A visit with Santa

The boys had their first visit of the year with Santa earlier this evening. 

Remington was scared of Santa last year, so I wasn't really sure what to expect this time around. He did great! Southern was so excited and jumped right on up onto Santa's lap. Remington just followed along. It probably helped that we talked about it ahead of time too.

 Southern wanted to write a letter to give to Santa when we saw him, so he spent a good amount of time one day last week writing his letter, putting it into an envelope, and putting stickers on the envelope. It said "I want Transformers", and the envelope said "From Southern". (He came up with that all on his own. I just helped with spelling.)

And it was Baylor's first time to see Santa! He didn't fuss or fidget a bit when he was being held by Santa.

After the picture-taking was out of the way, Southern had time to talk to Santa. He told him, "I want Transformers. And a remote control car. And that's all." When we got out to the parking lot, Southern remembered that he had forgotten to tell Santa about Angry Birds as well. I told him that he can always save that for next year. "Okay," he said. I love how excited he was to see Santa, and he was not shy at all!

Remington told Santa that he wanted "a basketball. A really, really big basketball." He was so sweet and earnest when he said it. 

Christmas Tree

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas...

In our family, we like to put up the Christmas tree and decorations the day or the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year, however, we have been dealing with the tree and decorations the day and the weekend after Thanksgiving. And the day after that. And the day after that.

I guess it's because I have never had a baby this young during Christmas time before. Or maybe because I have never had this many children during Christmas time before. Or a combination of the two. But this year, putting up the tree and decorations has been a real process. I've only been able to do things a bit at a time. Silly little stuff like preparing meals, cleaning the house, doing the dishes, doing the laundry, feeding the baby, reading to and playing with the boys, etc. has been getting in the way ;)

Over the past several days since Thanksgiving, we have driven to get everything from storage, set up lights and decorations outside, hung the stockings, decorated inside, assembled the tree, strung the tree with lights, and vacuumed up all of the tiny little "pine needles" our tree shed on the floor.

Today's plan was to also hang the ornaments on the tree. But as it approaches dinner time and I sit here nursing the baby, I'm wondering if we will have time for that today after all...

Oh well, it will get done eventually. The two older boys have really enjoyed being included in everything. And for now, we can just enjoy our tree as it is.

I must say, it looks pretty good with my good looking guys in front of it! :)

William Hahn

Yesterday afternoon, about 10 minutes after we left from visiting him, my grandfather William Hahn passed away. He was 81.

We called him Hon. I never knew that wasn't a typical grandfather name until I reached grade school and other kids gave me funny looks when I talked about Granny and Hon. Later, I found out the story behind the name. My oldest cousin Chris would always hear Granny calling her husband "Hon", short for Honey. He just assumed that was his name and started calling him Hon as well. The name stuck.

Dustin, the boys, and I have been frequent visitors of Hon and Granny over the years. First at their house and then for the past two years at the nursing home. The boys have put on shows for him, sang to him, told him stories, and have given him countless hugs, kisses, and smiles. He loved hearing about our latest hunting and fishing adventures.

Last Saturday before we stopped by, I explained to Southern that Hon was sick and would probably be napping alot. He was asleep for most of the visit, but he did open his eyes long enough to tell us hi, smile at us, and pat Baylor's arm. Upon leaving, Southern and Remington gave him hugs, Baylor gave him a gummy grin, and Dustin and I told him that we loved him. He was awake and smiling. Southern told Granny, "I hope Hon gets better."

Yesterday, I reminded Southern that Hon was still sick and that he would probably be napping again. He did not wake up during our visit, but it's possible that he could still hear us, so we included him in our hellos and goodbyes. My dad was also visiting at the time, and he called later to tell us of Hon's passing.

Hon was given 3 months to live in the fall of 2007 when they first discovered his cancer. Since then, he has met and come to know our three boys. For that extra time, I will forever be grateful.

4 Months Old

Baylor turned 4 months old today.

Here's a picture of him in his bed tonight -

Compare it to this picture taken on his first night at home -

Wow! He sure has grown...

