Everett's First 3 Months

Everett is already 3 months old. Where has the time gone?

It is just flying by, and each day is SO busy. Everett has gone to visit big brothers at school, he's gone on play dates, he's visited family out of town, he's gone to a wedding, he's gone to the beach, he's stayed in a hotel, and he's even attended his first concert - The Monkees!! (I don't know how he could ever top that!)

At 3 months old, Everett weighs about 15 lbs. He's wearing size 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. His hair is dark brown (and thinning), and his eyes are a light blue color. He hasn't gotten sick yet (thank you, God!), and he's a great eater. He still nurses quite often during the day (only going about 1-2 hours at the most between feedings) and cluster feeds at night. He sleeps 5-7 hours straight most nights!! (That started when he was about 2 months old - before then, it was up after only 2-4 hours.) He has been in his crib in his own room for almost 2 weeks now. He is starting to smile more and more, and he loves to be held. He likes to kick his legs. He loves laying in his little bath tub while big brothers are bathing and enjoys his own bath time when Daddy pours the warm water on him. He also likes laying in his little woodland friends bouncer and watching the animal toys sway on the toy bar. And his first tooth is already starting to grow in!

Southern has been so excited about Everett since he first learned I was pregnant. He couldn't wait for the baby to be born. So on Everett's first day of life when Southern asked if he could hold him, I told him "sure!".

Everett's first bath at home

Everett's first time in the stroller. (This was a baby shower gift we received when I was pregnant with Southern)

Everett's first trip to get the mail

one month old

Everett's first time in the Ergo

our first family picture at home

Baylor refuses to nap during the day and will some times fall asleep on the car ride to school to pick up big brothers. When he naps that late, he stays up late. He and Everett are our night owls.

Everett's first lunch at school with big brothers

Everett spent his nights during the first 2 3/4 months in the Rock N Play by our bed.

Everett's first presidential election!  

Picking up Everett's birth certificate - he slept through the whole thing

Everett's first Halloween

picnicking at the park

At the KinderMoms Halloween party. Everett was our little tennis ball.

Everett started smiling in his sleep occasionally before he started smiling as a reaction to us smiling and talking to him.

before the school fall festival

Everett made it through most of election night but fell asleep before we had the final count

Everett's first time on the ferry 

with Great Granny Ehlers

on Halloween night

after visiting the USS Lexington

with Joyce

Everett's first time on the beach

after the wedding

in Port A

With Granny Hahn

Everett's last night in our room

putting up the Christmas tree

Everett napping on his biggest brother

with Santa

Christmas Decorating / Music Video

With school schedules, baby feeding times, and all of the other busy happenings our family has this holiday season, our Christmas decorations are going up a little at a time. We have one box of decorations unpacked, and our tree is up with lights on (no ornaments yet). We plan to do the outdoor lights today - yay!

The kids love decorating, and they were really excited to get everything out of storage. The first box they wanted to open was the one that contained our toy nativity set and our plush singing/moving decorations. We have a moose from Cabela's that sings "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" that was a gift to Dustin probably about 10 years ago. As the kids were playing with them and singing and dancing along, it brought to mind all of the previous years spent watching my kids with these same decorations. I remembered that I had taken a video of Southern after he first learned to sing that song with the moose, and I decided to pull it up to show the boys. It was ADORABLE, and they loved watching it. Southern was inspired and asked if we could do it again. He would imitate his 2 1/2 year old self and Remington would imitate his 6 month old self. Great idea! It was HILARIOUS so I have to share it with you all!!

First, please remind yourselves of this video from Dec 2011: http://lchahnwyatt.blogspot.com/2011/12/hit-me-with-your-best-shot.html

And now the same guys and the same moose 5 years later:

Southern said he wanted to remake this video every 5 years. I'm in!

Welcome to the world, Everett!

Everett was not part of Dustin's and my plan. I was selling my maternity clothes and our baby stuff thinking that we were done having kids. But God had another plan in mind for us. And I am so very thankful that he did. How could we ever have thought that our lives were complete without Everett in them? It's mind-boggling. I love him so much. I could stare at him all day long. He's so perfect and precious, and he's ours.

Except for the sonogram days, I was making my doctor appointment for the mornings so that I could go to them after dropping the boys off at school. But, I decided that it would be better for me to make my 38 week appointment at 4:30pm so that Dustin could go with me. I am SO glad I did. My platelet count had been dropping again like it had done with Baylor, but this time it was dropping slowly, and with each appointment I was worried that I would hear it was now too low. My doctor walked into the exam room that Tuesday with, "we're having a baby this week!" I was 38 weeks along, so it wasn't too soon like it was with Baylor, but it was still shocking. She said, "I'm busy tomorrow, so would you like to have this baby on Thursday or Friday?". And Dustin's birthday was on that Friday, so I let him make the call. Would he want Everett to share his birthday or to be born the day before? We talked about it, and he asked the advice of the doctor, and he decided Thursday was the day. We had an appointment at the hospital on September 8th at 6am to be induced!

We had one day to get ready. There were several things still undone that I had wanted finished before baby, but the main things were ready, and we were out of time. I got very little sleep Wednesday night as I was cleaning the house (!), and I was also very nervous about what was to come. Thursday morning came very quickly! We drove to the hospital and checked in through the Emergency Room entrance since the hospital wasn't open yet. It took quite awhile to check in, and then we made our way up to the 2nd floor. They weighed me and got me settled into a room. I was soon hooked up, and labor was progressing. They said that I was already having contractions before I got there, but they were so small that I couldn't feel them yet. After they got my labor really going with the IV, I could sure feel them though! I had decided to try to not get the epidural this time, and there were some moments there where I honestly thought I could not go on as the pain was so intense, but I did. At one point, a nurse checked me and said she thought I was up to 9 cm. My main nurse checked right after and said that no, I was closer to 7 cm. Ugh!! I told Dustin, "he'll never be born!" The last hour or so was the worst. I began pushing a little earlier than they wanted me to, but I was at 10 cm, and I told them I was ready. My main nurse told me that she would call the doctor in about 10 minutes and not to push yet, but another nurse said that I could bear down if I felt like I needed to. I took that advice to heart, and my doctor almost didn't make it to the birth! They had pulled another doctor from somewhere in the hospital when they realized how close Everett was to being born, but my doctor made it. She had just enough time to put on her mask and gloves, and then she was catching him! She asked the nurse why they didn't call her sooner.

Dr Geldernick said that he weighed about 9 pounds when she caught him, and then he peed on her! Haha. She passed him to a nurse and got ready for the afterbirth. They wrapped him up in a blanket and passed him to me. He was beautiful. It was love at first sight! I was a sweaty mess and had been in the worst pain of my life just a few minutes earlier, but in the first pictures taken of me with Everett, I have a huge smile on my face. I was so happy to have been given such a precious gift.