8 Weeks Old

Southern will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. Can you believe it? We have done so much in the past few weeks...

On May 9th, Southern was baptized at the Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Sweet Home. Father Sonnier is such a sweet, wise man. We were blessed to have him perform the baptism. He gave us many words of wisdom. I may be biased. but it was pretty much the best baptism I've ever been to! ;) Godparents are Carly and Parker, Southern's aunt and uncle.

Southern is bleesed to have the majority of his great-grandparents still alive. (We miss you, Paw-Paw!) Here we are pictured with the ones able to make the service. (My Hahn grandparents couldn't make it. As I mentioned before, my grandfather has cancer, and it is now progressed to where he can't move easily on his own. My grandmother has been wearing herself out taking care of him and just recently fractured two vertebrae in her back. She is now bed-ridden as well. Please pray for them and for my dad who is now trying to juggle working and taking care of the both of them!)

After the baptism, everyone gathered at Werner's in Shiner to celebrate with a meal and cake. I love my family! :)

The very next day was my first Mother's Day! Southern and Dustin took me out to eat at Mamacita's for a late lunch. This photo was of us right before we left for the resturant. Southern had just eaten and was passed out.

Southern loves his tummy time. He's getting so strong and loves to lift his head high. He's tries to crawl but those little arms just don't cooperate yet.

Southern got to see his very first ball game as he watched my cousin Keleigh's softball payoff game from my aunt Tricia's arms. They played Blanco and kicked booty!! The score was so high in their favor, they called the game after the 4th inning. The Lady Brahamas are still in the playoffs right now... Go Kel!

Southern's first trip to Clear Springs was after the game. That's us with the champ, Keleigh. Watching her run those bases really made him tired.


Dustin and I were able to enjoy an evening out to ourselves thanks to Aunt Carly. We went to Crocodile Gap and played putt-putt. We're posing in front of the 4th hole. We both made a hole-in-one there!! :)

Southern and Mommy in the dressing room at Kohl's. Another first for Southern.

Southern and Daddy sitting on the front porch enjoying the rain. What a lovely day!

Southern with his grandmother. He loves it when she babysits... and I do too!! lol Thanks, Mom!

5 Weeks Old

Southern's first outing to my friend Tasia's apartment - that's us with Tasia and Jessie, oh how I miss working with those girls!!

Southern and Daddy - best buds :)

silly boys...

it's bath time again!

Southern practicing the new trick Mommy taught him - how to stick out his tounge. What an important skill to master! ;)

3 Weeks Old

Southern is growing by leaps and bounds! He's only three and a half weeks old, but he is making a lot of progress. Last night was the second night in a row that he has slept 4 hours straight. Both nights it was from 1-5am so maybe he is finally getting a schedule!?! He is hungry all the time, and it's hard to keep up with his appetite. Right now he and Daddy are taking a nap so I have a little free time. I love the weekends when I have Dustin home to help! I can't wait for his grad school to be over with so he can really pitch in!!

Southern has been picking his head up on his own for the past week or two. He keeps it up when you have him on your shoulder, and he can pick it up for a little while when he's on his tummy. He's still kicking like crazy and is very strong. He's been able to stand on his own weight for a few seconds at a time. I just hold him up on my lap to keep him balanced. And he's starting to try to talk. We got an "Arrr" last week (probably due to the fact that we were always hearing about the Somali pirates on the news so he was trying to get "Arrr, matey" out! haha) And we get a lot of "Ohh"s and "Goo"s.

They just woke up from their nap, and my little one is hungry again so I must run - surprise, surprise!

Photos

my little butter bean Southern's 1st bath
napping buddies

what a cutie

2 Weeks Old

Southern is over two weeks old today. It sure does seem like it's been longer than two weeks though! Things are crazy with a newborn in the house. He is currently taking a nap so I have a few minutes to myself.