At 4 months old, Baylor
- wears size 3 diapers
- wears size 6 month, 9 month, and even some 12 month clothes
- has not kept shoes on for longer than 15 minutes at a time yet (he even kicks off his socks sometimes)
- sleeps through the night (woohoo!!) He'll go down around 11pm-midnight after cluster feeding for an hour or two and then will sleep until 8-9am most days. Some days he wakes up at 5am.
- absolutely hates riding in the car after dark. I've even tried driving with the interior lights on, but that doesn't fool him. He just cries... even though he is full, has a dry diaper, etc. As soon as you get him out of the car, he stops. I don't know what it is because he's not that upset about it during the day. So we just avoid traveling at night now unless he's sleepy.
- loves to chew on his hands
- gives HUGE smiles and laughs
- squeals with delight when he is talked to
- rolls from tummy to back

And speaking of sleeping, sometimes one (or both) of the two older boys will wake up in the middle of the night and crawl into bed with Dustin and me. One night a few weeks ago, both of them were in our bed when Baylor awoke. I got him and laid back down in our bed to nurse him. He was soon back asleep, and I snapped this picture.

Doesn't that just melt your heart?

Southern "reading"

Southern loves to read... though he can't actually read just yet. But that doesn't stop him from burying his nose into a good book. The boys and I visit the library at least once a week where they are allowed to check out (almost) anything their little hearts desire. The ride home is then spent with Southern (and sometimes Remington too) paging through each of his books and studying the pictures. Then, when we get home, I will usually read aloud at least one of the books checked out that day. Some days we read them all, but we usually try to save the rest for bedtime.

Southern has always loved Eric Carle books. One of his first favorite books was Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Recently, I decided to grab another Eric Carle book from the library. We hadn't read this one before. And after I finished reading through it one time, Southern decided that he now wanted to "read" it himself. So proud of our little man!

golf

As the boys and I were eating lunch today, the phone rang. Remington, who was munching on some corn on the cob at the time, looked up and said, "Daddy!". I got up to check the phone, and sure enough, it was Daddy calling. Dustin was calling because he forgot his camera at home, and he was hosting the boys fall golf tournament today. So a quick drive into Seguin was added to our day's plans. We got there just as the last few boys were finishing up their round.

 

We soon made our way to the covered pavilion where the awards ceremony was to take place. Dustin was super excited because not only did his team place first in the tournament, there was a tie for first and second medalist - and both boys were on his team!

 

 

After the winners were announced and photos were taken, Southern, Remington, Baylor, and I hopped onto Dustin's golf cart with him and headed over to Hole 1 to watch the sudden death playoff for first place medalist. Remington was a little too excited and yelled "weeee" just as the first player was teeing off. Oops! Luckily, it did not affect his swing, and that player went on to win the playoff.

And the boys enjoyed spending their afternoon with Daddy!

3 months old

Baylor turned 3 months old today!

At 3 months old, Baylor

- wears size 2 diapers
- still fits into some size 3 month clothes, wears some size 6 month clothes and even some size 9 and 12 month clothes
- still breastfeeds around the clock but has a few longer stretches without eating during the day
- is almost sleeping through the night (yay!)
- has successfully spent the past two nights out of Mommy and Daddy's room (bittersweet)
- gives smiles more often
- has gone back and visited his NICU nurse at the hospital - she was super excited to see him!
- still loves being held and doesn't like being on his own too often during the day
- has started spitting up often
- is going to experience his first major holiday this month

BOO

Southern's handprint spider

Remington's footprint ghost

Baylor's footprint ghost

Costume Parade

I am a part of KinderMoms of New Braunfels. It's a club for moms and kids that groups the kids by kindergarten age. For example, Southern will start kindergarten in August of 2014, so he's a K14. (Remington's a K16 and Baylor's a K18.) I love meeting and hanging out with kids that may be in his class one day. And it will be so fun to show them pictures of them together as babies when they are in high school! 

With KinderMoms, each mom organizes at least one playdate every 3 months. And you can make it for just your age group or for all ages. Southern had the idea to do a costume parade with his friends back in September. What a fun idea! I thought about where to do a parade and decided that a nursing home would be a great place. So I contacted the activities director of a local nursing home and pitched our idea. They loved it. We did our little parade with them this past Friday. It was a hit! Southern was Spiderman, Remington was Elmo, and Baylor was a chili pepper. So cute!!

