The First and Hopefully the Last

I did my best to avoid this. But I guess some things just happen no matter how hard you try to prevent it. And luckily, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Even so, I was not happy. Not happy at all.

Right after Thanksgiving, I decided it was time for Will to get a haircut. While I was getting out the clippers and getting everything ready, Will and Blake were pretending to cut each others hair with their fingers. I immediately made them stop and told them that we NEVER EVER EVER cut hair. Even pretend. Blake kept asking for me to cut her hair, and I told her I would after I was finished with Will.

Fast-forward 20 minutes and I was all done with Will's hair. I walked into the bathroom to put the clippers away and found Blake sitting on the counter covered in hair with a pair of scissors in her hand. I completely freaked out. Her hair was tied back into two braids, and it was difficult to tell where exactly she had cut. I threw her and Will in the bath then tried to see the extent of damage. Fortunately, she hadn't done very much, though she got a reasonable chunk right off of the front.

I've been trying to get that section of her hair to grow for the past year so it can catch up with the rest of her hair, so I'm a bit sad that she ruined it. But if she has her bangs down, it hides really well and you can't even tell. I'm sure no one but me would notice that she had cut it. If you try to pull her bangs back, then it becomes noticeable, so I suppose she will be wearing them down for a while.

We spent the rest of the day and week talking about how we don't cut hair. I think I was upset enough to scare Blake into never doing it again. Hopefully. Though there are always horror stories of friends cutting each others hair, so it could very well happen again, and it may not be so unnoticeable next time. I'm just glad I caught it early this time before she ended up with a buzzed head.

Still Chugging Along

Blake has had her glasses for many months now, and she has been doing really great. Besides those first few weeks where she was breaking them constantly, she hasn't had any problems. I think she is to the point where she really understands why she is wearing them and she can tell a difference.

 

One time when I put her into her carseat, I noticed her glasses were filthy so I grabbed them to clean them. I wasn't able to give them back right away because I was driving and couldn't reach her. She started crying "But I want to see! Please give me my glasses. Mom, I want to see!" I felt bad, but it made me realize how much she appreciates them. She wears them constantly, and I have to tell her to take them off when she goes to sleep. 

A couple of weeks ago, she snapped another pair of glasses while we were in the car. I'm not sure what she was doing, but suddenly she handed me her glasses in two pieces. Ignore how dirty they are. I'm clearly not very good at keeping them clean.

Luckily, they are still under warranty and I only had to pay shipping for them to get fixed. Blake didn't understand why I couldn't just fix them. Maybe it was good for her to see them broken and not able to use them for a while. Hopefully it'll prevent her from breaking them again. 

She also had another check-up with her eye doctor to see how she is doing. I thought he was going to dilate her eyes to check if her prescription had changed, but he said it would do that at our next appointment in four months. He said that she is looking good, but it's too early to tell exactly what will happen in the future. These may continue to do the trick, she may have to have bifocals eventually, or he said possibly even surgery (though that's the first I've heard anything about that.) As of now, these glasses are working great and I'm not too worried. 

She gets a lot of compliments on her glasses. I'm so used to seeing her with them, that now it is really strange to see her with them off, especially since once she takes them off her eyes start to cross. I'm glad we are past the hard part of adjusting and hopefully things will just continue to improve. 

Thanksgiving 2015

We spent Thanksgiving up in Logan with the Hinton's. We were the only ones not living at home that were able to make it this year, so it was fairly low key. Sharon made the turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and several pies. I attempted to make some rolls that didn't turn out nearly as well as the last time I made it.

  

I also made a brownie, cookie dough, cheesecake pie thing. It was pretty rich and a few bites were more than enough. It looked pretty, but I think it didn't quite taste as good as it sounded. Oh well, it was fun to try.

 

The food was delicious and it was fun to spend some time around family. On Friday, Lance drove down to work and Sharon watched all of the kids for a few hours while I did some Black Friday shopping. I went in about four stores and ended up spending less than $3 on a couple of shirts for Blake. Just wasn't finding anything I really needed/wanted. 

 

Will was super excited to take a bath in their big jacuzzi tub. They played in there forever and made quite the mess. Bubbles were everywhere.

 

I'm so grateful for families and all of the love and support they give us. We have both been blessed with good families and we love you all. 

One Month

How did that happen?! Our little Austin has been with us an entire month! I can't tell you how much I love this little girl.

Newborns are always fun, but I am always telling people that my favorite is the 3-6 month stage, so I'm usually anxious for my baby to be a little bit bigger. I'm not sure what is different, but I am loving this newborn stage. Austin has already grown so much and for the first time, I've truly been sad about it. Please stay little.

