, well adjusted and calm baby- something we already knew!

These last 2 weeks have been amazing. I cannot believe it was 2 weeks tomorrow that we brought him into this world!!! wow. I really can't stress enough what a great baby he is. He really only cries when hungry and fusses a little bit otherwise, but very easy to calm down.

Here's one of my favorite onsies Austin has (given to me by my longtime friend Kathleen!)... couldn't be further from the truth :)

More like, "Mommy's Sweet Boy":

Austin's First Photo Shoot

Austin had his first photo shoot today with Sara Kovac, whom I nicknamed the "Baby Whisperer" because she was AMAZING, and we are beyond thrilled with the "sneak peak" that she just sent us!!!! I'll post the online gallery with all photos as soon as she sends them to us in about a week! In the meantime...

http://www.babybeanportraits.com/blog/?p=3160

Much more to come....

I promise I'll post more pics of Austin's first week (including meeting Gramp and Papa and Nandy for the first time!) and some fun videos from the hospital... but right now, I'm pooped.

Austin's Nursery

I was waiting to put the final touches on the nursery before posting pics and, with the help of my mom, completed the nursery this week! Here you go:

Welcome to the world Zach!

My best friend Kairee gave birth today to her little boy Zachary!!! Ryan and I could not be more happy for the Tormoehlen family- Kairee and Kyle are going to be the best parents. Looks like Austin already has a bunch of friends!

This mommy-thing is incredible and you really can't describe the overwhelming love that takes over your entire body. Really, I am bursting at the seams with indescribable love for my little guy and I am so excited that Kairee can now experience this too. It's pretty great.

Austin's birth story

It's been awhile since my last post- sorry! This mommy-thing is serious business! I'm finally rested (somewhat!) and can now sit down and post lots of pics and videos- something I've been meaning to do for days.

And there's really not a better place to start but the beginning!

I went to the doctor on Monday and she told me I was still 1.5 cm dilated and that my cervix had softened. I had not had any contractions, so figured I really may go another week. She ended up doing a membrane scrape and said if I was ready, this would put me into labor within 24 hours. Tuesday came and went, so it looked as though that procedure really didn't do anything for me.

Wednesday was a normal day then Ryan came home from work and I felt completely "normal" whatever that is toward the last days of pregnancy, because miserable is the new normal! Ryan went to bed about 10pm and I continued to stay up. I hopped in bed about 1:30am and around 2-ish I felt or heard a "pop" and felt a little bit of water on my leg. I had always thought that when my water broke it would be a lot of fluid, at one moment, so I didn't think much of it and went and sat on the toilet. When I was still "peeing" over a minute later, I realized that my water had broke. I still had not even had a contraction, so I called the doctor to see if we should come into the hospital or wait for contractions. She told me to head on into the hospital, so that's when I woke Ryan. He looked like a deer in headlights when I woke him and asked if I was kidding! This was completely unexpected! We figured that I would labor at home for a couple of hours, counting/timing contractions and then head to the hospital when the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart- not just up and leave! Good thing Ryan wasn't at work in LA when this happened, that may have posed a problem.

As we were driving to the hospital, I felt my first contraction. I had about 3 contractions on the car ride to the hospital and when we arrived, the nursing staff got a kick out of my homemade towel diaper I had made myself. On our car ride over there, we called my parents so that my mom could try to get the first flight out of Denver. We decided to let Ryan's parents sleep for a few more hours since it was going to be a long day.

They set us up in a room and we waited for a couple of hours before realizing that my contractions were inconsistent and not progressing as quickly as they would have liked, so they started me on Petocin. Ryan went home to let the dogs out and grab a couple of items we forgot and by the time he came back I was in active labor. He literally came back to a completely different woman! From there, things really started to progress quickly, before we knew it, I was at 4 cm and wanted the epidural. I've heard about how unpleasant the epidural is in the past and, really, I didn't think it was bad at all or maybe I didn't even care at that point. Regardless, the epidural is a must and I don't know why a woman would go through labor without one. I certainly wasn't going to be a martyr!

My mom was able to get on the first flight out and made it to the hospital at 10:30am, shortly after I had the epidural and Ryan's parents were there about the same time. The rest of the labor really progressed quickly, before we knew it I was 10 cm and ready to push!

The nurse told me that women typically push for about 1-2 hours with their first baby. I ended up being in the last stage of labor for 4 hours (3 hours of pushing, 1 hour break). It was hard. The hardest thing I've ever done! I had had inconsistent blood pressure throughout the entire deliver, sometimes very high so they continued to monitor that but a couple of minutes before I delivered him, my temperature spiked to over 102. I didn't notice this, but the nurse took my temp, saw what it was and showed the doctor. Apparently they both looked pretty concerned, which my mom, Shelly and Ryan all noticed. Ryan asked them what that meant and they didn't say anything. I delivered him just a couple of minutes later at 4:21pm- he was a BIG boy!!! 8lbs 15oz! (and check out Uncle Peter's pool guesses- We cannot believe how close he is on EVERYTHING!)

The nurses took him away to check his vitals and it seemed as though they were over there for a long time. Finally, they told me that he wasn't breathing well on his own and turning pale/blue when they didn't have the oxygen on him, he also came out with the temperature that I had spiked. They needed to take him up to the nursery for observation and if things didn't improve they would need to take him to the NICU. I freaked. Honestly, it was the worst moment of my life. They placed him in my arms for only about 30 seconds before they took him away. I told Ryan to go with him just in case things got worse. Ryan came down about 15 minutes later and said he was completely fine- as soon as they had taken him up to the nursery he started to do better. They still wanted to observe him for some time, but just that he was better was such a HUGE relief.

After the initial excitement/scare, I still had to undergo a few tests (apparently some of my blood had gotten in the nurses eye, so standard hospital protocol said I had to have a HIV and Hepatitis test- this took awhile), then it was shift change for the nurses and this took awhile- it was over 3 hours until I was able to see Austin again- This killed me! All I wanted to do was be with my baby, but again, I was also so, so happy that he was okay.

Our stay at Hoag Hopsital was great- the nurses were amazing and we are so grateful to them and Dr. Strachan for our baby Austin!!!

Here is the view from labor and delivery room (a beautiful, sunny day!)

Me, pre-epidural (Ryan said I was a champ)

Me, post-epidural

Happy to see my mom!

Baby Austin- 8lbs 15 oz! That's one BIG BOY!

I still can't look at these photos without choking up. These are not happy tears, I'm terrified. It's right before they took him up to the nursery, so it's the only photos of of me holding him right after he was born

Our first family picture!

Nana holding Austin for the first time

Gammie and Popi holding Austin for the first time:

Proud uncle Charlie

Austin loves his Auntie Erin

And his Gaby! (that's great Aunt Boo!)

The Lilavois' were there to greet Austin- Maddie has a friend!

Proud Grandmothers (and my emotional support during delivery!)

Proud Daddy

I love this pic of Charlie and Erin- Austin says, "come on guys- give me a cousin!"

And that's Austin's birth story! Thank you to everyone who visited the hospital, sent emails, flowers, text messages, etc- they mean so much! I apologize for not returning all messages but will get around to it ASAP!

Blog...

I'll be updating this shortly with lots of fun photos and videos, as well as the story of Austin's birth. Been a bit pre-occupied with my little man :)

Austin Stewart Hoherd

Born 10/28/2010 at 4:21pm weighing 8lbs 15oz and 22 inches

We are in love.