There were about 13 other moms there with 1-3 children each, so we had a good turnout. One of the moms brought suckers for all of the kids to hand out to the residents which they enjoyed doing. The residents also had some candy for our kids along with balloons and snacks. It was great to see so many excited faces (young and old alike). 

I got a ton of compliments on the little pepper I was carrying around. One sweet lady walked up to us, leaned over Baylor, and said, "Oooh a little chili pepper. Pobrecito." That made me smile as my grandma says that often. (It means "poor little thing" in Spanish.)

And one man had his birthday that day, so we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. What a wonderful feeling.

playing

Our days are filled with playing. Southern and Remington play with their toys in the house, they play video games, they play outside, we go on playdates, and they play in the bathtub. Little Baylor has decided he doesn't want to be left out...

2 months old

At 2 months old, Baylor

- wears size 3 mo clothes
- kicks most of his socks off
- is outgrowing his size 1 diapers
- likes to take a bath with his big brothers
- likes to hold Southern's hand in the car
- can hold his head up during tummy time for short stretches of time
- will smile when Mommy tickles his cheek with her hair or when Grammy plays games with him
- has dark brown hair and dark blue eyes
- sleeps in his little bed in Mommy and Daddy's room
- breastfeeds around the clock
- still loves a good stretch and grunts to let you know how he feels
- is quickly calmed by holding him and bouncing on the exercise ball
- enjoys listening to Daddy sing "Baylor Blue"

8 weeks old

Baylor is 8 weeks old today! We've had a busy week with playdates, but we had to cut the one we were at this morning short to head over to the doctor's office.

Yesterday I had noticed that Baylor's belly button had swollen up larger than normal. And then last night, there was some dried blood at the bottom of it. I had Dustin clean it with an alcohol wipe, and there was a bit of blood on the wipe. I was a little worried about that, so I asked Dustin if I should take him into the doctor in the morning. He did some research online and found that Baylor probably had an umbilical hernia. It said that they correct themselves by 1-3 years old.

So on our way to our playdate this morning, I called the doctor's office just to double check. I explained what we saw and that we thought it was an umbilical hernia and asked if we should bring him in for them to look at it or just wait until his 2 month appointment in a couple weeks. The receptionist said that she would run it by a nurse and call me back.

Well, we met our friends at Chick-fil-a, and I had just ordered when I got the call back. I told the story again to the nurse, and she said it's most likely not anything to be concerned about but it is possible that it's an emergency. So she told us just to come over to the doctor's office as soon as we could and they would squeeze us in.

We scarfed down our food, and Southern and Remington got in a few minutes on the playground while Baylor finished eating. Then we headed on over to the doctor's. They were not busy at all. There was only one other mom/kid couple in the waiting room. I've never seen it that empty! And since they were so relaxed at that time, we actually got to see our doctor instead of a nurse like I was expecting.

He looked Baylor over and confirmed Dustin's diagnosis of an umbilical hernia. He said the blood was probably just from Baylor straining it when he cried and that we did the right thing. He said if/when it happens again to wipe it with alcohol like we did. That disinfects the area as well as helps constrict it. He said that when Baylor starts walking, it should correct itself. He also said it was only 1/2 a finger tip deep (apparently that means it's a minor hernia). So we have nothing to worry about.

I'm glad we went in just for peace of mind. Dr S enjoyed seeing the boys, and he got some snuggle time in with Baylor. And we got the added bonus of a weight check. Baylor is up to 12 lbs, 5 oz (fully dressed and with a wet diaper)!

7 weeks old

Baylor will turn 7 weeks old tomorrow! What a big boy.

He has made his first trip to Sea World. He has gone along on shopping trips to Target, Cabela's, Academy, The Quilt Haus, Bass Pro Shops, and HEB. He's been to see all of his great grandparents multiple times and has met his grandparents and most aunts/uncles. He has traveled to San Antonio, Buda, Yoakum, Sweet Home, and Shiner.

And, most importantly, he has been Baptized! Our little guy received the first Sacrament this past weekend. We were blessed to have many of our family present, and Baylor did very well throughout it all. He wore the same outfit that Southern and Remington wore for their Baptisms.