Southern is doing great - just eating, sleeping, and pooping. We go through a diaper change about once per feeding, and he's eating every hour to two hours except for a 3 to 3.5 hour stretch at night. We are doing a combination of breastfeeding and pumping to feed with a bottle. It is exhausting! Luckily we had Aunt Carly take over one night this week. She got me spoiled!! ;)

Dustin and I have taken a ton of cute pictures in the past two weeks but don't have time to upload them. Maybe I'll be able to get to that this weekend when Dustin's home to help watch over Southern.

Southern celebrated his first Easter this past Sunday. He enjoyed meeting all the family and was pretty well behaved. He slept the entire time in the car the way there and back.

He's becoming more aware and loves to stare into my eyes while eating. I've been able to read a few books to him and can tell he enjoys it. I can't wait til he's a bit older and can go longer between feedings so we can get more sleep!

Southern is born

Wow - it has been a crazy week! Southern is quite a handful. I hopefully have a few minutes of free time right now, so here's the story of his birth:

I had an appointment with my doctor on my due date, March 30th, at 2:30pm. I was 2 cm dilated and 75% thinned, which was no change at all from the week before. She then asked me, "okay, so are you ready to have this baby?" I said yes. Then she said that we needed to be at the hospital at 5pm that day. What?!? We were shocked. But my doctor thought that Southern was getting close to 9 lbs so she wanted to induce as soon as possible. We only had an hour and half to get ready, but luckily our suitcase was already packed. We ran to Chick-fil-a for supper since I've heard that you're not allowed to eat during labor. Then we came home to grab the suitcase and say goodbye to our kitty. I was so nervous!

We checked into the hospital, and they checked me again there. Then at 6pm I got Cervadil, which was inserted into my cervix. That was to help my cervix ripen. They said that would be in for 12 hours and then I'd be induced. So it was just a waiting game that night. We found out meals were already included in the price of the room, so we ordered a lot from room service. My nurse said I could eat the whole time unless I got an epidural. We took advantage of that!

I had some small contractions that night. I was nervous, and the nurses kept coming in at all hours of the night so I ended up only getting about 30 mins of sleep. The next morning, I was woken up at 6am so they could remove the Cervadil. Then at 6:30am, they hooked me up to an IV to start getting the Pitocin to start labor. Dustin ran home real fast to get his laptop since they said I probably wouldn't have Southern until late that night. My doctor came to check on me around 8am. She broke my water around 8:30am. I was able to eat breakfast and lunch. Then I started having pretty strong contractions a few hours later.

I was 3.5 cm dialted at the next check, and then an hour and a half later, I was 9 cm! Dustin went outside for a few mins to grab some food his sister and granny brought him for lunch. My nurse came in and asked where he was. I told her he'd be right back. She went to check the waiting room and then came back and said maybe you should call him. Turns out Southern was ready! Dustin walked into the room carrying his fajita plate, and the nurse told him, "okay you grab that leg and I'll grab this one." Haha! Dustin was stunned. He put down his lunch and grabbed my leg. He counted for me while I pushed. We pushed until Southern's head was in position then rested. They called my doctor, and when she got there, we pushed the rest of the way.

It went much quicker that I thought. We had him at 3:53pm. He weighed in at 9 lbs 7 oz and was 22 in long. A big boy! They put him on my chest and we got to meet him. Dustin took a ton of pictures. Then they cleaned him up and gave him back to me for his first meal. Dustin took advantage of this time and ate his fajitas!

We stayed in the hospital until Thursday. It was such a relief to finally come home!

Southern is here!

After many months of waiting, our baby boy has finally arrived! Dustin and I are super excited but pretty exhausted. I'll be posting more later but for now, you can check out his info on the Christus Santa Rosa website - just go to www.christussantarosa.org and click on "New Braunfels" under the Facilities tab. Then click "birthing center" at left, then on the web nursery link. Southern's password is 9722. That photo was taken right before we left for home on April 2nd.

He's healthy and happy. Right now, we're just trying to work on getting him to know the difference between day and night. Our lactation consultant put us on a plan to feed every 2 hours during the day so hopefully that will help. Sorry to any visitors if we need to cut the visit short. Once we're more in the swing of things and are less exhausted, visiting should be better.