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!! :)