He is already over 10 lbs (he hit 10 lbs, 1 oz at 5 weeks old) and has outgrown all of his newborn sized clothes. He is looking around more and has been picking his head up a lot. He also nurses a lot. On a good night, he will do one 4-hour stretch of sleep.

Baylor's Due Date

It's the big day! Today is Baylor's due date...

But Baylor was born over 4 weeks ago!! (He is 4 weeks and 1 day old today.) He has been able to experience so much in those 4 weeks. After spending 8 days at the hospital, he came home to join his family.

What we have learned about Baylor so far:

 - Most of the time, he hates to have his diaper changed. You can see in the photo below, Dustin has just started to take Baylor's dirty diaper off of him, and he's already screaming bloody murder. (I remember Southern doing that as well. Remington didn't mind that we changed him - he just didn't want to lay still long enough for us to do so.)

 - Baylor has a couple of awesome big brothers. They both like to help out by throwing away dirty diapers, picking out clean clothes, singing to Baylor, etc. Southern especially enjoys Baylor and shows his love by rubbing Baylor's head, holding his hand, giving him kisses, and asking to hold Baylor.

 - Baylor likes watching movies. He has seen more movies in these past 4 weeks than I have seen in the last 4 months. He and Daddy have been spending their nights watching movies together and napping. Their movies usually involve car chases, gun shootouts, explosions, etc. so Mommy has been falling asleep to the sounds of the walls shaking.

 - Baylor has already been accepted as part of the family with our cat Dracky. Dracky will just hang out with Baylor with the occasional sniff here and there.

 - Baylor likes to keep his little legs folded up, especially when sleeping. Nothing's better than falling asleep on Mommy or Daddy's shoulder. He also loves a good stretch.

(Side note: Mommy whipped up this blanket for Baylor yesterday. After 4 weeks of not sewing, I finally found the time/energy to pull out the sewing machine again. Yay!)

- Baylor fits into our family VERY well! :)

11 days old

We took Baylor to his first doctor's appointment on Monday. He was 11 days old. All went well. Baylor weighed 7 lbs, 8 oz which made Dr S very happy. He said that by age 10 days old, the baby should be back up to birth weight and then should gain about 1 oz every day after. So Baylor perfectly reached that target! Everything else also checked out great. And his bilirubin count was back to normal. Yay!

Baylor getting weighed

Big brother Remington had fun at the doctor's

Big brother Southern was lending a hand

Dr S checking Baylor out

proud parents :)

Baylor is home

Baylor is finally home! We got the call Friday morning that we could come get him that same afternoon. After many tests and days spent under UV lights, our baby boy was ready. And we were so ready for him!

Baylor's first night at home

napping while big brothers watch over him (Remington is saying, "shh...")

Baylor Anthony Wyatt

Baylor Anthony Wyatt made his way into this world almost a month early. He was due on August 9th, but for the past two weeks my platelet count in my blood had been dropping. I was called in to have more blood drawn and was told that an early induction was likely if it kept dropping. It did, so my doctor made an appointment for me at 5am on Thursday to go into the hospital.

 

Thursday morning came very early (Dustin and I had been staying up hours after putting the kids to bed this past week to clean and organize our house - you should see our pantry! I guess I was nesting...). Dustin and I woke up, drove to the hospital, got checked in, and the nurses started getting me hooked up to the machines. My contractions were starting as I ordered breakfast (I got the fresh fruit and cottage cheese platter with a side of bacon - yum). Dustin ran down to the cafeteria for his breakfast. We ate, started calling, texting, and messaging the news, and settled in to wait for baby. We didn't have to wait long.

 

Baylor arrived with only one push at 12:46pm on July 11, 2013. He weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz and was 20 inches long.

 

Because he was so early, there was a team of specialists in the room in case he needed help breathing. Dustin and I were nervous about that at first but were greatly relieved when we heard his first cry. They checked him out after giving us a few minutes to hold and admire him.

 

Then they passed him back to me to hold for another 30 minutes or so. By then, Southern and Remington were able to come back into our room and meet their new little brother. They joined us on the bed, and Southern touched Baylor's feet and hands. Remington just looked on curiously.