This first month has gone surprisingly smooth. The transition from two to three hasn't caused too much drama yet. The hardest part so far has been grocery shopping. Will and Blake love to get the carts that have the cars so they can sit and drive. But those ones have a smaller basket that can't fit the car seat. So it's been a little trickier going shopping. Mostly I've just been going while Will is at preschool, so at least I have one less kid. Just last week, I was at Smith's and had unloaded a cart full of things. Blake was rolling on the floor and Austin was screaming and would not calm down. Then of course the register broke and we had to move all of my groceries to a different register. I would have walked away, but I really didn't want to have to come back and find all that stuff again. I finally got Austin calmed down and moved to a different register. The manager felt really bad and ended up giving me $6 off. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it makes a difference to us so I was very appreciative.

 

She failed her hearing test in the hospital and I had to take her back a week later to be tested. She passed with flying colors that next week.

 

When we were in the hospital, her weight dropped down to around 6 lbs 12 ounces. By her 2 week appointment she was up past her birth weight, which was a really good sign. Newborn diapers are already getting tight and she has grown out of some of her newborn clothes.

Austin is almost exclusively breast feeding. If you've followed my other pregnancies than you know how much of a miracle that is. I was stressing about it before she was born and was considering not even trying breast feeding. I really just wanted to bottle feed right from the beginning and not even try. Suddenly she was here and I still didn't know what I wanted to do, but didn't have much time to think about it, so I just decided to give breast feeding another try. And it worked! It definitely hasn't been easy and there have been some bumps along the way, but we are figuring it out. Luckily she will still take a bottle and not have any problems.

 

Austin has been a decent sleeper so far. I wouldn't say amazing, but I know it could be so much worse. She generally is up to eat every 3 hours or so during the night. Every couple of nights, she will decide not to go back to sleep at her 2 am feeding. She is a big tease. I'll feed her and have her sound asleep. I'll stay for a bit to make sure she is going to stay asleep, then creep back to my room. Like clockwork, 10 minutes after I lie down (just enough time to start to fall asleep), then I hear her crying. I'll get out of bed and it'll stop. So I'll stand by her door and wait for her to start crying again. Sound asleep. Back to bed. And the crying begins again. Or she'll just decide that she wants to be held and wont sleep without me. I have spent many nights on the couch, trying to get her back to sleep. I need to invest in a more comfortable rocking chair for the nursery. Anyways, she will have a bad night or two and just when I think I wont survive another night, she sleeps great and by morning I feel fine and am ready to tackle the next few nights.

 

I couldn't decide if she liked to be swaddled or not. The first few days I swaddled her and she slept fairly well. Then she had a few bad nights. So I tried a night with her not swaddled, and she slept great. That would last a few days, then she would have a rough time. Cindy gave me this swaddle blanket that velcros and it is amazing. I have decided to swaddle her and she has been sleeping much better, more consistently.

She had her first bath after the first week. We lost our infant bath, so I just put her in the normal bath with a small amount of water. I forgot to put a warm wash rag over her body to keep her warm, so she screamed the whole time. I bought a used bath and she has been loving them ever since.

Austin tends to flail her arms when she is upset. One of the quickest ways to calm her down is to hold her hands close to her chest. She especially likes when she is wrapped in a blanket and she can feel the blanket on her cheek. Sometimes I'll just sit and rub her cheek with a blanket to help her relax.

Austin was born with a small birthmark on her left eyebrow. The doctor said it is likely to fade over time.

Lately, after being fed and wrapped up in a blanket, it is common to catch a smile from this girl.

 

I forget how much extra laundry comes with a newborn. Not only do you have an extra person in the house, but if she spits up or has a blow-out, it really starts to pile up. Austin really doesn't spit up very often. In the past month, she has spit up less than 10 times. But those have been massive, projectile spit up that had her and I both completely covered. Fun, right?

She doesn't seem to like being strapped in her car seat very well. The buckle has to be quite tight, and she gets pretty upset when I buckle her in. It makes me think twice about taking her anywhere.

She will take a binky, though she has a hard time keeping it in. Luckily she does not use it to sleep, so I don't have to worry about getting up to put it back in 100 times a night.

 

Austin is definitely loved by her siblings. Whether or not she returns their feelings is yet to be determined.

 

 

The past month passed so quickly. Austin has been so much fun to have around. There is something really sweet and special about her. We are still trying to figure her out, but slowly and surely we are learning what she likes and dislikes. She is a very good baby and I am so blessed to have her.