 

He was then taken to the nursery where they wanted to keep him to monitor his progress. He was breathing a bit too quickly and was not interested in eating. He just wanted to sleep. I was able to help feed him finally around 4pm as a nurse helped manually express some breastmilk onto a spoon and dropped several drops into his mouth. They inserted a feeding tube after that (I have been pumping) and kept him hooked up to the monitors overnight and into the next day.

 

I was released from the hospital on Friday. Luckily, Baylor's breathing by then had been normal for quite some time. I spent the night at home but have been going back and forth to the hospital with Dustin and the boys frequently. Yesterday evening, Baylor had progressed enough to be able to be unhooked for awhile while I held him (before that, I would just have to hold him near the machines so he could stay hooked up). I took him over to the nursery windows so the boys could have a close-up look. Last night, he finally took to a bottle of breastmilk, and he now has progressed enough so that this afternoon, they took the feeding tube out. He spent part of the day today under a LED UV light for jaundice.

 

The doctor is very happy with his progress, especially for his age. Baylor was supposed to spend another month just sleeping and being fed through the umbilical cord, so he is being remarkably brave and strong to have come this far in just a couple days. As for now, we are just spending our days going to the hospitals for visits, feeding sessions, and milk drop-offs. Dustin and I take turns visiting in the nursery, and the boys have fun on the playground outside the hospital and in the room we were given to use while visiting (so much fun that Remington passed out and took his nap at the hospital today).

 

We are looking forward to the day we can bring Baylor home with us. (Should be sometime this upcoming week!)

More projects for Baylor

With the latest news from the doctor's office, we now know that Baylor is going to be coming a bit earlier than planned. I still had some sewing projects that I needed to knock out before he was born. So I spent the last two days working on these...

 

Carseat canopy for Baylor (inside is blue/green ombre stripes and outside is crabs)

a couple of bibs for our little boy (the reverse side is cream colored terry cloth for easy wiping after meals)

Getting Ready for Baylor

We have been slowly getting ready for Baylor this summer. We have his room pretty much finished. We have plans to install the infant car seat this evening. We have diapers, wipes, and his clothes. And, I have finally finished sewing all 8 of his custom burp cloths!! :)

Lime Tree

I remember going over to Dustin's Wyatt grandparents' (Poppy and DeDe) house for lunch occassionally while we were in high school. They would usually have a salad before the meal, and they always had limes cut and out on the table to add to tea or water. But, I was a little surprised the first time I saw that. Their limes were orange! They had a lime tree in their side yard that was given to them when it was only a small plant by someone who had gotten theirs from Mexico (if I remember the story correctly). They taste just like normal limes, but they're orange. How cool is that?

 

Fast forward many years... Dustin and I get married, and the very next year, we move to a rental house in New Braunfels.

 

Upon that move, Poppy gave us a small pot with just a tiny little plant inside. It had a small amount of leaves and was only a few inches tall. He told us it was from his and DeDe's lime tree. What a nice gift!

 

Dustin with his grandparents Poppy and DeDe in front of their lime tree in March of 2008

So we had that little plant in the small pot at our rental house. Within a year, I had graduated college, and we were ready to buy a house. We bought our home in early 2008, and later that year, we were expecting a baby! Meanwhile, our little lime tree had outgrown the small plastic pot Poppy had given it to us in. We went out and bought a larger pot and had the lime tree on the front porch of our new house. Our tree was doing so well that I wanted to take a picture of it to show Poppy and DeDe. And then, I thought it would be fun to pose in front of the tree so that not only could we show the tree's progress to Poppy and DeDe, but we could one day show the picture to Southern and he could see just how small that tree was when I was pregnant with him.

 

Me in March of 2009, pregnant with Southern

Pretty soon our lime tree even outgrow the larger pot. It was time to plant. Unfortunately, Poppy passed away before we could do another pregnant picture in front of the lime tree (I was only 7 weeks along with Remington when he passed), but I thought DeDe would certainly enjoy seeing our lime tree. And, again, I thought it would be fun for our boys to see it's growth measured against theirs.

Lindsey with Southern in May of 2011, pregnant with Remington

And, in keeping the tradition alive, I have posed yet again in front of our "little" lime tree. 

Lindsey with Southern and Remington in July 2013, pregnant with Baylor

Can you believe how fast it has grown?

Thanks for the yummy limes, Poppy!